Who: Inej, Kaz, Nina What: hounds Where: their house When: day 8 (morning?) Warnings: some violence Status: complete g-doc
There was rarely a night that Kaz did not suffer from nightmares. Images, sensations, of being a float in the harbor, his hands clinging to his brother’s corpse as he desperately paddled for shore. Some nights he’d dream of being adrift with the bodies, tears staining his cheeks, as he lay among the dead and breathing in the suffocating stench of decay and rot. Others he found himself once more with his brother, both sheltered in a dirty alley, and Jordie barely clinging to life beside him.
Perhaps those were the worst of all because in those dreams he still tried to save his brother. He hadn’t resigned himself to the truth just yet. He still believed Jordie would wake up if he just shook him harder, if he just shouted his name louder, if he’d only known who Rollins truly was. Upon waking, guilt and anger wracked his heart as sweat beaded on his forehead and his heart pounded wildly in his chest. Guilt at not being able to do something to protect Jordie and anger, fierce, fiery anger at Jordie for being so stupid. So naive.
But last night Kaz did not have any dreams about Jordie. Instead, he dreamt of being chased through hallways and corridors by hounds. Blind, skeletal dogs with flesh that fell from their bones as they endlessly hunted him. The Bastard of the Barrel awoke with a start, sweat making his clothes cling to his body, and heart pounding in his chest. Kaz could still smell the putrid odor of their flesh and feel their breath as their teeth moved to close around his leg. Blinking, Kaz foolishly found himself searching the darkness of his room for any sign of the beasts. There was nothing and Kaz sank back against the pillows, forcing himself to take a deep breath. It was just a dream like all his others and yet-
Before Kaz could ponder the strangeness of the nightmare, a scream in a very familiar voice shattered the silence of the house. Inej. Kaz bolted from his bed and a gloved hand quickly grabbed the cane where it rested against the night stand. It was rare that Kaz ever slept without his clothes or gloves and this was one of the reasons why. He yanked open the door and hurried to Inej’s room.
“Inej!” Another scream pierced his ears and Kaz barreled his way into her room, eyes immediately landing on a bleeding Inej and the hound who had her cornered. One of the hounds lunged at her and Kaz blocked his attack with his cane. Whipping it around, the Crow’s head collided with the head of the beast and knocked it clean off. The body immediately dissolved into a strange mist, but Kaz didn’t have time to ponder it. He knelt beside Inej. Anger and fear reflected in his eyes as he looked her over and for once he was not the stoned-face bastard everyone knew from the Barrel. He was just a man scared for the woman he loved.
“You’re bleeding bad. We have to get you to Nina now. Can you stand?” Even as he asked the question, Kaz was already moving to wrap an arm around her waist. The fear of losing Inej outweighing his fear of touch in the heat of the moment.
Inej had not had a restful sleep all night. She had tried to stay awake, but she had finally felt so exhausted she had fallen asleep. That's when the bad things had started.
She was having a horrible nightmare where she was being chased by a pack of hounds that seemed to have it out for her for some reason. Everytime she ran into a new room, another hound joined the pack until she had lost track of how many of these horrible things were chasing her. They smelled like something had died and when she did get a good look at them, they seemed to be rotting with every step they took. Pieces of flesh were falling off of them and the closer they got, the worse the smell from them got.
In her nightmare, she stopped running through rooms and instead did what she was good at. She found a foothold in a wall and she started pulling herself up the wall and into the rafters of the ceiling. However, that move did nothing to deter the hounds. They kept leaping at her, their jaws snapping together as they tried to get a piece of her.
She could see from their milky eyes that they were blind, but somehow, they were still tracking her. She held herself up in the rafters, calling for help from other members of the Crows, but no one seemed to hear her. As she tried to pull herself further up into the ceiling so she could try to punch through the roof to escape, one of the hounds jumped higher than it should have been able to and clamped his jaw around her boot. She could feel his teeth in her flesh as he managed to pull her down from her perch and they all attacked her...
Inej woke with a gasp, the smell of the hounds and the pain she felt still fresh in her mind. It was a dream, only a dream. She was back in her bed in the room she had claimed in the house the Crows had been making theirs. She was on her back, staring up at the ceiling, something she could barely make out in the darkness. She could tell from the dark grayness of the air around her that it would soon be dawn.
She shifted on her bed and that was when the smell hit her. That smell that had permeated her nightmares so thoroughly. She shouldn't be smelling it now. But it got closer to her and she could hear toenails on the hard floor.
This couldn't be real. She had to get out of here and lead them away from her friends.
The hounds were getting closer. In the haziness of the dawn she counted four of the hounds and then one of them looked like it was ready to leap on her.
However, she was small and fast so as the first hound landed on the bed, Inej had already rolled off of it and to her feet. She tried to scramble up the wall only to feel one of the hounds crash into her and then she felt the teeth tear into her arm. She couldn't help it, she screamed from the pain.
She got back to her feet and turned to face her hunters as she desperately tried to find a way out of this. She found herself back against a dresser and she crawled onto it backwards. If only she could get herself an opening to plant her feet into the wall. She knew that she could get up and out of this room and out through the roof.
"Inej!"
She heard Kaz shout her name, but before she could warn him away from her room, a hound took advantage of her split attention and attacked her again. This time her scream was both of pain and fear as the hound grabbed at her leg.
She shouldn't have been surprised to see Kaz crash through her door and use his cane to beat at the hound about to jump at her. She was shaking from the pain when she felt his arm go around her.
She nodded in answer to his question. "I think... I think so. Where the hell did these things come from?"
Kaz shook his head. “I don’t know.” And right now, Kaz didn’t care. His concern was the woman beside him. There was a lot of blood dripping from the wound on her leg. He did not like the look of it. It reminded him of the moment he’d saved her in the harbor. She’d been bleeding then, practically broken in his arms, and all he could think was how desperately he wanted her to live. How much he needed her to live. His Wraith. Inej. The only woman brave enough to capture the heart of Dirty Hands. The Bastard of the Barrel.
“Come on. We need to get you to Nina now.” Kaz’s grip tightened around her waist as he helped Inej to her feet. Slowly, the two of them started for the doorway and then he heard it. Claws scratching on the wood floor followed by the sound of growl filled the air and Kaz turned. He peered into the darkness. At first, he saw nothing, but then the hound stepped forward and Kaz caught sight of the empty eye sockets and flesh crumbling from its body. Damn it.
He dropped his cane and without a second thought lifted Inej easily into his arms. The cane clattered to the floor, but the sound was drowned out by the sound of the hounds descending upon them. Kaz knew they didn’t have much time. He put weight on his injured leg and quickly stepped over the threshold of the room and into the hallway.
Inej wanted to take her weight off of Kaz, but when he lifted her in his arms, that action was taken away from her. It was probably a good thing as pain was radiating through her leg and she knew that she wouldn't be able to put much weight on it to run. She just didn't want to be the reason that Kaz, her Kaz, got attacked by one or more of these things.
When he stepped into the hall with her, she spotted Nina. Of course. Her friend would have heard her screams and the sound of fighting. Nina was reaching for her even as Kaz took her into the closest room. He laid her down and said something to Nina, but the pain was causing her attention to go in and out.
"Kaz --" She reached for him only to feel his coat pass through her fingers as he headed back to the hallway. "Kaz!"
Nina didn’t generally find sleep difficult. This place, though, at least the first days, involved her and Kaz taking turns keeping watch, and her time in that place called Scotland popped up in her dreams. But, with the arrival of Matthias, the Grisha slept well with her Druskelle next to her.
Except last night. The dreams. Being chased by the dogs who seemed blind but kept snarling and chasing Nina. Nina tossed and turned as the dogs’ flesh kept falling off the bodies, but it didn’t detour them from their pursuit of the Grisha down various halls.
When she awoke with a start, the scent from the dogs’ breath lingered in her nose. For some reason, Nina cast her powers to check on the heartbeats of her friends. Matthias and Jes both came back higher than normal, but nothing too concerning. But Kaz and Inej? Nint leaped out of the bed, throwing on the first clothes she grabbed, to not run into the hall naked.
The site which greeted her worried Nina in a way she couldn’t describe. Inej looked to be in terrible shape and Kaz…like he planned on murdering everything in his path. Ignoring anything Kaz said at the moment, Nina rushed over to her best friend. She spoke softly. “Hey knife wife,” using her nickname for her absolute favourite female in this or any world. The Grisha used her arm gestures to assess how fast her friend’s heart beat, trying to bring it down just a bit. Her healing abilities weren’t as good as an actual healer, but she could get Inej’s injuries to about 75% healed.
“Just heal her. I’m going to get my cane back.” It was the last thing Kaz said before he rushed from the room. He could still feel Inej’s fingers tugging at his coat. The sound of her voice calling his name, but in this moment, he was blinded by rage and anger. Images of Inej bleeding out in his arms as he carried her aboard the ship flashed before his eyes. They were juxtaposed with what he’d just seen this morning. The blood coating her pant leg and the way she tried to keep her face from contorting in pain. He knew he would never forget that scream for as long as he lived.
Though, his mission was not solely as selfish as revenge. He could keep the hounds busy while Nina healed Inej. Possibly until Jesper and Matthias showed up. Flicking out his knife, Kaz limped towards Inej’s room. Morning light had just started to filter in through the curtains, but there were still corners of the space that were as dark as night. It was in those corners that he heard the growls. And then the hounds appeared.
They bounded towards him and Kaz brandished his knife, slicing off bits of their flesh. Thankfully, his cane was near the door and he was able to grab the end. However, the hound had the same idea. It grasped the crow’s head in its mouth, unwilling to let go even as Kaz tugged hard on the other end. The creature inched towards him and Kaz slashed at it, eventually striking the hound in the neck. It whined and Kaz yanked his cane away. Without hesitation, Kaz swung the cane and managed to knock off its head.
Inej tried to call Kaz back, but the pain was horrible and he was gone to her bedroom again to get his cane. And she knew that he was going to see if he could kill more of the hounds before they tried to come after her again.
Kaz would do anything her could to keep any kind of harm or villains away from her no matter what he had to do. She appreciated the dedication, but she'd really like if he didn't get himself hurt because of her.
She sucked in a breath as the pain in her leg -- a much worse injury than the one on her arm. It might have been worse if she had been pulled down to the floor and the hounds had converged on her.
Inej felt Nina trying to gauge her heart rate as she laid her down so she could work on trying to heal her like she had healed her on the journey to the Ice Court.
"Hey knife wife," Nina said using the nickname that only a best friend and trusted sister could for Inej.
Inej tried to smile, but she was trying to breathe by useing slightly less gasping sounds than she had been. "My waffle wife," Inej countered, her limbs shaking. "They cornered me in my room." She swallowed. "Kaz is going to try to take them all out."
Nina knew, without looking, that Matthias stood by, ready to defend and protect the Grisha while she healed their friends. And she would show him her gratitude later. Right now, her focus remained on her best friend.
“Can you try to take some deep breaths, Inej?” Nina asked quietly. She used her powers again on Inej and more of the wound closed. The Grisha ripped a part of the shirt she’d grabbed and used it to wipe up the blood. Another gesture and Inej’s heart rate lowered a bit more. A hand brushed some of Inej’s hair from her face, a gentle gesture for Nina’s found sister. “Well, let’s hope he succeeds.” The last thing the Crows needed was their boss getting injured too. “I hate that they cornered you.”
Kaz had managed to kill two of the hounds, but the beasts kept coming. They snarled and lunged at him, teeth bared, and Kaz barely managed to avoid the onslaught. His leg throbbed, but Kaz had learned a long time ago how to handle the pain. Any pain. He swung his cane and brandished the blade, striking and slicing at the hounds, until they dissolved into mist. Sweat dripped from his brow and made his clothes cling to him, but he kept going. He had to keep them away from Inej.
And then one managed to grab his injured leg and Kaz fell, his back slamming into the hardwood floor. The bite hurt like hell, but Kaz managed not to scream. He could only hope the teeth had not pierced an artery. The dog leapt upon him and Kaz raised his cane, holding the beast back as its jaws snapped at his face. Summoning all of his strength, Kaz managed to shove it off. Blood seeped from the wound on his leg and Kaz scrambled to shift into a sitting position as the other hound bounded towards him. Before he could react, the dog sunk its teeth into his stomach.
His face contorted in pain, but Kaz managed to sink his knife into its neck. He stabbed and stabbed until it dissolved into mist. The other grabbed his arm, another bite, this one striking his wrist and blood immediately pooled around the wound. This time Kaz let out a growl. Thankfully, his knife was grabbed in the other hand and he stabbed the beast in the neck. The hound yelped and Kaz did it again. A sigh escaped his lips when the hound dissolved into mist like the rest.
For a moment, there was no sound except for Nina’s voice coming from the other room. Kaz took a breath and then another, watching as his blood slowly stained the floor of Inej’s bedroom. He reached out for his cane, fingers grasping the head of the Crow and he tried to push himself up, to at least crawl, but he couldn’t. The wounds on his body were deep and already he was getting woozy from blood loss.
"It all started in my nightmares," Inej sounded weaker than she wanted to sound. After all, how could a hound bite have hurt so damn badly? She'd seen and experienced very few bites in her life due to her abilities, but she had been bitten before. "Then I woke up and they were there."
She looked up at her best friend and sister and gave her a faint smile. "The hounds are bad... Kaz is going to need help."
She knew that Kaz wouldn't be taken down easily but the hounds seemed to have the strength of numbers and she knew that even Kaz couldn't fight too many of them by himself.
So, of course, as hurt as her leg and arm were, she tried to get to her feet. Kaz needed her.
Nina listened as her friend spoke, all the while healing as well as she could.
When Inej stood, Nina looked at her with an expression she rarely wore. That of a soldier who would not allow one to argue with her.
“I will go get him. Stay here with Matthias.” Truthfully, she should send in Matthias, but he might decide to take down hound’s instead of pulling Kaz to safety.
She ran into the room and swore at the sight which she beheld. Nina grabbed Kaz’s cane. She swung at two hounds, before she handed it to Kaz. “I’m going to need to touch you, Kaz. I’m so sorry.” Nina might not know why her friend hated being touched but she knew he loathed it. But, unless she got him out, she wouldn’t be able to heal him.
A deep breath and then she grasped him under the shoulders, and dragged him out, shutting the door behind her. Quickly she moved away and began using her Heartrender powers.
Despite slipping in and out of consciousness, Kaz was aware of the sound of footsteps and then Nina appeared. Using his cane, she managed to ward off the remaining hounds. Then the cane was in his hand and Kaz gripped the handle. He was already attempting to stand when Nina said she would need to touch him and apologized. Before he could even think to respond, her hands were under his shoulders and the Bastard of the Barrel tensed under the touch.
Every fiber in his body screamed at him to pull away. As she tugged him from the room, Kaz had to fight back the urge to struggle in her grip. Even though the touch was brief, it made his skin crawl. He forced air into his lungs and managed to push down the desire to be sick at the contact. It wasn’t Nina’s fault. He didn’t hate her for it. He understood she was trying to save his life and, at the moment, Kaz was merely trying to stay conscious.
He blinked, darkness creeping at the edges of his vision as he watched Nina use her powers and felt the shift in his heart rate.
When Nina left the room, Inej looked up at Matthias and wondered if he really would stop her from going to Kaz's side. She did manage to sit up and looked toward the door. Under normal circumstances she could have been up and out of the door before Matthias was even aware of what was happening. However, with the pain still making itself known in her leg, she didn't think she'd be able to get out of his reach and she was sure he would do his best to keep her here because Nina wanted her to stay down.
She thought about asking him to go help Nina but she wasn't sure if she would be able to fight if the hounds somehow got past her friends and cornered her again. Saints, she hated feeling vulnerable.
Giving him a look, she sat up, but didn't try to stand -- even as she stared out the door in rising worry.
If Kaz and Nina didn't come in here soon, Inej wouldn't be able to stop herself from going to them.
Thankfully, Nina had gotten Kaz out of the room and had him within sight of Inej and Matthias. And Inej didn’t try to follow Nina into the room. The Grisha had enough bandwidth to…use her powers, not chase down her friends.
She used her Heartrender powers and first manipulated Kaz’s heart so he wouldn’t lose consciousness. That done, she assessed the damage. Nina ripped off part of her shirt and tied it like a tourniquet before she began healing her friend. This would be more slow going than Inej, as he hadn’t escaped quite as quickly. Nina kept at it for a few minutes, stopping to assess his heart rate. Slowly it looked better and better.
“Kaz?”
Kaz kept shifting in and out of consciousness. The blood loss had left his head spinning. He was vaguely aware of his heart rate slowing and the feel of Nina’s hands on him once more. Kaz instinctively flinched under her touch, but he didn’t have the energy to pull away. He groaned and slowly the pain started to fade from his wounds. It was a slow process and Kaz had lost a lot of blood.
Nina’s voice reached his ears and Kaz’s eyes fluttered open once more. He took a breath, forcing air into his lungs, and swallowed. He felt weak, drained, but he would live thanks to Nina. “Nina-” Kaz broke off and his gaze shifted to his bedroom and where Inej sat on the bed. She looked okay. Nina healed Inej and Matthias was with her. His gaze shifted back to Nina.
“Is Inej healed?” He demanded, voice hoarse. Kaz attempted to sit by using the cane to prop himself up.
"Inej can hear you," she said, trying to make her voice sound tart so that she didn't worry Kaz or the others. The fact was that she was worried. The hounds had been focused on her. She hadn't seen them attack Kaz during the first round until he attacked them to help her. If he hadn't come to her aid...
She ran her eyes over Kaz, trying to look him over completely and then looked at Nina. "Nina, are you ok?"
She thought about getting to her feet, but a look at Matthias told her that he would still keep her off of them until Nina told him she could move. However, she wasn't sure that she liked how her friend looked after healing both her and Kaz.
"Waffle Wife, talk to me before I do something foolish."
Nina looked exceptionally exasperated. Extremely so, in fact. “You stay sitting,” she commanded Kaz. “In fact, if either of you try moving until I heal you both more, I will stop your hearts.” If only because she could more easily heal them that way. “I love you both, but saints! You are terrible patients.”
Yes, she was exhausted and yes, grumpy Nina definitely started to make an appearance. “I’m fine.” Nina concentrated on Kaz. “Of course I healed her.” What kind of question was that? She removed the tourniquet, careful to avoid touching Kaz with her fingers. No more blood flowed and his leg looked better, but he’d lost blood, which she couldn’t fix.
She focused her power on Kaz again, biting her lip. Finally, Nina sat back. “I think that’s as good as it’s going to get until we find you food.” If necessary , she would manipulate his heart to ensure he could heal. The Grisha moved to Inej and checked her wound. A bit more healing and Nina nodded. “No moving. Either of you. Not yet.”
Even wounded and bleeding, Kaz would still be the stubborn bastard. He would still be the demanding son of a bitch. However, after seeing how exhausted and exasperated Nina was, Kaz made himself sit still for her. He heard Inej from inside his room and knew she was okay for the time being.
Kaz forced himself not to flinch as she removed the tourniquet from around his leg. Thankfully, her fingers didn’t graze his skin and it looked as if the blood flow had stopped. He felt his heart rate even out as Nina finished healing him. Blinking, Kaz looked over himself, taking in his blood stained clothes, and then looked over at Nina.
He waited until he caught her eye and then he simply nodded at her. It was his ‘thank you.’ He didn’t doubt she’d heal Inej, but his fear had prompted him to ask, to demand if she had done so. He knew she could understand that. Every part of Kaz wanted to rise and walk to Inej, but he forced himself to remain seated. He took in deep breaths and forced his head to stop spinning. Even with the healing, Kaz knew he would be weakened from the experience. It would take time for him to fully recover. Fuck.
Inej looked at Nina when she came back to her side. "You would be a terrible patient if you and one of us were hurt and you couldn't tell exactly what was going on," she pointed out with a tired smile.
That was Inej. She would always do her best to put on a brave face and home that the Saints listened to her prayers for her and her friends. Even know when everything within her was screaming to hug Nina tightly and then limp to Kaz, she stayed still because Nina needed her to.
But damn if she didn't want to hug both of them.
"They didn't attack Kaz until he came to help me," Inej said quietly. "One minute, they were chasing me in my dreams and then I woke up and they were attacking me. I thought I could get up to the ceiling, but I didn't move quickly enough."
And didn't that piss her off. She should have been able to be on that dresser and up in the rafters before any of them could lay a tooth on her.
"If Kaz killed them all, is it safe to stay here or do you guys think we need more precautions?"
Precautions that did not include Kaz getting hurt again because of her, thank you very much.
She knew what the nod meant, and Nina smiled. The Grisha would save her friends over and over again, no matter what.
Nina hugged her friend. “Oh, I would be the worst patient,” the Grisha areed, with a wink. When Inej spoke quietly, Nina shook her head. “No. This is not your fault.” Precautions, though. “I’ll be right back.”
After returning to Kaz, “Come on. I’ve healed you enough you can limp to Inej. If anything opens, I’ll heal it again.” Kaz and Inej would be more compliant if they could see each other. Ignoring her exhaustion, Nina handed Kaz his cane. “We should talk precautions and next steps.”
“I was limping before you healed me.” Using the wall, Kaz pulled himself to his feet and accepted the cane from Nina. Leaning heavily on the Crow’s head, Kaz made his way back into his bedroom and took a seat on the edge of the bed. He could hear the hounds baying and scratching behind the door of Inej’s room. It was already too late for precautions.
He allowed his gaze to briefly travel over Inej, but the young woman was okay. Nina had healed her wound and while she looked as anxious as Kaz felt, she would live. To Kaz, that was all that mattered. His eyes shifted around to Nina’s face carrying a tired expression and then to Matthias.
“Wherever Inej is located, the hounds will come for her. There is no place specifically in the house where she is safe,” Kaz stated. “One of us should be with her at all times to provide backup. At least one of us.” Kaz was already considering the patrol they would need around the perimeter of the house.
“We also need to set up a watch around the perimeter. First watch can go to Matthias and, once Nina has a moment to rest, she can accompany him. Jesper can take the first shift providing backup to Inej.” Kaz would obviously be near Inej too. He wasn’t going to leave her safely completely in Jesper’s hands. Hopefully, after eating something, his head would be less dizzy. “We’ll switch every two hours so that no one gets overly exhausted.”
Inej nodded, but there were so many questions in her own mind. Many of them being variations on what the hell these things were and why they were here. This was not something any of them had ever dealt with and she would have been happy if they had never seen them to begin with.
“Your plan sounds good, Kaz,” Inej agreed. “I can also do my best to stay up as far from the ground as possible. They seem to be able to jump, but they can’t climb. At least, they couldn’t in my nightmares when this whole thing first started. The only reason they got a tooth on me was I wasn’t fast enough to find a foothold in the wall.”
She ran a hand over her face. “But at least we know that weapons can hurt them.”
Nina thought they’d perhaps gotten past the point of exhaustion. At least as far as Nina’s energy supplies went.
“Whatever you think best, Kaz.” Nina would follow her friend’s directions, but she fought another yawn. “Matthias isn’t going by himself. I’ll go with him. I’m fine.” Mostly. “I’m going to gather some rocks for weapons.”
“Be careful.” Nina directed this to Inej. “I’m going to need someone to watch my back long enough for me to rehydrate.”
“We’ll take a moment to rest. We’re all going to need food and water before we start shifts.” Kaz didn’t think Nina would let Matthias go alone even if Kaz was pretty sure Helvar could take out three hounds on his own without breaking a sweat.
“And if Inej sticks to the rafters and trees that should help immensely.” But they should head down to the kitchen and take advantage of the reprieve before it was gone. Kaz’s gaze shifted to the door to Inej’s room and the howling coming from inside.
“Let’s take care of the unwanted guests and then we will head to the kitchen. Afterwards, you can gather rocks, Nina.” He needed her to be hydrated and nourished because it would fall to her to treat any injuries the Crows would suffer. And Kaz had no doubt there would be injuries.
Kaz started towards Inej’s door. First thing, first.