Logan
Logan eased his way out of bed and went to call the Hansons. He'd just check and make sure that Mouse had gotten home. Then when Nyx woke up, he could allay her fears. He dialled the number and waited for someone to pick up. Mouse would've called her boy the moment she got home, knowing her. So if she hadn't...he hoped that she had.
Isaac
Isaac heard the phone ring and snatched it up.
"Hello?" he asked.
Logan
"Hey, this is Logan...one of the X-men. I'm just ringing to make sure Mouse made it home alright." Logan crossed his fingers mentally. "She said she'd call your house when she got in, and because of what's been happening," namely Nyx breaking down in my arms but damn if I'm gonna tell you that, "we just wanted to make sure she did reach Tulsa."
Isaac
"Umm... I don't think we've heard from her... I'll just check with Taylor," Isaac replied.
As the phone was cordless, Isaac went walking to Taylor's room and knocked on the door.
"Tay? You in there? Have you heard from Mouse?"
Taylor
Taylor heard Ike making his way upstairs as he rushed out the back door. Whatever Ike wanted, it would have to wait.
"FAFNIR?!" he cried, running for him.
He collapsed down onto his knees at his side, and lifted his head into his hands.
"He's hurting, Tay."
"I know, I know... Faf', can you hear me?!"
Logan
Ow. Did anyone ever mention the running from New York to here is a really, really bad idea? Fafnir said weakly and licked at Taylor's hands. They took Mouse. Shot me with a dart...I couldn't do anything... He panted for a moment, whimpering. They sprayed something around and it stuffed up my nose. I couldn't even smell who took her. Couldn't find Nevyn. I couldn't do anything...I'm so sorry. I failed.
Logan cursed and hit the wall. If they hadn't heard from her..."GODDAMN IT!" He looked up and snarled at a student who was hovering at the door, eyes wide. "Get lost, kid." The student did so with alacrity. He had a really bad feeling about this...
Taylor
Taylor's mouth hung open, before his eyes began to well up with tears.
"Fafnir... no, no... tell me you're making this up, please..." he begged softly, hugging the wolf to him.
"Faf', we... no," he shook his head, burying his face in Fafnir's side.
"Rescue," the Ka'Millan spoke up.
Fafnir
"I wish I was making it up...god, I feel so sick." Fafnir shook his head slowly, dropping out of it again. "What the hell did they shoot me with? We havta find her. I can't...Taylor, I can't feel her." He shook with tremors of horror and physical exhaustion. "She's far away if I can't feel her. I wouldn't know where to start looking."
Taylor
"I'll, I'll... I'll send the word out. I'll have every animal in the whole freaking country looking. The whole continent if I have to. I can't lose her. I can't..."
He shook his head, realizing his tears were soaking Fafnir's fur.
"I felt it. I did. A couple of days ago. I should have known, but I didn't. I didn't know what was happening..."
He sat back.
"I fainted. And I was so dizzy... I thought it was the telepathy crap happening to me again. Oh Faf'... We should get you to a vet or something. You need a healer."
He scratched his nose, before lifting the heavy wolf into his arms, and beginning to carry him inside. The Ka'Millan followed.
Fafnir
"You couldn't have known. If I was stronger, could've kicked off the effects sooner, could've found her before the trail went cold..." If Fafnir had been human, he would've wept. "I'm so sorry. I failed you both. I ran so hard, so long to get here...I need to sleep and heal. I can't..." His head spun with dizziness, and he whimpered.
Taylor
"No Fafnir, you didn't fail. You couldn't," Taylor shook his head, kicking a door open and getting him to the kitchen table where he laid him down onto his side.
"If you hadn't have come this far, I may never have known. As soon as you're back to yourself, we'll go after her. We'll start with the district she was taken, and branch out."
He took a shaky breath.
"These alien hunters are..." he shook his head, "they're really beginning to... they've picked on my family way too much. What the hell did we do?"
Fafnir
"I failed...I promised I would protect her. It's what I'm meant to do." Fafnir's eyes closed tiredly. "It's your right to kill me. I failed. I'm sorry, so sorry. I think...I think it was the woman that came before. I can't..." Fafnir couldn't think straight. "My head...I can't remember!"
Taylor
"Kill you? Fafnir, no... You mean alot to me wolf."
He looked around, and quickly ran for his cell phone.
"Watch him!" he commanded the Ka'Millan, who stood up on his hind legs to nuzzle Fafnir on the table.
Taylor dialed. It wasn't long before someone answered.
"Hello?"
"Dan! Dan, it's Taylor..."
"Tay?"
"Yeah, Dan I really need your help..."
"Taylor?"
"Yes! Please, can you come over?"
"What, now?"
"Yes, now. Please, hurry."
"Ok..."
Taylor hung up, then went back to Fafnir.
"This girl's a healer, ok? She'll have you right as rain in no time. She used to heal animals all the time when..." he cut himself off, "nevermind."
Logan
Fafnir panted rapidly, sides heaving and tongue lolling out of his mouth. "Your dam's gonna have a fit...get the hell away from me," he growled at the Ka'Millian. But his words had lost their usual venom as the wolf finally let go and descended into shock. The Ka'Millian tentaveily licked at Fafnir's muzzle and the wolf allowed it, too weak and ill to protest.
"Hello?" Logan growled into the phone. What the hell was going on on the other end? He blinked as he was cut off, cursed, then redialed. Damn phone.
Isaac
"Oops..." Isaac said, realising he had hit the hang up button by accident. "Ahh, he'll call back. In the meantime... where's Tay?"
He knocked on Taylor's bedroom door again and opened it. No one was in there. Hmm... must be somewhere else in the house. Probably the rec room. Isaac headed back downstairs and then spotted Taylor in the kitchen.
"Tay! I've been looking for you. Have you heard from Mouse recently? Logan called - he wanted to check."
The phone rang then and Isaac answered it.
"Logan?"
Logan
"Yeah, bub. So, any word on Mouse?" Please let her have called, please let her have called...Logan was getting edgy. Nyx would be waking up soon as the sedative wore off and he wanted to be able to reassure her. "Nyx was worried."
Isaac
"I'm just asking Taylor now," Isaac replied.
He looked at Taylor, awaiting his reply.
Taylor
Taylor had been shaking his head, hardly noticing that his brother was talking to him.
"She's gone Ike," he looked up at him, tears in his eyes, "first Jess, then me and Avie, then Zac, and now her..."
He collapsed down onto one of the chairs at the table, before leaning his head into Fafnir's side, tears streaming down his cheeks.
Isaac
Isaac was alarmed.
"Logan? Fafnir's here. Taylor says Mouse is gone," Isaac paused, then continued. "Look, I'd better go. Talk to you later."
He hung up and walked over to Taylor.
"Tay?"
Logan, Nyx and Nathan
"GODDAMN IT!" Logan hurled the phone at the wall and it broke into several pieces. He breathed hard, truly furious. And then Nathan shot past the door, followed by a spitting, cursing Nyx.
"YOU KNEW! YOU KNEW THIS WOULD HAPPEN, YOU BASTARD!" Nyx screamed, feeling shaky and weak due to her mother stripping most of her magick from her but still managing an impressive turn of speed. Nathan was just that little bit faster, but he still looked a bit worse for wear. Blood trickled from his nose and mouth, he was going to have black eyes in the morning and his shirt hung off him in tatters, showing scratched and clawed skin beneath the rags. Logan pelted after the two of them, Nyx shrieking insults and accusations in many different languages, demon and human.
"NYX!"
"Cul! Connard! I'm going to rip out your eyes and fed them to a Gralx'thas demon! I'm going to feed you to Luka! Híbrido! Filho de uma cadela! Ggraawll! Hrall giska Llrgrag!" Nathan kept running. Nyx crumpled to the ground outside the mansion as her legs gave out and screamed in grief and fury at the blue sky. Nathan slipped back inside and headed down to the Medlab, wincing. All those years of outrunning vampires did have some advatages. Logan enfolded Nyx in his arms as she sobbed out her heartbreak, then stood with her curled into his chest and made his way towards the forest.
~*~*~*~
Fafnir tried to focus his eyes, but he was still seeing double. "There are like two of you..." He shook his head, and then gave up as his headache got worse. "Oh god, my head..."
Taylor
"She's gone Ike, she's gone..." Taylor shook his head, still crying like a baby.
Well, in a manner of speaking. He wasn't screaming as well.
"Dan... Dani's coming over to heal him. Faf'... he'll be ok. He'll be ok."
Isaac
"Don't worry," Isaac said, putting his hand on Taylor's shoulder. "Wherever she is, we'll find her."
He refrained from asking if by 'gone' Taylor meant dead. If he didn't mean 'dead' asking the question might make matters worse.
Taylor
"I'll... Faf' and I... we'll find her. We'll hunt the bastards who took her. I can't lose her, I can't... not now. Not after what we've been through."
There was a sudden knock at the door.
Taylor's head shot up, and he went to open it.
"Taylor?" his ex-girlfriend Danielle asked in shock.
"Please, come in," Taylor insisted, leading her into the kitchen.
She saw the wolf and gasped.
"Oh my goodness... a wolf? Taylor..."
"Please, try. Just try. I can't lose him, please."
Dani glanced at Ike.
"Hey."
Fafnir
"Alpha?" Fafnir rolled his head uneasily. "I want Mouse...this is worse then the bait..." Suddenly the wolf went into shuddering tremours, and he bit his tongue as his jaws snapped closed in a spasm. "Ahhhhh..." A low exhalation of pain and blood dripped from his muzzle. "What did they shoot me with? For the love of god..." He panted rapidly, frightened, pain stricken eyes fixed on Taylor.
Taylor
"Faf'? Fafnir? This is Dani... she's a healer..."
Danielle stepped forward.
"She's going to heal you, ok? You'll be ok."
Taylor grabbed Fafnir's ruff, before turning to her. Danielle bit her lip and stepped forward, brushing strands of jet black hair out of her face.
"Ok," she nodded to herself, placing a hand on Fafnir's shoudler, and another on his flank.
Then she set her power to work.
Taylor's bottom jaw quivered as he watched on.
Fafnir
Slowly, slowly, Fafnir felt the drugs leave his system. "Merci, twolegger." He relaxed under her hands, the bunched muscles untensing slightly as she healed him. "Oh, that's definetly better..."
Taylor
Dani began to look tired, but Taylor's attention was to the wolf.
"Fafnir? Fafnir? Stay with me, tonight. I'll look after you, ok? After you rest, we'll leave."
"Taylor?" Danielle began, before her legs suddenly collapsed from under her.
"Dani?!"
Taylor had forgotten how much this could take out of her.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he shook his head, kneeling down to her after making sure Fafnir was ok.
"Taylor..." she reached a hand up to his face, "please, don't do anything drastic..."
Taylor just shook his head, tears forming in his eyes again.
Carefully, he maneuvered his hands underneath her, and lifted her from the floor. He took her into the livingroom and lay her down onto the double couch.
"Rest," he whispered, tucking some of her hair behind her ear.
He waite duntil she'd drifted off to sleep, before going back to Fafnir and his brother.
Isaac
"Is he going to be okay?" Isaac asked Taylor. "And as to that, are you?"
Taylor
Taylor took a deep breath before lifting the wolf into his arms again.
"He'll be ok, Dani just healed him."
He made to leave the room.