CHAPTER 8

Pack Bonds

"Eliot!" Parker was thrilled to see Eliot's awareness looking back at her out of the wolf's face. "Can you change back to people shape?"

Eliot stepped back from her and started his change. This change was much, much harder than he had ever experienced before. It felt like he was wading through cement. He knew his thinking wasn't completely clear, his focus was muzzy and his reactions were slow, so it made it hard to tell what was wrong. Eliot took a deep breath and tried to force his way through the change.

Parker gasped and put a hand to her chest. She couldn't help it as her breaths came short and shallow. She sat down but couldn't seem to stop the dizzy feeling. She tried to catch her breath but the dizzy feeling wouldn't go away. "Eliot. I don't…I don't feel so good."

. ͽϿ Ѻ Ͼͼ .

Hardison had relaxed at first when he had seen Ewen clear the tree line. Parker had said something about a bathroom break and Hardison had turned down the volume coming from her earbud. Abby had fallen asleep but had finally woken when Hardison opened the side door of the van so that Ewen could hop in.

"Where's Parker?" Abby looked past Ewen and when she didn't see Parker she turned her questioning look on Hardison.

"Bathroom break." Hardison turned in his seat to get a better look at Ewen. "Parker wasn't real clear earlier. Was it Eliot?"

Ewen bobbed his head in the affirmative.

"So now you can track him with your bot things right?" Abby absentmindedly petted Ewen.

"Should be pretty easy. He hasn't moved in the last twenty minutes or so." Hardison pointed out a spot on a map in the middle of one of his tablets.

After several long minutes Hardison turned up the volume coming from Parker's earbud. "Babe we're waiting on you for the next part of the plan." Hardison waited for several beats but there was no answer. "Parker? Parker!" Hardison flipped screens so he could see the GPS location of her earbud. The blinking dot that represented Parker's location was only a hundred yards from his own. "Parker? Parker I can't hear you is everything okay?" Several beats and still no answer.

Hardison held onto his tablet and hopped out of the van. He walked quickly in the direction that Parker's earbud said she should be. Ewen raced ahead and was back before Hardison made it into the trees. "Did you find her?"

Ewen shook his head.

"Can you tell if she left?"

Ewen nodded and whined.

"Dammit Parker!"

Hardison jogged back to Lucille and Ewen hopped in ahead of him. Hardison slammed the door closed and wasted no time getting back to highway eleven. He had barely turned onto the highway when he saw that he was stuck behind a slow moving tractor that was dragging some kind of extra wide farm equipment behind it. Hardison was about to swerve around him when he caught site of a Sherriff's Department SUV up ahead. "You have got to be kidding me!" He slowed down to a speed that he was pretty sure he could have kept up with on foot. He watched the SUV roll past and tracked it in his mirrors for a moment before he whipped around the tractor.

It didn't take long to get the distance they needed and Hardison pulled Lucille as far off of the highway as he could. Everyone piled out at the same time. Ewen hopped the tall barbed-wire fence and Abby and Hardison made their way through it. Once they were all on the other side Hardison consulted his tablet and started making his way toward a large stand of trees. When they were almost within reach of the trees, Hardison grabbed his chest and dropped to his knees.

"Hardison are you okay?" Abby laid a hand across the back of his neck and knelt down next to him. "What's wrong?"

"Dizzy, really dizzy." Hardison was breathing in panting gasps.

. ͽϿ Ѻ Ͼͼ .

Nate and Sophie had just finished an early lunch around one o'clock, early for Paris, and were strolling across a huge lawn in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower.

"That café was sweet but I liked the little restaurant from yesterday better." Sophie leaned into Nate wrapping her arms around his arm.

Nate set his free hand over hers. "You liked the one yesterday because the waiter was easier to grift than the girl at the coffee shop this morning."

"No, not at…" Sophie's words cut off on a gasp and she clutched tighter to Nate's arm.

Nate suddenly felt very dizzy and reached for his throat as though to loosen a tie even though he knew his light sweater didn't have anything at the neck of it. Nate staggered and steered them to the nearest park bench and they both collapsed onto the seat.

. ͽϿ Ѻ Ͼͼ .

Abby patted at Hardison's face for a moment before her look of concern turned to one of horror. "Ewen! Run now and find Eliot. Get him to stop whatever he's doing!" By the time that Abby turned to look at him Ewen was already disappearing into the thicket.

Ewen was moving as quickly as possible through the dense trees. He figured that he would cut through the middle in hopes of catching Eliot's scent in passing and if he didn't he would start working his way around the perimeter until he picked it up. As he neared the center he heard a whimper from his right and veered in that direction.

Ewen could see something lighter in contrast, through the trees. A few more steps and he was pretty sure it was Parker's hair. He could hear her short sharp breathing.

"Eliot. I don't…I don't feel so good."

Ewen shoved his way through a couple of tightly packed trees and into the brush that was still between him and Parker.

Parker took a deep breath and sat up a little straighter. "What was that?" Parker rubbed her hand under her collar bones for a moment.

. ͽϿ Ѻ Ͼͼ .

Hardison sat up straighter and took a deep breath. Slowly he got to his feet and took his tablet back from Abby. "Eliot still needs us." Hardison's tone was caught halfway between statement and question.

. ͽϿ Ѻ Ͼͼ .

To anyone passing it would have looked more like a tender embrace than a moment of breath steeling dizziness. Sophie ran a hand down the side of Nate's face.

Nate swallowed and collected himself. "We need to get home."

. ͽϿ Ѻ Ͼͼ .

"Parker. I'm so sorry! Are you okay?" Eliot crawled toward Parker.

Parker closed the distance and tried to help Eliot sit up, but when her hand touched his right shoulder he hissed in pain. Parker let him settle back onto his stomach. She crouched next to him and smoothed his long hair away from his face. "What was that Eliot?" Eliot hung his head.

Parker could see that Eliot hadn't finished his shift. His hands and forearms were covered with fur and the fingers of his left hand were too short and claw tipped. His left foot was somewhere mid change and was neither foot nor paw and made Parker cringe to see the mangled looking shape of it. His right leg was entirely human shaped but was still mostly fur covered. All-in-all she thought that he looked like a badly sewn patchwork quilt. Parker ran her hand across his hair again, and her fingers encountered a ridge of fur extending down his neck and tapering off just below his shoulder blades.

They both heard the crack and snap of branches as Ewen made it onto the trail they were on. Before Eliot lifted his head to see what was coming, Parker felt the fur under her fingers shift and supposed it must be the wolf putting his hackles up.

"Ewen. I think we need Abby." Parker continued to stroke Eliot's hair.

"Parker could you go with him." Eliot's voice was muffled since his face was resting on his crossed arms.

"No."

"Parker."

"No."

Eliot pulled in a deep breath and peeked one eye up at Parker. He let the breath out but it ended in a wolf whine.

Within a few minutes Hardison, Abby, and Ewen made it onto the small trail where Eliot and Parker waited.

"Oh. Oh wow. Um… El are you okay? 'Cause man you don't look so okay." Hardison stared for a moment before he knelt next to Parker.

A blue eye peeked out from under Eliot's hair. "I'm okay."

Ewen sneezed and tossed his head.

"I'm gonna take that" Hardison pointed toward Ewen with his thumb. "as the wolf version of callin' Bullshit."

Eliot groaned and another wolf whine escaped him though he cut it off as short as possible.

"Yeah, that's what I thought." Hardison looked over to see Abby rummaging through a small bag. "You forget something in Lucille?"

"No. I've got it here somewhere." Abby kept rummaging. Ewen nosed the left pocket of Abby's coat. "Oh! Thanks." Abby pulled out a small leather pouch and poured out a palm-full of rosemary scented powder. "Parker whatever you did seems to have slowed the curse but, just guessing, from what we're seeing, it isn't lifted yet."

"So what does that mean?" Hardison had started to put a hand on Eliot's shoulder but couldn't seem to decide if that was a good idea or not.

"It means…" Abby turned around looking at the sky. "We need to get to a more open space because we need to see the moon so that we can lift the curse."

"Okay." Parker looked at Eliot and then Hardison. "Eliot. I'm really sorry but this is probably going to hurt. Hardison, you support him under his left arm and I'll help on the right." Hardison Crouched as low as possible and pulled Eliot's left arm up over his neck. Parker did the same on Eliot's right. "One. Two. Three." The two of them stood and pulled Eliot up with them. Eliot tried to boost his weight with his right leg but couldn't put any weight on the partially shifted left foot.

Ewen had already darted down the trail and was back. He spun a circle and yipped to get their attention before darting back down the trail. Hardison put an arm around Eliot's waist and pulled him close, to better support Eliot's weight. Once they had Eliot upright Parker was too short to be useful when paired with Hardison. Hardison took a short step and Eliot hopped forward. The two of them repeated this for a short distance down the trail. They hadn't made it more than ten step/hops down the trail before Eliot needed a rest.

"Ewen how many more meters is it to a place where we can see the moon?" Abby checked the time on her wrist watch and looked nervously at the sky.

Ewen pawed the ground five times.

"We need to find a way to move faster. We only have maybe ten minutes left to lift this curse. Hurry!" Abby held back a thin tree limb that was blocking the path.

"Alright. We need to carry him." Parker took an assessing look at Hardison and Eliot.

"By 'we' you mean me." Hardison looked down at Eliot. "Good thing for you I been lifting more lately." Hardison bent to the side and scooped Eliot up.

Eliot couldn't help a gasp but otherwise kept silent.

With Parker and Abby holding back the worst of the branches they made good time out of the thicket and were finally out from between the tall trees where they could now see the sky.

Abby found the moon and turning instructed Hardison and Parker. "Set him down so that he is facing the trees. Parker, come support his weight on the other side. Bend him backwards so that he can see the moon upside down."

Hardison and Parker immediately started following Abby's instructions. "So, um… wouldn't this be easier if we just faced him at the moon?" Hardison was doing his best to support as much of Eliot's weight as possible but the angle that Abby wanted, made things difficult. If Parker hadn't been on the other side Hardison thought he might have dropped Eliot.

Abby sprinkled the sweet smelling powder over Eliot and he tensed when some of it landed on the raw silver-burn across his chest and shoulder. Abby began her chant and Eliot's eyes went black. His grip on Hardison and Parker's shoulders switched to their clothing and Hardison could hear the seam in his jacket start to tare as Eliot tensed. Abby continued her chant and stepped between Eliot and the moon, and Eliot's eyes went yellow. "Look at me Eliot Spencer!" Abby's command was sure and firm, and alpha or not Eliot couldn't help it, he locked gazes with her. Abby blew across her palm sending a cloud of powder across Eliot. When the powder spread across Eliot's face his eye color began to flicker like an old TV set with bad reception. When the powder spread over the silver-burn, the skin and exposed muscle in the burn began to tremble and then shift as though it were boiling.

Hardison's eyes went round. "Son of a …" Eliot's scream cut across Hardison's exclamation.

"What do we do now?" Parker looked back and forth between Abby, Hardison and Eliot.

"Lay him on the ground but don't let him turn over. Not till the sun is all the way over the horizon." When Abby stepped to the side, Eliot could see the moon again and his eye's returned to their normal blue.

"Abby he's still not right." Parker gestured at Eliot's still partially shifted form. "Are you sure it's done?"

"Whatever you and he did, changed things a bit but, he should be able to shift back." Abby looked concerned but she wasn't sure what else to do for the moment.

"Can't." Eliot's voice barely carried. "Can't shift. Too tired. Hurt you."

Parker's brow furrowed. She checked Eliot's pulse and found it weak and thready. She looked at Hardison. "Does he seem cold to you?"

"In case you hadn't noticed mama, it's cold out here and the man ain't wearin' no clothes." Hardison ran the back of his hand across Eliot's forehead and under his jaw, just the way that his Nana used to do to him. "Okay, maybe he is a little colder than he oughta be, even considerin' the weather." Hardison pulled off his scarf and rolled it up to create a pillow and took his coat off and draped it over Eliot. Parker followed suit.

"Eliot you've gotta finish shifting. I can't tell what's wrong." Parker reached out and grasped Hardison's hand. The combined weight of their hands brushed across Eliot's abdomen and he flinched just a little. Parker let go of Hardison's hand and shoved the coats aside. She pressed gently across Eliot's belly and every time she got near the upper right quadrant Eliot flinched. "That's not good. You might be bleeding in there."

Eliot took a deep breath looked at Parker. "I can't shift. I'm just too tired. I didn't mean to, but I hurt you last time." Eliot's left hand searched slowly until Hardison grabbed it up. "I'm really sorry." Eliot looked at Hardison.

"Don't worry about it man. We're fine. But Parker's right you gotta finish your change. You told us that changing shape helps you heal right? So you have to finish changing so we can see if that fixes whatever's bleeding."

"Can't you do whatever you did before to help you change?" Parker smoothed a few strands of hair away from Eliot's face.

"Won't hurt you again." Eliot tried to glare his refusal at Parker but even his glare wasn't up to its usual strength.

"It didn't hurt, man." Hardison did his best to reassure Eliot. "It made me dizzy, really dizzy, but it didn't hurt and I felt just fine after." Hardison squeezed Eliot's hand a little tighter.

"Me too. It didn't hurt I promise." The smile Parker gave Eliot was the one he privately classified as her daydreaming-something-really-crazy smile.

"Okay." Eliot took a deep breath and a look of concentration passed across his face but nothing else seemed to happen. "I can't. I'm just too tired."

Abby and Ewen had been sitting together just a little ways away but now she came over and knelt down next to Hardison. "Parker what did you do or say before, when Eliot tried to change the last time?"

"I just asked him to change back. I didn't 'do' anything."

"Eliot was that it? She didn't say anything else?" Abby ran a hand across Eliot's forehead and frowned at how cold he was.

"Not really. I could feel how happy she was and how much she wanted me to change shape. But then I felt her get scared and confused and I realized I was drawing on her, on them. I lost my concentration and stopped changing, and something hurt on the inside." Eliot closed his eyes for a moment.

"Will he heal on his own if he doesn't change to one shape or the other?" Hardison looked to Abby.

"I think if he's been bleeding this badly for this long, he might not heal in time." Abby's eye's started to well with tears.

"How…" Hardison stopped and pulled the ringing cell phone out of his pocket. "Hello?"

"Hardison, is Eliot alright?" Nate's voice came across the speaker loud enough that they could all hear him.

Abby got up and walked over to Ewen in the attempt to give Hardison's phone call a little privacy.

"No. He's not. We're…" Hardison couldn't say 'we're afraid he's dying' out loud. The words just wouldn't move past the lump in his throat.

"What happened?" Nate sounded all business and Hardison knew Nate was trying to think of a way to fix things.

"It's too long a story for right now. The thing is, we are pretty sure Eliot's bleeding internally, but he is too tired to change shape and he is not healing fast enough right now." Hardison didn't like how pale Eliot was looking.

"Why change shape? Can't you get him to a hospital if it's that bad?"

"If he changes shape it should fix whatever went wrong in the last shift that is causing the bleeding. I don't think we have time to get him to a hospital and even if we did I'm not sure they'd help right now. He didn't complete the change before and now he's kinda… well it ain't pretty."

"Is there anything that we can do to help?" Sophie's voice came through, quiet, but clear.

"Maybe. He drew energy from us earlier and that was what was helping him shift last time but when he realized that he was pulling on us he stopped and apparently there is something inside that didn't shift right or connect back up or something. If he could pull energy from us again he might be able to finish the shift." Hardison reached across Eliot and gripped Parker's shoulder. He had noticed Parker keeping tabs on Eliot's pulse and the silent tears that were tracking down her face.

"Was that what that was earlier? We both felt dizzy and right after that Nate was sure it was something to do with Eliot. Even I felt like something was…I don't know…it made me think it was Eliot too." Sophie sounded uncertain.

Abby and Ewen stepped close to the little group and Abby cleared her throat to draw their attention. "Ewen thinks that he can help Eliot start the change but he won't be able to power him through it. If Eliot can draw on all of you once the change is started I think it will be enough to get him through."

"Yes. Let's do that." Sophie was the first to respond and her confident tone brought a twitch of a smile to Eliot's face.

"Is there anything that we need to do on our side?" Nate's voice was thoughtful.

"You might want to sit down. It will probably make you dizzy again. I don't know if it will make a difference or not but you might think about what you want to happen. Think of Eliot fully back in his human shape and healed. Magic often deals with intention more than exactly how it's preformed."

Hardison and Parker leaned across Eliot until their shoulder's touched and wrapped an arm around each other. They each took one of Eliot's hands and looked up at Ewen and Abby.

"Ready?" Abby looked around at everyone present.

"Ready." Nate, and Sophie's voices came from the phone on the ground next to Hardison. Parker and Hardison nodded their agreement.

"Okay Eliot. Just like when you were first learning. Concentrate on the change and Ewen will give you a boost." Abby patted Eliot's cheek and noticed the slow response. She hoped that they weren't too late.

Eliot looked at Hardison and Parker and closed his eyes in a frown of concentration. Parker and Hardison felt a jolt of something hit them in the chest a moment before a wave of dizziness hit them.

Parker felt the hand in hers ripple and she opened her hand balancing the palm of Eliot's right hand on her palm. The fingers of Eliot's hand extended and the fur and claws retracted until the hand was completely human again.

Hardison heard a snapping sound behind him. He saw the look of pain on Eliot's face and looked over his own shoulder to see Eliot's left leg reshaping until it was completely human.

Eliot cried out and pulling his hands free of his friends he wrapped his arms around himself as his back bowed off the ground for a moment. Eliot slumped to the ground with short panting breaths.

The rest of his pack breathed a sigh of relief as the dizziness stopped. "Did it work?" Nate and Sophie asked at the same time.

"Yes. It worked. Thank you." Eliot sounded tired but his voice was noticeably stronger. Eliot rolled to the side and spit up blood.

Parker jumped up and ran back into the thicket. Hardison watched her go and thought that it would be all he could do to get up and stagger back to Lucille let alone go running through the woods. Hardison picked up the cell phone next to his knee. "We'll call you guys in a while when things are more settled." Hardison hung up.

In just a few moments Parker was back with a small duffle bag. "Here Sparky. I brought you your clothes."

It took Eliot longer than he liked to get the shirt and pants on. Rummaging through the bag he found one sock and his muddy beany. "Parker where are my shoes? I could of swore I had a jacket in here too."

. ͽϿ Ѻ Ͼͼ .

Before long they all made it back to Lucille. Hardison reached for the driver side door when Abby snatched the keys from his hands.

"I don't think any of you are in a fit state to drive."

"Do you even have a license?"

"I thought you were all a bunch of criminals? Now you care about the rules?" Abby grinned as she climbed behind the wheel.

Hardison shook his head and went around to the side door and hopped in the back with the rest of them. Ewen lay in the floor near the front seats and Eliot and Parker were on the floor near the back doors. There were a few collapsible seats but none of them wanted to use one. Instead Parker was leaning against Eliot's left side with his arm draped across her shoulders and his head tilted back against the corner of the van. Hardison sat down next to Parker and leaned back against the door. Before long Hardison felt Eliot give his shoulder a squeeze and Parker slid a leg over top of his nearest leg. They all slept on the short trip back to town.