-4-

Let it Go

When Nate and Vergil made it to their home's doorway, Nate forced him self to stand on his own, trying to compose himself. Chloe and Elena weren't stupid, and he and Vergil have both tried (unsuccessfully) to hide things from the women they love to protect them. So much had happened to all of them this past year, and he didn't want to add to it. In his mind, he hoped like hell all of this was just a weird scenario that played out. Although, deep down he knew that wasn't true—it never was. He just wanted everyone to be at peace, if not forever than just for this night. It had been three months since he and Vergil had seen their wives, aside from when he broke out in his little hissy fit. Tonight should be all about the wives.

Nate sighed and leaned against the door frame and closed his eyes. His head was still throbbing. Vergil walked a step closer to him.

"Hey..." he began slowly. "Are you sure you're-"

"Vergil," Nate cut him off with a strained voice. "I'm all right. Really." he lied.

Vergil looked at him for a few moments. He knew that Nate was being anything but truthful. Although he hadn't know him very long time, and an even shorter time as his brother, he didn't like seeing him in pain. He had never really seen him this ailed before. Even when he was dying he looked more...sad, and trying his hardest to be strong for Elena.

Seeing him like this was...scary.

Nate took a few deep breaths and looked to his ring. "It'll all be all right." he said softly to himself. A moment later he finally opened the door and walked inside, Vergil being cautious behind him. As the door closed behind him, Cutter ran up to the two of them, shushing them incessantly.

Nate narrowed his eyes. "What the hell is the matter with you?" he asked lowering his register for...whatever the reason was.

Cutter just pointed emphatically at the couch, on it was Chloe fast asleep. Nate's eyes just widened and he nodded in response, with not even a peep. The three of them knew better than to wake a pregnant woman, especially when she was in her third trimester...and ESPECIALLY when that third trimester pregnant woman was Chloe Frazer. If they woke her now, all of them would be on the ground in the fetal position holding their 'special places'.

Nate walked over to the kitchen counter, grabbing a bottle of whiskey and a few aspirin from the cabinets. He took a glass and filled it about halfway he took the pills and downed the whiskey in one go.

Maybe this would ease his headache. It was worth a try.

Vergil walked across the room, pulling a quilt from a chair and gently draped it over her rising and falling body. He sat next to her and ran his fingers through her dark hair. Cutter plopped down beside him and let out a hard sigh.

"Is he making a cocktail to fix the stick in his ass?" he asked Vergil jokingly. He assumed he and Vergil were still at odds since the two of them weren't saying much. Maybe it was because of Chloe, but he didn't believe that to be the case.

Vergil let out a weak and quiet chuckle. "Yeah, maybe he is. But just...forget about him for a while. Let him be, all right?" he asked.

"Aye, aye." Cutter said in confusion, sitting back.

Nate poured himself one more drink and downed it. "Where's Elena?" he asked, his glass clanking against the table.

"Shhh!" Vergil and Cutter said in a loud whisper in unison. Cutter pointed his finger to he and Elena's room. "She went in there about an hour ago." Cutter said in the softest voice he could.

Nate looked at the whiskey bottle and decided against a third. "Jesus, living with you guys I'm surprised I'm not in AA by now." he sighed, heading into his room.

Cutter waited until he heard the door to Nate's room close before he asked Vergil, "Okay, time to tell me what the hell is going on. All of this far exceeds sibling rivalry." he told him.

Vergil considered telling Cutter right then and there, after all Nate didn't make him promise that he wouldn't tell him, just the girls. But he looked down at his sleeping wife, and decided that he should keep his mouth shut. Chloe could hear or something.

Cutter picked up the book Chloe had been reading and began to leaf through it. "Listen, I know something has got to be going on. You've barely said a word, which is...well so very unlike you, and Drake doesn't usually drink that hard. So we can sit here and have some unintelligent chat about the weather or some bollocks like that, or you can just skip all that and tell me now." Once his words ended, he looked over at Vergil with a "Well?"

Vergil just let out a hard, shaken sigh and put a hand over his face. "Something did happen." he admitted. He easily stood from the couch and walked across the room. He walked over to the kitchen and poured himself a stiff drink as well.

Cutter threw the book aside and followed him, talking very quietly. "And that something would be?" he asked.

Vergil just held the full glass and looked at it. "We ran into some...thing in the woods tonight."

"What thing?" Cutter asked him.

Vergil let out a scoff. "That's the question we're all asking." he answered. Vergil took a very small sip of the alcohol and grimaced at the taste. "That thing...did something to Nate, and I don't know what the hell it is."

Cutter was silent for a moment before he spoke. "Did something? What did he do?" he asked, wanting answers to this interesting story.

"That's just it, I don't know what he did. Nathan and I were just standing there fighting and all of a sudden he starts screaming, complaining about some loud noise that was causing him pain." Vergil said.

Cutter tried to focus and believe what Vergil was saying. It sounded more like something out of a comic book or something than something that could happen in reality. But why would Vergil lie? There was no reason for him to, in fact it was often said that he could be a little too honest.

"Okay..." Cutter answered slowly. "And the sound did the same thing to you?" he asked.

"That's the other thing." Vergil replied. "I never even heard it." He sighed and left the full glass on the table, he could never handle the hard stuff. "And to sum it all up, I'm fairly certain that what did that to him wasn't human...well, not entirely at least."

Cutter grabbed the glass of whiskey and pounded it hard. So what, there was a monster or something out there taking people down like Drake? This was all kinds of bad. "Wait, wait, wait, so you're saying this creature ambushed you and made a sound so loud that it made Drake even more bloody crabby, and you never heard or saw anything?" he asked, trying desperately to wrap his head around this whole mess.

Vergil nodded. "Yes, that's what I'm saying. Clearly Nate still is having adverse affects from what happened tonight. But he's hell bent on keeping this hush hush until we know what the hell this thing is."

Pouring another shot Cutter just sat there and starred off into space. "Well, son of a bitch." he cursed. He hadn't been on a trek since all the hell went down with Marlowe, and she was just an old hag, no powers or the like. But now something was out there that wasn't human? How in the hell are you supposed to combat something like that!?

XXX

"I just want to go to bed and sleep next to my wife." Nate thought to himself as he slowly walked into the room, careful to not wake Elena if she was already asleep. "Jesus, my head is splitting."

Nate walked to the other side of the room to grab a white shirt and black pants, he then headed into the bathroom to change and wash up. Once he had his clothes on he leaned over the sink and ran the water. He splashed a few cook handfuls of water on his face.

Then it hit him.

Pain like a thousand bricks being thrown on his head. He threw his hands to his temples and cried out. Thinking quickly, he turned the water onto full blast so Elena wouldn't hear his cries. He fell hard to his knees. He heard the shriek echoing in his mind so loudly. In his head, he saw a faint silhouette of a man with a long black coat, and equally long and black bat wings. Dark sunglasses covered any sign of his eyes, his hair was wispy in the front and came to a jagged point at the top of his head. Any clues to who he was weren't able to be seen clearly.

Let go, Nathan...

The figure said so loudly in Nate's head that it was as if it was right in front of him.

As soon as the ghostly words ended, so did the pain. Nate opened his eyes that, unbeknownst to him, flickered a deep red for a moment before returning to normal. Nate panted a few times before he was able to get back on his feet again. He stopped the water from running and just looked at himself in the mirror. He couldn't tell what, but something about him looked different. It was like something inside him had shifted a little bit...

But what?

"What's happening to me?" he said to himself. He felt a twinge of fear inside. Whatever was happening wasn't good wasn't good at all.

Nate held his hand up and saw he was shaking. "Be nothing. Please, be nothing." he said.

He then opened the door and began to crawl into bed, it was so dark in there it was hard to see anything. As he got under the covers, the lights flickered on, and there in front of him, in the sexiest black lingerie he had ever seen was Elena. Thigh-highs and all.

"Welcome home, baby." she said smiling wide at him.

Nate's mouth went agape. "Holy shit."

Elena twirled a white feather in her hands with a sultry look on her face. "Hey there, prisoner. I hear you've been bad and need a punishing." she said crawling onto the bed with him. She leaned over him and ran the feather over his face and up his arm. She bit her lip with a wide grin. "Ooh, you're so scared I've got you shaking, huh?"

Nate felt a catch in his throat. "Ye-yeah. You could say that."

"Well, your whole body will be shaking here in a few minutes." she said, tracing the feather along his body lower and lower...

Nate grabbed her hand to stop her. "Elena, stop." he said. As much as he wanted her to keep going, he just couldn't. He feared he could have another freak out.

Elena raised a brow. "Fine then." She said, throwing the feather aside. She leaned against him and began to kiss his neck. His weakness.

Nate moaned in delight as she kissed him. He tried so hard to resist. "U-um, Elena...?" he said fighting so hard. He thought of any stupid excuse he could. "The, uh—others are, r...right outside, we don't want to disturb them." he said his voice rising with each kiss he felt. He raised his arm and pounded it hard against the wall, wanting to resist her.

But it's damn near impossible to resist something you've been craving.

Nate gave in and grabbed his wife and threw her on the bed. It had been three months since he had seen her, let alone made love to her, and even more they were still newly weds. The pain he felt had subsided so he thought maybe he was out of the woods. And with as hot as Elena looked he would take his chances. If these pains didn't kill him, him trying to resist her would.