Chapter 9 - I meet Marcus Chen

I sat legged-crossed on the floor, the little white box of rice and vegetables sat on my knees and I shoveled it down my throat like it'd disappear if I dared to stop. Some fell down my chin but I was too hungry to care. 

The man…. Marcus Chen, he called himself that. He didn't interrupt my meal, he just stood there resting his back against the wall with his arms crossed watching me eat quietly. 

Finally, I mumbled through a mouthful,  “How… exactly do you know my name? I don’t think I know you.”

His smile was small and unsettling, the kind of smile that knew far more than it should. “That’s not a question I can answer here. The walls have ears.”

The rice nearly choked in my throat. I coughed, and my hand clamped over the box. “What is that supposed to mean?”

He did not flinch at my lack of manners, neither did he smirk like the other humans in the restaurants had. He just unfolded his arms and bent down to face me eye-to-eye.

“Well, what I meant was that the answer to your question is not something we can talk about sitting on the floor outside a restaurant. Not if you want to stay safe” 

 I swallowed hard, looking at him with plenty of interest now “So where, then?”

He tilted his head toward the radiating restaurant “Inside. It’ll be easier and just us there. Warm and quiet with no one to watch or eavesdrop on us.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Do you think I’m stupid enough to follow some stranger?” 

He didn’t look offended. Instead, the corner of his mouth lifted in the faintest smile. “No, I don't think you're stupid. I think you’re hungry. So how about this….. I’ll buy you another meal inside. You eat and listen. Then you'd decide if you will trust me or not. I promise no tricks.”

The growl of my stomach answered before I could. I hugged the rice box tighter. “Fine. But I want two more plates and water”

I got up and headed towards the restaurant door leaving him there.   

*****

Marcus slid the packs of rice toward me, along with a bottle of water, he got three packs of rice instead of the two we agreed on, I wasn't complaining anyway. I chose a table beside the window to sit whilst he got the food. My stomach didn’t hesitate; I took the first pack of rice and immediately started downing it. 

Marcus did not get any food for himself, but I did not care much. My focus wasn’t on him right now, it was on survival. 

“Lila,” he said calmly, “Before I explain anything, I need you to touch me.” 

The plastic spoon froze in my hand and I swallowed the rice painfully, as though it had turned to sand in my throat. “Touch… you?” I repeated, suspicious. “What do you mean by that?”

“Yes, touch me. Just your hand on mine. Nothing more.” His eyes narrowed, like he was waiting for me to understand something deeper. 

“It’s all part of the things I'll explain to you,” he said

I knew what he was getting at and my immediate thought was to deny it, to push the rice away and walk out of the restaurant. But then Eryndra, who had been frustratingly silent all day, stirred in my chest. 

Do it. She said,  Let your hand meet his hand and I will guide you.

The command in her tone made me grip my spoon tighter and I wanted to snap at her, tell her to shut up, but my own curiosity was stronger than my worry. So slowly, I set my food down, wiped my hand on the tablecloth, and reached across. 

She continued; Breathe slowly. Anchor yourself in your body, think of the food warming your belly. When you touch him, don’t reach blindly. Narrow your focus, like you want to thread a needle. That way the Sight won’t rip you apart or confuse you. 

I hesitated, but then placed my hand on Marcus’s. The moment our skin connected, fire exploded. Not the type that burned my skin, it was the one that brought  visions, different flashes slamming into my brain all at once so fast my breath hitched, I started to get overwhelmed. 

Then I heard Eryndra’s soothing voice; Breathe Little wolf, Breathe.

Then I saw it clearly;

I saw younger Marcus standing on a battlefield, his face smeared with ash and blood, his hand stained with blood, and before I knew what was happening he was screaming over bodies, then I smell it, wolf blood pumping through him, as if he carries their curse in his veins. And beneath all of it was something darker. The whisper of voices not his own, and his bed drenched in moonlight where he squirmed awake from dreams that weren’t dreams at all.

I gasped, yanking my hand back. The rice bowl trembled as I reached for it again, filling myself in the taste of the solid food. Quietly

Marcus leaned forward. “Well, what did you see?” 

I shook my head.

He smiled subtly and his gaze told me he knew what I had seen. 

Inside me, Eryndra rumbled with approval; You are learning, Little wolf and next time, you will have more control over it.

******

We had sat silently for a while, I was on my second pack of rice. I ate slowly now, Marcus didn’t speak. He sat across from me observing quietly, his hands held together on the table, thumbs rubbing against one another a nervous habit, I guessed.

“You want to know how I knew you?” His eyes pierced into mine, dark with intensity. “Because I’ve seen you before, in my dreams. Over and over again.”

I froze mid-bite, my hand trembling slightly with the spoon. “A dream?”

“I wasn’t always… like this. I used to be a Navy SEAL. My life was filled with discipline, different missions, and loyalty….. that was my life. But then,” He stopped, his jaw tightening, eyes blurring with something dark. “One day on a mission overseas, we stumbled into something that wasn’t supposed to exist….. Blood suckers, Vampires.”

The word rolled from his tongue with so much resentment it sounded harsh even to me. His knuckles whitened against the table. “They slaughtered my entire unit. Cleared out the men I called my brothers. And I was the only one left.” His voice broke, just faintly. “Do you know what it’s like to carry that kind of survivor’s guilt?”

“The guilt of not being able to help any of them.”

I paused the rice I was chewing, and I started studying him. And for a moment he wasn’t the man who had offered me food moments ago, he had let down his guard and the man sitting here was a broken glass, sharp but fragile.

Eryndra stirred inside me listening attentively, she spoke in a low hum; This explains the pain we saw in his path, little wolf. This explains the rivers of blood in the vision we saw.

I said nothing to him still,

Marcus rubbed his temples and continued. “Since then, I made it my duty to learn everything about supernaturals, and after learning a lot about vampires specifically I started hunting them down and ending the animals that killed my brothers.” 

I had stopped eating now and I listened keenly to him still not uttering a word.

“I retired a year ago, and I decided to live the rest of my years peacefully but for a month now I have been having the weirdest dreams about humans turning into wolves, seeing and hearing your name most especially, I've been hearing voices, and just this morning a voice whispered clearly to me: ‘When you see Lila ask her to touch you.’ I didn’t understand what that meant until I saw you this evening. And I felt compelled to follow you”.

“I don't understand anything that has been happening to me this past month, I've not had any attachment to anyone or anything since I lost my brothers and I want to know if I'd get answers from you.”

Eryndra ignored his questions.

Dreams, Eryndra echoed inside me, her tone clearer. No, not dreams, visions. The Moon Goddess has marked him, because he is not a mere human. The wolf blood sings faintly in him. That is why we felt it, why you saw the hints of war and grief in his soul. He is a child of two worlds, unwanted by both. That is why the Goddess uses him to reach us..

And then without thinking I blurted “You are of mixed blood, half wolf and half human. And the moon goddess has chosen you, I don't know what she chose you for yet.”

He sat there looking confused like he has just seen a ghost, and that was when it dawned on me that he did not know that he was part werewolf.