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Realistic or Modern Transformation

Jason was in her face, angry and rough, but in the blink of an eye he was gone. The crash reverberated throughout the house, the growling and yelling echoed in her ears, and it took her tired eyes a moment to realize that Leon and Jason were far from her. They were on the ground, punches exchanged between the two of them until they were both bloodied by fierce knuckles. Rita tried to stand to help, but her body could not manage much more than shifting forward, and she was afraid. She was afraid if she stood and stepped into the middle of it that she would lose herself again. She worried that she would hurt them. No, not them. She was worried she would hurt Leon.

But then she heard his nose break and so did her heart.

“Jason, stop!” she called out, her voice shaky, “Jason!”

Nate quickly settled beside her as she tried to get up and wrapped a reassuring arm around her shoulders. He held her to him, keeping her still and offering support as they watched the two duke it out. It seemed Nate understood just as she did. Jason deserved to get the shit beat out of him and it was dangerous to get involved because Rita was so volatile. Rita clenched her bruised and bloody knuckles from earlier in the evening, the blood hardly dried from their ordeal, and she felt so powerless. There was nothing she could do to protect Leon because besides Jason, she was the biggest threat in the room.

And she could not bear to hurt him again. Never again.

Orvar was there in the blink of an eye, appearing to shove Jason back and hold a hand to Leon to keep him down. It was not the first time he had broken up a possible fight between the two, but it was the first time he clearly took sides and laid his hands on Jason, not Leon. Who could have blamed him, either? Leon’s screams came from the most guttural, instinctual place because Rita was threatened. Something was so bad that Leon’s instinct overwhelmed him and Orvar could not push that aside. No one could.

“Jason put his hands on Rita,” Nate said simply, “Since she came here last, you said it was just fucking nightmares. You both did and they aren’t. The nightmares fucking hurt her. She wakes up with bruises and bleeding, her heart slowing down and her lungs seizing. Something is in Rita’s fucking head, and I know because it pushed Becca out. It pushed a fucking witch out, and it’s killing her. Look at her.”

“When have you ever seen Rita like that? Leon like that? Is it enough to prove to you that this isn’t just some fucking overreaction to trauma – which, by the fucking way, is bullshit and a half and you know it.”

He eyed Jason and breathed out heavily, trying to stop himself from lunging at the jackass. “She was in a nightmare and we watched her wake up, but she wasn’t there. They weren’t her eyes and whatever was controlling her made her attack us. She managed to –“ he glanced at Rita who had a look of pure guilt on her face and chose his next words very carefully for her sake, “back us into a corner before she came to. We watched it – she blinked and collapsed, bleeding and crying.”

“She needs us and you all just keep fucking brushing her off, like she didn’t save every single one of your lives. You, Jason, Becca, Leon, me– how the hell can she ask for help so many times and no one fucking listens?”
 
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Orvar turned to look at Rita when Nate demanded it, but remained silent. From where Leon sat on the floor with his palm waiting to catch the blood dripping from his nose, he couldn’t see his face, but he saw his hands. The vampire was good at remaining expressionless, but over the years Leon had learned that he tapped his fingers against some surface when he was agitated, clenched his hands when he was angry, and when he ruminated, he ran his index finger up and down the inside of his thumb. Those were his tells.

The vampire, in that moment, alternated between tapping his fingers against his leg and tracing the inside of his thumb, agitated and ruminating. The only time his hand paused in its twitching was when Nate listed off all the lives Rita had saved, Orvar’s included. Yeah, he remembered. He remembered how he’d been loaded up with UV bullets and had been burning up from the inside, how he would’ve died if Rita hadn’t cut them out of him. She’d helped him without hesitation, hadn’t she? And what had he done for her when she needed help? Orvar clenched his hand into a fist. Nothing. He’d done nothing.

“You’re right,” Orvar said. “I haven’t listened, but I’m listening now.”

Although he’d had an inkling what Orvar would say before he said it, he was no less relieved to hear it.

“‘Bout time,” Leon muttered, and the vampire glanced down at him, one eyebrow arched.

“You’re bleeding on the rug,” he said. Leon grumbled but leaned back so any blood that slipped through his fingers landed on his leg instead.

After sending Jason for a basin filled with water, towels, and a first aid kit from the kitchen, Orvar called Becca. Throughout his conversation with her, his hand clenched into a tighter and tighter fist. Looked like they weren’t the only ones who found her difficult to deal with these days. When he mentioned that Leon had been injured during the event, Orvar’s hand relaxed and shortly after, he ended the call.

“She’ll be here in fifteen minutes,” Orvar said.

It was long enough that Leon was able to wash most the blood off and stem the flow from his nose. Orvar gave him a once over and then permitted him to return to the loveseat with Rita. Nate stood to make way for him, but before he could find another seat, Leon placed a hand on the other werewolf’s shoulder. He tried to smile, but with as swollen and painful as his face was, all that came of it was a brief twitch at one corner of his mouth. Nate got the point, though, and nodded in return.

Leon found it hard to believe sometimes that he'd wanted to ditch Nate back in the woods they'd found him. If it hadn't been for Rita, he would've given up on Nate then and there (to be fair, Nate had been an angry little shithead during his hate-all-ex-Enforcers phase) but she'd insisted he give Nate another chance and he'd caved. If he hadn't, he would've missed out on having a friend he trusted to look out for his wife out of the goodness of his heart, not because he needed anything from her.

“Hey,” he said quietly to Rita, and once he’d settled back into his spot, he reached for her hand.
 
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Rita did her best not to close her eyes.

The exhaustion she felt was so deep rooted and unlike anything she had ever endured. When Chase was killed, she stayed up until ungodly hours of the morning and slept very little, but at least when she did sleep she passed out long enough to recharge herself. This time, though, there was no reprieve. When she was asleep, it was like running a marathon and when she would wake up, the tiredness in her bones would be so overwhelming that all she could do was curl up on herself or laze about blinking sleepily against the current that tried to pull her back under time and time again. There were deep bags under her eyes, a shakiness to her appearance that had never really been present before, and she felt weak. She felt like she wouldn’t be able to get up if the world started to end in that instant, and that frightened her. Rita had never been useless before. Maybe when shot, but she had been unconscious for the most part. This was the worst torture – being trapped in her own mind, imprisoned by exhaustion when awake and by four walls and nightmares when she slept.

Three whole days without sleep – it was wearing on her deeply. Almost too deeply.

“Hey,” she breathed out gently, her tried, dull green eyes glancing up at Orvar. She was almost too tired to keep eye contact but she slipped her bruised hand into his, dried blood caking her knuckles, and she held onto it. She gave his hand a gentle squeeze, a reminder that she was there, but she was afraid to get too close. She was afraid that all it took was a bit of relaxing before her eyes slipped shut and she was back there. If she went back there, there was no telling what would happen and she could do more than just bang Leon up a little bit. With Jason here, Orvar’s house was brimming with weapons and while Rita didn’t know where they were, she was afraid of what would transpire if whatever was controlling her took over.

But worst of all, she didn’t know what to say. She did not know how to make this better, but it did lift a substantial amount of the burden off her shoulders when Orvar recognized that she wasn’t crazy. This wasn’t her. It hurt to know that most of their family believed she hadn’t faced her trauma, but she had. Day in and day out Rita did everything she could to make herself better, to actually heal instead of throwing the feelings under a rug and letting them build until she exploded. This was something else, entirely. Maybe something that had been there a long time.

Before Rita could open her mouth again, Becca burst through the door like a bat out of hell. Her footsteps were heavy as she made her way into the sitting room and her eyes found Rita before they shifted to Leon and then back angrily to Rita. “What did you do?” she asked, her voice snapping. At least she had changed her clothes from her maid of honor dress, but Rita assumed that was probably because Becca wanted nothing to do with her right now. Becca needed her and she couldn’t be there for her, and it killed her slowly, minute by minute, to know there was nothing she could do in this state.

“Becca—“ Nate spoke up but she shot him a look that silenced him immediately.

“I—“ she contemplated lying to ease the blow to Becca but Rita shook her head and resided herself to her own fate. Her eyes downcast as her fingers slipped through Leon’s. It did not seem like Becca was too happy about their affection after seeing Leon beaten up.
 
Leon felt Rita’s fingers loosen in his hand, but before she could slide them free, he tightened his grip. No. This wasn’t her fault, he wasn’t going to let her pull away from him out of some misplaced sense of guilt. He pulled her hand over to his leg and held it there, running the pad of his thumb over the back and then squeezing it before he finally lifted his gaze to regard Becca. Leon opened his mouth to explain, but pain in his jaw flared and his breath caught in his throat. On his second attempt to speak, he kept from moving his lips too much, which resulted in a barely comprehensible mutter that made him sound exactly what he imagined a zombie with a head cold would.

“Rita didn’t,” he said, gesturing with his other hand to his nose, the worst of his injuries. No one had given him a mirror, but if he closed one eye and looked down the length of his nose, he could see that it jutted off in an angle it wasn’t supposed to and had started turning a shade of purple. Plum, probably. “Jason did.”

“Damn straight,” Jason said from where he stood leaned against the wall, one leg kicked out in front of the other and arms crossed over his chest.

Becca glanced at the ex-Enforcer when he spoke, then back at Leon, frowning. “But Orvar said you got hurt when she lost control.“

“Sort of. Not much. Mostly Jason.”

He wouldn’t lie to her. Rita had managed to hurt him during her episode, but Jason had been the one to make it so he couldn’t breathe through his nose or open his mouth more than a fraction. He’d caused the most obvious damage.

“Can you—“ He broke off and groaned because apparently he couldn’t ask a question without making a questioning expression and it hurt when he moved his face.

“Of course,” Becca said, immediately moving over to him, eyes fixed on his face and hands up and already glowing gold.

The glowing light grew so bright that when Leon closed his eyes, he could still see the afterimage burned into the back of his eyelids. There was a crunching noise, but he didn’t feel anything but warmth as she mended his broken bone. The warmth bloomed across the entire side of his face, and when he could feel it no longer, Leon opened his eyes again. Rebecca had taken a step back and was smiling widely. He worked his jaw and pinched the bridge of his nose. No pain resulted and he blew out a relieved sigh.

“There, that should be better,” she said brightly. For a moment, she was the Becca who, when they all lived together, would put on Disney movies in the entertainment room and would smilingly pass over her bowl of popcorn when he joined her, the one who collected spiders that snuck inside and released them outside, and the one who had gotten drunk at his and Rita’s wedding reception and declared that they were the most perfect couple ever and she was so happy to see that they were so happy and hey, don’t take my wine glass, I’m not finished with it. For a moment, their sweet Becca was back.

That moment passed when Leon shook his head and said, “No, Rita. I meant Rita. Can you look at Rita? You need to look at her again, Becca.”

Her face hardened again and she scoffed. “Right. Yeah. You’re welcome, by the way.”

“Becca, I didn’t mean…”

She cut him off with the same look she’d given Nate.

“I get it. Trust me, I get it.” She moved to stand in front of Rita, heaved a sigh and rested her hands on her hips. “Let's have another look, then. I need to get back home."
 
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No part of Rita wanted to go back in there. She knew the moment Becca raised her hands that she would be transported back to that hell and once again they would kick around looking for something or someone. They had no idea what they were looking for, but Rita had faith in Becca. Even when she very clearly loathed Rita, Becca was an incredible witch and determined. Rita instinctively tightened her hands on Leon’s and took a deep, shaky breath. Becca did not wait for her to say she was ready, instead the redhead took a step forward and the two were immediately transported into Rita’s mind.

And just like Rita thought – they were back. It was different this time, though. They were in the same room, but it was darker, more menacing and Becca stood beside her. Rita had appeared on her knees, too exhausted to stand even in her own mind. The most noticeable thing was silence before it was punctuated by a piercing scream that startled them both. It was high pitched, desperate and crazed and before Rita could look behind her to see who was there, both her and Becca were pulled back by a pair of well-manicured hands that dug its nails into their nails. It was the contact, though, that immediately sent Rita into flashes. One after another in rapid succession like a freight train of memories and images crashing into her sub consciousness. She heard Becca call out her name, but it was no use. Blood, fire, images of her family shattered, a room of her dearest family and friends slain on the floor, Chase’s corpse, a headless entity, the sound of heartbreaking cries of desperation. The pressure in her mind built until it felt as though her skull would crack.

And all she could hear repeated like a mantra in her ear was the pastor, “Till death do you part.”

Lorelei. The image flashed so quick that it was almost impossible to identify, but Rita saw her. She saw her long, manicured fingers, her bright and wild red hair, her darkened eyes in rage. It was only a flash but she was there with her hands outstretched and glowing.

Then she heard it.

“Get out!” the voice cried, white hot pain filling Rita’s body. She immediately registered the snap of leaving her mind, but the pain remained. It was more intense than anything she had ever felt. Three minds cased in her own head and two had been torn from it forcibly while the third still resided. Blood dripped from her nose onto her lap and Rita barely managed to open her eyes before they fluttered back closed and her mind gave out under the weight. Her eyes rolled back and her body slouched against Leon’s, unconscious, with the marks of nails still prominent against the skin of her neck, drawing pinpricks of blood.

Her mind couldn’t take anymore.
 
Leon was poised rigidly next to Rita with eyes riveted to her when he heard it. The sound was faint, perceptible only because of his sensitive werewolf hearing, but he heard it: Liquid hitting a solid surface. Then he saw it, a splotch of bright red that turned dark when it was absorbed by the fabric of her leggings. His eyes were drawn upwards and he reached out to comb Rita’s hair back with his fingers so he could see her face. Another droplet of red had formed at the tip of her nose, and he watched with dismay as it gathered and grew until it dripped off and onto her leg.

Rita’s eyes opened and he felt relief, but it was snuffed when her eyes fluttered and then rolled into the back of her head, leaving only the whites visible. He loosened his hand from hers when she started to lean and caught her in his arms. “Shit,” he said, scooting farther down the love seat so he could lower his head into his lap. His normally swarthy complexion was pale as he lifted his head, searching out Becca.

She staggered backward, her head hanging low, and might’ve fallen to the ground if Nate hadn’t gone to her and held his arms out to support her. She slumped against him momentarily, but soon righted herself and pulled away from him. “It’s— She’s in there. How’s she in there?” Becca grabbed handfuls of thick red hair and looked around the room with wide eyes, but they didn’t settle until they landed on Rita again. “She’s in there. Oh my god, she’s been in there this whole time,” she said.

“Who, Becca?” Orvar stepped alongside her and held a hand to her back. “Who is in there?”

She looked up at him, mouth working wordlessly.

“Becca,” Orvar repeated, and began rubbing her back in gentle circles. “Who?”

“Lor- Lorelei. I saw her.”

“What do you mean?” Leon asked, looking down at Rita. Her eyes were closed and her face was relaxed as if she were sleeping, there were fresh cuts oozing blood on her neck. “How could you see her?”

“When I went in, there was this room and I saw— I’m not sure, flashes of memories, maybe, and then she grabbed me…” She shook her head, “Then I was back.”

“Isn’t it possible Lorelei was part of the memories you saw?” Orvar asked.

Becca shook her head vehemently. “No, no way. She was there, I felt her magic. Rita couldn’t remember that, she’s not a witch. Lorelei’s fingerprints were all over everything.”

Leon struggled to breathe, and when he finally did suck in a lungful of air, he thought he might puke.

Lorelei.

The witch had tortured him under the guise of testing, back when the facility had been trying to figure out how werewolf transformations worked — and more importantly, how to make it so they could transform outside the full moon. She’d enjoyed it. She’d taken every opportunity since then to hurt him, to hurt Rita. She’d tied Rita to a chair and forced her to watch a video of Chase, her first fiancé, being torn apart by a werewolf. She’d made Rita watch her family — him, Nate, and Becca — being tormented in various ways and stood by when Enforcer after Enforcer was brought in to beat her. She’d been in her head all this time? Had she been the one to make Rita wake up screaming, to attack him, to question her sanity?

He pulled Rita onto his lap and cradled her head against his neck, tucking his face into her hair, but the floral scent of her shampoo did nothing to soothe him.

“You didn’t listen to us. Didn’t listen to her,” Leon said, his voice a low growl. “She’s been having nightmares since before the wedding and when they got worse instead of better you didn’t fucking listen.” He glared at Orvar and Jason. “Oh, it’s PTSD. She just needed to deal with her trauma. This,” he nodded his chin towards the still unconscious Rita in his arms, “is on your heads. Not hers.”
 
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Lorelei.

The sound of her name ignited something in Nate. He clenched his fists at his side as Becca pulled from him and relayed her experience in Rita’s head. A room? Lorelei had her fucking imprisoned in her own mind, didn’t she? For a second, everything magnified. He could hear the buzz off the filament in the lightbulbs, the scent of blood on Rita’s skin, and the overwhelming silence from everyone but Leon. The wolf was pushing at his senses, his rage becoming palpable, but he took a deep breath and pushed it down as deep as he could manage. Leon wasn’t wrong – not by a long shot. He could hear the way the comments fell like bombs on their conversation as everyone came to the realization of what they didn’t do when they could have.

Becca had been blinded by her envy and frustration, but Orvar and Jason had brushed it off like it was nothing. He saw Rita’s face after they’d left his apartment. Besides his argument with Becca, he went after them because he had never seen Rita look that way before – like she was guilty of some great crime. “She asked for help over and over and over again,” Nate grumbled, “How was that not enough for any of you? When has Rita asked for fucking anything? But she’s Rita. She’d never blame you because that’s not who she is, but I sure as fuck do blame you.”

“A fucking psychopath has been kicking around in her mind and the last time we saw Lorelei was nearly four fucking years ago. How long has she been suffering alone because we were too fucking blind to see? Because our lives are fucking easier when Rita is healthy and on her game? She had to quit her job it got so bad and she didn’t even bat an eyelash. She just kept trying and trying and it wasn’t enough. Leon is right. If anything fucking happens to her, everything that has happened to her, is on your heads.”

Jason pushed himself from the wall with a huff, “We fucking get it. Get off your soapbox for Christ’s sake.”

“You don’t get to say shit,” Nate growled and shot his line of vision over to Jason, “Because I have no issue fucking killing you here and now. Let me make that perfectly fucking clear. And the only god damn reason I am still standing here and not at your fucking throat is because we need you alive right now – because we are going to fix this. But once you’ve lost your worth to us, I’d keep an eye on your fucking six, sir.”

Nate wasn’t too fucking happy with Becca, either, who stood wide eyed in the middle of the room trying to process the fact that Lorelei was in Rita’s head. He was glad she had finally helped and he loved her, but recently she had just shut him out and dismissed him as if he was nothing. She always said she wanted a relationship like Rita and Leon’s and she got upset when he fucked up, but she didn’t seem to realize one core detail. Rita told Leon everything, she never shut him out or ran from him even when she thought she was losing her fucking mind. But when Becca had gotten word about her mother, she shut down and even when he tried to pry to get to the root of it and actually help, she shut him out and got upset that he was not doing more.

“So what’s the plan?” Nate said finally, clenching his jaw for the sake of keeping his own anger at bay, “How are we going to fix this? How are we going to save Rita?”
 
Leon didn’t know. None of them knew. Even Orvar, a creature with over six-hundred years of life experiences, didn’t have any ideas. Becca, to her credit, returned to kneel in front of where he sat with Rita cradled in his arms, held her hands over her and tried to find something, anything that would give them a clue where to go from there. Sure, they knew Rita had been and continued to be held captive in her own goddamned head, but they didn’t have the first inkling how to break her free, and it didn’t help that every time Becca tried to go back into the room in Rita’s head, she was forcibly thrown out.

“I don’t know what to do,” she said wretchedly, switching from a kneeling position to a cross-legged one, where she promptly buried her head in her hands. “I don’t know if there’s anything I can do.”

From where he sat in his big plush chair, Orvar cleared his throat, drawing everyone’s attention to him. Until they knew how to remove Lorelei’s influence from Rita’s mind, he said, he thought it wise they keep her sedated and locked in one of the rooms he had in his basement.

If he hadn’t been holding Rita, Leon would’ve gotten to his feet immediately, but he had to make do with yelling at Orvar from the love seat.

“What the fuck? No. No, we’re not drugging and locking her up like a… like an animal. We can watch her here.”

“It’s not meant to be prison cell or a cage, and it would only be temporary.”

“No windows, lock on the outside. What the fuck else would you call it?”

The vampire looked at him expressionlessly, but his fingers beat out a steady rhythm on the armrest of his chair. “If she attacked her husband, someone she loves above all others, what makes you believe she wouldn’t attack one of us? And what if she gets out of the mansion? What happens when she walks into the French Quarter or some other area populated with hundreds, if not thousands, of tourists?” His fingers stilled and he sat up, leaning forward to rest his forearms on the tops of his knees then clasping his hands together. “What happens when she hits a human? Do you think they’d come away from it with a few scratches and bruises?”

Leon looked away, but Orvar continued pressing his point.

“How do you think Rita would feel if we allowed her to hurt someone?”

“Alright, fine I get it,” he barked. “You can stop.”

It broke his heart, but he got it.

Leon shifted Rita in his arms so he could look at her face. As always, some of her long, dark hair needed to be pulled away first. When he tucked the final strand behind her ear, he sighed. She’d been through hell and back, and it’d started to show. Even with her face relaxed, the dark circles under her eyes and her general pallor spoke of the constant war she’d been waging. Nate was right. The last time they’d seen Lorelei was four years ago. What if she’d been fighting all that time? The nightmares had really picked up over the past several months, hitting their most extreme over the past week, but what if he just hadn’t noticed before then? What if there’d been other things going on that he’d written off as stress, just like the rest of them had?

Had he helped her along to this point, too?

Leon, with Orvar following behind, carried Rita down to one of the mansion’s basement rooms. He placed her gently on the bed after pulling the covers back, then began arranging things so she’d be more comfortable. He straightened her legs, tugged her shoes off and placed them on the floor, then leaned over her to tuck a pillow beneath her head. Finally, he pulled the sheets and comforter up and over her, folded the top bit over at her chest, then pulled her arms out to rest atop the comforter at her sides. The entire time, his facial expression was drawn. Despite Orvar’s assurances, he suspected that if they didn’t figure out something soon, this wouldn’t be a temporary solution. She’d be like Taylor, too dangerous to let out.

The room was furnished with all the amenities, there was even a painting on the wall, but Orvar was already busy removing everything but the bed. Leon stood next to Rita, gathered one of her hands in his and tried not to pay attention to how with every additional piece the vampire carried out into the hallway, the room began to look more and more like the containment unit he’d been held in at the facility.
 
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“I can’t believe this.”

Nate huffed and hung out in the far corner of the room they had committed Rita to. It was a nice enough room but as Orvar moved out furniture and decoration, it became nothing more than a shell, a holding cell for a woman that Orvar had already deemed too dangerous to be amongst the rest of them. So what would they do then? Come visit her in her little cell until either her mind gave out or they possibly found a lead on Lorelei? Becca was distraught upstairs about her inability to get back in Rita’s head, but part of Nate was glad. How many people had to be fucking around in one woman’s head before she snapped?

He knew Rita would never hurt anyone if she could help it and he hated that Orvar had a point, but Leon’s eyes expressed just the right mixture of frustration and heartbreak.

“No, she’d never want to hurt anyone,” Nate spoke evenly, though is tone was a bit short, “but for someone who preached about the mistreatment of supernaturals in the facilities, you are pretty quick on the uptake when it comes to committing Rita to a prison. And for what? Something she can’t control? And what happens if we can’t find Lorelei? What if we can’t fix this? Then you’ll what, leave her here like you do Taylor and let her live out her days as a captive in her own mind and a captive held by her own fucking family?”

Becca gave him a look, though tinged with sympathy and he shook his head in disbelief. Leon held onto Rita’s hand and set her up in the bed comfortably, taking each tender moment to see to it that she was cared for, but it didn’t change the reality of what this was. He was happy that Jason stood just in the doorway and did not intrude too much on the scene or else Nate would have taken him down.

“What about some kind of trail?” Nate said after a moment, deciding to move onto something a bit more productive instead of just standing angrily and watching helplessly, “Lorelei’s gotta have left something behind that leads us to her and if we can find her, we can fucking kill her like we should have done four years ago.”
 
Leon had been concentrating enough on Rita and ignoring Orvar’s activities that he didn’t realize until Nate spoke that anyone else had followed them down to the room. He lifted his head to look at Nate, but all he saw was gray. Solid concrete. Four walls, ceiling, floor. Gray. He slammed his eyes shut and turned his face into his shoulder simultaneously. They still closed in, tighter and tighter, making it difficult to breathe. Someone spoke, but their words were heard through the tin can of his ear, carried along by a string.

He clenched both hands, and in one there were warm fingers and a ring that pressed sharply into his palm. Rita. Air returned to his lungs and he clenched his jaw, focusing on inhaling and exhaling until he opened his eyes. Then, he focused on her face. He could almost convince himself she was sleeping, not unconscious, that she’d wake up soon, smile confusedly and ask him why she was in an unfinished basement room.

“— give Lorelei nuclear launch codes and see how long she waits to use one.” Orvar. He could barely hear anything over the high-pitched whirring from overhead. Fluorescent lights. Why did every fucking concrete room have fluorescent lights?

“Did you just compare Rita to a nuclear weapon?”

“Yes.”

“Right. Anyway. I mean, if Lorelei is in her head, and she is, a fragment of her at any rate, I might be able to…” Becca laughed abruptly. “That’s it.”

Becca went to the opposite side of the bed and stretched her hands towards Rita, but hesitated and looked at Leon.

“I’m going to take another look. Leon? Hey, I’m going to see if I can follow Lorelei back to her body.” She ducked her head, trying to capture his gaze with hers. “Leon,” she snapped, and he finally blinked up at her. “I’m going to find Lorelei. Okay?”

The buzzing stopped and everything came back into focus. There was steel in her voice, determination. She really thought she could do it. For the first time in weeks, he felt hope.

If they could find Lorelei, they could save Rita. A witch couldn’t camp out in his wife’s head if she was dead.

“Okay,” he said, nodding.

Becca went to work, and some minutes later, she started shaking her head. “I can’t believe I didn’t think to look for this before,” she said, hands still hovering over Rita, palms down, and her eyes open but unfocused. “It’s faint, but it’s there.” She lowered her hands. “I can magnify the trail with a spell. Easy. Just need my grimoire.” She grinned. “We’ve got her. We just need… Well, we just need to figure out what to do. Like, how do we kill her?”

“You get me to her and I’ll take care of it,” Leon said, a growl at the back of his throat.

“Yeah, but how do we get you to her and close enough to do your wolf thing before she, I don’t know, makes you swap back to your human form and breaks all your bones? Don’t you remember what happened last time? We need a plan.”
 
“Rita’s always been the plan person,” Nate said, finally.

There was a moment of silence before Nate closed his eyes and Becca looked up at him, eyebrow raised and cleared her throat. “Nate? What are you—“

“Shh,” he brought his finger up to his lips, “I’m channeling Rita.”

“For fuck’s sake,” Jason growled and pushed back his hair in frustration. He had stayed silent through most of the ordeal, but he could not manage to keep his mouth shut any longer as the rag tag team tried to figure out next steps to save Rita. “You’re a dog, not a psychic. Come off it, kid.”

Nate exhaled hard through his nostrils before looking up and opening his eyes. There was the same steel determination in his gaze as Becca had in hers. They needed a plan, Jason wasn’t helping, and Nate would be damned if someone who had threatened to let Rita die a handful of times now had any god damn say in her well-being or her safety. Orvar may have fucked up, but Nate was only angry because he knew deep down that Orvar considered them all family, too. Especially Rita. Human or not, she was the core piece of their group, the lynchpin holding them together, and she not only saved all their lives, but she helped Orvar with anything and everything he needed regardless of her own well-being. Even with Catherine, she had just held on tight until he could show up because that’s who Rita was. She somehow managed to plan everything, execute it perfectly and keep pushing forward without stepping on anyone’s toes. She never once asked any of them to be something they weren’t comfortable being, but they were learning.

Hell, Nate was finally understanding her words from so long ago. Back when he wished for her death by the hand of the Enforcers, she had still supported him through the entire ordeal and saved his life over and over again. The least they could do was give this everything they had.

She didn’t deserve to suffer anymore.

“First off, Rita would tell you to fuck off,” Nate growled but evened himself out quickly, “and then she would want us to stay together as much as possible. So maybe we separate, but we have to be smart about it. Someone has to stay here with her. Someone who can take her on if something goes wrong, but also someone who can protect her in case Lorelei caught wind of Becca and takes it upon herself to come here. I doubt it will happen, but after everything – I’m not willing to overlook it.”

“So that leaves Orvar and Jason,” he looked over at the two men, one much more respectable than the other, and raised an eyebrow, “And Jason is a two-timing, conniving, son of a bitch, so I wouldn’t trust him with taking care of a fucking plant let alone Rita.”

“You want me to be a part of this little mission to save Rita? Listen, kid, I don’t do fucking heroic rescue missions. It’s not my style,” Jason huffed with enough attitude to land on Nate’s last nerve.

“No,” Nate deadpanned, “You’re bait.”

“Excuse me?”

“If we take Jason, he could easily draw Lorelei’s attention enough to give Leon the clear shot. With him posing a real fucking threat, Becca on the magic and two werewolves, there’s no way she can anticipate having to take all of us on. She knows our fighting styles but Jason would be a surprise and we can use any element of surprise we can get. It’s not a perfect plan, but it’s safer than just sending Leon.”

“Because I know you’re angry,” Nate looked at Leon, “but I don’t want to be the one to watch Rita wake up and realize you got your ass killed by a psychopath when she was too powerless to help.”
 
Angry. He wasn’t angry. He got angry when he saw someone mistreat waitstaff, when people talked during a movie, or when he got his socks wet. Rita had been held captive in her mind, tormented and made to question her sanity. He’d held her while she wept, while she trembled, and while she’d insisted they were only nightmares. He’d had to carry her into a room with only a bed and a door that locked from the outside because they couldn’t trust her not to hurt someone else. It wasn’t her fault, none of it was. It was Lorelei. The witch had wiggled into her mind, made her think and see things that she shouldn’t have. Lorelei had made Rita doubt and question herself. Lorelei had made them doubt and question Rita. Lorelei had put them in the position they were now.

No, he wasn’t angry. He was furious.

He’d make sure she never hurt anyone ever again. Not him or Rita or any of their family. He’d protect them.

He’d eviscerate Lorelei.

The fluorescent buzzing came back and suddenly the floral scent of Rita’s shampoo was all he could smell, but he lowered his head and clenched his jaw, fighting the wolf back. They had a plan. He didn’t know if it was a good plan, but if it was, it would get him to Lorelei and back to Rita.

Back to Rita? He opened his eyes and frowned. What if she wasn’t there when he came back? Orvar could watch her like Nate said, but would he protect her or protect others from her?

Leon stiffened when a cold hand landed on his shoulder, then glanced back at the vampire. He might’ve assumed he’d heard his thoughts if not for the words that followed.

“I have a sedative I will administer as soon as you’re ready to leave,” Orvar said.

If he had known what he was thinking and had wanted to reassure him in some way, then he wouldn’t have said that.

Leon yanked his shoulder out of the vampire’s grip and shook his head.

“No. Not just you.”

“Not just me?”

“Not just you,” he repeated resolutely. His gaze shifted to Nate. “I need you to stay with Rita, too. I need— I need you to watch her.”

“I believe my presence will be more than sufficient to—“

Leon shook his head again but didn’t break eye contact with Nate.

“Will you watch her? Stay with her? Please?” He stopped short of getting on his knees and begging, but desperation had settled into his eyes and the lines of his brow. Nate had protected Rita before, more than once. He’d been the only one to speak up for Rita, to announce that it was all bullshit and she didn’t deserve to be treated the way they were treating her. He could be there for her when Leon couldn’t. He didn’t trust Orvar to do that, but he trusted Nate.

Nate sucked in a breath to respond, and Leon felt his heart plummet to his feet because it looked like the other werewolf would argue against it, but Nate closed his mouth again and nodded. Leon felt his heart work its way back up from his feet to its proper place in his chest. He exhaled noisily through his mouth and nodded back at Nate.

“Alright. I just need a minute, then I’ll be ready,” Leon said, turning to Rita.

“I’ll get my grimoire,” Becca said, already walking towards the door with Nate on her heels.

Orvar didn’t say anything, but Leon felt movement in the air and without looking back, knew the vampire had left.

When the door closed, Leon settled on the edge of the bed next to Rita.

“Hey,” he said, bringing her hand up to his lips to kiss the back of it. He held it against his mouth, swiping his thumb back and forth over her knuckles and both her engagement ring and wedding band. “Nate’s gonna stay with you, keep an eye on things while I go fix this for you, okay? When I get back we can see about finally opening up some of our wedding presents.” He chuckled. “Here’s hoping no one gave us anything that was alive, ‘cause it might not be anymore.”

He lowered her hand and leaned over to kiss her lips. After he straightened again, he cupped her cheek.

“I love you,” he said. He paused for a heartbeat, two, then smiled crookedly. "This is where you usually say it back, but I'll give you a pass for now."

Leon squeezed her hand before he released it, then stood. He only made a couple steps towards the door before he stopped, looked over his shoulder at her, and sighed. He'd make things right for her. He'd make it worth leaving her now. Nodding to himself, he began walking away again. As soon as he knocked on the doorframe, Orvar unlocked and opened the door. He had the sedative he’d promised and started to move forward, but before he could go past him, Leon held his hand out.

“I’ll do it.”

Orvar hesitated, but placed the syringe in his waiting palm and stepped back into the hallway.

“I’ve got my grimoire,” Becca said, and Leon realized she stood just behind Orvar with the big leather bound book clutched against her chest.

His mouth was a thin, grim line when he gestured for her to follow him. He stood by the bed as Becca cast her spell, and once she left the room again, Leon gave Rita the sedative.

“You try and get some rest now,” he said quietly. He leaned down, splaying his hand out on the bed next to her to keep his balance, kissed her forehead, then rested his forehead against the same spot. “I’ll be back before you know it.”
 
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“Becca,” Nate caught her hand as she walked out of the room. Leon wasn’t behind her, yet, and Nate assumed he was taking a moment to administer the sedative. Nate couldn’t blame him either, he wouldn’t let Orvar near her with a syringe if his life depended on it, but for now his focus had to be on the redhead in front of him. She looked up at her with those doe eyes of hers and Nate pushed his hair back with his free hand. He was no good at this shit, but if they were going to separate – he wasn’t losing her. He couldn’t let this be the last moments they had together.

“Nate—“

“No, listen, I uh—“ he scratched his head, “Be careful, yeah? If something goes wrong, there’s gotta be some mystical magical voodoo flare you can shoot off to let me know you need me, right?”

There was a pause before he exhaled and looked into her eyes. “I love you, Becca. Neither of us have the time to hash this out right now, but just – know I love you. You’ve always matter to me, more than anyone, and when this is over I promise I’ll show you that more often. When you get back, we’ll find your mom. I swear on my life, Becca, I will scour the damn earth to find her.”

He pulled her into an embrace and pressed a hard kiss against her temple but their moment was cut short by Leon’s re-entry. He moved to clap a supportive hand to Leon’s shoulder and nodded as he caught the door from him, “Keep an eye on her for me, would you? Jason goes anywhere near her, you have my permission to rip off his face.”

Orvar opened his mouth to comment on Nate entering Rita’s confinement space, but Nate shook his head. “He asked me to stay with her and I can’t do that out here. One of us has to be there for her.”

Without another word, Nate entered Rita’s room and shut the door behind him. She looked peaceful, like she was sleeping, and he wondered what it was like in her mind. He wondered if she was as trapped in there as she was in here. He shook the thoughts from his head and sat down on edge of the bed cross legged. There wasn’t much he could do but just sit there, so he just started talking.

“So since you’re a captive audience, I figure there’s no better time than to talk,” he joked, “You like that, don’t you? Knowing people’s sob stories so you can try make them feel better? I heard you in the office, all you do – I swear to fuck – is listen to god damn sob stories day in and day out. I don’t know how you do it. I would lose my mind, which is why Leon hired you – I think. That and blatant nepotism.”

“Not sure I ever told you about my mom. She reminds me a lot of you, or well – fuck – maybe the other way around. I guess I knew her first but that doesn’t really matter. Let’s see…”

/

“Finding a batshit crazy witch in New Orleans is like finding a needle in a haystack,” Jason huffed as they closed in on an old abandoned facility. It was only a few miles out from where they had parked and they walked with purpose towards the darkened building. There was tons of bad juju around the place, but Jason just keep his hands in his pockets and huffed with each step. The only reason he agreed was because of Lorelei. Hell, he would have liked to see the bitch littered with bullets, and if acting as bait got them there, at least he got a hell of a fight out of it.

He was rusty with witches, but how hard could a psychopathic bitch be?

“Gotta say, I’m surprised that you’re surprised, dog,” he regarded Leon with an amused smirk to continue to pick at his open wound, “You walk around with a big, gaping weakness. You should just buy a damn billboard next time inviting the big bad wolf to come try to murder your wife. You gotta learn how to hold your hand closer to your chest.”

“But what I’m really surprised about is you leaving her with vampire Gatsby,” Jason chuckled, “You really think loverboy is going to be able to protect her if the vampire decides she’s too much of a risk? He’ll put her down faster than anyone here, maybe not me, but then again I ain’t with her.”

/

A few hours passed and Nate was near nodding off, trying to figure out something anything he could tell Rita to keep the noise in the room constant. She needed that, at least, even if she couldn’t hear – but he felt it deep down. She had to hear him. She wasn’t dead, just sedated. His gaze shifted from her face to her arms and skin where the usual pale color had turned an angry red. Slowly but surely he watched as cuts appeared on her and her face contorted in pain. It was the first change of expression he had seen, but there was nothing signifying her being controlled. No, she was being hurt.

But this was so much more than her nightmares. Angry, discolored bruises rose up on her skin and Nate had to blink hard a few times to ensure that they were really appearing.

“Orvar?” he called out and stood from the bed to bang on the door, “Orvar! ORVAR!”

“Hurry up and open the damn door. Something is hurting her – Lorelei is hurting her. You have to hurry. Get your ass in here!”
 
Leon snarled at Jason in a way that was more wolf than human, with both rows of teeth visible and paired with a low growl. The entire drive, Leon had sat in the back of the big van Orvar had dedicated to missions and concentrated on not shifting to his wolf form. They needed to make it from the vehicle to the building Becca had traced Lorelei’s magic trail to without being detected by civilians, and him passing through streets as a dark furry half-wolf creature that stood well over seven feet tall wasn’t the way to do that.

He’d thought the walk would help settle him, but it only made things worse, because the wolf — the thing that pushed him to do less than civilized things at inopportune times — wanted to run, to hunt, and to rend flesh and they were outside, why weren’t they doing those things? It wasn’t so much that he heard the wolf speak, it was more feelings and urges that drove him to distraction than anything else, but it made it difficult to not react to Jason’s goading.

“Fuck you,” he replied succinctly. Jason chuckled again, but they were close enough to the building now that the ex-Enforcer let it drop after that. The front door was unlocked, and they entered what on the surface looked like any other office foyer. They all knew better, though. Without a word shared, they all slipped into their battle modes. Jason pulled his pistol, Leon shifted, and Becca summoned a glowing, floating light that bobbed alongside her head.

“What?” she asked in a hissed whisper when Leon returned to them, clawed feet clicking on the smooth concrete floor, and cocked his head at her. “It was dark in here.”

It was, but even as Jason remarked on the power being out, Leon shook his head. The power wasn’t out completely — it was just out on the level they were on. He could hear the hum of electricity on the levels below them. Lorelei had to be down there. Becca confirmed his suspicions when she started towards a stairwell, mentioning that her aunt’s magic was strongest beneath them.

“Why do I feel like this is a trap?” Becca whispered before Jason pushed open the door on one of the subterranean levels and led the way out with gun in hand. Her happy little fairy light fizzled and disappeared when she stepped out, and Leon was quick after her.

“Probably because the bitch set a trap for us,” Jason said tersely.

The facade on the first level had been dropped entirely on this floor. It was more prison block than office, with cells lining the hallway, each of them with clear viewing panels. The glass was bullet proof, werewolf throwing itself against it proof, probably resistant to whatever witches and vampires threw at it, too, and allowed the Enforcers to observe its occupants without risking their lives.

This was a holding facility, a place Enforcers temporarily housed supernatural creatures before they were shipped off to their respective research facility. He’d been held in a place like this just after he’d been bitten by a werewolf — they’d stitched his arm back up, shoved him into a cell like the ones they walked past, and made it clear to him that if he told anyone about what’d happened, they’d kill them. He hadn’t tested the threat, but after finding out what they’d done to Nate’s mother after he told her of his werewolf attack, he was glad he hadn’t.

“Hey there, puppy.” Raspy, saccharine sweet, just behind him. Lorelei. Leon spun and there she was, red-haired and smirking. He’d kill her. Before the thought had a chance to register, he was scrambling towards her, snarling and snapping, but skidded to a stop when he realized she’d backpedaled into one of the cells. If he went in, he could be trapped in there, separated from the rest of the group. She bit her bottom lip then chuckled throatily. “Oh, can’t fool you, can I?” Then Lorelei disappeared. Leon huffed and backed into the hallway, shaking his head.

“An illusion,” Becca said quietly, briefly resting her hand on his arm. “I can dispel them, but you have to give me a second to cast. Don’t chase after her until I say so. I know it’s hard, but wait, okay?”

Jason scoffed. “For fuck’s sake, haven’t you fought a witch before? Don’t trust shit unless you can shoot it and it bleeds.”

They passed more cells, were taunted by more illusions, until finally, they reached a room with a Lorelei that didn’t fade when Becca cast her spell, and that brought a hand up to build a shimmering shell around herself that repelled Jason’s bullets as he fired at her.

She cackled at them, but the sound was cut short when she began mumbling to herself. The only words he could pick out were “you little hussy”, before the shimmering shield she’d created flickered and fell. Leon didn’t hesitate to leap at her, and wasn’t disappointed by his choice when he barreled into and knocked her to the ground before he was flung away by a magical force. He hit the wall hard, but got back up again to go after her. Every time he was tossed away, Becca sent projectiles at Lorelei, and when she wasn’t doing that, Jason was in Lorelei’s space kicking and hitting her with a speed and ferocity he’d only seen in one other human.

Eventually, Lorelei’s reactions to their attacks slowed, and Leon felt a surge of glee because they were winning, they were fucking winning, but then, from behind them, an unfamiliar voice rang out.

“Becca, baby, is that you?”

Becca stopped what she was doing to turn to the redheaded woman that’d entered the room.

“Mama?”

Then everything went to hell.
 
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“What do we do?” Nate breathed out with his hands in his hair.

Rita was still unconscious, but the wounds on her body grew deeper and darker. It had gotten so bad, in fact, that when Nate called for Orvar, he had hesitated to come in until he smelled the overwhelming scent of blood. There were cuts on Rita that she could not have caused herself and Nate found himself pulling tissue after tissue from the end table to try and dab away at all of them. Maybe they had trapped her in some sort of hell in her mind and this was the fallout of that decision. He shook his head until eventually they saw something they hadn’t seen in a few hours. Rita’s eyes twitched and a small grunt left her lips as she wriggle awake. Both men in the room took and instinctive step back, but when it was just Rita’s green eyes looking back at them, Nate bounded for her.

“Lorelei,” she breathed out.

“Rita, you’re awake,” Nate exclaimed, “What’s going on?”

“They w-went…” Rita blinked a few times and pushed herself sitting up, her arm wrapped around her abdomen like it hurt and she glanced about the room, “Leon.”

“Leon went after her. He went after Lorelei – I thought it was just…” she shook her head, “I thought it was in my head but he’s gone, isn’t he? No, no, no.”

“Rita, breathe. They’re going to fix this. Lorelei won’t—“

Rita shook her head again, this time more vehemently, “She already has. They’re there, I can – I can see them. I can hear her in my mind. Becca’s there, too, and Jason. Becca’s…Becca’s mom?” Rita winced and grabbed at her skull, the overwhelming pressure from the presence of two minds nearly knocked her back out but she held on with all the strength she had left. While she was unconscious, all she saw was Lorelei. There was no escape, no door this time, and she just taunted Rita over and over again – but Rita had just thought it another nightmare. But it was far from a nightmare – this was reality now.

When she had seen Leon in her mind, she thought she was losing it.

Just then, Rita brought her hand back and pulled up her shirt just enough to take a look at her abdomen where an angry, deep bruise had settled in her skin. “They’re still happening,” Nate mentioned, “Why the fuck are the injuries still showing up?”

“We’re connected,” Rita realized very suddenly, “What happens to Lorelei happens to me and what happens to me, happens to Lorelei.”

“No fucking way.”

Rita looked down at her hands and took her thumb in her hand. She had done it a million times to escape handcuffs, but she wondered if – crack. Rita popped her thumb out of her socket and an ear shattering scream echoed through her mind to the point where Rita could hardly see straight. Whatever Becca had done had connected them deeper and it wasn’t just Lorelei in her mind anymore casting spells to control her, it was Rita in Lorelei’s head. Rita popped her thumb back in and watched as the skin began to swell around it and looked up at a wide-eyed Nate and concerned Orvar.

“Yeah,” Rita breathed out shakily, “We’re connected.”

Nate started, “So if they kill Lorelei…”

“…they kill me.” Rita finished for him.

/

Orvar had said it wasn’t safe, but Rita would not let them fight this without her. She had convinced Nate and Orvar to pack up into the van and head out in the direction Becca had taken the others. Nate could easily follow their scent, but the case of Rita was not such a simple one. There was still a chance that Lorelei would take over her mind – hell, she had tried over and over as they packed into the van, but Rita fought it with every muscle in her body.

Lorelei would not have the satisfaction of watching Rita die and she sure as hell would not have the sick pleasure of watching Leon grieve her.

So Nate had requested that Orvar drink her blood and while he was less than thrilled with the development, both him and Rita understood the implications. If Orvar was in Rita’s head, too, he would be able to understand exactly where she was mentally and how far in control Lorelei was. This time he did not overdrink and instead of feeling dizzy and collapsing, Rita just felt a lightheadedness that lasted for a few moments. Almost immediately Orvar near doubled over and Rita apologized profusely.

Three years gave one a certain mental resilience.

They were in the van when Rita screamed out in pain, her hand touching and then grabbing her arm. Blood slipped from between her fingers where it looked as though a bullet had grazed her and Nate leapt from the passenger seat back into the van to help ease the bleeding. Orvar’s hands tightened on the wheel and she knew he could feel it. “Shit, Rita,” Nate breathed out.

“I’ve had worse,” she joked, a laugh reverberating through her tired body, “I actually got shot once, remember?”

“Don’t remind me,” Nate chuckled.

Rita felt a surge of Lorelei in her mind and she clenched her eyes shut painfully, her hand smearing a bit of blood into her hairline as she grasped at the roots. It felt like fire, like a million knives stabbing into her skull at once, and all she could hear was the laughter. All she could feel was Lorelei pushing her over and over and over again. Rita retracted her arm from Nate as she felt herself losing a bit of control, but the pain radiating in her arm seemed to keep Lorelei at bay.

You little hussy.

Damn fucking straight.

She pushed Lorelei from her mind as best as she could and breathed hard as her lungs labored. It was hard to stay awake, but Rita knew that their lives depended on it. Her life depended on it. Leon’s life depended on it and they weren’t going to let Lorelei win. She couldn’t win – not after all the shit they had fucking endured over the last four years.

She was coming for them – they just had to hold on.
 
When Becca’s mom entered the room, it took Becca — someone who’d been attacking Lorelei from a distance — out of the equation, and left a gaping hole in their offensive strategy. There wasn’t a way to keep the pressure up when he and Jason both were always in various stages of picking themselves off the ground. With breathing room, Lorelei revitalized — her magic hit harder, hurt more, and the time it took to get back up took longer. But they got up. Again and again, they’d get to their feet and go after Lorelei. They’d lost all the ground they’d gained, but neither of them dropped to the defensive. Leon wasn’t sure what drove Jason, but he pushed himself just as hard as he was, like he was on some mission from God to eradicate Lorelei.

There was a moment when Lorelei paused in her relentless attacks to scream and clutch her hand to her chest, that Leon took the opportunity to look for Becca but when he tried to call to her from where she was with her mother, all that came out was a yowling noise. Not for the first time, he cursed Becca for not granting him the ability to speak in wolf form. The woman pulled on Becca by the arm, trying to drag her towards the door while Becca screamed at her, insisted the werewolf was her friend, that she was there to keep Lorelei from hurting Rita.

Jason, on the other hand, took the opportunity to dive after his gun and had it up, aimed and fired within the span of a heartbeat. A bright red streak appeared on Lorelei’s arm and she grabbed it, panting and then screaming her pain and mingled frustration. She released her arm to flick her fingers at Jason and the gun went sailing from his hands again.

“Really, you should’ve learned by now. I thought you were the best of the—“ The witch broke off to dig her fingers into her hair and screeched, stomping her foot, her face scrunched up in agony. “What are you doing?”

When Lorelei lifted her head again, her face was a mask of rage. “I’m finished playing with you,” she announced, flinging one arm wide. Jason went flying and smacked hard into a wall, but he didn’t get back up this time. Then she focused entirely on Leon who had started running towards her. Her expression transformed again, this time to delight. “Puppy! I knew you’d come back.”

She held her hand out and suddenly, he was frozen in place, then dragged slowly to his knees to kneel in front of her. Leon tried to move, wiggle, do anything to break free from her, but he couldn’t budge. The best he could do was move his eyes, but without being able to move his head too, his line of sight was limited to Lorelei and the gray, concrete wall behind her.

Lorelei tilted her head and pursed her lips. “We’ve not talked for a while, have we? I’ve been busy, you’ve been busy. Just so much going on in both our lives right now.” She looked at a point on his chest and jerked her chin up. His ribs cracked and splintered and he let loose a series of yelps that dissolved into whimpers as he rode the waves of pain out that threatened to sweep him away. “See that?” Lorelei grinned widely. “Hear him too, don’t you? Hmm, and you can’t do anything about it.”

“Mama, stop! Let me go! She’s hurting him! Leon!” Becca, screaming, but unheard. “Please,” she said, desperately, and though he couldn’t see her, he could imagine that she was in the same position he was. Frozen and at someone else’s mercy.

“I should offer my congratulations first. The wedding was beautiful. The lights, the trees, the fireflies.” Lorelei caught her lip between her teeth and closed her eyes, as if she was savoring something delectable she’d just eaten. “You didn’t even let her get the dress all the way off the first time,” she opened her eyes and moved towards him.

His stomach churned. She’d been in Rita’s head during their wedding. She’d been there on their most special of days, and she’d been there on their most special of nights. What else had she seen? What had she heard? Fuck, never mind the personal violation, what about the plans Orvar had shared with them? Did she know? Had she told the Enforcers?

She kneeled in front of him and reached her hand out to stroke his chest gently, then shifted closer to add her other hand to the mix, pushing them both up and towards his shoulders, but they didn’t remain there long. Everywhere her hands went, pain followed. She didn’t break anything else, but she twisted and pulled at his insides just like she had when Jenny had used her to push him into his first at-will transformation. He couldn’t breathe when she forced the air from his lungs, felt his heart struggle and flutter irregularly before she coaxed it back into rhythm, then felt like his insides were on fire and his blood was on the verge of boiling.

None of it stopped him from fighting. In between the waves of pain, he growled as he pushed and pulled against her hold but his efforts were always rewarded with more pain and he wasn't always able to stop from making noises, high-pitched whines and yelps, that had Becca sobbing in the background.

He teetered on the edge of consciousness but fought the darkness back. She wasn’t killing him, not yet. She was fucking with him. Jenny had taught him the difference between the two. If he let himself go now to escape the pain, he wouldn’t be there when she grew bored. He’d miss his chance to break free. He'd break free and he'd snap his mouth shut on her face, see how long her grin lasted, then.

Lorelei’s hands became still and her eyes went distant, then a smile grew until it encompassed the entirety of her face. Her hand landed on his shoulder, but there wasn't any pain because she only used it to lever herself into a standing position. She took a step towards the door, leaving him frozen kneeling and facing away from it.

“Ohhh, here she comes,” Lorelei sang.

She glanced back at him, her mouth puckered contemplatively while she tapped her fingers against the side of her leg. A small, sly smile quirked one corner of her mouth when she lifted her hand towards Leon, also lifting the invisible force that had held him down.

He didn't hesitate. He went to all fours, spun, and lunged for her in one fluid motion, ignoring the pain of all the broken ribs in his chest that flared in response. His teeth met the skin of her leg and he clamped down, then shook his head powerfully, dragging her off her feet. The sound of her body smacking the concrete floor was loud in a room that was quiet except for Becca's sniffles. He rounded on her, growling, and she cowered from him, propelling herself backward with her one good leg and holding her arm up to protect her face. He lunged for her again, catching her forearm in his teeth and bit hard enough that he went past skin, fat, and muscle and felt bone splinter in his mouth.

Lorelei screamed, but not in pain, though she should've.

She screamed laughter.
 
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Very suddenly, sleep did not seem like an option.

White hot pain radiated through her and Rita bit down so hard on her cheek that she split the inside. The metallic taste of blood coated her tongue, but it was nothing compared to the shock that overwhelmed her body. She tried not to cry out, tried not to scream, but it was one after the other – first her leg, then her arm. Huge, tear marks appeared as her skin seemed to split apart without warning. Hot, sticky blood began to drench her leg, but her arm contorted until she could feel the shock and adrenaline blur her vision for a moment. Black splotches colored her vision. She could feel the bone splinter and the feeling of her skin being torn away. It was happening.

Leon was going to kill Lorelei. He was going to kill her.

At the sight of her, she watched Nate fill with rage and transform faster than she had ever experienced. His torn and tattered clothes remained where he was just outside of where she assumed the others to be, leaving her with just Orvar who seemed in terrible shape. She opened her mouth to speak, but the pain came in a singular wave and nearly crippled her. There was so much blood and she could not look down at her arm for fear of losing what little she had in her stomach to the sight of her own muscle. Orvar moved to her quickly to help her up, but he just ended up pulling her into his arms and carrying her inside. It was the fastest she had ever moved in her life and she felt nausea bubble up again. Motion sickness was not normal for Rita, but neither was vampire speed and her stomach did not appreciate it.

Orvar called out for Leon, but Rita could not focus on his voice. It began to fade in and out as she grew a bit lightheaded, but she shook it off and felt the pressure of Lorelei come barreling into her mind like a bat out of hell. It was so fast, in fact, that she heard Orvar stutter with his words, which she had never heard before. She pushed against his chest and he held her like a steel trap, but the more she wriggled to get free, the looser his hold became. “Put me down,” she breathed out hard, the sound of Lorelei’s voice powerful in her head as she tried overpower the witch without hurting Orvar.

Understanding, Orvar set her down.

Everything else seemed to move in slow motion. She saw Leon, skin and blood drenching his muzzle so deeply that the fur began to mat as it dried. But then there was a flash and suddenly Nate was going after Lorelei and the witch did not seem interested in Nate’s presence in the least. She tossed him over and over again, bleeding and cackling as she beat him within an inch of his life with her magic and managed to dodge each and every one of Jason’s shots. One very nearly grazed Nate instead and before Rita could move she saw Becca. Tears streaked her face but she held her hands up against Lorelei. But Orvar went rigid behind her.

“Orvar—“ Rita spoke but the vampire was frozen in place and it did not take a genius to notice Becca’s mom with her hands raised in defense. What were they going to do? How were they going to win this one?

And then Rita blacked out.

Very suddenly, Lorelei filled Rita’s head and it pounded against her skull. She remained standing but her bright green eyes dulled into that of a porcelain doll’s. She could hear Orvar’s words – you’re hurting Rita. He had called out. You’re going to kill her. By the time she came to, she was standing in front of Becca and Rita grasped at her head painfully. Pain radiated through her body, zapped the strength from her muscles, but she pushed back against Lorelei.

Rita wouldn’t hurt Becca. Rita wouldn’t hurt anyone.

Lorelei tsk’d her tongue and the feeling overwhelmed Rita again. “Becca, you have to g-go,” Rita breathed out, “P-please, before she – you have to go. I won’t h-hurt you.”

“Oooh, you will,” Lorelei smirked.

“Over my fucking dead body,” Rita managed to bite out, “I—ah!”

As Rita fought with Lorelei, the sound of a single safety could be heard as Jason rose his hand with his gun firmly in his grip. “Lorelei has to die. If killing Rita means accomplishing that, it’s the decision we have to make.”

“No!” Becca cried out but Jason was quick. “Move or I’ll shoot you too,” he said firmly.

Rita stepped in front of her protectively with her arms outstretched, mangled limbs still dripping blood against the floor. Lorelei pulsated in her mind and she kept having to blink hard to keep her at bay. All the while her breathing was shallow and labored, her body suffering every moment more and more until eventually no one would have to pull the trigger. “D-don’t you fucking touch her.”
 
Leon continued yanking on Lorelei’s arm, aiming to pull it from her face so he could land the killing blow. When he finally managed, she tilted her head back to laugh, leaving the pale length of her neck exposed. He jerked his head to the side, at the same time releasing Lorelei’s arm, but she didn’t try to shield her face again — she continued laughing. He never wanted to hear that sound again for as long as he lived, and he wouldn’t. Not after he ripped her throat open.

He snarled, exposing long rows of sharp teeth, and leaned over her to do exactly that, but someone screamed his name and he hesitated and swung his head around to the source of the voice. Orvar? Why did he have Rita in his arms? No. Illusions. More illusions. She was only trying to save herself, but it wasn’t happening this time. He snorted, his lips flaring out with the forceful burst of air, and returned his attention to Lorelei who was smiling at him with lidded eyes, like she was waiting for the embrace of a lover.

“St-stop, they’re— they’re connected.” Leon shook his head and huffed. Of fucking course they were connected, that’s why he needed to kill Lorelei. “Leon. You’re hurting Rita. You’re going to kill her.”

Illusion, his mind screamed, lies. He was hurting Lorelei. He was going to kill Lorelei.

“Come on, puppy,” Lorelei crooned. “What’re you waiting for?”

He stared at her, but as he did, he caught a whiff of another blood source. In his human form, it would’ve just smelled overwhelmingly metallic if he’d been able to pick it up at all, but in his wolf form, the scent was more nuanced. He knew it, had smelled it more times than he ever should’ve.

Rita.

He blinked over his shoulder at Rita where she now stood on wobbly feet next to Orvar, blood pouring from the same spots as they did on Lorelei. The witch had wanted him to hurt her, had wanted him to hurt Rita. He turned back to Lorelei and growled but made no other moves.

“The vampire is no fun,” Lorelei pouted before she slammed him with a magical attack that sent him flying into a wall. He was stunned long enough that by the time he clamored to his feet again, the situation had changed entirely. Jason had his gun pointed at Rita instead of Lorelei. Every fiber of his being demanded he rip the motherfucker’s head off, but he was too far away to reach him before he pulled the trigger. He snarled at him and clenched his hands tight enough that his nails bit into his palms and drew blood.

“I can feel it,” Becca said from behind Rita, one hand held up her direction and the other Lorelei’s. Her gaze flittered to and from Rita and Lorelei, stopping at the points in between. “I can break the link.”

“She said she can break the link. Put the gun down,” Orvar commanded, resulting in a scowl from the ex-Enforcer.

“I can,” Becca repeated, “I need time. Please.”

Jason didn’t lower his gun.

“You have twenty seconds, then I shoot. Twenty…”



“What? I can’t—“

“…Nineteen…”

Lorelei laughed gleefully and started counting along with Jason.

“…Eighteen…”

Orvar yelled for them to keep the pressure on Lorelei so Rita could fight her presence in her mind and in his desperation to do something, anything to help Rita, he resumed attacking the witch with Orvar’s voice steering him. Attack, retreat, attack. Nate moved in synch with him like he did when they hunted deer in the bayou. Except this was no deer. They couldn’t go for the kill or they’d kill Rita too.

“…Ten…”

“Becca, careful, she’s— she’s gaining ground,” Orvar said, his brow heavily lined as if he too fought to keep Lorelei from peeling his brain apart wrinkle by wrinkle.

“I know,” she replied through gritted teeth. “Almost… there.”

“…Five…”
 
A gunshot preceded by five, slow seconds.

Five.

Rita looked up at Jason, her hands clenched at her sides though it only increased the blood flow out of her body. It was getting harder to stand, harder to breathe, but she knew that her moving meant Becca became the target and regardless of any bratty behavior, she would never let Becca be harmed if she could help it. She may have been bleeding and her mind fighting a losing battle, but she still had two, good hands and she was not about to let them go unused.

“Four.”

Rita could hear Nate snarling in the background. It was such a different sound from Leon. Not as deep, but Nate’s snarls had a sharper edge to them, almost jagged when he grew angry. While she did not look behind her, she could see glimpses from Lorelei’s mind and she could see Leon and Nate, over and over, just pounding into Lorelei to keep her busy. Bruises appeared on Rita’s body but she made no move to acknowledge them. Instead she focused on the gentle whisper from Becca’s lips that was undiscernible. Whatever words they were, Becca spoke them with such fervor that Rita was surprised they didn’t ignite the moment they left her lips. But then there was the gun.

The barrel of a gun she had looked down far too many times in her life.

The image wasn’t so unfamiliar either – a gun, a choice, blood and desperation. She could hear Lorelei laughing in her ears and in her mind. It reverberated through her bones and Rita felt empty. She felt like her body was losing so much blood and as she slowly moved out of her own skin, Lorelei moved in and put pressure on her. With each passing second it felt like an airplane takeoff, the pressure in her ear drums until she felt like she was underwater and then nothing. Silence.

She did not hear the “three” but she knew it was there.

And the two.

One.

“Go!” Becca screeched out and in the elastic snap of the moment, Rita felt her body lighten like a feather and the sound came crashing back like a car accident. She could hear the sounds of tearing flesh and Becca’s knees hit the floor behind her. She could smell the blood, taste it in her mouth from where she had bitten her cheek in pain, but through all the chaos, there was silence in her head. When she closed her eyes, it was darkness again, and when she opened them it was just her and Jason – the gun pointed at her, aimed for her heart, and she watched in slow motion as the trigger pulled inward.

Bang.

Rita waited for the pain, but it never came. Instead her knees gave out and the exhaustion that had crippled her slowly crept back over her. Her arms and legs felt like lead, her head splitting from the most painful headache she had ever endured, and she struggled to keep herself awake through the blood loss.

But she could breathe. God, she was breathing again.
 
They hadn’t come up with a plan, there hadn’t been time, but when Becca screamed for them to go they moved as if they had one. Nate scaled the length of the room with one leap, aiming for and knocking into Becca’s mom. With her concentration broken, she lost hold of the vampire she’d been straining and sweating to keep frozen in place.

In the center of the room, Leon faced Lorelei. He was down on all fours with his hackles up and ears back, and when the muscles in her one good arm tensed, Leon didn’t wait. He pounced on her, knocking her to the concrete floor like he had before reinforcements had shown up.

She grinned maniacally up at him as he pinned her by the shoulders and snarled.

“Oh, puppy,” she began, but Leon didn’t let her finish. He grabbed her face with a clawed hand and pushed her head back, once again exposing her neck to him, but this time the link was gone.

This time, he tore her throat out.

She’d never find a way into Rita’s head again, never give her another nightmare, never see or hear anything that was meant for only them. She’d never tie Rita down and make her watch anyone she loved being hurt. She’d never force him to transform in front of a crowd of people or shackle him with silver. She’d never smile knowingly when she realized he was trying to hold back the whimpers while she broke his bones and set his insides on fire.

She’d never, ever, call him puppy again.

For each crime she’d committed against them, he ripped another piece of her away. Her face was already an unrecognizable mass of blood, muscle, and exposed bits of skull by the time Jason pulled the trigger and was hit by a blur that caused the bullet to fly harmlessly past Rita and embed itself into the far wall.

Anyone who caught a glimpse of Orvar’s expression as he snatched the gun from the man’s hand and crushed it wouldn’t have recognized him. The normally genial vampire looked bestial, not unlike the werewolves in the room, with his lips pulled back in a snarl that revealed his long fangs.

“You fired after she broke the link,” he hissed, tossing the remnants of the gun to grab Jason by the throat and slam him against the wall where he held him.

Leon’s head snapped up. All he’d heard was a gunshot, and all he saw was Rita crumple to the ground. He fixed his gaze on Jason, coiling and preparing to launch himself at the ex-Enforcer, but Orvar had him against the wall, hand clamped tightly enough around his throat that he was starting to turn reddish purple. Orvar had things under control. He needed to check Rita, make sure she was okay, see if she’d been shot.

Blood covered him from muzzle to the tips of his claws, and he slid in a puddle of it as he hurriedly pushed himself up and off Lorelei and to his feet. As soon as he’d fully righted himself, he shifted back to his human form and winced when all the aches and pains settled in that he had been able to ignore in his wolf form. He held his arms around his ribs as he walked as quickly as he could towards her, leaving a trail of bloody footprints behind him.

He sank down gracelessly next to Rita and immediately began scouring what he could see of her for a gunshot wound but there was too much blood. She was just as covered in it as he was, but all the blood on her actually belonged to her, not someone else. He’d done most of the damage — her arm, the leg. Every time he’d bitten or clawed or slammed into Lorelei, he’d done the same to Rita. The broken bones, the torn flesh, the bruises. He’d done that. But Jason had shot her, hadn’t he?

“Oh my God. Mom, go check her. I'm fine," Becca said from her curled up position on the floor. Nate had shifted back too and hovered nearby, seemingly as unconvinced as Becca's mom that she was, in fact, fine.

The older redheaded woman sighed but allowed Becca to push her away and went to sit at Rita’s other side. She introduced herself as Annalise and quickly confirmed that no, she hadn’t been shot, but as they could probably see, she was wounded. She said she'd have her healed up in no time, though, then beamed at them the same way Becca used to.

Behind them, Jason began hacking and coughing as Orvar loosened his grip on the man’s throat and let his feet touch the ground again, but he didn’t let him move beyond that.

Leon tilted his head as he searched Rita’s face, smiling crookedly when she looked at him with her big, green eyes brighter and clearer than he’d seen them in months.

“Hey you,” he said, reaching for her hand, "welcome back."
 
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“Hey you,” Rita smiled back at him, “One hell of a honeymoon, huh?”

A laugh reverberated through her but was cut short as Becca’s mom reached out to begin healing. It was never quite painful, but the feeling was strange and abrupt as the golden glow pulled back together skin and eased the bleeding until it stopped entirely. She wiped away the bruises and lacerations on the skin, but nothing took away the exhaustion that settled in her muscles. Months, years of sharing her mind with someone else and the last three days without sleep left her body begging desperately for sleep.

But there was so much to be done. She needed to check on Becca, on Orvar and Nate, but most of all she needed to see to it that Leon was okay. Besides Lorelei’s blood covering various parts of him, she noticed the way he clung to his ribs and she knew Lorelei’s favorite toys were his bones. Annalise was wonderful, though. A powerful witch in her own right, she managed to see to Rita and then wordlessly followed Rita’s hand to Leon’s where it rested on his ribs and she watched as the witch easily reset and healed his bones. Only when they were both free of any injury did Rita let her ringed hand slip through his so she could bound into his arms and hold onto him for dear life.

There was just such an overwhelming sense of relief in the room, like a veil had been lifted and there was finally light in the darkness.

Rita nuzzled into the crook of his neck, pressing a kiss against the bare skin. He was always so warm, so comforting, and she wanted to pull back to check on the others but sleep tugged at her consciousness too powerfully for her to ignore. In just a few moments, with her arms wrapped around him, Rita’s breathing became even and deep again. Her eyes fluttered close and there was no nightmare awaiting her, no hell in her mind, no demons or memories or pain. It was just sweet relief as they closed and she fell asleep against the soothing sound of Leon’s heartbeat.

Nate helped Becca upright, his arms powerful around her to keep her sitting and not to push herself too much. “Is she alright?” Nate asked Leon, his eyes worried as he watched Rita grow limp and stop responding in Leon’s arms.

“She’s probably just asleep, calm down,” Jason said and Nate shot his gaze to the man standing with Orvar’s grip holding him in place.

“I know you’re not fucking talking right now,” Nate growled, “after what you just did, you should consider yourself lucky that you’re even still alive. You’re no different than the other fucking enforcers, are you?”

“Never said I was.”

Nate felt Becca’s hand on him as the beast inside threatened to come forward. If she hadn’t been in his arms, he would have, too. He would have bounded across the room and torn him apart like Leon did to Lorelei. He wished for Orvar to just pop his fucking head from his body and let that be that. “Yeah, well, now it’s not too hard to understand why your wife left.”

“Why don’t you put the witch down, come the fuck over here and say it to my face, runt?”
 
With as wrapped up in Rita as he was, it took hearing the growl in Nate’s voice for Leon to look up from where he’d had his head nestled against hers. Shifting and fighting for an extended period of time had sucked the energy from him down to his very bones, and he could’ve fallen asleep with her — just closed his eyes and drifted away like she had, but he made himself shake the exhaustion from his head and focus on the source of tension in the room: Jason.

The last he’d seen, the ex-Enforcer had been turning a lovely shade of oxygen-deprived blue, and he noted detachedly that it really was too bad Orvar had let him keep breathing. Not that sitting up on a concrete floor was the best place to do it, but he could’ve been asleep if not for the fuckhead goading Nate. But he had, because he couldn’t seem to stop himself from picking at open wounds to get a reaction.

Nate was just as good at getting a rise out of people when he wanted, though, and Leon snorted a laugh that stirred Rita’s dark hair when Jason reacted to him. Mentioning his family was a low blow, but he deserved it. He deserved a lot more than to be reminded of his loss for what he’d done, and if it hadn’t been for Rita in his arms sleeping peacefully for the first time in months, or the fact he hardly had it in him to lift his head, much less give Jason the ass-kicking he deserved, he would’ve.

“Enough,” the vampire snapped before things could escalate any further, adjusting his grip on Jason to gather a wad of his shirt in his hand that he pulled him roughly from the wall with. “Until I decide what to do with you—“

“What’s there to decide?” Leon interrupted, his voice gravelly from all the snarling and growling he’d done in his other form.

Orvar turned his head to look at him questioningly.

“He shot at her. If it weren’t for you, Rita would be dead,” Leon said, loudly enough that Rita made a small sound and shifted in his arms. Leon frowned and pressed his cheek against the top of her head as he shushed her. As soon as he was sure she wouldn’t wake up, he continued at a much lower volume. “He’s gotta go.”

The room was silent as Orvar turned back to regard Jason. There was movement at Orvar’s side when his index finger began traveling a path back and forth over the inside of his thumb. Eventually, Orvar began nodding, then exhaled noisily before he released Jason’s shirt and took a step back from him. “I agree.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

“No. Go. Go now. Take one of the vans, but I don’t want to see you at the mansion when I return.” Orvar reached into his pants pocket and extracted a set of keys that he tossed to Jason.

Jason scoffed and shook his head disbelievingly. “Fine. Whatever.”

And with that, he left.

Leon sighed, closed his eyes, and tucked his head against Rita’s again. He would’ve remained like that indefinitely if not for a cold hand that landed on his bare shoulder. He sucked in a startled breath of air and stared up wide-eyed at Orvar who crouched next to him with a pair of sweatpants and a white shirt.

“I brought the other van to the front door. Get dressed and I’ll see you home.”

Home.

When they made it there, he didn’t fight Nate and Becca when they insisted on staying over for a couple nights in their guest room (and apparently Annalise was going to camp out on their couch?), but he did fight when Orvar volunteered to carry Rita to bed for him. Leon stood with Rita in his arms in front of their red house for several long moments after he got her out of the van, swaying like a sapling caught in a strong breeze. Every time Orvar asked if he was sure he didn’t need help, he’d nod and his lips grew thinner until they disappeared entirely.

He couldn’t bear to part with her for even a second, and he’d be the one to get her to the bedroom, even if it took him all night. While Nate and Becca went ahead to get her mom sorted in the living room, Leon began the long trudge inside and upstairs with Orvar on his heels. The vampire kept a hand on his shoulder, but made no other moves to help him until he went to place Rita on the bed. The last of his strength left him and she nearly tumbled from his arms. Even then, Orvar only flashed over to support Leon easing Rita to bed, rather than taking her from him and doing it himself.

Oblivious to the vampire’s watchful gaze, Leon climbed into bed after Rita and settled next to her, doing his best not to disturb her more than he already had. He wanted to curl around her, pull her into his arms and hold her tight, but he didn’t want to wake her up. He was even afraid to lean back down to grab the comforter and pull it over them, but he didn’t have to. Orvar, with a gentle smile, came around to tuck them both in.

“Sleep well,” he said on his way out, but when he paused to look back at them, they were already doing exactly that.
 
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Nate was trying to be quiet, but Leon had refused to wake Rita up and after speaking with Annalise, he was worried. If there was a chance Lorelei had done lasting damage, they needed to know. They needed to make sure that Rita was okay and that she would finally be able to lead a normal life. He wanted nothing more than for her and Leon to go away for a while, to take a honeymoon and just relax – but it wasn’t a reality yet. No one had stated the werewolf in the room, though. Leon had bit Lorelei, clawed her to pieces, and Rita had been on the receiving end of those hits.

What if….

“It fucking sucks,” Nate exhaled through his nostrils hard, “this bullshit with Lorelei. But she might still have some strings to pull in there and Rita doesn’t deserve to suffer anymore. Annalise can take a look, but if we don’t, are we willing to risk it?”

/

Rita heard voices before she managed to come to serval hours later. Hours was an understatement – she had been sleeping for nearly an entire day, a whole near sixteen hours. It was a strange sensation feeling her body wake, slowly but surely, she could feel the warmth of the blanket around her and the weight of someone beside her on the bed. She could feel the breeze from the New Orleans air, though it was certainly not daytime because she was not hot. No, possibly dusk? Maybe later? She shifted a bit and let out a soft murmur before she managed to will any strength to her eyes. There was still so much exhaustion that hung heavy on her body, but her mind felt quicker, lighter. Her muscles didn’t burn, her hands were curled up in the soft caress of the blanket.

Hell, she didn’t want to get up.

It wasn’t until she heard a voice – Nate’s voice – that she grew worried. What if she wasn’t asleep? What if she was coming back from an episode and moving Lorelei out of her mind was not enough to stop the damage? What if her mind was a mine field, ready to explode at any possible moment. Were any of them safe? What was he saying?

“…are we willing to risk it?”

Rita opened her eyes slowly and jolted a bit when she saw the room was filled with every face she had never anticipated seeing in her bedroom at night. Nate, Becca, Annalise, Orvar – all there – and she could feel Leon beside her. He was always beside her. Her eyes went wide for a minute before she registered Leon’s gentle expression and the kind, loving expressions of those around her. No one was hurt, there was no blood or screaming, no Jason slammed up against the wall. Lorelei was gone, she had watched the woman be smeared against the ground like a bug, and they were home. This was their bed. Leon was beside her and that was their window open to let in the night air.

“Sorry,” she breathed out sleepily and brought her hands up to rub at her eyes almost childishly. It was hard not to curl back up into the warmth, but she elected to scoot enough that she could curl into Leon’s side as he sat with his back against the pillows. “Are we willing to risk what?” she yawned, “Did something else happen? Is that why our bedroom is filled with six people? Is everyone okay?”

She blinked hard as if she wasn’t seeing something, “Where’s Jason?”
 
While Leon only had gentle, loving looks for Rita, when she began stirring and woke after Nate ran his mouth, Leon shot him a scathing look. The agreement had been that they’d wait for her to wake, and he should’ve known better than to trust the younger werewolf to contain himself for more than five minutes. He lifted his arm to accommodate Rita as she curled up against him and when he looked down at her, his expression softened again. Even if she hadn’t gotten all the sleep he’d wanted for her, and even though he could see her groggily trying to come to terms with the lurkers in their room, she was more present than she had been in a long, long time.

“Nothing else happened,” Leon said quickly, wanting to dispel any concerns she might have, but then she followed up with a question about Jason and he sighed. By this point, he knew Rita well enough to assume that despite what Jason had done, she’d be willing to forgive him because of the circumstances. She’d see things from his point of view, understand why he’d made the decision to shoot — to put others before her. She’d even be concerned that they’d sent the ex-Enforcer off the way they had. He was smiling lopsidedly when he reached down to gather one of her hands in his and pulled it over to his lap where he covered it with the other.

It was that damned big heart of hers.

Orvar stepped forward and began speaking in the same moment, “I made him leave.” The vampire paused and looked at the floor, and it might’ve been the way the moonlight hit his angular face, but Leon could’ve sworn there was regret in the dip of his eyebrows and the thin line of his lips. Leon’s suspicions were confirmed because there was definitely regret in his voice when he continued, “I put him in a position to make a choice that nearly cost you your life. I won’t have it happen again.” He looked up at Rita then and smiled tightly. “Some things aren’t worth risking.”

Leon tilted his head to place his mouth closer to Rita. “He’s trying to say sorry,” he whispered.

Orvar raised an eyebrow but didn’t correct him.

“And they won’t say it out loud,” he lifted his head to look at the rest of the group, then down again to continue whispering, “but they think I might’ve turned you into a werewolf.”

“Leon!” Becca exclaimed, then shared a worried look with her mother.

“What? That’s why you’re here, isn’t it?” His mouth slid to the side and his eyes narrowed in thought. “They also want to make sure Lorelei didn’t leave you with any surprises in your head.”

Becca made a strangled noise.

"We only want to make sure you're alright, Rita," Orvar said, clasping his hands in front of him.

No talk of who she might hurt if Lorelei had left triggers in her head or the greater good. Orvar was aiming to score some points, wasn't he?
 
“A werewolf, huh?” Rita glanced up at Leon, “Well, that would be a terrible wedding present.”

A yawn passed through her lips and she looked up at the others who were standing just far enough away that she could take them in all at once. Nate had his brow quirked in worry, Becca and her mom mortified by Leon’s joking, but there was nothing as odd as Orvar’s overwhelming sense of guilt. She understood. Of course she did. He had only brushed her aside because he had been focusing on the development of their little operation and she had been suffering from some pretty severe PTSD. While it sucked, Rita could not blame him – or any of them – for getting caught up in their own lives. It was only natural. The world could not revolve around her and Leon, though for the last three years it felt as though it did.

A hazard, she supposed, of their relationship being born of fire and brimstone. When they met in the facility, they were all the other had. There was nothing for them in the world, no one to run to, and their families were estranged because of it. Instead, they found solace in one another and had been doing so for nearly four years now. Up until Lorelei, there was no imminent threat, no reason to believe there was anything wrong with Rita except for some disturbing emotional issues.

She smiled sleepily up at Orvar, “Strange almost-apology accepted, but it’s really not necessary. None of us could have known it was Lorelei. It took Becca two times being in my head to figure out she was even involved. You’re a vampire – you’re not a psychic. Unless, of course, there’s some strange vampire voodoo magic that lets you read minds and you haven’t told any of us.”

“No way,” Nate shook his head confidently, “if he did, I would have been dead years ago.”

“Careful, if he snaps and comes after you, I’m too tired to take anyone on. You’d be on your own,” Rita chuckled.

“Handled myself fine against Jason.”

“You yelled at him from across the room?” Becca raised an eyebrow.

“But I had a good one! Leon heard it. I had him shaking in his little army combat boots. Don’t worry, Rita. I’ll fill you in sometime. You’ll be proud of me.”

Rita shook her head, “You don’t have to goad an ex-marine for me to be proud of you, you idiot.”

“So,” Rita looked back at the group and tried to pick her head up a bit from Leon so she could speak to them properly, but she did not lose the blanket or Leon around her. Her hand was clasped in his, consumed by his palm, and she sighed. “You wanna poke around in my head some more to see if Lorelei left any mines behind? And you want to check to see if my very human self now has a curse seal? I take it that the whole thing is just very unpleasant? Otherwise Becca wouldn’t look so mortified.”
 
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