CHAPTER FIFTY:

Lightning Bugs

AN: DANG! I'm on a roll here! The muses have really conked me over the head! Thank you Lord. Hold onto your fur, folks!

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000

Logan followed the older feral outside cautiously, reaching in his jeans pocket for one of his favorite Cuban cigars and a lighter. He lit it carefully in the night air, watching Victors shoulders heave as he tried to master himself. "It's a good thing you didn't do anything to her, Vic. Cassie would have never forgiven you if you'd killed her older sister."

Victor growled low and threatening. "The frails damned lucky I didn't gut her where she stood."

Logan puffed on his cigar. "How's yer shoulder?"

Victor rolled his shoulder experimentally. "Heal'n already. Damned frail had the guts ta knife me." He mumbled to himself.

"Yeah, she's got good aim, too." Logan chuckled and Victor growled half-heartedly at him.

"So what happened with Fury?" Logan asked.

"I'll explain as we hunt." Victor snarled.

Logan arched an eyebrow. "Hunt what?"

Victors voice was deadly serious as he answered. "Lightning bugs."

Logan choked, almost swallowing his precious cigar and coughed it out into his hands, cursing when the flaming red tip burned his palm.

Victor rolled his eyes. "Don't be a wuss, Jimmy, the cub needs ta eat SOMETHING."

"Let me get this straight, you want me to help you catch LIGHTNING BUGS."

Victor growled lower. "Am I speak'n *&^%$ Chinese here, Jimmy!? YES, LIGHTNING BUGS! Now get yer a$$ in gear!"

"I guess it didn't occur to ya we'd need somethin' to put them in." Logan said drily. When Victor actually hissed at him, Logan shook his head and turned around to go back into the cafeteria. "I'll go get a jar."

And that was how Logan found himself alongside his older brother hunting lightning bugs.

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000

A FEW MINUTES LATER

"So what exactly DID ya go to Fury for?" Logan asked as his open palm swiped out quick as...well, lightning, to catch one of the glowing bugs.

"He's not a mutant." Victor said gruffly, leaping impressively in the air to catch one bug. Hey, it made things a little more interesting than simply grabbing them close to the ground.

"Yeah, so?" Logan asked, adding a slightly squished bug to the jar.

"So I needed to know how he stopped aging. I don't know about you, Jimmy, but I want my frail to stick around."

Logan looked at him, stunned. "I never thought of that. So what did he say?"

"In exchange for whatever it is that keeps him young, he wants me under his thumb for forty years."

Logan arched an eyebrow. "You gonna do it?"

"I dunno yet." Victor added three more lightning bugs to the jar. "Somethin' smells suspiciously like a trap. It seems good, I get triple wages, satisfy the blood-lust, get some money fer my frail and the cubs here—you know this school is going to need a lot of upgrades."

"You think he wants to control you." Logan guessed shrewdly, cursing when his attempt to catch a particularly ornery lightning bug failed.

"Nooo, what tipped you off?" Victor asked sarcastically. "The thing is some of these 'jobs' of his might require two weeks." The feral growled again. "He wanted it to be two months, but I can't stay away from my mate that long. She needs sleep. And there's the fact that she's almost always gett'n into trouble."

"Yeah, there's that." Logan said conversationally, shaking the bug jar (which was actually an empty pickle jar) to make all the bugs fall down to the bottom so that he could add the three he caught. "You don't think these'll make Roddy sick, do ya?"

Victor eyed the jar, thinking. "Don't think so. Never seemed ta bother Toad."

Logan cast the older feral a sideways glance. "You ever get in touch with some of the members of the brotherhood?"

Victor narrowed his eyes at his younger brother. "No. Was pretty much feral till I found my mate. Don't get suspicious on me now, Jimmy. It was just a job. And I've got a pack here now. Don't question it." He gave a low, alpha growl. "Speak'n of which, when are ya gonna man up and claim yer frail."

Logan looked at him as if he had asked him to model in a pink tutu in Paris. "What?"

Victor went over and knocked his brother upside the head before he could even block. "The frail with the stripes! S*it yer slow, Jimmy!"

Logan actually cocked his head to the side. "Stripes…" then Victor could almost literally see the lightbulb switch on over his little brothers head. "…..you mean Marie!? Geez, Vic, she's a student here!"

"Back in our days, frails were married as young as sixteen, Jimmy." Victor lectured. "It seems ta be obvious to everyone but you that she's yer mate. Just hurry up and claim her before someone else does. That stupid ice-prick seems to have an eye on her."

Logans own answering growl at the thought of Bobby betrayed him and he glared at Victor when he chuckled.

"Even yer instincts know it, it's just you that's slow." Victor instructed him. "Yer protective of her—"

"I'm protective of all of'em." Logan argued.

"—more than that." Victor continued. "She's yer alpha female. I've seen how she helps you keep yer pack in line. And yer more protective of her as a mate than as a child. Think on it, Jimmy." Victor moved forward and took the now full pickle jar from his younger brother. "Ah'm gonna go feed my cub."

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000

Victor strode calmly through the halls, checking in on the cubs quietly as he went, jar of lightning bugs in hand. Most of them were properly asleep, but there were a few where he had to storm in and confiscate flash-lights and stop some midnight conferences.

"Get yer a$$ ta sleep." He scolded one young red-head who was typing on her laptop. He slammed the electronic device shut and pointing imperiously at the bed, making sure she climbed under the covers before he left, then placing the laptop high on a shelf way out of her reach. He would retrieve it for her tomorrow.

Finally, he got to the room he shared with his frail and opened the door to see his mate stroking Roddys head as he lay next to her on the bed.

When he approached she glared at him, actually snarling a little, making him feel a flash of pride. "I shouldn't let you sleep her tonight."

"You will if you want to sleep, and you know it, frail." Victor grinned confidently at her. "Wake the cub, he needs ta eat."

Cassie eyed the jar of lightning bugs in his head and her frustration warred with amusement. Gently, she shook the little mutants shoulder. "Roddy, sweetheart, wake up hon." She said softly.

Victor moved to the bed and sat down as Roddy opened his eyes groggily.

"I've got food for ya here, cub." Victor said gruffly, shaking the jar. "Eat up. And don't let'em escape. It took me and Jimmy a lot'a work to get these bugs."

Roddy looked hungrily at the jar, then looked at Cassie and Victor almost with embarrassment.

Victor gave him a stern, commanding look. "What did we talk about, cub. It's nothing bad ta take care of what yer body needs. When my frail needs meat—" he nodded his head towards Cassie. "—I hunt for her, and make sure she eats it, like I hunted fer you, and when yer older I'll teach you how ta hunt so you can care for your frail and cubs."

Roddy puffed his chest up, almost as if imagining he was as strong as his new idol. "I'll take good care of my mate, just like you."

Cassie gaped at the young mutant for a mutant, then shook her head in amusement, smiling softly.

"As for you, mate" Victor started up his purr as he stood and took off his furs and trench coat. "You need sleep. Shoes off and lay down. Under the covers."

"I'm still mad at you." Cassie mumbled as she moved to take her shoes off.

"Yeah, yeah. We'll talk about that later." Victor said lowly, pulling off his shirt and smirking when his mate eyed his muscular chest appreciatively. "Like what ya see, mate?"

Cassie blushed and looked down at the covers.

Victor chuckled throatily, scenting her arousal. "Yer not ready for that yet, mate. Mentally at least. I can wait. But when yeh are—"

"VIC!" Cassie protested loudly, reaching over to cover Roddys ears. The mutant kid had opened the pickle jar and was hurried shoving the lightning bugs into his mouth before they could escape into the air with skill.

Victor chuckled. "Lye down, mate. You need sleep." And he climbed into the bed beside them.