Who: Adrian, Kane, Cecilia When: evening, Friday, July 13th Where: Blackwater Woods mostly Warning: monsters and mantrums, oh my Status: complete, part 2
Even if Adrian's senses weren't heightened, he was pretty sure he'd have noticed how the forest got quieter the closer he got to his destination. He'd noticed that too when he'd gone to hunt Cecilia's reaper, like there was a radius where the bugs and critters had vacated the area, wanting nothing to do with the dark magic taking place. By the time he reached the clearing, he only heard Kane's heartbeat and his own, a quiet purring and hissing, the crack of branches beneath his feet and the creature moving around. There was also a weird buzzing sound he couldn't place but he didn't really care about any of those things, save for Kane's heartbeat. In his current state of mind he wasn't even sure what it was he was feeling, a possessive kind of rage rather than fear. Kane was his, had been claimed as such many times over, and something was attacking him. Adrian didn't stop running until he was at Kane's side and he tried to quickly assess what the fuck it was he was looking at but came up blank. It was horrible, whatever it was, and it had gotten Kane down. For now it wasn't succeeding in attacking him and Adrian could only guess it was because of the cat. Because of Styr.
He expected it to come for him, a new prey in the clearing, but the creature coiled and twisted away when he came closer and that just made him feel fucking good. "Yeah, you should be afraid," he whispered through gritted teeth and charged forward, ready to tear the damn thing apart with his bare hands. He stopped abruptly because the earth started shaking the moment he did and he could feel an elevation in the ground he was standing on. It was slow at first and then in a split second they were at least five feet higher than they had been. The monster was pulling back and burrowing away and the cat was whining and all Adrian could think to do was throw himself at Kane and place his hands on either side of him protectively. He could tear apart monsters, but he couldn't do shit about an earthquake, if that was even what this was. "I got you," he said anyway even if he wasn't so sure he did. Kane's body was completely limp, tears steadily streaking from his eyes and if Adrian couldn't have heard his breathing so clearly, he'd have worried he was choking.
Kane couldn’t see much of what was happening, but he heard something else approaching and suddenly the pressure around his calf and thigh were gone, and there was nothing in his field of vision but the dark shadows of trees overhead. Then the ground was shaking and he got the terrible feeling that Adrian had reached him just in time to die with him, from some insane supernatural bullshit. When the wendigo dropped down over him in that protective stance, Kane pushed out a whimper. He had never been so happy and so horrified at once to see that beautiful face. The rush of motion as the earth lifted sent his stomach in a somersault, and he stared hard up at Adrian. There wasn’t much else he could do. The stick! Kane tried to shout at him, only succeeding in making another soft, hoarse sound through his paralyzed mouth. The goddamn stick! Close it! Adrian, the fucking stick!
Telepathy was not one of Adrian's new found powers and the stick was far from his mind at the moment. There was too much else going on, the earth shaking and rising beneath them, roots coming loose and seemingly moving of their own accord. It took Adrian a second to realize that this wasn't because of the earthquake - it was the cause of it and he hissed out a few choice curses as he grabbed Kane's arms to haul him up and get him away from what seemed to be the dead center of the activity. The next thing he knew there was a sharp pain in his hand where the fucking cat bit him before running straight to said center, meowing urgently. Right there where the cat was now darting in frantic circles, Adrian could see a faint shimmering in the shape of bodies, slowly becoming more visible. It looked something like if soap bubbles would take on human forms and in between them a pulsing light started to appear as well. Adrian didn't know what he was looking at, he just knew he was probably not supposed to be able to see this and that was bad.
He finished what he started, pulling Kane up over his shoulder because there was no way he was leaving him here, but instead of running away, he now ran toward the center because he'd just realized what was amiss. The soul-stick. That had probably been on for way too long now. Roots were shooting out of the ground and Adrian was barely dodging them as some of them seemed to lunge right at him, attempting to grab at his feet. He didn't have time to treat Kane with any kind of gentleness as he set him down in order to grab the stick, hurriedly twisting the top until it wouldn't go any further down.
Everything was jumbled and confusing to Kane, the ground rumbling angrily and woody roots popping up everywhere in his peripheral vision. He had no idea what was really happening, just that it was Bad, and they were probably going to die. He didn’t want to die without telling Adrian exactly how much he loved him, without telling Bailey the same, or his mother ... Kane had reaped so many people who’d wailed and lamented over the things they hadn’t done or said ... was he going to be the same? Was there a reaper waiting out there for him, watching the last seconds of his life in slow motion like he’d done so many times? Kane’s chest hurt for reasons that had nothing to do with the paralytic venom in his veins.
He grunted as Adrian hauled him up onto his shoulder for that brief moment, then again as he was unceremoniously dropped to the ground once more. Kane wasn’t even thinking coherent thoughts anymore, just overwhelmed with the sense that he didn’t want to die, he wasn’t done, none of this was fair, and he felt more helpless than he ever had in his life. He couldn’t see much with the way he landed, and with great effort Kane squeezed his eyes shut, not wanting to see Adrian impaled by some evil root before this cursed fucking land swallowed them up for good.
This was dire, and yet a part of Adrian was fascinated by it all and he gazed around wide-eyed as he pulled Kane closer and into a better position. He could see so much more than he was meant to see, the souls, the light that had just gone out and now a faint, gray shield that seemed to envelope them and keep the branches at bay. The earth was still rocking and the trees around them were creaking loudly as they wound and twisted into unnatural shapes. It didn't seem to be a large area but Adrian wondered if this madness would reach the road, how big it would really get, if he'd been too late.
"You're okay," he said as he pulled Kane up into his lap to keep his head elevated and his body close to his own. "You're gonna be just fine." He didn't know that but he would do everything in his power to make it true. Right now he just needed answers and so he rubbed down Kane's body until he found his phone. "Please don't have Cecilia under some fucked up pseudonym in here," he murmured as he went through his contact list, his eyes on the phone while he pressed his mouth and lips against Kane's temple. They had shelter for now but the earth underneath them was still rumbling and Adrian had no idea how long Styr could keep up this barrier for.
They were being sheltered again and Kane blinked away more tears as Adrian pulled him close. He had no idea what was going to happen, but he knew it would be his fault -- he’d fucked up. He’d gotten caught unaware, he hadn’t reacted fast enough to kill it, he’d gotten bitten and fucked up, he’d dropped the stick ... he’d reassured Adrian so many times that he could do this job, and now he was going to die. It pissed him off and made him so goddamn sad. Kane tried to fight the paralysis, to move his hand, twitch a finger, but it was like trying to move a boulder. He was stuck and helpless and a possibility even worse than death flashed through his mind -- what if he was stuck this way? Permanently locked in, aware but cut off from his body. His breathing got a little faster, a soft whine in his throat. He tried not to panic, tried to focus instead on the warmth of Adrian’s body, the strength in those arms, the way his lips felt. This moment might be all he had left, he needed to stay in it and hold on.
Of course Kane couldn't answer him but Adrian found Cecilia in his contacts, hoped it was the right Cecilia and dialed. It took him a second to notice the dial tone was muffled but then he gently pried the ear piece from Kane's ear. He heard Cecilia loud and clear when she replied even without putting it in his ear and all she said was, "Tell me exactly what is happening."
It might have pissed him off but he knew damn well from his own job that in order to help she needed all the possible information. He was calm enough to give it to her, rubbing Kane's arm with his free hand as he told her he'd screwed the top of the stick shut, that they were in a protective bubble, that the fucking forest seemed to be alive and angry.
"If it was truly alive and awake you'd both be dead," Cecilia told him. "It's spirit energy, it'll calm down given time. Why is Kane paralyzed?"
"How the fuck should I know?" Adrian muttered because she was supposed to have the answers, damn it and he knew he'd be a bubbling mess if the wendigo wasn't in charge. Right now he just wanted to fight; fight the trees, fight the creature that attacked Kane, hell, he even wanted to hit Kane until he actually fought back.
"I'll call you back in ten minutes, stay put," Cecilia said and didn't give Adrian a chance to reply before she hung up on him, making him sputter in indignation.
"Are you fucking kidding me right now?" he groaned, then looked around again and tried to rearrange Kane so he might be more comfortable. Was it even possible to be comfortable? He might be screaming in pain on the inside and Adrian would never know. "We're safe for now," he told him. "I'm gonna check you over, figure out what's going on with you. I hope you can hear me, your heartbeat is fine, your breathing is fine and hey, you closed your eyes, that's a good sign, right?"
There was a weird ringing in Kane’s ears that sort of burned at the same time and still a lot of noise from the chaos around them, so Kane didn’t catch Cecilia’s side of the conversation, only what Adrian said. His voice was comforting, even while agitated, and Kane could really only pay attention to that instead of the words he was using. At least until he was talking directly to Kane again. His lashes fluttered with the effort to move his eyes, and he felt dumbly grateful that his man was not only a wendigo, but a nurse as well. His body being shifted around without any control over his limbs felt very strange, but the positioning wasn’t uncomfortable. The bite on his arm hurt and his ears felt weird and his eyes wouldn’t stop watering from emotion and fear and all the dust and debris in the air, and he wanted so badly to move his arm to show Adrian where the bite was and tell him he’d been poisoned ... but he couldn’t do anything but whimper softly. The helplessness was worse than the pain itself.
Adrian was far more used to working in sanitary and safe situations. He'd had training for potential disasters but most of his work took place in a hospital. The way the earth still shifted beneath them wasn't ideal and he was too keenly aware of every noise around them and that was messing with his focus. It almost made him wish he could turn the wendigo off for a few minutes but that really wasn't how this worked. "Now I'm not saying I knew you'd get hurt," he murmured as he fished the little plastic bags from his pockets, some supplies he'd snagged from the hospital. "But uh, I came prepared. Because you have a track record." He maneuvered Kane around as he checked him over, wincing at the wounds he found. "You're not bleeding badly, so that's a good thing." Talking was good, better than just working on Kane and not letting him know what was going on.
"This is gonna sting and then I'm gonna wrap it. We'll clean it properly when I get you home." Of course there was no reaction and Adrian tried not to let that get to him. This was temporary. It had to be temporary. "If you don't snap out of it soon I'm gonna have to talk to that fucking witch. You know he charged me a thousand bucks, if he knows who you are, he'll probably charge you a million. He's such a dick, jesus fucking christ. Sorry, this is gonna hurt too. Seriously though, try wiggling your fingers or toes. Let me see you move a little. You might not feel it yet but try."
Kane was sure Adrian felt weird talking out loud when he couldn’t respond, but he was so grateful that he was doing it anyway. He wasn’t unconscious, he was aware and listening, he was just locked in, and trying very hard not to get panicky. It didn’t feel like it was wearing off, his body still stiff and weird and resistant to what he wanted it to do. He tried, like Adrian suggested, tried desperately hard to move his fingers, make a fist, twitch hard enough, anything. The most Kane could manage was a small jerk of his arm, something that could’ve been completely involuntary. Fuck, how was his heart still beating?
Kane tried again, focusing as hard as he could on moving his hand to show Adrian he was there and hearing him. Nothing happened and Kane’s frustration spiked, his pulse and breathing picking up speed as he started to freak out a bit inside. What if he didn’t snap out of it, what if he was really stuck? Fucking leech, fucking woods, fucking Cecilia and her goddamn lost souls and that fucking stick -- Kane suddenly hated them all with a burning fiery passion, but none of it helped him move anything.
Kane might not be able to speak or show emotion but his heartbeat was very telling in the way it sped up. There was no point in telling a panicking person not to panic so Adrian bit back that particular shitty advice. "Pathetic," he said instead. "Stop, please. Try again in five minutes. Man I hope you're not friends with that witch, even if it'd give you a discount on anti-paralysis spells, I'm sure. I'd have to seriously reconsider this whole relationship if you guys are buddies." He had no idea if this was helping and maybe he'd know better what to say if he had full access to his emotions - but then again, he'd probably be panicking himself if he was fully human right now. Either the chatter helped, or Kane would break up with him after tonight.
"I got Cecilia talking, you know. She said the wendigo or whatever didn't infect me, the area did. It's just super cursed, this whole fucking forest." He looked around again, listened for a few seconds to everything around him and then narrowed his eyes as he tried to see the outlines of the souls around them. "I can't see the souls as well now, that's gotta be good," he suggested. "They're fading." The shaking was slowing down a little too but as he looked around he thought he could see a faint humanoid form right where the cat was, too vague to make out and only there for a second.
Even if he was kind of being a dick, the calm demeanor was helpful -- Adrian having a freak out would’ve just been even more torture. Instead it was grounding to hear wendigo-Adrian call his desperate effort pathetic. The rest of the rambling was good too, something to try to focus on besides his fear. He wasn’t entirely successful, his body still fighting to regain control of itself. He wanted to know what Adrian was seeing, what the souls looked like to him, and he focused as hard as he could on trying to ask. He only managed to get a low groan out, but that felt like progress. Was it wearing off? Kane strained inside and made his hand flop a bit. The world was still rumbling, but he knew he had made that movement on purpose, and hope sparked in his chest.
Adrian noticed and quickly looked up at Kane's face to see if his eyes were open and if he looked any more alert than before. "Did you do that on purpose?" he asked gently though he wasn't expecting an answer. "That's good. Soon you can tell me how crappy this position I put you in is." That was the thing he hated about dealing with people who couldn't communicate, something could be wrong and he wouldn't ever know it. He just hoped Kane was as okay as he could be for a paralyzed person, and that he didn't have a root or a rock jabbing into his back.
"That thing that bit you, I think it's dead," he said and finished bandaging Kane up. "Smells dead and I can't hear it anymore." That meant the roots and the trees had ripped it apart most likely and Adrian felt a little disappointed that he wouldn't get to do it himself. The good thing about it was that he didn't have to leave Kane's side to do it so he quelled that sour feeling. The forest probably would have ripped them apart too if it wasn't for Styr and he glanced at the cat again but this time he couldn't see any of the spiritual residue, not from the cat and not from the souls.
Kane’s eyes were open, but it was still proving difficult to look around. He was filled with impatience suddenly -- if this shit was going to go away, he wanted it gone all at once. It sucked and it was slowing them down, there was shit to do. They had to get the fuck out of here, and hopefully grab the remaining souls on the way out, because Kane didn’t want to do this shit again. Maybe he never wanted to set foot in these fucking woods again either, he would have to see how he felt on the other side of this. And there would be another side, goddammit. The rumbling in the earth seemed to be slowing down, and Kane’s lashes fluttered as he managed to curl the fingers of his uninjured arm into a loose fist. His boot twitched and his knee lifted a bit. It was wearing off bit by bit, and he did everything he could inside to hurry it along. He was probably safer than he’d ever been in Blackwater, with both Styr and Adrian protecting him, but that didn’t mean he wanted to linger any longer than necessary.
"Hey, check you out," Adrian murmured because it was hard to miss even those small movements when he was so hyper tuned into everything around him. It was a good sign, if this thing was wearing off it likely wasn't slowly killing Kane which was what Adrian was most afraid of. The fact Kane's lungs and heart had kept working had given him some hope right from the start but it had been tenuous. He gently wiped at Kane's cheeks with his thumbs and then leaned down to kiss his lips, studying his face for a moment before Kane's earpiece started chiming again. So it had been ten minutes, Adrian assumed as he picked up and talked to Cecilia, his attention on Kane as he did. He told her Kane was improving but slowly, looking at him questioningly as he did in the small hope that he might be able to speak soon. He didn't know if he had enough souls already or he might just pick him up and bring him home, but like Kane he didn't want to come back out here. No repeat of tonight, not ever.
It took another several minutes, but the relief began to speed up as the seconds ticked by. Kane got another few wordless grunts out before he managed to lift his hand and paw a little at Adrian’s chest. His eyes were moving again, and his legs gave some involuntary shifts and stretches. “Adrian,” Kane murmured, though it came out slurred and mushy. He still felt sluggish and heavy and a little sick to his stomach, but having any say at all about what his limbs were doing was a vast improvement. Adrian was still on the phone with Cecilia, and when they both wanted to know how many souls he’d gotten, Kane swallowed and tried to concentrate on being clear. “Five left ...” As long as the poison in him dissipated enough, he could get them, too.
Adrian caught Kane's hand in a gentle grip and nodded firmly. "Five more, we'll get them," he told Cecilia before ending the call. "Did I miss anything?" he asked. “Any pain you're feeling?" The wounds had been easy enough to sniff out but if something was broken or sprained, there was no way for him to tell just with a glance. Kane wasn't screaming out in pain and Adrian was relieved that venom didn't have additional torturous effects like that, but then again he had a stupid amount of pain tolerance so maybe the fact he wasn't howling out meant nothing.
Kane squeezed Adrian’s hand as hard as he could manage -- which wasn’t hard at all, really, but it was better than nothing -- and shook his head. If he was currently feeling everything there was to feel, the rest of him was okay. Just stiff and a little scraped up. It could have been a lot worse. And even worse still if Adrian hadn’t insisted on coming along on this little venture. Maybe they should have stayed side by side, but Kane didn't know that Cecilia would’ve even attempted a rescue. “M’okay ... jus’ the fuckin’ ... bite,” he mumbled. Adrian had patched that up and the effects of the venom were fading, now he just had to hope there was no more infection-type fuckery in store for him. Goddamn leech monster. “You okay?” he added, his eyes locked onto Adrian’s.
"Let's see," Adrian murmured, amused Kane would ask him this when he was the one injured and half paralyzed and not Adrian. Adrian was just peachy, it was Kane who took a beating tonight. "The world didn't end and you didn't die. I'm pretty fucking good." He shifted his position and sidled closer to Kane until his hip was against his waist, then leaned over him to rest his hand on his other side. "Cecilia wants to give you some tea when we get back. Some protective shit against any lingering effects but... I think you're okay. I can still smell the venom on you, but it's fading. You're starting to smell like you again." A terror-sweaty and filthy version of himself, but it still smelled good to Adrian - better than that toxic shit from the dead creature nearby. "Shouldn't have left me behind," he murmured, half teasing, half not.
It was reassuring to hear that his smell was shifting, as weird as that might be. The wendigo version of Adrian was more in tune with his surroundings, and while Kane was sure that had gotten overwhelming in day to day life, it sure as fuck came in handy in situations like this. They really needed to figure out how he could turn this off and on at will. Kane gave a tiny huff through his nose. “Gotta protect you,” he muttered wryly, aware of how ridiculous that sounded in his current position. They both knew that Adrian was much more vulnerable as his more human self, and they still didn’t know exactly what triggered the wendigo to emerge ... except Kane being in danger apparently did the trick. It was weirdly good and kinda sexy to know. “But m’glad you’re here.”
Adrian actually laughed because the statement was kind of funny all things considered and Kane was kind of pathetic saying it. "I feel very protected," he said with a grin. "Do you?" He tapped at Kane's legs, then gave his thighs a squeeze and a shake as if he could somehow rush his healing just by jostling him a little. "Under different circumstances, this'd actually be kinda hot," he murmured. "I could do anything I want with you right now and you couldn't do shit about it." He was teasing, the kind of teasing he wouldn't dare to do in a situation this dire if he was in full human mode, but he knew Kane could appreciate the dark humor and if he could find any amusement in this misery, all the better. Plus, it was true. There was that darkness inside of him that made him kind of like this; everything from Kane's red eyes to how afraid he'd looked just seconds ago. Was it wrong? Yes, but so many things between them were wrong already, what was one more thing between lovers.
It was the exact wrong time for flirting, but that kind of made it perfect. Kane snorted and rolled his eyes a little. “That’s always true,” he said, unable to sound put out about it. When he was like this, Adrian could easily overpower any resistance he could put up. When he wasn’t like this, Kane was still inclined to give him anything he wanted. He could see the appeal of the helplessness though, and any other time it would’ve made his stomach squirm. For the moment Kane was trying to hurry things along himself, shifting his shoulders weakly and continuing to flex his hands as much as he could. He did feel protected as he slowly got his mobility back -- shielded from the magical craziness by Styr, and shielded from everything else by Adrian. Nothing could make Blackwater feel safe, but he at least knew his ass was thoroughly covered at the moment. After another few minutes, Kane could move his arms and hands enough to pull away and try to sit himself up. “Aight, m’gonna try to do this,” he muttered as he reached for the container that held the other souls.
As far as Adrian knew, the souls were all still right there around them even if he couldn't see them anymore. Cecilia had said they'd stick around and Kane was obviously not going anywhere so that had to mean they were literally within reach. He tried not to help Kane too much, well aware of how frustrating that could be, so he let him take his time and simply stayed close enough that he could catch him if he slumped over again. "You recover fast," he murmured with a deliberately pleased tone. "Let me know if you need anything. I'll hop to it."
Kane did recover fast from a lot of things, and it had made a huge difference in his line of work -- but he also thought that this venom faded fairly quickly on its own. He was supposed to be monster food already, helpless and frozen, but the fucker who’d tried to eat him was dead now, and Kane was still standing. Well, technically sitting, but still. He was alive, thanks to Adrian and some spirit he couldn’t really see. He could see the other souls though, glowing faintly in the shadows, waiting for something they didn’t understand. It was pretty easy to draw them into his soul prison, and it was all over within another minute, quiet and subtle. Kane’s shoulders slumped a bit as he twisted the lid back on. “Let’s get the fuck out of here,” he said, reaching for Adrian’s help to haul himself to his feet.
Adrian wasn't too sure Kane was ready to be walking but he was ready to catch him or carry him if he had to and pulling him up was easy. Kind of too easy, he still felt like he had a lot of energy to burn and nothing to burn it on. His arm was around Kane as soon as he was up and while he barely felt the weight, he could tell that Kane wasn't doing great at standing on his own. That was okay, it gave Adrian something to do and for him that was a good thing. He could worry later when the wendigo thing wore off, right now he didn't feel like he needed to at all. "Slow down there, soldier," he murmured, wrapping his arm around Kane's waist to give him more support and just to feel him. He was alive, he was moving again, if not for Styr's cat staring at them, Adrian would have been tempted to throw him back to the ground and let off some of that steam with him. "Can you even walk?"
“‘Course I can,” Kane muttered before he’d even taken a step. That first one and the next several dozen proved to be difficult and only possible by leaning on and clinging to Adrian. His legs felt wooden and uncooperative, clumsy. He kept tripping over debris on the forest floor, but Kane insisted he could make it without being carried every time Adrian offered. It would just take a little longer. Kane had no desire to linger in Blackwater, but his pride was bruised enough, and the farther they walked, the easier it got as the venom continued to work its way out of his system. The cat trotted and dashed alongside them, guiding them back to the farm and Cecilia. Kane wondered vaguely if the spirit was pleased with how things had gone, relieved that he’d succeeded, or if it was capable of feeling much at all. He was relieved ... and deeply shaken and exhausted and there was a bad feeling twisting in his chest that he couldn’t really explain.
Adrian felt impatient and very tempted to just throw Kane over his shoulder and run. It was slow going with Kane's paralysis wearing off and he was fucking sulky. Understandably, but just because it was valid didn't make it any less annoying to Adrian. But, even with the wendigo up in the forefront, Adrian could be patient and the closer they got to the farm, the easier and quicker they got. The cat ran off once they were on Cecilia's land and something told Adrian Styr was going off to tell Cecilia exactly what had happened before they got back. This was how she knew shit, a damn spirit flopping about everywhere minding everyone's business and whispering all about it in her ear. Adrian wished he could have gotten a better look at it, but his ghost vision had been very brief and faint - and there had been too much chaos to focus on anything.
He was right about Styr. Cecilia was already in the doorway when they walked up to the house, looking at them with some concern. "I made you tea," she said simply. "It will make you feel better, help with the healing." She waved them inside and then hesitated a second as she looked at Adrian, fascinated but trying to keep it to herself.
Kane wanted to just throw the container of souls at Cecilia and leave, but his body needed the rest and probably whatever extra ingredients she’d thrown into that tea. He still wouldn’t say he trusted her, but he’d done what she wanted now, there would be no reason for her to fuck with them. He limped inside and to the kitchen table to slump down into a chair. Most of the terrible woodenness was gone from his muscles, but everything still ached and kind of bad-tingled. The bite in his arm was burning under the bandage Adrian had wrapped around it, and he felt shaky and stupid. He put the etched glass container down on the table with a thunk and rubbed his hand over his face.
Adrian had seen Kane hurt before, but he'd never seen him looking quite so defeated and it made him want to shake him until he looked more like himself. Even with his emotions muted, he knew it was a callous thing to think so he kept those urges to himself and watched Cecilia intently as she went about getting Kane his tea. He still didn't really trust her, she had her souls now so hopefully she needed nothing more from them, but sometimes when people didn't need something anymore they threw it away.
Cecilia didn't seem to have any intentions of hurting them and even with Styr on her side, Adrian wasn't so sure she'd be a match for him. Every fiber of his being wanted to fight and kill and he had half a mind to leave Kane here for an hour or two while he got those base needs taken care of.
"This will help with the pain," Cecilia told Kane as handed him a mug full of honey-sweetened tea - Styr's recipe and magic touch being another special ingredient. "It should help you heal faster too." Styr was urging her to take the soul container and he sounded distressed but she had no reason to believe Kane would go through all this trouble just to suddenly change his mind and run away with them. She could tell apart worry and impatience in her ancient companion by now and he just wanted those souls safely in his grasp.
Kane accepted the steaming mug with a grunt that wasn’t quite a thanks. If it wasn’t for Cecilia he wouldn’t have been here tonight to get so fucked up, so he couldn’t feel any gratitude toward her ... but at the same time he’d been the one to slip up. If he’d been more alert, maybe he would’ve seen it coming, maybe he could’ve killed it and just finished up the job nice and easy. Those ‘what if’s could drive you fucking crazy though, and Kane knew better than to entertain them, but he couldn’t help himself sometimes. This was supposed to be his livelihood, he was supposed to be good at this. He drank some of the tea, sitting forward to slump over it a bit, hoping even the steam would help. “Sixteen,” Kane finally said, glancing up at Cecilia. “Which means nobody else has to die, right? I have your word?”
"You have my word," Cecilia replied. "No more souls. You did well." She tacked on the last bit as she glanced at the container on the table and then decided maybe Styr wasn't too far off the mark; Kane probably wanted those souls out of his possession as soon as possible. "You don't mind if I borrow this, do you?" she said as she gingerly picked up the container. "I suspect you want to get going soon, but I can have it back to you tomorrow."
"You might want this too," Adrian said as he held up the stick. "Pretty potent, didn't think it was a good idea to leave it out in the woods."
"It really wouldn't have been, no," Cecilia replied as she stepped over to him and grabbed the stick. "I would have had to send you back out there to look for it, something tells me you wouldn't mind that."
Adrian smirked and shook his head. She didn't need some all knowing spirit whispering that in her ear, he was practically bouncing with unspent energy and once she had the things she needed and strolled back out of the living room, he stalked over to where Kane was sitting and settled his hands on his shoulders. On some level he knew this was going to fuck him up later but he was calm now, more irritated than anything that something had tried to take what was his away from him. "Say the word and we're out of here."
Kane still had no idea what Cecilia wanted with sixteen human souls, and while part of him wanted to get her word that she wasn’t collecting these to do something horrible to the world at large, he knew how useless that would be. All of this was way over his head, he was just the muscle here, in a way. That was what Kane told himself, anyway. It wasn’t his business what they did with it all now, he’d delivered it as agreed.
He finished the tea as Adrian gave her the stick back, and Kane nudged the mug away from himself and nodded, moving to brush his fingers over Adrian’s on his shoulder. He stood up. Adrian might have still been chomping at the bit to go back into the woods, but Kane wanted to put it all as far behind him as possible now. “Let’s go,” he murmured. “You drive.” He pulled his keys out of his pocket to hand off to Adrian. There was an unpleasant jumble inside of him, and even though he was starting to feel physically better, he wasn’t up to driving.
Kane wasn't complaining but giving up his car keys told Adrian a lot more than that pinched expression on his face did. Cecilia shuffled back to see them out but she didn't try to make conversation which was probably a good thing. Neither Adrian nor Kane really had the patience for that, each for very different reasons. She watched them like a hawk as they made their way to the truck, and Adrian got the feeling she was worried about them which was... unsettling but kind of sweet? If luck would have it, they wouldn't have to deal with her ever again - but something told him he might come back by himself and try to get some more information out of her.
He'd only driven Kane's car once before and that had only been because he'd knocked Kane out so it felt a little weird to get behind the steering wheel with Kane right there next to him, awake and sullen. "You got any good drugs for that pain?" he asked as he started the engine, set on thoroughly examining Kane once they got back to his place. He still didn't trust that there wasn't something more going on than that wound, even Cecilia hadn't really known what to make of this creature and that didn't spell good news.
Kane’s joints ached as he climbed into his SUV -- on the passenger side, which just felt unnatural. He preferred to drive himself in almost every situation, but considering how shaky and bad he felt at the moment, he knew it was best to leave it to Adrian. He didn’t look back at Cecilia until they were pulling away, and when he did he felt weird that he couldn’t really read the expression on her face. He hoped this would be the last of it, especially since he’d fucked it up. Again. Was he losing his touch? Was it because his tattoos had gotten damaged? Was it just Point fucking Pleasant? Kane didn’t know, but the first option scared him the most. Hunting was what he did, it was the only thing he’d ever really been good at, he didn’t know what else to do in life. Maybe he didn’t need the money anymore, but that wasn’t all he got out of it. “Yeah think I got somethin’,” he murmured, slouched in the seat with his eyes turned out toward the dark.
Adrian left him in silence for a few minutes, let him sulk as he focused on driving, but eventually he glanced over at him. "C'mon, you're usually better with pain than this," he said. "Are you dying on me or something?" He could still hear Kane's heartbeat, mingling strong and steady with the purr of the engine. It didn't sound like anything was really wrong, the vibe was just off. He'd seen Kane with far worse wounds, but maybe this one was burning, maybe it was spreading underneath his clothes. Adrian had the morbid thought they might have to amputate to save Kane from some sprawling body horror and he would do it if he had to. Right now the idea didn't even faze him.
Parts of him did still hurt, but that wasn’t really what was plaguing Kane, since he did have a pretty good pain tolerance. His body was gradually recovering, feeling better faster with Cecilia’s tea in him, it was everything in his chest and mind that was still in turmoil. He’d almost died. If he hadn’t brought Adrian with him to the farm -- something he hadn’t wanted to do initially -- he probably would have died. Styr couldn’t have shielded him from the giant leech and done anything with the stick at the same time ... hell, it had seemed like the spirit couldn’t manipulate the stick anyway, or he probably would’ve done that first. And Kane would’ve failed the mission and been monster food. There was a diatribe of criticism running loudly through his head, his own voice mingling with his father’s and Bailey’s and various drill sergeants’ ... He could have shared that, but being emotionally vulnerable with this version of Adrian always felt like the wrong move. “I’m not dying, I’m fine,” Kane answered. He was just spiraling inside, that was all, nothing to worry about.
He wasn't fine and the thick silence in the car screamed it louder than Kane could have using his voice. It annoyed Adrian, even if he remembered how fucking hard it was to feel everything, to be human, to almost die. "Are you having an ethical dilemma about those souls?" he asked. "You've survived way worse than this so something else is up." Mostly he wondered if that poison was getting to Kane's brain, doing some sneaky damage he couldn't even begin to imagine. It didn't scare him right now, either Cecilia or Caius could probably fix whatever was wrong and if not, then that was a later time problem. Right now his only problem was the heaviness of Kane's mood and his own lack of understanding it.
Irritation flashed through Kane -- why couldn’t any ever just let him be in a bad fucking mood? He was so used to being alone and unquestioned, sometimes all of this concern was aggravating. He didn’t want to talk, he wanted to just sit and brood and be left alone. “I’m fine, I said,” he replied testily. “I just fucked up and I’m pissed about it and I almost died and I don’t wanna talk.” Kane might have felt bad snapping at the other version of Adrian, the softer more human one ... but maybe it would’ve been easier to lean on that one. He didn’t know. He just felt like if he really started talking, he would start blubbering and embarrass himself further on an already humiliating night. Kane wanted to be home where he could put his feet up and have a drink and be alone to wallow.
The more human side of Adrian would have understood. He hadn't spoken for months after all, traumatized and grieving. He wouldn't even have asked. But he wasn't feeling very human right now and what Kane went through felt kind of laughable in comparison to all the shit Adrian remembered feeling. "Oh no, you almost died?" he murmured deadpan. "Join the fucking club." Only he had died, Kane had seen to that and in comparison, tonight was just kind of 'eh'. It was kind of funny at the moment and he almost felt like rubbing it in, remind Kane it wasn't as bad as he thought, that he was lucky Adrian had been there to save his ass. "I thought almost dying was your whole thing," he said instead as he turned onto Witcham.
Kane’s jaw tightened. It was an asshole response, but he was well aware that wendigo-Adrian could be that way. It could be fun in the right mood, and dead sexy in other moods, but he wasn’t in either of those right now. Maybe tonight hadn’t been the worst thing to ever happen to either of them, but it had been fucking scary and Kane’s pride was more wounded than his arm. He didn’t like this pattern of needing to be bailed out. “Fuck that, it’s not -- I’m a good hunter,” he said sharply. He had the bank account and the reputation to prove it. “This place is just fucking hell on earth and I have bad luck here.” It sounded like a lame excuse even as it came out of his mouth, like he was trying to convince himself most of all, and Kane hated that.
"You and everyone else," Adrian scoffed softly because it didn't make Kane special. This place was hell on earth and coming out of these woods alive in the first place was pretty damn lucky. "You know you can always quit, right? Just stop going in there all Russian-roulette style." That or bring Adrian with him, if only he could figure out how to switch up this power-mode on a whim. He knew how Kane felt about quitting and maybe he wanted to piss him off now; angry felt better than sullen, more alive. "Maybe you're just getting too old for this shit."
White hot anger flashed through Kane, so if pissing him off was the goal, Adrian was succeeding admirably. Soldiering was all Kane knew how to do in life, whether that took the form of actually working for the military, or doing solo missions to do his part to rid the world of small bits of evil at a time. He got paid for it, of course, but that wasn’t the point. If he wasn’t any good for soldiering anymore, then he wasn’t any good for anything -- except being the fate-puppet he’d been born as, uncontrollably traumatized over and over by the deaths of other people in circumstances he was powerless to influence. It touched a nerve in Kane that was always raw. “Maybe you should shut your fucking mouth,” he barked, his heart starting to race. “I don’t need goddamn career counseling from you.”
"And if I don't shut up? You gonna shut me up again?" Adrian shot back and it felt good to feel something, even if that something was anger. It took a lot of nerve, telling someone like him to shut up. He was a lot stronger than Kane right now, he was bubbling with evil energy that felt just barely contained by magic and the idea of tearing Kane apart flashed through his mind, momentarily satisfying. He wouldn't like that when his human emotions woke up, but maybe he'd forget, just like he forgot all about Caius's dead people. In this case, that could get awkward but Adrian wasn't going to tiptoe around for some hypothetical feelings some other version of him might feel later. "You need all the help you can get and you know it."
Lashing out at him now would be suicidally foolish, but Kane still wanted to do it for a second, to channel all the helpless, sad rage he had inside somewhere. He wasn’t completely out of control though, and he didn’t want to hurt the other Adrian, his Adrian. Though where was the line between their opinions? Was there even one, or did this wendigo version of him just say what Adrian really thought? Did all of his lover think Kane was pathetic and helpless and needing all the help he could get? The idea made him sick to his stomach. This was the problem with getting close to people -- he ended up showing them exactly how to hurt him. Kane gritted his teeth hard for a second, fists clenched with barely-contained anger. “Stop the car,” he growled. Maybe he couldn’t do anything physical about any of this, but he didn’t have to sit there and take it either.
"Oh, you're walking?" Adrian scoffed but when Kane said it again, louder and angrier, he swerved the truck to the side of the road and hit the brakes. He felt like running into the woods himself, find something to kill - even if it wasn't a monster. Some part of him missed the bloodshed, the raw meat and the wildness of moving around the woods in the dark. But he didn't crave it anymore, didn't need it. The car was barely stationary when Kane had gotten out and Adrian rolled his eyes, groaning to himself after the door slammed behind him. Irritated, angry even, but also feeling a bit more human and alive with those feelings rushing through him. It felt better than feeling nothing, though it didn't come close to how good it felt to hunt in this form.
If Kane could have shoved some of his own emotions off on Adrian, he would have, because he was feeling too much at the moment. Angry, hurt, stupid, alone ... like everything bad everybody thought of him was true. Of course he’d earned the disdain in Adrian’s voice, he was a massive fuckup and always had been. Kane just had to get away from it. He needed more room, space for it all to dissipate before he exploded. He launched himself out of the car and yanked the door shut, stalking over to the other side of the street so he wouldn’t be in the headlights. It was a limping stalk, but he felt strong enough to do it, at least. Maybe it was the jolt of rage-adrenaline, or maybe Cecilia’s tea was working, or both, but he was walking home, even if it took him the rest of the fucking night. He didn’t even care what Adrian did with his car at the moment, he just needed to burn off some steam and be in the dark.
Adrian almost wished something would come out of the dark to attack Kane, then Adrian would get something to kill, and Kane? Well, it wouldn't ease his mood, that was for sure, but maybe he'd get back in the car. He turned off the engine and let it all go black around them, watching Kane's determined limp across the road with some amusement. It was kind of pathetic, yes, not the limp or the defeat in itself, but his whole stunted rage about it. Right now he looked like a wounded animal and it was triggering some messed up things in Adrian's psyche. He could fix him, he could kill him, he could eat him - the last bit, no. He didn't crave that anymore, but it was Kane and even like this he wanted him in every way he could have him. He ended up getting out of the car, walking leisurely in the direction Kane was heading in.
The back of Kane’s neck tingled when the headlights died. He couldn’t hear Adrian’s footsteps over his own boots and heavy breathing, but Kane knew he was back there. Following him. It didn’t feel like a supportive kind of following, it was more like being stalked by a predator. Maybe that could be chalked up to Kane’s volatile mood, but he was stubbornly determined to ignore it. If Adrian decided to give into his more monstrous nature, then so be it. Kane had no power to stop him, or anything else that might spring out of the woods at him. He didn’t give a shit at the moment, he was just struggling against the hard lump in his throat. He needed to be home, alone, decompressing and resting, not feeling like he wanted to roar into the dark until something did come for him. Kane patted himself down for his cigarettes and cursed under his breath when he found nothing.
Under his breath or not, Adrian could hear it, almost muted under the sounds of the woods around them but his focus was on Kane so it felt loud and clear to him. He didn't interfere or ask what was wrong, just kept walking after Kane at his very slow pace. He wasn't even sure himself if he was hunting him or guarding him, it felt like an odd mix of both. Either way it was a possessive feeling, Kane was his and nothing was coming out of the darkness to rip him apart unless it was Adrian himself.
If Kane hadn’t been feeling so raw and upset, he might’ve been stubborn enough to just keep walking without a word. But having Adrian back there was making his skin crawl, pushing deep instinctual buttons in a way he didn’t like and just dogpiled on top of everything else inside of him. Fuck, why had he left his smokes behind? His hands were shaking as he raked them through his hair, and the tears he was holding back almost broke through. Kane held his breath, both palms on the back of his head for several paces. Then he whirled around. “What do you want man?” he demanded, his voice not entirely steady. “Just fuck off, okay?”
Adrian kept walking, his boots loud on the pavement now without Kane's footsteps to distract him from it. It made him want to take them off, made him want to at least be wearing sneakers but it wasn't like he was trying to sneak up on Kane. He stopped with only a few feet between them, his chest rioting and his hands itching with the urge to grab, tear and hit at something - or someone. "I'm just making sure you don't get taken out again," he said, his voice flat but there was still a hint of a challenge there, the urge to poke at Kane's wounds, to get him to explode, let out that crazy energy that was sparking off him in ways that was almost visible.
Of course that was the answer, but it made Kane seethe anyway, his jaw working as he grit his teeth again. He still had a pistol strapped to him, but that obviously didn’t do much good against the kind of shit that was out here in these woods. So he was kind of a sitting duck on that dark stretch of road. It ate at him so badly too. He was supposed to be the hunter. He took a step in closer to Adrian, swallowing hard. “Give me my Adrian back,” he demanded. “I need him, not you. You fall back or whatever it is you do, we’ll get in the car and go home.” Kane knew it probably didn’t work that way, but sometimes he wondered if the wendigo side of Adrian had more control than he let on. He made for an excellent bodyguard, but not so great of a boyfriend.
Adrian narrowed his eyes at the words and even if he had the ability to just let go of hunter's state of mind, he knew he wouldn't actually do it. Get soft again? Vulnerable in the middle of Witcham of all places? No, that wasn't the reason. It was the fact Kane wanted him in one way and not another - unless it was convenient. "Am I not your Adrian?" he asked and took a step closer. He would never loom over Kane who still had the height in his favor, but he still felt like he was. He sure as hell was more dangerous. "You think I'm someone else now?" he asked. "Just some convenient weapon you can summon and dismiss when you need to?" It was a strange feeling, knowing he would probably be upset by this if he had the capacity to, but maybe anger was just another version of upset, he hadn't exactly studied it nor did he care to. "Does that mean you're fucking three people now?"
Kane felt the loom too, it was more of a loom of violence than physical presence. His heart was already racing, but something twisted differently in his chest for a split second. “That’s not what I think. And don’t talk to me about bein’ used, not tonight,” he replied coldly. “I just mopped up sixteen human souls, cleaning up your fuckin’ mess.” He’d almost died doing it too, but Kane didn’t want to bring that up again. It was embarrassing, and he didn’t have a strong position in this particular argument. “One Adrian, two, I don’t fuckin’ know how it works -- but you sure as fuck act like someone else.” Whatever he lost when the wendigo took over, Kane needed that back, if they were going to spend any more time together tonight. He needed someone to be human with him, not whatever this was. Gods, his throat ached.
If Adrian felt more human he might have told him that Kane was different too, that everyone had different moods and different personalities. Kane was as multifaceted as Adrian was and that without any kind of curse to him, tonight he'd been in multiple different modes and the only reason Adrian had changed was because he'd gotten hurt. "I'm kind of a package deal," he muttered instead. "You think I like you like this? All sulky and vibrating with energy you don't know what to do with." He leaned in closer, close enough that their faces almost touched, and he could nearly smell Kane's desperation. "Bring back the other Kane, the cute one from earlier tonight," he added even if he didn't mean it. He was just pissed that Kane would ask him such a thing, dismiss him like that, like he had some kind of say in who or what he was.
It had probably been a dumbass thing to say, but Kane had done far worse than misspeak tonight, and he had the totally irrational sense that Adrian should know what he meant, what he needed -- and that Adrian should want to give it to him because they were in love and he was in pain. There was far less empathy when the wendigo side of him was in control though ... and Kane knew he really shouldn’t expect that kind of support from anyone, ever. He didn’t deserve it anyway. All of this failure and anger and darkness was more familiar. There were weird reactions happening in his body from this fight and the way Adrian invaded his space, a stupid mix of lust and frustrated rage and shame and emasculation ... none of it felt good. “He had a bad fuckin’ night,” Kane growled, and pushed his chest into Adrian’s. The smaller man didn’t budge, of course, and it just reinforced that dangerous presence that he had. Kane couldn’t give a shit at the moment. “So if you don’t like it, get the fuck outta my face and let me be alone.”
The physical contact and the angry words snapped something in Adrian and he could feel it crunching like dead branches inside his chest whatever it was. Resolve, willpower, some feelings he couldn't really access. "I can smell your blood," he murmured. "Me and every god damn thing out in these woods so no I'm not fucking leaving you alone." He pushed back, his gaze intent on Kane's eyes, so close the view of him was almost skewed and he could feel the hard beat of Kane's heart as well as feel it, sending pleasant vibrations through his own chest. "You're mine, remember? No take backs." He might not feel the love he knew he had for Kane right now but he knew it was there underneath the possessive almost violent fury raging inside of him.
It was becoming clear to Kane that he was not going to get his way here, that Adrian wasn’t going to let him storm off into the dark like he wanted to. The reminder that he was currently injured made his rage flare skyward again, but then it all seemed to collapse under its own weight inside of him, crumbling into something much more pathetic that he wanted so badly to hide. Kane didn’t want to crack in front of wendigo-Adrian, he couldn’t cry here, it wasn’t safe. The reality of his failure and weakness tonight was still there staring him in the face, but being angry about the truth didn’t change it -- it was a lesson Kane still hadn’t internalized. If Adrian didn’t actually respect him deep down, this wasn’t going to fix that, he was just making things worse, like he always did. His jaw worked for a moment as he tried to keep his chin from trembling, staring hard into Adrian’s eyes. Before his own started to water, he moved to the side to step past Adrian, back toward the car, roughly bumping their shoulders together as he did. It was like shoulder-checking a brick wall. “Let’s go then,” he grunted, voice a bit hoarse.
Adrian didn't miss all those expressions in Kane's face, he could tell his eyes were watering, his jaw was tight, his eyes tense and narrowed and those were all pretty obvious signs of distress. Being so far removed from his own feelings made trying to read Kane like trying to answer questions on a test he'd studied for five years ago. He was supposed to know this, but he didn't. The big emotions were easy to remember and recognize but the nuances were all lost on him and tonight's nuances might even have been lost on him even if he was fully human. He was lost to his own angry feelings, projecting his own shit on Kane and when he walked away from him, it just cemented those thoughts even more. He walked after Kane to the car but before he could open the door, Adrian grabbed him by the jacket and pushed him up against the car, stepping up close behind him and bending him over just enough to put them on equal level. "You liked me just fine when we were out here like this last time," he said gruffly against his ear. "What changed?"
Being grabbed from behind and manhandled startled Kane and his heart rate shot up again as his body connected with the SUV. He had no choice but to bend where Adrian pulled him, the grip on him strong and demanding. Chills of fear and something hotter ran down his back, and he couldn’t help but struggle a little, pushing uselessly against Adrian’s torso to try and get some space. It was a hard question to answer even not under duress, and Kane struggled with words for a moment, grunting and stuttering a little. His eyes had started leaking now, his expression strained and twisted. “‘Cause I fucked up this time,” he forced out. He didn’t have his wits about him enough to try to make up a lie. “I needed saving -- I couldn’t get it done.” Kane didn’t know if that would make sense to Adrian as an upsetting thing, if he could understand the humiliation of it, especially at the moment. “Adrian-- stop, m’sorry. It’s not you, it’s not really you.” He tried a little harder to get free.
That wasn't the answer Adrian was expecting. He wasn't even sure what he was expecting - or where he was going with this - but the answer baffled him. "Everyone needs saving sometimes," he said with earnest bewilderment. "That's why you're all worked up?" He didn't release Kane as he considered it, barely noticing his struggling. Nuances. He knew all about pride and embarrassment, it was hardly surprising that was what was going on and yet... It seemed so petty to him right now, too small for this reaction. "How the fuck would me being more human help you with that?" he asked. "I coddle you and what? You feel better? No fucking way, you'd just stay pissed off." There really was no way for him to treat Kane right tonight, this was probably the worst way he could deal with Kane but sweet would be condescending. There was some internal battle going on that he knew nothing about and in this particular battle - it'd probably have been better if he hadn't been here at all.
Kane was in no state of mind to be rational and psychoanalyze himself. He knew he was acting like a little bitch, but that didn’t make it easier to control, and it just added to the shame that was driving the bullshit in the first place. He couldn’t explain all that though, especially not with Adrian pinning him against a car. Everything felt raw and exposed and awful, and his head hurt and his joints ached and trying to keep it all down felt like an icepick in the throat. Kane stopped struggling and leaned heavier against the car, and it felt like submitting. “I just wanna --” he started, but his voice broke. He cleared his throat. “I just wanna go home. Please. I’m sorry.” The adrenaline was ebbing again and Kane felt exhausted and a little shaky.