Griffin's Salvation

Chapter 3:Ju-ri

Six years later

I've been on a mission to find Marissa's soulmate for the past six years. It came to the realization sometime after finding Kian that the fact that his whole family would die extremely earlier than him especially considering that he was basically immortal now, would be a drawback. I was scared that he might refuse to merge our lifelines when I finally told him what I was. Griffins like gods were immortal unless someone decided to murder them and even then it was really difficult for us to die.

For six years I brought one supernatural creature after the other to meet her and so far no luck. She joked that I must be very popular because I had sooo many "friends". In truth, It wasn't friendship as much as fear that motivated those guys to show up. I would usually just pluck them from their homes and bring them over to her if I didn't smell the stench of twisted, rogue creatures. I could spot a bad apple just by sniffing at them. It was one of my powers, even if a rogue hadn't turned yet, I could smell the rotten on them. Usually, I told Ronan when I found such an individual, so he could skulk around waiting for them to falter.

when I reached a thousand years on this earth, I got tired of always being some kind of doctor, so I tried being an enforcer with Ronan. It took such a toll on my mental health that I felt my grip on my humanity slipping. It was one of the stupidest things I'd ever done, why did I ever think going from being a healer for nine hundred years to killing rogues was a sensible vocational transition? From that day on I left the killing to the killers. So anytime I smelt rot, I would alert Ronan and forget about it.

I was at my wit's end with Marissa and yes, I knew I couldn't conjure her up a soulmate because I willed it so, but damn I wish I could. I was failing hilariously, she never liked any of the "friends" I brought to meet her. One day she told me she would have been worried I was a horrible person if it wasn't so clear that I didn't really know the guys I was introducing her to. most of them were hundreds of years old and quite backward in the way they treated women, so I got where she was coming from.

- how do you know that I'm not really friends with them? I'd asked

-because sometimes they would say something mundane and it'll surprise you.

- you're a lot more observant than I gave you credit for Issa.

-I am, what I don't understand is why you don't put that level of energy into finding a match for yourself.

-oh, found him already! I gasped realizing my slip-up and Issa like the gossip vulture she is zeroed in on me curious.

-Well, do tell! Who is he?

- while I've met him already, we aren't officially together yet, and I want to keep it to myself until there's something concrete I can talk about. Thankfully Issa let it go and we moved on to another topic. this was a month ago, I stopped bringing guys over since it evidently didn't work.

This morning I was again thinking about meeting Kian all those years ago, and damn did they pass slowly! Three thousand and six hundred years had gone by in a flash and six years were drifting along at a snail's pace. Gods my life was f****d up! A year after our encounter our bond had strengthened enough that I could look through his eyes and see what he saw. now I could get a sense of how he was feeling and usually had to close my mind off because it was that easy to travel back to him these days.

I didn't want to weird him out, humans never know the reality of what happens in the supernatural community. they knew about vampires and werewolves and had a vague idea of all the other species of supernatural beings because werewolves and vampires are notorious for their arrogance and their almost compulsive need to show humans just how better than them they are. which funnily enough is why they make up the smallest population of supernaturals on earth. they f****d around and found out! the humans went to extreme lengths to find ways to kill them, and kill them, they did. I was a bit worried about how to explain the supernatural to Kian, he was angry a lot these days probably because he couldn't reach me as easily as I could. He must miss me even if he's not aware of me, I doubt a human child would remember our meeting just once. It must not make sense to the poor boy to be missing someone he doesn't even remember meeting. Remembering that day gave me an idea, I should use Ronan! Maybe the hellhound in him might be able to sniff out Issa's mate if he or she is of this world.

I tried to pinpoint where in the world he was, using my magic. this method was more of a hit-and-miss since he was also magical and could cloak himself. this would have been a lot faster if the i***t had just given in and bought a cell phone already. So I found him the hard way, I teleported to London because he was somewhere in the UK, then Birmingham and from there I started walking the streets heading towards where his signature scent pinged the brightest. did I mention how much I hate that fucker? I finally found him in a room, by himself, surfing channels on a flat-screen TV that had seen better days.

-No! he said apathetically, never lifting his eyes from the TV

-you don't know what I'm about to ask?

-doesn't matter I'm on vacation, whatever you're about to ask will involve people since you're a social butterfly these days and I'm not doing people for two more weeks, humans and others.

-I need your help with something important

-If nobody's dying it will wait two weeks.

-somebody could die!

-but will they?

-can't you just help me this once?

-this once, implies you've never asked me for anything before and we both know you have!

-so have you Ronan that's why we're friends...

-and we will resume being friends in two weeks he cut in despondent.

-fine but you can't say no then.

-fine, fine go away.

I left, but I was kind of worried, I'd never seen him so down. I checked the energy around him and he wasn't losing his grip. something must be bothering him, I couldn't ask because Ronan was the type to not offer information about his life until he was good and ready, and I was patient enough to wait until he ventured info first. but still, I flashed around the world buying foods and drinks he liked and hopped back in his room with two armfuls of supplies that I hoped would last him two weeks. I put the perishable in his fridge and dropped his favorite pizza next to him and his shamrock shake in his hand. he smiled thinly at me.

- okay lay it on me, what did you want? Ronan asked appearing out of nowhere in my bathroom while I was on the can.

-no girl, no! you don't start up a conversation while I'm taking a dump. go wait in my bedroom I'll be out in a second

-fussy!

-manners! he blew me a raspberry and left. I finished my business and joined him. he motioned for me to go ahead and ask what I wanted. remember how you told me you can smell people from all the way on the other side of the world and that's why you were such a good tracker?

-yeah.

-I need you to find me Marissa, my mate's mother. I'm looking for her mate.

-Oh she has one? what's his name and do you have anything of his I could use?

-she hasn't met him yet, in fact, I don't even know if he exists.

- So you're asking me to look for a needle in a haystack? he sneered

-yes and you can't say no so get on board buddy! I need you to find me, anybody whose scent blends in well with Marissa's, here's her favorite pair of jeans, go nut!

-Your and your mate's scent don't blend well together, where did you come up with this theory?

-for every other race of shifters soulmate's scents are always complimentary. griffins are the only species where the norms are all screwed.

- How many people?

-everyone you can find.

-How are you going to introduce her to all the people I'm supposedly going to find?

-at your birthday party

-you're giving me a month to find all those people?

-yep, off you go! I shooed him out of my house and closed the door in his face. he was a grown man a couple of thousand times over, I was confident he could deal with this on his own.

In the end, Ronan came up with eight hundred people, men and women. it was about four hundred people less than anticipated. I scaled the party down just a bit, I didn't want a bunch of strangers packed together like sardines, so I left plenty of empty spaces.

Issa got to the party a bit late, her parents got to her house late. She'd asked them to babysit for her since Kian was going out with his friend. I might have checked on him a tiny bit, he wasn't on a date, he was in a group at a cinema. He must be going through his terrible teens because he felt happy when she first let her mind travel to him but suddenly he got very angry just sitting in a movie theater. I really didn't get his weird mood swings these days.

When Issa got to the venue, I discreetly walked her around the room but no takers. We settled into a table and made ourselves a plate. we were chatting and eating, I had outdone myself on the catering, and Issa congratulated me shoveling food in her mouth. We were having a good time sharing family drama. Her parents were in the middle of a stand-off right now. the kind where you both know you're being the asshole and nobody is right but you stick to your guns anyway because you've decided this was going to be the hill you die on. At the same time you both love each other and have been married long enough to know that neither of you is going anywhere, they've been married for forty years.

Ronan rudely plopped himself next to Issa with an evil smirk on his face. He had an infant dragon welp in his arms.

-I thought history would repeat itself! He chortled dropping the child on Issa's lap unceremoniously

-What the hell! Issa said trying to steady the kid so he didn’t fall off her lap

We all held our breath when he seemed like the welp had scented her clothes and seemed to relish in the way she smelled. Soulmates are always overwhelmed by their partner’s scent, and that’s how he reacted when he got a whiff of her clothes. I breathed a sigh of relief when he recoiled after leaning up to smell her neck! Even though this scenario would have been different since dragons spent two hundred years experiencing the world whilst still being in their eggs, it would still have been freaky that two people in the same family found their soulmates at the toddler stage.

-come here little man I said plucking him off Issa’s lap before he did something inhuman. You could never trust infant supernaturals around humans, especially ones who’ve just smelled their soulmates on someone else. Where are your parents, little man?

-I’m two hundred years old little lady! he whispered leaning in close to my ear. I just look like a two-year-old because I hatched a month ago, do not patronize me

-well I’m three-thousand-years-old, child, so I’ll patronize you if I want!

-Fair!

Right then I saw Elias walk in, he was my youngest brother’s best friend. They were born days apart and our parents were friends so naturally they grew up together and became fast friends. Our parents were still friends to this day and Jun brought him around so much that even I was friendly with him. I waved at him, he smiled walking to me until he stopped dead in his tracks sniffing the air.

-is he sniffing the air? Issa asked. Why do all of your little friends always do that?

-Curiosity? I answered it worried me how observant Issa could be.

She blew me a raspberry returning her focus to the almost empty plate in front of her while I kept my eyes on Eli to see who the lucky lady was. He did a turn around the room to finally end up at our table sniffing discretely at the back of Issa’s head. I was so relieved, at least now I didn’t have to worry about my mate being left in this world alone, Eli was a purebred werewolf and immortal like me. When the twins are older I will set about to finding them mates as well so Kian doesn’t feel guilty about living forever while his family dies out.

Elias shooed me out of my chair with a curt « don’t you have s**t to do? » and plopped himself on my seat

-so you must be Issa, Ju-li has told me nothing about you he smirked turning the charm on

-I’ll leave you to it, I’ll go find this youngster’s parents I said slapping Eli upside the head. He laughed and I heard Issa ask him if we knew each other. He explained that he was my youngest brother's best friend, I've known him since he was a child and we didn’t take each other seriously. He asked her how she knew me and she told him the story of how we met.