Spear Through Time

[Aiden Finnegan]

Aiden exited the limo, playfully waving Dimitri away with the spear. The man leapt back almost immediately, a shriek barely escaping his lips before his right hand rose to cover his mouth. Aiden chuckled and closed the passenger side door.

“Oh, calm down,” Aiden said as he pulled the spear back and setting it to rest behind him, “You’re far too good a man to lose to carelessness. The spear was firmly in my grip the whole time.”

Cooper thought that Dimitri might be able to wield the Light?

Aiden leaned lightly onto his spear and considered the man for a moment.

Dimitri pulled himself up straight and puffed his chest out slightly, “Shall I look up the statistical likelihood of random death due to careless handling of a weapon?”

“I told you I had it in hand,” Aiden all but repeated himself.

“You could have killed me!” Dimitri exclaimed, “I could have been killed!”

Dimitri was more able-bodied than Aiden could ever hope to be – but he was infinitely more uptight in the same vein. If he was a God, he would either turn out to be spectacular or completely befuddled.

“Oh, must I be the mature one again?” Cooper called out as his head popped up from the other side of the limo.

“You already are!” Aiden and Dimitri both replied in unison.

Neither could suppress their laughter.

 
 
Aiden sat in a plush leather armchair inside his finished study. Edwina had done it up in traditional New Orleans style. His desk sat towards the back of the room, and floor-to-ceiling French windows behind the desk opened out onto a partial wrap-around porch. A number of darkly varnished wooden bookcases lined the walls to either side of the desk – each stocked with a number of leather-bound volumes. Another set of French doors sat opposite, opening out onto the main hallways of the first floor. Hell, she had even installed a chandelier of sorts at the center of the ceiling. It was a large wheel of – again – darkly varnished wood, topped with working gas lamps that cast the room in a warm haze.

The atmosphere perfectly mimicked that of Aiden’s father’s own study, and now that Aiden was the one sitting behind the desk, he felt he had become his father. Dimitri sat in one of the red leather easy chairs that had been haphazardly arrayed before Aiden’s desk. His assistant was intent upon an upscaled version of the wallet in his hands. It reminded Aiden of the iPad he had played with as a child.

“Well, that went better than I expected,” Dimitri finally said after he took a sip of his café au lait, setting the large wallet down on the side table nestled between his chair and the one to his right. Aiden swirled the iced whiskey in his glass and set the cigarette down to rest on the lip a crystal ashtray.

“Will they be suing for breach of contract?” Aiden asked seriously.

“Oh, quite the opposite,” Dimitri said gleefully, “They are most agreeable, but they want to set the release date of the book back to coincide with your tour – and we will have to compensate the contest winners to keep the good faith. The winners will still receive their prize, but it might be best to calm their eagerness with… a five-minute phone call?”

“Done,” Aiden said simply. He was happy to be done with the matter of his book-signing tour of the CDC. It would wait until spring, and he could focus on the secrets of the spear and the recurring dreams of Lugh. Something was coming to ahead here – it was all too much like the stories to be anything other than.

“Then there’s the matter of that ‘behind the music’ style documentary,” Dimitri quickly brought up as he picked the coffee back up, nestling it within the full grip of his two hands.

“Oh, absolutely not,” Aiden said without thought.

“Siobhan gave the same answer. Kyle Rice has been most emphatic,” Dimitri said before taking a sip from his porcelain cup.

“Kyle Rice can fuck off and say whatever he has to say. That part of my life is over. I will not be commenting on the past. If he wants to hang on to what we did in our twenties, well that’s on him,” Aiden spat back before draining half of the whiskey from his own glass, “It’s the only way he’s been supporting himself these past few years. Let him flap his gums.”

“I was about to suggest suing for defamation of character, should my sources prove correct on the footage they’ve been able to see,” Dimitri shot back as he gazed up from his cup.

“Dim, I really don’t have a mind for all of this right now,” Aiden sighed.

“Might I suggest replacing the Jack with some caffeine?” Dimitri asked innocently.

“What? Are you two on some unified front all of a sudden?” Aiden groaned before downing the last of his cup.

“Kyle and myself? Heavens no,” Dimitri replied flatly.

“No, you and Coop. Lord above, never mind,” Aiden groaned again before taking his cigarette back up from the ashtray, “I’d rather talk about other things. Like the spear and godhood.”

“What? Are you two on some unified front all of a sudden?” Dimitri mockingly quoted back.

“What?” Aiden asked, confused.

“You and Cooper. Ganymede,” Dimitri said flatly.

“Well, you might be!” Aiden exclaimed, surprising himself. Dimitri’s spine straightened.

“How can you know?” Dimitri asked, genuinely curious – all but leaning forward in his chair.

“I don’t. I didn’t really realize that I was one until this past year. I told you about the fairy fire. It was a symptom. Have you had any odd reoccurrences?” Aiden went on in a gentle manner, despite the thoughts going through his head. The only thing he could think of was that night in Cruz’s basement with Nox. Aiden had exposed himself to the man in a twisted effort to discover whether or not Aiden could harness the Light. Oh, he had looked upon the memory in fondness – and he was only half saddened that it had not resulted in a three-way with Sage, but one never knew what the future held. Aiden hoped that Dimitri would not have to suffer the same tests. The lord only knew if he could handle such a display of his naked form.

“No. He only started suggesting it because of that,” Dimitri spat as a hand pulled away from his cup and shot out to point at the spot in the corner to Aiden’s right. The spear floated there on unseen hands made of Air. No matter how eccentric it made him look, Aiden was not going to keep it out of his reach for any length of time. He had learned that when he had been faced with the choice of locking it away in the limo’s trunk or taking it with him into the cabin. Cooper and Dimitri’s strange looks had been enough to reassure him that most would think it odd – if not mystical.

“Well, do you want to try picking it up?” Aiden asked Dimitri with total honesty. He had apparently been talking to Cooper about the weird vibes it had given off. Perhaps Dimitri really was feeling the Light, perhaps he was a God.

Dimitri did not answer, but he did not drag his gaze away from the spear either.

Aiden altered his weaving and the spear floated through the air and came to rest before Dimitri’s seat. The man seemed to scoot back into the easy chair as he thrust his coffee cup down onto the side table. Aiden did not alter his expression, nor did he break the silence.

An eternity seemed to pass before Dimitri reached out and took the spear. Aiden let the filaments dissipate but held onto the Light. Dimitri shivered visibly as he closed his other hand upon the shaft. Aiden smirked.

“Well?” Aiden finally asked after Dimitri said nothing, his eyes still fixed upon the black spear.

“I still feel revolted,” Dimitri replied after a moment's hesitation.

Aiden sighed.

“But I feel inexplicably warm at the same time. That’s different,” Dimitri offered up as Aiden dropped his head.

Aiden looked up and the smirk returned to his face, “Call the flame.”

Dimitri looked up from the spear and into Aiden’s eyes, “The what?”

“The flame. The spear can conjure a flame – a blaze – through your will. You just have to open to the Light. Do it. Light the flame of the Shinning One.”

Dimitri looked back to the spear and his eyes squinted, his jaw clenched and so did his grip.

Nothing.

“Open yourself, Dim. It is like a storm that will overtake you. You must let it. But when it takes hold, you must be ready to strike – as if with a ready hand. Strike the storm and take it for your own. You command the lightnings and the storm. You command the Power. Do that and everything else will fall into place,” Aiden went on encouragingly. He really wanted this to work for Dimitri, although he really wasn’t sure if the spark was there. This had all come about because of an off-handed conversation with Cooper – and Aiden could not honestly say that he had suspected Dimitri being anything other than what he had presented to the world.

Aiden did not mean to bring this up with Dimitri, he had honestly wanted to talk about the spear. But then, he had been – just not in the way that he had wanted. Still, perhaps this was meant to be. Perhaps Dimitri really was a God and Aiden was only holding him back. Perhaps Dimitri was nothing more than mortal and Aiden was only holding him back.

Aiden’s smile fractured slightly, but Dimitri did not seem to notice. His face was one of pure concentration. Aiden stared at him for a few moments before opening his mouth. Dimitri gasped suddenly, his eyes going wide. In, what seemed to be half a second, Dimitri’s wide eyes turned even wider as his mouth contorted into outrage, “Hey! Where did it go!?”

“Where did what go?” Aiden asked as he felt his own spine stiffen.

“That flash – that blue light!” Dimitri exclaimed, his head swiveling around the room.