Nocturne | ONC 2024

Twenty: Burning

He had no time to linger on the revelation; about what it meant, or what he was supposed to do about it now, if anything. Tana had launched herself at Nikolai like she'd been fired from a gun, and the man disappeared from above him. A second later, concrete smashed as they hit the opposite wall.

"Evans!"

Aaron looked up, and relief flooded him so suddenly that tears sprang to his eyes. "Bill."

His supervisor's face disappeared from over the ledge for a moment before reappearing again. "Simms is coming down to get you, Evans. Don't panic."

"Why would I...oh."

A huge wolf-creature appeared in the gap in Bill's place, bigger than any he'd seen before. It made Brent Hudson look positively runtish, and even he could've comfortably chewed Aaron's head off if Nikolai hadn't been there.

The thought made him turn, irrationally panicked, but he couldn't tell what was happening between Nikolai and Tana, it was all going so quickly. He couldn't even exactly pinpoint where they were; every time he thought he'd fixed on them, they appeared somewhere else.

Coran Simms landed neatly a few feet away, huffing impatiently.

"I can't get up," he said, and had no idea why he was bothering to sound apologetic. It was fairly self-evident. His voice sounded strange and warped through the thickness in his throat and his swollen nose. "You don't think I would've moved out the way of a charging vampire if I-oof."

Simms picked him up off the ground and chucked him over a shoulder. Aaron grunted, finding the wherewithal even through another blinding wave of pain to take hold of two huge handfuls of coarse fur and hold on for dear life as he felt Simms' legs bunch for the return jump.

"You're a dick, Simms," he muttered, blinking to try and stop a nauseating pattern of stars and spirals swimming around in front of him. "Are you aware?"

The werewolf huffed a laugh. Then he leapt.

He'd been trained too well to scream as the ground vanished and they launched into thin air, but his eyes locked on the receding floor and couldn't seem to leave it. All his breath left him as they hit the ledge above.

"Gonna puke," he muttered, as his stomach gave a threatening lurch.

"Don't drop him, Simms," Bill barked, just as Aaron felt the werewolf take a firm grip on his ankle.

Instead the creature beneath him shrank until Aaron slid off Coran's broad shoulder of his own accord, legs folding the moment his feet touched the ground.

"Evans," Bill said, kneeling beside him. It had been a while since Aaron had seen Bill out in full operation kit – bulletproof vest, weapons belt and all. He'd been masterminding their operations from the station for the past few years, having reached the age where his reaction times weren't fast enough. That he was out again for Aaron's sake meant something. "How bad?"

He was glad Bill hadn't asked if he was alright. He wasn't certain he'd ever be alright again.

"My dad," he said, as the thought occurred to him. He swallowed thickly, gripping Bill's wrist. "Tell me he's not on his own."

"No, Aaron," Bill said. "Nikolai called us just after I messaged you, saying you weren't picking up. He sent my officers in to sit with your father while they waited for a nurse."

"Thank god." He hung his head. "Oh, thank god."

"It was actually your father who raised the alarm," Bill said. "Made Nikolai call you. Just a bad feeling, he said."