Chapter Fourteen: Nursing Wounds

WARNING: Homosexuality (gayness, slash, hotness, etc)

AN: BTW, about this samsung tablet-never get one. I swear, to every fucking god in existence, this bitch is FUCKING USELESS except to irritate the fuck out of you. Excuse my extreme French. Please read the chapter. Enjoy. Maybe.

X

Ethan crouched on a branch atop a tall pine, about a mile away from the approaching RV. 'Relax.' He heard Sylvan whisper to him through the deepest parts of his mind. 'Everything will go fine.'

It creeped him out, but Ethan felt himself, his mind and body go completely serene. He watched the vehicle approach calmly, and even smiled a little when he saw Sylvan dive from the treetops and land gracefully on the glossy black roof. Wasting no time, he slid in through the little square door on the long after, the vehicle took it's first swerve.

If Ethan had any uncertainties or fears of the RV crashing while he was inside, they were long forgotten. It was replaced by something like excitement, and he found that his whole body kind of vibrated with anticipation as the distance between he and the RV closed. The swerving stopped, and just as Ethan heard the crash of something being thrown through the window, he tensed and sprang from the tree.

'This is my first time doing this.' Ethan thought, adrenaline racing through him as he landed-surprisingly quietly, on the roof. The fiberglass was warm under his fingers, and so was the latch as he pulled up the door. He was dropping inside in no time at all, and found that the place...really smelled disgusting. 'Smells kind of like my cousins house on the fourth of July.' Ethan wrinkled his nose, briefly thinking of his American relatives. 'No that's not it...'He couldn't place his finger on it, though.

Not that he would've had time anyway-he heard a yell and then an angry growl as he took in his surroundings. Even as all of this happened, be couldn't help but marvel at how ridiculously huge the interior of the RV was. No way did it appear this large from the outside. 'Where is everyone?' Ethan thought, confused, even as bs took in the number of bodies ranging from vaguely human-looking to foreign creatures. He scowled. 'Sylvan made it seem like there would be like a whole army in here...' Over his train of thought, someone snarled in a garbling language and then something was flashing towards him.

'A warlock.' Ethan thought, momentarily fascinated by the red-skinned man as a blinding white light streaked past where he'd been standing not a moment ago. Where the light struck a cupboard, a hot, gooey hole was expanding as the plastic melted.

The teen felt a change overcome him. He'd just barely dodged the last attack-those lights were FAST, but now his eyes felt even sharper. The red light that flashed towards him didn't slow down, but he was quicker, launching an open palm to the warlocks chest and causing him to fly back just in time for another fiend to take his place, stepping out from behind a curtain that dripped with unusually dark blood.

"Ethan Morgan." The creature snarled, and quicker than anything Ethan had seen, it was across the small hallway and in his face, pinning him down. It was ugly, bald, with skin like worn leather and yellow eyes with teeth to match, that reeked of blood and rotten flesh. "We've been expecting you, wolfling."

"Get off me." Ethan managed to say, though the stench made him want to gag. He ignored the icy fear stabbing at his chest as best as he could."All in due time, young one." The creature said and Ethan heard a shriek from behind that curtain that divided the hallway. Something crashed.

"We're leaving-"But Ethan gave him no chance to say more as he heard a very recognizable howl, twisted in pain, and anger surged up from some foreign place deep inside him. He felt inhuman teeth elongating from his canines, and the power from earlier returning to his growled with a ferocity that wasn't completely human and sent the ugly thing flying with two strong hits to it's scarred chest before he jumped up and grasped it by the shoulders. Surprisingly, it was out of his grasp and blurring away before he could even react.

Two more abominations, smaller than he emerged from the hall just as Ethan turned to face the warlock. "Traitors!" He snarled at him as he got his bearings, pulling glass from the side of his neck. From somewhere down the surprisingly long hall, a deep roar shook the contents of the cupboards. "You will burn!" And then Ethan was dodging multicolored lights as they streaked towards him.

X

"Ah!" Benny yelped as Rory suddenly dropped down a couple more feet. "Rory! Seriously!"

"Sorry, compadre!" Rory said over the wind howling in Benny's ears. Benny grimaced.

"You running out of gas?"

"Just some minor turbulence."

The spellmaster sighed. "You're making me sick! I hate flying, especially with you."

"Do you feel that?" Rory asked and then they both screamed as they rapidly defended another ten feet, almost scraping the treetops.

"Are you kiding?!" Benny screamed, suddenly not feeling very safe in Rory's arms. "How much further is that mall you were talking about?"

"Don't you feel that?" Rory asked again, confused this time.

"Yeah I felt that!" Benny yelled, half in frustration, half in terror. His legs flailed uselessly in the air. "Dude, are you seriously running out of fly-juice?!"

"Uh..." They began to approach a speeding RV, and Benny only just caught a glimpse of a busted out window and some red and blue paint splattering and smearing the top before glancing up at his blonde friend as he let out a sound of disgust. Rory's face wrinkled up and he said, "Woah! Something stinks like the dead."

"You'd know all about that, RV."

"Dude Benny, check outthat RV!" It was close now, but Benny was too distracted to get a good look at it. "Intense catfight!"

"Dude!" Benny yelled, trying to get his attention. The pointy tops of the pines under them looked precariously close to the bottom of his converse.

"Hold on!" Rory yelled back, holding Benny tighter. "Something's wrong!" They soared up about twenty feet, passing the RV that still sped on the road just next to them. "Hold onto me!" Rory yelled, and in a swirl of the blue, white, and green of the trees and sky above, Benny was lying on top of Rory. Frantically, Benny caught the blonde in a fierce, death-grip hug from behind and tried not to scream as the pine-needle covered ground rushed up to meet quick and with inhuman grace-two things he never expected to accommodate the same sentence with Rory, the vampire pushed off the top of one tree, propelling them to the side so he could grab onto a limb from a neighboring tree. Rory managed to grab onto the more sturdy part of the branch, where it grew from the trunk, but not before hitting a few other limbs first. One of said branches hit Benny in the face, scratching his skin and poking at his wide eyes.

"Ow!" Benny yelled and automatically let go of his friend to clutch at his face. It was a bad idea. He plummeted to the ground from their tall perch and his stomach dropped with the shock of the fall. He yelled in surprise as he lost all stability.

Then, suddenly, he wasn't falling any longer, but clutched to the chest of his friend, before the blonde landed in a crouch. Coming to an abrupt stop, Benny huffed and held onto Rory for another few, embarrassing seconds before letting go and getting his bearings.

"What was that?" Benny asked with a small strain in his voice. He panted, his heart raced with adrenaline. "Dude, what was that!? That's never happened before!""I know, man."

Rory looked a little concerned, but his face was filled mostly with amazement. "Dude, you think I actually ran out of gas?" He jumped, then, and got about thirty feet in the air before descending back to the ground. "I can't fly!" He looked at his brunet friend in a mix of surprise and accusation. "Benny, you broke me!"

"I did not break you!" Benny scowled, but his face was red with left-over adrenaline and a little embarrassment. "I didn't do anything. You've flown with me before, further than that."

"Alright." Rory's face scrunched up. "Then...what happened?"

"I don't know."

"You think you can try a spell to get me up and...flying?" Rory asked, scratching he back of his head and altogether looking a little sheepish himself. "I really don't think I can fly any further."

"Uh..." Benny shrugged. "I don't know." He pulled out his spellbook. "I think I seen something like an energy-booster before."

"Now that you mention it, I do feel kinda..." He made a face. "Weird...Cut off. Like I reached a dead-zone or something."

"Ah, here it is." Benny found it, and Rory just shook his head as though shaking the thought away. Benny pronounced a spell in rough Latin, and a spark of blue shot from his palm. But only a spark, and whereas all his other spells had shot in flashing spheres from his hand to the destination, this spark only blinked and then died out. "Huh?" The spellmaster looked at his hand in confusion.

"Try it again." Rory suggested, seemingly still trying to lift off the ground. Confused now, Benny tried again and all he got was another little spark of blue before the spell dissipated into the air.

"Okay." Benny shook out his hand and looked around nervously. "What's going on? What are we supposed to do?" He looked towards the road, just behind a line of trees. "Where are we?"

"Well, you ran out of magic, and I'm grounded." Rory deadpanned, looking down at himself in wonder before taking out his phone. "And I believe we're some odd thirty miles from home." He shrugged. "Wanna call Sarah to come get us? Or E? Doesn't he like, have his license now?"

"You really think Sarah's gonna drive all the way out here to get us?" Benny paused, looking slightly guilty about his next comment. "Or even Ethan? Besides, even if he did have his license, he probably wouldn't come anyway."

"I wonder if I can run.." Rory wondered aloud before flashing from view and then blurring back in front of the spellmaster. "Yup." The blonde looked at him expectantly. "I hope you don't mind being carried the rest of the way, cuz we're gonna miss our 3D movie if we don't move, fast." Benny groaned as he wrapped his arms around he blonde's shoulders and climbed on his back. Vaguely, he remembered another time when he was the one giving a brunet a piggyback ride through another mall.

"Great. I feel like that clumsy girl from Dusk."

"Yeah, but you're a lot taller." Rory reminded him. "And I am much cooler than Dirk Pattenson."

"It's Baddison."'

"And you claim to not like those stupid movies." Rory shook his head, and they were off in smears of bright color against the dull forest.

X

"Then-don't be afraid to just pull. Like so." Sylvan lectured as he pulled a bloody hand from the furry creatures chest, grasping a still-beating organ. Scarlett liquid that still spewed from the vessels ran down his arm in streams. "You know, the hearts and various parts of the werewolf body are very useful in spells, potions, rituals..." He trailed off, and smiled darkly at Ethan, standing across the hall. "Werewolves have very strong hearts, as you can tell." Ethan let out a long sigh, and wiped some blue liquid that passed for Ghoul blood off his face. Disgusted, he watched as Sylvan dug around for a jar before dropping the werewolf heart into the glass and sealing it with a lid.

"That's gross, dude."

"Eh. Never liked the guy anyway." Sylvan paused, offering the jar to Ethan. "Want it."

"What? No, of course not!" Ethan made a face.

"Suit yourself." Sylvan shrugged carelessly, bending over and drawing a kitchen knife from the chest of a reptilian creature. "I'll just add it to the collection."

"...Right." Ethan answered after a while, lightheaded and feeling nauseous after witnessing and partaking in what happened in the last few minutes. No longer was he pumped and ready to fight as he had been in the beginning. He was soaked in multicolored fluids, and he had several scratches across his body. Surprisingly, Sylvan had taken the worst of the injuries. "I think I'm gonna throw up. Or pass out. Or both."

"You and me both, pup." Sylvan mock-shivered. "Did you see the face on that lady-goblin."

"Ha." Ethan said and looked anywhere but at the bodies littering the floor, some of which were disintegrating into sand or vaporizing into the air. His shoes made squelching sounds wherever he stepped. "Are we done here? Where's Katee?"

Sylvan sighed. "You're done here. Katee's in the left top bunk down he hall." The redhead grasped Ethan's arm as he slipped on something pink and squishy. "Carefully, please. I did not create you to be a clumsy little thing who faints at the sight of blood."

"I'm not fainting at the sight of blood!" Ethan protested hotly, ignoring the possessive tone in his sire's voice. "I just watched you literally rip apart an entire group of monsters." The seer could feel his stomach churning and he imagined his face would be starting to turn green right about then. "I could've lived my whole without seeing this. It's disgusting."

"It was necessary." Sylvan let go and Ethan made his way over to the bunk, pushing aside the curtain and catching sight of a blonde teen. He couldn't see her face, but her hands were tied, and her feet. "Not one got away, no thanks to you. Pup, you can't be afraid to just let it go." Ethan paused, half way through untying the roped that bound Katee's hands.

"Let what go?"

"The werewolf inside you." Sylvan answered, beginning to clear the bodies out of the way. As he threw them, they made dull, thudding noises as they landed on top of one another. "It knows what's best. Letting it take over will protect you. Werewolves are ferocious and defensive by nature. We're made for fighting. All those supernatural instincts will kick in, and you would've been able to do what I just did." Sylvan shot him a look. "It's something you're going to have to learn to accept. Even as you fought, I felt your resistance." There was another thud and then a metallic clank.

"I don't want to do this." Ethan shook his head. "Why would I want to? This is disgusting, Sylvan. It makes me sick."

"That's the human in you speaking." Thud.

"The human in me has good sense." Ethan gritted his teeth, fed up with trying to unknot the ropes, and instead hoisted himself up to tear into them with his teeth. The ropes gave more resistance than he thought they would.

"The werewolf in you has even better sense." Sylvan reminded him, and got into the drivers seat. "Did you take a good look at yourself today, pup? In those few seconds you let the beast take over, you tore into those bastards." Ethan sighed, and tried to ignore the sick sense of pride in his chest. Sucking in a breath, Ethan realized he didn't know how to comment.

Finally, he asked "Why is this RV so huge? It doesn't look nearly this big from the why do I feel so...drained?"

"The red-skinned bitch charmed it." Sylvan answered as he passed Ethan on his way to the front of the RV. "He was a warlock, but I'm sure you've already figured that out. His name was Dorin, and near the end he started drawing power from those around him. Thats why everything seemed to weaken for a few minutes." Sylvan let out a sigh as he sat in the drivers seat. "If you pay close attention, you'll notice the space becoming increasingly smaller as his spells wear off. The energy is returning to the environment."

"Because he's dead?"

"All spells and charms wear off in time, even the most powerful. But yes, I suppose the fact that he's now dead has some effect. I don't think the enchantment was very powerful to begin with." A few seconds later, Ethan felt more than heard the engine roar to life, and the last of the ropes gave way. When he was done with the ropes securing her ankles, he hopped back down and settled into the passengers seat, which was coated in green goop.

'I'm filthy anyway.' Ethan thought in disgust, looking around at the dirty, smeared dashboard and splattered windows. His gaze settled on his equally filthy sire, his hair even more colorful with the streaks of blood that ran even down his face. His sire caught him staring, and only grinned as he started to shrug off his jacket.

"Help me out of this, pup." Rolling his eyes, Ethan pulled on the sleeve of Sylvan's jacket and the older werewolf struggled out of it. When he finally peeled off the torn, bloody fabric, he flung it at Ethan, who let out a sound of disgust before throwing it into the hallway. Ethan gave the best glare he could manage before taking off his own sweater.

"What are we doing?" Ethan asked.

"I'm bringing you to your ride." Sylvan answered. "And then I'm going to drive this junker into the woods and light it up. Seriously, pup, how many times have we been over this?"

"Whatever." Ethan rolled his eyes. "Just thought I'd ask. You're unpredictable."

"It's for the greater good." The redhead shrugged. "Keeps everyone around me on their toes."

"Yeah, you're all for the greater good." Ethan snorted, watching the trees pass by. "How long you think it'll be before she wakes up?"

"Eh." Sylvan shrugged. "An hour, give or take. Not anytime soon."

"Alright." Ethan sat back, sighing.

"Look, there's the car." Sylvan pointed to a dirt road branching off the main one. Ethan could see the flash of black fiberglass in the sunlight a little way down the road. "Leave it with your friends, take it, I don't care. Do what you want."

"What am I supposed to do with a car?" Ethan gave Sylvan a strange look. In turn, Sylvan raised a superior eyebrow.

"I assume you would drive it."

"I don't even have my permit-it was revoked months ago-"

"I didn't ask for your life story, pup." Ethan huffed and stood up to grab Katee.

"I'm leaving now." Ethan replied, easing the blonde out of her bunk. "Have fun hiding the evidence."

"Have fun on the losing side." Sylvan snapped with no real heat. "When everything you know starts burning to the ground, I hope you'll finally realize how stupid your being."

"Have a nice life." Ethan left through the side door, opting to just kick it open as opposed to a quiet exit. He paused for only a second as he heard his sire's laughter behind him. The sound of his steps on the hot pavement, deafeningly loud to his sensitive ears died down as he paused to listen. Just before the RV roared past him, he heard Sylvan's obnoxiously certain voice float out through the broken door.

"This isn't good riddance yet, Ethan. You'll see."

X

AN: I guess it's time to upload...and YES! Team Ethan Morgan, I was actually waiting for you to read/review, is that weird? Since you like, only ever review my one-shots. Anyway, thanks to those who reviewed, it means a lot! I'd like to hear more of your thoughts about this story...you know, instead of general "Update" or "I like it" cuz seriously that's like...yeah, it somehow discourages me. I thought this was a good chapter, actually.

Well, it could've been better, but there's always that doubt. Review, please.