Hello people! Thank you so much for the reviews! They keep me writing and enjoying it. :D Anyways be forewarned that this chapter is both graphic and a tiny bit confusing at the end. It most certainly earns at least a T rating, as much so as my story "Grendels". Just so you know what you're getting into!

This chapter is a little longer than most. I hope you enjoy it!

Disclaimer: I do not own the Cal Leandros series, it is property of Robin Thurman

Niko POV

I got to Rafferty's in record time, though that was most likely due to the fact that I was also coming close to breaking my speeding record as well. I had called Promise and Robin on the way here and they were both on their way. Hopefully they would make it here to stop me before I decided that knocking him out was the best way to keep him here. I clenched my teeth, it was a terribly tempting prospect.

I jerked the car into the drive and jumped out without bothering to turn the car off. I had more important things on my mind than greenhouse gases. I ran silently up to the door, the light layer of snow padding my footsteps.

I made it to the door and twisted the knob without a sound. I pushed to door open gently just enough to slip inside.

I didn't want Cal to know that I was here. It would give him time to make the decision to gate. Assuming that he was uncooperative the best plan would be to get a hold on him so that even if he did gate I would only come with him. If I could surprise him things would only go more smoothly. It would be difficult though, Cal was nearly as weary as I was, it was unlikely that I would catch him not paying attention.

My steps were silent as I drifted down the hallway hugging the wall, and the only noise I could hear thus far was the light breeze whistling around Rafferty's house.

I rounded the corner into the kitchen and was unprepared for what I saw.

An Auphe lie mutilated on the floor. Black blood seeped along the grooves between the tiles contrasting sharply with the white ceramic and creating an odd matrix pattern. Beneath the creature was a pool of dark blood, it still dripped slowly out of what I presumed to be a knife wound in its side. Its eye still had a knife buried in its socket and blood drooled from the wound over its tightly stretched pale skin and into its gaping mouth. Its teeth were awash with white saliva and black blood their usual metal sheen already dulling.

My hand relaxed slightly on the hilt of my sword. The Auphe was dead, and nothing could come back from wounds like that. A sheen of red caught my eye.

The Auphe's clawed hand lie extended from its body ands its unnatural length was draped across the floor. All of this I absorbed absently because the red liquid took precedence in my mind. The Auphe had red blood all over its hand and claws. It had been difficult to spot before because of all the black but now that I had noticed there was definitely some red mixed in with Auphe black.

Cal.

I needed to find him he could be-

"Fuck."

My head whipped around and I saw Cal standing in the doorway, if you could call it that. He was leaning heavily against the wall and blood was dripping down his arm from a wound that had torn loose a flap of flesh from his shoulder. His shirt was torn and dyed with blood and his hand was dripping with it. His face was splattered with a mixture of Auphe black and human red and I couldn't discern whether or not there was a wound beneath the gore or if it was residue from another source.

I tamped down the frantic worry with an easier emotion. Anger.

Now that I knew he was alive it was time to kill him myself. I shifted closer to him almost imperceptibly. I had to catch him before he made the same stupid mistake twice. He was too wounded to be allowed to leave, not to mention too foolish.

"An appropriate word choice little brother." I met his gaze and he looked back at me sheepishly. His grey eyes were full of the same guilt I could see every time he knew he did something wrong. I had to keep him talking while I got within range to dive for him. I asked the most pertinent question.

"How serious are your wounds." I wasn't masking my anger very well, even someone unacquainted with me would be able to tell I was in a rage. Sorry Buddha, I'll meditate later.

"Uh, they're fine. I just- nothing to serious."

"Coherent as always." I remarked in the driest voice I could conjure up.

His eyebrows lowered and his mouth turned down slightly.

"Hey I just fought an Auphe give me a fucking break." Cal muttered indignantly sounding closer and closer to his actual emotional age of twelve. I took his distraction as an opportunity to scoot closer to him.

"Yes, thank you for that neat segue. Speaking of dead Auphe in Rafferty's kitchen I happened to notice the one on the floor and was wondering what in God's name possessed you first of all, to come back to Rafferty's and second of all to fight an Auphe alone. Without me."

Ah, that last part wasn't supposed to slip out. Wasn't that the crux of the matter though? Cal was trying to take on the Auphe without me, to live without me, to protect me by removing himself. He should know by now that his cause was futile. There was nothing that he could ever do that would get rid of me.

Cal's hand twitched almost as if to clench before pain ghosted over his face and he let it hang loose. His gaze didn't waver from mine as his grey eyes showed their age and the incredible depth of weariness that seemed to pervade him ever since the Auphe had returned. I felt his weariness mirrored in me as it crept across his expression. He had no right to look so old and tired… to look so… defeated.

"You know why I have to do this alone Nik." He said guessing my thoughts.

"This is my fight and I can't-"

"This isn't just your fight." The words seemed to tear themselves from me without my permission. Where was the calm and controlled Niko now? "I have been protecting you since your first breath and we have fought along side each other almost two decades, you have no grounds for saying this isn't my fight."

"You could have a real life Nik. What ever you want!"

"Well I choose you. I would make that choice again and again Cal. I don't regret you."

Cal's glanced away from me to stare at the Auphe behind me. His body slouched into the wall and his head rolled until his forehead was pressed tightly against it. I don't think that anyone had ever told him anything like that before… not even me. He closed his eyes and I took advantage of his obvious surrender. I stepped towards him and pulled him tightly to me. I had my little brother back and I wasn't about to lose him again.

The morphed into a supporting grip as I helped him over to Rafferty's couch. I needed to bandage his wounds before he lost any more blood. The longer I looked at his wounds the worse they appeared. The ripping was certainly cause for worry. They wouldn't heal well at all. At least I would be here to kick his ass into line and make sure he took care of them properly.

I managed to find some medicine to numb the pain of the stitches and clean out the jagged cuts. The slashes on his chest were fairly superficial but the bite wound on his shoulder and the claw wound that pierced through his hand were both serious and he lost quite a bit of blood. I stitched him up as quickly and efficiently as possible and wrapped the stitches in bandages after slathering them with an antibiotic cleansing agent. It paid to be stranded in a healer's house.

"I know you have a right to make your own choices." Cal told me as I wrapped the wound on his hand.

"Its not like I think I know better than you or anything… its just… its just that I sometimes wish it wasn't this way." His voice was gravely and I glanced up at him to check his expression before continuing my bandaging.

"What do you mean?"

"I wish that you weren't so bound to this… to me. There is so much that you could have if it weren't for me." His voice was quiet and his hand trembled slightly as I tapped the bandage tightly.

"I meant what I said Cal. It may not seem like it to you but I don't yearn for a different life and I am here because I choose to be, because I want to be. There is nothing you can do to change my mind." I had to convince him on this point, otherwise he would just leave again. He needed to understand or the guilt would consume him, and he had nothing to feel guilty about.

"I know but-"

Cal cut himself off as his head snapped up in alarm. I whipped around my sword already hissing as I pulled it from my coat. The air in the living room was glowing hungry grey.

*#*#*#*#*#*#

Cal POV

I felt the gates tear through my insides. Four. Four Auphe were about to appear in Rafferty's living room. Fuck.

I heard the whisper of Nik's blade as he drew it and followed suit with one of my own. We were about to go the way of the dinosaurs if we didn't get out of here stat. My fight or flight reflex was so far on the side of flight that I was surprised I didn't gate automatically when I felt the universe rip. I didn't waste any more time after I realized we were still hanging around. I grabbed for Nik and built a gate around us before the Auphe slammed it shut on us.

Ever had a door slammed on your face? Picture that only about a hundred times worse.

Niko and I were thrown backwards hard enough that when we hit the wall I felt it give slightly beneath my weight.

We were so fucked.

As shook my head to clear my vision and kept my eyes trained on the four Auphe grinning at us from across the room. I pushed off the wall and stepped in front of Nik whose skin had become several shades paler in the past few seconds. If he didn't take well to gating I could only image how that had felt. He was going to need a second to recuperate, and I needed to make sure he got that second.

Way easier said than done.

The first Auphe sprinted at me faster than the goddamn roadrunner and I had about as much luck killing it as wily coyote. I barely managed to avoid getting a face full of long black claw and its other set grazed the skin of my neck as it passed. I stabbed at its side where it kept its heart but it deftly twisted and avoided the blow.

A second Auphe had gotten across the room in the blink of an eye and I kicked it in the face as it dove at me. I felt its teeth scrape the bottom of my foot before it twisted away from the kick and pulled at my calf to try and get me to the ground. I went along with the pull and used the extra momentum to jump kick it in the gut as hard as I could. It staggered back a few steps barely fazed.

The first Auphe whipped its claws at Nik and I could already tell that he hadn't fully recovered and wasn't going to be able to get his blade up in time. My heart stuttered as I saw its talons closing in on its neck and I did the first thing that came to mind… I dove at it.

It was fast enough to dodge the tackle but I figured it was too incredulous at my sheer stupidity to process the motion fast enough. I tackled that motherfucker like a line backer and managed to take it to the floor. Its hand shot up and fastened around my neck before I could make another move. Its long multi-jointed fingers rapped all the way around and its claws dug into the soft skin.

The third and fourth Auphe had joined the party and they were pinning Niko to the wall above me. The Auphe below we rolled so I was facing up and raised its claws.

The remaining Auphe grabbed its wrist tightly and hissed in its ear shattering language.

"We need him alive." The one gripping my neck growled like a tree shredder but loosened its grip on my neck. Its expression of rage quickly twisted into one of malicious glee.

"Kill the older one. Let our traitorous cousin bathe in his blood." It smiled down at me and spoke in English so that Nik knew what was going on too. How goddamn courteous.

"No." The word hissed almost silently from my mouth, but they heard it anyways. Four identical homicidal grins lit up their pointed faces. The one that wasn't holding Niko or me down laughed before whipping its claws across Niko's chest.

Blood dripped down onto my face and I closed my eyes tightly as the warm fluid slid over my lids and dripped onto my lips. Niko.

Niko.

They were going to kill him right in front of me. Right over me. He was going to die here bled out like some animal just to hurt me, for no other reason than to make me suffer. Not only was he going to die but it was going to be all my fucking fault too. No. I felt denial pulse through me so strong it was almost a thing… almost a creature. It wrapped itself in my fear and put on the armor of my rage and did become a creature, and that creature became me.

I snapped my eyes open and gripped the wrist of the Auphe that sat on top of me. I twisted the wrist quickly and felt it snap beneath my fingers. The Auphe above me shrieked in fury and it was beautiful music to my ears. It was almost easy to throw it off me. It felt like I was watching from someone else's eyes as I watched it hit the couch and take it toppling over with it.

The creature turned my head and was staring at the remaining Auphe. I lunged and they seemed to move so much more slowly than normal. I growled in delight as I managed to grab one around the neck. I hurled it down and stomped on its face. I felt its teeth snap under the force of my blow and I kicked it in the mouth again hard enough to send shards of bone into its putrid brain. It was dead, I kicked it again anyways and watched as black blood poured from its mouth and nose and fell like tears from its murder red eyes.

Distantly I heard someone shouting but I couldn't hear it clearly through the roar of adrenaline in my veins and the savage thrill the creature got from seeing its tormentor splattered on the floor.

I turned to see a man slashing at one of the remaining Auphe as the other two sized me up. Yes, come to me. I will tear you… peel you flesh from bone.

"Cal!" The voice seemed familiar. Niko, my brother… the coherency came in and out like bad television reception. The disorientation upset the creature, it only wanted blood, black blood, enough to coat the walls soak the floor.

An Auphe dove at me and I couldn't move fast enough. I dodged a swipe to my neck but felt claws swipe up my side and hook under my rib cage. I hissed in pain and thrust my torso upwards to catch its neck between my teeth.

It yanked itself from my jaws and flipped off of me. A bang sounded from somewhere behind me and I whipped around to see two more people enter the fray. A vampire and a puck.

Robin, Promise…

Something whispered in the back of my head. I ignored it. I had more important things to be doing. I was protecting. I was fighting.

The two of them charged at the Auphe behind me and Niko. Speaking of which. I turned to check on him.

Nik skewered his Auphe through the heart and it gripped the sword with both hands its eyes full of disbelief. I watched in relief and satisfaction as he kicked it hard enough that it slid off the end of his blade.

The creature inside me hissed snapping my attention back to the Auphe whose neck I had torn. I refocused a second too late. Its claws tore into my chest again as its other set buried itself in my thigh. The claws hooked and it dragged me towards it ripping my flesh with the weight.

The creature didn't focus on the pain. It dove at the Auphe and tackled it back onto the floor. My teeth clamped around the already loosened flesh and tore. Black blood dripped down my chin as I spit out the hunk of meat. The creature felt a wave of satisfaction as the Auphe gurgled suffocating on its own blood.

Its claws caught my bicep as it reached up in a vain effort. A silver sword came down and sliced its head off. The creature hissed in disappointment, it would have lived for a few more moments, suffered just a little bit longer. If only it had been allowed to writhe a few moments longer… the creature wasn't finished enjoying it.

Niko was talking. I watched his lips move and I head the sounds but I couldn't understand. Nik was important, I should listen. I focused and the creature receded allowing me to understand the words.

"Cal." He almost shouted his voice desperate. "Come back to me Cal, come back."

I shook my head as awareness began to seep back in.

I jumped off the Auphe and stumbled backwards. Niko watched me and I vaguely realized that Promise and Goodfellow were staring at me behind him.

What had I done?

I wiped my mouth and my hand came back covered in black blood. I hunched over and vomited on the floor. The taste of bile replaced the Auphe blood but I could still feel it. It was warm and slippery and coating my face. I threw up again.

"Cal!" Niko moved towards me but I stepped back.

I couldn't let him touch me. The creature was still inside me. I could feel it. I had to get away, I had to run in case the creature escaped again. The world spun around me and my head pounded and my body was on fire with pain. Somehow I managed to build a gate anyways, I built it around me and felt myself fall away from Rafferty's room before everything faded...

...and the grey turned to black.

I know I know! I am a terrible person :P hope the end in Cal's POV wasn't to confusing for you. Review and let me know what you think. Love it? Hate it? Where the heck is this going? ;) Let me know.