The Nosferatu Adventures s11 p7

The Nosferatu Adventures 
page 281, chapter 281

Out of Time

Edric was just finishing the one wall when our heroine and Quentin returned. They had been gone for just over two hours, which was more than enough time that the sire bond was starting to get to him. He knew that if they'd been gone any longer, it would have forced him to find her.  He hated the fact he was at the mercy of the magickal link.  Our heroine entered the warehouse, dropping the large package onto the dinning room table, before slinking her way over to the male. He shot her a glance from the corner of his eye, as she stood beside him. Edric had to fight the urge to both cringe and to hug her. The sire bond was giving new meaning to the phrase love/hate relationship.

"Eggshell looks good on you." she commented wiping at the half dried smudge of paint that had fallen onto his shoulder. Without thinking about what she was doing, the female planted a quick kiss on his cheek then his temple before she managed to get control of herself. Edric said nothing as he struck the rolling brush against the far corner of the wall. Secretly, he was calculating how much longer till the full moon ritual would force his hand, and he managed to secure the pack alpha position. He could feel it creeping up his brain. A strange alarm that was about to go off in all directions. One way or the other, Edric was going to fight Dagan for it, and the young hybrid was more than capable of taking the older wolf. Maybe he'd go ahead and claim her as his mate just to pour salt on the wound.

"I take it you got the book?" he asked gesturing towards the large wrapped object sitting now like a prized trophy, along with a few bags from the occult shop. He put the paint roller down, turning then to face her. "So you really going to go through with it?" she nodded tilting her head to the side, her eyes searching his for something. "And you really don't think there is another option?" he ducked his chin hands out at his sides, palms up. She shook her head breathing shallow her eyes turning to his right hand. There was paint on his wrist too. Our heroine placed her own hand in his with the lightest feather touch. The male straightened up to his full height, as if he was about to pull away from her. Instead, Edric locked his fingers with hers, holding her hand.  "Well I don't like this. I think it's a bad idea all around." he bit his bottom lip suddenly as a wave of dizziness seemed to clamp onto his chest.

"I can't fight him like this. It won't work. I need to be able to detach the same way The Seer is." she replied, the fingertips of her other hand dancing across the curve of his ear. Edric gritted his teeth fighting against the electric heat that burned his flesh when she touched him. Letting out a jagged breath he swallowed, as he guided her wrist away from his ear reluctantly.

"But wouldn't having a pack alpha neutralize him? I mean, he's still half lycanthrope right? The rules still apply even if they are all shacked up."

She cast her eyes down towards the male's lower body, her eyebrows knitted together in frustration. "You're still thinking in one dimension. This is not a werewolf thing. He's shut that part of himself down somehow. The part of him that Pan tinkered with, the power hungry part, that's all sidhe. All witch. I know him. I've been through this type of thing with him before. I need to be as strong as he is. And I can't if I'm still...if I've still got my soul."

"I can't let you do this." his voice took on an angry tone as he shook his head, his free hand now in his hair. "No! I won't allow it! Look, you might not want me as your mate. Fine. You clearly don't want me as the alpha. But it's still the better choice." he closed his eyes breathing in the scents of van-van oil and lavender incense still clinging to her from the occult shop. Sighing, she tried to move from him, but he held on to her; his fingers still locked with hers. "What happens if your plan backfires? What if removing your soul makes things worse?"  She shrugged.

"What could be worse than The Seer out there destroying people? Leaving them nothing more than husks?"

"You joining him." What Edric was really thinking was what if her removing her soul left him even crazier than the sire bond ever did with Dagan? What if he found himself a permanent drooling mess like The Seer was when he was still possessed by Pan?  Edric liked his life too much to allow the gamble. Pack alpha or not, he needed to make sure our heroine did not go through with her plan.

"The soul thing, nothing to do with the sire bond. I'm not removing our link. Unless...you want me to?" Edric blinked jerking his shoulders and neck back as if he'd been slapped. She was giving him an out. It had never occurred to him that he could break the sire bond. "I remove my soul I stop being a shapeshifter. No more need for a pack alpha cause there won't be enough lycanthropes here in this reality for a pack."

The male licked his lips, his blue eyes glazed over as he processed what she was telling him. He'd be one of a kind, the only hybrid. Gawking at the curve of her shoulder, the sound of her blood ringing in his ears, the sandy-blonde male allowed his mind to drift. Allowed his eyes to fall to her boobs, watching the edge of the v-necked shirt rise and fall with each breath as she continued to talk. He had long since stopped listening to the words, focusing only on the sound of the blood. Focused on the one tiny blue vein that ran from her collar bone across her chest, disappearing under the edge of her shirt. That pencil thin vein seemed to glow like a neon river, blurring his vision to the rest of his surroundings. Digging the heel of his left palm into his eyes he swore to himself. His self induced trance caused him to hallucinate. To see the small tentacle like beams that bound them to each other. One from the heart chakra at the center of their chests, one from the solar plexus, one from the brow, the crown, the throat, the sacral and base chakras of their lower bodies.  "I need to think." he moved away from her reluctantly, still holding her hand till his elbow strained forcing him to unlock his fingers from hers so he could leave the building.

"She does not get to make that decision." Edric said a while later as he paced back and forth in the nearby empty baseball field. His hands everywhere. Letting out a huff, he turned sharply on his heels starting the next round of steps.

"Now are we talking about her offering to end the sire bond for you, or we talking about the fact if she does remove her soul, you'll never get to be the pack alpha. Unless you go off biting people and start your own pack." Quentin said from the edge of a weather stripped bleacher. He'd been sitting there for a few minutes, silently observing.

"Why are you still following me?" he snapped growling, even though he knew it wouldn't scare the human in the slightest. He turned again pacing to his right.

"I'm your friend." the redhead stated flatly.

"Are you? When did that happen exactly? Huh? Cause I'd sure as hell never seen you before that night. I don't even know how you knew about me?"

Quentin gave a laugh under his breath. "I'd seen you before. On my way home from work. I'd pass by your building every day. And every day, I saw people coming and going from it, busy with their lives, ignoring anyone who wasn't them. No one pays attention anymore to others. I saw you one night, you had the remains of a black eye. There was another time I was just getting off the night shift, saw you heading towards your building but for some reason you didn't go in. You turned, headed to the fast food place down a few buildings, stayed there I'm guessing for a few hours, cause when I went back out, couple hours later and passed your building again, you were sitting outside on a bus stop bench, a takeaway drink in hand. Waiting. Watching the front doors of your building. And the next time I saw you, you came through my wing of the hospital. Broken shoulder, cracked ribs."  Edric froze turning his head to glare at Quentin over his shoulder, his hands flexing and unflexing in pure anger. "You said you fell. That you were drunk and missed a step, tumbled down a small flight of stairs. Only you didn't remotely smell like a man who spent his time in the bottom of a keg. Didn't act like one either. I saw the x-rays. Old breaks. That was at lest four months before Nosferatu turned you."  The redhead shuffled his feet on the bleacher leaning closer to the hybrid. "The night I saw you dead, my first thought was not werewolf, not vampire. It was boyfriend, husband had taken it one step too far. So I got your medical records and imagine my surprise when I saw the in case of emergency, a woman's name listed. Huh." he jerked his neck as if to punctuate his point. The hybrid was on him, his hands now glass like claws as he picked up the human tossing him to the ground with a force, Quentin couldn't breathe.

"That doesn't explain how you knew about the werewolf part?" Edric spun around kicking up dirt. "You'll live. Barely tapped you." he walked in a wide circle tuning his overly sensitive ears to the other male's breathing patterns. He couldn't hurt him. Something in the hybrid had pulled back, screaming in him to not hurt the 'Quentin'.  He continued to pace in wide strides till he heard the human's breathing return to normal.

"No. You don't think?" the redhead teased. Getting up he checked his shoulders, his ankles to make sure the landing hadn't hurt him. "What does it matter now? I figured it out, I'm a smart cookie." he shrugged. Closing his eyes he let out a deep sigh. "Okay fine, I overheard some of the hospital staff saying you had similar slices and marks some of the victims from that serial killer had on them."  Edric was pacing around still, biting his nails, his hands having returned to their human form. "I went by the apartment. That night, before getting you out of the morgue. I wanted to see for myself if it was the same person who'd done it. I was curious. Nothing more. And this tiny little blonde thing opened the door..."

"Shut up!" he spat the words, actual saliva hitting the air. 
 
"Well it all makes sense now doesn't it?" Quentin asked raising his hands out to his sides letting them slam into his thighs. "Why you..." he gestured towards the hybrid. "all muscle bound and smart enough to know how to defend yourself, why you didn't even bother to try to fight Nosferatu off. Sure, you were just a human like me, and here's this all powerful vampire ripping your throat out. Enough to make anyone piss themselves. But there wasn't any tissue under your nails, no defense wounds. Nothing to indicate that you even thought to try to fight back!" he tapped his temple. "It wasn't simply because the female hybrid was stronger, faster than you. It was because she was a female." he tilted his head to the side. "You refused to fight back because it was a female. As she tore your throat open with her teeth, drained your blood like it was pop. You didn't fight back not because you couldn't, but because you just wouldn't."  Quentin started to slowly walk backwards towards the warehouse again. "And that my friend, is why it matters so damned much to you that you get to be pack alpha."


Tune in again for another installment of the Nosferatu Adventures starring your heroine...me(straight up story. Everyone has their sore spots)