Wild Wars

39

Cursed bodies
~
Lycus
~

A quick and dashing slash sliced across Lycus's neck and he woke with a start, reaching for his throat.

Sitting up, gasping for air, heart palpitating and throat bone dry, Lycus extended his arm across the bed, reaching for contact.

His hand swiped along empty space and Lycus turned over, finding an unmarked spot on his bed. No Accalia in sight.

Lycus's breathing skyrocketed. No sign of her ever being here this entire day.

Her rosy scent faded, no longer fresh and imprinting for Lycus's senses. He couldn't smell her anywhere no matter how hard he tried.

She should have been back by now, Lycus reasoned and stared at his nightstand, where a note was and his clock stood. It was nearly eleven at night.

Surely Erisa didn't need that much assistance. Lycus tossed his blankets off him and rose from the bed. She had Cole there and her uncle. They could work her through it.

Why did Accalia and Cadence have to go?

Lycus leaned toward his nightstand and picked up the night Accalia wrote, rereading it as he did in the late morning when he first woke up:

Lycus,

Even as you sleep, you still look tired, my Alpha. I hope you don't find this until you're fully rested.

If you don't me see at your side in the morning it's because Cadence and I went to check on Erisa before the full moon. We just wanted to make sure she is okay with Cole and her uncle. The last shift for her was difficult.

I'll be back sometime soon. I'll kiss you before departing.

All my love,

Accalia.

Eyeing her neat and curved handwriting, Lycus picked apart what he could. He expected them to be back by the afternoon, not late in the night, when the pack was dead asleep, beside a pack of werewolves confined in dungeons, crying to the moon.

Folding the note back up, Lycus left his room and wandered down to Cadence's, knowing the cousins typically bunked together.

Opening her door, Lycus found an untouched bed and a stale trail of berries and smoky ash.

Scanning the area, Lycus found nothing usual and went to close the door with a disturbed growl climbing its way out of his throat.

But it paused, stopping in the centre and the same sensation that woke him, a slashing scratch of pain tore across his throat again and he had the sudden physical response to gurgle.

And he gurgled, spitting and spluttering liquid from the base of his throat like he was choking on it. On his blood, on a wound, he didn't even cause.

Warmth fell on the palm of his hand and he peered down with widened, confused eyes. All Lycus could make out were huge blotches of blood.

And more came, as though he was throwing it up, blood after blood, foaming at his mouth and seeping from a wound slashed across his neck.

Lycus heaved, crumbling to his knees and he tried to stomach it, to cease whatever was coming from his mouth, but didn't have an off button. The blood was ever-flowing, unceasing and a pain he could have never imagined for himself.

"Ga—" Lycus choked out, trying to roar out his brother's name. "Gabriel!"

He squeezed his eyes closed and crumbled to the floor, wiping the blood off his lips.

Stumbling feet travelled through the many halls of the manor and settled once they caught onto Lycus's outcry. 

"Lycus," Gabriel's voice trembled and his boots came in front of Lycus's blurry gaze. "Brother, why are you—"

Lycus winced, falling onto his back as he belted, "I don't know! I think it's Accalia! Where is she?"

Gabriel's hand fell upon his shoulder and he hovered above Lycus with straying, terrified eyes. "You told me she went to Erisa's today. Is she not back yet?"

Lycus managed to shake his head, blood tipping out the corners of his mouth.

Gabriel gripped Lycus by the shoulder and lifted him up. "We have to get you cleaned up. You're bleeding everywhere, but you have no wounds. Lycus, where does it hurt?"

"My neck!" Lycus bellowed. "It feels like something ripped my neck open!"

"I'll get a healer!" Gabriel uttered, stunned and went to move.

Lycus stopped him with ragged, difficult breaths. "Don't, it's not me."

Gabriel adamantly shook his head. "Lycus—"

"I have to find her," Lycus winced and rose to his feet, feeling the blood stopping, the wound finally stopping. "I'll go to Erisa."

"I'll come with you," Gabriel said and wrapped his arm around Lycus, straightening his crippled posture.

Lycus didn't refuse. He couldn't conjure up the importance of protecting the pack. The importance of having an Alpha here. Nina and Tala would be enough.

"Tala is making her rounds, she hasn't been affected by the full moon and Nina is with Angelus,"

Lycus nodded numbly, not exactly registering what was being said and his head fell forward. It didn't feel connected with his neck and shoulder, as though that imaginary wound severed the bodily structure to it.

Gabriel steered him back and grabbed his jaw, staring at him. "Lycus? You with me?"

The back of his hand brushed against Lycus's forehead and cheeks and his eyes went wide in fear.

"Lycus, you feel cold. You look faint,"

"I can't feel her," Lycus uttered, dazed and he zeroed in on Gabriel, looking past him and into a black unavoidable void. "I can't feel Accalia,"

Her essence. Her presence. There was no trace of it. It was gone. Like a string between that had been cut and there was no mending it, putting it back together.

Step by step, Gabriel escorted him downstairs and carried him upright as the clutches of reality began to slip.

A short, petite figure came in front of them and Nina gasped, stumbling back with Angelus in her arms.

"Gabriel, what's wrong with Lycus?"

Lycus eyes came to a close and his head slumped on his brother's shoulder, wanting to shut the world out.

"I don't know," Lycus heard Gabriel say. "It isn't good, it has something to do with Accalia,"

"She couldn't be—"

No!" Gabriel claimed, a defiant tone in his statement. "We are going to find her. Take care of our son and the pack. We will be back soon,"

They slipped out of the house and once they got to the nearest car, Gabriel placed Lycus in the passenger seat, fastening a seatbelt around him.

Lycus slanted his head against the glass window and left his eyes closed. What if Erisa attacked Accalia while shifting? His throat constricted. What if Cole did something?

Gabriel got into the driver's seat and started up the car, driving onward.

Lycus could feel everything around him. The vibration of the car hit every bump and rock. The shakiness of the window took every hit as the car carried on through the Fenris tracks.

With the intense, anxious breathing of his brother, he tried to control himself. Gabriel exuded waves of fear that couldn't be drowned out.

And the howls of Fenris hounds. They cried a different tune tonight, a death ring that resonated with sorrow and wrath. It tore through the trees of the territory, trembling into the windows of the car and Lycus had to block it out by covering his ears.

But what Lycus couldn't feel, was his mate, Accalia.