Claimed by the Primals

Chapter Twenty-Four

Are ya' ready kids?!

...

No? We're not doing that today? Oh, come on, every time we talk, you just look so... Fine, straight into it, then.

Where were we...?

"Where are we?" I asked Menes.

That sounds like a dumb question. We were exactly where we were before this happened; just outside the rented cabin up the mountain from a small tourist town in Canada. Except it wasn't. I mean, I was staring at another, motionless version of myself. I was right there, for God's sake!

There was no way I could exist in two places at once, and no one else was moving either. When I ran over to Warrick—who was frozen mid-sprint—and tried to grab his arm, my hand went straight through him. Of course, I had to wave my hand through his chest a few more times... you know, for science.

"This place has many names," Menes said in his calm, deep voice. He was circling Abraham, looking at him with keen interest. "The veil, purgatory, crossroads, the river... Whatever you chose to call it, it is all the same. It is the realm between life and death."

Huh. It didn't look like any depiction of purgatory I've ever seen on TV or movies. It wasn't any brighter than before and there wasn't any weird haze or fog. It looked like it always was... just, you know, frozen in time. "And you brought me here seconds before being killed by one of my psychotic fathers because...?"

Menes chuckled, looking and sounding more and more like Warrick every second. "I did not bring you here, Jayden. I just followed. I feared what would happen if you remained here alone."

"Funny. Not like ha-ha funny, but funny. Seriously, put me back. If I'm going to die, I'd rather not draw it out."

He didn't smile or laugh this time. "Does Warrick find your... lack of austerity attractive?"

"Rude."

"You are confusing my curiosity for callousness. There is a balance in all things, Jayden, and finding a balance in a mate set is important. Kade is a light-hearted man, who parallels the sincerity in my son's character. While your magic perfectly aligns with theirs, I imagine your bold informality would disrupt the balance between their hearts."

Jesus, the man speaks better English than I do. Gracefully vomiting a thesaurus worth of eloquent words that left me wondering what the fuck he was actually saying. I didn't think people talked like that in real life. I think he was trying to ask what Warrick saw in me. Again, rude.

Just so you know, I'm cutting out a lot of the huh's, uh's, and what's in the conversation we had to save us time.

Instead of gracing him with an answer, I turned my attention back to my frozen mates. Kade was further away in the trees with his fangs and claws ripping into another six-winged angel. There was a shallow cut on the side of his face, staining the white fur red with blood, but there was no sign of fear or pain in his glowing red eyes. Only rage and a desperate need to protect.

The angel, on the other hand, looked terrified. Like they knew they were being dragged into this fight and were regretting not standing up for themselves. I could be projecting a bit too much. Maybe I just wanted to humanize him because I could tell that he was one of my brothers. He looked so much like mom that it hurt to see that the second that time resumed, he was going to die.

"Why isn't Warrick able to move?" I blurted out, turning my back on the scene so I couldn't have to think about that another second. "He told me anubi can step between life and death. So why isn't he here?"