Chapter 10: Night

"That's why you have the same scar," Will blurted out.

Nico flinched, turned his head to the man, and frowned. The Italian had been leading him down the hall—after showing him that Fenwick had been safely knocked out and was taken to his room to sleep—while the pieces had been slowly falling into place in Will's mind.

"The scar. Over your eyebrow. I saw the same one on Ghosty—the wolf—your wolf form, I mean—ah, shit. Forget it."

Nico's confusion faded from his face, replaced with shame. The look would have surprised Will if he had been thinking straight. "Yes. That would make sense. Come on, let's wait until we're in your room, alright? I—you shouldn't want your daughter or one of the staff to overhear."

Will didn't argue.

The trip passed in a blur for the man as he followed Nico down the familiar labyrinth of hallways into Will's bedroom. He didn't have the ability to think about how awkward it was that Nico was taking him to his room to talk at the time, but later he would be flushing in mortification. The implications, should someone have overheard, would have been terrifying the following morning.

As it was, it was the most Will Solace could do to follow Nico blindly into his room and sit down as Nico shut the door, locked it, and loped over to the window to draw the curtains shut.

Nico looked at Will from across the dimly lit room, eyes dark and uncertain. He shifted from foot to foot and fiddled with the hem of his leather jacket. He glanced at the man, looked away, and then glanced back. Finally, after a brief sigh and a steely expression etched into his face, Nico opened his mouth to speak.

"I'm dreaming, aren't I?" Will asked before a word could escape Nico's mouth.

The man's—werewolf's—jaw hung open for a couple moments before snapping shut. His gaze flickered away again, darkening to something close to obsidian. "Perhaps" was all he said in reply.

Silence ate its way between them, thick like the tendrils of shadow on the floor.

Nico gritted his teeth and looked back at Will. "I can make it that. A dream," he told him. His voice was so soft that Will had to strain to hear, even in the silence of the room. "If you want to live in peaceful ignorance, then I can wipe your memory. I can wipe yours, Clara's—everyone's. You wouldn't have to worry about me ever again."

Clara. That one name triggered a flash of hot anger through Will's veins. "You lied to us," he accused.

The werewolf flinched, seeming to hunch into himself with every word Will spoke. "How so?" he whispered.

"You didn't tell us," Will said. He breathed in deeply and composed himself before his anger could get the better of him. "You should have told us—you should have told me. But you didn't. You just made me think that you were two different beings—two friends I could trust. You fucking ass I trusted you!"

Nico nodded, his bangs concealing his eyes. "I know what I did," he murmured. "And I can tell you why I did that. Will you listen?"

Will scowled. "How can I trust anything that comes out of your mouth? Fuck it—look what you did to Clare! She did all of that for you and all along she thought you were just a wolf when you were…you were…"

"Will," Nico whispered. "Listen to me. I did not lie to either of you. I just tried to make your life easier. Everyone who is connected with the mythical realm of the world ends up with danger coursing through their lives. I didn't want to drop you into that."

"Then why did you stay?" Will asked, aggravated.

Nico looked right through Will, like he wasn't even there. "Clara already knew."

What?

The werewolf nodded at the confusion that flashed across Will's face. "That first day… I passed by your mansion by accident. I was in my wolf form then, weakened and angry about what had happened. I wasn't thinking straight—I wasn't able to remember not to have myself exposed to the human race. I honestly figured that no one would look twice at a dying wolf. But…your daughter, Clara. She followed me into the woods as I struggled to walk. I didn't notice her, and then I… I tried to return to this form. Right in front of her. But I couldn't keep it up for very long. I only managed a few seconds. But she saw me."

Will didn't know what to think. "She never told me that."

"No," Nico whispered. "But that was because of me. I asked her to keep it quiet between us before she ran off to get you that day. I intended to grow stronger and wipe her memories of my transforming—so she would only think of me as the wolf 'Ghosty'—but…" He faltered.

"But?"

Nico glanced under his eyelashes at Will, and the sight sent an electric current through him. "But I came to care about her. And you."

Will's breath caught in his throat.

The werewolf smiled weakly at the man's stunned expression. "I know it seems selfish of me, to have done that to you. You deserved to live without having to know about this side of reality. But I couldn't help myself—especially after the wreck when you were hurt…" He trailed off, looking down at his hands. "At the hospital, Clara was surprised to see me in this form, but she was easy to explain to. She had already seen me like this before. Because of that, she was also all too willing to help me conceal the truth from you… She doesn't know all of the dangers that come with knowing about my kind, but she seemed to understand that you wouldn't be able to handle knowing about this…"

So Clara had been lying to Will, too. For some reason, that made the entire situation ten times worse than before. He had to hold himself back from snapping at Nico so he could hear the rest of the story.

"I'm sorry that I didn't realize what this would do to you." Nico was unable to look at Will by that point. He wrung his hands together and kept his eyes trained on them. "I was certain that I could keep you from knowing. But I ended up shoving away your safety when I found myself continuing to come to you in this form despite the dangers associated with it. For that, I'm very sorry. I'm ashamed by my actions. I know I won't be able to find forgiveness from you. Your eyes say that much. But, I still offer you a choice."

When Nico stopped speaking, Will was forced to tell him to continue. His voice was strained, angry beyond anything he had ever felt before.

The werewolf flinched at Will's tone. He looked small and powerless despite the power that he held. "Your choice is…you can keep these memories and continue to hate me, or I can wipe them from you and everyone who knows of me and you don't have to worry about seeing either one of my forms for the rest of your life."

"Everyone? Even Clara?"

Nico nodded.

Will thought about everything he heard. It sounded like an easy way out just to forget everything and not have to worry about anything that had happened in the last several months—in the last hour. He would forget about Nico and Ghosty and—

The thought made Will nauseous. Forget about all of the moments that made him a better father to Clara? The moments that made him content and happier than he had been in all of his life? He couldn't just throw all of that away, even if Nico had been lying to him all along.

And then there was Clara. He needed to hear it from her before he believed what Nico was claiming, but if it was true… He had no right to rip those memories from her. Not when she had loved Ghosty and Nico more than Will ever had. Though it pained Will to think it, Clara had always seen the Italian as a second father. Loved him like she used to love Katherine—and perhaps even more.

Besides, he knew he hadn't yet heard the rest of the story. Nico had promised to tell him everything, anyway.

When Nico didn't speak up after Will had obviously surfaced from being deep in thought, the man decided to speak up and ask the question that had been nagging at him ever since he learned of Nico's secret.

"What are you?"

Nico flinched and looked at Will, dark brown eyes startled by the question. "What?"

Will sighed. "What are you, Nico?"

The Italian's eyes cleared, replaced with confusion. "I'm a werewolf. Didn't Clarisse mention that already?"

"And what is that? A werewolf. What does that mean?"

"Oh," Nico murmured. "I see. Okay. Well, what do you think a werewolf is?"

Will frowned. The question had been meant for Nico to answer, not for Will to guess on. He wanted a straight answer. But then again… Nico looked like he was going somewhere with the question. He might as well play along. "A wolf-man that can transform from a man to a, well, a wolf. Movies usually have the transformation during the full moon, but…"

Nico smiled. "Basically the same thing, except for the full moon thing. It's true that we're stronger during the full moon, but that's also true for night in general. We're a nocturnal species mutated by the elvish race to combat the vampires that were threatening them millennia ago. From then on, we've become solitary and independent from the elves. Not that we aren't friendly with them every once and a while."

"There are other species?"

The werewolf rolled his eyes. "Of course. Thousands, no, hundreds of thousands of species that humans see as folklore and the figment of stories and terrible romance movies. Though, granted, many of those species have been forced into hiding in separate dimensions in order to keep the humans from striking up war. Some have gone into extinction. Dragons, for example. Only weak-blooded mixes remain. Drakes and dragonettes and whatnot. The rest have died off from the last war between humans and us. Ah, I've gotten off topic, haven't I?"

Nico pursed his lips and studied the designs on the wall. "Moving on from the rest of the species—though if I were going to call you one, I'd say you were an elf… Great with medicine. Anyway. Werewolves are sensitive to silver as the legends say. But I say that lightly—we're more slightly allergic to it than anything as the generations progress. We've built up immunity."

"Silver," Will said, dubious.

"Yeah. We're also akin to wolves in the fact we have packs. Or some of us do, anyway. Others are loners."

"And you're an Alpha?"

Nico nodded. "Yes. I took the title from my father when he passed on almost a year ago now. The reason I ended up so injured was because a member of the Romani pack came to me wanting to fight for my pack. After I won I ran off so my pack couldn't see me in my weakened state, and I washed away my scent in a stream so another member of the Romani pack wouldn't find me in that state. That's why they had such trouble finding me. And why they went straight to you when they smelled wolf on you. I did well to conceal myself, but it ended up putting you in danger."

"Which is why you followed me to work that day," Will remembered.

"Which is why I followed you to work," Nico repeated softly. "And why you ended up getting hit by that truck. I've never felt so guilty in all of my existence."

"That wasn't you, though," Will said, surprised that he was speaking in Nico's favor. "I needed to help the victims in the crash. It wasn't your fault that I was distracted and got myself hurt in the process."

"There was so much blood," Nico mumbled, not seeming to hear him. "Your blood. Everywhere. I remember the screaming, and there was the truck driver stumbling over himself to apologize, and the mother of the girl with the broken ankle next to me. But you don't understand. They didn't understand. Blood is a sensitive thing to werewolves. Especially the blood of a loved—or, um, someone you care about. And so much of it… I just…"

Despite his attempts to listen indifferently, his heart ached at the sight of Nico's pained voice and expression. Still, Will managed to sit still on the edge of the bed, waiting for him to continue.

After a long stretch of time of trying to collect himself, Nico let out a shaky breath. "I was lucky I wasn't caught that day. That all of the attention was on the crash victims and not on the wolf transforming in your car so I could get out and get to you."

Nico glanced at Will and glanced away just as quickly. "But that's not what you want to hear. I don't want to force you to pity me in any way, either. So. What else is confusing you? What else do you want to know about my kind?"

His kind. Will suddenly realized that they weren't even the same species. Weren't there rules against that? Rules against, what…a relationship?

Will's head suddenly ached, and he decided that it would be best to think about it some other time. While Nico wasn't speaking, for instance. Or waiting for the man to answer his question.

"Uh…" was Will's best reply. He tried to remember what Nico had asked. Something about what Will wanted to know? Oh, right. Um… He remembered something that had been mentioned in passion. Something that had been bothering him greatly, and it made it even worse when Nico could have been lying about that, too. "Your son," Will said. "Is he real?"

"Aaron?" Nico murmured, raising his eyebrows. "Yes, he is real. If you'd permit it, I could bring him here once before we leave for good. Clara has actually been dying to meet him."

"Oh," Will said, surprised. He guessed the boy really was real, if Nico was offering to bring him by. "I…suppose that would be fine," he was saying before he could help it. He coughed into the back of his hand, embarrassed. "I mean, for Clara."

Nico's lips tipped upwards in something resembling a smile.

Will cleared his throat awkwardly and looked away. "Anyway, as we're on the topic…
He paused. "What kind of life span do, you know, werewolves have?"

Nico's eyebrow twitched. He reached up and scratched his temple. "Well, that's a harder one to answer. You see, I haven't had very much human contact outside of the recent months. But we werewolves have a longer lifespan by hundreds when it comes to wolves and wild dogs. To put it in years, though. Um. I guess around a century of life from birth to death. I myself am…twenty-five?"

"Twenty-five?" Will said, surprised. "You're a little younger than I had imagined. And you have a son?"

Brown eyes stared at Will for a long moment before Nico was chuckling. It wasn't a sort of sound Will had heard before—it was strained and dreadful, while at the same time being amused. "Aaron isn't my blood child, Will," Nico said between his chuckles, shaking his head. Almost as soon as those words had escaped his mouth, however, he was darkening. "Speaking of children…"

Suddenly Will thought about his daughter, and his heart twisted up at the awful thought that something bad might happen to her. Maybe forgetting would be the best option…

But could Will even trust Nico to do that? What if he tampered with his memory somehow? Could he even wipe memories?

Cutting into his thoughts came Nico's voice, sounding concerned. He wasn't looking at Will, though, so he couldn't have been directing his thoughts at the man's conflicting expression. Instead, his gaze was fixed again on the wall. "The Pack will become suspicious of this," Nico murmured, gesturing vaguely towards Will. "Why I've stayed so long after recovery; why I refused to return immediately the moment I was summoned. They'll assume things."

Will frowned. "Can't you just tell them the truth?" Whatever that was, Will thought dryly.

Nico was shaking his head before Will even finished his sentence. "Werewolves are instinctive creatures. We do not care for children that are not our own. Even if said children saved our lives. No, werewolf custom has it to where they'll immediately link my reluctance with having a mate. No matter how good my other excuses are."

"A mate," Will felt odd saying the word.

He nodded in answer, black hair falling over his eyes. He opened his mouth to speak, closed it, and whispered after a moment: "forgive me, Will."

All of a sudden, Will's anger lashed back at him—sudden and fierce and burning. He gritted his teeth and forced himself to wait until he was thinking clearly again. Then, and only then, did he speak. "Just like at the hospital, isn't it?" he scoffed, unable to stop himself from the jab. The similarities were two alike not to piece them together. "You and your lies to get what you want."

Veins bulged from the werewolf's throat. "Yes."

Will took special interest in the drawn curtains across the room. Were they really that bland? He would need to replace them. Something dark blue sounded nice. "So. What does this mean?"

"It means," Nico muttered. "That I'll need to—no, we will need to pretend to be mates. That means little, though. Once a month or two more pass, I can pass off as losing interest in you, and leave you then. I could wipe your memories then, if you'd like." Nico blinked and narrowed his eyes at the wall. "You know what!" he snapped, his growl shocking Will. It was a feral sound, and it sounded terrible from Nico's jaws. The hairs on the back of Will's neck stood up.

Nico swung around to face Will, his eyes blazing with anger and light. "They will not control this! I fucking refuse it!" He stomped forward until he was right in front of Will, and the werewolf looked intimidating even though he was much shorter than Will. The man leaned back slightly, heart freezing in his chest as Nico continued, seething. "This is about us, not them! Why would I even consider it! Fuck the consequences. This has gone too far. Will!"

Said man jumped and stumbled to reply. "Y-Yes!"

Dark hair was shoved away from Nico's eyes, and the werewolf glared up at the blond before him. "You choose. You deserve that much. It does not have to be now. No. Not today. Not even next week. But you should be the one to choose. Should I stay or should I go? Should I wipe your memories, or will you keep them? I'll leave that to you, not them."

Nico's head twitched before Will could respond, and he cursed quickly in Italian. "Clarisse is still outside," Nico growled. "I'll go and chase her off. You need to sleep."

Will was infuriated by the thought. "I can't sleep after all of that! What the fuck do you take me for, idiot?"

Nico stared at Will for a long while. Then he snorted. "Right. Right. When do you think I should return, so I can hear your answer?"

The man flexed his jaw, unable to think straight with how fast things were escalating. "You come back as soon as you chase her off or whatever. Take the guest bedroom—you know where it is. I am not being a dick of a father to Clare while you're off being something not-human. I'll think with you here."

Nico looked thunderstruck. He seemed to lose his voice. Brown eyes glanced back to the window as if he heard something again, and his gaping jaw snapped shut. Suddenly, his eyes clouded with weariness. "Could I perhaps come back in the morning with my son? That way I can explain things to my pack myself. Fuck them."

Will exhaled. He rubbed the skin between his eyebrows, a headache forming. "Yeah. Sure. Just…don't be gone long, alright?"

Nico nodded. "I won't," he whispered. He took a step towards the door and paused. He turned back to Will. "Would you like me to put you to sleep?" he asked.

The man furrowed his eyebrows. "What?"

"A simple spell. Harmless to your memories. Or your dreams. But it will put you to sleep." Nico flexed his pale fingers and looked at Will, uncertain. "I doubt you can sleep in your current state. Neither would I. Might I?"

Will wanted to say no, but so far he had no clue if he was even telling the truth or not. Other than the whole Ghosty-Nico transformation, Will hadn't had much else to set Nico apart from humans. So he found himself saying: "Yeah. Yeah, sure."

He sounded just as drained as Nico looked.

The edges of Nico's mouth pulled back. Not in a smile, but in a more dreary expression. "Sit back down."

Will looked back at the bed, suddenly confused. When had he even stood? He was sitting down before Nico came up to him, eyes ablaze with fury with himself and the entire situation…

The man set himself back down on the mattress. His legs were trembling so uncontrollably he wasn't sure how he had even made himself stand in the first place.

Nico reached his hands towards Will's face. "I will need to touch you. But only for a moment," Nico said when Will flinched away.

Will leaned back forward, letting the tips of Nico's fingertips touch his forehead. His skin was cold and rough. Like the pads of Ghosty's paws…

A feeling washed over Will. A nice feeling. Calm, cool. Coarse dark fur. Coarse dark hair. Warm brown eyes. The same eyes, Will thought sluggishly. In the same thought, he found that whatever Nico was doing felt like drunkenness. He always got so tired. His eyelids drooped. Black tugged against the edges of his vision, stark against the white snow of the werewolf's hands.

In the background, a voice murmured to him. "I'll leave you now, Will. See you in the morning."

The voice sounded guilty. Shameful. Sad.

Will struggled to answer, but by then he was already asleep.