A/N~ So my computer finally gave up the ghost and I'm doing what I can with a borrowed computer without a wifi connection. I lost three chapters of this story, including this one as well as about 70 pages of another story I was working on that was going to be premeiered next week. So now I'm having to do all of that over again. Please read, enjoy and review. ~A
Chapter 13
Bo went barreling through the security door, clearly expecting a fight. After all the door itself was clearly marked Employees Only in all caps, no less. When nothing happened she continued down the hall, but stayed alert. The succubus had been hoping to avoid this sort of thing, being surprisingly patient. Waiting for an appearance by the Mesmer owner of the club. Only the dark fae, had never made an appearance on the floor to schmooze with the rest of his customers.
From what she had seen and heard this was an unusual occurrence for the club owner. He usually liked to make sure that all of his customers were happy to insure repeat business. Bo wondered if his lack of appearance was to avoid her for a split second . Truthfully under different circumstances she would have avoided the mind scrambler like the proverbial plague but right at the moment, she needed information he might have.
The bouncer lunging around the corner at her wasn't entirely unexpected, she had actually expected him to show up much earlier. The ease with which she avoided his lunge and put him into the wall with his arm twisted behind him had her doubting his level of skill for security. "Where's Vex?"
When the dark fae's only response was a grunt, she gave his arm a little extra twist. "In his apartment where he always is after a visit with the Morrigan." He said as if it should be obvious.
At the mention of the dark fae leaders name Bo became a little more paranoid and asked, "Is he alone now?"
"How should I know?" the bouncer said disparagingly, "I'm not going to get involved in my bosses sex life. Would you?" he asked looking at the young woman as if she were insane to even think of doing so. Bo thought about it and realizing he had a point, slammed the other fae's head into the wall, a couple of times dark under fae had notoriously hard heads after all. She left him where he landed and headed down the hall a little faster than before.
Knowing from what the burly underfae said that the other security guards probably wouldn't come down this way looking for him. She was more determined than ever to find the Mesmer's apartment. If one fae was afraid to interfere in Vex's love life than it was a safe bet the others would be as well. So in the mind benders apartment was where Bo wanted to be when they finally did come looking. It made sense to her at the time, anyway.
She had found, a janitors closet, the boiler room, a couple of locked doors, a bathroom, an emergency exit door, and a couple of supply rooms before she came to a set of double doors.
Surprisingly or not considering the guards reaction, the doors were unlocked and the succubus slid inside stealthily. She took it as a good sign that she wasn't immediately set upon by the Morrigan's goons. So she took the few seconds to look around, the kitchen looked mid-century modern with newer appliances the furniture was overstuffed dark leather and manly, bulky looking Contemporary furniture.
Not as flamboyant as she was expecting for someone like Vex. It was all actually surprisingly tasteful. Hell compared to the Crack Shack, a slum would be tasteful. Compared to her home this place was downright opulent, and quiet. So no company, or there would probably be screaming, howling, possibly even sinister theme music.
She moved catlike toward the only real light source in the apartment, what she assumed was the bedroom. What she saw laying in the bed was hamburger. For several minutes her brain couldn't process it as anything remotely human or fae like. Let alone that it was Vex, the ever vibrant and energetic dark fae Mesmer.
Finally after several minutes of standing frozen in the doorway of the bedroom, the voice she labeled inside her head as Kenzi yelled, "Move. Check his pulse and breathing."
Still breathing, she saw the chest rise and fall as she got closer. She checked a surprisingly undamaged section of skin around the neck. Ok not undamaged she thought as she noted the bruises there, but at least the skin was intact and the pulse was there. Weak and thready, but the pulse was still there.
She considered calling her girlfriend back, Lauren was usually the one who dealt with the serious wounds like this and when she wasn't available it was usually Kenzi who did the patching up. Yet another reason to miss her friend at this very moment.
The thought had Bo remembering Kenzi's rather haphazard way of patching things up at the Crack Shack. Inspired by her missing friend, the succubus went running for the nearby janitors closet for medical supplies.
~O~
The quartet of Derek, Stiles, Kenzi and Dyson were having a rather lively argument over of all things comics when Derek got the call. It was Peter, telling them that Cora was in the hospital. The news chilled them all as they had been trying to avoid this very thing to avoid risking the exposure of werewolves and the fae to the human world.
In a surprising display of self recrimination the older werewolf explained that he had been researching the case of the virgin deaths and had lost track of his niece for a time. The hospital had called him to tell him that his niece had been found delirious in the refrigerated section of the local grocery store. She had been complaining of being too hot, and upon checking the EMT's who had first responded had found she had a temperature of 108.
"What's even more disturbing is the fact that she has been throwing up copious amounts of an unidentifiable black goo. They need one of us there to give permission for testing, which of course we can't do, and that's just going to raise more questions," the older Beta was clearly nearing hysteria as he spoke.
Derek reassured his uncle that they were on their way and would meet him at the hospital. With that as incentive, the Spark, who the Alpha had let drive to everyone's surprise, took a turn so quickly the werewolves in the SUV were sure they felt at least two of the vehicles tires come off the ground. "Hold on," Stiles said after the fact.
Kenzi lost track of how many traffic laws her de facto student broke on the way to the hospital, but no one in the vehicle was going to call him on it. Even Dyson encouraged him to go faster if he could. The Spark actually took that as permission and displayed driving skills that were obviously borne from an expertise with video games.
The Goth girl finally lost her cool as they pulled into the parking lot giving a squeak and covering her eyes. The younger man didn't bother with the driveway but pulled across the grassy verge that separated the parking lot from the street itself. Bouncing them into a parking space that was right next to the emergency room entrance, totally ignoring the "For Police Vehicles Only" sign.
He was out the door almost before he could get the keys out of the ignition and pocketing the keys and something else, when he saw Derek and Kenzi looking at him, he merely responded, "What I got us here quick didn't I?"
Surprisingly Peter was quicker as he was already standing waiting for them. They saw before she pulled the curtain, that Mellissa McCall was helping another nurse to get Cora out of her jacket and obviously trying to get her changed into a hospital gown. "They are not going to let her out of here like she is. They're afraid it might be some kind of pathogen that could infect others, and they don't want an epidemic on their hands. Their words not mine." he added.
Stiles called his dad as kind of an end-run just in case any of the fine citizens of Beacon Hills had seen him breaking any of the traffic laws on the way to the hospital.
The Sheriff politely informed the teen, "From what I've already heard, you managed to smash, spindle, mutilate, and demolish enough traffic laws to have your license taken away until sometime in your mid-thirties, if you're lucky." John then informed his son that, "I've already been passing it around that it was a medical emergency. Keep me informed about Cora's condition."
Stiles looked up to see that while Derek and Peter seemed to be locked in an intense conversation, Kenzi was missing and if the way Dyson was staring at the curtained off cubicle that contained Cora that's where the she-wolf was. Probably trying to soothe her delirious sister. The Omega was leaning up against a nearby wall clearly doing his best to stay out of the way and be as inconspicuous as possible at the same time.
He tuned into the conversation that the Alpha was having with his uncle and felt something suspiciously like concern enter his heart. As he heard Derek ask the older wolf desperately, "Are you telling me there's a way I could save her…"
"I'm just saying it's possible, but if you do, you could lose your Alpha status," the older wolf said soothingly but Stiles saw the spark of avarice in his eyes.
He interjected quickly as he fished in the pocket of his jacket, "Or how bout we try this first." he said as he held up the bottle of medicine that had been sitting in the Alpha's SUV. "Let's give her this and see if it works before you go doing something drastic. Give it 72 hours, come on."
"Cora doesn't have 72 hours Stiles," the older wolf snapped waspishly.
"Then give me 24 hours, just 24 hours. Then if it doesn't work, we can try it your way," the Spark said to Derek instead of Peter already seeing the martyred look already entering the Alpha's eyes.
Instead of answering /Derek merely gave the teen a short, sharp nod. Kenzi came out at that minute to tell them they were moving Cora to one of the exam rooms. For more privacy and reduced chance of whatever pathogen she had being spread. They watched as she was pushed, bed and all down the hospital hallway a short distance to an actual exam room.
After a short discussion between the Spark and the Head Nurse, the family and Stiles were allowed to see the ailing teen. Derek took her hand as soon as they were allowed into the room and began drawing her pain. Cora came out of her delirium for a moment and said, "What's wrong with me?"
"I don't know, but I'm here and I'm not leaving," Derek comforted his little sister.
"Ok Cora," Stiles said from Cora's other side, "I need you to drink this for me. All of it, I added a little pecan and vanilla flavoring to it so hopefully it tastes like Butter Pecan Ice Cream. Here you go." With that he helped her drink the contents of the bottle down quickly.
From the expression on the teen wolf's face, the concoction most definitely did not taste like Butter Pecan Ice Cream, but at least she had gotten it all down and so far was keeping it down. Stiles took the bottle back, capped it and put it back in his pocket. Just in time as the other nurse came back in at that moment.
They waited for her to finish doing her exam of Cora including taking the younger werewolves vitals. Then with instructions not to tire the patient out, she left. Before they could say anything though an alarm sounded from somewhere in the hospital and an announcement came over the intercom system.
"We are in a lockdown situation. Please be aware security will be making rounds. No one is allowed in or out of the hospital at this time. All visitors are requested to stay where they are. Patients are advised for their own safety to stay in their rooms. I repeat we are in a lockdown situation."
The group in the room looked at each other suspiciously before Kenzi said, "We'll go see if we can find out what's going on," before she grabbed Dyson by the arm and pulled him out of the exam room, just as Scott walked in.
"Who was that?" Stiles best friend asked as he walked in.
"Wrong time to develop a healthy sense of curiosity, Scott," Stiles responded surprisingly without rolling his eyes at his friends bad sense of timing.
"We need to get her out of here," Peter said as he headed through the door to go see if he could find a wheelchair or stretcher for his niece.
"So how long should this take really?" Derek asked the Spark effectively ignoring the younger werewolf.
"Really, we should see a rather volatile reaction fairly quickly. That's when we'll know it's really working," he Spark said reassuringly. At that moment the young woman sat up in the hospital bed and vomited a substantial amount of the black goo onto the floor.
Splattering Scott's shoes and lower pants with the black goo in the process, "I'd say it's working Stiles and eww." He added as he tried to shake off the liquid. "I was here to bring Mom dinner and then the alarm went off. She was telling me about Cora being here and then she went to go see what the whole security thing was about and I thought I would come check on Cora." Scott further explained.
Stiles ignored the other teen as he told Derek, "We should really get Cora back to the loft. Theyalready think she's got some weird illness if they discover that she suddenly makes a semi-miraculous recovery, as in no longer suffering from an inhumanly high temperature they're going to run a battery of tests on her to figure out what the heck happened. Not to mention potentially calling in the CDC."
Derek agreed saying, "Where is Peter? He should have been back by now." All three head out into the hall, which is surprisingly empty. They do hear a commotion coming through the double doors at the end of the hall.
A body comes sliding through the double doors on its back to land at their feet. It was Peter, looking the worse for wear as he tells them, "We may have a problem."
~O~
Melissa McCall pressed the elevator button several times in obvious impatience. She paused to collect her thoughts and drew a deep breath in order to try and regain some of the calm she was famous for.
She had already been on every floor of the hospital at least twice. Including all of the entrances and exits and even the security room where there were supposed to be at least two security guards on duty at all times. Only to discover there wasn't a single security guard to be found anywhere in the hospital. At least not that she could find.
She sighed and glanced up to see where the elevator was in relation to her location. Instead something odd caught her eyes. A white cane was sticking out of the side of the elevator. She reached up a little mystified and wiggled the tip of the cane loose and found the device had a sharpened tip almost like a spear point. She was trying to figure out what to do with the cane when a voice behind her said, "Ah, Miss McCall thank you. I was wondering where that had gotten to." As the can was taken from her hands and a tip was placed very carefully over the spear point.
Melissa McCall studied the couple who had come up behind her. The man was slender to the point of gaunt, Handsome and confident, even with the dark glasses he reminded heer a little too much of Peter Hale to make her comfortable. The woman was beautiful tanned skin, shoulder length dark hair athletic, she would have been considered beautiful by many, but the thing moving just beneath the surface showed the true nature of who she was.