Page 61 of Sidhe
With no reason to argue, the four of them began a sprint through the torrents of rain to reach the house. Of course Nathan didn’t feel panicked or anxiousat allas they drudged up the hill. He just couldn’t help being bothered that once again there was no way for him to talk with Jim and Sasha about how they were going to pull this off.
Nathan was thankful the old house had a porch, giving them an opportunity to get out the stakes and coat them in consecrated soil without the rain washing it away. Sasha ran around to the back to plant a stake in the ground outside the back door. With the front they would just have to leave a stake lying there and hope it would be enough should the nach slip past them. They left the ice cream pail on the porch.
Once they were set, Solrin took point and pushed on the doors, which opened easily despite the ‘Condemned Building’ sign.
The house was in better shape on the inside than the outside gave away, but it was still dark and dank, boards cracked, a lot like the barn Nathan and Solrin had explored before. It was also huge, with high ceilings, and a staircase off the main entrance that reminded Nathan a little too much of the large familiar house Malak had conjured up the other day. There was water dripping from several places in the ceiling but at least it was warmer and dryer than outside. All of them had stakes as well as flashlights, thankfully; they definitely needed the extra light.
“We should split up,” Jim said hushed, no sign of any creatures immediately visible. “It’ll make it easier to surround this thing instead of giving it an opening out of the building. Solrin,” he nodded for the seal to go with him, looking over at Nathan and Sasha pointedly to say as best he could that the way he wanted to go with Solrin would lead to the nach, while the other way was closer to the incubus.
“Works for me,” Nathan whispered back.
Even in the dim lighting he could tell that Solrin was not happy about being paired with someone other than him, his white hair glowing eerily in the dark from its bright color as he cast Nathan a frustrated glance.
He smiled, tossed Solrin a wink, “You boys play nice now,” and then grabbed Sasha’s arm to pull him the opposite direction in search of the incubus.
Before they were even out of the room, Sasha ran ahead of Nathan and began to lead, obviously hot on the trail of the incubus since he could sense him more clearly now. Nathan had to struggle to keep up and it worried him that Sasha was so adamant. This could go wrong so many different ways, and all of them would just destroy Sasha.
Rounding a corner too quickly, Sasha nearly collided with a dead end, frantically righting himself to head the other way. Nathan pulled the incubus back against him at that, knowing Sasha was bound to do something stupid if he kept on like this.
“Breathe, baby, this isn’t a race. We’ll get to the kid,” he whispered assuredly.
Frantic as he was, Sasha took a moment to do as Nathan said and took a few deep breaths. “Sorry. I know. But itwillbe a race if Jim and Solrin get rid of the nach before we’ve found him. He’s close, Nate, I canfeelhim. He’s so scared, and…and panicked. I think he’s being drawn to Solrin like Jim and I were. We can’t let him go to him, Nathan.”
“Then let’s go,” Nathan said, holding Sasha tight a moment more, squeezing the incubus’ arms supportively, and finally releasing.
Sasha glanced back at Nathan before moving on, his grateful smile visible in the dark.
The incubus moved on quickly, but not quite as haphazard, leading Nathan through the lower level of the house around winding turns and through several rooms that made the place feel like a labyrinth. What made it all even more eerie was how quiet it was. They couldn’t hear anything but the rain hitting the roof and occasional thunder.
When Nathan and Sasha at last reached a cellar door, Sasha looked at Nathan gravely, nodding his head to say that this was it.
A growl shot past them the moment Sasha opened the door. There was a blur of teal and brown that was there and then suddenly gone. The kid had probably been about to go out in search of Solrin like Sasha thought.
“Wait!” Sasha called. “It’s okay!” He started to bound down the stairs into the cellar but Nathan grabbed his arm to hold him back. The extra stakes for the nach were still in a bag over Nathan’s shoulder, but he also had his iron knife. He let Sasha know that as he squeezed his arm, presenting the blade with a hollow look that silently promised ‘only if we have to’.
Grief flashed across Sasha’s face but he nodded. Then Sasha turned and began a slower tread down the steps.
“Please,” he called more gently, carefully turning the light of his flashlight down the steps and scanning the large cellar as he descended into it. “I know where you were going, why you were being drawn up there even though you didn’t want to go. What you sense isn’t what you think, I promise you. But I am. I know you can feel that I’m like you.”
Another growl rumbled from one of the corners below and Sasha flashed his light that direction, almost fully down into the cellar now. Nathan, following closely behind, saw another brief glimpse of teal and brown before the figure vanished again.
“It’s okay,” Sasha said pleadingly, trying to find the kid amongst the shadows, “I know you’re scared but we’re not going to hurt you.”
“Hrrnngg,” came an unintelligible sound, half between a growl and a word. This time Nathan saw Sasha glance the direction it was coming from but he didn’t point his light. “Hrrr…hrrrunnn...hunnnters…” the strained voice finally managed, close enough to the real word for Nathan to understand.
Sasha stepped slowly towards the voice, keeping his light on the floor in front of him. “I am. I’m a seal. But we’re not herefor you. I won’t hurt you. Neither will he.” Sasha glanced back imploringly even though he knew Nathan still had the knife out.
“…w-w-won’t…hurt me…” the voice said more clearly, “but I-I’ll…hurthim.” He growled again, not moving away from Sasha’s approach but obviously hunched low and curled in on himself for how his voice was muted. The growl sounded lower too, like a warning or…ordesire, Nathan thought, because the kid had to be starving by now, and if Solrin’s presence could lure him out despite how scared he was, then Nathan being so close and so temptinglyhumanhad to be torture.
Closer now, right upon the corner the boy was hiding, Sasha crouched low and let his light slowly drift up the shivering figure. Nathan held back a gasp. He had seen partially and fully transformed incubi many times, but this was different. The caking of dirt and dried blood thick enough to mostly hide the kid’s clothing nearly trumped the fierce incubus aspects pushing through.
He was wearing jeans, what had once been jeans, and an oversized sweatshirt that might have been brown but maybe that was just the dirt. The zipper on the sweatshirt was busted, and the kid had used safety pins to keep it closed.Safety pins.Nathan thought of the one he’d found in the barn, and even though his mind went to pity for a moment since several pins were missing, he had a feeling that it hadn’t been some recent try for modesty after the zipper broke but a teenage fashion statement now lost.
The worst was the kid’s face, his red eyes flashing wildly, his skin so pale, almost its natural white but smudged and covered in filth. His hair was brown, hopefully brown and not just coated, and it curled slightly just past his ears.
He was akidall right, too, eighteen at the most, like Sasha had guessed. The teal Nathan had seen was the color of the kid’s markings starting to show through, coloring his hands that werealmost full claws now. He was dangerously close to frenzy, closer than they had anticipated.
Nathan suddenly felt very vulnerable as the resident incubus happy meal. He couldn’t possibly miss the hungry stare that looked past Sasha right at him.
