Chapter 46
"You also need me, you jackass, leavin' me outta all this," Steve had come in, hearing from Stephanie there was a meeting going on and rolled his eyes at Taker. He dropped down across from the Deadman and Abigail, by Malcolm, and nodded at the older man. "Why not uh, string her up where he can see?"
"Act like I'm going to execute her?" That had potential to go wrong if Wyatt didn't fall for it.
"It would work though." Abigail was confident, especially with how much Bray 'loved' her and was obsessed with her. "Let me fill you in on how obsessed Bray is with me, Mark. Maybe that'll change your mind and make you more…inclined to go along with Steve's idea." She smiled softly up at him, taking his hand, and suddenly, the smile faded. "When the DOV first started, or was formed, Bray had a set of followers and he trusted them, enough. One of those followers…they talked to me, just talked, no physicality, just talking. Bray had him executed and did it himself, slicing his head off right in front of me and decreed no one was allowed to talk to his Queen." She shuddered at the memory, remembering her white dress had been stained with the man's blood, and spatters of it had wound up on her face as well. "If you were to string me up and act like you would execute me, he would come running. I'm sure of it."
"I'm in agreement. You have to remember, Mark, I've been with the DOV for a long time and I have seen, firsthand, how obsessed he is with Abigail. He would do anything to ensure her safety and that includes leaving his ranks to get close enough to break the spell on him."
"What a minute, what the hell kinda spell ya talkin' about?"
"The stupid kind." Taker snorted derisively. "Sure, string her up. Are you positive he's going to come, though? If he's not suspicious with his sorcerer missing, then he's a massive idiot and I'm blaming his rise to power on sheer fuckin' luck and equally idiotic people enabling him."
"We have that sedative. We give it to her prior to the execution, so she just looks like she's dead, and if we do it right, her neck won't snap either. It'll look like she died from choking to death."
Considering not so long ago he had been choking her, just a little bit, Taker bit back a smirk and just nodded. "All right… all right, we'll do it." But if they were really going to be that dramatic…. He began to smirk, shaking his head.
That look of evil was all from his mother. She had been a beautiful, kind woman, but cross her and Satan emerged.
"No – no, making it LOOK like I'm dead won't do any good. It'll piss Bray off, but he won't leave his wall of defense. You have to keep me alive – make it look like I'm harmed and alive."
"And what if he doesn't come?"
"THEN you can go along with the sedative and make it look like I'm dead."
Malcolm nodded in agreement with her. "Yes, but I'm almost 100% positive he will come to her 'rescue', at least that's what it'll seem like in his demented mind."
"All right, we can handle that, boss." Steve understood where she was coming from, now that he thought about it. "No sedative, are you sure, honey? That rope is…not very comfortable."
"I'll be fine." Abigail knew Mark would never let anything actually happen to her, but if something did go wrong, she would be killed anyway. She'd rather die with the man she loved as opposed to a monster.
"Okay, now what's with this spell bullshit yer spewin'? That bastard has protection on him?"
"A protection spell, yes. And it requires…dark magic to break it."
"Boss…dark magic?" Steve did NOT like the sound of that.
"Malcolm apparently took option B."
Instead of just dying honorably and sacrificing a few, he had cast some spell and lived, sacrificing the many instead. "Gotcha. How's it going to be broken?"
Probably in a very horrible manner resulting in more death. And people wondered about his issues with magic. He ran his hands through his hair, sighing, and looked at Malcolm. "So what's this dark magic we got to do?"
"A blood sacrifice – Bray is under the impression the spell can never be broken because my offspring are all dead. He doesn't know you are my son, Mark, which is our advantage. I have most of the ingredients to perform the ritual, but I will also need to combine our blood together. And it's going to be a lot." Malcolm stood up from the table, rubbing his hands together nervously, and knew this was where things got a little tricky. "I will have to drain nearly all of your blood as well as mine, enough to ensure we can bathe Wyatt in our blood. We have to coat him with it, which is why we need him close enough to be able to do this. You will be severely weakened because of how much blood this requires, Mark." He warned, his voice deepening much like Mark's when he was troubled. "The spell has to be said right after the bastard is bathed in our blood and the blood itself will make the protection spell deteriorate."
"Holy shit."
"Oh my god…" Abigail felt tears swell in her eyes, feeling as though her heart had just sunk to the pit of her stomach. "W-Will either of you die from all that blood loss, Malcolm?"
"It's a gamble, Abigail, I won't lie to you and I won't sugarcoat how dangerous this spell is, but it's the only way to access the dark magic. Dark magic requires sacrifice of some kind. Magic ALWAYS comes with a price, remember that."
"Steve, go get Hardy."
"Which one?"
"Jeff."
"Gotcha, boss."
Steve was up and running… well jogging, he didn't run unless he had too. He had to wear a knee brace most days due to an old injury involving a skirmish with the DOV. Taker waited patiently, his eyes never leaving Malcolm's face and when Steve finally returned with the younger Hardy, he repeated everything they had just been told.
"Uh…" Jeff stared at Malcolm, green eyes widening. "Nearly all of it?" When Malcolm nodded, Jeff frowned. "How the fuck do you guys plan on surviving that? Your magic going to be able to kick in or something?" Highly doubtful since they would be using magic, on top of draining their blood. Abigail looked ready to have a crying fit and he didn't blame her. "You're looking at a class 4 hemorrhage, Taker, and that is basically automatic death. Your hearts are going to be struggling to pump what isn't there and the circulatory system strains everything else." He ran his hands through his hair, looking more than slightly concerned. "Where uh, is this potential scenario taking place?" If it was here, they might be able to circumvent the death sitch.
If Mark died, Wonderful went along with him because there was still a chance this blood sacrifice wouldn't work. Abigail couldn't let her feelings get in the way of what needed to be done. No matter how much she loved Mark and still hadn't told him, this was the only way to stop Bray. They couldn't kill him without breaking the spell and the spell HAD to be broken.
"Abigail…" Malcolm saw how distraught she was and blinked when she held her hand up, silencing him.
"I'm fine." Flat lie, but what else was she supposed to say? Don't do it? It NEEDED to be done, that was the problem. "We have to ensure Taker survives because, if he dies, the protection spell over Wonderful goes with him. He has to be first priority to save, no offense, Malcolm."
Malcolm nodded in understanding and could see the steel in her eyes, the determination. He didn't blame her. "Don't spare my life. I've lived long enough and I'm willing to die in order to ensure my son lives and Bray Wyatt is brought to justice."
"What about a blood transfusion, Hardy?"
"That's why I'm asking where this has to happen. If we can do it here, blood transfusion is definitely possible." Jeff understood some principles of magic, but magic was also vastly wild, and just… crazy. He dealt in science, cold hard facts. "If we can take the blood, bit by bit, there's no danger at all. If we have to have it um, fresh, or right then and there, a blood transfusion isn't going to cut it, not unless we can set up beforehand."
"Which can tip your hand…" Steve groaned, rubbing his bald head. "Can it be done here, the blood drainin'?" He never thought he'd be asking a question like that. "And then we just transport it?" Or like that.
Somehow, Taker didn't think it was going to be that easy and looked at his father for the answer.
"It has to be fresh, but…there is a loophole to that." Malcolm waved his hand, a knife floating from the kitchen right into his hand, and walked over to the table, a bowl appearing moments later. "Watch."
Slicing his hand, a few drops of his blood went into the bowl and he began chanting in a different language. His eyes rolled into the back of his head as a white mist coated the drops of blood, the wound on his hand also healing. Abigail watched in awe, midnight blues wide and watched the white mist slowly disappear until all that was left was the drops of blood.
"W-What just happened?"
"That blood is as fresh as the moment it came out of my body. I can cast a spell on the blood, providing I make it through the draining process. And if I can't, Mark will have to do it."
"So, we can't drain you a pint at a time and let you recover?"
"If we had more time, yes, but Malcolm told me in a month's time, Bray will be at Wonderful's doorstep. We have to take the fight to him. We have to end this on DOV soil."
"Whoa hold up, this is where science comes in." Malcolm was a magical genius, but didn't know dick about science. He had that end then, they could do this. "We drain you. You preserve it. Transfusion. I know for a fact Taker's magic kicks in and starts healing him without him needing to think about it."
"That's all Glen, that was his original intent." Taker said after a moment. "To heal me, the intent is still there." All the rest was just icing on the cake.
"I think we need to find out just how much blood we need."
"So, you take one of the older hogs, drain it and find someone roughly Wyatt's size to test it out on."
"A decent size pig does have about the same amount of blood as a human…" Jeff informed them, looking to Abigail and then Taker. "We could try that. It would let us know how much we need from you both. We can drain based on that, and transfusions up the ass during the draining process."
Mark looked at her again and she just nodded, touching the side of his face with her hand gently. "Whatever you want to do, I support you. I think testing this out with an animal instead of…jumping into it is a good idea, though."
"Abigail, we're going to need you to pick out someone who is about the size of Wyatt."
There was only one person she had seen that was around the same size as Bray, just not as round, but Abigail didn't know if he'd go through with it. "I have someone in mind…and I'll talk to him about it tomorrow." It was too late to do it tonight and everyone looked mentally drained from discussing this.
"I'll go down to the farm and grab the biggest piece of bacon they got." They were in need of pork anyway. Stephanie had complained about getting low on bacon and pork chops for meals. "Sound good to you, boss?"
"Yeah, sounds good. I wouldn't worry about it until morning though, Steve. I don't think people want to be woken up to squealing." He advised, smiling humorlessly, though inside he was definitely feeling relieved.
They were going to do this with some fact behind them, not blindly, not guessing. He didn't mind putting his life in danger, but usually, he had some solid fact behind him, which gave him peace of mind there was a chance of not biting it just yet. Taker wrapped his arm around Abigail, pulling her into his side, and dropped a kiss on her forehead.
"You okay with all of this, darlin'?"
"I know I am. I'd rather have an accurate guess of how much we're going to need." Malcolm was now also very hungry again. He eyed his son's plate, smiling when Mark pushed it towards him.
She wanted to scream 'NO!' and lock Mark up somewhere nobody could get to him, to protect him any way she could. Abigail couldn't do that though, too many lives were on the line and they would be experimenting before actually doing the draining. Malcolm looked relieved, so that was a good thing at least.
"I'm fine." She cracked a hesitant smile at him, snuggling against his side before standing from the table. "I'm gonna go lay down since SOMEONE wore me out. Don't stay up too late." She murmured, dropping a soft kiss on his lips, and walked out, letting the tears fall as soon as she was far enough away from the common house.
There was no way she could show her tears, her fear of this situation, to Mark, not when he was willing to do whatever it took to bring Bray and the DOV down.
"Babe." She hadn't gotten very far when none other than Taker's personal pain in the ass stepped out of the shadows, his face briefly lit by his cigarette when he inhaled. "You had me worried."
She had been sick, very sick, and he had been the one to take care of her. Abigail was supposed to come back, she had said she was coming back, and she hadn't. He had heard that damn roar of Taker's and he knew where she had been.
"Abs?" He flicked the cigarette away, moving to take her into his arms. She looked like she was struggling not to cry, and Dean reached up to brush his thumb across her cheek, catching a tear. "What's wrong, beautiful?" She wasn't struggling not to cry, she was trying to stop crying.
Shaking her head, Abigail tried to stop the tears and couldn't, clutching the front of his shirt tightly in her hands. "I-I'm fine…I-I have to be fine…" She knew Dean cared a great deal for her and she cared about him too, but it wasn't the way he wanted. Abigail was afraid of hurting him further, not even sure she wanted to ask for his help regarding this insane blood draining plan. "D-Dean…" Her voice cracked, and he immediately pulled her into his arms, her face burying in his neck as her tears coated his skin. Bringing Malcolm here sealed Mark's fate and it was her fault she couldn't leave well enough alone. Granted, he would've been slaughtered had he tried taking on the DOV without knowing about that spell Bray had on him…this was just one big clusterfuck. "I-I'm sorry I worried you…" She mumbled against his neck, feeling him comfort her by rubbing her back and slowly pulled back to look into his electric blues. "I-I'm okay, I'm fine…"
No, no she wasn't, and she wouldn't be if something happened to Mark.
