"Hunter?" Alex calls out to the hunched form on the floor."Got stabbed on the thigh by one of the metal-like things, sir," he pants, clutching at his leg. Alex can see he's trembling too, small tremors running down his entire body. "It kinda b-burns.""He's got a temperature too, Alex," Scarsbury is holding his shoulder, the back of her left hand flat on his forehead, "Poison, I think." "Take him back," Alex orders. "Wrayburn, go with Scarsburry."The two of them haul Hunter off the floor gently and support him in their middle. They take off at a fast jog, Hunter hobbling along. Alex figures it'll take them ten minutes to reach the base.Alex turns back to take a look around the area. The atmosphere is saturated with the sharp scents of brimstone and ichor. The rift in the sky is still there, glowing faintly against the void sky. The air around them is still cold, heavy with the malignant aura that makes their sting in warning."Another wave is incoming. Get ready," Sherman announce
Jenny, Alex on and only aunt and the best doctor according to him, is sitting at the edge of their bed, studying Alex still form with a frown. She has just finished scanning him from head to toe, and to her great consternation, she can't seem to pinpoint what is wrong with the Alpha. Win is sitting on the bed on the other side, next to Alex, his limp hand cradled in Win's own. The sleeping Alpha is still pale and drawn, but he doesn't have a nosebleed anymore. Jenny and Win both are waiting, confused and a lot worried, for him to wake up on his own.Alex surfaces gradually as if he's only waking up from a deep sleep, not a sudden loss of consciousness. His face scrunches up as he stretches lazily, and blinks awake to see aunt Jenny hovering close to his face. "Hey, welcome back to the land of the living," Jenny announces loudly when the Alpha flinches in surprise, "Or close enough.""What?""How are you feeling?"Alex appears to be thinking about it for a moment before his brows dra
Alex is so angry, his eyes that are boring into Win's with hate are very dark, clouded in swirls of black smoke.That snaps Win out of his frozen stupor."Alex...stop." He pleads softly, with a hint of real fear he can't properly mask in his tone.Something in his expression, or his words, gets through the haze of rage Alex has succumbed to. "Stop what?" He hisses."I–I think it's happening again... that thing," Win manages, unable to tear his eyes away from the darkness that rages around the warlock, "Your eyes, ah, they are changing again."The words hang in the air while they hold each other's gazes, surrounded by scent that feels wild and chaotic, as though it's fighting to wreak havoc and destruction. After what feels like forever Alex closes his eyes. The moment he does, all the scent around them vanishes as well. Win is out of his seat and hovering next to Alex when the Alpha collapses back in his chair with a pained groan. "Ah, goddamn it."Win places a gentle hand on the Alp
"Want to tell me what happened?" Win asks as May lights up a cigarette with trembling hands."Jordan went on a food delivery," she says after releasing a long cloud of smoke. "He never made it to the customer. We only found out when we received a very angry call. That lady was not happy.""Where was he going?" Win wants to know. He watches the wolf while May drags more nicotine into her lungs. The beta cocks her head to the side and smirks."Uptown," she replies, shrugging. "Anyway, we tried calling him. No luck. So, I sent Clara and Trent after him. They found him passed out in an alleyway, two blocks from his delivery address. They brought him back.""Did he wake up like this?" The beta's mouth starts to droop, twisting his smirk into something sickly-looking as if he's having a stroke. His eyes are still shining like two black stones, and they stare unblinkingly at May and Win."No, he didn't," May shakes his head, her expression caught between worry and fear for her clan member.
Alex is on the balcony; clad only in the loose black pants he puts on during his meditation. He has erected a shield around the balcony to stay dry as the rain continues to fall outside. The raindrops hit the transparent forcefield nonstop, only to dissolve into a sparkling display akin to silent, white fireworks, distorting the view of city night into something whimsical in the backdrop.The Alpha is moving slowly, unhurriedly as he always does when he is practicing his control... his powers. His arms and legs move in delicate, graceful twists, turns and swirls as he flows through the familiar routines.He has been at it for a while, Win can tell by the way the sweat runs down the expanse of his tanned back in rivulets. They glisten, caught in the candlelight, drawing attention to the alluring ripples of his well-muscled torso.Win has to wrench his distracted mind back to the present to focus on greeting his husband and apologizing properly."Alex..." the call comes out softly, almo
Win swims back to consciousness with all the strength and aplomb of a man who's been wading aimlessly through an unforgiving bog for hours. Everything around him is quiet. The first cautious lungful of air he breathes in is free of the cloying scents and the static of the sullied scent. It's a small relief after being saturated in it for longer than he cared to find out.His eyes are still closed, and he knows he's lying on his side on the floor. The carpet beneath him is thick enough that the hardwood is not digging into the bones on his shoulders, hips or knees. But it's not nearly as comfortable as lying on the disgustingly luxurious bed in the main room.A faint sensation on the shoulder he's not lying on, the right one, draws his attention. He flinches and opens his eyes the moment his sluggish brain informs him that what feels like a feather brushing over his skin is healing."Hey, hey, take it easy, Win."He knows that voice. His blurry vision finds the owner after a few blink
Win glances around, taking his first-ever look at the base as the door shut behind them.He's surprised by how normal everything looks. Well, the entire area exudes an extremely luxurious and wealthy aura, of course, but it is all very un-welcome-like, in Win's somewhat frazzled opinion. Whatever he's been expecting, this lavishly appointed, massive lounge area that seems to belong in a parlor of some ancient mansion, is definitely not it.Whenever the subject of the hardly-ever-discussed topic of main base came up, Win used to imagine a large, stone structure built in the shape of a complicated maze. It would always be dimly lit with fires blazing in the braziers hanging on the stone walls along the long, twisting corridors. They would be dotted with big, imposing wooden and metal doors at unpredictable intervals, always closed and warded with hissing men, and invisible deathly scent in others. There would be all kinds of gun's, machine's and otherwise, lurking in these endless dark
"I need to see him." There is nothing else in this goddamn world Win wants to do right now."Win, please–""You said so yourself," Win cuts off Mike softly, feeling strangely calm, as if he's trapped in the eye of his own storm of mounting agony, terror and grief, "He walked inside a trap and shut himself in, he's not walking out. I need to see him... please," his voice breaks at the end."It–it might not be a good idea, Win," Mike tries again to plead with him. "It won't be pleasant to experience the emergence, especially for someone like you with your Omega.""Alex and I and my Alpha and I'm already feeling my skin crawl with what's happening right now," Type mutters, almost to himself. A faint shudder runs down his entire body."I will see him if that is the last thing I do. Do you understand me?" Win asks, simply because that's the truth. He doesn't care if this will end him too. If Alex is the last thing he sees when he leaves the world, he's more than ready to accept it. What he