Magia: The Council (BxB)

Chapter 11- To Protect

Javier awoke with a gasp as he choked up water from his lungs. His entire body was on fire. He could feel every muscle contract painfully and he couldn't move an inch.

Even opening his eyes were proving to be a strain so he let them remained closed.

"You're awake?" He stiffened more, if that was possible. "Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you. You washed up on the beach near here."

Beach? The sea. The cliff. Falling. The memories came back in flashes, and he felt his head pound with each memory he could recall.

Alaric. The Fidem.

He flung himself up from the old mattress that he was laying on his blue eyes wide with horror as he quickly took in his surroundings.

He was in some old cottage from what he could tell, old wooden furniture and he could see vials and jars with liquids of various colours on shelf tops and some tables.

He groaned as he attempted to get out of bed. He had to get home, he needed to protect his family.

"I wouldn't get up if I were you." The old woman said as she pushed him back onto the spring mattress that creaked when his weight was once again pressed against it.

"You were drugged up, pupils blown wide open so I flushed your system." She said as she pulled a piece of cloth from the bucket beside the mattress, wringing it out before dabbing Javier's sweaty forehead.

"Care to tell me what a young lad like you was doing swimming around with obsidian and bileswood in his system?" Her dull grey eyes held specks of green as she peered down at Javier who began panting when the effects of the fever he had started taking even a further toll on his body.

"W-when can I leave?" He breathed out. His throat felt as if he had swallowed a bunch of needles.

"Anytime you want, I won't force you to stay. But I'd say you'll need atleast 2 more hours of rest before you can think about walking out of here."

Javier gritted his teeth as he held back a tear that was threatening to escape. He couldn't stand in this condition, much less walk to even attempt to find Eli and Aurum. He couldn't help them.

"Do you atleast have a phone?"

"I do."

***

Ethan groaned as he held his sac.

"Ethan! What happened? Where is he?"

"The fucker nut shot me and ran. Get him, I just need a minute." He wheezed out as he shooed Zeke to chase after X2. He'd already gotten a small head start.

Zeke dashed out, just to see X2 going past the corner, towards the stairwell. Zeke sighed a bit. He really didn't have magic or else he would've been long gone.

He teleported to the base of the stairs, waiting for X2 to show up. It took only 2 minutes for him to reach Zeke panting.

"What the fu-"

"You really tried to run? From mages?" X2 snapped his head up to see Ethan at the top of the stairs looking royally pissed off.

"Come on just let me go! I've told you guys everything already!" X2 said as he slowly took a step back to the wall.

They were on the second floor, he could tell by looking at the distance to the ground through the window.

"I don't believe you." Ethan said as he began walking down the steps the same time Zeke started moving up the steps to trap the man.

"OH MY GOD! WHAT'S THAT!" Ethan actually looked behind him and when he turned back he only saw a glimpse of the man falling through the window and his eyes widened.

By the time Ethan peered out the window the man was already half-running, half-limping towards the forest.

"He's pretty fast." Zeke said as he held Ethan's hand in his own, smirking up at the taller boy.

They both teleported as soon as the man crossed into the forest and once again Extoo was saw them and let out a loud ground of frustration.

"Oh come on! Just let me go!" X2 exclaimed loudly flailing his hands around dramatically.

"He seems pretty slow to me." Ethan whispered as he tapped his head and began to approach X2 who took a step back in fear. "I say we kill him."

"And I said we keep him alive and find out what more he knows."

"I agree with blondie." They both turned to glare at the man who shrugged shamelessly. "You can't blame me for running. You guys are literally trying to kill me."

"Nobody's trying to kill you."

X2 raised a finger in accusation pointing at Ethan. "You guys were just debating it!"

"Perhaps we should kill him." Zeke said as he frowned down at the man who was becoming consistently more annoying as the conversation went by.

"No you're right. When we find Javier we can let him extract the information for us. Then we kill him." A strangled cry escaped X2's mouth but before he could protest Ethan swiftly tapped the back of his neck, knocking the man out.

"What do we do now?" Zeke asked as he watched Ethan lift the man's body and dropped him against a tree, wincing slightly when he heard the impact his head had on the trunk.

"We can't just carry him around in broad daylight and we can't leave him out here, plus we have to get back to the others."

Ethan sighed and nodded. Racking his brain for a solution. They couldn't leave him, but they also couldn't bring him. They could transmute him into something more... discreet but that was almost certain to kill the man.

"I'll try calling Eis." Ethan said was a small frown. He wasn't sure if the kitsune would respond to his calls as he wasn't the one with contract but it was worth a shot.

He put two fingers to his mouth and blew lightly, creating a smooth whistle sound that carried throughout the forest. In only a few seconds they saw a fox walking towards them.

Eis came. The snow-coloured spirit had grown only a bit over the years in size but its most noticeable change was that it sported 3 extra icy-blue tails. Now having 5 in total.

"Eis." Ethan said as he stooped down to pick up the fox that snuggled closer to him. "Are you okay? Is Elana okay?"

Ethan swore he felt the fox shudder when he mentioned his sister and that brought a smile to his face at the thought of Elana being too attentive to the fox.

"I need a favor Eis. Can you guard him?" Eis stared at the limp body on the floor and whined. "It's not Javier. We'll be back soon okay?"

Eis made an affirmative sound and Ethan and Zeke attempted to teleport back over to the school but a loud explosion broke their concentration before they could.

"What was the fuck was that?"

"It's them. They're making their move now." Zeke said as he stared at the apartment that was now ablaze, thick black smoke now rising from the orange flames.

"Shit! Aurum and Eli!" Ethan said as he went to dash off to the apartment but then it hit him. "Zeke. Stay here."

"What!? Are you crazy?"

"No. You're one of their targets too and I am not losing you." Ethan snarled as he clutched onto Zekes arm, bringing him back over to X2 and Eis.

"Ethan! That doesn't make any sense. What if they know I'm here? I'll be by myself defending not only myself but Eis and the look-alike!" Ethan stilled. Zeke was right.

"Then I'm staying here too."

"What? No we have to help the others-"

"No! This is too fucking dangerous and I'm not risking you getting caught by them!"

"I can protect myself Ethan. I don't need you to protect me. I'm not sure if you forgot but I'm the one that's stronger than you. So we're both going to help our friends and that's final!" Zeke gritted out and pushed past Ethan jogging over to the burning building.

"Are you coming or what?" He knew it wasn't a question and sight. He trailed behind him, silently fuming but he didn't make any further statements not wanting to piss Zeke off even more.