Page 119 of Incubus
Nathan tried not to choke on the words that left him. “Gabriel’s no angel, Sasha. Now come on, focus. Where is he? We need to find him and take care of things before we get you out of here.”
Sasha’s eyes drifted up to the ceiling, a million miles away. “Nathan…thinks I left him. But I…I would never leave.”
Nathan grabbed Sasha’s face in both hands, hating himself for how Sasha flinched at having the cuts touched. “Sasha, I’m right here.Nathan. Touching you with real hands,myhands. You feel that, don’t you?” Nathan was afraid for a moment that maybe all Sasha could feel was pain.
But then those tired, marred blue eyes were blinking again and Nathan saw the spark he had been waiting for. “Nathan…?”
“Yeah,” Nathan grinned. “We’re going to get you out of here, okay? Everything’s going to be okay.”
Nathan knew he sounded patronizing like he was talking to some injured child, but that was exactly how things felt. Sasha was damaged in some way that dimmed his senses and his thoughts, just as Nathan remembered from back in Minnesota the first time he had seen those veins.
“Do you know where Gabriel is?” Nathan tried again, slow and direct.
Sasha shook his head.
“Okay,” Jim said, squeezing Sasha’s knee again. “Do you know what he did to you? Are all these cuts from iron?”
Slowly, Sasha started to nod. “Hurts…” he said like a whimper, “…everywhere. He didn’t…want me to…say I’m Deklin’s son. But I am…aren’t I?” Sasha’s eyes turned imploring and desperate as they looked between the brothers.
“Of course you are,” Jim said, so much better at the comforting tone and assurances than Nathan. “But stay with us. If Gabriel cut you with iron then how are you okay? The poison looks like it’s working through your body differently this time. Is it like before, just an alloy?”
Sasha shook his head again. “Real iron, but…but if we drink the antidote…without putting it on the wound…sometimes it can…slow it down, but still…still hurts. I can…feel it under my skin.”
Killing Gabriel wasn’t good enough anymore. Now Nathan wanted the bastard to suffer.
“Nathan, take Sasha to the car.”
Nathan gave a start, pulling out of his thoughts to stare at Jim. “Excuse me? Were you not listening before when I talked about the no-splitting-up part to the plan? It’s exactly what Gabriel wants, Jim. Let’s just get out of here.”
“No. Don’t you understand, Nathan?” Jim said, hardened by determination. “Why do you think Gabriel’s playing it this way? He knows it doesn’t matter if he’s here in this room when we find Sasha. Finding Sasha like this, and with the way things have gone before now, he knows we can’t just leave. He knows we’ll have to go looking for him, right into the rooms he probably has traps in. And he’s right. We have to. We can’t just leave again, Nathan, and wait for something like this to happenagain. It needs to end now.”
“Back up to the part about him having expected us to do this,” Nathan countered. “You’re right, he almost for certain has thoserooms booby trapped or God knows what, and you’re just going to play right into his game? I don’t want to give him another chance to ambush us later, but damn it, Jim—”
“I’m going, Nathan,” Jim said, standing up and passing his hand over Sasha’s hair so that the incubus looked up at him vaguely. “It’s me he wants anyway. He doesn’t know everything that I can do. I can use that to my advantage. No alcohol getting in the way this time.”
“Jim, wait.Youdon’t know all you can do. At least let me have Walter—”
“I’m going,” Jim said again, turning his head to stare down at Nathan with a fierce look that made Nathan’s throat close up because there was an apology in those eyes too. “Don’t follow me,” Jim said, and with all of Nathan’s strength, he wouldn’t have been able to even as Jim walked away, gun ready, toward one of the closed doors.
As soon as Jim disappeared into that other room, and thankfully no explosion, sound of gunfire, or other telling horror followed, Nathan was able to move and think clearly again. He would have to have a very severe talk with Jim about how he was not allowed to mojohim.
Nathan got to his feet, helping Sasha stand as well with careful attention. Sasha hissed at the hold Nathan had on him, touching cuts that had to sting horribly. Most of the antidote was in the trunk of the car outside, all of what they knew remained of Sasha’s stash, but there wasn’t time to attend to the many wounds. Jim was willingly walking into a trap and Nathan was not just going to allow it.
“Walter, he said I can't follow him,” Nathan spoke aloud to their surroundings, knowing Walter would appear, and focusing hard on his Spirit Guide once he did, “but that doesn’t meanyoucan't, and it doesn't mean I can’t try getting to him through one of the other doors. That’s just…exploring. Yeah. I’m notfollowing. Hell, I don’t want to find Jim. I want to get to that asshole Gabriel first and ram my gun up his ass.”
And since none of that was a lie, Nathan had no trouble overriding Jim's power to let him work his way to the door next to the one Jim had gone through.
"Nathan, are you sure?" Walter asked from behind him.
"I'm sure, Walt. You stick with Jim. I got Sasha."
Walter nodded before he vanished.
“Traps…” Sasha said so lightly that Nathan barely heard him.
“Yeah, I know,” Nathan said. He looked down at Sasha slumped against him. “Hey…I shouldn’t have moved you. I should leave you here. You’ll be safer here.”
“No!” Sasha pleaded in a terrified childlike voice, clinging to Nathan’s waist with his free arm while the other was hoisted around Nathan’s shoulders. “Don’t leave me, Nathan…please, don’t leave me.”
