Chapter 15

-Chase-

What happened last night was completely my fault. I should’ve been more careful when changing Dante’s potion so drastically. The mix Roe gave me was strong and often had unwanted side effects, especially with people who had never used it before, and I had completely failed to take his condition into account. And then I went ahead and flat out ignored his vivid nightmares – that had been an important clue but noooo, let’s wish him goodnight and go back to bed. What a healthy decision.

I shook my head while standing in front of a mirror in the bathroom. Stupid, stupid warlock… I’d be dead if I didn’t have the portal ready. Another few seconds and Dante would’ve been gnawing on my intestines…

I turned my back on the mirror and peered over my shoulder. I sneered at the sight of the three big wounds on my back. I was so glad I didn’t see them right after the incident. The kitchen alone was nightmare fuel with blood everywhere, and when I let myself think about it, I was pretty sure I had been seconds away from death. The wounds were deep, but thankfully, Dante’s potion was working wonders on me. It would take only a few days for me to be fully healed, and the wounds were already looking good.

With a sigh, I grabbed a clean shirt from a small counter I had next to the sink, and carefully pulled it on. The wounds were aching a bit and I was worried they’d start bleeding again if I moved too much so I tried to be as slow as possible while getting dressed. The healing process was eating up all my energy, but I couldn’t rest. Not when I knew Dante was feeling absolutely horrified.

As soon as I was fully dressed, I stepped out of the bathroom, only to see Dante leaning against the wall close by. He was pale, his face was frozen in worry and his entire body was tense. His eyes shot up when I took a step closer, so I smiled to let him know everything was fine.

“I’ll be fine,” I told him as I stepped in front of him. “Look! Fresh from the shower and the wounds aren’t bleeding at all… Doesn’t even hurt.”

“I almost killed you…” he spoke, taking a few, restless steps away from me. Then he turned back and rubbed his face, looking like he was about to panic. This had been going on ever since we got back from Njizrski a few hours ago. “I can’t stay here.”

I suffocated a sigh and followed him, trying to touch his arm but he stepped away from me, hugging himself like he was afraid he would turn again if he didn’t restrain himself.

“It was an accident – it was my fault really. I should’ve foreseen this,” I said for the hundredth time, but he refused to listen. “Dante. I screwed up. I made a mistake with the potion. I failed to take your nightmares seriously. This happened because I was too confident in my skills. I let you down.”

He shook his head. “You’re better off without me…”

“No. I want you to stay with me,” I told him. “I don’t want you to go.”

“Why would you want to have anything to do with me?” he asked quietly.

“Because you’re special,” I said just as quietly, feeling nervous right after the words left my mouth. “I just don’t want you to be alone in this,” I hurried to add.

He didn’t reply to me. He didn’t even look at me. I stepped in front of him, and this time he didn’t move away. I carefully placed my hand on his cheek, and he looked at me with sadness and regret in his eyes.

“We’ve been through this already. I’m not turning my back on you,” I told him.

“Yeah, you really shouldn’t, or you’ll get hurt,” he muttered, his self-hate distinguishable in his voice.

“I’ll just have to tweak your potion, and everything goes back to normal,” I said reassuringly.

“I don’t deserve your help,” he said.

“Stop,” I whispered. I hated this. I hated to see him like that. I hated the fact that my mistake was causing him so much pain. He was already getting better emotionally, and I ruined it. Now we were back to debating whether or not he should stay… “I want you to stay with me,” I told him again and hugged him before he could stop me.

“No… I…”

“You’ll stay with me – end of discussion,” I said sternly.

He stood there for a moment in complete silence, but then I could feel his hands on my sides and his head on my shoulder. The misery and sadness seemed to take over him since his tense body suddenly felt weak in my arms.

And then he cried. I held him tighter as he let his emotions out, trying to comfort him. He was scared – I could feel it. Scared of what he did and scared that I’d be mad at him, but he had nothing to worry about.

“Everything will be all right. This was just a tiny hiccup, and I’ve learned from it,” I spoke soothingly in his ear.

He nodded against my shoulder, and slowly started to calm down. I waited patiently until he pulled back, wiping his face dry. He still looked miserable.

“I could use your help with the wounds – I washed the salve off and I need it to heal,” I told him with a smile.

“Sure, I’ll do it,” he said and sniffed. “I’ll do anything you want.”

I patted his shoulder and took the first step towards the stairs, but I guess I had run out of strength. I nearly fell to the floor when my legs gave up under my weight, but Dante caught me.

“Are you all right?” he asked in worry.

“I guess I need to rest after all,” I chuckled, feeling extremely tired all of a sudden.

Dante helped me down into the living room, and by the time I sat down on the couch, I was shaking.

“What’s going on?” Dante asked with a panicky look on his face, kneeling down in front of me.

“My body is just using up all its energy to heal the wounds, that’s all,” I told him calmly. “I’ll be fine in a few days.”

“But… Isn’t the potion supposed to do that?”

“The energy has to come from somewhere,” I noted. “Could you go grab another jar of salve? There should be another one.”

He nodded, but he was reluctant to leave me alone. I smiled and nudged my head towards the kitchen. I didn’t want to tell him that my wounds were starting to ache now that I washed off the salve. He got up and walked into the kitchen while I tried to get comfortable on the couch.

He returned to me with the jar and a new pair of rubber gloves, looking like he was going to be sick.

“What’s wrong? I asked, but then remembered the carnage that we left behind.

“There’s so much blood…” he whispered, sitting down next to me. “I did that.”

“By accident,” I said sternly, taking the jar from him. “A thin layer should be fine now that the wounds aren’t bleeding anymore.”

“How can you be so calm about this?” he asked timidly.

I let out a deep breath and thought about the moment I stepped into his room and saw him changing. “I knew I was in big trouble when I saw you. Was I scared? You bet your ass I was, but I knew you wouldn’t want to hurt me. It’s that beast. That creature they made. They hurt you and tortured you for months, and… How is that your fault?”

He listened in silence while I spoke, looking down at his hands. It was clear that my words weren’t making him feel any better, but at least he wasn’t telling me to throw him out.

“Besides, I can bring back practically dead people – I’m not concerned about a few measly wounds,” I added, opening the jar and giving it to him.

“They weren’t that measly…” he muttered.

“Neither am I,” I smiled. “Us warlocks, even the lesser ones, aren’t that easily killed.”

“Really?”

“Yup – the magic gives us extra time,” I explained. “But now I really need that salve.”

“Sorry – of course,” he said and grabbed the gloves.

I turned to sit so that my back was turned on him and took off my shirt. “I don’t think I have more of that salve, so let’s try to use it sparingly. I’ll have to go buy more since it takes ridiculously long to make. Some of the ingredients need to soak for a few weeks you see.”

“A few weeks?” he repeated.

“Uh-huh.” He was silent for a moment, and when I turned to look back at him, he was staring at the wounds. “They look much better now, am I right?”

He nodded and finally scooped a handful of salve, so I turned back around. The pain started to fade almost immediately when he applied the salve. Neither of us said anything while he was at it. I couldn’t help but notice how gentle he was. I enjoyed the treatment… And it had only a little to do with the salve taking the pain away.

I tried to push those thoughts out of my head. I tried to ignore his hand on my back. Was I getting in trouble with him? Yes. Probably. Maybe? No? I shook my head a little to clear my thoughts. Why was my heart beating faster all of a sudden…?

Like I didn’t know…

“Done. I tried to use as little as I could,” Dante spoke quietly, and removed his hand, making me feel disappointed.

“Thanks,” I said, turning around to face him again, but he wasn’t looking at me. He was staring at the jar, and the sadness in his eyes broke my heart. “We’ll get through this,” I said, placing my hand on his.

“What if I kill you?” he asked.

“You won’t,” I told him, but he shook his head in disbelief.

“It will happen. I know it will. You’ve been so kind to me… I’d be dead without you, or worse… They would’ve found me already…” he spoke.

“Please, stop,” I pleaded, moving right next to him. “I’ll just have to be more careful.”

But he wouldn’t listen. He stood up, pushing my hand away. “It’s not enough! I will lose control again! I will hurt you again! You almost died!”

“Dante – you have to stay calm,” I said, peering at the doorway where the portal was. I wasn’t sure if I had the strength to get there in time if he changed now.

He clenched his fists into tight balls and stepped away from me, getting angrier by the second, but then, my phone rang.

“Let’s talk about this later, okay?” I spoke and hurried up to get the phone. My legs were still wobbly, and I felt weak as I made my way into the kitchen where I’d left my phone. I wrinkled my nose at the mess and peered at Dante, who seemed to still be in control of himself. But to be on the safe side, I grabbed the phone and sat down as close to the portal as I could. I kept my eyes on Dante, who was still standing in the middle of the living room and answered the phone.

“Hi, it’s me. Can you talk?“

My heart nearly flew through the roof when I heard Aaliyah’s voice. “Of course!”

“Good – I have some news. I’ve racked my brain to understand what’s wrong with Dante, but I came up with nothing. His memories didn’t help either,” she spoke, and I slouched over the seat in disappointment.

“Not good news then?” I sighed.

“Not sure, but I may have something useful. After realizing I’m not as good as I hoped, I figured I’ll check out if this has happened before. I almost gave up, but then I saw this old article in Monthly Alchemy about some human who had discovered a rare werewolf disease. And guess what?“

“What?” I asked, holding my breath.

“The symptoms match.”

I turned to look at Dante again, who was now standing in the doorway. He had definitely heard her words.

“They match?” I breathed out. “Did it say what it is or how to cure it?”

“No. It happened seventy years ago and there wasn’t much info about the disease itself – nothing we didn’t already know at least. There was no follow up or anything after that,” Aaliyah spoke.

“Seventy years ago,” I muttered, my excitement fading away again. “So… Now we know this has happened once before, but I don’t think that’ll help us much. After seventy years, you’d think there would be more information about it now.”

“Well, I figured we could ask him?” Aaliyah said, and my heart started beating faster again. “The guy who found it is still alive.”

“You know, talking with you is always a roller coaster,” I said, standing up in the new wave of excitement. “Do you know where to find him?”

“I asked around and I found out where he lives. The bad news is that he lives like four hundred miles away and apparently has no phone,” she said.

“I don’t care – I’ll walk to him if I have to,” I said. “Just give me the address.”

“Well thank God for planes,” she chuckled. After she gave me the information I needed, we ended the call, and I turned to look at Dante.

“See! We are getting somewhere!” I said, walking up to him, but he didn’t look as enthusiastic as I felt. “This has happened before!”

“As you said – you’d think there’s more information about it by now,” he said quietly.

“It’s been seventy years. It’s more likely that there is information, but we haven’t found it yet,” I told him. “But I have his address now so we can just go to him and ask.”

“Four hundred miles? I can’t go into a plane. I can’t even go near people!” he groaned, walking into the living room.

“Then we drive there,” I said, not liking his reluctance. “Dante – this is good news! We have something to work with!”

He took a deep breath and turned to look at me. “Can we even trust him?”

“I’ll incinerate everyone who even looks at you funny,” I promised, stopping in front of him.

“What if it’s not the same disease?” he asked, but I could detect a slight change in his attitude.

“It’s similar, according to Aaliyah. If it’s not the same thing, then we might still get something out of it,” I said, placing my hand on his arm. “We must go to see him.”

“What if –”

“No more what-ifs! Let’s go see him! He might have a cure for you! Don’t you want to have your normal life back?”

“Normal life?” he laughed but there wasn’t the slightest hint of humor in his voice. “My normal life was with my wife who kidnapped me, tortured me and started this whole mess.”

“Your ex-wife,” I said, hating the fact that he called that bitch his wife. “A new normal life then.”

“Can I even have a normal life anymore?” he asked.

“Yes. With someone who truly loves you and would do anything to protect you,” I spoke quietly. “Why are you so reluctant all of a sudden?”

“I don’t want to get my hopes up,” he said bluntly. “After what I did to you, I don’t even deserve a normal life anymore.”

“Don’t be like that,” I begged.

“Don’t be like that? I almost killed you!”

“You didn’t!” I snapped at him. “They made that monster! Whatever that thing does, it is not your fault! It’s their fault! Yes, I was almost killed last night but it wasn’t you who did it!”

He looked like he was about to yell back at me, but he then snapped his mouth shut and turned to face away from me.

“You deserve to have a normal life,” I said with a much calmer tone. “And I’d be happy to be part of it. I have grown fond you, Dante Gray. That is why I still want you to stay with me, no matter what the monster in you has done to me.”

“I don’t deserve it,” he replied almost coldly.

I let out a deep, frustrated sigh. “Fine! I’ll just knock you out cold and drag your ass there. Your choice.”

He turned to look at me with squinted eyes. “You wouldn’t do that.”

“Try me,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest.

He stared at me for a moment, but then he sighed, shaking his head. “Fine…”

“That’s my boy,” I smiled. And ran out of strength. Dante was by my side in a heartbeat when my legs gave up again. “Okay – I really need to rest now,” I breathed out.

He helped me sit down on the couch and went to get me something to drink when I asked for it. I turned to look at him as he was walking away, feeling a bit flustered. And sad. I practically confessed that I had feelings for him…

And he didn’t notice it.