Chapter 33

-Chase-

We started our trip back to Ben’s house late the next day. Dante slept most of the drive back, giving me a lot of time to rearrange my thoughts. We had new information now, but a hell of a lot more questions too, and I couldn’t wait to start finding the answers.

Dante was still reluctant to talk about what we saw, so I had decided not to start with my investigations before arriving back at home. Holding myself back was killing me, but it wasn’t good enough excuse to ruin Dante’s little vacation.

He loved the mountain. Seeing him getting excited over my world warmed my heart more than I could’ve ever imagined. No matter how impatiently I had waited for us to get back home to solve this little riddle that was Dante, I didn’t have the heart to cut our time in the mountain short. On the contrary, we had stayed as long as we could before we had to give our room to the next person.

Once again, I promised that once this was all over, we’d come back for such a long vacation that eventually King Gregor himself had to come to throw us out of his mountain.

I stole a glimpse of Dante’s handsome face. This little getaway had changed him so much, both physically and mentally. He had gained a lot of weight, maybe fifteen or even twenty pounds. In a few days. The clothes I had bought him after he returned to me had been too big for him, but now… They actually fit him. He was really close to his normal body weight.

“Werewolves…” I chuckled quietly, shaking my head.

When they started gaining muscle mass, they really started gaining muscle mass.

Elena had told me where to buy the ingredients for the bath they used in the ritual, and I went a little bit crazy with the whole thing. I had several big boxes of minerals in the trunk; enough to last for a lifetime. Or two. But Dante needed it. His body needed it. That one, hour-long bath had done wonders for him.

And he sure did wonders for me afterwards… A smile crept up on my face when the images of him lying underneath me invaded my mind. I had to be careful not to get aroused right there and then, but it was certain that I could not wait to try that bath once we got back home…

But first things first.

It was dark already when we finally arrived, but the house still had lights on. It took me a moment to wake up Dante, who spent a few more moments to look around in his sleepy confusion. I had been planning on giving him his potions to help him fall asleep, but it seemed like there was no need for one.

Ben greeted us shortly when we got in, but I asked him to wait for a bit while I helped Dante upstairs and made sure he fell asleep – it took him only a few minutes to do so.

I watched him with a smile on my face. My very, very, very tired baby, hugging his pillow… I was sad that I couldn’t stay with him, but I had to go talk to Ben.

When I stepped out of our bedroom and closed the door, I called for Roe. He didn’t answer right away, and it was worrying me. He had been awfully silent the entire time we were at the mountain, and I was dying to know why. It was unusual for him to not be there to share his unsolicited snide remarks.

“Roe?” I tried again, this time louder, stopping at the top of the staircase.

He finally emerged behind me, this time in his human form. He didn’t say a word to me, just stood there with his arms partially crossed and grooming his goatee. He seemed annoyed.

“What’s up with you?” I asked.

“Why do you want?” he barked his question.

I was already done with his attitude, so I decided to get straight to the point and ignore that attitude. “Did you see the dream?”

“I did, yes.”

“So? What do you think?” I asked, starting to walk down the stairs while he followed me reluctantly.

“What do I think?”

“Yes. What do you think?” I repeated, trying not to get pissed at him.

He grabbed me by my arm and made me face him. “I think this is the stupidest thing you’ve ever done!” he hissed at my face. “I think you should have never met him! I hate that stupid boyfriend of yours! I hate everything about him! That’s what I think!”

I had a lot of bad buttons, and he just pressed all of them. I was about to cancel his entire existence, but then he shoved past me, stomped a few steps down, and turned to point his finger at me.

“This whole thing is driving me crazy! I can’t sleep! I barely remember to eat! I’ve had to cancel multiple events and my acquaintances are making rude jokes about me! And do you know what I did yesterday, huh? Do you even understand how fucked up this entire situation is?!”

I could only stare at him. He seemed a bit… mad. His eyes were wide open as he shook his finger at me like it was a weapon.

“What… did you do yesterday?” I asked slowly.

“I spent seven hours in his wife’s house!” he nearly yelled at me. “Seven hours, Chase!“

“Ex-wife, but why…?”

“I tried to find a clue – any kind of clue – about what the fuck is going on in here! Seven hours! I couldn’t find anything! I searched every fucking inch of the house but there wasn’t even a tiny secret hiding place anywhere! It was a completely normal house, Chase!”

“Okay…” I said, stepping closer to him. “I think you should lay down.”

“I can’t!” he spat at my face and rushed the rest of his way down. “I can’t rest before I know what’s going on! How can she, a mere fucking human, know something so big, and I DO NOT?!“

“I’ll just give you one of Dante’s potions then,” I said with a soothing smile. “It’ll make you feel better.”

He sprung around to glare at me, looking more demonic than he did in his true form. “I suppose I could use one,” he then breathed out, his posture dropping and his expression turning less crazy.

“So you’ve tried to find the answers while we were away?” I asked as I walked down. He went to sit down on the couch and rubbed his temples.

“Yes… Oh, and I hate you,” he snorted at me. “Good job killing the only person who could’ve given us the answers.”

“There’s still Killian, and now we know what he looks like,” I said as I fetched one of Dante’s potions for him.

“Yes, let me just grab a phone book and search for Killian… Killian who?”

“You’re not going to find him in a phone book,” I sighed. “We will find him, but now we need to focus on finding the cure. You saw the book in the dream, right? All we need is a well-translated version.”

“That book pisses me off, too,” Roe muttered, sipping the potion. “No wonder Arthyzn couldn’t sell it. I gave his necklace back for nothing…”

“We wouldn’t know what to look for without the book,” I said sympathetically, walking to the lounge. “Besides, you got your heirloom back. You left it here.”

“Oh… right,” he muttered in an uninterested manner.

I found the forgotten shopping bag with his heirloom in it at the back of the lounge. I grabbed it before returning to him. “Here.”

He sighed when he took the bag and peered into it. “Anael…” he muttered when he picked up the glass box. “She was a great beast…” he added, studying the skeleton of a cat inside it.

The bag fell off his lap, letting a loud thud when it landed on the floor. I frowned when I picked it up and took the book that was still inside it. “Ugh…”

It was the werewolf guide I had completely forgotten.

“What’s that?”

“A guidebook, written by someone who hates werewolves,” I muttered, leafing through it. “A lot of nasty stuff in here… I better hide it from Dante.”

“Let me see that,” he said, and I gave it to him.

“Is everything all right in here?”

I turned to face the staircase and saw Ben climbing up with a worried look on his face.

“Everything is fine,” I said reassuringly. “How are you?”

“Who cares about me! You visited the dwarven Elders! How did it go?” Ben asked in excitement, coming to sit down on the couch my mom had left behind.

I sat down too and told him everything about the dream. He listened with wide eyes and when I revealed that Dante was intentionally turned into the beast, he let out a weird squeak but didn’t interrupt me.

After I ended the story, he just sat there, staring at me with wide eyes.

“He was turned?” he finally breathed out.

“It seems so,” I sighed. “But at least we know the blood spell is going to help us. That’s a massive weight off my shoulders.”

“Indeed, and it’s about time, too,” Ben said. “I studied his blood samples, and the cancer is progressing. I’m afraid Dante’s condition is approaching phase two.”

“Do you know how long we have until that happens?” I asked, feeling something nasty in my stomach all of a sudden.

“Mere days,” he said, sounding worried. “I’m not sure if your potions are able to keep him under control as he grows stronger.”

“I doubt they will,” Roe said, glancing at his now empty glass.

“There are many things I don’t understand…” Ben muttered, looking at me. “He was turned into that beast, but none of my patients reported anything even remotely similar. The disease simply appeared out of nowhere.”

“What I don’t understand is the lack of information,” Roe said. “There is nothing. I haven’t found anything about the disease. It’s like it doesn’t exist. But then there’s some little girl who knows how to make them…”

“I’ve been looking into it as well,” Ben nodded. “As far as I know, the last known case was my patient. After that, I haven’t heard of anyone who has the disease, and trust me, I kept my eyes and ears peeled.”

“When was that?” Roe asked.

“Almost twenty years ago. Not a single case since,” Ben sighed.

“What are we supposed to think of that?” I asked.

We all were silent for a moment. I had the feeling that they, too, were thinking what I was thinking. Not a single case of this disease in almost two decades, until Dante was made.

“I proved it can be done,” Roe muttered. “Her exact words…”

“Are you sure your patients were telling you the truth,” I asked Ben, but the answer was obvious.

“Yes. And then there’s the fact that my patients, every single one of them, were born werewolves. Dante was turned into one,” Ben said. “I’ve heard of other cases too, and they were all born werewolves.”

“Maybe that changes things,” Roe said, sitting up in his seat. “Maybe the disease was only affecting born werewolves, but that girl was trying to recreate it on turned ones for some reason – it would explain why she said she proved it can be done.”

“Maybe. Or maybe the disease was gone already, and she’s trying to bring it back,” I suggested.

“Maybe,” Roe said sternly. “But Dante said she was more interested in immortality.”

“But the disease is lethal,” I sighed with a nod. “Unless she was branching out to poisons…”

“Does it even matter why she did it?” Ben asked and stood up, clearly unable to sit still anymore. “She had the knowledge to–”

“Killian had,” I corrected him.

“They had it. But how did they have it? How is it possible that we have no idea what we’re up against? How is it possible that after decades I still haven’t heard of anything like this?” Ben asked, starting to look a lot like Roe in his fit of madness. “That’s the more important question.”

“That’s true,” Roe muttered, glaring at me again. “And we could have all the answers by now if someone hadn’t cut her head off.”

“I’m sorry. I was upset, all right?” I snorted.

But I sure as hell was mad at myself right about now.

*****

We all agreed that we needed to find Killian in order to get our answers. It was pointless for us to try to figure out what was going on without anyone to interrogate, so we decided to focus on Dante’s cure. Well, at least Ben and I did. Roe was a bit of a wild card at the moment.

On the next morning, I woke up wrapped in Dante’s arms. I was surprised that he was already awake, but then again, Roe, Ben, and I had stayed up pretty late repeating the questions none of us could answer.

“Good morning,” Dante cooed and kissed my temple.

“Morning,” I smiled back at him. “What time is it?”

“Ten, or something like that. We don’t have a clock in here,” he chuckled.

“I kind of wish we could go back home already,” I sighed. “There’s some work to be done.”

“Yeah? Like what?”

“Like buying a bigger bed for our bedroom,” I murmured in his ear.

He blushed lightly, his expression turning a bit shy. So adorable… I had to kiss him, and as soon as our lips touched, he pulled me tighter against himself. Even in my happy haze, I noticed how nice his body felt against mine now. No bones sticking out. No wounds, no rashes, nothing. I did, however, feel the scars of the gunshot wound and the line below it. They were not going to vanish anytime soon…

“Isn’t your bed big enough, though?” Dante asked a bit breathlessly.

“Nope. Besides, it’ll be our bed,” I told him.

“Can’t your bed be our bed?”

“No,” I said shortly. I was not letting him sleep in the bed where I had shared so many nights with so many random guys. “Are you hungry?”

“Are you seriously asking that?” he chuckled. “I’m starving…”

“I should’ve known,” I smirked.

We got out of the bed, put on some clothes, and headed out of the room. When we were walking down the stairs, I spotted Ben reading a book on the couch.

“Good morning,” I spoke, and the old man nearly jumped off the seat. He quickly hid the book behind him, and I immediately knew which book he was reading: that damn werewolf guide that I completely forgot in the living room last night.

I peered at Dante, hoping he hadn’t noticed the book, but of course, he had – Ben wasn’t exactly a stealthy person. He might as well have thrown the book at us.

“What was that?” Dante asked.

“I… uh… it’s… nothing…” Ben muttered, looking at me like asking for help.

I sighed and rolled my eyes. He was just making things worse. “It’s my book – it’s a werewolf guide.”

“Is that… bad?” Dante asked in confusion as we reached the bottom of the steps.

“No… No…” I shook my head, hoping he would leave it at that, but of course, he didn’t.

“Are you hiding something from me?” he asked with an abnormally harsh voice.

“No – nothing like that,” I smiled, trying to touch him, but he stepped back.

For once, I was at a loss for words.

And for once, he seemed almost disappointed when he looked at me. He didn’t say anything to me as he walked to Ben and took the book. I stayed back, wishing that he wouldn’t get upset or anything. He leafed through the first part of it, giving us both suspicious looks every time he turned the page.

“Why are you being so weird about… this…” he trailed off and stopped to stare at one of the pages.

“Because there are some pretty nasty things in it, and I didn’t want you to see it,” I said, glaring at Ben.

“I’m sorry – I was supposed to hide it but then I started reading it and…” Ben stammered.

I ignored him and walked to Dante, who sat down on the couch, still staring at the book.

I leaned closer to see what he was reading and grimaced. It was one of the worst topics in the entire book: how to skin a werewolf… while keeping them alive for the next time.

“This is…” Dante whispered.

“I didn’t want you to see it,” I told him gently. “I should’ve gotten rid of it. It’s not a good guidebook. It’s written by some sick bastard who–”

“Hates us,” he finished my sentence.

“Can I have it back?” I asked, and he immediately shut the book and looked away from it. He didn’t give it back, though.

“Where did you get it?” he asked.

“I got it from Njizrski – from the guy who gave me the book of blood spells.”

Dante was silent for a moment, but then, he turned his attention back to the book. The back cover didn’t have any text on it, only a small, round symbol of a wolf carved at the bottom. He traced his finger along its lines, looking extremely uncomfortable. I wanted to force him to give it back so I could throw it in the fire – that’s what I should’ve done right away. No… I never should’ve brought it home with me.

“I hated us as well,” Dante suddenly muttered. “I hated myself. I wanted all of them to burn in hell. This book…” he trailed off and looked up at me. “It’s nothing compared to the thoughts I had after I was turned.”

I let out a long breath and wrapped my arms around his shoulders. “You were scared. You had no one to turn to.”

“When I found out that you’re a warlock… If I had known about your world… I would’ve loved it even back then,” he whispered the last words. “I have so many regrets, but leaving you was the biggest mistake of my entire life.”

“You’re back now,” I murmured in his ear. “We’ll cure you and then I’ll show you all the things you missed out on.”

He nodded, burying his head against my shoulder. “I can’t wait.”

I smiled at him, even though he couldn’t see it. He put the book away and wrapped his arms around me, hugging me tighter than ever before.