Page 11 of Ever Dark Academy, Vol. 7

“That is… Ashyr?” Elgar finally asked.

“Indeed, but he prefers the name Grayson,” Ryder said as he slid on his pants. He hadn’t lost his clothing in the shift! Ryder glanced down at Grayson with a smile. “We’ll need some more clothing as Grayson’s first shift took his.”

“Of course, I will make sure you have all you need,” Elgar said.

“Now, back to you,” Ryder said as he buttoned his pants. “You didn’t know about our lack of pants so another reason brings you here.”

“Yes.” Elgar crossed his arms at the wrists behind his back. His long dark blue robes swept back behind him as he walked closer to them. “I wish to know what my Master read from your minds that has upset him so.”

Ryder lifted an eyebrow. “I would imagine you could learn that just like he did, Elgar.”

“I could.” Elgar inclined his head for a moment. “But I would prefer not to.”

Why? Grayson danced softly on his little bird feet in the fur.

“Grayson wants to know why as I do. It would seem a far easier thing than asking us to disclose what Eyros hasn’t shared with you willingly,” Ryder pointed out.

Elgar’s lips flattened. “My Master keeps things from me to spare me. But this is foolish. I am his Whisperer. I am his Childe. I am his protector.”

“The middle one is why he doesn’t want you to know and worry,” Ryder said kindly. “He loves you very much, Elgar.”

“As I love him,” Elgar answered.

He’s so different and so the same in the future, Grayson said sadly. I wish we could stop this. I mean what happens to him. How he suffers.

Elgar frowned. “You are communicating. Yet I cannot quite hear it. There is some kind of… bird twittering?”

“Yes.”

“But you can understand him?”

“Yes.” When Elgar continued to look at him, Ryder explained, “Animals’ brains are not quite like ours as you know. My connection to all of them allows me to tap into their minds in a way that causes me to translate what they are thinking. With Grayson–as with any shifted Vampire–his mind does not become a bird’s or a wolf’s or anything like that. Our minds exist outside our bodies. So it is a much more complete connection.”

“So you are talking mind to mind,” Elgar murmured, his brow furrowed. “Our gifts are more connected than we know.”

I can definitely say that, Grayson agreed. They complement one another in many ways.

“I wonder if you could teach me to speak to animals,” Elgar said.

“Perhaps,” Ryder said. “I know that… that Eyros has had some success with his cat in the future.”

“His… his cat?” Elgar’s forehead furrowed.

“Yes. Meffy… the Battlecat,” Ryder sighed as he said the last part and Grayson knew why.

The little kitten was adorable, but hardly a cat capable of doing much else other than flopping over on his back and looking adorable. Not that there wasn’t power in this. There was plenty of power in cuteness.

“I admit that I cannot quite picture this,” Elgar said. “Eyros has never been fond of animals, particularly cats.”

“Oh, well, he is now,” Ryder said.

Balthazar rarely goes out without that cat. Right on his shoulder. Sort of like a pirate with a parrot, Grayson snickered.

Eyros is too serious and stuff for such a thing now, Ryder agreed.

And what about Bone Bear? BB is always getting in his bed. Waiting for daddy to come home, Grayson snickered some more.

Too true.