Chapter 50

-Chase-

I lied on the cold floor, trying not to let my anger consume me. My clothes were covered in splatters of blood, but I didn’t want to get up to go change them. I didn’t want to leave his side. The massive beast that was my loved one was sleeping, breathing heavily. I curled up closer to his neck, resting my head on it. I caressed his cheek slowly, hoping he knew I was there.

Whatever he was shot with, it had taken hours to pull them off his back. Thank God, the shrapnel hadn’t gotten too deep under his skin, but trying to find them all in the middle of his thick fur had taken us a very long time. They were all gone now, but he still wasn’t waking up.

Ben was outside the cage, studying the liquid the bullets had contained. He muttered something every now and then, trying to understand what he was seeing. Aaliyah promised to come help him as soon as she was sure her family was safe. We’d all agreed the liquid couldn’t be from our planet. There was nothing so strong that could put Dante’s beast to sleep on this planet.

It had to be morning already, but I wasn’t tired. Or maybe I was past being tired. I couldn’t even close my eyes when I stared at Dante. Begging… He was staying in this form for too long, and it made me scared. What if he wouldn’t turn back anymore? What if the poison Killian used on him had caused his condition to turn a hell of a lot worse?

“Please wake up…” I whispered. “I need you to wake up…”

It was taking too long. It had to be at least twelve hours since he transformed… Twenty-four hours was the final limit. After that…

“Are you sure you don’t want to sleep?” Ben asked after appearing to the doorway.

“No.”

“It’s been a very long day,” he noted. “First Humble’s Ravine before breakfast and then storming the base after dinner… You need to rest.”

“You’re not sleeping either,” I replied.

He let out a long sigh. “How about I bring you a mattress? Just looking at you makes my back hurt.”

“I’m fine.”

He was silent for a moment, but then walked away. When he came back, he placed a blanket over me. “I need to close my eyes for a moment. Wake me up if you need anything, or if he starts waking up.”

“Sure.”

Ben went to sit down on one of the armchairs, and it took only a few minutes before he started snoring. I snuggled even closer to Dante, to the warmth of his body. I forced my eyes closed and listened to his steady breathing.

Perhaps I did fall asleep at some point. I snapped awake when I heard a low, thundering growl. My eyes flew open, and I sat up. The beast stared at me, his lips pulled back into a menacing grin. He growled again, but he was still staying on his side.

“Dante…?” I whispered, ready to flee if he started getting up.

He growled again, his front paws twitching a little, but it soon occurred to me that he was still too drugged to do anything else but stare at me.

“Don’t be like that, baby,” I whispered, caressing his neck. “You have to turn back to human.”

His growl grew a little bit louder, and Ben woke up as well. He came to the door, looking extremely worried. I gestured for him to stay silent before I turned my attention back to my love.

“You’re okay…” I muttered, trying to touch him, but he let out an angry growl. “You’re okay baby…”

“Chase…” Ben whispered with a pleading voice, but I ignored him. “We need to get out of here.”

“Come back to me, baby,” I murmured, unable to take my eyes off Dante. “I need you back.”

Dante got only angrier. He tried to get up again, his leg hitting my back, but I still didn’t move.

“Please come back to me…” I whispered.

And suddenly, I was standing outside the cage, and Ben hurried to lock it. I turned to look behind me and saw Roe. He shook his head at me in a disapproving manner.

“We need to leave,” Ben said hurriedly, basically running to the door out.

Roe had a strong hold on me as he followed him.

“I need to stay with him,” I tried to say, but no one listened.

Frank and Zane had been sleeping on the couches, but our sudden appearance scared them awake. They gave us bewildered looks when we stepped into the living room.

“What’s going on?” Franky asked, but I ignored him.

“What’s wrong with you?” Roe hissed at me. “You almost got yourself killed!”

I didn’t reply to either of them. Instead, I hurried to the lounge and turned on the monitors to see what Dante was doing. It took way too long for them to start up, and even longer for the computer to form a connection. By the time I could finally see Dante, he was up on his feet, growling angrily. His steps were wobbly, and he nearly fell a few times.

“Chase?” Roe emerged next to me.

“He’s not turning back,” I said.

“There’s still time,” Roe said.

“Not enough…” Twelve hours seemed like a long time, but it really wasn’t. It was nothing. It was absolutely nothing.

I stared at Dante, who was finally being able to stand straight. He sniffed the air, still growling with a low voice, trying to find me. I knew the only reason he was looking for me was to rip my heart out, but I still wanted to go to him to show him I was still there, that he wasn’t alone.

Suddenly, he let out a louder growl, lifting his head up as high as he could. It took me a moment to realize he didn’t do that voluntarily.

“He’s in pain!” I breathed out and got up, but Roe grabbed me by my arm again.

“Wait.”

I tried to yank myself free. “I need to go to him!”

“Look – he’s turning,” Roe told me, and I turned to watch Dante.

He was… He really was turning…!

“I need to go to him,” I told him, and he let me go.

A short moment later, I was back downstairs at his cage, listening to his painful screams and growls. It sounded so horrible… My heart bled for him.

“Almost over,” I whispered. “Just a short moment…”

When the noises inside started calming down, I opened the cage to see the final moments of his transformation. The scene was straight out of horror movies. There was still a lot of wolf in him, but for the most part, he was human again.

I rushed to him, grabbed the blanket from the floor and put it around his shoulders. His strength was fading, and he collapsed. I tried to make sure he didn’t hurt himself on his way down.

“I’m here, baby,” I told him, but he was barely conscious. “I got you… Don’t worry…”

I was so unbelievably relieved that I nearly started crying on the spot. I forced myself to stay stronger than that as I helped him up on the bed. The bullet wounds on his back were gone, and I couldn’t see other injuries, but once he was lying on the bed, I checked him thoroughly.

“You’re fine…” I whispered, touching his face. He was fast asleep. “You’re all right…”

I heard sounds by the door, and turned to look at Ben and Roe, who had joined me.

“Is he all right?” Ben asked.

“I… don’t know.”

“At least he’s back in his human form,” Roe sighed.

“Is everything all right?” I heard Frank asking at the back of the lab, and Ben reassured him everything was fine, and that the two of them should go back to sleep.

“Chase?” Zane asked quietly as he stepped into the cage. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine. It’s Dante…” I muttered, but didn’t know how to end my sentence. “I don’t know if he’s fine at all.”

Zane stopped to stand next to the bed and peered down at Dante.

“At least he’s human again,” he said quietly and sat down next to me. “You need to rest, too.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” I told him sternly.

“Then stay here with him,” he suggested. “But you really need to sleep.”

“I’m fine.”

“You’re not,” he said sternly. “You’re freaking out.”

“His condition has gotten so much worse because of that bastard,” I hissed, not really caring about their concern over me. “He’s not been in this form this long.”

“Chase – you need to rest. This can wait until you’ve rested.”

I turned to glare at him. “How am I supposed to rest knowing that he stole precious time from us?”

Zane didn’t reply to me. He only gave me a sad look.

I turned my attention back to Dante and made sure he was comfortable under the covers. “I’m not letting him join us in any mission anymore. I am not taking any chances ever again.”

“That’s a good idea,” Zane said quietly.

“No one’s going to hurt him ever again,” I muttered in anger. “I’ll find that cure even if it kills me. And I will kill that bastard! I will make him pay for this!”

I turned to glare at the rest of them, part of me hoping that someone would challenge me in any way so I could take my anger out on them, but they didn’t.

Roe turned to look at Frank. “You and I have stuff to do,” my master grunted at my teacher.

“Alright…” Frank muttered.

“What are you going to do?” I asked.

“We’ll go find more answers,” Roe told him. “We’ll be back soon.”

“Try to rest in the meantime,” Frank told me with an apologetic look on his face. “We’ll go find Arthyzn. Should’ve done that ages ago.”

Part of me wanted to go with them, but that was a small part. I needed to stay with Dante.

“Bring him here when you find him,” I told them.

They nodded and left.

“Zane – could you do something for me?” Ben spoke, and Zane left my side.

“What do you need?”

“For you to stay out of the way,” Ben spoke, and threw something on the floor as soon as my best friend was standing outside.

I turned to look at a small vial that broke from the impact, releasing white smog in the cage. I glared at Ben, who was closing the door.

“Sweet dreams,” he said quietly.

I shook my head in annoyance and quickly lay down next to Dante.

Sleeping gas. I was out a second later.

*****

I felt something nice… I wasn’t really awake yet, but even in my sleep, I could feel it. I drifted towards it, waking up little by little, slowly realizing what was the cause. A warm hand on my arm, moving slowly up and down.

Dante…?

I forced one eye open, but all I could see was white cotton. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to wake myself up. Why was it so hard? I felt like I could sleep a few days straight, but somehow, I got my both eyes open.

And there he was, my Dante. My human Dante.

“Morning…” he murmured, watching me closely.

“Dante,” I breathed out his name and touched his cheek. “You came back.”

“I wasn’t aware I was gone,” he said in a questioning manner.

“You…” I trailed off, deciding not to let him know how scared I was that he wouldn’t turn back to human. “What time is it?”

He shrugged. “There’s no clock in this cell.”

I felt bad. Cell. I felt bad for making him stay in the cage.

“You know what, when we have the cure, the last thing that beast will get to do is to tear this whole cage down,” I told him.

He didn’t reply to me. He only watched me without any expressions on his face. Seeing him like that made my heart quiver in fear. He was still caressing my arm, holding me close, so he couldn’t be mad at me, right?

“Penny for your thoughts,” I whispered, not knowing if I actually wanted to hear his thoughts.

“No more lies,” he said quietly. “I want to trust you, but you still have secrets. I know you do, so please don’t act like I’m clueless.”

I let out a silent sigh. “I don’t have many secrets,” I said, still hoping to avoid this conversation, but knowing it was the only way to gain his trust back.

“Aaliyah mentioned that place. What place?” he asked.

“I honestly don’t know what place you’re talking about,” I muttered, trying to remember all the conversations I had with the vampire.

“They must’ve seen us when we tried to find that place,” Dante spoke. “That’s what she said.”

“Oh… Yeah, we tried to find the facility they held you in…” I explained. “But the reason I didn’t tell you was that I feared mentioning that place would hurt you.”

He was silent for a moment. “I see…”

“I swear, I never wanted to keep any secrets from you, I just… I was afraid…”

“Of what?”

I stared at him for a long time, feeling afraid even now. “Roe calls it chaos that resides in me. I can’t always control it. So… I was afraid… That if you see it, you’ll…”

Damn, it was hard to say out loud…

“I was afraid you’d leave me,” I admitted in a whisper.

He didn’t say anything, so I looked away.

“I still am,” I said.

He let out a deep breath and surprised me by pulling me into a hug. “I’m not leaving you.”

“You’re… not?”

“No… I don’t know what it says about me, but I’m not leaving you.”

I hugged him back, resting my head against his shoulder. “I love you, Dante, and I’m sorry I wasn’t the person you expected.”

“You are the person I expected,” he muttered, making me feel so unbelievably happy. “Chaos or not, I still love you.”

“I promise I won’t lie to you, or keep any secrets,” I whispered.

“Good. I promise to do the same,” he said, kissing the top of my head. “Now I want out of this cage.”

“Of course,” I muttered, sitting up.

When we stepped out, we were greeted by Ben and Aaliyah in the corner.

“Ah! You’re awake!” Ben smiled at us. “Good to see you back as human, Dante. And you woke up just in time!”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“The containers are ready,” the old man said, lifting one of the containers from the desk and walking to us. “Here – drop it.”

“Drop it?” I asked as I took it from him, and he nodded. “Okay…” I muttered and did as he asked.

It let out a hell of a noise when it hit the floor, but when I picked it up and inspected it, I couldn’t find a single crack. The floor, however, had a small hole in it.

“I bet even the beast couldn’t break it,” Ben smirked, taking it from me. “Now we can preserve the glands and make the spell whenever we need it!”

“Or put me in it…” Dante said grimly.

“There’s no need for that,” I told him.

“No indeed,” Roe spoke in my head. “Come to the living room.”

I looked up the stairs and gestured for the others to follow me. My stomach was twisting uncontrollably when we climbed up, but we found the living room empty. Only Zane was there, reading a magazine. He looked at us in curiosity and got up, but I ignored him.

“Roe?” I spoke as I walked down to the couches.

A black twirl appeared in the portal doorway, and Frank stepped out of it, looking tired and cranky. He just snorted at us as a greeting before coming to sit down in the living room area.

“What’s going on?” I asked him, but he only grunted something unrecognizable.

And then Roe stepped in, pushing another demon through the portal.

“Arthyzn,” I spoke the name, feeling many different things from anger to curiosity.

“Well, well, well…” the older demon spoke, looking around the room. “What an interesting house you have here – dwarven made, I assume?”

“That’s not why you’re here,” Roe spoke with an irritated voice.

Arthyzn turned to look at him. “I’m failing to remember when exactly did I agree to have anything to do with you, you nhran! You just barged into my shop, demanding to come with you!”

“Consider this a kidnapping. We will let you go once we have the information we need,” Roe told him.

“And what do you need to know exactly?” Arthyzn snorted.

“The book,” I said, walking up to them. “Where did you get it, and how did you know we need it?”

He peered down at me, squinting his eyes in annoyance. “What book?”

“Donovan Taylor’s werewolf guide for hunters,” I said, crossing my arms.

Arthyzn kept staring at me for a brief moment and then let out an amused snort. “You finally figured it out, huh?”

We had been aware of the possibility that the old merchant knew the importance of the book, but his words still came as a surprise. “What do you mean?” I asked.

He laughed and started walking away from the portal, taking a better look at the house. “This really is a very nice hiding place you have. I’m impressed.”

“Tell us about the damn book!” Roe demanded.

Arthyzn glanced at him over his shoulder.

“It’s a werewolf guide for hunters,” he said with a mocking tone.

“Why did you have it and how did you know we need it?” I asked again, getting angry by his attitude.

But he didn’t answer me. Instead, he turned to look at Dante and took a few steps closer to him. I stepped in between them, trying to give him a stern stare, but he ignored me.

“Rassawolf,” Arthyzn breathed out, measuring Dante from head to toe. “You’re not supposed to exist.”

“So I’ve heard,” Dante said with such confidence I couldn’t help feeling proud of him. “What do you know?” he asked.

“A lot,” Arthyzn smirked.

“Tell us everything,” I said, and he finally turned to look at me. “Where did you get the book?”

He leaned down until our eyes were on the same level and smiled.

“From Donovan Taylor himself.”

I could only stare at him. I think we all could only stare at him. He straightened his posture and turned to look at Dante.

“I had the feeling you may need it. You definitely needed the spell book. I’m assuming you figured out the right spell?”

“Wait, wait, wait…” I said, trying to pull myself out of my shock. “You’ve met Donovan?”

“We’ve shared a drink or two,” Arthyzn shrugged. “Good company when you don’t feel like chatting. The silent type, you know?”

“How?” I asked, and the demon turned to look at Frank.

“I heard the story that drunk nhran told you. About a beast that nearly killed him. Gus wasn’t the only one who got curious about it.”

“You never said anything,” Frank said angrily, but then snapped his mouth shut and turned to look away, pretending he was ignoring his former master.

I really wanted to go slap him to act like an adult because now was not the time to piss off Arthyzn.

“I needed answers,” Arthyzn turned to tell me. “Just like Roe. Our kind is thirsty for knowledge.”

“So you knew what we were looking for this entire time!” Roe hissed at him. “Why didn’t you tell us anything? Why did you give us the books without saying anything??”

“For your own safety,” Arthyzn replied.

“Dante needs a cure! We don’t care about safety right now!” I nearly yelled at him, losing my cool completely.

He raised his hand to silence me. “I gave you enough. You did figure out the spell, right? You know what it does, right?”

“The blood purification spell?” Ben asked, stepping forward.

“That’s the one. I’m assuming it worked?”

“It turned Dante back to human, yes,” Ben nodded, staying irritatingly calm.

“Good. That means I gave you enough,” the demon said.

“That is far from enough!” I said in anger. “You could’ve given us much more time if you just told us what to do!”

“Listen, little mridien, I’m getting tired of your attitude,” Arthyzn grunted at me, and Roe stepped between us.

“That is my mridien you’re threatening,” Roe practically growled at him.

Arthyzn scoffed. “Look who’s suddenly caring about their apprentice.”

“Why don’t we all just take a deep breath and start from the beginning?” Ben asked a bit timidly. “In a calm manner,” he added, peering at Dante, who didn’t look too bothered.

Neither of the demons moved a muscle at first, but eventually, Arthyzn turned away. There really were only a few who wanted to challenge Lord Roeruiz.

I tried to calm down as well, but it wasn’t easy with my anger leaking in. “Why didn’t you tell us anything when you had the chance?” I asked, proud of myself for keeping my voice neutral.

“I did everything I could with the opportunities I had,” Arthyzn said, also keeping his voice calm. “I don’t have the answers you want, and there’s too much at stake to take unnecessary risks. I wasn’t even allowed to give you the books in the first place.”

“Allowed? By whom?” I frowned.

“Him. Donovan,” Arthyzn said, and turned to look at Dante again. “You did wise not accepting his help after you got turned into a werewolf.”

“W-What?” Dante asked in shock. “I… What?“

“You’ve spoken with him too,” Arthyzn chuckled. “He called you, offering his help. If you had accepted it, you wouldn’t be here anymore.”

Dante turned pale and looked away. I could almost see the memories he was going through to remember what Arthyzn was talking about. It didn’t take long for him to find the right one.

“He said it was one of his pack that turned me,” Dante whispered, looking at the old demon again.

“He lied. He wanted you dead,” Arthyzn said. “And he still does.”

“Still? But Donovan is… already…” I muttered but trailed off when Arthyzn started shaking his head slowly, giving me a pitying look. “He’s not dead?” I murmured.

“Bingo.”