Lucifer's Keys

Sunday

Mason's eyes heavily lifted.  He had no idea what time it was or even what day it was.  His eyelids felt like lead.  His lower back ached and it felt as if he was being pressed down into his once soft bed by a thousand pounds.  He groaned and rolled over to look at the time on his phone.  He remembered he had fallen asleep barely after 5am.  He pressed the button on the side of his smartphone and the screen came to life.  

"11am, not too terrible." He thought to himself.  He momentarily considered rolling over and going back to sleep until he looked at the date.  It was Sunday afternoon.  He had slept for 30 hours.

"What the hell?!" He said aloud.  

He sat up in bed and rolled his neck, stretched his arms, and, bracing himself with a deep inhale, stood up.  The ache in his back was incredible.  Phone still in hand, the events of Friday night and Saturday morning came flooding back to him.  

"Nyah" He and Cyrus seemed to say in unison.

He checked his phone again.  To his horror, he had turned off notifications while he was with her so that he could focus on nothing but her.  Now this decision seemed to be mocking him.  He had 3 missed calls and 4 messages from her.  

"Great!  Now she probably thinks we ghosted her! Fu*k!" He and Cyrus ranted in unison.  He fumbled with his phone to return her call as soon as possible, but, as was often his luck, the screen went black and the phone vibrated a final time in his hand, signaling that his battery had died.  He wanted to throw it across the room.  He hadn't gotten her address and couldn't know where in the city she lived.  Cyrus seemed to insist that he could smell her out and that they could run to her, traffic and humans be damned.  Mason knew that was a terrible idea and instead, continued to slam things around in his search for a towel and decent clothing.  

Mason was able to reason that they needed a shower, badly, and that by the time he got dressed, his phone would have charged enough to call her back and explain.  Cyrus calmed down slightly as they found the charger and plugged the phone in.  Mason headed for the door and the shower.  Kevin knocked on his bedroom door and called into the room.

"Dude?!  You up?!  Man, what the hell?  You've been knocked out almost all weekend!  What happened to you the other night?!"

"You're never going to believe this Kevin.  I found my mate!  But some crazy Sh*t happened and now I have this old key, a burn that won't heal, and a guy that I think is trying to kidnap my mate.  My phone is dead and she's called me 4 times and I have no idea where she lives.  I need a shower and some food."

Kevin looked at Mason like he had two heads.  "Wait, you found your mate too?!  John hasn't even been home since he found Yua, they're probably already planning the damn wedding.  What do you mean, burn that won't heal?  Cyrus can't heal you two?"  

Cyrus and Mason were in agreement.  They didn't have time for this.  But he was a friend and so was his wolf, so they mustered their patience and showed him the palm of Mason's hand.  "It matches the key perfectly.  "When I found Nyah, I found it.  I picked it up and it burned me.  Now we can't get the scar to heal.  It doesn't hurt, but there shouldn't be a scar.  We should have been able to heal it."  

"Holy Sh*t man, that's wild," Kevin said, examining Mason's hand.   "Branded you is more like it." He said matter-of-factly.  

Mason considered this.  "Branded...yea, that seems a lot more accurate.  The burn looks exactly like the design on the key.  It's almost like it...."  His eyes widened in realization.  "Marked me...the fu*king key marked me!  Sh*t, does that mean I belong to it now?!  What the hell?!"

Kevin's eyebrows shot up in genuine confusion.  "Hey man, I don't know what is going on at all.  I do have a class tomorrow that could be coincidentally helpful.  Mythology and lore.  This sounds like some Harry Potter, witchy sh*t if I've ever heard it.  I can ask the professor what he thinks.  Can I maybe take a picture of the key?"

"Yea sure," Mason said, digging in his jeans pocket.  He hadn't even bothered to change from the other night.  He held out his hand to Kevin.

Kevin took out his phone. "Hey, hold it in your marked hand so I can get a photo of both."

"Don't call it that!" Mason said as he held his hand out in compliance.

"Sorry, what else do you want me to call it?" Kevin asked earnestly.

"I...I don't know.  Just not that."  Mason said scowling.  

Kevin took a couple of pictures and put his phone back into his pocket.  "Okay, okay. I will just refer to it as 'the burn'" he said dramatically.

"Fine.  I have to shower and get to Nyah before she thinks I ghosted her or something." Mason said.  

He shoved the key back into his pocket, gathered everything he needed and headed to the shower.  He heard Kevin walk down the hallway.  He must have sensed Mason's urgency or just knew the conversation was over.  Perhaps Mason should have felt bad about ending the conversation abruptly after his friend had offered to help him, but he just didn't.  He hurriedly stripped, showered, dressed, brushed his teeth, applied deodorant, and combed his hair.  He wanted to look like he put effort into his appearance, even if they just spoke on the phone.  He realized it was irrational, but it made him feel more confident.  Hurriedly, he gathered up his dirty clothes and hurried to his nightstand, tossing the clothes into the hamper on his way.  

He pressed the button to power on the phone and held his breath, hoping that 10 minutes was enough to get just enough charge to respond to her.  To his relief, the screen came to life but to his dismay, he had another missed call from Nyah.  

"Sh*t, Sh*t, Sh*t" he cursed, frantically trying to return her call.  If they had sealed the bond, mind linking would have been so much easier, he thought, but as it was, they hadn't known each other long enough to form the mind link without the mating bond and because they weren't from the same pack, it wasn't automatic.  He was finally able to steady his hands enough to return her calls.  He waited for her to pick up.

"What the hell Mason?! I've been trying to call you for hours!"  She said when the call connected.

"I know, I know hon but I forgot to charge my phone before I passed out Saturday morning.  I woke up at 11 this morning and the last thing I saw before my phone died was that I had missed your calls.  I'm so sorry.  I haven't been avoiding you I promise.  Cyrus wanted to try to sniff you out and run to you but I told him that was stupid," 

 Mason realized he was rambling and paused to let her speak.  He thought she was going to yell or worse, hang-up on him.  He was pleasantly surprised.

"It's ok," She sighed audibly "I haven't even known you a full 48 hours.  I must seem obsessive to you.  I wouldn't have called so soon..."

She paused and Mason's heart dropped.  She wouldn't have called him the following day?  She didn't feel the need to be near him like he felt for her?  Before he could continue his thoughts, she started speaking again.

"My Gran has information about this.  From what she says, it doesn't sound good but she refuses to tell me anything unless you are here to hear it with me.  She wants to speak to us together.  Whatever it is, it seems serious.  I've never seen her like this before."

"Where do you need me to go?  I'll come over right now, just tell me where we're going.  I don't care how many times a day you call or how many times a day you text.  I don't care if it's 5 minutes after we see each other, I'll always want to hear from you.  You do not seem obsessive at all.  I feel obsessive, and I am not embarrassed to say so."

Again she paused.  He couldn't see it, but Nyah felt her face heat up.  Was this a blush?  She shook her head and continued.

"I'm glad you feel that way.  I'll shoot you the GPS.  Meet me at 6 sharp.  Gran wants you to stay for dinner."

"I'd love to."  Cyrus purred into the phone.

"Oh and one other thing..."

"Anything," Mason and Cyrus said in unison.

"Be respectful to Gran or she will make you regret ever meeting me," Nyah said simply.

"I don't think that's possible." Mason replied, "We'll be there."

After they hung up Nyah took a deep breath.  Just the sound of his voice made her feel strange and almost euphoric.  She was skeptical of these feelings and of the pull she felt toward him.  She and Sage were certain of one thing.  Their mate would not make them lose themselves.  They would not compromise who they were or what they believed.  If their mate was indeed their other half, they knew that they wouldn't have to.