Chapter 24

Point of No Return

Cabe waited, scared, like everyone else when Paige placed Walter's head against her neck. He didn't know if he was more scared that Walter could die, or scared that Paige might instead.

For a moment, he thought he knew which when Walter again didn't respond to Paige's new effort to get him to drink. He feared the kid was too far gone, and wasn't going to make it.

That was until his head moved slightly, just enough to place his mouth over the small cut Paige had made, and he started to drink.

He drank very gently at first, and Cabe saw some of his more severe wounds begin to heal. Cabe allowed himself a moment of hope that both he and Paige would get through this unharmed.

Then Walter's eyes snapped open. In a split second they transformed to vampiric red and black and Walter bit down into Paige's neck. She let out a sharp cry and Walter placed his hands behind her back, pulling her closer, and he started drinking faster.

His wounds nearly finished healing, but he wasn't stopping.

He was starting to kill her.

Toby and Cabe reached out and grabbed Paige, trying to pull her away from Walter, but it was futile. It was like trying to pull her out of an iron vice. Cabe and the whole team were also screaming Walter's name, begging him to stop, but that also was to no avail.

Paige was falling unconscious from the loss of blood, and the only thing the team could do was watch as both she and Walter approached a point of no return.

****SVD****

Walter lost all awareness after he made the split second decision to shield Cabe from the blast. It hadn't been a decision, really. He had thought of no other options at the time.

After that there was only darkness, at least until he became aware of the sound, smell, and taste of blood in his mouth. He started drinking. Healing his wounds. He needed the blood he was drinking more than he ever needed it before, and his hunger was screaming in agreement.

He continued to follow his instincts for several more seconds, not that he really had a choice. The heartbeat that brought what he needed to him started to slow. As he drank, the hunger started to lessen, and he was able to recognize input from his surroundings.

"Walter! Stop! You're killing her!" were the first words he heard and understood. He kept drinking while he tried to comprehend their meaning.

Killing?

That single word gave him the briefest pause.

Her?

He forced himself to stop drinking for a moment and registered the scent of who he was holding.

He knew that scent. It smelled of flowers, sunlight, and home. The scent roused feelings of comfort, fondness, family.

Love.

He was killing someone he loved.

His lucid mind snapped into place with that painful realization.

He released his hold on his victim's neck and looked at who he was holding.

It was Paige. He had been killing Paige.

No!

"No no no no no…" he said over and over.

What had he done?

Walter laid her quickly and gently on the ground. She was so pale. Was she even breathing?

He realized there were other people there. He looked up and saw his team in cells next to them. They were all looking at him. He locked eyes with Cabe, who looked almost as panicked as he felt.

"Your blood, kid! Give her your blood!" Cabe yelled at him.

Walter wasted no time. He held up his wrist and lengthened his fangs to bite down, causing blood to start flowing. He held it to Paige's lips.

At first nothing happened. He brought his other hand to the side of Paige's too pale face.

"Please," he said. "Please don't die. Please…don't let me have killed you."

She swallowed. Then again. The color returned to her face within seconds and then she started coughing and trying to sit up.

Walter let out a sigh of relief. It had worked. She was going to be okay.

He felt suddenly sick thinking about the source of the blood now sitting in his stomach. He jerked to the side and started retching, but his body would not let him expel the much needed blood, no matter how hard he tried.

Failing to be rid of it, he crawled as quickly as he could until his back hit metal bars. He was as far away from her as he could get in the small cell.

His insides were in painful knots, and it wasn't from the blood. It wasn't from hunger. It was an emotion causing it.

It didn't make sense. He didn't feel emotion like this.

Correction, you didn't used to. It's become more common since you came back, he reminded himself.

But this emotion, at this intensity was new. What was it?

Guilt, he recognized. He had experienced guilt before, but this time the feeling was causing him almost physical pain.

Guilt hurt.

As the emotion shredded him, in the corner of his mind an option offered itself.

You can turn it off. It was as if a silent voice within was giving him the option. He could turn off this horrible feeling that hurt so much. The feeling that made him feel like a monster.

But, he countered the voice, wouldn't that make me more of a monster? Wouldn't that make me even less human?

Paige's words from several months ago echoed back at him.

Even if you are no longer human, it doesn't mean you'll be in any way, less human.

He couldn't betray the trust Paige placed in him that day. He wouldn't become less human. He wouldn't hurt her any more than he already had.

No, he told the small voice. I won't do it.

The voice offering the temptation seemed to recede, almost with disappointment, but disappear it did.

With one internal battle under control, it was time to face what was before him.

No one was speaking. Everyone was looking at him. What were they thinking of him? He couldn't decipher their expressions. He didn't know what to do next.

Sonia said the first word. A single word in her native tongue.

"Vampir…"

He looked at her and remembered why they were all there. He remembered the mission. He remembered shielding Cabe from the explosion causing himself severe injury. He remembered Zoric.

Zoric. The war criminal who had killed all those people, who had killed those men in the car, who had almost killed Cabe, who had injured him. It was those injuries that almost caused him to kill Paige.

The guilt within him started to be replaced with a different feeling. This one seemed to burn outward rather than implode inward. This feeling was also familiar, but he was feeling it to a whole new level.

It was anger. It was rage. He wanted to kill Zoric for what he had done. He still couldn't empathize with Sonia's pain, but he started to understand the driving force of her anger, and how it had the ability to overcome rational thought.

Even with its intensity, he was able to somewhat compartmentalize this emotion as he normally did. It was difficult, but he was able to move it aside. For now.

"Are you okay?" he asked Paige. His voice came out even. Calm. He, of course, knew the answer. He knew his blood would have healed her completely, but he needed to hear it from her. He needed her to say something, anything to him.

"Yes, Walter. I'm okay," she answered. She tried moving closer to him, but he tried to move further away, against the bars. He of course could move no further, but his message was clear, and Paige stayed where she was.

Paige narrowed her eyes at him, apparently annoyed with his attempts to distance himself from her. "I'm going to put this simply, Walter. It was my choice to save you. It worked. You were able to save me. It was the logical choice, for the greater good." Walter didn't fail to notice her slight pause over the word "logical".

Paige continued, giving him a determined stare. "Now, put that high IQ, low EQ brain of yours to work and how about you geniuses get us out of here?" She looked at the rest of the team then, also trying to get their minds on track.

His genius brain seemed to almost click into place. He looked at his team and give a short nod. He stood up.

The first order of business was getting out of these cells.

"Happy," Walter said, passing the metaphorical baton. This was a problem for a mechanical prodigy.

Happy immediately started examining the cells and the locks holding them in.

"Damn, these things are dinosaurs. Solid steel. I don't think even you are strong enough to break through, Walter. What do you think, Sylvester?"

Sylvester started doing calculations in head.

"From what we know of his strength, it should withstand even him," Sly concluded.

"Ok," Walter replied. "Other options?"

Happy started examining the lock on her cell. "This is an old steel deadbolt lock. If I can find the right amount of leverage to twist the tumblers…"

She turned to Toby. "Can you get me the contents of that bag?"

Toby nodded and grabbed the bag through the bars. He started pulling out the contents and passing them to Cabe, who passed them to Happy.

Happy spread the multiple surgical tools and bundles of bandage material in front of her. She started picking up different instruments and using the medical tape to attach them to each other. She tried a few combinations in the lock, each time collecting a little more information on the shape and force needed to open it.

Finally, the set of tools attached to each other caused the lock to groan and the deadbolt snapped open.

There were several words congratulating her success, but their work wasn't done. Happy passed the tool through to Cabe, who also opened his lock. He was about to pass it to Paige when they heard the door at the top of the stairs open, and footsteps descend the stairs.

Hurriedly, Cabe pocketed the skeleton key and he and Happy made sure to keep their cells closed to hide that they were no longer locked.

Zoric came into view, along with two of the lawmen he had under his order. He must have payed them handsomely for their loyalty.

Zoric looked around, taking stock of the room and the changes which occurred while he was gone. His eyes eventually rested on Walter.

"Your wounds. They're completely healed. Incredible." Zoric looked very excited. "You must tell me how. I must have my answers."

****SVD****

Cabe watched Zoric focus on Walter. "What are you?" Zoric repeated.

Walter answered him with the same silence Cabe had.

Zoric walked a little closer to the cell, but seemed to make sure he was out of reach if Walter chose to reach through. Walter was now standing right behind the bars, staring at Zoric.

Zoric glanced at Paige and then back at Walter. They both had a fair amount of blood on them which hadn't been there when Zoric left. Paige on her neck and shirt, Walter on his face.

"Explain the blood to me, please," he requested.

Cabe noticed that even though Walter's expression was calm, he was breathing faster, and his hands had clenched into fists by his side. If he didn't know any better, he would have said Walter was pissed off.

Very pissed off.

Oh, shit. Cabe realizing that was exactly it. This was one of the situations Salv had theorized. Emotion was breaking through, and the vampire inside Walter was enhancing it. But what did that mean for him, or for them? A Walter O'Brien driven by emotion went far beyond uncharted territory.

The reminder Zoric gave Walter of Paige's blood on the two of them seemed to hit a trigger. Walter's face abruptly changed and he roared, rushing the bars and reaching through, trying to grab Zoric.

Zoric was just out of reach but still jumped back in surprise. The two men behind him let out profanities and raised their weapons at Walter.

"Don't shoot!" Zoric ordered. They followed orders, but they were clearly freaked out, balanced on a hair trigger.

The only one who looked remotely happy about the situation was Zoric. He was looking at Walter with amazement. With this final information, he seemed to have his answer.

"Vampir." Zoric used the same foreign translation Sonia had used. He was well out of reach of Walter, but Zoric was holding his arm out towards him, with a disturbing, almost ecstatic look on his face.

"When I was a boy, I was told stories of immortal creatures with immense strength. These creatures lived off the blood of mortal men with the ability to spread death and destruction as they pleased. I was always enraptured by these tales. The thought of a creature with such power over life and death, it was inspiring."

Cabe couldn't believe what her was hearing. Zoric wasn't frightened by Walter, but was in awe of him. He was admiring him.

No, Cabe corrected. He was admiring the monster Zoric thought he was. Cabe didn't like where this was going.

Zoric kept his hand up towards Walter. Walter continued to glare at him with vampiric eyes.

"Tell me, vampire, are these Americans forcing you to do their bidding? Do they have some kind of control over you that you must help them with matters against your nature, and beneath your talents?"

Even Walter furrowed his brow at that one.

"If so, please tell me, because I will help you. If you come work for me, with me, I will give you all the blood and death you could ever desire."

Walter stood there a few more seconds before turning around and walking to the back of the cell. Cabe obviously knew better, but to an outsider the action could be interpreted as consideration of Zoric's offer.

Paige slowly walked up to Walter and touched his shoulder. They started exchanging some quiet words only the two of them could hear.

Zoric, being the misogynistic sociopath he was, misread the relationship completely.

"If you want to keep the woman as well, I'll see to it she's yours, to do with what you will."

Uh, oh.

All Hell broke loose.

****SVD****

"Tell me, vampire, are these Americans forcing you to do their bidding? Do they have some kind of control over you that you must help them with matters against your nature, and beneath your talents?"

Paige couldn't believe what she was hearing. To think Zoric believed the words he directed at Walter. Zoric, as a monster, thought he was talking to a fellow monster.

Walter didn't answer him, but turned around and walked to the back of the cell. Paige walked over to meet him there.

Walter stood with his eyes closed, and was taking slow, deliberate breaths, as if he was trying to calm himself down.

Which was exactly what he was trying to do, she realized. Her job, up to this point, had been to try and get Walter in touch with his emotions and how to properly express them. Since he had become a vampire, her job had remained unchanged, for the most part. He still had his usual challenges with emotion and humanity, so she continued to be his guide.

Right now, though, she saw the complete opposite problem. This Walter was hanging on control of his emotion by a thread. Cabe had warned her of this possibility after his discussion with Damon. Their theories were proving to be a reality.

"Hey," she whispered calmly. "You're not what he says, not in a million years."

Walter opened his red eyes slightly and looked at her.

Walter spoke through clenched teeth. "I know that, of course, but his words, his actions thus far, they're making me feel." He hissed out the word "feel", as if frustrated with the word.

"Angry?" she guessed.

He nodded. "Yes, but more. Worse. Is this how humans usually feel when they're angry? Is this what Sonia has lived with her whole life?"

Paige of course had no way to answer that.

Walter continued. "You've told me that I need to accept emotionality, and that it can be an advantage. What I'm feeling right now, I think I can use this to get us out of here. I'm concerned though, that this emotion could make things worse. I don't know if trying to use this feeling is the right thing to do, or if I should fight it and try to approach this logically. Or is it a mixture of both? I need to you give me the answer."

Paige took his hand and gave it a squeeze. "Walter, you're trying to quantify emotion again. It can't be solved like a theorem. You are feeling what you are feeling. It's a part of you. Don't let it change you, or make you do things you don't want to do, but if you want to harness it, you have to accept it. Emotion is there to express who you are, not change you. There is a time and place for emotion. If you can get us out of here, do it. Just always remember who you are. I believe you'll be okay."

Walter took a deep breath, then nodded.

Zoric interrupted their moment. "If you want to keep the woman as well, I'll see to it she's yours, to do with what you will."

Walter slowly closed his eyes at Zoric's disgusting words. He gave Paige's hand a squeeze, as if he was trying to find strength. Paige was worried, she wasn't going to lie. She could tell Walter was furious, and about to snap.

"I won't let you down," he promised her and let go of her hand. "Stay behind me."

In a blur, he charged the door of their cell, unleashing all the rage he had been holding within.

So what did you think? :).