Disclaimer: Characters you recognize aren't mine. I just like them.
Chapter 10 - If You Got It
Mark turned his head to see Paul standing at the gate to the garden. He made no comment after giving him a long hard glare, and then looked to where the girl had gone, and found she was waving at him. He gave a short bark. "Not fallen, Paul. Merely rearranged."
"Whatever you call it... Let's go inside and have a look at you." He replied. Mark followed when Paul opened the gate and walked towards the house. Glenn had much more trepidation when he finally got his feet to move, but was encouraged by Trish at his side. "This is a hell of a curse on you." Paul said when they were in the library. "It's very intricate." He was flipping through a leather bound volume. The old leather was black and cracked and was gold embossed on the spine. "I should be able to lift it... But I'm not sure that the effects will automatically reverse themselves. Ah, here we go." He set the book down on a table by a window, picked up a pen and paper, and began to make notes. "Remember when you held the world in the palm of your hand, Mark?"
"Remember when I was pretty much universally hated and mistrusted by those around me?" Mark countered. It seemed that he'd practiced that line. It didn't make it any less relevant though. Paul let Mark's retort go, and kept jotting notes. Glenn was on edge. This wasn't the Paul that Glenn remembered it seemed. Perhaps the conniving businessman had just become more subtle about his deals. Glenn also knew that Mark and Paul related much differently then he and Paul did. Paul never saw Mark as someone to be manipulated or controlled. Mark simply had too much power. However, if he could do something for Mark, there would be payment due. What he would ask for was a mystery, but Glenn knew that Paul would already have something in mind.
Glenn noticed Paul squinting at the page, and then went for reading glasses that were on the table. That struck Glenn as odd. He could see grey forming at Paul's temples as well. He wheezed a bit when he breathed in... He was aging. That unsettled Glenn. He was starting to see the weakness in someone who had dominated him for years. He started to realize that if necessary, he could easily take Paul out. It was nothing if not disorienting. Mark had long insisted that Glenn had all the power to destroy Paul easily, but he'd refused to truly believe it... Until now that is. He fixed Paul with a determined glare and straightened up. When Paul spoke again, Glenn didn't flinch like he used to.
"From what I can determine, the few times this curse has been set before, the victim has very quickly gone mad or become a total wolf. They are also usually killed off fairly quickly. So you are an exception to the rule... Not surprising really, you've always had to do things your own way."
"What can you do for it?" Mark's voice was showing his frustration and impatience.
"Like I said, I can lift the curse, but I'm not sure I can reverse the effects. The best I can promise right now is a temporary humour every so often to at least give you your human appearance... Glenn said on the phone that you shifted with the last full moon. That may be a hope that your body is slowly regenerating itself, and that the power of the curse is waning."
"How much?" Mark asked, no longer one for pretenses or haggling.
"To lift the curse? No charge. We had some good times didn't we Mark? That is the least I can do for you. A humour, especially one that drastic, and providing you with a voice others can hear, that is extensive work. You know that." Paul said, with a casual salesman's air about him.
"How much?" Mark repeated.
"A small sample of werewolf venom. For study purposes only. I've heard it has some remarkable properties, and since the biologists can't figure out what makes a werewolf with science, I'd like to look for a preternatural solution instead. If I were to discover it, I could be a very wealthy man."
"So they can find a cure for the likes of me?" Mark growled audibly to accompany his thought.
"No Mark. A cure for the likes of you will never be found, werewolf or no." Paul remarked and smiled at his own joke. "If the scientists can't find a scientific cause, then they're certainly not going to find a cure are they? I could probably just lift the werewolf out of your system by some incredibly painful spell, but you're stubborn and have gotten to, dare I say, like what you are now. So I never bothered suggesting it, because even if I did, you'd still be cursed to this form."
"Being turned werewolf made me turn myself into a somewhat decent excuse for a human being. I'll stop being a werewolf when I stop breathing."
"I realize that now... I have to prepare some things for this procedure. Make yourselves comfortable. Glenn, I assume you still know where things are?" Glenn nodded slowly, unblinking, his eyes fixed on Paul. He wasn't afraid anymore. He could take care of Paul, one way or another.
Paul left the library and Mark sat on his haunches between Trish and Glenn. Glenn brought a hand down between pointed wolf ears almost absently, and patted before leaving it to rest like weight. Mark moved, and Glenn's hand slid off, to which Mark rubbed against it. "I'll have to give him the venom." Mark said eventually.
"Why?" Trish asked.
"So I can walk into a registry office and be recognized. I might have a fighting chance of getting some real world help then."
"You're serious about registration?" Glenn asked.
"You asked me to... And I've got a suspicion that you might be right about it." Mark said. His voice still had that humbleness Trish had heard before.
"What will he do with the venom anyway?" It was Trish again.
"I think he was being honest. To find the formula for werewolf would make him a rich man if he sold that information to the right people. He doesn't have Glenn or I to sap off of anymore, and while he's got a decent list of people that will pay for his services, he's always been looking for that big pay off."
They went to the back patio and sat in the shade. Mark however, lay in the sun on the lawn, panting but enjoying the heat. It was over an hour before Paul retrieved them. He tried to not look uncomfortable when he found Glenn and Mark having a play fight, and both of them laughing. Glenn out loud and Mark in his mind. Glenn's good mood was immediately cut short when they were led down to a basement room. He was well past this, he knew that, but he was still restless being in any basement.
Incense burned, candles were lit, various talismans and books were set up. Mark sat in the centre of the room. "It may not be safe for the lady to be here." Paul warned.
"She stays. I'll protect her." Glenn said confidently.
"Very well." Paul then started reading from the book he'd pulled from the library shelf. The words were foreign to Trish and Glenn, and possibly Mark himself as he made no indication that he knew what was being said. Soon Mark's muscles were tensed and contorted until he was lying on his side, with his spine and tail forming a backwards C, as if in full rigor mortis. His eyes rolled back into his head, and he frothed at the mouth. Glenn pulled Trish close to him. The scene was quite grotesque actually. It didn't get any better when the convulsing started. Mark vomited up what little he had eaten that morning onto the floor. With the vomit came a ball of purple light. It circled Mark a few times, and Glenn put up a mental defense for himself, Trish, and Mark. Paul's voice got loud and insistent, as he pointed to a stone on a low table beside him. The light floated over and onto the stone, and seemed to be absorbed by it. Paul then picked up a ball peen hammer and pounded it until it was dust.
Mark was semi-conscious and rolling, trying to get to his feet. He seemed to be completely out of it. When he did get to his feet, he fell when he tried to take a step. He gave his head a shake but was reeling. Trish broke from Glenn's arms and went to the delirious wolf. She put her hands in the fur on the sides of his face. He looked at her, but his eyes weren't focusing. "Shh, take it easy Mark. You're okay. Glenn's here. I'm here. Just calm down, we'll take care of you." She said to him. He quieted down and his struggles stopped. Glenn moved in and took the massive wolf up into his arms.
"He'll be alright in a day or two." Paul assured. "Just let him rest and give him plenty of water. Come back if he still wants that humour." Glenn grunted, and couldn't head for the stairs quickly enough, Trish leading the way back to the truck.
They found a hotel that took 'pets' if you gave the manager enough money, and got a suite. Mark was brought in by a side door, able to walk on his own, but just barely. He kept on bumping into Glenn's legs and leaned his weight on him in the elevator. Mark used the last of his energy to hop up on the couch once in the room and then passed out.
He slept for a full 48 hours, save for being woken up by Trish to have a drink of water every so often. Glenn was surprised by how caring Trish had become of Mark. Then again, Mark was always charming. Even when he hated everyone, many people were still attracted to the 'je ne sais quoi' he exuded. It was something that his older brother couldn't help, and Glenn didn't worry about his relationship with Trish. Neither Mark nor Trish was like that.
The wolf woke as if at the end of a fevered state. He staggered to his feet and tried to walk some of his senses into himself. He didn't feel especially different, other then the relief of the grogginess wearing off. He found Trish reading on the balcony of the suite, and nosed the door open and stepped out. "Well, you're looking better." She said to him cheerfully, and put down the book on perennials that she'd borrowed from his library.
"Feeling a bit better... Not as depressed or something." Mark said, taking stock of himself.
"I'm sure being cursed is a real drag on your system. Have you tried to shift yet? That's the word you use for it right?" She asked.
"Yes it is, and no I haven't. I've a feeling I'm at too low of an ebb to do it even if I knew I was able. Where's Glenn? I gotta get that humour."
"Are you sure you want to do that?"
"I told Glenn I'd register. I have to look like me to do so." Mark was looking off into the distance through the wrought iron bars of the balcony's guard rail.
"He went out. He said he'd be back soon, but nothing else."
"He's probably just gone for a walk. He has to be alone every once in awhile."
"I've noticed... You know, despite all the shit you've put each other through, you two are really devoted to one another. He sat with you most of last night." She said, and Mark could hear the smile in her voice.
"I could smell him." Mark said.
"Well, are you hungry? You haven't eaten for a few days."
"Yes, actually" He said, and smiled himself inwardly.
Glenn returned to the smell of room service and found a much more alert Mark eating. He sat in the sun and turned his head to Glenn. "You're redder." Glenn said, taking a close look.
"Pardon?" Mark asked, swallowing part of steak sandwich.
"Your fur... It's getting lighter." Glenn said.
"Oh my gosh, you're right." Trish said, looking over the top of her book. She reached down and put her hand in the fur above his hip, and separating some of it. "It's really red under the top coat. Take a look." Glenn moved in and put a hand out, taking a look for himself.
"Must be a side effect. What colour was it before all of this?" Glenn asked.
"Not sure. I see in black and white when I'm wolfed out remember? And I usually only shift at night... Dark, that's all I know."
By late afternoon Mark's fur was copper coloured with a blonde, almost white underbelly. At his insistence, Glenn and Trish brought him back to Paul's home.