We couldn't remain in this room any longer, not in the numbers we currently held. To many mythicals, to many magic users, it made the humans uncomfortable considering the destruction we just laid upon a monument. At least, I liked to tell myself it wasn't from a deep seated prejudice. Or, perhaps, they had developed a distaste for us as war times had continued on.
Many missed their Artifice systems, many resented having to work instead of laying down for whatever job was put before them.
Pulling on a simple white shirt and jeans, it's the most domestic I'd seen Verando look in quite some time. I follow suit, desperate for comfort and to be out of the grit and dust that littered what was left of my tuxedo. The olive of my shirt complimented my skin, I tug absently at my belt as an attempt to not let my insecurities flare with the way the jeans hugged my hips.
This body was still foreign to me, I wasn't used to the additional muscle where I once was much softer. While I lacked any extreme definition, I felt strong. Still, I wasn't quite comfortable enough to bear my body to the scrutinizing eye of Caspian's younger self.
"You look fine," Verando assures me, allowing his eyes to linger in a way that made me flush. Even if I was lingering on the what ifs, he had always had a way of pulling me back. Though, surely, he knew I was upset with him and wanted to gain my favor.
"I'm still mad at you." I remind him, resisting the urge to cling to him with relief for his health. Tiberius leads us down the hall, keeping Caspian wedged between us, we leave Legardo behind in the care of Lotta for fear that Pascal might come looking for him and disturb the careful balance of mortal and magic-user that the hospital trod on.
They had enacted a regulation of how many of us could be in one wing, thus the need to move us on our way for fear of 'violence'. I shudder, I hadn't realized we'd picked such a segregated part of town to get married in. Yet, I didn't spend much time in civilian life in these past months.
"Ladies." Tiberius sighs, shaking his head. "We have a lycan to find."
"A lycan?" Caspian cocks his head. Wrinkling his nose as we're ushered towards the parking garage, he crosses his arms over his chest. "Good to see some things never do change... hundreds of years into the future, surrounded by this-" he gestures to the grand hospital around us, "And we're still vermin."
Frowning, Verando considers his words carefully. "Not quite, we are a threat. Humans don't easily forget the sins committed against them, I'm afraid." He tells him shortly, looking like he wants to say more as his lips part but eventually, he stops himself. We could not reveal too much, we could not risk changing the past. "I believe it's you that is causing them to act this way."
"Seems shit if you ask me. But, I suppose I am horrifying." Caspian nods, glancing up through the glass as we pass the massive windows looking out in the healing city. Battle scars raked across the streets from fights with elementals, a helicopter zips by and Caspian throws himself backward, Verando grips him, causing the man to grunt by the steel vice grip of the older man. Appalled, he jerks his arm away, "A lycan, hmm?" He murmurs once more. "Were the rumors true then?"
"It's a lot to take in." Verando appears conflicted, his strange empathy with this man is enough to make me uncomfortable. "The sooner we find my younger self, the sooner we can get you home."
I couldn't help but feel as though sending them back one at a time might be easier, but it's for selfish reasons. The wound was all too fresh from the day that Caspian had tried to kill me for taking Verando from him. Not quite lovers, I knew more than to think of it in that aspect, but intimate friends who knew each other all too well. Caspian had been ever hopeful, yet Verando had never fancied him as he had me.
It was childish, petty even, to feel such a way, and yet I couldn't stop it from festering in my stomach.
"I don't think I'll ever be the same after this." Caspian runs a hand through his hair, drifting closer to the gray-haired man. I slip between them, stiff from the effort to be cordial. I shouldn't blame the youth, he seemed nice enough, but the opportunity to stop all this from happening caused my fingers to twitch. If I could be assured that Verando would still find me, that he'd still love me, I'd strike the man down where he stood.
Tiberius pinches the bridge of his nose, "We will have to ask Tyr at some point to erase your memory, but that will have to come after we find Verando. If he were to discover one of you was actively loose in the future, he would wring my damn neck. I didn't sign up for this, you know. I'm a Siren, not a guardian angel!"
Raising his eyebrows, Caspian trots up to walk beside the rock star. "A real siren? So the legends are true?" Swallowing hard, he crosses his arms over his chest. "I need to pray more. This is ridiculous."
"That's what impresses you? Don't bother, gods are assholes..." Verando grumbles and I elbow him sharply in the ribs.
"Hush." I scold him sternly. "We need a god to send him back. We don't know why my magic came back or how to manifest it. There is no way that Tyler will be specific enough to put them back exactly where they belong."
Wheeling around to walk backward, Caspian looks startled. "You truly mean Tyr? The Tyr?"
Waving him off, Verando rolls his eyes. "He's a right dick is what he is. Mind your manners, yeah? No stealing, not much of a sense of humor on that one." His newfound profanity catches me off guard, I shake my head in disbelief at the disdain for the god who'd given us one of our children, who had helped revive the unicorn.
"I hope you'd never say that to Landon." I snap, irritated. Annoyed by my sensitivity, Verando refuses to entertain me with an answer. Shaking my head at the childish behavior, I storm forward to walk beside Tiberius, Caspian can have him. "Let's find Verando and get this over with. I want to get on with this sentencing and I think it'd be pretty shitty to execute Caspian with his past self as a witness."
"Execute?" Caspian demands. "You're putting me to death?"
"You're a criminal and you've single-handedly-"
Verando stops me. "Nic." He growls. "Can we not discuss this in front of him?"
I scoff. "This-" I gesture to the younger Spanish werewolf. "Is not Caspian. This is your friend, from hundreds of years ago, who's dead." Wounded by his willingness to flip on me, I wrap my arms around myself, hiding my pain from him. "Whose side are you on? He tried to kill us, he tried to kill me!"
Shaking his head, Caspian runs a hand through his hair as Verando stares me down. I know he'd rather not talk about it here but I'd thought I'd lost him and I was struggling to forgive him with my wolf fighting to get out. "I must have really screwed things up." The youth whispers. For a single moment, I feel the pain of remorse. He looked legitimately remorseful.
"You destroyed the planet, you bastard." I seethe. "You're lucky Verando is loyal to a damn fault or I'd snuff you out here and now-"
"Say that again." Tiberius freezes.
"What, that Verando is being a complete asshole?" I scowl.
"No. The loyalty."
Caspian pulls his lips into a thin line, "Verando has always been my right hand, he's incredibly loyal."
Cursing, Verando's eyes meet Tiberius. "Son of a bitch... he's going after Ron."
"What?" I wheel around to face him, stunned by how he could come to this conclusion so quickly. "What on earth gave you that idea?"
Slipping past me, Verando begins to stride down the hallway, determined to get to the parking garage. We race to keep up with him as Tiberius opens his phone. "Randy!" I demand.
"Remember how I was when we first met? That was nothing compared to how I was in my youth, I was not lying when I said I wasn't the good guy, Nic. I was angry, full of myself, and nobody has explained to my younger self that this is the future. For all I know, they've taken this Caspian to lockdown. All of these people are in horrible danger, we have to get there before he does. Before... I.. do." Cursing once more, he takes longer strides, struggling to maintain a pace that the very human Caspian could tolerate.
I practically jog to keep pace with him.
It seems quite outrageous, I'd never known Verando to hurt anyone unless it was necessary, he'd always seemed to have a reason for it. While I could see him attempting to free the beast, I didn't quite anticipate him being successful given his lack of military knowledge, youth, and lack of weapons. "So they capture him before we do?" I suggest.
"Or he kills them all." Caspian snorts. "We never go down without a fight, capture in our time was a death sentence if anyone found out we harbored werewolf blood."
Tiberius dials faster, grumbling under his breath that nobody answers their phones anymore.
"Quite the ego, hmm?" I roll my eyes.
"You're too young to remember the threat that werewolves posed." He summarizes, getting a snicker from the curly-haired spaniard.
"Oh? How young is he?" Prodding at me curiously, I smack his hand away.
"Fuck off, Caspian." I spit.
"Enough!" Verando scowls at us, pressing a button to open the swinging double doors before us. Impatient with their slow wheeze and tired movement, he delivers a stark kick to the center, blowing them off their hinges. Caspian stumbles backwards, eyes wide with shock and a hint of fear. "It's a full moon tonight. We only have until midnight-"
Turning, he eyes Caspian with a frown. "We need to get you in lock down."
"Nobody can capture you but us." He retorts, stiff.
I cross my arms over my chest, rolling my eyes heavily. "Nic can." The return to the center of attention has me less than enthusiastic. In truth, I was reluctant to leave them alone, I knew where this trended. I would go to capture the young Verando while mine stayed behind with this man who would grow to be the one who doomed us all.
"No." I tell him sharply.
"Excuse us." Verando steps towards me and I lift my hands with a low growl, threatening him not to touch me. In a bold move, he stoops, scooping me up onto his shoulder and proceeding to stride down the hallway while I attempt to keep the wolf at bay. Pushing a side door open, he allows me to slide down his body as we enter a room full of computers, a monitoring system and security for the building. "Out." He commands the seated guard.
Quickly, the man leaps to his feet and bolts out of the room, radio in hand. If nothing else, he had effectively gotten another strike against us as we were now breaking and entering in the hospital. "What?" I demand. "I'm not doing this, I know what you're about to suggest and the answer is no. I'm not okay with this, I draw the line, hard limit."
"Nic." His voice is low, patient.
In a quick movement, I place my hand over his mouth, staring into his eyes as I flash my teeth. "I don't trust you." It comes out before I can stop it, my wolf snaps at it's cage, wanting to inflict punishment on the sinful man who dare try to separate us. "I-" The hurt expression settles into his eyes, wounding me, taking some of the wind out of my sails. "My wolf is all out of sorts, Caspian loves you. Really loves you. I can not risk you falling back onto his side, Randy. We have to find a way to kill him, we can not let him live in our time."
"Cas is a good man, he sided with me when I didn't even know who I was, when I wasn't a good guy. Nic, are you worried I'm going to sleep with him? Is that it?" The sharp tone makes me flinch, my hand slides down to rest over his chest, I shut my eyes and slowly close my hand into a fist. No, that wasn't quite it. I didn't trust him not to be who he always was, the unending seeker of justice.
I wished that I was only worried about them sleeping together, my heart could fathom that in some aspect. I was worried that Verando would step back into the alliance, that he would want to save Caspian, that this would never end and we would be stuck in the never ending cycle for the rest of our lives. When it came to killing Caspian, Verando was horribly unwilling. So many opportunities missed, could it be love? Or could it be that he felt he owed him his life?
Truth be told, I wasn't quite sure if I could list all of the reasons I didn't want them spending any time together. "Of course not." I whisper, resolve in my words. I did not fear that, for it was to happen it would have happened by now. Verando would not have been with me if he felt anything for Caspian, that was why the man tried to kill me. With a sad laugh, I smooth the material of his shirt out over his broad chest.
Flicking my eyes up to meet his, I offer him a small shrug. "Can I just say that this is me being weak? That I don't want to risk you siding with him?"
Gathering my face in his hands, he brushes my cheek gently with his thumb as he searches my face. "I will not do anything to jeopardize the past, I will not do anything that could possibly prevent me from finding you. Nic, the only reason I can stand to be away from you is that the werewolf lurking in these bodies could throw our entire system into chaos. Think of the rabid wolves, now put it into a partial form of a human and give it a taste for blood. Human blood. Every single being that creature bites will become infected."
With a slow exhale, he purses his lips. "Werewolf saliva is toxic to vampires, it is hell on elf blood, it is a death sentence to any human for it can not be cured. There is not a beast alive who is immune to it, save for us and I'm not even certain how that would work. Nic, if this spreads, if the virus comes to the future-" Shaking his head, he bends to kiss me, desperate for the connection.
"There will be no chance at us ever living in harmony. They will be hunted down, it will be a gate way to killing every last magic user, its a plague and it is so much stronger than anything you've ever seen in your life time. There is a reason that there were wars between Vampires and werewolves, we spread like wild fire. I'm not asking you to hunt me down because I want to spend time with Caspian, I asking you to do it because you are the only one who knows me so well. I have to lock Caspian up, you have to find me. Nobody else is prepared for this."
Throwing my arms around his neck, I crush my lips to his, kissing him deeply as I knot my fingers in his hair. His arms encircle my waist yet I refuse to let him take control as I shove him against the wall and pin him with my body. The heat erupts in my chest, I growl low in my throat as I claim his mouth with my own and savor the sweet taste. "This is really screwing up my plans for our honey moon." I complain, breathless as I speak against his lips.
Moving to kiss me, I leave space between our lips and he chuckles lightly. "What? It's just another world ending catastrophe, practically an average tuesday. Should be done and home by Thursday tops." Snagging my chin, he captures my lips and I moan into his mouth as his hand snakes down to grip my ass. "I also need to make sure our children are in a safe place. A mothers work is never done."
"You're a terrible house wife." I drag him down to my height, invading his mouth with my tongue. He flinches, still sore from his fight with Caspian, yet he doesn't pull away. "I want our time together when this is all over."
Verando's thigh slips between my legs, enticing me so boldly. I growl in response, feeling his skin ignite under my fingers as my hand dives under his shirt. Finding his nipple, I roll it between my thumb and forefinger. "You're quite bold. We also have work to do, remember that pesky time clock ticking away?"
"Hell can wait." Shoving his shirt up, I bend to kiss his stomach, running my tongue up his abdominals. "Right now I want you to-"
The door opens from the break room towards the back of the security office. Nearly dropping her coffee cup, the slim intern quickly averts her eyes and spins around with a squeal of surprise. "Excuse me!" She squeaks.
Flushing darkly, I quickly straighten his shirt and he chuckles, grinning like a school boy. "Pardon me, Ma'am." I clear my throat, "Just... erm..."
Verando shrugs, "Trying to get laid."
I scowl at him, shaking my head in disbelief. "Excuse us." Grabbing his arm, I drag him out of the room as he offers her a sarcastic wave and she hides behind her clip board. "That's really unfair, do you not understand the effect you have on people?"
Feigning surprise, he raises an eyebrow at me. "What on earth do you mean?"
"Asshole." I sigh, jerking him down to kiss him once more. For my benefit, as well as Caspian's, I lay claim on what is mine. "Alright. I'll go track you down, text me the address to bring him for lock down. Be safe, I'm going to need you alive and well for what I have planned for you later. "