...This chapter is way overdue. I can't say anything other than life happens and leave it at that. I haven't had the time to properly edit this chapter so this will have to do for now. I didn't really want to hold it off any longer. Can't say if there will be a chapter being released this Sunday, but I'll try. Anyway, thank you to everyone who reviewed since the last chapter release. You guys are all amazing and I really appreciate the support! Enjoy!
"You're doing it again."
Natsu glanced up at the white-haired barmaid over the rim of his mug. "Doing what?"
Mira finished drying the glass in her hands and reached for another one. "Thinking."
A dark-haired man two stools away scoffed into his drink. "I think you're confusing the idiot with the wrong intellectual species, Mira."
Said person stood abruptly from his seat, sending his stool clattering to the ground. He had Gray's shirt fisted in his fist in just a under a few long strides. "What's that supposed to mean, frostbite? You got a death wish?"
Mirajane tsked in a chiding manner from across the bar but remained silent. Though she was known among many of the members of the guild as a mother-figure of sorts, this was a situation someone only as thick-headed as Natsu could solve.
Gray reached up and gripped Natsu's wrist in a tight clench. Straightening his spine, he rose to his full height, towering over the pinkette. "You're pathetic."
Natsu bunched the fabric in his fist tighter, not minding the sound of tearing seems. "You want to say that-"
"Shut up. I'm talking right now." The tone in Gray's voice dropped low. Ice-cold, low. "You barely eat. All you do is sleep and laze around all day, and you're constantly checking up on her. Goddamnit, Natsu! What's so special about this girl?! She's got you all wrapped around her finger, and you're letting her get away with it like an idiot!"
Natsu remained silent to Gray's griping. Neither broke eye-contact and continued to stare the other down. From where she was sitting, clutching Carla to her chest, Wendy nervously turned to the red-headed werewolf seated next to her.
"Shouldn't we do something Erza?"
Erza delicately broke off the edge of her strawberry cake and chewed on the piece slowly, appreciating the taste and texture. She swallowed before answering, "I, too, believe Natsu has sulked in misery enough."
With that said, she went back to consuming her slice of cake. Wendy remained rigid in her seat and peered worriedly at the two boys. The sight of her family fighting had never appealed to her. Sure, the guild would brawl and rough house together with swinging fists and loud shouts. Those she could handle. It was the silent fights that put her on edge.
The two continued to glare at one another in irritation. "I'm not wrapped around her finger." Natsu mumbled.
Gray scoffed. "Could have fooled me."
"Look, you freezer-brain, Lu-"
"HELP! Somebody help!"
The flaps to the guild hall were thrown open with a resounding 'swoosh' and Romeo ran in. His face was white with panic and sweat dripped from his brow as he heaved for air, tripping over his own feet. Natsu was there to catch the alarmed boy before he could kiss the floor.
He could hear the Romeo's heart thundering in his chest faster than a panicked rabbit and his forehead pinched in concern. "What's wrong, Romeo?"
"-apids…" Romeo took a deep breath and attempted to alleviate his racing heart. "North-west border…*pant* rapids….Master Makarov…*pant*...Tartaros."
Natsu handed Romeo over to a panicked Macao and was racing out the hall in seconds.
The Fiore Rapids represented the border between the guilds under the control of the Council and the dark guilds. The river stretched for miles across the country of Fiore and while it was a physical representation of the border between the two sides, that never deterred the dark guilds from sneaking across to antagonize the weak.
Twenty feet across, the speed of the current never dropped below fifty miles per hour and was a significant deterrent for any wandering humans. For a supernatural being, it was little more than a hopscotch jump to cross.
"I only ask that you hand the boy over, Makarov. He is of no consequence to you."
"If you really think I'd had over one of my children to your filthy claws, you can go back to the pits of hell, Mard Geer." Makarov sneered.
On the bank across the turbulent waves Mard Geer scoffed. "What you call family is a lie. You are all just a pack of inferior mongrels that must be purged from this world, and to accomplish that..." He held his hand out. "...Zeref requires his little brother back."
Makarov seethed. Like hell he was going to just hand over Natsu to those abominations, but it didn't look like Mard Geer would be taking 'no' as an answer. Geer was a known practitioner of the black arts: the Underworld King, and he possessed the skill to back up his confidence in coming alone. At least, Makarov hoped he had. Mard Geer's magic was so pungent that it cloaked his surroundings in at least a ten foot radius. Even for Makarov's skills, the aura casted imperceptible shivers down his spine. He only hoped Romeo had made it back to the guild unharmed.
"Gramps!" Multiple footfalls crunched down on the scattered leaves of the forest floor and multiple bodies appeared from the density of the treeline and came to a stop along the bank.
Being the first to emerge from the treeline, Natsu gave the master a quick scan with his eyes and relaxed minisculely when there were no visible injuries that he could detect. Turning his sights to the lone figure across the border, Natsu could feel a growl build up at the back of his throat.
Mard Geer opened his arms as if expecting an embrace. "Natsu. Have you come to return home?"
"I already gave Jackal my answer, asshole. And if you don't want to end up like him then I suggest you back off."
The dark mage lowered his raised arms, a disgusted frown forming on his face at Natsu's words. "That would be a shame. Jackal was one of Zeref's more...obsolete trials." He rubbed at his temple as if relieving a forming headache and sighed exasperatedly. "Unfortunately, that has yet to change since his revival."
Natsu's brow furrowed in confusion. "Jackal's dead. His body can't revive itself." He paused to think about it. "None of you can."
Mard Geer smirked smugly. "Yes, Zeref had been driving himself absolutely mad over our limitations. Thanks to Jackal's sudden passing, our small health complication has since been...rectified. You can come out now." He called over his shoulder.
Seeing Mard Geer once again had sent Natsu's mind into such an enraged stupor that he had forgoed discerning if there were any nearby threats. If he had, he would have realized that besides Mard Geer's there were two more heartbeats situated behind the treeline. Straining his ears, he could pick out the excited skip of one of the beating organs. The other was much faster and skipped around frantically in fear and anxiety. He didn't have to contemplate the new arrivals' heartbeats when they were finally revealed from the shadows of the trees. Natsu felt his own heart freeze and plummet to his feet.
Jackal was alive, and the vampire-werewolf hybrid had gone through severe physical alterations. Wolf ears adorned the sides of his head and Natsu could spot a fluffed tail dragging behind him, both of which were the same dark mustard color. Wolf-like appendages replaced his once human legs and blacks claws protruded from his fingers. Jackal's new developments didn't concern Natsu as much as the fact that one of his clawed hands was wrapped around the slender neck of the blonde woman he was dragging in front of him.
Lucy's wrists were tied together in front of her and limited her movements as she kicked and violently squirmed in Jackal's grasp. Muffled shrieks escaped from around the cloth gag between her teeth as Jackal's other arm wrapped around her waist to pick her up, carrying her the rest of the way from out of the shadows and to the edge of the bank. The blonde woman's kicking got a lucky hit in when the heel of her boot slammed back into Jackal's shin, and Natsu felt a bead of pride when the hybrid displayed a physical wince of pain, but that pride soon morphed into anger when Jackal forced Lucy to face him with the hold he had around her neck and back-handed her across the face, sending her toppling to the ground.
"Bitch." Natsu heard him murmur.
Lucy didn't let the hit affect her and was struggling to her knees to make a run for it. However, her determined face scrunched in pain and a muffled scream escaped her when claws fisted her hair, pulling her to a kneeling position. Natsu was already moving to jump to the other side when arms clamped across his chest and pulled him back.
"Let her go, Jackal!" He screamed over the roaring of the rapids.
The hybrid ignored him and squatted next to the blonde, not relinquishing his hold on her hair. "Hey, bro. Not happy to see me?" A gleeful grin spread across Jackal's face at Natsu's silent seething. "You never said you had a girlfriend. I'm hurt."
Jackal placed his hand against his chest in mock-hurt before releasing Lucy's hair to instead put his arm over her shoulder and pull her into his side, laying his head against hers. "If you want my advice, I'd take better care of where you leave your toys. You never know what could happen if someone came along to...well, tell me-" He flashed Natsu a malicious smirk before dragging his tongue across Lucy's collarbone and up the hollow of her throat, the hand slung across her shoulder reached across and disappeared into the lapels of her doctor's coat. Lucy's eyes squeezed shut and silent tears trailed down her face as she squirmed as far away from the hand as she could.
"-is she as good as she looks?"
Natsu could feel his molars crack with how hard he was clenching his teeth, and two more sets of hands clutched at both of his arms to hold him back. "Bastard!"
"Enough, Jackal. We're here to retrieve Zeref's prize, not satiate whatever deluded fantasy your mind comes up with." Mard Geer pointed out strictly.
Jackal sighed and extracted his hand. "You're no fun, Geer."
Natsu saw Lucy release an imperceptible sigh of relief before Jackal wrapped a hand around her bicep and forced her to her feet, dragging her to the edge of the bank. When they were close enough to the edge, Jackal swung her out in front of him so that she was suspended above the roaring waters of the rapids, the toes of her boots and Jackal's grip the only thing keeping her from falling in. He pulled harder against the grips holding him back, desperate to save the blonde who had given him a home, even if it was for just a short period of time.
"Surrender, Pinky! Or your girlfriend's going for a swim." Jackal hollered.
Makarov pointed a finger at the three holding him back and called back, "Do not let him go, Erza, Gray, Gajeel!"
Natsu whipped his head around to stare at the master in disbelief. "Gramps! She's innocent, goddammit! Let me save her!"
Master Makarov ignored him and calmly turned back to the Tartaros members. "I cannot condone the bargaining of one life for another, especially if one of those lives is one of my children. Release the girl and conduct your business elsewhere, or else you will face the might of the Fairy Tail guild." Members of Fairy Tail stepped up to the bank. Werewolves and Vampires snarled and witches prepared spells.
The display did not deter the two dark guild members and Jackal sighed impatiently, "This is getting us nowhere."
He wrenched Lucy back. The force of the pull had her stumbling over her own feet before she fell back into his chest. Gripping the hair at the base of her neck, Jackal wrenched Lucy's head to the side and lowered his mouth to her neck. "You got five seconds to submit before I drain every last drop of the bimbo's blood." He grinned in thought. "Though I wouldn't mind getting a bite anyway. Bet she tastes better than the pink-haired chick."
An image of the timid head nurse flashed in Natsu's mind and Lucy must have been thinking the same thing because she stiffened in Jackal's hold, anguish painting her features. A muffled sob tore itself from Lucy's throat and Natsu felt his heart wrench at the sound. More tears poured down her face and Jackal sniggered, misplacing the reasoning for the veterinarian's anguish. "Don't worry." He cooed. "I'll make it feel real good before you die so, try not to die on me too soon, yeah?" Jackal playfully bit down on the shell of her ear.
It happened so fast, even Natsu had some trouble keeping up. He remembered watching as fury morphed over Lucy's face before she was dragging her elbow back into Jackal's diaphragm. The blow wasn't hard enough to do anything but slightly wind the supernatural being, but it distracted him enough for her to kick her heel back into his shin and throw her head into his chin, breaking his hold from around her and making a bee-line back into the forest. Her attempts were in vain, however, and Jackal yanked back on her shoulder, twisting her around. The next part was a blur that ended with Jackal wrenching her head violently to the side and biting down on the junction between her shoulder and neck hard, puncturing the skin.
A detheaning roar filled his ears, deep and guttural. It wasn't until he felt his throat grow hoarse that Natsu realized the cry belonged to him. He renewed his struggles against his family members holding him back, desperate to get to the other side. So desperate was he, that he barely registered Master Makarov's yell of "Attack!" until the arms holding him back loosened to follow the order.
Seeing the Fairy Tail members beginning to jump across the border, Mard Geer ushered Jackal to hurry before fading into the shadows. Jackal tisked before unlatching his jaws from Lucy's neck, giving her body a harsh shove away from himself before turning to follow. Lightheaded, the blonde tripped over the edge and fell into the violent waters, the current quickly dragging her away and under. Natsu dived in after her, the rest of Fairy Tail running after the two Tartaros members.
The water chilled him to the bone, and Natsu was so lost in the myriad of bubbles as the current thrashed him around that he lost track of which way was up or down. He didn't allow himself the chance to panic, however, and swung his arms and legs in wide arcs to catch hold of anything solid to use as a hand-hold while continuously surveying the waters around him for any sign of Lucy.
The sudden feeling of rough bark digging into his back forced what little air he had left in his lungs out and Natsu choked as water began to rush into his mouth. Clawing at the large trunk the current had him pinned to, he heaved himself up and took a deep lungful of air when his head broke the surface. Natsu panted for air and clung to the tree that had fallen across the water way lest the current drag him under once more and frantically searched around the area.
"LUCY!" He yelled. The longer he went without a sign the more frantic his heart beat within his chest, fearing she had been dragged further downstream.
Natsu was just about to let go of his impromptu safety raft when golden strands caught his eye. The sun's reflection off the surface of the water camouflaged the strands, but Natsu wasn't taking the chance to miss saving her on baseless assumptions and began to make his way towards the large rocks where he swore he caught a glimpse of blonde hair.
He paddled through the water, using the log as leverage to keep himself from being swept away and felt his heart give a happy jump in his chest when he saw Lucy's face beneath the waves. The sight of Lucy's unresponsive state instantly dashed his joy of finding her and he was immediately reaching down to grapple for her waist and pull her to shore, worried she had been submerged for too long. Natsu secured the blonde in his arms and made to pull her head from under the water when a resisting force pulled her back. Furrowing his brow and letting out a small yell in frustration he dived beneath the waves once more.
Natsu found Lucy's foot pinned between rocks near the bottom of the river bed, the water buffeting her body against a larger rock at her back. He scratched at the rocks pinning the blonde's leg and gripped it when he had freed her in case the current claimed her once more. Now free, Natsu swam back to the shores of Fairy Tail's territory, unceremoniously heaving the veterinarian's body onto solid ground before pulling himself up as well.
He turned Lucy over so that she laid on her back and delicately untied the cloth digging into the sides of her mouth. After removing the gag and freeing her wrists, Natsu gently cupped Lucy's cheek and caressed the bruises left behind at the corner of her mouth with his thumb before pressing his ear to her chest. Natsu was scared that he would confuse his own frenzied heart beat with her own and pressed his ear down harder when he didn't hear anything. He couldn't hear anything.
No, no, no, no, no!
Lacing his hands together, Natsu started compressions, mindful to not use his full strength in his worried state. When pushing down on Lucy's chest didn't seem to be doing anything he didn't hesitate to tilt her head up at an elevated angle. He pried her lips open gently and lowered his mouth down to meet hers when her chest gave a heave and water began pouring from her mouth in large chock fulls. Natsu rotated Lucy's body onto her side as she vomited up lungfuls of water onto the snowy ground until all the water was purged from her lungs and she was left dry heaving, falling back onto her back. Natsu gave a deep sigh of relief when his ears detected the faint heartbeat in Lucy's chest. However, worry once again flooded Natsu's veins when Lucy's eyelids remained tightly shut and she instead began to break out into a cold sweat. Her breathing remained shallow and her heartbeat began to lull back into a decreasingly slow, dull thump rather than it's slow but steady pace from just seconds ago.
The stench of decay reached his sensitive nose and Natsu recoiled when it replaced the natural undertones of Lucy's scent. Tilting her head to the side, he growls at the sight of dark veins crawling up her neck and across her chest like warped spider webs. The ugly veins conjoined at the junction in her neck, where Jackal had bit her and a guilty part of Natsu ate at him with the reminder that it was because of him that the bastard was still alive. Still breathing.
Hybrids, like werewolves, carried venom in their bites, but it was much more potent to both species of vampires and werewolves alike. For a human, even a witch...Lucy wouldn't last much longer. The only known cure for a hybrid bite was with the blood of the hybrid the bite belonged to and Natsu didn't think Jackal was in a sharing mood. Plus, he didn't want that monster anywhere near Lucy.
The skin around puncture marks were bruised in a disgusting pattern deep purple and green. What used to be vibrant red blood oozed out from the two puncture marks as dark pus. The density of the liquid turning to sludge and the color a dark black.
Natsu felt like punching something. The whole situation left him feeling so helpless and Lucy was going to be paying the price for his careless actions. His hands gripped at the base of his pink locks and he tugged in a futile effort to think of a possible solution. There wasn't one. He needed Jackal's blood, goddammit! He needed…
A crazy thought filled his mind and Natsu didn't give himself a chance to think of the repercussions of his actions before he bit down on his wrist, breaking the skin until a steady flow of blood was flowing down his arm. Natsu eyed the red liquid streaming from his wrist and back at the comatose blonde. There was no going back after what he would do, but he found himself not caring. As long as Lucy lived.
Images of the veterinarian playing her violin and singing them both to sleep, welcoming her guests and patients with warmth and love, all these little moments spanning over a short month period fueled Natsu's resolve, and before he could think to hesitate any longer, he lowered his wrist to her open mouth.
A dark form tackled Natsu's body away from its hovering position over the unconscious woman and, rather than falling into its intended target, his blood dropped and stained Lucy's doctor coat instead.
"Get off me!" Natsu wrestled like mad to dislodge whoever had interrupted him. Lucy was dying and they were keeping him from saving her, but his tackler had a tight grip on his arms, pushing his head into the snow.
"Are you crazy, Natsu?! You can't go around turning people!"
Natsu recognized Gray's voice coming from the figure currently holding him down, but continued struggling to return to Lucy's side. "You don't understand, Frostbite! Get off me!"
He inclined his head as far as he could to get a look at the fallen form in the snow and was relieved to see Wendy riding atop Gajeel's shoulders, making their way over. Erza and the rest of Fairy Tail were running along the river bank as well, neither Jackal or Mars Geer in their midst. They had lost them.
Natsu didn't ponder the thought too deeply and instead concentrated on the scene unfolding in front of him as Wendy jumped from Gajeel's shoulders and slid to a stop next to Lucy's still form. The young healer was immediately tearing off the blonde's soaked coat and shirt.
"Erza! Help me take her clothes off. She's slipping into hypothermia." The red-head nodded and got to work shimmying Lucy's pants down her legs. "Blankets! I need blankets or a dried coat!" Wendy shouted to the crowd.
Laxus handed the young healer his fur-lined coat and, once the blonde was left in nothing but her under garments, Wendy placed the heavy coat over her shivering form. From where he was still wrangling with Gray, the putrid smell clinging to Lucy's form was getting worse.
His heart constricted within his chest in a tight vice and his throat closed up and choked him. This was all his fault. Prolonging his stay on a whim when he should have erased himself from her life when he was able. Tartaros had to have been spying on them for days to know where Lucy worked. If what Levy said was true, and Natsu doubted the bookworm was ever wrong, they wouldn't have been able to take Lucy from her home because of the barrier. That means...all those people. Natsu clenched his eyes shut when images of Magnolia's possible destruction flashed in his mind. Innocent lives taken, all because of him. Nurse Aries, those kids, Plue...
Protect...please, protect.
That was one promise he wasn't going to break. All the self-hate and anger coiled in himself snapped and Natsu threw Gray off his back in a surprising display of strength, shrinking the distance between where Gray had dragged him to the members huddled around the fallen body. From behind, the half-werewolf gave a yell of warning to the group, but he ignored it and pushed his way past the crowding bodies. Biting down on his wrist once more, he was at Lucy's side before anyone could interpret Gray's shout and lowered his mouth down to meet her own. Lucy's lips were soft pressed against his chapped ones and he felt guilt eat away at him for tarnishing another part of her.
Forcing her lips open with his own, Natsu deposited the blood he held in his mouth to Lucy's. When she didn't respond he pushed his mouth harder against hers, using his tongue to push the coppery liquid further into her mouth.
Live. Please. Just live.
From beneath him, Natsu felt Lucy's throat bob as she swallowed.