Beneath Midnight's Moon

style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Papyrus;color:blue'>Chapter Seventeen:style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Papyrus;color:blue'>

He
woke feeling refreshed and famished at the same time.style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  He hadn’t slept so well in a long
time.  Stretching his legs and arms, he
stopped when his hand brushed something soft. 
Opening his eyes, the next thing he knew, he was lying on the floor and
staring up at the ceiling.  He’d fallen
over the side of his bed, that much he knew.style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  But what he’d seen on his bed hadn’t quite
registered, so quickly had it happened.

Pushing
himself off the floor, he grasped the side of his bed
and looked closer, trying to guess what he was looking at, his still-groggy
mind taking in valuable details he’d missed earlier.

Black.

An endless cascade of midnight.style='font-family:"Century Gothic";font-weight:normal'>

Something
wasn’t right about it, though.  It
seemed... wrong.  He remembered
Night coming to his aunt’s house, that would be
hard to forget.  He remembered what she’d
told him, and he remembered falling asleep only when she’d told him he could
sleep on his bed rather than Drew’s room or the couch
downstairs.  At least she had the
shameless attitude that most of the loup class=SpellE>garou had... Eclipse included.

At least around clan, anyway.style='font-family:"Century Gothic";font-weight:normal'>

Despite
how he might appear to some, Eclipse was shy by nature and didn’t much like
walking around naked in front of just anyone. 
With other loupstyle='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'> garou,
however, it was practically expected
of him.  When the full moon came, the class=SpellE>loupsstyle='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'> garous somehow
found one another and peace was established between clans who had forever been
bitter rivals.  The full moon made
friends of them all… well, all except maybe he and Night.style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  He’d tried it once, running with a pack, back
when he’d been twelve and stupid.

He
didn’t want to do it again, and that was the end of that.

Still,
that was another time, another place. 
Now he was eighteen and yet he still felt as dumb as he’d been
then.  There was a rogue, injured, very style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>female on his bed, and he’d sworn to
care for her in any way he could possibly provide.

Assembling
his thoughts into some sort of coherent pattern, Eclipse pulled himself back up
to a standing position and froze, his worst fear realized.style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  This was too much,
there was no way he could deal with this… not now.style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  Maybe never, for that
matter.  It seemed even his bed —
his very domain — was no longer safe, mayhap never had been.style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  He’d sworn to keep Night safe, to heal and
care for her.

And
now he’d failed.

Baring
his teeth, Eclipse sent a mental shockwave to the black wolf on his bed, the
jolt of it bringing the wolf to its feet, “I’m going to ask you nicely:
what.  Did.style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  You. 
Do?”

The
wolf only glared and sat up on its haunches, “Not a very nice way to wake a
guest.”

“You’re
not a guest,” he growled, already fighting the heat of Change, “you’re a
familiar, and a pest to boot.  Now where
is Night?  What did you style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>do?”

“I
did nothing but bring your cousin home safe and sound.style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  When I got up here, you were alone on your
bed with Lady Night’s scent on your sheets and her blood on the window
downstairs.  The Lady herself, however,
was gone.”

“Where
did she go?  Did you see her?style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  Scent her? 
Anything?”

“No.”

His
mind was jolted by a memory, something Balder had asked, “How did you even know
what she smelled like?  You’re my
familiar, so you’re only supposed to know me.style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  Have you followed her before?style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  Trailed her to gather your information?”

“I’d
rather not discuss it.  There are powers
over me higher than you that dictate what I do and who I see.style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  As to any other questions you may have,
they’ll have to wait.  I need to go.”

“Go?style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  Go where?”

“Higher
powers have asked me to check out a few things in the woods.”style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  Midnight said offhandedly as he turned to
leave.

A
frown appeared between Eclipse’s eyebrows as he thought on Midnight’s
words.  Loathe as he was to admit it, he
needed to talk to his aunt downtown, and soon. 
He was sure a familiar was supposed to listen only one master, for a
familiar was an extension of he master or mistress, like an arm or a leg, and
that extension had to do whatever the part in charge told it to do… so Midnight
was, by all means, willingly breaking a rule set by the gods themselves.

But for what?  And, more importantly,
why?