DESCENT

XIV-Blood is thicker than water

ALASTOR NYX:

That went well, Alastor thought sulkily, dropping face-first on the ridiculously large bed in his too-quiet hotel room, curling in on himself until he was wrapped around the blankets from head to toe like a burrito, a sad burrito, half-wanting to disappear from the face of the earth and never be found again.

The sun has already risen when he got back to his hotel room but the coldness growing within him made it impossible to register the warmth when he felt like he was being followed by a storm cloud.

See?

Even his thoughts are so fucking depressing!

He was aware he probably looked like he had been mugged or something with his disheveled state, uncaring of the judging stares he received (after all, he walked straight in a hotel with his pants torn, he lost his shoes on the way and his shirt... he forgot where he left his damn shirt); feeling physically and emotionally drained, half-hoping for his soul to float out of his body, which is to be expected since he had performed a half-shift for a whole six hours and also at the notable distance from his mate... who was probably still in pain and now in a state of paralysis by this point for all he knows.

Alastor shouldn't even be here... all alone—and neither was she! He could and should have been sharing this bed with his mate right now or better yet, see and actively help her get better but noooo, the universe took one look at him and decided to fuck with his love life just for shit and giggles!

He wasn't even sure if this is Aphrodite's doing because he knows he would have known if he had done something to offend the fickle goddess of love.

Maybe this is his karma?

Did he do something awful in his past life or what?!

Well... the good news is that Winters wasn't involved with the mercenary like they had wrongfully assumed, VVV, (William, was it–?) was her brother, after all!

So... Alastor has a future little brother-in-law (he thinks the mercenary looked like a teenager or at the very least, way younger than him), another person to add to the family and another person to impress.

That's great, really!

Alastor wasn't jealous no sir, not at all, that his mate was closer to the kid than he most likely will ever be–

...wait, what.

Alastor paused in his mental rant, suddenly realizing something very important before he consciously stopped himself from screaming out loud a particularly nasty curse because (the initials aren't three Vs, after all... it was a W and a V which most likely stands for William Veil) how the fuck didn't he see that one coming?

He's supposed to be smarter than that!

For a few suffering moments, Alastor felt honestly stupid then ridiculously guilty when he recalled how bad he had thought about VVV, W.V. William whatever the kid's real name is... the mercenary was his mate's brother and Alastor had planned on clawing William's eyes out.

No matter, at least Alastor helped them deal with...

Aw, fuck.

William didn't like me for Winters, even after he found out I was her mate; had screamed at me to get the fuck away–

Groaning miserably, Alastor allowed the fluffy pillows to muffle out screams after screams of frustration that he had managed to bottle in all night long, especially when he had been so near to touch and hold his mate as long as he pleases... only to be shooed off like an unwanted fly.