It occurred suddenly to him, with the force of a bone shattering, that his breath would span the entire timeline of Jinx's life. Images flashed before his eyes; Nanuq's swelling sides beneath her pale fur; the downy, tiny bodies held cupped carefully between Koios' forelegs; and the fierce Mambo cub, her eyes even then holding a vitality her great youth could not suppress. Her thirst for knowledge had been beyond her years, however, and the weatherwitch had gladly taken her as his pupil.
And Lecter had loved her, first as a mentor might adore a promising student, but he had fallen hopelessly ensnared by her vivacity, her savage beauty that flared with the prowess of an older wolfess beneath the barely-bloomed angles of her youthful form. Perhaps he was fated to take such an interest in her; the black magick of her father working its way into their twinned lives. But the shaman believed in no such thing; a powerful Houngan had he been, Koios, but he had not influenced Lecter in favour of Jinx.
He had loved her, and now he would watch her die, his mind mercifully lined with memories of more joyous times. And yet, and yet — the madman wondered if he had been the cause of all this. It had not been in Sos' favour to grant them children; perhaps by taking her for lover he had had angered the Dark One in some way, and now Sos would take Jinx's life as sacrifice for the wrongdoing.
Houngan, she muttered raspily, and he felt as if she were calling for her father, he who had died far too soon and had not seen the great light of the Loa enter Jinx, fill her with a tangible power. Soon,
Lecter crooned in a painful sing-song tone to his mate. You shall rest with him soon.
A stiff step toward her was taken then, for he could not help himself; the draw, despite the mad jerks of her body, her rolling, dry eyes, was not one easily resisted. If only, but for a moment; he prayed for one iota of time in which to hold her, to still the feverish movements of her limbs, the maddened, half-coherent words which floated from her lips — one moment to embrace Jinx before she faded into the oblivion of death and departed him forever.