An Eye For An Eye

Soixante-Huit

Every tick of the clock seemed to pass painfully slowly and with every tick, the loneliness seemed to seep in.

While waiting, I paced around, drank coffee, paced around some more. I changed into pajamas before pacing around some more. Patience was not one of my virtues.

When the door finally opened, I eagerly headed to it. But the sight was not what I expected. In front was me was Jack, who was holding up a very bloody Deucalion. Before I could even say a word, Jack moved from supporting Deucalion and rushed out back to his car.
“I have to go and help Tasha,” he said as he got inside. The car door shut and he drove away, into the darkness.

I stared a t Deuc. He was hurt, and that was painful, but I had no idea what to do.
“Um, what do I do?” I asked as he staggered inside. I rushed to shut the door and stop the cold air from freezing the house. Staring at his ripped shirt, I could see a cut between a tear in the fabric.
“I need to get upstairs,” he said through gritted teeth. His hand clutched a wound on his side and he headed to the stairs.

What had happened to them?

Not sure of what else to do, I let the only hunter instincts I had kick in. I headed to the kitchen and grabbed a few clean hand towels and washed my hands with soap. I filled the bowl with clean, soapy waters and then took deep breaths. It would be fine. Deuc would be fine. It was just like when Chris came back injured, I just needed to clean away the dirt, prevent bleeding and then clean the wounds.

But Deucalion’s wounds should have healed.

He was an Alpha werewolf, his wounds should have healed.

By the time I had returned to the hallway with the bowl in hand and the towels draped over my forearm, there was the ripped remains of Deuc’s blood-soaked shirt on the floor. Sighing, I followed him upstairs, careful not to spill any of the water.

Hearing him curse, I headed into the bedroom. He sat on the edge of the bed and without his shirt, I could see the full extent of some of his injuries. There was a large gash across his chest, a smaller cut across his shoulder blade and a bite mark above his left hip. That was where he had been clutching earlier.

“What happened?” I asked quietly as I walked over. He looked over to me, his eyes glowing red.
“It was three wendigos, not one,” he said and that explained a lot. We had thought it was just Mark but there had been two others helping him. They would easily match or overpower a pack of werewolves.
“You were ambushed.”
He nodded. “They were trying to kill the family for buying the business they worked at and for putting them out of a job,” he explained. I nodded as I set the bowl on the floor and wet part of a towel.
“Why isn’t it healing?” I asked as I started wiping away the blood. The shoulder cut was almost healed and the large gash was significantly smaller. As I wiped the mark on his hip, Deuc growled. Something was lodged in his flesh. Fangs.
“It has been,” he said. He sounded so defeated and my heart ached.

“Are they dead?” I asked as I stared at the multiple wendigo fangs stuck in him. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know how they had got there.
“Yes.” His eyes were still glowing as he looked at me. I looked at the wound and then into his eyes.
“I don’t know how to get them out,” I told him. If I had tweezers, I could probably pull them out but I didn’t know where Deuc would keep tweezers. Maybe a bathroom? “Do you have any tw-”
“Liza,” he growled as he grabbed my wrist a little too tightly. I stared at the hand and saw the claws on the ends of my fingertips.
“That works too, I guess.”

Once I had pulled the fangs free, I set them aside. Briar had wanted them. The bite wounds started to heal. The shoulder cut had already healed and the one across his chest was almost gone. It didn’t take too long to wipe away the remaining blood.

“Is everyone else alright?” I asked as I sat next to him on the edge of the bed.
“Yes, Charles and Tamika ran for it when we realised. Tasha got it the worst out of us all, I think,” he said. If Tasha had been worse than Deuc, I didn’t want to know what injuries she had gotten. Even though I didn’t like her, I didn’t want her to get hurt. “This is the second ambush.”
“That isn’t your fault,” I said as I shook my head.
“I couldn’t fight them, Liza,” he whispered. “We were all weaker, I couldn’t see them. I felt helpless and weak.”

I didn’t want to argue with him but he had a point. There were less people in his pack which made him weaker, even if he had somehow managed to absorb Marco and Becca’s powers. And being blind didn't help him at all.

“Maybe we should sleep,” I suggested. “We can check on the others in the morning.” Hesitantly, he nodded and shuffled back before lying down.
“You’re sleeping here with me, right?”
“Yeah,” I said, nodding. “I’ll just go empty the bowl and put it somewhere other than the floor.”

Once the bowl was emptied and put in the dishwasher and the towels were put in the utility room, I headed back upstairs to the bedroom and lay next to him.
“You did as well as you could,” I said in an attempt to comfort him. I couldn’t tell if it was working or not. After kissing his cheek, I snuggled closer to him. The wounds were still healing so I was careful not to knock them.

“It still wasn’t enough.”
“It was enough, it was more than enough. You protected Charles and Tamika, the wendigos are dead and they can’t cause any more trouble,” I said firmly. I couldn’t let him blame himself for it when he had done everything he could. Deuc closed his eyes and sighed. “You did well, very well. Please don’t blame yourself.” I intertwined my fingers with him and closed my eyes.