by amarok. » Thu Mar 29, 2018 8:41 am
Adrian D'Arc I Human I Blade Team Leader I Tags; Theo, Kat
He took the coffee gratefully and downed half of the scalding beverage where he stood. He didn't know how she always knew - female intuition or whatever, he guessed - but she did. She had even remembered to put sugar into the drink.
Taking a deep breath and murmurring a "thank you", he dropped onto one of the uncomfortable, plastic chairs that had somehow strayed into the hospital's corridor, just as a grave-faced doctor emerged from behind the double doors and took a few steps towards him. A part of him was conscious of Kat talking into her earpiece, but suddenly, that was irrelevant. His grip on the cup tightened. Coffee dripped from the cup's lid onto his fingers, but he didn't even register the burn.
"Mr D'Arc? And Miss...? I mean, ma'am? Could you please come with me?"
"... He's gone, isn't he?" Adrian D'Arc's voice, usually so smooth and calm, cracked as the words left his lips.
"Sir, ma'am, please, this way."
There was only one seat in the room, beside the chair the doctor took. D'Arc put a hand on the back and gripped it tightly, but left it for his comrade - provided she had decided to follow the doctor's directions - and stood as the professional quietly assured them that the end had been painless.
"We couldn't do anything for him. There was mass internal haemorrhage through his core. I'm sorry. But we did everything we need to make it easier." He – the doctor - frowned almost unnoticeably. It must have been a tough job, but D'Arc was in no mood to empathise. Not today.
"If you want a moment with... We can give you that, Mr D'Arc. But, if you feel up to it, I believe the Sheriff Landy would like a few words with you."
D'Arc mirrored the doctor's frown, but there was steel behind his expression as he removed his badge from his inside picket and passed it to the cop standing to one side. Sheriff Landy's face paled slightly as he returned the federal badge and gestured towards the door.
"... You're free to go for now. Don't leave town."
D'Arc nodded steadily and left the room in silence.
Blair Strong I Werewolf I Fighter I Tags; Adam, Pack
She took the phone with shaking hands and watched the older male run off after the other scent that tore what was left of her heart apart.
One more down.
Three months ago, this massacre would have been unthinkable. The pack was strong, and Skylar – despite all her obvious shortcomings - defended the borders fiercely. But how could a pack defend its borders if it had nobody to defend them?
A sudden burst of determination filled her head. This was going to stop, one way or another. Each and every one of them mattered now, even more than they had before. Most of the pack had failed to return home, whether they fled or were killed. But she was still alive and strong, and – more importantly – so was Adam. The pack needed him, more than ever. Like most of the remaining wolves, she’d always avoided pack politics, but even she’d heard the murmurings in recent months, and they’d only become stronger once the Alphas passed.
Skylar was an excellent fighter, but it took a different kind of person to run a pack.
That person had just launched into a desperate plan to protect his pack, without backup.
She looked at the phone in her hand and dialled Aurora’s number.
Jason Loen I Werewolf I Medic I Tags; Emery, Skylar
He looked up as Emery entered, scowling uncharacteristically until the other male’s words spilled out and his comfort complex took over. He returned his gaze to the female he was still working on, but put as much calm into his voice as he could.
“Whoa, Emery, it’s fine. She’s okay. A little sore, but we got the bullet out before it did her any serious damage. Only minor soft tissue damage. I stitched up the worst of it, and the rest… that’ll fix itself by midday, I promise. She’s gone up to the attic to get clean clothes, I think.”
He kicked the bucket of bloodied clothes towards the scout pointedly.
“If you could take those outside and burn them, I’d appreciate it. It’s not hygienic, and Luka and Benji have gone walkabouts, and my hands are tied.”
Emmelene Castellanos I Werewolf I Hunter I Tags; Mark
"Hey, if we don't know what to do with it, we dump it here or in one of the barns. If you didn't take everything with you, there'll be something here."
She couldn't remember whether the former beta had lived at the house or on his own - she'd been fifteen, and more interested in the cute boy in he'd maths class than what was going down in the pack at the time, to her mother's despair - but, if what he said was true, she was fairly confident that there's be something suitable.
She tugged open a cardboard box and began to dig through the stuff, finding an acceptable plaid skirt in one box and a pair of black combats she imagined must have belonged to a nine-year-old Skylar. Still, they looked as if they'd fit. A benefit of being five feet tall. After looking between them for a few seconds and remembering the ugly scratches on her legs from where she'd been dragged to safety, she opted for the pants. Not usually her style, but - scratches aside - more fashionably acceptable that the alternative; the pair of flared jeans she'd found underneath them were awful enough to make her shudder. She found an old hoodie that looked as if it might have been Blair's in an adjacent box and, satisfied, she dropped the selected clothes onto a third box and began to take note of the other stuff up there.
Within five minutes, she'd cried out in delight as she found an old photo album, only to cast it aside and pull out an old statuette of a horse. It looked like bronze and weighed a ton, but she hefted the little model up anyway and blew off the dust, all previous purposes for being up there forgotten until she finally saw a box that was labelled in meticulous handwriting as belonging to Mark Holloway. "To sell," another hand had scrawled underneath his name. Probably Blair. It looked like her handwriting.
But, as far as selling the stuff had gone, clearly, nobody ever had. She pushed aside the curiosity that pushed ag the cormer of her mind and smiled. Lucky for them.
Theodore Ford I Human I Blade Operative I Tags; Kat, D'Arc
To Kat's last comment, he didn't know how to respond. He'd picked out "we". That probably meant her and D'Arc, at least. From the sound of it, they were both okay, even if not even he was optimistic enough to hope for much more.
"... I think I'll stay here, Kat. I'm not going to be taken by surprise again. But thanks for the thought," he replied, not unkindly. "Just an hour, maybe."
He looked at his watch. It was a 5.11 Field Ops Watch, primarily used for hunters but very, very handy for snipers, too. Built in ballistics computer, and a battery life of over a year. In this industry, you travelled light. And having his computer on his wrist was handy as hell.
The time read eight in the morning. He'd been out all night. The thought of going back to the run-down cabin and trying to sleep was painful, for some reason. It was kinda like giving in.
"Until nine," he added. If he'd been face to face with her, he'd have used the puppy eyes. Unfortunately, the slight pleading tone would have to do. "I can multitask if you need me to. Like, what do you need?"
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