Page 63 of White Wolf
He curled up at his side and let the exhaustion take him. A good alpha wasn’t supposed to sleep at a time like this, but he could trust Nikita to keep watch. At least for now. At least until it wasn’t somuch…
He slept.
~*~
He was heavier than he looked, but Nikita didn’t accept Ivan’s offer to carry him. He was worried the shift in – inscents– might wake Sasha, and then they’d have a repeat of his first outburst on their hands. He carried him bridal style, head carefully balanced on his shoulder so the boy’s face was against his throat, right where he’d placed it himself. Ivan held the doors, instead, and they left the steel tables, soldiers, and too-bright lights behind, going into the small, and thankfully empty, bunk room several feet down the hall.
Nikita tried to lay Sasha down on a cot, but his fingers clenched in the fabric of his shirt. A short spasm, a reflex. So Nikita sat down on the cot himself, slumping back against the wall, and let Sasha settle in next to him, still curled up in an impossibly tight ball of white limbs.
He glanced up to find his men gathered around him, faces caught in expressions of mixed horror and fascination.
Philippe was there too, smiling; he’d followed them.
In a voice so calm it startled him, Nikita said, “What the fuck did you do?” He was too wrung-out to put any heat behind it.
“Exactly what I set out to do,” the old man said. “We won’t know for sure just how strong he is, or how reasonable he’ll be until after he’s rested, but the ceremony was otherwise successful.” His smile threatened to crack his face in two. “I couldn’t have hoped for a stronger wolf than the alpha we used today. Justsplendid.”
“You didn’t answer the question.”
“I’m afraid you wouldn’t understand the mechanics of it. But I could try to explain–”
“Do.”
“At its most basic, it’s a summoning spell. As powerful as I am, I can’t force the wolf into the man; I can only act as an energy source and a conduit for the power. I extend a conditional invitation – you can come into corporeal form, but only if you help me unite the souls of wolf and man.”
“Invitation to who?” Pyotr asked, voice high and shaky.
“A demon, of course,” Philippe said, patiently, like Pyotr was an especially dense child.
“You turned Sasha into a demon,” Nikita said. It was ridiculous and impossible. But he’d seen the change with his own eyes.
“No. I’ve turned him into abodark. Sasha is a werewolf. We have to hope he’s strong enough to still be himself, too.”
~*~
A tin cup of tea materialized in front of his face and Nikita fought his startle reflex. The hand holding the cup belonged to Kolya, his frown concerned.
“Thanks,” Nikita said, reaching with his free hand for the tea. The other rested on Sasha’s ribs, against the steady beat of his heart, his arm curled around the boy’s shoulders.
“I brought you a sandwich too.”
“Hmm.” He sipped the tea, grateful for the burst of too-sweet jam across his tongue.
“I’ll force feed it to you if I have to.”
“Mmhm.”
Kolya sank down onto the cot across from theirs. “How is he?” He looked at Sasha with a blend of sadness and fondness, like someone visiting the sickbed of a dying relative.
It made Nikita’s insides squirm. “Still asleep.” And in truth, he was grateful for that. None of them had any idea what would happen when Sasha woke. Philippe, the bastard, had confessed that the last bodark he’d turned had proved too weak to keep hold of his own mind during the melding, and was a limping, drooling idiot, snarling and snapping, wandering barefoot down the streets. Mitya, his name had been. Everyone thought he’d had some sort of traumatic brain injury, and in a way, Nikita guessed he had.
“I haven’t ever…” Kolya started, and wiped a hand across his mouth. “Jesus. I saw it with my own eyes, and I still can’t believe it happened.”
“Yeah.”
Kolya studied the boy a long moment, head tipped to the side, considering. “I can sit with him a while if you want. You can catch some sleep that way.”
“No.” The longer he stewed on it, the more he realized it was a miracle no one had shot him amid the chaos. Whatever Sasha was now, whatever his powers were, he seemed heartbreakingly vulnerable right now, sleeping trustingly at Nikita’s side. “I’m fine.”
