Oracle

Part 47

Jaspar cried as he finally left the visions. Surrounded by darkness again, the young man curled on the large soft bed and clutched at the bed sheets tightly. He had to make a decision. Who lived and who died. Fran, the innocent office worker who about to be attacked and ripped to pieces by a monster whose human half couldn't control it. Or Nathan. The boy whose brother had fallen into the underbelly. If he saved Fran, the man would be relieved that the monster failed to kill someone. But Nathan would burn, and Oct and Warden Tim would die too. All of them would die at midnight. He had to make a decision. He could not save them all.

Oct was not a good man, Jaspar knew this but could he really condemn the demon to death? Which was worse? A teenager being burning to a crisp or a young woman being eaten by a monster? Did the monster man deserve consequences for failing to control the beast?

The sounds of screams echoed in Jaspar's head but in the end, there was only one logical choice. A flashback of a word Maria had once whispered to him came into his mind. Jaspar whispered it, holding on to the pillow underneath him. He whispered it once and then he yelled it at the top of his voice.

Heat filled the room and there was the breathing of another person. "I heard you the first time," Maria growled, a weight on the bed as she sat on it. A tail wrapped around Jaspar's waist and a hand cupped his face. "Oh, sweetheart. You don't look good. You need to close that third eye of yours. Its wide open," she cooed softly. "I need to get back to the third street..."

"No time," Jaspar gasped for air. "Midnight. They'll kill Oct, Tim and Nathan at midnight. Three beats one, right?" Jaspar whimpered, tears still pouring from his face. "We can't save them all but maybe we can save more?"

"Oct, Tim and Nathan?" Maria said slowly. "If Tim is in danger Jaspar, he takes my priority over a human woman as sad as her death will be. The wolves are out together on third. Alpha Maciek will watch out for her. She may survive but I need to know where the boys are," she asked, hands pressing against Jaspar's neck and pressing his forehead against smooth scales.

"Tim? And Oct. They'll get shot trying to save Nathan from Jace users. Is Jace important? Felt important," Jaspar slurred, trying to focus on the memory of the vision. It was fading as other visions flashed through his mind.

"Focus and close your eye. It's hard to see where they are," Maria murmured softly, thumbing rubbing circles on his neck.

Jaspar sobbed and tried to think what his teachers had always told him about the third eye. It wasn't a real eye. It was the term used for when someone had opened themselves up to the beyond and broken through the barrier. He needed to anchor himself back in the dimension he was in but Elison wasn't there. Elison was his anchor.

"Use me," Maria murmured, sounding strangely deeper than normal and her voice also echoing itself slightly. "Focus on my heat,"

"Heat," Jaspar breathed, feeling it. The brimstone smell and the heat in the air. Maria was shifted at the moment and she, like most dragons, could breathe fire. The heat in the room was from her fire. The fire of a female dragon was not something to laugh at. Female dragons ruled the roost, they protected their offspring using it. It was hot.

"There we go," Maria frowned in her voice as she tried to concentrate on the mess of Jaspar's mind. The madness began to calm slightly. "Now let me see what you saw," she murmured.

The scene repeated itself. Tim tearing the roof of Donny's car off. The fight. The house. The furnace. The Jace users. The blood. It all replied in a moment, and Maria let go of Jaspar. She rumbled furiously, the heat increasing before disappearing altogether.

"Maria?" Jaspar asked softly, already suspecting what had happened.

She was gone. Gone the same way she had appeared, in a puff of magic and smoke. Jaspar could only wait now for the end of this. Either Maria would save them, all she wouldn't. Moments later the bells chimed around the city. It was midnight. Jaspar sucked in his breathe.