Chapter 13
Viria was not alarmed at all. She simply teleported out of the place. But it wasn’t the best idea, since she came across a thing of her nightmares.
Most times she had trouble sleeping at night was because she dreamt of people being killed and rising in apocalypses. She’d seen one of sorts in her childhood. She’d caused one, and deep down, she knew she hadn’t forgiven herself for it at all.
The alarms were still blaring loudly. Mitch was nowhere to be seen, but using her trained senses she realized he’d buried himself and was controlling the dead babies. They mounted their damaged, bloody bodies onto each other as they fought off grown men in black uniforms and vests. Viria immediately pulled up her hood and mask and set aside her disgust for the scene she was witnessing, and got down to fighting. There were four of them and it seemed they hadn’t noticed her appear and were surprised to see her jump out from behind a tower of dead chimera children.
The babies fell apart as soon as Viria took over, leaving her plenty of space to move. Viria was a witch, of course, but she never allowed herself to be too dependent on anything. And so she’d gone out to learn what she could about martial arts and stored it in her memory to practice for later. And she would be very disciplined and diligent in her training.
Viria took them all out in seconds without using her powers. She didn’t want to leave behind a strong trace of magic that could be intercepted by powerful witches or wizards possibly in league with the Morbus. She was hoping one of them would appear so she could pound them to pieces with all the pent up anger and frustration she held for them.
Us witches and wizards are the worst, she thought as she crashed a man’s face against her knee. I can’t believe we’d turn against our kind this way.
Once they were all properly knocked out cold, she dusted her hands and walked to where Mitch was buried under the blood and sand, tapping the area with his knee. The alarms suddenly stopped and that felt more threatening to her than anything else.
“Mitch, it’s over,” she said. “We need to get out of here, now.”
Master? Where are you? she heard Yang in her head.
Stay as far as you can, Viria said. I’m on my way.
The ground beside her foot broke away and Mitch got up from his impromptu grave.
“That was quick,” he said. “Come on.”
And they made a run for it across the barren land. She spotted Yin and Yang far in the distance and called out to them telepathically. They noticed her broke out into a run toward her.
“My familiars will take us back home,” she breathes as she ran. “Don’t be alarmed by them. I don’t want to use any more of my powers until I feel we’re far enough from here.”
Mitch only nodded. He ran without losing his breath. The two bears finally closed in and none of them spared the other a single second. The two flung themselves onto their backs and the familiars took off running toward safety. Once far enough, according to Viria, she teleported them.
Viria told them directions to Mitch’s community and they ran through the woods.
Luke was with Fergus in Viria’s office, thumbing through files. He’d come across the one including Diana’s case and decided to read it for himself. He didn’t want to make Fergus relive any memories. Viria was right when she said that they hardly had any control over their emotions to deal with anything properly. It was never that Viria didn’t have emotions in the first place. Feelings were easy to read in her eyes and he knew she would let herself cry if needed, but she would never let it interfere with logic and reasoning.
He looked over at Fergus as he studied a map on a board, marked with pins and red string along with pictures held in place. His fingers trailed over it and Luke knew the wolf shifter was looking for the familiar torture room he found Diana in all that time ago. He wanted to ask Fergus to back away and not cause himself unnecessary pain. That it was a closed chapter he need not go back to on purpose and feel guilty for. Luke decided to do it.
“Fergus,” he called out. “Back away from there.”
“Why?” he asked, still tracing the map.
“Just don’t look for it, man,” he said. “It’s pointless.”
Fergus sighed and dropped his hand, looking away and heading to a large book shelf built into one of the walls. He read their titles under his breath.
“Art of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Magic and Politics, Understanding Essence and Bonding…” he got louder, “You seeing the size of these books? She’s read all of ‘em!”
“How do you know?”
“Book marks, see? She’s got those little neon stickers marking important stuff in them,” he said as he picked up a book and went through it. “Woah, okay.”
Luke looked over and saw a rather pale Fergus. Frowning, he went over and took the book from him. It wasn’t a library book, but a notebook. He carefully inspected the pages, growing very disturbed by the minute. It was Viria’s diary. It was filled with very disturbing content, but it wasn’t her fault. It seemed more like a diary for venting out more than anything. The drawings for visual representation were the scariest part.
She’d written about awful dreams she had that kept her up at night. About apocalypses, killing, torture cells. She’d written about her depression and what she thought it looked like. For a while, she even hallucinated and saw things Luke wouldn’t even want to experience through nightmares or horror movies.
He shut the book. It was depressing.
“Here’s another one,” Fergus said. “This seems better. It’s all about Morrigan, though.”
“I think I’ve had enough for today.” Luke sighed. “I could never get this much work done in a few months, though. This is absolutely crazy.”
“If you want me to be honest, I think Viria is completely insane and doesn’t know it, doesn’t show it.”
“She’s not insane, Fergus,” he said. “She’s a genius. Look at this place.”
Fergus didn’t want to admit it, but Luke was right. The room was covered in all kinds of writings, drawings, screens, and other tools he did not want to think of what use they could have. There was a cabinet behind her desk that held vials filled with liquid that looked very much like blood, disturbingly enough. Weapons, clothes and a large symbol was held against a wall that he figured belonged to the Morbus. It hardly seemed like a normal room at all.
Fergus sighed. “It’s enough for now, I guess. I’ll be heading to my room.”
“Same,” Luke said and they left the place. They walked slowly, both of them lost in thought.
“This is really weird,” Fergus said. “Sitting back like this and not having shit stress us out.”
“I know,” Luke said, “Feels kind of boring. How messed up things gotta be that the only time you feel normal is when there’s trouble?”
“But, like,” Fergus started, “We have families, though. Not like there’s nothing else to live for.”
“I think it’ll take time for us to come around to accepting this,” he said. “You know, it’s not that I’m bored. I think I’m just anxious and restless and waiting for something to just happen to one of us.”
“I think that’s called anxiety, man,” he said with a rub of his neck. “Does that happen to shifters? Anxiety and depression and all?”
“Happens to anyone with a brain.” He laughed. “It can happen to us, too.”
Fergus was silent for a while.
“Nah, maybe it’s just us not used to this yet.”
Although Ivanna was sat in Leon’s lap with her back against his chest, and as relaxing as that could get, she powered away with the paperwork. The work she should’ve completed in two hours finished in one and Ivanna turned around as soon as she was done, straddling his and peppering his face with kisses.
Leon laughed, but it was cut off by her mouth on his. Smiling, he wrapped his hands around her waist and pulled her closer, running his fingers over her body. She sighed into his mouth with pleasure and reached for his hand, sliding it down to her butt. Leon couldn’t help laughing into the kiss.
“Why do you like my hand there so much?” He chuckled pulling away.
“I dunno,” Ivanna said, hiding her face in his neck. “I love your hands. They’re nice. And they feel even nicer there.”
With a kiss to her ear, he gently stroked her bottom, running his hand down to her thigh and back up. Ivanna sighed in contentment and hugged him. Leon wrapped and arm around her and picked her up, moving to the couch and lying down on it with her. He held her close for a cuddle and Ivanna happily snuggled into his chest. She thought she would fall asleep any moment, and she almost did until Leon’s hand moved from her butt to her waist instead. That woke her up and she immediately pushed his hand down to the curve of her ass again. Leon smacked his hand over it lightly before going back to rubbing it.
“Spoiled little kitten,” he murmured into her ear, biting the lobe to pull out a giggle from her.
“It’s your fault,” she said nonchalantly. “Why is your hand so nice? Why are you good to me? Of course, I’ll want you more.”
Leon shifted until Ivanna was on her back under his arm and he hovered over her. His hand shifted down her but to her hip, running down to her thigh.
“How much do you want me right now, though?”
Ivanna blushed under his gaze. His eyes suddenly darkened, lips parting to run his tongue over lightly as his eyes scanned over her face. He wouldn’t even look at her body until he knew what she wanted.
“Um, a lot?”
“What do want me to do to you, hmm?” he whispered over her lips, making her breath hitch in her throat. Ivanna always became confused on how to answer because though the two had been together for a long time, she always got extremely shy. Leon chuckled at the look on her face.
“Can I touch you?” he asked. “You can tell me to stop whenever.”
Ivanna nodded and he leaned down to kiss her, his hand trailing down her stomach, lifting her shirt to reach under, pulling her bra down and lightly thumbing over her nipple. Ivanna moaned softly in his mouth and he continued to fondle her, tweaking and kneading it affectionately. He moved away from her mouth to kiss her neck, wanting to hear her moans. She tried hard to suppress the noises but she couldn’t help it when his hands felt like magic against her skin.
He bit her neck where her sweet spot was making her whimper, sucking and licking it to soothe the red skin and leave behind a love bite. As his hand danced down her body, so did his lips that soon closed over her breasts. Fingers slipped past the tights she was wearing and teased her clit over her underwear, making her whine and moan out his name. Ivanna ‘s mouth dropped open for air as the pleasure snatched her breath away, and she was soon squealing as Leon’s fingers slipped past the cloth and rubbed her nub furiously while he sucked her breast, the hand under her back reaching out to grope the other. Ivanna held onto Leon’s head as she grew dizzy and when his fingers plunged into her, she became a screaming mess and was soon coming into his hand while he kissed her hard to conceal her screams.