Part III

Abaddon. Very slightly mature in reference and in language.

Part III

 

The evening slowly cooled to a moonless night and the bustling of the hospital was finally dying down to a soft babble like a trickling stream. Two figures sat in the cool grass beneath an open window, waiting for everyone to leave. Lavi, t-shirt rippling a little in the gentle breeze, had his tawny eyes closed and was breathing evenly. Silvestra, sitting close by, knew that he wasn’t asleep. She fiddled with the hem of her jeans and her anxious mind went through the procedure for only the hundredth time.

            Lavi stirred and turned his tawny eyes towards the bleak sky. “You know,” his tone was light, but she wasn’t fooled. Long experience told her he was going to say something difficult. “I think Azazel would’ve been happy to know that you cared for him this much,” his dark eyes avoiding hers.

Her eyes slanted away. “Of all the times to talk about this,” she muttered crossly. “You had to choose now.”

“But you must have loved him,” he pursued a little earnestly. She felt his stare lingering on her face, ticking her cheek, though she wasn’t ready to meet it. “I’m sure he…”

Quickly she reached over and clasped her hand tightly over his mouth. His muffled surprise was immediately cut off as she leaned her shoulder against him. They both held their breaths as the sound of voices and a wheeling cart passed by the window. When they disappeared down the hall, she breathed again. She let go and said to him, “This isn’t a good time to discuss this, Lavi.” He nodded dazedly, releasing his breath in a sigh and face slightly red.

A distant clock chimed nine and the lights in the hospital promptly darkened. With a small nod, they carefully snuck into the surgeon’s office. While he scurried around, something caught her eye in the dim light. She crept cautiously to the low lamplight. At Dr. Mallory’s desk, there was a picture of a wolf. But on closer inspection, she realized with a start that it was Daciana, down to her snowy chest and special facial markings.

“Lavi!” she whispered earnestly, eyes still fixed on the photo. When there was no response, she glanced up. He had disappeared. “Lavi?” she said again tentatively.

Suddenly, a rough hand closed around her mouth, muffling her cry of surprise. A large body stood behind her, a hard chest against her back. Another large arm snaked itself around her stomach and up to rest under her breasts. An unknown throb sounded through her body. Something cold and sharp found her neck.

“Well, well,” a sneering voice said. “I think it’s past a certain girl’s bedtime.” It was Dr. Mallory. She drew her lips back into a growl that he couldn’t see but she wanted him to feel. Something deep inside her snarled.

“I knew this was going to happen,” he continued, his breath scalding against her bare neck. A shock of pain shot through her as the arm under her breasts tightened, shortening her breath. She could smell the sickly smell of medicine on him. Wait, she recognized. There also is the scent of… “Now be a good girl and…”

There was a loud whack and he fell unconscious to the ground, knife clattering to the ground. “Good thing I knew that was going to happen, the b*****d,” Lavi said, hefting a heavy book. She grinned appreciatively at him.

Their momentary victory was broken by the sound of shoes against polished floor. Lavi cursed and motioned in the opposite direction and she followed him, taking Dr. Mallory’s knife with her. Throwing open a door, a cold wind blasted them as it opened to three levels of stairs.

Loud gasps drew her head back too late. Sudden pain shocked through her as a wide doctor grabbed her long hair with one hand and her arms in the other. She felt her body being lifted off the solid ground.

He laugh-panted sadistically. “Don’t move…an…inch,” he wheezed to Lavi. “If you don’t…want her pretty throat…to get…crushed.” Lavi stopped moving, but his flaring eyes never left the doctor’s face. “Good…now just…” Lavi suddenly vanished. A choked yell whipped their heads in time to see the other doctor who was going to strangle her tumble over the balcony.

“Lavi!” she screamed. Tears flowed from her eyes. The doctor who was holding her was laughing cruelly. She struggled but it only made him laugh more. Then remembered the knife in her pocket. She drew it out and dropped enough to touch the ground. His rumbles of laughter at her tactic made her innards churn with hate.

“I know that trick, little girl,” he guffawed. “You won’t hurt me…”

He stopped when he saw her grinning as well, but for a totally different reason. “Who said I was going to do that?” she asked bitterly.

Before he could say or do anything, she reached up and slid the cold blade through her long hair. With a cry of surprise, he fell heavily backwards through the door, hand full of now-useless hair. He tried to stand up, but she was faster. She slammed the door on his ankle and heard a sickly crack. A thump on the other side told her that he couldn’t handle the pain.

Leaping down the stairs four or five at a time, she dashed to Lavi’s side. She curled her arm under his back and lifted him close. A deep cut from the fall sliced over his left cheek bone, just under the eye and bled sluggishly. His breath was difficult and his eyes were closed.

“Lavi! Why the hell did you do that?” she demanded, voice cracking.

He shifted in her hold a little and looked pitifully up at her. “Is it a crime,” he murmured, “to protect the girl I love?” His eyes closed again.

Her anger was short-lived as it clicked into place. “You big idiot,” she said, tears falling from her dark eyes. “Please don’t die. I don’t want to lose you too. Please, Lavi…” and, without a further thought, she kissed him. There was a light thump as his hand thudded to the grassy ground.

Fearing the worst, she looked up. Lavi’s bewildered face stared just beyond her head. His expression spoke confusion like waking from a dream. “Are you alright?” she asked tentatively.

“Yeah,” he said slowly, blinking. He chuckled and said, a little jokingly, “I think your kiss healed me.” Then he got up as if he never jumped from three stories. He stared around and found what he was looking for. Grabbing the front of his jacket, he shook the limp doctor violently, yelling, “Hey! You! Wake up!”

When the man finally revived, Lavi demanded to know what was going on. The doctor, with no spirit left, meekly led them down to the basement. She covered her nose as the strong wolf scent found her again. It was dark and leaked in many places. She shivered not only the coldness but an unknown chilling consciousness.

High-pitched whines and pawing drew her attention to the many cages that lined the halls. Some held wolves that she recognized as the cubs that she and her mother raised years ago. Others were ghostly empty and the bottoms held dried rusty-smelling blood. She made a move to comfort the whimpering wolves that recognized her, but Lavi guided her away, shaking his head.

Finally the doctor stopped and pointed to the scene in the middle wordlessly. In a blindingly white room, a lone surgeon stood before a bloodstained bed. She and Lavi winced a little as they watched him operating on a body. The surgeon set his tools down and, sighing, looked up from his work.

“Father!” she said, relieved to see a familiar face. Stepping towards him, she said, “I have so much to tell you. I"” then she caught sight of white fire and knew immediately the cause of the coldness. An amethyst-eyed spirit wolf stood over the bloodstained body. It growled wrathfully at the humans present. From the corner of her eye she saw a motorcycle helmet. Putting the pieces together, she retreated back, shivering with fear.

Abaddon, Silvestra’s father, pulled his mask off. His usually kind eyes were surprised. “Why are you scared, Silvestra?”

“Why? Why are you doing this, Father? ” she growled, vaguely feeling Lavi’s reassuring hand on her shoulder.

“For the sake of mankind, of course,” he replied. “The Smoke is out of hand and already took the lives of too many people…”

“Don’t lie,” she snapped. “You never cared for or feared Smoke until it killed Mother!”

He ignored her. “In the beginning, humans were just like animals. In tune with nature, not fighting it or trying to control it, and used our gifts to make us rulers of all creatures. Then, as we progressed, in our ignorance, surrounded ourselves in technology and slowly but surely lost the gifts nature bestowed upon us. Remember that tsunami that happened over a decade ago? 2004, I believe?” he glanced at the pair. Seeing no response, he returned to his unbroken speech. “While thousands of lives were lost, not a single animal died. Why? Why? They, unlike humans, are still in tune with nature. They sensed the disturbances and migrated to higher land and survived.

“Smoke is no different. As people are dying everywhere, do you see the bodies of dead animals among the piles of corpses? Do you see on live TV, as the towers are crumbling and people dying, a single animal around? Where are the squirrels, the pigeons, the geese? Ever wonder why they aren’t there?”

Lavi and Silvestra glanced at each other. Abaddon kept going. “Then I found that wolf. How proud it was as it stood on that stone, the early morning light glistening on its snowy fur! So I caught him with much difficulty and brought him back. Their offspring…now those are true wolves. Our breed of wolf is the strongest, most adaptable...” His eyes took on a dreamy look, seeing a vision that the others could not. “And so I thought ‘What if I combined this with a person?’ If the spirit accepts its host, then it can heal any injury and we can regain those senses we lost in our arrogance. We needn’t fear the Smoke. Immortality won’t be just a dream anymore.”

Then he shook his head despairingly and gestured half-heartedly at the corpse. “But so far the fusion process isn’t complete because the wolf spirit’s hate of humans is stronger than the will of its dying host. It gets greedy and sucks the energy from the body…”

By then the reassuring hand on her shoulder became a restraining hand. “You mean,” she said, shaking violently, “that my best friend was used as a guinea pig for this…this…?”

He looked at her as if he was seeing her for the first time. “Why are you angry?” he asked, bewildered. “If you knew the reason, you’d be happy...Come with me.” With a fleeting glance passed between her and Lavi, they followed Abaddon silently out of the white-bloodstained coffin room, leaving the fading amethyst-eyed wolf and its dying host forgotten.

 

 

Author's Note

Any suggestions? (Will edit Abaddon's incredibly long speech)