By the time they parked the car in the small clearing Brogan had dissected the morning’s conversation over and over but still hadn’t discovered anything new to help him figure things out. His only hope was that West would keep this to himself and that Cadence would have some idea why Jericho was contacting him.

“You been leaving clothes at the Priestesses place?  Make things quicker if we shift and run there if you don’t mind.”

Brogan snorted a laugh, “The question really is are you up to it? I know it’s been a few weeks since I’ve seen you shift, but have you gotten less nervous about it yet?”

“Screw you, jackoff. I wasn’t nervous after the first time.  Just hesitant. Blame the movies, they show those images of people changing into werewolves and that shit is scary.”

“Fine, you gotten over your irrational fear then?” Brogan teased as he climbed out of the car and started undressing. “Pop the trunk. I’m not leaving my clothes out here.”

“It wasn’t irrational and yes, I’m over it...for the most part.  The pain isn’t that bad and yes it's worth it.” West replied with a shake of his head in exasperation. “Never gonna let me live that shit down are you.” He mumbled.

Brogan laughed as he waited for West to join him by the trunk. The poor man still had hang ups about getting naked in public.

“You can stop right now. I know what you’re thinking and I don’t care what you people say. It’s not right for the town sheriff to be naked where anyone could see. I’m supposed to arrest people for this, not do it myself.”

“Then hurry up and strip. I’ll put our clothes in the trunk and you won’t be naked.  You really are a worrywart aren’t you. This is Blue Creek you know, people know we’re shifters and we get naked.” Brogan couldn’t believe how much of a prude Rook’s mate was, in a way he got it. Not everyone grew up being naked outdoors and in front of people. But West was a shifter now, he needed to adapt.

A low growl from behind him pulled him from his thoughts as he quickly grabbed their clothes and put them away. “Yeah, I hear you.”

Minutes later the two of them were racing through the woods, jumping over fallen branches, chasing small prey and generally enjoying being a wolf. Brogan loved these moments, all too soon reality would intrude and it would be back to figuring things out before it was too late.

“Boys,” Cadence hollered from her porch a couple hundred yards away stopping Brogan and West in their tracks. “Stop playing and get over here.” Brogan huffed and the two headed towards her at a soft lope.

“Last time I run with you when we have someplace to be.” West called to Brogan through the pack link. “You should know better than to piss off a Priestess. I’m blaming this on you.”

Cadence shook her head as the two of them came to a stop a few feet from her. “I’m sure you needed that to work off some steam. I left your clothes here, shift and get dressed, we have much to talk about.”

That didn’t sound very promising at all. If Brogan had any sense he’d turn tail and run before it was too late. He was ashamed to admit he contemplated it, but then he remembered Jericho suffering in hell with who knew what happening to him and he couldn’t do it. Nothing she would tell them could be worse than what he was most likely going through.

He shifted and raced into the house panting slightly at the rushed pace. He could hear West fumbling with his clothes behind him and knew he’d be along soon. “Do you have news?” He asked breathlessly.

“Oh, child. No, I’m sorry. I should have phrased that better.” Cadence sighed and sat down gesturing for Brogan to do the same.

“Where’s Rook?” West called as he entered the room and sat down on the couch, glancing between Brogan and Cadence.

“I missed you too, babe,” Rook announced as he walked into the room carrying a tray with drinks and cookies on it.

“Mother…”

“Brogan, I’m not going to keep telling you to call me Cadence. You don’t have to be so formal.”

“Okay, Cadence, I was thinking that you never told us how you came to know Jericho in the first place. I know it probably won’t help, but I’m curious.”

She nodded in understanding and leaned back in her chair with a speculative look on her face. “It’s a little hard to explain, but I’ll try. For some of this you may have to just take my word for it. You see I first met Jericho in a dream when I was a child learning the craft from my mother and her mother. Somehow, I created a connection to him that spanned time and space. I knew on some deeper level that we’d exist in the same time, but I didn’t know how old I’d be when that finally happened.”

Brogan held his hand up to ask a question that he was sure they all wanted to know. When Cadence paused and glanced to him with a raised eyebrow he wasted no time. “So let me get this straight. You were a child and somehow you managed to talk to Jericho in the future?”

“Not at first. I could only see him, watch him grow from a baby to the man he is now.  Once I grew in my powers enough, I was able to communicate.”

West cleared his throat to get Cadence’s attention, “Are you talking like a parallel universe or something?”

She shrugged, “Don’t really know, don’t really care. Just know that eventually we existed in the same year.  I was already what most would consider old by the time he was born. I felt it you know. The minute he was born the connection I’d created all those years ago became stronger and more tangible. He somehow retained the knowledge of me and greeted me like an old friend. As the years passed I watched as a distant observer unable to interfere with what fate had already chosen for him. When I warned of things to be, he picked a different path and a much worse fate awaited.”

“When he became a demon hunter our paths were able to align without consequences. We aided each other as we could. There were times, years, decades and even centuries where he was locked in hell. I did what I could, but ultimately it was always he who found his escape.”

“Centuries?” Brogan whispered in horror.

“Yes, child. Like I said when you first met him. It took him over three hundred years to get free the last time he was taken.”

“Can I ask a question here?” Rook bit his lip and waited as Cadence gave him the go ahead. “No offense meant by this, but just how old were you when you first met him and how old is he?”

“When I created our bond, I was no more than five years old. When he was born I was two hundred and eighty-three years old. Today he is …” Cadence trailed off in thought. “I just turned eight hundred and fifty-one, no fifty-two.  So that makes him about five hundred sixty-nine I believe.”

All three men gaped at Cadence in astonishment. Brogan didn’t know what to say, sure Cadence looked older but he would have said maybe in her seventies or eighties at the most. He wanted to check the drink Rook had passed out earlier for any sign of hallucinogens. There was no way he was hearing her correctly.

Cadence cackled in amusement, “If you could see the looks on your faces. I know it’s hard to believe, but it’s true.”

“How?” Brogan whispered between dry lips.

“As I said, I learned my craft from my mother and my mother’s mother. My maternal line is full of priestesses as far back as you can go. My paternal line is harder to discover. My father was a demon who seduced my mother. He truly loved her as much as a full demon could love.”

“You’re half demon like Jericho?”

“He’s my half-brother actually.”