Vices and Maces

Chapter 83: Everything is Falling Apart... And Just Falling

CW: pain from past injuries

Roman couldn't really dress fancy, not with his arm how it was. It was impossible to button up his shirt by himself, so he needed to wear something without buttons because he wasn't about to ask for help. The closest person he could ask for help with this was his brother, and Remus would tease him about it, so that was a no.

Thankfully he had a few shirts that weren't button ups and painfully slid one on. He needed to get some more since he didn't exactly have a lot. They could buy some when they go clothes shopping with Virgil, hopefully soon.

He looked at the hair gel on his counter, the comb next to it. It would hurt a lot to try to do that, or take forever. It was a good thing his hair isn't too long, it really only fell to his eyebrows. Though that was probably because of the curls. The curls that Virgil said looked better while down. Maybe it won't be so horrible to have his hair like this for once.

He could still move his arm, though not by much without pain flaring up. They gave him an arm brace, they didn't really need a cast because of the metal plate. Guess that was something else Roman and Virgil shared, metal holding together broken bones.

Roman grabbed a light jacket and carefully put it on over his brace before leaving his room. He still can't drive, they rented out a car and Janus drives them. It's awkward having the five of them crammed into a car, five because Remus won't leave the shifters side and Roman shouldn't be flying with his arm like this, especially because half of Wolfsbane knows his face.

While walking through the hall, Roman heard three voices from downstairs. His brother, Janus, and Kayden. Was Virgil up yet?

Better to check, just to make sure he's okay. His ribs are still broken, and Roman was starting to have a bad feeling. Hopefully his ribs aren't in too much pain, the doctor told him that his arm will flare up with pain often, ribs have to be the same.

"Virgil?" he called, knocking lightly on the door. "Are you awake?"

There was no response. The faint smell of blood that always followed him because of his injured wing was fainter than usual. Was he already downstairs?

Roman should check downstairs before making an assumption, but that bad feeling grew. Something was wrong.

He opened the door, and the first thing he noticed was the bed was empty. The whole room was empty. Looking back at the bed, it wasn't as empty as Roman thought. There were two white notes placed on the foot of the bed.

The sight of it filled Roman with dread, but he still made his way over and picked one up. He unfolded it, and read it. It was short, and straight to the point. "I can't stay here, there's something I need to do. I might not come back. Don't go looking for me. Please help my sister, or at least give her the other note."

The second one did have Anna's name on it. But Roman won't be giving it to her. None of them will. Because they're all going out after him. Whatever it is he needs to do, it sounds dangerous, and they're not going to let him do that alone.

~~~

Virgil was tired. After he left, he walked on foot to Wolfsbane's side of town. For the most part, he remained in his dragon form. It still hurt like hell to shift, but it felt easier now that he's healed some. The sun was up by the time he got to the building, hiding behind the alley.

It probably would have been better to sneak in now, while the only people there were security guards. But he was so exhausted that he... ended up falling asleep. He hated to admit it.

It wasn't for long, maybe an hour or so. He slept behind the building, near a dumpster, so it wasn't like anyone saw him. Thankfully he had something to eat before he left, so he wasn't starving. He was a bit hungry, but he didn't have time to eat, or even any food. It was too bad, he probably won't be eating any time soon, if ever again.

Still in his dragon form, Virgil looked around. Luckily, there were vents on the side of the building. It had a white hood over it, and plastic white criss-crosses to keep animals from climbing inside. It's definitely big enough for him. He still can't fly with his wing like this, it would probably pull the stitches, so instead he jumped onto the side of a nearby dumpster before jumping off, grabbing the plastic vent.

He whimpered a bit on the strain from his ribs before digging his claws into the brick, tugging the plastic back. Slowly it cracked at first, but he pulled back harder and harder and soon the plastic snapped off.

To keep from falling back, he grabbed around the remaining broken plastic before breathing fire against it, easily melting it. It dripped down and bubbled, but he didn't feel the heat of it, so he pushed his way into the vent.

It was smaller than he expected, but he still managed to squeeze in. He had to crawl through, his horns trailing across the top of the vent. He tried to limit the noise as much as possible, especially whenever he saw any light popping through a vent cover.

As he passed one, he saw he was only on the main level. Black is still on the 3rd floor. Well... hopefully.

People were already coming into the office, and Virgil caught a whiff of Melany's- no, Dahlia's scent. For a moment his heart ached, he had trusted her to never hurt him. And now his ribs are aching against the cold metal of the vent he dragged himself though. She was never his friend, and she's definitely someone he has to get rid of. And if she's here, Black must be here.

Virgil painfully made a turn as the vent turned. He shivered as the ac kicked on and blew cold air against him. Every second of crawling through these vents was a second he wondered if this was a bad idea. He can't really turn back now... literally.

As he passed through another vent opening, he saw he was now in the main hall. The stairs had to be close by, should he stay in the vent, or should he try to get out? Just as he was considering staying in the vent, as that felt safer, a red dot appeared on his hand.

He looked at it curiously before realizing it was a light. Virgil turned to see where it was coming from and froze. It was a motion sensor, in the vent. Shit.

Small little holes popped out and a white strange gas sprayed through. Virgil let out a small cough as it hit him in the face, before quickly making his way towards the end of the vent where there was an opening. Thankfully the gas didn't follow him, they wouldn't put enough in there to gas the whole building.

However he ended up pushing out the vent cover anyway, and falling down. He was drowsy, like he just wanted to fall asleep, but hitting the ground from the ceiling almost woke him up completely. His ribs lit up in agony when he landed, thankfully not on them. The strange gas must have been a sleeping gas, and probably alerting someone that something was in the vent.

"Hey!"

Or falling out of the vent alerted the security guard at the end of the hall of his presence.