Bare Your Teeth, Wicked Ones

12. Lust of the Twilight Hours

Warning: Mature Content. Please keep comments respectful, thank you.

Nicholas

William and Charmaine stalked ahead. Nicholas trailed their steps. Though the medic switched his observations from the sky to his friend, Nicholas' attention rarely strayed from his back. His shoulders remained rigid after their kiss, since he hesitated for that brief moment and Nicholas saw worry and realization in those typically stoic eyes. Pride swelled. He received the reaction he always wanted. Riling William up proved as fun as predicted. He was never anything less than surprising, that's what drove Nicholas towards him. A curious viper investigating the hawk's nest, knowing he could strike but would face razored claws.

"Won't you let me take a look at you?" William asked while toiling over the herbs Charmaine found while searching for them.

"Save your strength," she replied with hurried steps. "Arden and I downed those two beasts, but those Shadowed Disciples would have killed us. I don't know why they didn't."

"Because Fearworn got what he wanted."

"He has the book?" Charmaine spun on Nicholas. Anger overtook her expression in the form of a wrinkled scowl. "You let him acquire the book? We went through all this for nothing?!"

"Not for nothing," Nicholas replied.

"Do elaborate," she hissed.

"I will not."

Charmaine snarled. William pressed a hand to her shoulder. She cursed Nicholas under her breath and kept walking towards a pillar of smoke rising from the forest. She and William broke into a run, both moving poorly due to their previous injuries. Nicholas didn't immediately follow. Fearworn could be anywhere. The last thing he wanted was to be sitting in the same position as all of Fearworn's targets.

Shutting his eyes, he let Darkmoon's power trickle through him. So far from home, it took a moment longer for the chill to slip into his mind. When his eyes opened, a blurry sight greeted him. In Faerie, he'd see clearly. Here, he struggled to realize Fearworn was in the sky. Clouds dispersed as his miasma seeped around him. The one that wrought Nicholas with excitement and a twinge of fear. The moment Calix approached, Nicholas understood what he could become. A lost Shade didn't constrain power. The power fed on them, ate away at mind and body. Calix held a regal posture, but his blood left a foul taste in Nicholas' mouth. Rot and death. The bastard was more a corpse moving on wrath and twisted curiosity. Who he was before no longer remained. Nicholas doubted he could beat Calix alone. His kin would have to be at his back, which wasn't an encouraging thought. Fae did better alone.

Fearworn didn't appear to be circling them, so Nicholas let the sight slip away. When he opened his eyes, he continued forward to gaze upon Arden's mangled body leaning bloody against the trunk of a ruined tree. His right leg barely clung to his form and left arm had been deteriorated by acid. If Nicholas had to guess, a dozen or so bones were broken, too. The worst of the injuries was a branch piercing his chest. The two beasts laid dead nearby. Charmaine had clearly taken one of the monsters out. The smoke came from its still sizzling flesh. The other laid in a pool of blood, body broken beyond recognition.

Nicholas approached Arden and chuckled. "You've seen better days."

"Those damned Shadowed Disciples were more than expected." Arden coughed. Blood trickled from his mouth. He growled when Charmaine set the bone back correctly in his shoulder.

"Are you not going to help your friend?" She snapped. "He's dying."

"He'll live. He'll just be in pain for some time. We are far more resilient than your lot." To prove his point, Nicholas yanked the branch out of Arden's chest. Blood gushed and Arden released a drawn out groan.