Page 99 of Incubus
“And you expect me to wait until he does? He never should have been born!”
“Gabe, please! You know me. Being a seal doesn’t have to meanthis. You can’t condemn someone to death before they’ve done anything!”
“You are a fae posing as a seal!”
Nathan heard more grunts and thuds in the distance as he spun in place, trying to navigate with Walter’s assistance. The sounds of fighting were close. Nathan took another turn past stacks of boxes that towered over him up to the high ceiling above, spotting movement in front of him, but it was dark and,as he approached, he came up to more shelving that only gave him a tease of what was happening on the other side.
He could see Sasha and Gabriel, neither visibly armed as they traded blows. That should have made it easy. There was no reason Sasha shouldn’t be able to take Gabriel down, even if he wasn’t at his best.
“You’re starting to grow tired,incubus,” Gabriel taunted. And it was true. Sasha looked sluggish, almost sick. Gabriel sidestepped a punch and pushed Sasha into another set of shelving, causing a cascade of clinking, clanging metal.
Metal. It struck Nathan then that the fumes he could smell all around them was iron. He had to get to the other side.
Following the path of the shelving with Walter shouting at him to hurry, Nathan moved as fast as he could. It was taking him away from the fight, but he trusted Walter, and knew that if he could just find an end point to the shelving again, he would be able to reach Sasha and Gabriel out in the open.
“You know what they do here by now, I imagine?” Gabriel said, dimmer to Nathan now but still audible. “You can feel the iron. Little by little it’s slowing you down, eating away at you. I couldn’t be sure if this place would have any effect on the changeling, but it seems to be working well enough on you.”
Finally, Nathan could see an end to the shelves and he tore around to the other side, running, desperate now that he could finally see Sasha and Gabriel clearly. The light was brighter where they were fighting since they were close to the conveyer belts. Nathan could see every move they made, but he was still so far away.
Sasha was throwing weak punches and being struck by blows he should have normally been able to avoid. Gabriel wasn’t even trying. He wasplaying. He was enjoying himself. It made Nathan so angry, he almost screamed.
He was so close. So close now. He could reach them. Gabriel didn’t even see him coming.
Internally, Nathan cheered when Sasha got in a good hit and Gabriel went down, landing amongst the various finished metal parts that Sasha had knocked over earlier. It was stupid but understandable the way Sasha rubbed at his eyes then, stopping to take a breath he desperately needed with how the iron in the air was poisoning him.
But with his attention unfocused, Sasha didn’t see Gabriel pick up one of the sharp, jagged pieces of metal beside him and start to get up.
“Sasha!” Nathan yelled. He could make it. He could still reach them in time.
And then Nathan realized what a fool he was for calling out, because Sasha turned to look at him, turnedawayfrom Gabriel, and that was all the opportunity Gabriel needed.
Nathan was two yards away when Gabriel stabbed the piece of metal into Sasha’s chest.
“No!” Nathan cried, descending on Gabriel with the fiercest punch he could manage. Gabriel went down hard, but Nathan immediately forgot all about him.
“No, no,no,” Nathan chanted, dropping down beside Sasha, who was already on his knees and falling back. Nathan tried to help, tried to hold him up, but Sasha was so heavy, dead weight just like Gabriel. Dead weight…
Nathan choked down a gasp and did his best to ease Sasha back. As the incubus lay down, he reached up toward Nathan’s face, but his hand couldn’t grip and his fingers slid down Nathan’s cheek in a desperate, failed attempt to touch him. Those bright blue eyes were so wide, Sasha’s whole expression one of disbelief. Nathan was right there with him too, because this couldn’t be happening. This wasn’t happening.
“You’re okay…you’re okay,” Nathan said, looking down at the jagged piece of metal sticking out of Sasha’s chest like it couldn’t really be there, like it couldn’t bereal. The positioning was perfect. Right in Sasha’s heart. “No, no…you’re okay…you’re going to be okay.”
“N-Nathan…” Sasha tried to speak, and immediately Nathan’s eyes went back to Sasha’s face, that pale skin shimmering with waves of those horrible veins the way Nathan remembered with Sasha’s aunt. The way the poison of the iron had worked through her body before she…
“No,” Nathan said again, shaking his head, crouched on the floor and holding Sasha in his arms tighter. “The antidote,” he said with conviction, holding a hand to Sasha’s cheek the way Sasha had been unable to do with him. “Jim has some. He’s around here…somewhere. He has to be. Jim!” Nathan yelled. He didn’t know what else to do.
Slowly, Sasha’s eyes began to soften, no longer staring up at him with fear, but with somber affection instead and the small subtle traces of a smile. Nathan knew that look. That look was resignation. That look was giving up.
“You’ll be okay,” Nathan said, tightening his grip on Sasha’s face and leaning in close. “We just…we just need the antidote and you’ll be okay. Walter, where is Jim? Jim!” He called up to the ceiling. Jim should be there by now.
Walter disappeared in search of Jim, but even if he found him, he wouldn’t be able to tell Jim where they were.
“Please, Sasha…just…just…” Nathan clenched his eyes shut and felt a tear run hot down his face. He couldn’t feel his own body. He could only feel Sasha, trembling against him and looking at him like he was trying to say goodbye. “You can’t. You just can’t…” Nathan said, but he couldn’t finish what he meant. He couldn’t actually say the word, the awful truth of what was happening.
The veins shimmered over Sasha’s face again, so much more imbedded then they had ever been from simple cuts. Sasha tried to lift his hand again but it flopped uselessly beside him. So, instead, Sasha lifted his neck, surely an even harder feat, and pressed his lips up into Nathan’s.
It wasn’t even a real kiss because Sasha didn’t have the strength to give him one, so Nathan moved his other hand underneath Sasha’s head and helped, deepening it so he could feel that mouth warm against his.
Nothing seemed more important than that kiss while they were in it. Nathan wasn’t saying goodbye, even if Sasha was. He was saying everything else, all the things he never said and maybe never would, because they weren’t things Nathan said out loud. But he could say them like this, knowing Sasha heard him.
