“Water?” Miles asked, after Shawn had seemed to recover a bit. He was pale still after he was sick, but he wasn't shaking anymore, the sour scent of panic not as heavy.
“Yeah, thanks.” Shawn managed to get out, his voice throaty and thick. “Two bottles.”
Miles nodded, leaving the bathroom and letting out a sigh as he could smell air that wasn't tainted with sickness and anxiety. He grabbed a key card, peering out the door to see Naomi a little bit away, staring down at her phone with a frown. “I need to get some drinks; would you mind watching the room for a bit?”
Naomi looked up, tucking her phone in her pocket and padding over. “Yeah, get me some tea if they have some?”
Miles wandered down the hall of the hotel, tapping the card against his thigh. He wondered where Nikolas was now, if the Council did catch him. He stopped in front of the vending machine and paused. He didn't have his wallet. Crap, it was probably still somewhere in the forest, along with his clothes he had when he left. He pouted; he liked that shirt...
“I need some money.” Miles started, peering into the room. “Naomi?”
Naomi was quiet, staring down at her phone, her eyes wide and her entire body shaking. Miles went inside, gently placing his hands on the Alpha's shoulders. “What's wrong?”
“Emmett...” She looked up at Miles, her eyes filled with tears, her voice small and broken. “Emmett was killed.”
Emmett... the Lead Councilman? “How? What happened?”
Naomi shook her head, shaking herself out of Miles hands. “I got to go back, he can't be dead, I have to-”
“You have to wait and calm down and let us go with you.” Shawn snapped, making the Alpha pause on her way to the door. “I'm tired of us splitting up, we need to stick together, especially with Nikolas still running around.” He walked over to Naomi. “It'll still take us a couple hours to get there, but we'll get there together, okay?”
Naomi stared at Shawn, then nodded, settling herself on the bed. Shawn sighed, looking up at Miles. “Would you mind going to the front desk to check out? I have to freshen up and then I'll be ready.”
“You all will be okay?”
Shawn nodded. “I have enough energy back to blast someone out of the room, so yeah.”
About fifteen minutes later, they were on the road, Miles driving, his arm mostly healed all the way with just a minor, lingering ache. Naomi was beside him, staring out the window or checking her phone, her leg bouncing the entire time they drove. Shawn was in the seat directly behind Miles, leaning back into the seat and staring out the window or sleeping to regain his energy.
Shawn looked considerably better, that scent of unease still clinging to him, but the sick stench was replaced with more of the licorice tea and the mint from tooth paste and mouth wash. Otherwise, Shawn's scent was very slightly different, but still somewhat familiar. The underlying smell of warm electronics was a bit stronger, like Shawn had electricity running in his veins in place of blood.
He wondered what Shawn's magic looked like. He probably looked really cool while he was doing whatever magic he could do.
Miles paused his thoughts, that didn't seem weird, right? That's a regular compliment that friends could give fellow friends, right? Yeah, totally. Completely platonic.
Unfortunately, with no one in the mood for conversation, and Miles' brain running a hundred miles an hour, Miles was trapped in the quiet car with his own thoughts for the next five hours. While this would normally not be a bad thing, his brain was apparently stuck in a cycle of admire Shawn for his newfound ability, question his admiration, question what questioning his admiration meant, right back to admiration for Shawn again.
He grew up wanting to be a wizard so he would blame his obsession for Shawn's magic on that.
Surprisingly, they made it back to LA without stopping, no one really wanting to get out and waste any time they have. Miles pulled up to the plain building housing the Council, barely getting the Jeep parked when Naomi flung herself out of the vehicle, sprinting to the building. Shawn followed closely after her, still wary of them splitting up.
Miles wandered inside after the two to find things much more chaotic than before, there seemed to be three times as many pixie's dashing back and forth, carrying paperwork or messages, crashing into each other. The people that were working at their desks were now scrambling through the building, clipboards with self-writing pens trailing after them as they dashed about. This time it was blatantly obvious everyone here was Supernatural, bits of magic flying around the room and anyone who was transformative halfway shifted in their panic.
Zenia was sitting at her desk quietly, staring dejectedly at the doors. She seemed to sag when Naomi walked in, her face falling even more.
“It is true, then...?” Zenia muttered to herself as Naomi walked up to the desk. “Emmett's...”
Naomi leaned over the desk to settled a hand on Z's shoulder. “I need to get up there, I need to talk to someone up there, I need to find out what happened, Z, please.”
Zenia chewed on her lip and settled her eyes on her computer screen. “They don't want anyone up there, no one's supposed to know what happened.”
“Try, please? For me?”
Zenia nodded, closing her eyes and settling back in her chair. Miles guessed she was sending whoever was in charge of letting anyone upstairs a message with her ability. A couple of seconds later Naomi's phone was ringing and she pulled it out of her pocket, scowling down at it for a moment before she answered.
Naomi stepped off, talking heatedly with whoever was on the phone, leaving Miles and Shawn by Zenia, who was considerably less animated than she was with Miles upon meeting Shawn. “I'm sorry to have to meet you under these conditions, but it is nice to meet you.” Zenia sniffled, looking over her computer screen for a couple of seconds. “If you'd like we can get you registered with the mages while you're waiting on Naomi, I can let her know where you're at.”
Shawn nodded, glancing around the place. “I don't know where I'm going but sure, one less thing for Naomi to take care of.”
Zenia sent them off, with a little guide she'd pulled out of her desk to show them the right way to go. It was a little glass sphere, nothing too special about it until Zenia instructed where they needed to go, then it lit up with a rainbow of colored lights, zooming up in front of them then zooming away down a hallway.
Miles and Shawn followed the light, the ball stopping every couple feet right ahead of them, bouncing in place until they caught up. “This is pretty neat...” Shawn muttered, the ball peeking around a corner to wait for them.
Getting the registration for Shawn was a lot more involved than it was for Miles. They entered the room, which looked a lot like a shooting gallery, except instead of bullet holes filling the targets they were singed or partially blown up. The man behind the counter, who looked like the stereotype for an old, grizzled wizard aside from the pinstripe suit finished with a wacky tie, asked Shawn a couple of questions before he asked for a performance test.
Shawn balked, swallowing. “I don't have much control yet...”
The old man arched an eyebrow and nodded to one of the targets. “We still need to gauge your powers.”
Shawn swallowed and stepped into one of the booths. The glass surrounding it was thick, it seemed to be something like bulletproof glass, forming a tunnel directed to a target. Miles remembered the power that Shawn displayed throwing Nikolas back and swallowed, this didn't seem like a good idea.
Shawn pouted down to his temporary ID, where next to 'Ability' it read 'Electricity, control is 1, power 10. Seek training to improve.' “I know I need training. I don't need it advertised on my ID...”
Miles squeezed Shawn's shoulder. “To be fair, you did blow up five of the targets when you were only supposed to singe one.”
Shawn sighed, leaning into Miles as they walked back to the lobby of the Council building. He must've been tired from using his magic, his eyes were already drooping even as he spoke. “I just hope Naomi was able to get somewhere while I was blowing up his office.”
They'd just reached the lobby when Miles got slammed into by a blur of black and maroon, Naomi grabbing Miles by his free arm and dragging both him and Shawn toward the entrance. She had a murderous look on her face, her cheeks tear strained and eyes reddened but any sadness she had was taken over by anger.
He was going to guess it didn't go well.