Chapter 25
Dash hung up his phone after he finished telling Paulina about what happened after they found the location of the fae's solstice celebration. Paulina pouted about the fact that he didn't call them sooner to tell them, but she was relieved to know that none of the fae were captured. Dash, at least, was assuming that one that lured Danny's parents away managed to figure out some way to escape.
"Well, Sam wasn't happy," Danny announced with a sigh. "And they're heading back to the hotel now. They were supposed to be back hours ago so they can pack. They're supposed to start the drive back to Wisconsin tomorrow since their parents want to spend Christmas with their families." He scratched a hand through his raven locks in a show of frustration. "I didn't even get to spend that much time with them. I mean, just hanging out, not doing this whole hunt down the fae thing. Though I guess that's the kind of thing Sam expects us to do together anyway. But I kind of thought when they showed up here, we'd get to just kick back and relax, hang out like normal teenagers for once."
"Unfortunately, you're no normal teenager." The man's voice made both of them tense up in surprise.
Dash didn't even hear any thoughts of the person suddenly appearing behind them. The man's heavy hands landed upon their shoulders, and before either of them could react, Dash felt a wrenching sensation, like something hooked around his navel with a hard jerk. The world became a blur of colors as he felt like he was being stretched thin and sucked through an impossibly small tube that left every joint in his body aching from the odd pressure. When everything snapped back to normal with the feeling of having whiplash and the world painfully returning to normal, Dash stumbled on shaky legs. He was thankful there was something to sit down on as both he and Danny collapsed onto the foot of the bed in the room where they magically appeared.
"Lancer!" Danny shouted in shock once he recovered from the sudden teleportation from the forest to the bedroom of what Dash could only guess was Lancer's house. "How did you know where to find us?"
Lancer stared down his nose at them, green eyes narrowing in that teacher way he had as he folded his arms. "Are you forgetting that oath already?" An eyebrow quirked upward toward his bald head. "We were alerted the moment you were injured." His gaze focused on the darkening bruise around Danny's nose. "What were you two doing in the forest this late at night?"
"Danny heard his parents were going on a hunt for this winter solstice thing," Dash explained, raking a hand through his blond locks. Beside him, Danny gingerly touched his nose, wincing and hissing at the tenderness of it. "So we went to stop them from capturing any of the fae, and," Dash waved at Danny.
"You thought it was a great idea to run face first into a dangerous situation that didn't call for you to stick your nose into?" Lancer inquired with the thinning of his mouth, giving off that usual aura he had at school whenever a student got into trouble.
"My parents were moments away from stumbling through the veil and finding all those fae," Danny argued, hopping off the bed with an angry look in his eyes. "Were we supposed to just sit back and allow them to capture one of them? Maybe more than one of them?"
"Daniel," Lancer sighed as he placed his hands on Danny's shoulders, "you should have come to us the moment you learned about this. We could have taken steps to prevent anything from happening without you having to endanger yourself or your friends. We do have members of the fae on our staff. Spectra could have warned them prior to the celebration."
Dash was still shaking his head over that fact. "I can't believe I never picked up her being a fae. I always knew there was something weird about her."
"Yes, well, she makes sure to keep her thoughts quiet around you." Lancer tore his gaze from Danny to stare at Dash, who shifted under the teacher's gaze. Lancer simply had a way of making his students uncomfortable with a simple look. "She's a parasitic type fae, feeding on the negative emotions of her students. Their angst and anger keep her looking young and beautiful."
"And they actually let her be a counselor here?" Dash gaped at Lancer, still processing this new information about Spectra.
"Before she came here, she worked at a high school in another town," Lancer explained as pained expression pulled his mouth downward. "She fed on one boy's emotions a little too much and he ended up committing suicide. She still feels horrible over the incident. It's a part of her nature to feed like that, and like other creatures, when it comes to feeding, sometimes it's impossible for them to control themselves. It's like when a vampire bites someone and can't help but drain their victim dry. She didn't do it intentionally and regrets it every day that it happened. She does care for the students she treats, but her nature makes it hard for her to control it sometimes. That's why the council sent her here where we can keep watch over her and stop her if she feeds too much on a student's angst. A small sampling here and there should be enough to sustain her for quite some time without endangering the lives of any of the students."
Dash frowned at the story. He never had much reason to visit Spectra for counseling, though he sometimes spotted the students that left her office looking more miserable than when they entered. He supposed that was part of the effect of having a parasitic fae feeding on their emotions. The fact that Spectra could drive someone to commit suicide was a scary thing to learn, but Dash guessed that there had to be some truth to her regretting having done that if Spectra wasn't punished far worse by the council.
"So," Danny said slowly as some thought turned over in his head, "Masters is a vampire. Does that mean he sometimes feeds on people? Not enough to drain them but just a little taste here and there?" His brow knitted, the thoughts of being grossed out but somewhat curious mixing in his head. Dash stared at him before he shifted his blue eyed gaze onto their teacher. He never heard anything about people waking up after being attacked with bite marks, and that seemed like something that might leak out to the human population if Masters wasn't careful about his actions.
Lancer shook his head. "He drinks blood packages that we purchase from the hospital." He placed his hand to his bearded chin with a thoughtful expression. "The council only made him promise never to kill or turn someone when they allowed him to live after discovering him. They never said anything about him not being allowed to feed upon a willing person so long as he didn't drain them."
"I think I'm little grossed out by this topic," Dash said, rubbing at his face and feeling incredibly thankful that Lancer mastered how to keep his thoughts hidden from a telepath. He really didn't want to know what thoughts were floating in his head about being bitten by a vampire. A shudder ran down his spine.
Lancer's eyes narrowed again as he glanced between the pair of men. "I do hope next time that you'll think about coming to us for help before taking on something dangerous by yourselves." His gaze landed on Danny, who gulped. "Even if you have been through a lot of stuff already, that doesn't mean you have to continue going it alone." Lancer's gaze lowered, focusing on Danny's chest, and Dash glared, not liking the way their teacher was looking at Danny. "I believe there's more to this whole tale than simply that you went to stop your parents from finding the fae."
Danny swallowed with nervousness as his bright blue eyes flicked toward Dash. "I should probably explain something first."
A look passed between teacher and student, and Dash felt a rising anger inside him at this shared secret between the two men that he apparently didn't get to be a part of. When Danny sat down beside him again, Dash frowned, brow drawing together as he watched the raven haired man's every movement. Danny closed off his thoughts to keep Dash from hearing anything prematurely. Lancer stood by silently, allowing Danny to say whatever it was he needed to tell Dash.
Taking a deep breath, Danny closed his eyes as he squeezed his hands around his knees. "I didn't just die," he said in a quiet voice, and a sense of dread for whatever else Danny had to say washed over Dash. "That night, I was attacked," his brow creased, pain in his expression, "by an incubus. It-" he struggled with the word, but with a cold sensation settling in the pit of his stomach, Dash had an idea of what he was going to say. "It raped me. Before it could finish the job though, Tucker and Sam called out, and the incubus got scared off, cutting me open before it fled."
Even if he guessed it, hearing the words leaving Danny's mouth remained shocking. Dash stared at the man beside him with pain in his dark blue eyes. He couldn't even begin to imagine what Danny felt after going through a terrible experience like that, being raped and killed then brought back to life. Now the whole urge to cut himself made a little more sense in Dash's mind. That whole event must have been incredibly overwhelming to Danny, all the pain and suffering, and Dash didn't even know what it must feel like to be yanked out of his afterlife and crammed back into his body like that.
"Danny," Dash murmured softly as he snaked an arm around the other man. When Danny didn't jerk away or start freaking out over being touched, Dash drew him closer, wrapping his arms around Danny and drawing him into a comforting embrace. "I'm sorry you ever had to go through something like that." There were no real words he could say to erase any of Danny's pain. Dash knew only time and patience could help Danny move on, and the fact that Danny was actually talk about it now was a big step forward.
"That's not all," Danny confessed, his voice holding only a hint of relief at the fact that Dash didn't shove him away like something disgusting and broken. That simple statement, though, left Dash with the feeling of being punched through the chest, trying to imagine what more Danny could tell him after the rape and dying. "The magic used to bring me back," Danny chewed on his lip with his head lowered, "it came with a cost."
"What?" Dash asked numbly, not sure how to take that news. Hadn't Danny suffered enough already without adding some stupid price on top of it all?
"I suppose that price finally decided to make itself known," Lancer said with a severe frown on his face.
Danny bobbed his head in a miserable nod. "My dad had me by the arm, and I was panicking. I was seconds away from being discovered, and I didn't know what to do. Then suddenly, I was no longer in control. I don't know what happened or what I did, but somehow I shoved the thing out of me." He placed a hand over his chest as he looked up at Lancer. "If you hadn't written that protection spell on me, I probably would have been taken over again by it."
"By what exactly?" Dash demanded in confusion, fear for Danny's life coiling tightly inside him. They already had enough to deal with trying to protect Kwan from Skulker for whatever bizarre reason the alien had for wanting the jock without adding Danny's life being threatened on top of that. When Danny couldn't answer, they both turned their gaze on Lancer, who remained silent for some time as he frowned at what Danny said.
"My best guess is that when you were brought back to life, a shade attached itself to you," Lancer explained, the gears grinding in his head to work out what exactly was after Danny.
"What's a shade?" Danny asked the same question racing in Dash's head.
"A generic term." Lancer waved it off like the meaning wasn't all that important. "It's like a ghost, many of the shades generally get trapped between worlds, like being stuck in limbo. I'm guessing the dark place you mentioned before was where this particular shade was trapped. When you suddenly appeared there, it saw you as a means of escaping that place, finally breaking free of the limbo that held it powerless. When your friend's magic pulled you out and back into your body, the shade clung onto your soul, but then it was trapped inside you. I can't explain its reason for not showing itself earlier. Perhaps arriving in this world weakened it and it was unable to function until it was given time to grow stronger. And that moment of desperate panic you felt earlier gave it the right moment to finally seize control."
"Well, it's free now," Dash said, but his mouth drew downward, not thinking that point made anything about the situation better. "Why would it need to bother with Danny now? It's not stuck in limbo anymore." In his arms, Dash felt Danny stiffen, every muscle tensing.
"Because it's still just a shade," Lancer answered, mirroring Dash's frown. "And likely, Danny is the only thing that it can actually touch, the only one that can actually see it. It needs Danny to function within this world. It needs Danny to actually remain in this world. It'll keep coming for Danny because it's desperate to remain living here in this world."
"What about the protection spell?" Hope crept into Danny's voice, but doubt tried to crush it out. "It worked before."
"It was a onetime thing." Lancer shook his head. "It was meant only for an emergency, and now that it's been used, it won't work again for you. I'm not sure there's anything else that can protect you from the shade. You're best hope is to fight it off, and since you're the only one that will be able to see it, you'll be alone in this fight."
Danny tried to keep his thoughts quiet, but he wasn't as skilled at it as Lancer. The flickers of doubt and fear screamed out in his head, reaching to Dash, who squeezed an arm around the other man. "I don't want this thing hurting you," Dash said as Danny remained quietly stewing in his thoughts. "There has to be something we can do to help him." He turned his gaze onto Lancer, hoping their teacher might have some idea being a witch.
Lancer folded his arms, deep in thought about spells and other witchcraft things. "This house is protected from most evil beings. It might stand against the shade. But," he turned his gaze to Danny, "I doubt you want to be trapped forever in this house. I'm sure that would only stir up more questions with your parents."
"Yeah," Danny mumbled, rubbing at the back of his neck as he frowned at the floor. "I guess fighting this shade thing is my only option." But he didn't sound very eager at the prospect. He lifted his blue eyes to Lancer. "How long will his protection last?" He pointed at his chest where Lancer apparently wrote the spell.
"After being activated, it'll last for at most twenty-four hours before the effects fade away," Lancer explained.
The shriek from downstairs made Danny jump while Dash jerked in surprise, not having realized anyone else was in the house. Dash always assumed that Lancer lived alone, though that whole talk involving their principal made him question that now, and he preferred not having those thoughts in his head. They both turned a questioning look to their teacher, who sighed as he ran a hand over his face, looking exhausted in that moment.
"I suppose we should go downstairs to see how things are progressing with your friends," Lancer said, leading the way toward the door of the bedroom.
At the word friends, Dash glanced toward Danny, meeting his bright blue eyes. The same thought must have played through their minds because together, they shouted, "Wulf and Kwan!" They scrambled off the bed and followed Lancer down the stairs to the first floor of the house. Danny failed to keep his mind closed off, but his thoughts echoed the panic running through Dash's mind. If Wulf and Kwan turned up here, something horrible could have happened to them.
"You are such a big idiot sometimes." Dash and Danny came in just at the end of the conversation as the woman that Dash recognized from school as Valerie hugged Kwan.
"I get the feeling we missed something," Dash mumbled to Danny, who nodded his agreement.
"Just young Mr. Long finally telling us the reason for why Skulker is so determined to add him to his collection," Masters explained, drawing Dash's attention to the fact that man was there. The man walked over and took a seat in one of the open chairs while Valerie moved to sit beside of Kwan. Wulf occupied the other side, and Dash raised an eyebrow at this new development. From what he saw at school, Dash was fairly certain that Wulf and Valerie didn't get along.
"And what reason is that?" Danny asked with a curious glance toward the jock.
"You might as well just tell them," Masters said as his dark blue eyes pierced into Kwan, who sat with his shoulders hunched up and his head bow.
Kwan's eyes darted between the two people seated beside him, hesitating to reveal the truth. He released a breath, his shoulders drooping as some of the tension melted out of him. Dash stared and waited for the man to talk. Danny reacted first, stumbling over to where Kwan sat on the sofa. With his mouth gaping over, Danny bent down before the jock.
"I've only read brief mentions of a black kitsune," Danny announced in amazement as he reached out tentatively to run his fingers over a black furry ear that Dash realized with a great shock was protruding from atop Kwan's head. "I always thought it was just some myth that not even the other kitsune believed anymore. I never thought there'd actually be one alive today!"
A smile twitched at Kwan's mouth at the utter excitement and awe in Danny's voice. "Now you understand why Skulker wants me," he said sadly, not bothering to shove away Danny's hand as the other man scratched at the ear like the jock was a cat or a dog.
"That explains how you do that whole disappearing act," Dash exclaimed, pointing a finger at the jock. Kwan lifted his head as a sneaky smirk flashed across his face. Dash shook his head at that reaction. New information seemed to be crawling out of the woodworks tonight, and his mind was feeling overwhelmed with all the new facts about everyone. He dropped onto one of the open chairs in the room as his gaze turned to Valerie. "What's your big secret?"
"My mother was a hunter, I blamed Wulf for her death, turns out I was lied to the whole time." Valerie shrugged like she was summarizing the plot of a dull book that she was forced to read. She seemed to realize something about what she said and sat up a little straighter. "But I don't have any hate toward the supernatural," she explained quickly. "I was just angry at Wulf, and that was the only reason I started training as a hunter."
"You're not the only one with hunters in the family," Danny told her as he stood up straight, at last abandoning his interest in the jock's furry ears.
Lancer coughed, drawing everyone's attention to him. "Did you perform the oath with Kwan yet?"
Masters blinked then ran a hand through his silver hair. "I got distracted with everything that was going on," he admitted. Leaning forward, he offered out his hand toward Kwan.
"Uh," Kwan said uncertainly as he frowned at the hand, "do I have to do this?" His brow creasing, he stared up at Vlad. "I mean after tonight," he gestured at his face with a bandaged hand, drawing attention to the black eye and bust lip, "the Longs aren't going to allow me back in their house, and without their money, I don't even have a way to pay to keep going to school."
"Your parents abuse you?" Dash shouted, shooting to his feet as his eyes grew wide at the sight of Kwan's face. He didn't notice it before, too distracted with what Danny was dealing with and discovering that Kwan was actually something supernatural.
"They're not my parents," Kwan answered as his aqua green eyes narrowed with a quiet fury.
"You don't need to worry about the money," Masters said, snapping his fingers to get Kwan's attention focused back on him. "We can make arrangements to allow for you to continue attending school without having to pay for it."
"You can live with me," Valerie offered as she placed a hand on Kwan's shoulder. "My dad likes you, and I'm sure he wouldn't have any problems with you living with us."
"Oh, uh," Kwan's eyes darted toward Wulf, and Dash hid a smirk behind a hand at the look that passed between the two men. "Wulf already offered to let me live with him."
"My place isn't much. You'd probably be more comfortably living with Valerie," Wulf said as he leaned on the armrest of the sofa, turning his gaze away. Dash didn't need to read minds to know that Wulf was hoping Kwan would still pick to live with him.
"You can discuss living arrangements at another time," Masters said, curling and uncurling his fingers in a show of impatience. "There's still the matter of the oath to deal with." He waited until with an exasperated sigh Kwan took hold of his hand. "Do you promise not to use your supernatural abilities to harm another student under my watch?"
Kwan frowned at the question, eyes narrowing a fraction as he stared at their principal. "I can promise that I will not act to harm any students under your watch," he said after a long pause to think. "However, should any of those students act to harm me or anyone I care about, I won't hesitate to ignore the oath and act to protect as needed."
Dash blinked in surprise at that response, as did most of the others present. The usual response was to agree to the promise in question. Dash never considered the possibility of adding an amendment to the oath, but in freshmen year, he never expected to be placed in a position where he wanted to kick some alien ass to keep someone safe.
After a brief moment, a smirk twisted across Masters' face. "You're the first to think of that." He almost sounded proud of that fact. "In the case of self dense or to protect another from harm, you're all given the permission to act as needed. I will explain things to the council should anything of that nature occur." The remaining questions were answered with simple agreements from Kwan.
"Now, you two," Lancer pointed at Kwan and Danny, "with me. I have something that will make those bruises go away much quicker." He led the way into the kitchen, and the two men followed after him.
fullmoonwolf950: *approves of fanart for the story* 8D;; Everyone in the story seems to have some bad back story. D8 Well, except maybe Paulina. Haha, everyone just loved her. XD;; Yes~ Kwan and Wulf! Who knew they'd be such a good pairing? XD Lancer and Vlad are pretty perf together. XD;; Especially with how they care for Danny. Their ship name should totally have something to do with mentoring/teaching or something. They are the Mentor Ship! *shot* XD;; There's a lot of ships on the list I was shown though quite a few didn't have names to them. Dash/Danny? I think that got named Swagger Bishie?
XD: I'm glad you liked it! 8D Now~ Should Valerie be jealous of Wulf and Kwan? *shot* You'll have to wait and see on that. =) I've got stuff planned with Dan. Maybe we did? XD Haha, I don't know. I just remember we always used Pac Man and Pac Queen. I'm not sure I get all the names for the pairings. XD;;;