A much longer chapter today :) I know there is a lot of background information that hasn't been fully explained yet, but it will slowly unravel so please don't be confused. I'm shooting for updates every Wednesday and Saturday, though my beta and I both have a lot going on so please forgive us if I have to post later every once in a while. Thank you so much for the wonderful feedback so far! I know there is a lot of Kurt/Sam in these first chapters, but Kurt/Blaine is the endgame pairing for this story so I hope the hardcore shippers can be patient.
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Kurt rubs his eyes and sighs. He and Sam have been sitting in a stuffy back office looking over the train manifests for an hour now, trying to find some detail to connect the derailings.
"This is pointless," Sam says, flipping the cover shut on a leather-bound log book. "Remind me again why I'm here?"
"Because you're a good boyfriend?" Kurt smiles sweetly at Sam and flutters his eyelashes. Sam laughs and gets up to lean over Kurt, hugging him from behind and kissing his neck. "We can go in a minute, I just want to ask the station master about this notation." Kurt flips a few pages back and points to a note in the margin.
"Does that say 'begin Pink Power Powder?'"
"Maybe." Sam leans in, squinting at the barely legible scribbles. "What the heck does that mean?"
"I don't know, but it started a couple of weeks before the first derailing. It's literally the only thing they have in common, whatever it means." Kurt pushes the chair back with a loud scrape and stands up, leaning into Sam and nuzzling his neck. "Where's that delightful station master?" Sam pets Kurt's lower back for a moment before taking his hand and drawing him out into the chaos of the rail yard.
"Madame Beiste?" Sam calls, looking around the area they'd last seen her. His voice is swallowed up by the clanging of steel and the hissing of steam, and it's impossible to hear a response. Kurt grimaces, covering his human ears and flattening his cat ears in an attempt to muffle the sound.
"I hate this," Kurt yells. "It feels like my brain is splitting open." Most of the time, Kurt isn't bothered by his enhanced hearing, but the cacophony of sounds from the rail yard is overwhelming and almost painful.
Sam frowns in sympathy and covers Kurt's cat ears with his palms, rubbing his fingers in small circles to massage his scalp. Kurt curls into him, squeezing his eyes shut and hiding his face in Sam's neck. The gaze of the nearby rail workers is a tangible thing, sending a cold shudder through him. His tail curls between his legs in shame as one man whistles at them. "Can we please leave," Kurt whimpers into Sam's ear.
"Let's find Beiste. You can hang on for a minute longer." Kurt nods and Sam strokes his hair comfortingly. He slides a hand down to twine with Kurt's, pulling him down the wooden walkway between the buildings. He has to ask three people before someone directs them to the ticket office, where Beiste is apparently bemoaning their rapidly declining sales.
"You boys have any luck? We've been more confused than a one-winged pigeon pecking around a pile of horse shit."
Kurt blinks and side-eyes Sam. Madame Beiste is a bear of a woman, dressed in men's clothing and smoking a massive cigar. She wears a leather cap over her short curls, crossed by the leather straps of a complicated monogoggle. She reaches up and flips one lens out of the way, rotating two others into its place.
"I was looking out over the hills," she explains, puffing on her cigar and blowing the smoke out the ticket buying window.
Kurt clasps his hand behind his back and straightens his spine. "I don't know if it's relevant," he says carefully, "but I was wondering what the, um, Pink Power Powder is? There's a note about it being used before the accidents started."
"It's a fuel additive." Beiste frowns and snuffs out the cigar, dropping it onto an ashtray shaped like an engine car. "You think it might be messing with my trains?"
"I'm not sure. Where did it come from?"
"And who named it?" Sam mutters.
"You know that crazy alchemist Ryerson? He's started making things that are actually useful." Beiste shakes her head and snorts out a laugh. "You're right, though. I've heard better names on dogs at a church pie eating contest."
Kurt exchanges another glance with Sam, eyebrow raised as high as it will go. "Be that as it may, I don't know why a fuel additive would cause enough of a mechanical breakdown for the trains to jump the tracks. If it was a defective batch, it would just damage the boilers and stop the train. What exactly does it do?"
"Makes the coal burn hotter, quicker, and longer. It's reduced our coal use by almost forty percent. I know it's crazy to say, but it seems to make the trains just run smoother. Our ridership went up eleven percent, and I think it's because the ride's more pleasant." Beiste sighs and shakes her head sadly. "The past couple of weeks, of course, it's been cut by more than half. No one wants to ride a death trap."
"What's in it?" Sam asks bluntly. "Sounds like he imbued it with magic."
"Don't use that tone with me, Sunshine. We all know that's legal now." Beiste stares at them and Kurt shifts his weight from foot to foot, feeling awkward. Sam and Mr. Schuester don't think too highly of magic or the people who practice it, despite recent laws legalizing basic magic for non-nefarious purposes. Kurt isn't exactly sure how he feels about it, so he tries not to bring it up around Sam for fear of being lectured on the inherent evils of magic.
"So... could we have a sample? I promise we won't try to replicate it, we just want to find out why your patrons are being needlessly killed." Kurt gives Beiste his most angelic smile, though it quickly falters as Beiste begins to cry. Kurt takes a step toward her, but she waves him off and turns her face upward, sniffling and blinking rapidly.
"I'm sorry, boys. It's just so painful for me to think about all the lives I hold in my hands every day. Those trains are like my children, and to think that I willfully gave my children poison? Poison that made them wander off the careful paths I laid for them? I let families ride on my children, and my children killed those families."
"Err." Sam hesitantly pats her on the shoulder. "It might not be anything you did. If you let us do some experiments with the powder, we can rule it out."
Beiste nods, sniffing again. She picks up a riding crop that had been leaning against the desk and strides to the door, yanking it open. "Azimio!" she bellows, smacking the crop against the door frame. Kurt winces.
A heavyset young man wanders over, looking completely put out. "What now?" he whines. Kurt looks at him curiously; it's been a while since he's seen someone with such dark skin, and he wonders how far he must have traveled to get to the city.
"You watch your attitude," Madame Beiste barks. "Get me a sample of the triple P."
Azimio sighs and saunters off. It seems to take forever for him to return, though Kurt's pocket watch tells him it's been less than five minutes. Beiste stands stoically while they wait, and when Azimio strolls back in she twitches the crop in his direction, though she doesn't actually hit him.
"You move slower than a crippled horse in tar pit, Azimio. I want an update on that private car construction in twenty."
Azimio thrusts a small jar at her before storming away, muttering under his breath.
"I'm gonna get that kid straightened out if it kills me," she says with an exasperated shake of her head, though her fond smile makes Kurt think she must enjoy whipping subordinates into shape. "Here you go, kids."
"Oh," Sam says when Madame Beiste hands him the jar, "it really is a pink powder."
Madame Beiste snorts, but Kurt jumps in before she can spout another weird metaphor. "We'll look at this right away and let you know what we find."
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"Explain this to me again." Kurt looks from the crystal to the glass vial filled with pink liquid and back to Sam. "I'm supposed to walk around dangling this and what exactly is supposed to happen?"
"It's called dowsing. Look, it's not something me or Schue would normally do, but we're both sure that powder has some sort of magic component, so we have to try some stupid magic to figure it out." Sam holds up his identical contraption and lets the chain uncoil. Suspended near the bottom is a raw crystal, and a few inches below that is a vial of a solution made from the Pink Power Powder. "The crystal channels earth energy or something, and the solution should work like a filter to point us toward its components."
"I will humor you in this, but when it fails I hope you have a backup plan." Sam shrugs. "Sam!"
"What? I'm a chemist, not an alchemist or a witch. Let's just see if this does anything." Sam stands very still and holds the top of the chain in front of him. It swings a bit from momentum, but gradually settles until it just hangs straight down.
"Thrilling. Now do we wait for a stiff breeze?"
"No, we need to walk around a little. Come on." Sam starts walking away from Mr. Schuester's shop slowly, watching the pendulum quiver. Kurt sighs and lets his chain drop, quickly catching up with Sam.
"Mine's swinging more."
"Because you're not taking this seriously, Kurt. If you're going to do it, then at least do it right."
"Okay. Fine." Kurt stiffens his posture and walks deliberately next to Sam, their pendulums swaying with the motion of their strides.
Fifteen minutes later, they're approaching the poorer residential side of town when Kurt has an epiphany.
"Oh my god, you're an idiot."
"What?"
"We should be walking the tracks, Sam. If you think about it in terms of a magical pull, or whatever this inane dowsing is about, it's like the trains were literally pulled from the track."
"That's... an interesting theory." Sam stops and rubs his chin thoughtfully.
"Oh, come on. We're not going to get anywhere swinging some chains around town." Kurt pockets his pendulum and links his arm through Sam's. "If you're lucky, I'll let you kiss me up against a tree."
Sam bumps his hip into Kurt's and picks up their pace. It's still a long walk back through town to the rail yard, so Kurt starts singing a song he knows Sam can harmonize with. They end up doing a medley of all the current songs they know, dropping one when they can't remember the next verse and jumping right into another. Kurt's laughing by the time they reach the tracks, giddy enough that he doesn't pay any attention to the catcalls of the rail workers.
Sam notices, though. "Do they think I'm your pimp or something? Like we're dating but I'll gladly loan you out? I really don't get it." He gives the men a dirty look as they hop up onto the main track, walking in the direction of the latest accident. All westbound train services are stopped until further notice, so they don't have to worry about getting run over.
"I don't know either," Kurt says quietly. Despite how obvious their relationship is, men still hit on Kurt in front of Sam all the time. He pulls the pendulum out and holds it steady, waiting for Sam to do the same. "A guy once asked me if I stayed with you to repay you for creating me. Like I'm Frankenstein's monster."
"I wasn't even there when you were transformed, what the hell." Sam kicks angrily at a rail tie and then has to wait for his pendulum to steady itself again. "Is five years really such a long time that people can't remember how things actually happened?"
"Guess so." Kurt starts walking, keeping his eye on the vial as it sways. Every time Kurt thinks his pendulum might be swinging toward something, he double-checks with Sam and realizes he's just started tilting his hand.
"How far have we gone?" Kurt asks, tone on the edge of whining. They've been walking forever and he's tired of holding this stupid crystal on a chain and expecting anything to come of it.
Sam unearths his pocket watch and squints at it. "Three miles? We've been walking for nearly an hour."
Kurt growls a little and quickens his pace. "Once we pass that bend I want to turn around. We can come back with a couple of auto-cycles tomorrow if we want to go further." Kurt hardly ever has occasion to borrow the steam-powered transports from Burt, but they should be easy enough to ride down the tracks.
"Sure." Sam hurries to catch up with him, looking at their surroundings. "There's nothing out here, just forest. I have no idea what natural component could be used in this stuff."
"Mmmhmm." Kurt glares at his pendulum, willing it to give them some direction. It sways a little to the right and Kurt sighs. That's how these things work- you want it to show you something, so you subconsciously make it happen. Kurt stops and steadies his hand, but the vial stays angled to the right. "Sam?"
"Yeah." Kurt glances over and Sam's looking at his own vial, which is also pulling to the right. "Come on, let's head this way." They carefully step off the tracks, holding their pendulums in front of them as they follow the pull. Their chains are straining forward, toward whatever it is that must have affected the trains.
"This is crazy," Kurt mutters. They're in the woods now, carefully stepping over roots and pushing aside branches. "I can't believe this is working."
"What's crazy is that all of the trains must've been affected differently, since they were all pulled off the tracks at different places. We'll have to figure that out next."
"Oh." Kurt stops walking and chews his bottom lip, a heavy ball of unease settling inside of him. "No, that's not it at all. The magic must be moving. Some of the accidents were worse than others, it must not pull as strongly the farther away it is."
"How could it be moving? Like a fluctuating energy vein?"
"Maybe. Or a magical creature."
"Hey, maybe it's a unicorn." Sam starts walking again and Kurt follows, eyes darting between the pendulum and the trees, wary of what may be lurking in the woods. "At least we know we can approach it, if it is one."
"See, I knew staying a virgin would come in handy," Kurt says airily.
Sam remains silent and Kurt's smile falls off his face. The topic of sex isn't something he normally mentions, since Kurt is beginning to stress over how long he can put off being intimate with Sam before one of them has to give in.
"Hey, you're going the wrong way." Kurt pauses and looks between their pendulums, which are now pulling in opposite directions. "What's happening?"
"I don't know." Sam frowns and rubs a hand over his face, sighing loudly. "I should have asked Terri to come, but Schue was being all weird about her again. She brought me the crystals and then they had one of those intense conversations where her eyes get all screwy and he cries without any tears actually falling. I didn't even get to ask her if she knew of any magic deposits out here."
"Well, if you were married to someone for ten years who turned out to secretly be a witch, you'd be weird, too." Kurt snorts. "Magic deposits? That's not even a thing."
Sam gives him an exasperated look. "If you became a witch, I wouldn't leave you. And it is too a thing!"
Kurt huffs and stares at their pendulums. He really wishes Sam would be a little more realistic about their relationship, especially since he's sure that if he actually did become a witch, Sam would do everything he could to sway him back to the side of science. Kurt flinches when his chain starts to vibrate a little, the vial hanging at a forty-five degree angle to the ground. They must be getting close.
"Let's split up," Kurt decides. "The magic could be from two different sources."
"That are both moving?"
"If we follow one, we might have lost the other by then. Maybe dowsing flows through the individual dowser, so we're getting readings in tune with our own personal magical essence. You might find your unicorn, and I'll find some mythical cat."
"You are so full of it," Sam says, though his voice is laced with fondness and it sounds more like a compliment. "Okay. Meet back at the tracks in half an hour? At the dead rabbit carcass we just passed."
"Lovely, Sam. Just lovely." Kurt starts to head off, but Sam grabs him around the waist and pulls him flush against his chest.
"Wait a second." Sam kisses him softly and looks into his eyes. "I love you, okay? Be careful."
"Oh, I had planned on being reckless, but I suppose I'll reconsider." Kurt smirks and Sam rolls his eyes, giving Kurt's rear a swat before releasing him.
"Half an hour."
"Got it." Kurt waves over his shoulder without looking back. His pendulum is physically pulling him forward, stiff and not even swaying as he trots where it leads him. He slows down as the pendulum vibrates and pulls nearly perpendicular to the ground, filled with a mixture of fear and curiosity as he sniffs the air. This is werewolf territory, without a doubt, and Kurt abruptly stops walking as a realization washes over him.
What makes a nice pink color when diluted?
Blood.
Werewolves are one of the strongest and most elusive magical creatures, and they're known to live in roaming packs deep in the woods. Of course, they usually stay much further inland, but Sam had said there had been sightings on the outskirts of the city. Who's to say their blood doesn't have some powerful uses when mixed properly?
Kurt realizes he's panting, heart pounding as he tries to pick out a familiar scent in the mix of markings. If these werewolves don't know him, if they find him wandering through their land, they will kill him. Kurt takes a few frantic steps backward, preparing to break into a run, but he hears the sound of rapidly crunching leaves, and when he turns around there are two werewolves in front of him. Neither one is his wolf.
"I'm sorry, I'm leaving, I just realized this is your land," Kurt babbles frantically. He holds his hands in front of him, trying to show them that he's not a threat. He wonders if they can smell fear, the way people say dogs can.
The wolf with dark brown fur growls and steps forward, snapping at his right hand. Kurt drops the pendulum like it's burning. "The trains- I didn't know what was in it, I just figured it out when I smelled you."
The wolf looks over his shoulder at his companion, a silvery gray wolf with intensely dark eyes, Kurt has no idea what they're thinking. Do they know about the additive? Did they give their blood willingly? Do they think he's here to try to take their blood?
The silver wolf tilts his head up and howls. Kurt's whole body prickles with fear as an answering howl sounds in the distance. He looks through the trees, trying to see if more wolves are joining them, but before he sees or smells anything new, the brown wolf closes his mouth around Kurt's wrist and tugs. Kurt instinctively tries to pull back, but the teeth dig into his skin harder and the wolf growls lowly, a warning. Kurt heeds it and lets the wolf pull him through the forest. He can run faster than most humans, but Kurt has no idea how quickly werewolves can move and he doesn't want to find out by goading them into a chase.
They only walk a short distance before two other wolves are running up to meet them. They're both black, though Kurt instantly recognizes the one with the slightly curly coat as the wolf who saved him. That wolf, his wolf, runs right up to him and barks at the wolf holding Kurt's wrist. The teeth immediately let go, and his wolf licks soothingly over the sore skin, whining and moving all around Kurt, sniffing and nuzzling at him. Kurt looks down and is relieved to see he's not bleeding, though his wrist is sore and will surely bruise.
His wolf finally stops circling and sits in front of Kurt, panting happily, his tail dragging through the leaves as it wags. He turns and lets out a series of barks and yips, communicating something to the other wolves, who are watching them. They bark in response and run off, leaves flying in their wake.
Kurt crouches down and pets behind the werewolf's ears with both hands. "Hello again." The wolf jumps to his feet and crowds into Kurt, licking all over his face. Kurt lets out a startled breath as the wolf nudges their noses together, but in truth he's just as happy to see the wolf as he apparently is to see Kurt. He wraps his arms around the wolf's neck and hugs him, finally calming down. He pushes his face into the wolf's soft fur, rubbing his cheek around as he gets his mouth near the wolf's ear, murmuring, "Your friends scared me."
The wolf whines in apology, but as he pushes further into the embrace he knocks Kurt off balance. Kurt sprawls on the ground and the wolf settles on top of him, still nuzzling at every inch of Kurt, tongue darting out to lick at the sparse areas of bared skin. Kurt really should be grossed out- more than that, he should be fearing for his life- but all he really wants is for the wolf to shift into his human form and continue the licking. Preferably with less clothes.
Kurt flushes and turns his head away, squeezing his eyes shut. What is wrong with him, that lately the urges he normally keeps repressed are flinging themselves through his mind with reckless abandon?
Then the wolf laps at his bared throat, his nose nudging under Kurt's jaw, and Kurt mewls. He bites his lip to stop any more embarrassing sounds from coming out, fingers scrabbling through the leaves under him as he tries to make sense of what he's feeling. He's at least glad he didn't tie a complicated cravat this morning. His soft cotton shirt has an open neckline, being from the small part of his wardrobe labelled "For Adventures and Daring Mischief!", which affords the wolf much more skin to ravish. Kurt realizes that he's rolling around in the leaves with a wolf on top of him and he doesn't even care; all he can think about is the man trapped inside that wolf and how he'd give anything to be rolling around under him right now.
The wolf inches up and starts cleaning Kurt's cat ears. Kurt finds himself purring loudly, his lips parted and eyes half-lidded as his breaths become ragged. The wolf settles more firmly on top of him, laving his tongue through Kurt's hair and down to his human ears. He doesn't linger there long, just gives him a few wet licks that are way more arousing than Kurt would have expected. The wolf noses back up to the furred ears on top of Kurt's head, panting in them as he washes the fur.
"Well, this is certainly interesting."
Kurt's eyes fly open and he stops purring as the wolf growls menacingly, the vibrations traveling into Kurt where their chests are pressed together. "We're not judging, we just want to talk," the man says soothingly. He's smiling at them, standing relaxed next to another man. They're both shirtless, wearing loose pants and no shoes.
"I'm Wes, and this is David," the other man says. "I'm sorry we couldn't introduce ourselves properly before. While we can mostly understand human speech in our wolf forms, communicating in return is problematic."
Kurt looks at the two men and can immediately smell that they were the wolves who found him. David, with his dark brown skin and hair, must be the wolf with the chocolate fur, while Wes is the silver one. Aside from that Azimio character this morning, Kurt's hasn't seen an African since Will's old apprentice Matt inexplicably left, and it's rare to see anyone from the Asias- Tina will be so excited to hear about this.
Except, he can't tell her. Kurt clears his throat and tries to sit up, pushing at the wolf. He whines but relents, sitting back on his haunches and watching as Kurt stands. "I'm Kurt." He almost sticks out his hand to shake, but instead tangles his fingers in the thick fur on the wolf's neck.
"I'm sorry about your wrist," David says. He looks sincerely apologetic, so Kurt just shakes his head.
"It's fine."
"So, I take it you've met our friend here before?" Wes asks, gesturing at the wolf sitting protectively next to Kurt.
"Yeah, he-" Kurt cuts himself off when he realizes that they may not know the wolf killed a man for him. Will he be in trouble for doing that? Is there some sort of werewolf moral code? "He saved my life," Kurt settles on, hoping it conveys the severity of the situation without offering any details that might harm his wolf.
"Oh," David says, eyes widening in recognition. He looks to Wes, who's frowning pensively, and then back at Kurt. "You must be the boy from the alley. I'm sorry that happened to you."
"He told you about that?"
"Of course." Wes eyes the wolf seated at Kurt's side with a bit of suspicion. "We tell each other everything." The wolf leans his weight against Kurt's leg and lets out a sigh. David and Wes smile at him indulgently, then look back at Kurt. Feeling vaguely uncomfortable, Kurt twists his fingers more tightly into the wolf's fur and takes comfort in the fact that at least one member of this pack trusts him.
"Can't he change into his human form and talk to me?"
Wes shakes his head. "He goes into the city more than we do; he won't want you to recognize him."
"Oh." Kurt pulls his lower lip between his teeth and lets it slide back out. "What's his name, then?"
"We can't tell you, I'm sorry," David says. "We really must protect each other. Things are a little... strange right now."
"We only shifted because we need to talk to you about what you were doing earlier." Wes narrows his eyes at Kurt. "Was that the fuel additive?"
"Yes, but I don't know anything about it," Kurt rushes out. "We had a suspicion that it was made with magic, so we were dowsing to see if it led us to the source. It pulled me to you."
Wes rubs at his temple, looking weary. "It's complicated, Kurt. We're taking care of it. We can't give you any more details than that."
"Can I ask why you're so concerned with the formula of the additive?" David crosses his arms and manages to look severely intimidating for someone who's half naked. "Are you trying to create some competition?"
"No, no!" Kurt widens his eyes and shakes his head. "There have been trains pulled off the tracks, and no one knows why. I thought- well, now I know, it's because the residual magic in the additive is being attracted to its source. Which is you."
Kurt startles as the wolf next to him stands up quickly, fixing his gaze on Kurt's face. Kurt meets his eyes, feeling a strange connection settle into his bones. He mentally shakes himself and the feeling is gone just as quickly as it came. He rubs one of the wolf's ears and smiles a little sadly. "When you move around near the trains in a group, you're pulling the additive to you. Like a magnet picking up iron flecks."
"Well," Wes says after a moment. "We had no idea that was happening. We heard some commotions, but none of us thought we were causing it."
"Can you just- is it too much to ask for you to make a really wide berth around the tracks?" Kurt asks. "Though I don't know how to tell them the problem is fixed without also telling them the cause of it." Kurt rubs a hand over his face and sighs loudly.
"You're irritated," Wes says plainly, and the longer Kurt looks at him the more he feels patronized.
"Yes, god, of course I'm irritated!" Kurt looks back at the wolf standing next to him and growls, though he suspects the sound is laughable given his present company. "I would really love to protect you. You seem like decent werewolves and all, but a lot of people have died and they've completely stopped the westbound train service. I can't just pretend I don't know what's going on."
"We just need a little more time to plan our next move," David says. "The man responsible is making a lot of money, and it's all perfectly legal. We don't expect the people of this city to care that he murdered an entire family of werewolves to do so."
Kurt shakes his head and crosses his arms, tired of the holier-than-thou attitude. "If you hadn't started terrorizing the city, you might have found its people to be a bit more reasonable."
"That wasn't us," Wes says.
"Well, she's one of us now," David mutters under his breath.
"There was a rogue werewolf. She was angry and didn't know any better, but we've since accepted her into our little group and we try our best not to let anyone see us."
"That doesn't change anything." Kurt rubs at his temple, suddenly feeling exhausted. "You guys aren't very well understood, and I know people can make rash decisions when faced with the unknown. I'm not going to send hunters after you, but I am going to tell the rail yard the reason they need to stop using the additive. I hope it doesn't complicate your mysterious attempt at justice."
Wes laughs. "Don't worry, we'll be moving far from here. You won't be able to find us again."
"Okay, well, good luck with whatever." Kurt turns and starts walking, then stops when he realizes he has no idea which direction to go. "Um." He glances back at the Wes and David and smiles sweetly. "Do you mind pointing me in the direction of the tracks?"
The wolf pads over to Kurt and looks up at him with bright eyes, whining softly. David chuckles and shares a look with Wes. "He'll walk you back."
Kurt pets the top of the wolf's head and feels his heart melt a little. He normally hates dogs, but something about this werewolf makes Kurt want to curl up with him in front of a fireplace and groom each other. He follows the wolf all the way back to the tracks, but the point they reach is not where he agreed to meet Sam. It's definitely been longer than half an hour, anyway, so for all he knows Sam could be wandering the forest looking for him.
Sniffing the air proves futile, since Kurt's never been very good at scent-tracking. He sighs and rubs the wolf's ears. "Can you smell my boyfriend? He should be somewhere nearby." The wolf snarls at the word boyfriend, but he lowers his head and starts sniffing anyway. "Hey, don't be rude," Kurt admonishes. "I've been with him for a long time." The wolf huffs and raises his head to glower at Kurt, then lowers it and starts sniffing again, walking slowly down the tracks. Kurt trails along behind him, keeping his ears and eyes open for any sign of Sam.
He finally hears Sam yelling his name a few minutes later. "Over here!" Kurt calls back. He crouches down and kisses the top of the wolf's head, ruffling the fur on his neck with both hands. "Thank you, again. You shouldn't let Sam see you, he might think you're trying to eat me and shoot you." The werewolf gives him a look that clearly says he thinks he could take a human in a fight, but Kurt just laughs and nuzzles their noses together. "He has good aim, it's a serious threat."
The wolf huffs and licks over Kurt's mouth, the same way he had the first night they met. Kurt turns his face away and wipes his mouth on his sleeve, then pushes the wolf toward the woods without a word.
The wolf has just disappeared from sight when Sam catches up to him, grabbing Kurt's hips and spinning him around to face him. "There you are," he breathes, clearly relieved. He looks Kurt up and down like he's assessing him for damage, and frowns when he sees that he's unharmed. "Where were you? I was worried."
"I"m sorry, I went farther than I meant to and got lost on the way back."
Sam shakes his head, still frowning. "I thought the wolves had gotten you. Come on." He heads back in the direction of the city and Kurt follows, falling into step with Sam.
"So you heard them? Did you figure it out?"
"No, I got kind of spooked and headed back early." Sam shakes his head and sighs. "Anyway, my dowsing chain kept changing direction. I should have known better than to put any trust in magic."
"It did work, though. It was attracted to the werewolves." Kurt looks at his feet as they pass over the wooden ties, more so he doesn't have to look Sam than to actually avoid anything on the tracks. Madame Beiste keeps all aspects of the railway well maintained. "I think the alchemist Ryerson must be using werewolf blood in his new batch of potions," he adds after a minute.
"Shit, really? I guess that makes sense."
Kurt nods and stuffs his hands in his pockets. "I'll talk to Madame Beiste and get the trains running again. I just... don't want to make a big deal about this? I'm worried that if people hear werewolf blood is so powerful in potions, they might start hunting them."
Sam scoffs. "It would serve them right if they did."
Kurt hunches his shoulders forward, his expression darkening. "They're just people, Sam. When was the last time one did something to hurt anyone?"
"Uh, just a few weeks ago? That farmer was attacked."
"Dad said all he had were a few scratches. I bet he got them from running away and tripping at the first sight of a regular old wolf, anyway."
"Even if that's true, Mr. Tanaka was killed pretty brutally, and everyone says it was a werewolf. His neighbor even saw it."
Kurt has a suspicion of which wolf was responsible for that, and he really wishes he could actually talk to his wolf. Kurt wants to give the werewolves the benefit of the doubt, but as it's hard to reconcile the unabashed fear most people have of them with the cultured men he spoke to in the woods, he really wishes he could get some more information out of them.
"Okay," Kurt says, resigned. "That was a few months ago, at least. Maybe these are different werewolves."
Sam's quiet for a while, and when Kurt glances at him he sees Sam staring at him with a weird look on his face.
"What?"
"Why are you defending them? They're werewolves, Kurt. They're like the embodiment of evil magic."
"I don't think that's true. I think they're misunderstood. How do you even become a werewolf, anyway? It's not like they chose it."
"Some of them did. I hear it's like a cult. There's big groups of them that live together in the forest and practice all sorts of creepy illegal magic."
Kurt rolls his eyes. "That sounds ridiculous."
"Maybe, but so do lots of things that turn out to be true. You should be careful, Kurt. If you come near a werewolf and it bites you? You're officially out of steam. You'll turn into a werewolf too." Sam pauses and squints his eyes, clearly thinking hard. "Actually, I'm not sure what would happen to you. Maybe you'd turn into a lion at the full moon."
"You caught me, Sam. I am already a full-fledged werelion. Rawr." Kurt makes his hand into a claw shape and slowly scratches at the air, lazily baring his teeth at Sam with just the smallest curl of his lip. "Hiss," Kurt says flatly.
Sam rolls his eyes and grins, reaching out to ruffle Kurt's ears and pull him closer. He plants a kiss on Kurt's temple and leaves his arm slung over Kurt's shoulder for the rest of their long walk home.
