A/N: I did the Latin in this chapter myself. Corrections and mockery welcome.
It was wrong, of course – positively unethical. You didn't just kiss people after they'd told you not to. If Adam was a girl he'd never have dreamed of it, and what kind of fucked-up double standard was that? Perhaps his subconscious brain was making allowances for the fact that, if it came to it, Adam could kick his ass – though whether Adam would kick his ass was another question.
Right now Adam was sleeping, to all appearances quite soundly, as though he could simply turn off the fact that they were camping by a lake with a silver-resistant Kraken in it. A silver-resistant Kraken with a taste for Ben's blood. Perfect. He squinted at the narrow cut on his forearm, which he had taped with a piece of adhesive soaked in antiseptic:
"It's tiny," he'd objected when Adam instructed him: "It's not even bleeding anymore." The persistent deep ache in his leg and hip had completely drowned out its sting.
"Never ignore broken skin when you're camping out," Adam said. "If you leave it and sleep on the ground, I guarantee it will be infected by the morning." He didn't say 'when you're hunting', so Ben assumed that he was sticking to his resolve that this would be Ben's last trip. Then he made Ben change out of his Kraken-damp clothes, and into his spare pair of jeans and sweatshirt, whilst Adam discreetly turned his back and kept his gaze on the ground. The shiver that ran up Ben's back as he stepped out of his jeans was more than cold, though his skin prickled with goosebumps. Then, Adam had reloaded his gun with the last of his silver bullets, and keeping his back to Ben, gone to sleep.
Now Ben felt bitter and empty, lying bundled in his sleeping bag, absorbing the discomfort of the cold. He felt more like Adam's charge and less like a hunting partner than ever. Maybe he should quit. But the anguish that rose in his stomach at that thought was like the return of grief. What would he do? He had nothing.
Okay. He could figure this out. He had been studying for weeks with Bobby. What could cause a Kraken to resist silver? Possibility number one: possession. The body could be dead, but still animated by a demon. But why would a demon choose the form of a monster? That would only get it hunted. It could do much more damage by appropriating the form of a human. Number two: adaptation. Things changed, sometimes, over the centuries. Witness the shapeshifter, the wendigo, and other things that were formerly human. If the Kraken had adapted to become resistant to silver, they were screwed. Getting close enough for long enough to actually try to kill it with salt would be positively suicidal.
Splish..
Ben felt his eyes widen slightly. Just a particularly loud wave, he assured himself. The sound had rung clear from the endless slop-slop of the lake on the lot bank. A fish, probably. A large fish.
SLAP..
What the hell kind of fish was that?
"Adam!" he whispered frantically, and Adam was wide awake even as Ben reached out to shake his shoulder.
"Shit," Adam said, hearing the SLAP-SLIDE louder, and then suddenly the air was think with the stench of blood, rot, and fish.
"GUN!" Adam yelled, although Ben was already grabbing his, for all the good it would do with its ordinary bullets – Adam ducked out of the tent and Ben was right behind him, Adam didn't even tell him to stay back, for the tent would be no protection. The Kraken reared on the bank, dragging the last of its tentacles out of the water – most of its head was a bloody ruin, eyes bulging from shattered sockets, and the remaining skin shriveled back to the skull after Adam's attack with the salt.
"Accio tu belau, debella meus hostilis. Exhibe virtus-"
The voice was familiar, yet changed. Ben and Adam spun around almost simultaneously, though Adam was careful to keep one eye still on the Kraken. The old woman from the beach stood in the field behind them, her long scraggled hair fluttering in the breeze.
"Humans!" Adam groaned. "Man, whenever you get something off the charts, it's always humans."
"Boys, boys, what have you done to my pretty thing?" The woman laughed. "I told you to stay away. I've had to come all the way down to the lake to summon it. Never mind. Your flesh ought to feed it strength again."
"She's a witch," Ben said. Adam gave him a look like 'no shit, Sherlock'. It had been such a double bluff. Old creepy woman hangs scaring the kids – most hunters would overlook it as being too obvious. Hell, Ben had been kind of hoping she would help them.
"Too young to understand," the woman shook her head. "This is my lake. Those are my trees. I have lived here forever. They must not change it."
"You need to stop killing people," Adam said.
"When they cease to slaughter the forest, I will stop. When they cease to plough up the rocks and sand." She turned back to the beast: "Ruo suum intentio-"
"I don't want to shoot you," Adam told her, "But I will."
"Will you," said the witch, and Adam yelped suddenly and dropped the gun – the metal glowed red hot.
"Discedo, lamia," said Adam quickly. "In nomine patris, filius et spiritus sanctum ego tu, vestri venificium deficio". The witch snarled and started forward, but the charm was causing her to falter. She hissed, "nequeo spiro," and Adam choked, gasping fish-like for air. To Ben's horror, he fell to his knees. His normally pale face started to redden. But as the witch focused her energy on choking him, the Kraken swayed, and Ben realized it was unprotected. He grabbed the gun, the metal still hot enough to burn his palms but no longer glowing fire. He fired three silver bullets directly into the Kraken's skull. The thing screamed once, unearthly, and collapsed. Then Ben turned the gun on the witch.
"Let him go," he said, some innate ethic forcing a last chance even as Adam was suffocating in front of him.
But the witch snarled and didn't relent, so Ben shot her in the heart.
TBC
