Chapter 29

With a dry groan, Pogue slowly felt consciousness return to him and the thick black fog soon faded from his mind. A raging headache soon replaced the fading darkness and when the pressure lessened, Pogue opened his eyes and waited for them to focus on his surroundings.

At first all he could see was a blinding orange light emitting from somewhere near his right, and when the grogginess faded he was able to see it was pouring in from a window and flooding the room he was in with its color.

With a tremendous amount of effort he forced himself to sit up, ignoring the pain in his head as he did so. His fingers felt cushions under him and he was somewhat surprised to see himself sitting on an old four-poster bed. Someone else was in the room with him, he could hear light breathing to his right and when he moved his head towards the source he saw a second bed in the room with an unconscious form sprawled out on it.

A growl grew inside his throat when he recognized the sleeping figure as Reid. With a cold glare aimed at the other boy's face, Pogue slid to edge of his bed and pushed himself onto his feet. He swayed heavily as the room danced around his eyes and he collapsed to his knees a moment later with a pained whimper.

His head felt like it was being torn apart at the seams, he could still feel traces of Gorman's powers rattling around in his skull. He could hear a set of footsteps walking down the hall and the sound was magnified painfully inside head as they entered the room. Thin nimble fingers were placed on his shoulders a quick second later and Gorman's voice soon reached his ears.

"Easy, easy. It'll pass in due time."

His fingers rubbed Pogue's shaking shoulders gently, hoping the gesture would help ground the boy and settle his mind.

"Fuck, what'd you do to me?" Pogue groaned and slumped forwards, lowering his arms to the floor and burring his head into them.

"What I had to. You severely injured two of my god children and if I hadn't intervened you would've killed one of them." The elder replied coldly.

Pogue merely groaned as a response let his entire body slump to the floor as the room spun around his eyes. Whatever the elder did to him it left his mind a painful mess, he could still feel small traces of the elder's power pulsing around his subconscious. He heard Gorman's footsteps move over towards the other bed.

"Well, I hope you're proud of yourself because those are some serious injuries you gave him." Gorman sighed as he ran his thin fingers across the side of Reid's head.

"Reid deserved it." The empath grumbled darkly.

"I don't doubt that but you went too far. I didn't raise you to slaughter your own covenant."

"Well what the fuck was I suppose to do? Reid sold us out to that fucker and Chase–"

"I'm well aware of what happened, Pogue. I was in the next room after all."

The pressure inside his head lessened enough for Pogue to open his eyes and he gingerly pulled himself to his knees, leaning against the railing of the bed for support. His mind however was still a chaotic mess, he couldn't even feel anything coming from Gorman or Reid; it was like his empathic powers were completely gone. He tried reaching out into the air around him and felt his panic rise when he couldn't feel anything. Gorman must've sensed his panic because the elder shuffled across the room a moment later.

"Let's get you off the floor."

"I can't feel anything..." Pogue mumbled helplessly.

"I know." Gorman replied softly and moved an arm under Pogue's shoulder.

The elder pulled him upright and maneuvered the wounded empath back onto the bed. Pogue didn't protest and numbly let himself sink back into the soft bedding. He felt a blanket being pulled over him and he silently curled in on himself, both mentally and physically.

"Get some rest." The elder whispered gently and gave his godchild's shoulder a reassuring squeeze before he moved to the other side of the room.

Pogue listened as his footsteps grew softer and pulled the blanket over his head a moment later as his eyes threatened to drift closed.

--

(He should've been back by now.)

Tyler glanced at the alarm clock near his bed and sighed; 4pm. Reid left sometime in the early morning hours – he wasn't anywhere near awake enough to check the time – and since then the younger covenant member had been waiting for him to return.

(No such luck yet.)

He curled his knees close to his chest and lowered his head against them, his blue eyes remaining on the door of the dorm room. Where was Reid? His absence was really starting to bother him, even more then his behavior over the past few days but what really upset him was the blond's complete silence about it.

It was obvious something was wrong but as usual, no one ever said anything to him or wanted his help. Reid didn't even want his help apparently, and that thought alone hurt more then anything else did.

He glanced at the clock once again and with a frustrated sigh, slid off the edge of his bed and moved towards his dresser. Sitting around on his ass waiting for Reid to return wasn't going to do any good. He still had traces of sweat and dried cum still sticking to his skin from the previous night so he decided a shower was wise choice at the moment. After gathering up some clean clothes and a towel he left the room and padded down the empty hallway towards the showers. The hallway was empty and the heavy silence fallowed him into the bathroom as he sat his stuff down on one of the benches.

He stripped out of what little clothing he was wearing, shivering slightly from the slight chill that lingered inside the room and moved towards one of the showerheads near the room's rear. With a twist of a switch, hot water started pelting out of the showerhead and flowing down his cold body in warm rivers.

Tyler groaned from the relieving sensation and tilted his head back as the warm spray engulfed his body. He winced as he turned, still feeling sore from the previous night and a quick rub of his finger with his powers took care of most of it. A frown came to his face when he noticed a slight smudge of blood on his fingers as he drew his hand away. A tiny part of him wasn't surprised by the sight and he quietly washed it off in the running water.

He checked himself once more to be sure he wasn't bleeding anywhere else before he set to work scrubbing all of the sweat, grime and other stuff clinging to his skin. His thin fingers roamed, prodded and caressed his skin with thick layers of soap and in mere moments, his skin retained its natural pale glow.

As he worked his fingers through his hair the lighting in the room brightened immensely and then with a loud cracking sound the room was cast in a slight darkness. Tyler snapped his head up when he heard the sound and scanned his eyes across the room. The main light source was gone but the room wasn't in complete darkness; he could see the outline of the benches and the bathroom stalls. His eyes lingered over the dark shadows in the room and after a moment he moved his head back towards the heavy spray of water and dunked his head under the running water once again.

He didn't even notice the pair of cold eyes that watched him from the darkness in the far corner of the room.

--

"How's your head feeling?"

"Still hurts." Pogue mumbled numbly as Gorman's thin fingers lightly traced the side of his head.

The elder's lips narrowed from his response. A short moment later Pogue could felt a gentle warmth flowing from Gorman's narrow hand to the side of his head. He groaned as the warmth burrowed into his skull but despite the comforting feeling it didn't feel like it was doing much heal-wise.

Gorman withdrew his hand a moment later and gazed at him concerned. "Any better?"

"No, still hurts."

With a soft curse, Gorman straightened himself up and eyed the boy clearly. "I didn't use that much force on you; your mind shouldn't be reacting like this."

"Why'd you do it then?" Pogue barked as the throbbing inside his head increased. "Fuck... it's getting worse."

The pain had reached an unbearable level thanks to Gorman's attempts of trying to heal him and Pogue begin to fear that his skull would split in half from it. He tried to lie back down on the bed he was still sitting on but Gorman grabbed his shoulder.

"No Pogue, you need to stay awake. Stay up-right or it'll get worse."

"Jesus Christ, just shoot me and get it over with."

With that, Pogue drew his knees close to his chest and buried his head against them with a pained moan. He really wished the elder would stop talking because the sound was making his head hurt. His fingers tugged and pulled at his hair in time with the throbbing of his head and before he could pull a large amount out, Gorman grabbed his hands and pulled them away.

"You're going to hurt yourself if you don't stop–"

"I'm already hurting. Why won't it go away?"

"It will in time, just give it a mom–"

Gorman cut off as a jolt of power jabbed at his chest and pushed him a short ways away from Pogue's bed. With a startled gasp, the elder righted himself and gazed at Pogue's shaking shoulders confused.

"Pogue?"

The empath didn't say anything but emitted a loud groan as he curled his limbs tighter around himself. Just as he did so, Gorman saw a pale, blue light gather around Pogue's trembling shoulders – it's source coming from the boy himself – and just as the elder took a cautionary step towards the bed he found himself unable to because a strong force of Pogue's powers prevented it.

"Pogue!"

His call went unanswered as Pogue curled into a tighter ball and his moans of pain became louder and eventually turned into bone curling screams that sent the elder into a panicked raged because he wasn't physically able to reach his godchild.

"Pogue!"

The blue light grew brighter and brighter and Gorman, fearing that he would go blind from it, covered his eyes with his hand as Pogue's screams lowered in volume. After what felt like many moments, the bright light soon dimmed and when he felt it was safe enough to do so, Gorman lowered his arm.

His eyes immediately searched for Pogue and found him strewn across the bed. He moved closer, cautiously feeling the air around him for any traces of the mysterious power he just witnessed and dropped to Pogue's side. The boy was still breathing and his eyes were open but they seemed unfocused, meaning Pogue was unconscious once again. As he turned the empath's head he discovered Pogue's eyes were glowing with the same pale blue color as the light that filled the room moments ago and all of their natural color seamed to fade as he stared into them.

After glancing over at Reid's bed and seeing that somehow the other boy was still asleep, he rolled Pogue onto his back noticing a few spots in the bedding were burnt to a black core and there was even scorch marks on the wall behind them. He glanced back down at Pogue and with a shaking hand; he gently slid the boy's eyes closed with his hand.

(What in god's name is going on?)

--

Tyler shivered as he finished tying up the front strings of his track pants and immediately slid his shirt over his shoulders a moment later. Ever since the lights went out the cold air in the room seamed to thicken to an unbearable level and he was glad to have the last bit of his clothing on to keep it at bay.

He retrieved his towel from where he set it on the bench and rubbed his wet hair as he exited the dark room. The hall outside was also just as dark as the bathroom but Tyler didn't pay much attention to it as he headed towards his dorm room.

The door was unlocked, just as he left it and he couldn't help but feel disappointed when he pushed the door open and saw that the room was empty. His eyes were immediately draw towards the night stand when he noticed light and he saw the lamp near his bed was turned on, filling the room with a soft gold glow.

With a frown he stepped into the room and closed the door behind him, eyeing the lamp the entire time. He didn't remember turning it on before he left and he glanced over at his desk when he caught sight of something small and shiny. His keys were sitting in their usual spot on his desk and relief fluttered inside of his chest.

"Reid?"

A pair of strong arms grabbed him from behind and a large calloused hand slammed over his mouth a quick second later.

"Hello baby boy." Came the dark purr against his neck.