#Chapter 371 – Holy Water
Ella
Rafe and I are standing behind the counter, staring at the front door of the clinic, waiting for the Priestess to arrive. I shift anxiously from foot to foot and Rafe grumbles and cries anxiously in my arms, probably picking up on my emotions.
“It’s okay, little baby,” I murmur, tearing my eyes away for a second to glance down at him. I smile a little at his unhappy little face, unable to help the little surge of love that pulses through me. “We’re going to get you home real soon,” I promise in a whisper, “wrap you up in a nice warm blanket. Sing you to sleep. And everything will be…fine.”
Rafe calms a little as I do and I let out a deep breath, looking back at the door, hoping to hell that I didn’t just lie to him.
Because all I want, in the whole world, is for this all to be over- I hear the door click and then I stop breathing as it pushes open. Then, I can’t help my little happy cry as the priestess comes in the door, a little basket slung over the crook of her arm.
“Oh thank god!” I shout, running for her and throwing my arm around her, careful to hold Rafe to the side even as I pull her tight.
“Oh!” she says, clearly surprised by my tiny assault. Then, she laughs a little. ” Well, perhaps thank Goddess might be more accurate in this situation,” she says neatly, pulling away from me.
I smile at her so, so grateful that – she’s here. “Yes, sorry about that – I don’t mean to be rude. I’m just so happy you came!”
“Of course, Luna!” she says, lifting a gentle hand to my cheek and smiling warmly at me. “We are always happy to help.” Then she pauses, looking anxiously around the room at all of the people staring at us. “Is there… somewhere we could go? For greater privacy?”
And I realize that – especially to the humans in the room – that we might be making a bit of a spectacle. After all, it’s not every day that you see a woman with dried blood flaking off her clothes hugging a robed priestess.
“Oh, sure!” I say, grabbing her by the hand and tugging her with me to the exam rooms in the back. Luckily, we run almost immediately into Hank, who is coming out of Cora’s room.
“Hank!” I say, giving him an excited smile. “This is one of my mother’s priestesses – she performed Rafe’s baptism.” I wait impatiently while Hank nods to the priestess and mumbles a greeting. She says something polite back before I can continue. “Is there somewhere we can go?” I ask him. “Where she can help me unbind the gift?”
“Sure,” Hank says, his eyebrows going up in interest. Then he pushes the door to the room next to Cora’s open. “Do you…need anything?” he asks, looking the priestess up and down with wary eyes.
I think that’s a little strange, frankly, but I ignore it in my eagerness to get this done. The priestess sounded pretty eager on the phone – like she really thought she could help. If this works, I could actually help Cora – get her patched up soon, make sure the baby is safe-
“I think we’ll be all right,” the priestess says smoothly in response. Privacy,” she adds with a little shrug, might actually be best.
“Of course,” Hank murmurs, taking a step back and watching us carefully as we go into the room. The priestess gives him a kind smile before shutting the door behind her. Then, she locks it.
“So, do you really think you can help?” I ask eagerly, bouncing Rafe a little in my arms in my excitement.
“Well,” she says, turning to the little steel exam table and placing her basket on it. “It’s obviously not something we do every day,” she says, giving a little laugh. “But we’ve worked, before, with people whose wolves are tangled. The Goddess finds a way to…” she hesitates, searching for a way to describe it.
“Unbind? Or, maybe unwind?” She laughs a little again in a self- deprecating sort of way. “Apologies, Luna, I don’t have the right words for it. But, the Goddess’ powers are a mystery to us all.”
“I’ll say,” I murmur, looking closely at the supplies that she has brought, which mostly look like clear jugs of water. “What’s what’s all this?”
“It’s holy water,” she says, taking the last sealed jug out and placing it on the table before tucking the basket away below. “From the spring where we baptized your child. It provides a greater connection to the Goddess.”
“Oh,” I say, my eyes going wide. Then, I nod, not really getting it but willing to play along. “Okay. What…what do we do?”
“Well,” she says, turning to me. “It would be better if we had…a kind of tub? Or a pool, or a spring?”
I grimace a little and shake my head. “I don’t think we have anything like that here, or at least not easily.” On the phone the Priestess had asked if I could come to the temple, but I had been unwilling to leave Cora if at all possible. So the Priestess had said it was all right, we could probably make do here.
Luckily, she keeps the same sort of spirit even now, when I again tell her we can’t accommodate what she needs.
“That’s all right,” she says, taking up one of the jars and smiling at me. We’ll just have to get a little messy, yes?” She glances over her shoulder at the door. “You don’t think your doctor friend will mind, do you? Or… interrupt?”
“No,” I say, speaking honestly. “Hank will understand.”
“Okay,” she says, taking a deep breath. “We need to saturate you, Luna, as best we can in the water. And then, once that is done, we will evoke the Goddess and do our best to ask her to unbind you.”
“Okay,” I say. “Um…should I sit on the floor?”
“Probably,” she says with a shrug.” That way you can…well, be soaked, and perhaps sit in a little pool of the water
.” she laughs again then, shaking her head at me. “I’m sorry, Luna – it’s all much more dignified when we do this sort of work in the temple and we can ask our patients to submerge themselves in a sacred pool. But I promise, it has a very high rate of effectiveness.’
“It’s okay,” I say, feeling more cheerful and laughing at myself a little bit too. I begin to settle myself down on the floor, but the priestess hesitates a little.
“Actually,” she says, “it would probably be best if you did not have the child in your arms. He, I believe, is… unbound? As far as we know?”
“Oh!” I say, surprised and hesitant now. Yes, Rafe is unharmed but…well, I haven’t taken my hands or my eyes off of him since we got to the clinic. And frankly, I’d prefer not to now. But…I also see where the priestess’s point.
If this ceremony is about unbinding me, perhaps his energy will interfere. I bite my lip a little, looking down at my baby boy.
“Give him to me,” the priestess says quietly. “I’ll take good care of him, Luna. As I did at his baptism. As I have promised to do all of his life.”
“O-okay,” I say, sighing a little and shifting my little baby over to the priestess’ arms before sighing and settling myself unhappily on the floor. I wish, quite suddenly and quite desperately, that Sinclair were here. Not only because that would mean I had him safe by my side, but also so that…well, so that Rafe would have his father to hold him while I do this.
Rafe cries a little in the Priestess’ unfamiliar arms as she takes the lids off of each of the jars of water and then begins to move around me in a circle, chanting softly as she pours the water on each of my sides and then over my body and head until I am, indeed,
soaked in it. I gasp a little as the last drop flows down my face. By this time, Rafe is crying quite hard and I frown as I look towards him, wanting him back. Wanting to comfort him.
I shiver a little as I deny myself the desire to hold my baby again. Sacred pool or not, the result of being drenched is indeed that I am sitting in a rather large puddle of holy water. And even if it is holy…well, it’s cold. The Priestess comes to stand in front of me now, lifting her free hand and beginning to chant again.
But before she can really begin, both of us turn towards the door when we hear the handle shake, and then, a moment later, we hear the lock turn. We’re both quiet as the door slowly opens and Hank quietly enters the room, leaving the door open behind him.
“Everything okay in here?” he asks, frowning at me when he sees me soaked on the floor. “Ella, what are you doing?”
“It’s part of a ceremony, Hank,” I sigh, a little exasperated. “Yes,” the priestess snaps, frowning at him. “It would be better if we were left alone.”
“Oh,” he says, quietly looking her up and down, an odd look on his face.” Actually,” he says, cocking his head to the side as he takes in Rafe’s loud cries. “I wonder if I can help. Here,” he continues, taking a slow step towards here. “Clearly, your hands are full. Let me…hold the baby.”
And the priestess frowns and narrows her eyes at Hank as he holds out his hands, beckoning, reaching for Rafe.” Give the child to me.”
