Tempest

Chapter Ten

A/N~ Unusually short chapter is unusually short. But it has a lot of stuff in it.

---

“Kyran? Kyran! Wake up!”

Both me and Taz were sitting there, shaking the fox, trying to open his eyes, our knees and shoes covered in Noire’s blood. Just as Taz sat back, shock clearly written all over his face, with a jerk, Kyran rapidly shifted back to his human form, all his limbs twisting, sitting bolt upright. Relief barely had time to cloud over the fear in my chest before he doubled over and vomited up blood, and a lot of it.

At the same time, Noire gave a wild gasp and sat up, his hand clamping over his heart. His chest was heaving as if he’d just run a mile, and his eye was wide and frightened. His other eye, or socket, was just empty, and I had the courtesy to look away until he was able to tear some cloth from his shirt and wrap it around his eye socket. His other eye locked on mine and a shy sort of grin spread over his face. Taz was already by Kyran’s side, who was still coughing up an inordinate amount of blood, so much that I could see the worry cleanly over Taz’s face. “I’m alive,” Noire said wondrously, looking around, seemingly oblivious to the ill shapeshifter next to him.

I ignored him, placing a hand on Kyran’s shoulder in concern. His face was contorted in agony, and one skinny arm was wrapped around his middle as he convulsed and threw up another pint of blood. His breath was coming out in short, quick pants and I have to admit, he smelled like death. I don’t want to sound morbid, but he smelled like something was rotting inside of him, like dark alleyways with dead stray animals in it. Finally, his hacking resided to small coughs, and he swayed on his knees before crumpling forward. “Easy,” Taz murmured, grabbing his shoulders and pulling him back up. The albino sat back heavily, looking paler than normal.

Noire had finally realized that yes, he was alive, and no, everything was not okay. He delicately placed a hand on my shoulder, and his skin was icy cold, just like Kyran’s. “Is he okay?” he asked me worriedly. Even his voice was different. It wasn’t the mischievous tone that he had used before, but rather quite soft, and a little shy, as if he wasn’t sure what to say or how to interact.

I looked over concernedly at the duo. Kyran was still looking uneasy, his eyes dazed and holding onto Taz’s arm so he wouldn’t fall over. Taz, to put it lightly, looked rather terrified. It was apparent that Kyran had never been in a condition like this. “I don’t know,” I answered Noire finally.

He bowed his head before snapping it back up again. “He brought me back to life, you know? And he talked and everything!” Noire said earnestly, as if that would somehow cheer me up, but it did give me quite of a shock. Noire nodded when he saw the look on my face. “Yeah. He talked and he looked totally different. And then he got all scary and tried to choke me,” he added, almost as an afterthought.

Kyran had finally stopped coughing and his breath had returned to normal, and Taz looked relieved for a moment before thumping Kyran over the head. “How dare you nearly die on me?” he scolded lightly, affection in his voice.

Kyran weakly hit him in the arm before swinging himself to his feet. He swayed for a moment, his eyes dilating, before blinking rapidly and coming to a halt. I pointed at him. “You have some explaining to do,” I reprimanded.

His response was so give me a cheesy grin and pick up the magically untouched dress ad hand it to me. I glared at him, as if daring him to keep on that fake, ridiculous smile on his face.

He had the gall to wink at me.

It was as if the whole thing had never happened. I’m not sure if that was Taz’s and Kyran’s way of dealing with potentially traumatic events, but once Taz had finished fussing over his friend and assuring himself that Kyran could indeed walk a few steps without toppling over, he went over and took it upon himself to punch Noire in his good eye. I managed to restrain him from pummeling the terrified boy into the ground, and one and half pages of Kyran’s notebook later, I finally got the whole story. How exactly Kyran knew Noire’s life story, I wasn’t sure, but Noire himself seemed extremely disturbed by it.