Truth Be Told 50: Is it Crowded in Here prt6

Present Time

"You're insistence that you know nothing of the Arcane One is amusing, but I would wager my life that it is nothing but a façade." Zimmerman had his meaty hands planted firmly on the arms of the chair Eliza was seated in. With his back slightly hunched and his eyes peering down at the pale faced creature below him, he sneered. The creature curled in on herself, drawing her body further into the cushioning of the chair and farther away from the muscular German leaning over her. Her painted pink lips remained in a tight line despite the burly man's attempts at getting her to speak.    

Zimmerman's nearness to Eliza triggered an innate response, causing her focus to widen and her senses to sharpen. Her already keen abilities were strengthened by the presence of one her body found to be a possible danger. To her left she could hear the voices of her guests. Her mind unraveled the mess of sounds without difficulty. Separating and analyzing each one within a second. That was one of the joys of her predator instincts. When trouble appeared, she had the ability of picking apart the sounds around her without much trouble.

"I'm killing her."

"It's not your fault."

"Eliza sounds like she could use my help. I should go see if…"

"No. You are needed in the restroom. Ares requires your assistance. I shall aid your αδελφή ψυχή."

The whispering of steps, their voices a mantra of hushing, and the clicking of a door shutting followed the voices. The ever present steady ticking of the kitchen clock was the basic beat behind the symphony of sounds within the apartment. Eliza could hear everything, from the erratic breathing of the wounded creature in her tub to the grumbling of a man in the hall outside her apartment door. Key's jingled, the man cursed, a dog barked from somewhere outside the building…all theses sounds were clear to her, but the sound that was the loudest was the deep voice coming from the lycan before her.

He moved to speak again, his sharp teeth a deadly glint beneath the light of the living room, but was stopped from doing so when a turquoise-eyed woman stepped from the hall. Her eyes immediately found Eliza's face, but slid to the creature leaning over her shortly after.

"And who are you to assume what she knows?" came the silver-blond haired creature's voice. The perfect tone of it, sweet yet ringing with an underlying current of death, shocked Zimmerman to the point of a slack jaw. He watched, wide-eyed, as the woman brought her slightly luminescent hands to her hips. When the werewolf failed to answer her, she spoke again, "I asked you a question."

"You're a siren," Zimmerman spoke dumbly.

"Yes, and you're a lycanthrope."Amusement colored the older creature's voice.

The ghost of a smile came to Zimmerman's thin lips as he stood to his full height, releasing Eliza from the prison his body had made around her. His midnight blue eyes turned their attention to the creature he had previously been interrogating. "You didn't tell me you were starting a business. Opening a home for the sea folk? I could have given you a few pointers."

"They are not here to stay," Eliza said her first words since Zimmermann had begun insisting that she tell him who the Arcane One was.

"They?" the wolf raised an eyebrow. "Just how many sirens do you have staying here?"

"Not counting Xander? Four. Things have gotten a bit more complicated since our last visit. Though I do not need to explain such to you. It is, really, none of your concern."

"You mistake my interest for concern. I care not why you have taken up a hobby collecting sirens. I am merely baffled to see them so far inland. It is not common for their kind to venture from the shores."

"Who are you, lycan?" Ondine requested, not being a fan of idle chat when dealing with matters of importance.

"I am Niklas Zimmermann, leader of Hartford's largest lycan pack, and you are?"

"Ondine, Lady of the Atlantian Kingdom."

"Ondine? The legendary Ondine?"

"In the flesh. The tales you speak of, however, are not nearly as accurate as their writers claim."

"So you did not have the child of a human."

"You have met her son," Eliza interrupted, continuing on when the man gave her a confused look. "She is Xander's mother. "  

"I am his mother," Ondine confirmed. "I did not, however, curse my husband. Xander's father died of an illness, not of my hand. Now, I overheard some of your conversation with my daughter-in-vow, Mr. Zimmerman, and would be delighted to know just why you question her about the Arcane One."

"The Arcane One has been a long time obsession of mine, and it has come to my attention that his identity may have been discovered."

"And you believe you have a right to know his identity? An obsession does not give you that right. The Arcane One's identity is not something that the average creature is allowed to know. Those who do know, are sworn to secrecy with the usage of one thing or another."

"You know who he is," Zimmerman stated.

Ondine didn't say anything, she merely locked eyes with the werewolf. She was something that he had never seen and he found himself unsure of how to react with her petite face staring up at him. A mix of understanding and inflexibility was present in her gaze. In that moment, Zimmerman knew that though she knew who the Arcane One was, she would not tell. There was nothing he could say to convince her to do otherwise.

"You should go, Mr. Zimmerman. I'm sure a creature of your standing has better things to do than to remain in the company of vampires and Sirens."

"I brought the boy back, unharmed, when it was my right to dispose of him. I deserve some answers."

"The answers you seek are not ones that we can give."

"Eliza," he growled. "If you reveal to me the Arcane One's identity, I will through Caliban off your tracks. I'm assuming that's why you had called me while I was gone on business."

"She cannot tell you," Ondine spoke before Eliza could.

"If she has a mouth and the will to live, she most certainly can tell me," he fought.

"She is forbidden. You could threaten her all day, but you would get nowhere."  

"Eliza!"

"Go ahead, dear one. Tell the big bad wolf who the Arcane One is." The way Ondine spoke was with a mocking tone.

Eliza gave her mother-in-vow a confused look before attempting to tell Zimmerman the Arcane One's identity. Her lips clamped shut, preventing all words from exiting her. Only muffled sounds could be her response. Zimmerman's eyes grew wide for a split second before returning to their normal size.

"I see," spoke the werewolf slowly. "A curse. And what about you? Can't you speak his name?"

"I can, but a vow prevents me from doing so."

"You sirens and your vows," he growled. "You have no sense of faithfulness to mates, yet you consider vows to be unbreakable."

"We are not adulterers. You land dwellers see us as creatures of hormones and death, but our word is our word. To go back on a vow is the highest of all crimes."

"I thought the highest crime was treason," Eliza remarked.

"That's what Xander told you. My son doesn't always adhere to the rules he set. Lucky for him, such vows are not taken before the high court and those who would judge him care too much to disown him."

"I'm sure you'd be given the same treatment if you broke your vow," Zimmerman remarked.

Eliza's gaze turned to the hall as she caught the sound of a door opening and closing. She would have known who the creature was walking down the hall without seeing his face, which could see because of where her chair was located in the living room. The slight drag in the creature's steps gave him away. It wasn't' a drag that the average creature would notice, it was one that only those who had studied him –had lived with him –would know of.

"My vow was made to the Arcane One, himself, and I have no intentions of losing his trust."

"Your vow is…"

"Zimmerman," Xander's voice came from the beginning of the hall. He was standing there, with his hands planted on each wall, and leaning forward slightly on his left foot. Eliza observed how he had tucked his right ankle behind his left, the tip of his left shoe just touching the floor. The expression he wore was one of boredom, though she knew him well enough to pick up on the urgency in his eyes. "If you are attempting to talk my mother out of a vow, you are wasting your time. Her dedication to her vows is outstanding. You are welcomed to try though, but at another time. I require my mother and Eliza for the moment."

"I'm not leaving until I get the answers I came for."

"A critical situation has arisen."

"I'm not leaving."

"What is it you want to know so bad?"

"The Arcane One…"

"Again with the Arcane One? Why is everyone so interested in him nowadays. He's a myth, get over it, move on."

Zimmerman raised an eyebrow. "A myth? I thought for sure you know who he is. After all, if my suspicions are correct, he's…"

"Go!" Onidne's eyes darkened. Her voiced gained that edge that could not be disobeyed.

"Mom," Xander cautioned. "There's no need to use that. Zimmerman's a sensible man. He'll leave on his own. Won't you?"

With narrowed eyes, the lycan nodded. "For the time being, but we will be speaking of this in the future."

"Go," Xander instructed. He watched as the wolf left without so much as a goodbye, before moving to stand in front of Eliza. Reaching down, he held her face in his hands and locked his turquoise eyes on with her mocha ones. "Are you alright? He didn't harm you?"

"He did not," she assured.

"Thank Poseidon. From what I overheard, he did sound to be in a pleasant mood." He reached up to massage his temples. "All this talk about the Arcane One keeps giving me a head ache. You should ban the topic from the apartment."

She gave him a small smile. "Yes, because getting Matthew to agree to such would be easy."

"I've already grounded him. I'm sure he'd be willing to cooperate for a decrease in the amount time he is."

"A matter we may discus later. You said there was a critical situation that required our attention."

"Oh, yes. Very critical," he continued to rub at his temples. "Blasted migraines."

"Xander," Ondine placed a hand on his shoulder. "Sit and talk. Don't dwell on the pain or it's reason. It will only last longer if you do."

Nodding, Xander took a seat on the couch, his mother taking the seat next to him. "I just spoke with Ares and Skye's not getting any better. His healing spells are only speeding up the illness."

"Is there anything we can do?" Ondine inquired, her voice containing a tremor that he hadn't heard since his brother's death.

"Possibly. He says that her origins are not only shutting down, but their tissues seem to be morphing."

"Like a mutation?" Eliza asked.

"Exactly like one. He doesn't want to diagnose it as one, but it does seem like the best answer. Fighting a mutation is a tricky process though," Xander went on. "It requires a lot of skill and the ability to use a great amount of magic. Whatever the mutation is, is fueled by black magic. Ares picked up traces of it. He's not strong enough to combat the mutation and Skye's on the verge of death. I think there's a way to save her, but I need Eliza's permission."

"Why do you need my permission?"

"I need Matt to contact Switch. Switch is the only person I know that could possibly help Skye."

"Matthew's mentor has not even arrived yet. He has not studied such spells. What makes you think he can do such a spell?"

"He's done it before."

"When?"

"When you were gone," Xander stated. "Right after I first arrived, you had to leave and you left him as my watcher. When I was showering, I felt the presence of magic. When I went to check on him, he was in a trance. He doesn't know I know about the spell. I pretended that I didn't."

"I do not want him using anymore magic than necessary. Can you or Ares perform the spell?"

"Ares won't. He hasn't said it, but I know he and Switch don't see eye to eye. He won't like that I want to contact him."

"And you?"

"I can't. I've tried before and it's like a phone call with low signal. I don't have enough magic to support the spell. I drop the call."

"So it's Matthew then," Ondine stated. "He has to do it."

"Fine," Eliza relented, "but you, Xander, grounded him. So you better make it clear that this is a onetime occurrence until that grounding is up."

"Will do, dear one," he grinned.  

"When can we contact him?" Ondine requested.

"Anytime now. We should do it as soon as possible," Xander informed.

"I will get Matthew," Eliza stood. "Should I retrieve Ares and Ambrosia as well?"

"Ares, yes. Not Ambrosia. Someone needs to be in the room with Skye while the spell is performed. There's no telling how long we'll be mentally absent for, and I suspect that both of you ladies would like to be present during the conversation."

"Yes," Ondine readily agreed.

"I do not have to be there," Eliza pointed out.

"I want you there," Xander stated.

"Then I will be there." Eliza assured. She squeezed Xander's shoulder as she passed by him to retrieve Ares and Matthew.