I had regained a small amount of awareness. There was a distinct western twang that wasn't quite audible. Vague impressions of an old man complaining about some little girl came to mind. Was that Evan’s grandfather? Was everyone else okay? My lips tried to groan out a question, but it didn't quite come out.

"Jay?" Julianne’s voice was distant. It sounded worried and relieved.

"He is resting. It's a good thing." The response came from Evan. It was hard to tell where he was, but I felt a flickering heat nearby. I wanted to roll closer and bask in it. The tree felt so cold compared to the warmth being kicked off from the flames.

"Are you sure?" She said.

"The tales say his people often rest after a fight. It is how they regain their strength." The voice was Evan’s. He always sounded tired and didn’t use contractions. When he spoke it was like each word was worth using in its entirety.

"His kind? What's that mean?" Julianne shuffled closer to the crackling flames.

"I can not tell you more. It is dangerous enough to skirt the binding like this." Evan said.

"Binding?"

"The other elf, the female Speaker has bound my eyesight. It is a terrible practice that is only enacted against traitors of our kind." The younger elf didn’t even sound upset. Just resigned. As if he expected something to go wrong or else it wouldn’t be business as usual.

"You're a traitor?" Thomas' voice. Strained, but whole. The arrow I'd felt must not have been fatal. That was good since it meant Julianne wouldn't fire me over her brother’s death. Hearing him speak helped me to relax.

"Our clan was cast out from the old world a long time ago." The cowboy twanged voice said. I was still too tired to open my eyes and see what was going on. Resting felt good despite the mismatched temperatures to each side.

"Why?" Julianne was gathering information. Something she always did. It was part of what kept her in business.

"Neither of us know. Only full Speakers are ever told." The cowboy answered.

"So is that what you are then, a Speaker?" The direction of Julianne’s voice clearly changed. She must be talking to Evan now.

"Incomplete. As was my mother before me. Our clan hasn't had a full Speaker in generations." Evan said. I almost lost his words as the fire crackled wildly.

"Where's she?"

"Dead, with a tree planted for a marker, as is our custom." Evan said. There was a rustle of fabric as someone moved around.

"Oh." Her voice was sad at first. Then it changed. "Oh. Oh, we should move him then." Move who? Me? I was too tired to stir and say something.

"It is alright. She would rejoice, I think, to know the sins of our forefathers were not absolute. To know that our arrogance did not purge them all." Evan said. The Purge was an elimination of all of the dark races some two thousand years ago.

There was a hint in there. Candy had said much the same thing. I wasn't sure how much trust should be placed in the female elf now.

"Sins of your forefathers?" She missed the turn in the conversation I was hoping for.

Silence answered her. The last thing I heard was Evan taking up a wordless song. I wasn't sure how I felt about a man singing to me. Awkward I guess, but it sounded haunting. Like the wind across the prairie. My mind slipped off again into a deeper dreamless sleep.

Morning sunlight peeked through the trees and woke me. Hopefully, only one day had passed and not two or more. The jacket bundled under my head served as a pathetic sort of pillow. Putting it back on was difficult because my thumb insisted on getting caught in a new arrow hole.

One night’s sleep made a world of difference. I found Julianne and Thomas slumped out next to each other. They looked more like siblings than ever. Evan was hopefully nearby. This mess could be salvaged by finding Arnold.

Locating him was frighteningly easy. Almost as soon as I thought of the elf, visions popped into my head outlining where he sat. Something carved in his hands was being spun about. Was this ease at tracking because of giving him blood?

Sneaking was not one of my skills so I staggered over. He sat at the base of a tree with his face turned towards sunrise. Even his irises were a pasty white color.

"Lord?" His face turned slightly. I blinked and looked away.

"You promised me answers." There was no good way to start this conversation. I managed to sound calm. Clearly Evan hadn’t conspired against me.

"I find myself unable to fulfill my part of the bargain. I apologize." He said slowly. The object in his hand spun around some more.

"No. Candy being here is my fault." I should have just stolen money out of the bar till and taken a taxi. Anything would have been better than getting into a car with her.

"Candy?" Evan asked.

"The other elf. Her name is really," I slowed my speech in order to say her name clearly. "Kanda'rila Ro'hal."

"Ah." His response came out as a sigh. His normally serious demeanor was nothing more than pure exhaustion. "Do not worry."

"Why?" I asked.

"I felt the bond starting with her as well. She will not hide the truth from you forever, and I doubt she wishes to keep this from you, not really." Evan shrugged one shoulder and ran his fingers over the wooden carving. I stared at it too. It looked like a wooden ball.

"It seemed like she did." I said.

"It is not you that she worries about, it is us. Time or understanding will change her." Evan said. A grimace of pain crossed over his face and fingers locked around the carved ball.

"I'm sure calmly explaining I'll keep it secret won't work." I said. We could pinky swear on it.

"You will not be able to hide it once you know. The knowledge will release you. That is what worries her."

It was time for a topic switch. There was a certain desperation for answers, but his wording was also frightening. "Is Evan your full name?"

"No. But I like it better. My old name would be my family name, and my grandfather is all I have left." The elf said.

"The others died?" I asked slowly. Missing family members was something I knew entirely too much about. To my knowledge, there was no one related to me by blood.

"Murdered. By another clan." He said.

"I'm sorry. I'd help if I could." I really would too. Family was one of my personal woes. There was an entire story there that I didn’t have time to dwell on.

Evan started to say something to that. There was a quieter flash of light in his eyes as he tried. It wasn't anywhere near as bright as what had happened last night.

"That topic’s off limits?" I asked.

He nodded weakly.

"What about Arnold Regious?" That was the other issue that was pressing on us. I should have dived in and asked, but it seemed rude to rush Evan. He was clearly wounded from my failure to stop Candy.

"Some of it." He said. Arnold was related to this? How was a rich heir to some family tied to the topic Candy didn’t want to discuss?

"How about where he is?" I tried for something simple.

"Arnold Regious is very much dead. There was little doubt that anything else would happen." He said.

"Did you kill him?"

"I did not need to." Evan was already extremely pale, but that admission caused him to lose more color. His fingers ran over the wooden ball's surface in rough jerks.

"Please tell me you have his body at least." I said.

"Yes. What little is left." Evan stood up and slowly walked off. He didn't seem the type to ask for help despite clearly having a difficult time.

"Am I allowed to help?" I wasn't sure if there was some sort of rules here to deal with. Elves and their addictions often created weird nearly ritualistic behaviors.

Evan paused and tilted his head. His hair seemed as dirty as it ever had been, but at least it fit the woodland vibe. "I will be alright, my Lord. If you would please follow me?"

The path we took was painfully slow. I tried to keep myself distracted by looking at how he was walking. Stealth wasn’t my skill, but both Evan and Candy seemed to be amazing at navigating the woods. Even fumbling around he moved like he was a part of nature.

He could step on a patch of earth and be noiseless. I would step on the same spot with noisy results. Asking Evan about the secret to his footsteps didn’t enlighten me. The elf just responded with a faint smile.

"You can see the ruins of our old home here. My grandfather tells me it was quite beautiful once." Evan gestured before him. This piece of landscape looked a lot like everything else.

"It must have been." I tried to sound positive.

Evan kept moving while I searched for housing remains. Nothing stood out under the ivy and other plants. Not to my untrained eye. My tactile senses were still picking up bits of information and outlined hints of building foundations. Evan’s clan probably used natural elements, and nature would have recycled it all quickly.

"I am too young to remember it all. My family has slowly been erased." Evan faintly stared at one of the building remains I had sensed.

"Why?"

"We are outcast from the others who came over to the Americas." He said. His constant depression almost made sense now. The poor elf’s family had been eradicated over time. His only remaining relative was a grandfather who thought he was living on the frontier.

"I didn't know elves got outcast." I said.

"In many ways, elves and humans are almost the same. We were until..." A flash of light prevented him from continuing the thought. He put out a hand and rested against a tree for a moment.

"Just how much relates to what I am?"

"Much." He said.

"You can't just,” my brain hurt trying to figure this out “write it down and skirt the binding?”

"I never learned to write." Evan said. That didn't explain his gambling debt with Julianne. At least topic one wouldn't be off limits.

"How did you end up owing Julianne?" I asked.

"I knew sooner or later you would return." He stopped our walking to lean against a tree and catch his breath.

"Then the odd objects were a plant?"

"Yes." Evan shuddered and took a breath. The man had refused assistance before. If the elf collapsed I would sling him over a shoulder march forth that way.

"Then why did you act so weird when I found you in your apartment? Why not just tell me then?" I tried to distract him with easier questions. Ones that shouldn’t trigger his bindings or whatever Candy had done.

"I did not know you were back. I had never seen your face. Also, you seemed like a thug." He said it without any emotion besides exhaustion. Evan pushed away from his resting spot and started forward again.

"I am a thug." It was a description that fit me very well on the job.

"You are protective over what is yours and misguided." He said.

"Misguided how?"

He didn't answer.

"More stuff you can't talk about?"

"I skirt the bindings as it is." He looked even more tired than when we'd started talking. "It is...draining."

"Can you answer one more question?" I wanted to shake him and yell anything that might get him to spit out an answer worth hearing. I couldn't bring myself to try. Bringing actual violence to him felt aberrant. Was this part of The Lord thing?

"I will try."

"This is all related, right? My tracking. The possessive instincts. Kahina’s desire for my blood, your waking to it, all of it?" I was shaking a little myself as a result of asking everything at once.

He paused. Evan’s neck tensed up greatly and he shuddered out a nod. His face grew even more pale right in front of me. Just that one answer had been pushing the far edge of the limits.

"One more question? I won't ask anything about myself this time." I tried to sound happy about getting a yes. It was difficult.

"That would be appreciated."

"Who did the lipstick tube belong to?" The damned brass container had been bugging me since the beginning.

"My mother." He smiled sadly. The admission stopped me abruptly. "Do not worry. We are where we need to be. Candy is right on one thing, time should not march backward, as much as I might wish otherwise."

We had paused in the middle of a cluster of tree trunks. Overhead was a woven net of branches and leaves that could have once grown into a roof of sorts. Evan leaned over into a hollow nearby that would have once been a house wall.

His hand came out with a small ornate box. The container was just over a foot long and clearly hand carved. I tilted my head to look at the top. There seemed to be a creature with wings flowing from one side to the other. It might be a bird or a serpent. There were men on the sides that held up their hands as if they supported the scene on the top.

"This will have to be enough for your friend. There is nothing more left." Evan was focusing poorly on the carving. It looked sort of tribal, no, tribal was the wrong word. It was primitive.

"What is it?" I pulled it closer to look at the wood.

"Ashes." The elf responded. I shifted the box a bit and felt something slide around. One of my hands started towards the lock. "Do not open it. They will know it has been tampered with."

"He's really dead?" I asked.

"His path had little alternative."

"Care to explain?"

"No." Evan’s face grew serious. His entire range of emotions seemed negative except for one brief smile.

"Lord, one more thing if I may. Then I must rest."

"Sure."

"Do not tell your friend about yourself. Do not tell him of what you can do. Those he travels with will, must, kill you for what you are." He said. I had to bite my cheek to avoid asking more questions.

"Jay!" Julianne’s voice called out through the woods. For a moment, I almost yelled back, but that might hurt Evan.

"Go ahead. I will find you after I have rested. There is a little more I can tell you once I have my energy back. It should not violate the bindings." Evan was almost passing out on the spot.

"And your grandfather?" I asked. Julianne and the others had seemed okay, but it was important to double check.

"Has made peace with your friends, and will leave you be from here forward." He said.

"Thanks." There was nothing left to talk about that could be asked without causing further issues with Evan. I left to go to Julianne.

Being sightless in these woods must be disturbing to the elf. Perhaps tomorrow night Evan would be more rested and I would get that last bit of information out of him.

I found Julianne shaking her brother awake. Thomas was clearly incoherent even after the bartender elevated the shaking to earthquake levels.

"What?" He slurred the word.

"We need to tell the pack we found Evan again." Julianne was super close to her brother’s face. I could see Thomas’ nose flare and take in the scent.

"And Arnold." I said from much further away. Julianne was a better person to rouse her brother the wolf.

"Even better! Where is he?" She turned towards me with a look of happiness. My hands held up the box and shook it a little. The contents inside made more noise than ashes should.

"One cremated rich kid." Maybe my wording was disrespectful, but I had never known Arnold. He was dead too, a dead man’s opinion didn’t matter.

"Shit, Jay, do you think that will be enough for Daniel?" Julianne stood up and came over. Her head was almost level with the box in my hands.

"Daniel knew how this would turn out." I had told the Western Sector agent that from the get go. Arnold Regious was dead.

"Would Evan lie about this? Maybe he has Arnold somewhere else?" She spoke the words any reasonable person would. Normal individuals couldn’t find others by using a link. Normal people couldn’t lay claim to an area and get stronger. I wasn’t normal.

"Arnold is dead. We need to tell Daniel we've got Arnold. Can you tell your pack?" I said.

"I’ll have to run it. We’ve got no cell service out here." Thomas said. He put one hand over his chest and winced.

I shrugged. "I'll be staying a bit longer."

"Why? We've got what we need, let’s just go." Julianne asked while glaring at her brother. Her eyebrows went low and words were mouthed. Thomas shook his head and waved the concerned look away.

"There's a bit more for me here, and I can watch Arnold's ashes." I said.

"I can take it back to Daniel quicker, a day sooner might make a difference." Thomas walked over and still looked pained. Even wolves couldn’t heal that quickly from a central shot.

I paused. Julianne could return the ashes on her own. As long as Daniel got what he needed maybe he would leave the rest of us alone. No. "Daniel wouldn't believe you."

"Shit, you're probably right. Look, I'll see if we can get back to the truck, load up a four wheeler and get back out here by tonight." Julianne said. She started walking around checking her pockets.

"That's fine. I'm not going anywhere." I stood there holding the carved box while watching Thomas try to walk off the arrow wound.

"You better not, Jay. I'll find Kahina and we'll both kick your ass this time." Julianne’s statement gave me a real laugh. It had been a long time since anything did that.

"So you and the princess want me to haul back to the city? See if I can get a truck headed back out here?" Thomas was asking Julianne. Clearly I wasn't in a position to give him orders. At least he seemed to be walking easier.

"Yeah, doofus. Get those legs going!" Julianne waved both arms at her brother.

"And Candy won't bother you." I said. My head hung thinking about the failure.

"Want me to chase her?" Thomas looked at me and seemed happy about the prospect. He tried not to wince as his shoulder rolled.

"No point." I shook my head. Julianne looked at me with a frown. I shrugged. Getting Candy back here wouldn't undo things. Evan would have told me if there were other options.

"If you say so. I may give her a nip for the tree, though or send her a bill for repairs." Thomas turned, stripped without so much as a pause, and shifted. He limped as he left but managed to move quickly.

"You're going to stay here then?" Julianne asked.

"Yes." I responded.

"I have to walk myself back to the truck?" Julianne asked. "We could head back and get some more food out of the freezer. I think we had some nonperishables in there."

“Food?” I said. Food would be a welcome distraction.

We kept talking. Julianne tried to get answers out of me regarding Evan and Candy's event. There was no good way to explain anything without outlining the Lord thing more. I kept trying to shift us back to dealing with Daniel and this box with Arnold's remains.

"I hope Thomas gets in touch with the pack quickly." She said.

"I thought they had some distance speech." I almost included her in it before I remembered enough to correct myself. She wasn't pack, yet, if ever.

"Sure. But it fades the further apart you are. They'll probably pick him up about halfway and get things going from there." Julianne and I started walking to the truck. That was a reasonable middle point.

Hopefully, the pack would be back by nightfall. Even a wolf running at full speed would take hours to get to halfway. That assumed the pack had people waiting. There would be another four or five hours to get out and past the obstructions.

"Why are you so set on me and Kahina?" I asked while trying not to dwell on this endless forest. It would take days for me to walk out by myself.

"She's a friend, and wanted a Second who could handle himself. A big stick to her smooth talking." Julianne waved one hand while talking.

"You knew she'd try to change me?"

"Sooner or later? Sure. She was going vampire come hell or high water.” Julianne waved her hands and pretended to swing a baseball bat. “I couldn't join her, so she needed someone trustworthy, someone to last the years with her."

"You thought that was me?" I said.

"To be honest, you were perfect for each other and better than most guys I know, once you tip toe around the possessive streak.” Her comment made me snort. “I don't think I even did much, other than put you in the same room together."

"Do you still think I'm good for her? Even after what I did to Stacy?" I asked while trying not to think about the endless miles of hiking between the busted truck and here. We would be walking forever.

"You were provoked. I've never seen you do that kind of damage to a human, or to Kahina, or me. Stacy is a bitch most days." Julianne didn't even try to make excuses for her girlfriend.

"Doesn't excuse it." I muttered. Hitting girls left me with a sour taste even if they deserved it. Stacy had managed to hit every annoyance button I had and Julianne seemed perfectly willing to forgive me.

"I was raised with Pack.” Julianne rolled her eyes. “And when no one's looking, they fight about everything. Compared to that you're downright peaceful and still better than most I see at the bar."

"No good wolf boys you could have set her up with?" I said while stepping over a pile of woodland mush.

"Trust me. Men are generally the same in any species." Julianne made no attempt at hiding the disgust in her voice.

"I escaped the stereotype?"

"Sometimes there's hope for you. Then you do dumb things like take off for years. The only way we knew you were alive was the fact that you sent rent money back." Her words triggered a memory of all the constant stream of odd jobs, many of them disgusting. "It scared the life out of me. And Kahina? You broke her heart."

"I thought I explained that." I had left because of her thirst for my blood. Kahina had tried to explain the attack by citing jealousy, instincts, and possessiveness.

"I've known her for fifteen years, trust me, you broke it. She kept telling me that it was all part of some plan, and you'd come back.” I scrunched my face up at Julianne’s words. What plan had Kahina thought we were talking about? “Soon she got so messed up with the vampirism that she made passes at anyone who looked similar to you."

"You saw how she acted!" I didn’t want to talk about Kahina hitting on other people because they looked like me.

"It's part of the package. You date a vampire, blood's an issue. Date a wolf, the pack's an issue. Date an elf, the age difference is an issue.” Julianne stopped our march and stared at me. Her finger poked in my chest just like it did every time she tried to drive home a point. “Date a human? Still drama. Doesn't matter. It's not your race, it's your feelings. You deal with the rest of it."

"You're saying that she actually still has a thing for me?" I was stunned. Kahina had real feelings for me as a person? Not just me as a walking blood donating machine?

"And the blood thing would be over if you joined her." Julianne said.

My mouth clamped shut on a bitter response. We walked for a bit longer while I tried to settle my thoughts. If it wasn't one problem occupying them, it was another. Bouncing between Evan, and Daniel, and what I was, then back to Kahina. Or Candy. Life never handed me one problem at a time.

"Julianne?" I said slowly.

"What is it?" There was rude name calling implied in her tone. She was probably still cycling through the previous conversation.

"I don't think I'm human, I don't think I could join her." Admitting my woes out loud made everything seem dire.

"No." She sighed. "I don't think you are either."

"Then what am I?" I asked.

"Male through and through." Her tone held an edge of wry humor.