The Eternal Avenger

Chapter Eighteen: Absence

Content warning: blood and violence

(Claray's POV)

For the first two weeks, everything went according to plan. I was following a vampire through various rural areas, staying out of sight, trying to predict his destination or purpose. I was grateful that all of his movements seemed focused on moving away from more populated areas, minimizing the risk of additional casualties. I spoke with Bridgit regularly, updating her on my progress. She was curious about the kind of magic tie that seemed to bind me and Wanda, so I asked Wanda if she could text her. The witch was eager to learn, and the two became fast friends. They reached the stage when they started ganging up on me together, and I bowed out of the group chat. I heard Wanda's teasing voice in my head. "Chicken."

"Whatever you say, red," I responded. The sounds of her laughter reverberated in my head for a long time after. By week four, however, things were starting to take a turn for the worse. It was almost as though he was leading me directly towards a pack of wolves, which shouldn't be realistic at all. The two species typically hated each other for a reason. I was just about to call it a night and pick up the trail the following morning, when several projectiles flew through my body, exiting as I exhaled a gasp of pain. I screamed but then everything went black.

(Wanda's POV)

Claray's been gone for almost a month now, but we had kept in touch. Communicating directly into each other's heads had its upsides. The range was remarkable, and the lack of cell phone towers didn't make a bit of difference. I was sitting in my new room flipping through the channels on my television looking for old sitcoms when I felt a crushing pain in my head. I screamed out loud, mirroring the one that was bouncing between my eardrums and fell to the floor. I heard a whooshing sound, and instantly Pietro was by my side, his arm around my shoulders and holding me tight.

"What is it, what's wrong?" He asked, brushing the hair out of my face tenderly. I gasped, attempting to catch my breath.

"It's Claray," I managed to croak out. He looked at me, confused. "We need to get the team." He opened his mouth like he was going to argue with me, but the expression on my face clearly changed his mind. He nodded, gingerly helping me to my feet before guiding an arm around my waist and walking with me slowly towards the main living area of the compound.

(Natasha's POV)

I walked by Claray's room for the three thousandth time, seeing her door cracked open, then looking past the doorway into the room, seeing her boxes still strewn about. I smirked to myself slightly. If she were here, she'd be having a fit to think her room has been a mess this entire time. The smirk quickly wiped itself off of my face, however, as I realized that it had been nearly a month since she left, and aside from a few brief text updates, I hadn't heard from her. Even though we had grown apart a little bit, she usually checked in when one of us was away from the compound. I always appreciated that about her, and it was one of the many things I wanted to talk to her about when she finally came back. I was still standing there, leaning against the doorframe, staring into Claray's room when I heard a loud scream from the floor above. My eyes immediately jerked to the ceiling. Then I heard a lot of racket that seemed to be coming closer before it passed by me, continuing to the lower floor. I followed; my curiosity quickly being replaced by concern. Something was wrong. My pace increased as the voices began getting louder. Witchy sounded frantic. This couldn't be good, and I was beginning to think it had something to do with a certain hybrid that was MIA.

I rounded the corner to our conference room. Wanda was sitting on one side of the table, cradling her head in her hands, trying to catch her breath. Pietro was standing next to her, trying to help her. Clint was with his family at the farm, and Thor was dealing with some Asgardian business. Tony, Bruce, and Steve were standing on the other side of the room, glancing at Wanda intently but not wanting to intrude. I strode towards them purposefully. "What's going on?" I demanded. Steve glanced at me.