Chapter XIV: Just One Kiss and I Will Show You How

A/N: Only a little later than I thought it might be- sorry about that, gentle readers. Sad to say that updates are going to continue to be sporadic and slow for the foreseeable future. Still, it's finally here, and extra long, and filled with all sorts of action-y goodness. It's only going to get more complicated from here on out. Mwahaha.

My undying thanks to killer-elephant for being my beta, and to my wonderful fiancee for putting up with me when I keep her awake at 3 am hashing out plot details.

Enjoy, and as always, feel free to review if so inclined. I love getting them, and I love all my followers, favorite-ers, and people who just like the story!

~M

Storybrooke

Weak in the way that comes every morning just after dawn, the sunlight began to crest over the hills almost merrily, bathing the town in its warm glow like an extended caress. It seemed the day was going to be a pleasant one. Emma almost could have scowled. Not that she really wanted to go around hunting in the cold and rain (again), but it seemed almost unfair for the day to be so nice when their task was one so grim. She pulled away from the open door to shoot another impatient glance up the stairs.

Regina was only gone a moment or two. Still, poised and packed and ready at the bottom of them, Emma grumbled out a 'finally' as footsteps descended. Her ears perked, surprised to not hear the click of heels on wood that had become so familiar. Instead, practically heeled knee-high boots came into the Hunter's line of vision. What followed was no impeccably tailored suit or flawless dress- nothing that she'd come to associate with Storybrooke's vampire Queen. Emma felt her throat grow suspiciously dry as long legs encased in leather pants came into view, the tightness looking like they wanted to give Emma's jeans a run for their money. Coupled with a flowing shirt and long leather vest, Regina looked like a heroine straight out of a medieval romance novel.

When Emma's eyes finally drifted up to a face well-scrubbed of all evidence of tears, Regina merely quirked an eyebrow at her. "'Less Queen-y' enough for you, Miss Swan?" she grinned in passing, making her way to the two wolves who stood beyond at the door.

The Hunter felt something tug in her chest at the use of her surname. Regina's voice sounded, at least to her ears, incredibly affectionate. She had to hide a smile, and busied herself in readjusting her pack as a blush began to spill over her cheeks.

Regina's attention seemed fortunately elsewhere, giving a nod to the two wolves.

Granny gave a very low wolf-whistle as Regina finally stepped into her full view. Hoisting a newly-repaired crossbow onto her shoulder, the old werewolf grinned. "Never thought I'd see you in that again, your majesty."

Regina seemed to be fully back in her 'Queen' mode, stepping before the small pile of munitions near the door with a smirk. "Desperate times, Eugenia." Bending to collect her satchel of supplies, Regina slung the bag neatly over her shoulder. What were undoubtedly insulated bags of blood creaked as plastic re-settled.

Emma was finding it very hard to not take advantage of the position and sneak a look at the Queen's leather-covered posterior. Ruby didn't bother with such politeness, lightly nudging Emma in the shoulder just before Regina stood up again.

Emma just rolled her eyes and headed outside, hoping against hope that she wasn't going to be blushing this entire trip.

...

The actual act of leaving was far harder than Emma would ever have imagined. Once upon a time, it would have meant nothing to her, she knew. Her life had been full of quick departures in the early light of dawn, leaving behind everything in a matter of hours as she ran to the next bolt-hole chasing her marks. Leaving, and running in general, was second-nature to her. Or at least it had been.

Running from Storybrooke was infinitely more difficult, in a way that had nothing to do with walls or limited exit points, and everything to do with the feeling that for once in her life, she was leaving home.

It didn't take her much to realize that she was not alone in that feeling.

Without discussing it, their band of four had paused just before hitting the treeline beyond the open meadow that led to the town gates. Granny and Ruby stood side-by-side in silence, their eyes riveted on a single point near the base of the gate. Graham, in wolf form. He threw his head back and howled, long and deep and mournful. The rest of Storybrooke's wolves joined in the cry, echoing across the meadow as they payed homage to the departure of their Alpha.

For Graham, Emma realized, it was so much more. The rest of the pack only knew Granny as their Alpha- Graham knew her as mother. She and Ruby were the only family he'd known since that day he'd been found just outside the walls and taken, squirming, to Granny's arms. Taking a deep breath, Emma glanced over at Ruby, not surprised to see tears being hastily scrubbed off her cheeks. Granny turned away from the town, unwilling or unable to look any longer, and re-shifted her crossbow across her shoulders before heading into the forest. The sound of her changing forms followed shortly thereafter, and a moment longer saw the large grey wolf peeking her head out of the treeline, crossbow still across her midsection. She gave an impatient-sounding bark and put her nose to the ground to begin sniffing out their quarry.

The bark seemed to jolt Emma out of whatever trance she'd been in, and she gave Ruby a quick, shared look before their eyes both fixed on the remaining member of their party.

However hard it was for the three of them (and Graham) to be leaving, for Regina it had to be infinitely harder. Storybrooke was hers in a way that towns rarely actually belonged to people. The Queen stood a few paces ahead of the rest of them, closer to the meadow. She seemed frozen in the early light, staring back at her town with a hand against her throat, the other wrapped around her middle. Outside the walls, Regina seemed so much smaller than she had before, as if a great chunk of her were missing.

Beside her, Ruby brushed against Emma's arm, the woods behind them opening up like a yawning maw of the unknown, threatening and chilling in it's foreignness. "...How long do you think it's been since she's left?" The young wolf mused.

Regina's voice filled the space between them, icy cold and crisp as the dawn air. "One hundred and seventy-four years, Miss Lucas." Like a creaking door, the Queen turned around as if she were on a track, head held high and face barren of emotion. "I'd like to limit my absence as much as possible. Let's go." Her boots crunched against the grass as she strode toward them, leaving her town and the last two centuries of her life behind her.

Ruby's eyes instantly dropped, followed seconds after by the top half of her body. The immense black wolf padded away, stalking into the woods after her grandmother. Regina followed shortly thereafter, heading into the treeline with a backward look at Emma and one final, fleeting glance to her town.

Taking a deep breath, Emma took a look of her own, did a last check of her guns and ammunition, and headed into the woods. The howling of the wolves behind them lingered on well into the morning.

…

Further outside Storybrooke

The silver was finally beginning to give way. He'd been at it for hours, scraping the tip of one of the many needles he'd pulled out of his body against the chain. Despite skin that blistered and cracked, he continued to grip the chain, sawing at it over and over, and when the thinness of the needle would finally give way and snap, he'd grab another and start it up all over again. The pinprick holes over most of his body had left him coated in a thin layer of his own crusting blood, but at least he'd stopped bleeding. The machines around him had all stopped their whirring, the doctor had left hours ago with his grandm... with the monster. He'd been alone since, in the deafening silence, and couldn't help but be grateful for it.

Now, the only sounds were the far-off screams of some other poor vicitims, and the scrape of the needles against the silver.

It was as the chain was finally getting just enough of a wear-line in it to twist and hopefully snap that he heard it. Long, even strides resounded throughout the halls, each one tolling the sound of death and pain. He shivered. He'd grown to dread that sound. Hurriedly, he lay still on the table he'd been left on, hoping against all odds that the clicks would not stop just outside the door. He felt his heart pounding in his throat as each one sounded nearer and nearer. His eyes squeezed shut. A shadow fell in front of the door.

The heels continued on. He gave a ragged sigh of relief, staying silent and motionless until the sound had long since faded away. Then the next needle was in his hand, and he sawed all the more furiously.

...

Closer to Storybrooke

They made excellent time. Ruby had played with Emma a bit more before they'd actually left the mansion, catching up to her outside and wondering aloud at how she was going to keep up with the three of them. "Regina's not gonna carry you the whole way, is she?" she'd smirked.

Emma had only grinned at the wolf in reply, "You really think I'd be much of a Hunter if I didn't know how to keep up with vamps and wolves?"

Ruby had nudged her playfully in the side. "Right," she rolled her eyes, "So are we gonna pretend you're not upset about not being in her arms the whole trip?" Her tone was light and teasing, mirth glittering in yellow eyes.

Rolling her own in reply, the Hunter had had another comeback on the tip of her tongue when Granny and Regina had made their way outside, and they'd departed shortly thereafter, leaving Ruby with no real answer to either question.

Now, the Hunter found herself drawing on skills well-honed from years of tracking, discovering to her relief that such abilities had not atrophied in the time she'd been in Storybrooke. She managed to stay a comfortable distance behind Regina, close enough that she could still pounce and throw the vampire to the ground if she really wanted. But despite what Ruby might have loved to insinuate, that wasn't what they were here for.

The wolves were not far ahead of them, noses to the ground as they sought out one scent among millions. They'd found the trail begun by Cora's note easily enough. Now it was only a matter of time until they found the Hive itself. And Emma still didn't really know what the plan was once they got there. Whenever she questioned it, she only got her own words of 'get in, get Henry, get out,' thrown back at her. It wasn't much of a plan, but she couldn't say she disapproved.

As it turned out, finding the Hive took remarkably less time than any of them would have predicted. Shortly before sundown they came to the end of the forest, and Granny and Ruby all but skidded to an abrupt halt, noses quickly testing and re-testing the air. Hackles rose, twin growls emerging from their throats as low and subdued as they could make them. They stalked forward to the edge of what seemed a very steep and sudden ravine. Below, the woods no longer provided a cover, a great expanse of open plain spilling out of nowhere. And it shimmered and rippled like a pond, with a tiny pinprick of blue light flickering at the very center.

Emma caught up just as the wolves were shifting back. Regina crouched down low, glancing down over the incline. She looked as livid as Emma had ever seen her. "I've been an idiot," she could be heard muttering to herself. "This close, and I never even realized."

The blonde joined her overlooking the field, eyes going wide as the vast expanse seemed to shift with every second, colors changing and warping like some horrific acid trip. "What the hell is that?"

"A dampening field," Regina replied, breathless and cursing herself continuously under her breath.

Emma had heard of those, but never on this scale. Dampeners were a form of protective magic- devices that took a great deal of magic to operate. They had a two-fold use. The first and most obvious was to cloak a place- usually a room or, in some cases, a small house- from being easily seen. She'd never seen one used on a whole Hive before. But dampeners were more commonly used to protect people from witches, like a sort of sun-screen to prevent any magic-user from being able to draw on the sun for power. She swallowed, placing a hand lightly on Regina's shoulder. "Can you break it?"

Regina glanced at the hand, then Emma's face. The setting sun was bathing the blonde in a healthy, orange glow. "...I don't know," she swallowed. "I might not have enough power. Even if I did, the sun is already setting. It would drain me of more energy than I care to lose right now."

Behind them came the unmistakeable sound of Granny loading her crossbow. Emma gritted her teeth and reached for the rifle strapped to her back. Of all her guns, it had the longest range. "...So you won't be able to use magic."

"The sun is setting," Regina repeated, a growl of her own building in her throat as she stared down at the field. Her fangs had slid into prominence, barbed tips now brushing against her lower lip as she spoke. "I won't need magic."

. . .

Further Outside Storybrooke

Descending down through the lower levels of her hive, Cora's hand rested on the head of one of her wolves, the sandy fur gathering between her fingers as she combed through it. They came to a halt just outside a small door, hidden at the far end of a lonely corridor. Pulling her hand away from the crest of her wolf and ignoring the small whimper as she did, she pulled a key out of the folds of her dress, and fit it into the lock. Inside, the room glowed with a faint, flickering blue light.

She grinned, entering into the chamber quickly with the wolf, and faced the sole occupant;bands of dark metal wrapped around her arms and torso, barely giving her legs enough room to hold her up. "Comfortable, dear?"

There was no response. There so seldom was, when she asked that question. Still, Cora continued on, moving further into the room. Her captive shuffled away as much as was possible, biting back a yelp of pain as the cold iron cut even further into her skin at the motion.

Cora slipped closer still, her face leering before her captive's. Her eyes closed at the cry, an ecstatic smile on her face as she actually appeared to drink in the sound of pain. She gave a little sigh and opened her eyes, lips parted enough that the tips of her fangs gleamed in the blue light.

"My daughter should be here soon, my pet." Cora sounded almost gleeful, leaning in close enough to take her key and unshackle the chains holding the bands to the wall, but not from around her captive. "Are you ready to protect me from her?"

"Please ...don't," came the only response, broken and quiet. Barely audible.

"As enjoyable as it is to hear you beg, my dear, it's quite useless," Cora stated, taking both chains between her hands. She tugged at them viciously, sending the captive to her knees with another shout of pain and the rending of gossamer wings already shredded past the point of repair. A captured fairy had no use for wings anyway.

The blue light flickered dangerously low for an instant, before Cora yanked once more, sending the small woman sprawling directly before the paws of her wolf.

The wolf growled, jaws opening to reveal rows of teeth dripping with saliva, inches away from a face caked with dirt and grime.

"Please, just kill me." The fairy's voice was beseeching, the tips of her fingers reaching entreatingly to the wolf as far as they could, clasped so tightly to her sides.

Cora only laughed again. "Not just yet, my dear," she grinned and hauled on the chain enough to force the small woman to her feet. The fairy stumbled forward, narrowly avoiding colliding with the sandy wolf, and gave another small shriek of pain. Cora's nostrils flared, drinking in the scream again, and she ran the back of a leather-clad hand gently down the dirty face, brushing a strand of thinning hair out out her eyes. "There, there," she admonished. The leather of her glove tingled at the contact, and when she pulled it away it shimmered with its own blue light for a half second. "Come along, pet. You have work to do."

Wolf at her heels, she led her charge in slow, faltering steps as quickly as the cold iron bars would allow, yanking on the chains when she didn't feel the pace was enough. Up, up they went, spiraling around the halls of the hive. Really, Cora could have just whooshed them there and be done with it in a matter of seconds. But the time it took wasn't the point.

Step by agonizing step, Cora led the battered fairy through the entirety of her hive, letting all of her vampires and the other prisoners witness the slow march. Glittering tears fell unfettered down the fairy's cheeks, leaving faint drops of blue light on the rich carpets and lavish floors before they faded away into nothingness. Each exhalation made the light that emanated from her entire body flicker again, sobs of pain falling from her lips despite desperate attempts at swallowing them before Cora could notice.

Finally, they reached the roof. Cora let the chains go slack, and the fairy fell to bruised knees in relief, all but forgotten as the Hive Queen inspected the machinery. "Are you ready, Doctor?" she asked, almost pleasantly, idly running the chain through her gloved hands.

Victor was tinkering with a small chamber of glass surrounded by wires and spinning machinery, writing something down furiously before looking up at the Queen. "The dampener is ready, yes," he confirmed, as if anyone dared to think otherwise. His gaze fell to the fairy, her light dim and her body seeming entirely too frail. He pulled a face. "She's not going to last long," he groused, but indicated she should be shoved into the glass chamber anyway.

"She won't need to," Cora mused, yanking the fairy to her feet yet again.

Screaming again, the fairy stumbled, fighting in what little way she could as she was maneuvered into the glass enclosure. The door slammed into place behind her, seamless and smooth. "Please," she whimpered, knowing it was useless. "Please don't..."

But Cora couldn't enjoy the screams and begging as, beside her, the wolf raised her nose in the air, hackles rising as she turned to face the high plain where the treeline began. She growled, low and dangerous, and snarled in a ferocious display of intent.

An eyebrow rose. Cora dropped the chain from one hand, moving to bury it in the fur of her wolf. "You smell them, don't you, my love?"

The wolf only growled again in response.

She grinned in lavish delight, clapping her gloved hands together like a child. "Wonderful," Cora purred. "Get Hook and go. Bring me my daughter. Do what you like with whatever poor souls she's damned by bringing with her."

With a howl, the wolf took off. Cora watched her go with a delighted grin, and turned back to the fairy in her cage of glass and iron.

Cora approached the cage, pressing a kiss to two gloved fingers before raising them to touch the outside of the glass, just in front of the fairy's face.

The fairy spat at the gesture, kicking and struggling as much as her bonds would allow, each impact of her bound feet leaving blue residue smearing over the interior surface of the glass. The machinery around her fired into life with a roar, and the dust was sucked up into the maze of tubing surrounding her. The fairy's eyes went wide, realizing for the first time that this was no mere cage- it was a battery. And she would be powering it. She screamed as loud as she could, her tears now falling in unending streams.

Her screams could not be heard, which Cora found a great pity. She looked almost sadly at the fairy, but any sorrow she felt was only because her days of toying with the thing were finally at an end. "Goodbye, pet." Withdrawing her hand, she nodded to the doctor.

He threw the switch.

The next screams were heard through the glass, the entire contraption glowing brightly blue. A wave of rippling, twisting magic pulsed around them- a shockwave that soon passed through her entire hive, every level, and into the field beyond. Cora watched the light in the glass cage fade away, still powering the machine, until it dimmed completely, the fairy within slumped and hollow. With a sorrowful look, Cora turned to head back to her throne room.

It was nearly time.

. . .

Closer to Storybrooke

A shift in the air was all the warning they had. Red and Granny's heads turned toward the field, the very instant Emma yelped. "Shit!" The blonde pushed Regina behind her before she could think, a split second before a pack of five wolves burst through the rippling field, howling and snarling as they came directly for their outcropping of trees.

Granny stood stock still with steel in her eyes. A look of horror and recognition crossed over Ruby's face as the enemy pack came racing up the trail, led by a snarling sand-colored wolf. Just beside her raced an immense brindle, almost larger than Ruby was when she shifted. But they were human now.

"Shift back!" Emma screamed at them, aiming her rifle in the direction of the foreign pack.

"No!" growled Granny, instead raising her crossbow and firing off a bolt at the brindle. He yelped in pain, the bolt having gone directly though his right paw. He stumbled, falling to the ground in a wave of dust. The wolf in the front barked back at him, but kept going. The other four paid the wounded wolf no mind, caring little for the fact that one of their own had fallen, and continued to come charging up the hill.

Emma took aim, her finger on the trigger. "Don't shoot the leader!" Granny growled, loading another bolt into her crossbow. Startled, Emma almost shot back a 'why the fuck not?!' but Regina placed a hand on her shoulder almost calmly, as if agreeing with the Alpha. Swallowing, Emma took aim at one of the smaller two wolves, and shot.

Her aim, as always, rang true: the wolf she had shot did not get back up. The last two smaller wolves went down immediately after, a bolt from Granny's crossbow through one's throat and a shot from Emma taking care of the last.

The leader was almost upon them, her mouth snarling and wide as she slowed in speed. Below, on the field, the injured brindle wolf was babying his paw, but slowly began to charge up the hill on the remaining three. Granny's eyes glinted yellow as she snarled. "Regina, now! Take Emma and go!" She threw down her crossbow.

"What?!" Emma shouted, turning to run towards the Alpha, who'd obviously lost her mind. "That wasn't part of the plan!" But she felt Regina's hands snatching her up, quickly putting her back in what had become an common enough position in Storybrooke as she ran with the blonde in her arms. "Put me down!" Emma screamed, her arms reaching out for Ruby as she ran by.

"This was always the plan," Ruby gave her a small smile and a thumbs up, telling her it would all be okay. "Go! Get Henry back! We'll see you back home!" She smiled again, and then turned back toward the threat.

The wolf came to a complete stop not all that far from them. And she began to shift.

Regina whooshed them past the wolf in mid-transformation and the injured one still on his way to the hill. He snarled at them, turning to give a look to the other wolf. Even still in the midst of her change, she gave a barking command. He turned to watch the vampire and her blonde charge slip past his sight, then seemed to weigh his options before finally continuing to climb the hill.

Seeing him as she squirmed in Regina's grasp, Emma just rolled her eyes and set the bottom of her rifle on Regina's shoulder for recoil, aimed, and pulled the trigger. A sudden change in the way Regina was running caused her to miss. Swearing, Emma fought against the hold around her body. She never missed. "Regina, for fuck's sake, put me down!" She demanded as hushed as she could, keeping in mind that they were probably mere feet away from a hive crawling with vampires.

Regina only sighed and lightly set the kicking blonde back down, just before they would have entered into the area protected by the dampening field.

"Thanks. Now what the hell was that?!" Emma ran a hand through her hair and afforded a glance back up the hill, to where three wolves now stood in human form.

"...Ours isn't the only family we're trying to reunite, Miss Swan," Regina said simply.

On the hill, the sandy wolf had finished transforming, and now glared at the two before her with shifting eyes. Her gaze fell on Ruby, and she actually seemed to smile. "Red."

Ruby shuffled her feet a little awkwardly, and stepped forward as well, her own eyes narrowing a bit at the name. "...Hi, Mom."

The woman's eyes then narrowed, coming to fall on the old woman. "And Mother. I wish I could say I was surprised. Come to try and drag me away, kicking and screaming again? It didn't work the last time."

Granny opened her hand entreatingly, showing that her crossbow was well and truly gone. She took a step forward. "Anita, please. Just... hear us out."

Anita laughed and cocked her head to the was at this point that her brindled companion finally made his way to the crest of the hill, shifting back to human form immediately and cradling his mangled right hand. He grinned at the two other wolves, then slid into place beside Anita. "Hello, love," he purred. "Who's this, then?"

Refusing to take her eyes off her mother and daughter, Anita growled back. "You remember my mother."

"Ah yes, of course." He winked at the older wolf, who growled and looked as though she severely wished she hadn't dropped her crossbow. Hook's eyes moved onto Ruby, lingering there entirely too familiarly for anyone's taste. "But I meant the pretty one."

"She's my daughter, idiot."

Eyes widening, after a few seconds Hook's grin only widened. He licked his lips approvingly as if to say 'well, then.'

Ruby shifted uncomfortably. She was used to such attention, and even reveled in it at times. This was not one of them. An echo of Granny's growl ripped from her throat.

Anita rolled her eyes, though it was unclear as to whether it was at Hook or her daughter or mother or the whole situation. Without warning, she whirled and kicked Hook's legs out from under him. He fell back with a surprised 'oof' of pain, hitting his head against a rock and then lay still.

Taken aback by the suddenness, neither Granny or Ruby was prepared when Anita kept moving. She scooped up one of Granny's fallen crossbow bolts, lunged for her daughter and manhandling Ruby' into position so she could hold the barbed tip to her throat, all in the space of a second. "You have sixty seconds to say your piece, old woman," she growled at her mother. "After that, your granddaughter dies and I go charging down that hill to bring your pretty little vampire to the feet of my Queen."