Brothers - 35. Chapter 35

JASON

The neko stepped out of the van warily, staring at the tall building in front of him. His fingers signed distractedly, thanking the driver of the car as it peeled out of the car park.

Back in his track clothes, Jason was taking advantage of his freedom from Margaret. Lysander was in there somewhere, and he was going to find him somehow. He already knew the answers to the questions. Are you family? Yes. Yes he was.

Steeling himself, the neko pushed forward, passing through the doors of the place he had said he would never enter again. He always seemed to find his way back to the hospital. Maybe he should just be happy that this time it was on his own two feet.

Jason approached a desk, offering a worried look to the elf sitting behind the counter. His hands signed silently, the elf staring at him blankly. She picked up a phone, turning away slightly.

“We have a neko dealing with tremors up front,” she said quietly, Jason’s ears folding instantly.

His hands waved again, motioning toward his throat, but it was clear the elf wasn’t getting it.

“Sir, I’m going to need you to sit down. We’ll get you help as soon as possible,” she said firmly.

He pulled out his phone, trying to pull up the voice app.

“No, I’m not on drugs, I’m mute. I need to find Lysander Ethis,” he typed quickly.

“Oh, Lysander…”

The elf’s face fell slightly.

“No one is being admitted to see him. I cannot give any information on him at this time.”

“He’s my father.”

“Nice try. You’re not Dylan.”

And just like that, all his careful plans were ruined.

“Please… he got hurt helping my brother. Can… can I at least talk to Jerric? He would be helping, right?”

“Jerric… passed away last week. I’m sorry, but there is no way you can go back there right now,” the elf frowned.

He felt like he’d just taken a hammer to the chest. Jerric was dead? Had he been the last person the man had helped? Gods… what if he had killed the mage?

“Sir? Sir, I need you to sit down.”

The elf’s voice seemed to come from a great distance, the world spinning around Jason as he tried to come to terms with the man’s death. Jerric was dead… Jason had caused his death…

He fell into softness, a chair pushed behind him as he dropped, and a prick stabbed his arm. A hiss escaped his lips as cold liquid dripped into his arm.

“I can’t tell if he’s faking it to get to Lysander or not…”

“Treat it like he isn’t. The news probably startled him. Sir, can you tell me…”

The neko seemed to be fading in and out of consciousness. One moment there were people around him, the next moment, he was in a room with a dark-furred neko nurse, an IV in his arm, and Jason’s heart sank.

No, he couldn’t be back in the hospital. Not again.

“Sir, are you awake? Can you understand me?” the neko asked loudly, and Jason winced at the tone. His free hand raised heavily.

‘Yes.’

He knew from experience not to move the other hand if he didn’t want the needle in it to jab into places it was never meant to go. Hadn’t he always wanted to see how hospitals work for research purposes? Three visits to the hospital in as many weeks… Jason was starting to think he’d done more than enough research at this point.

“Jason?”

The neko blinked in surprise as Dylan appeared in front of him. The calico’s eyes were red, his face tightly drawn, as though he were barely holding onto his emotions.

“What are you doing here?”

The nurse frowned as she stepped between the other two nekos.

“Dylan, you should go home. You look exhausted,” she said firmly. “Your father wouldn’t want you to suffer like this.”

‘I wanted to check on Lysander,’ Jason signed, gritting his teeth as the needle moved in his arm. ‘Is Jerric-’

“Dead,” Dylan nearly spat. “He’s dead and my etul is paralyzed because of it. Because you wasted his life-”

“Dylan!”

Jason’s eyes squeezed shut, the neko shuddering as his friend yelled over the nurse.

“He can’t even move his fucking arms-”

“Dylan, enough. You need to leave-”

The darker neko ushered the calico from the room, Jason letting out a shaky sigh. He knew it… he had killed Jerric. And now Lysander was suffering because of it. Jason had traded Lysander’s ability to walk for his own.

“We’re going to make sure you’re steady again,” the nurse said as she returned. “It shouldn’t take too long, as long as no one else comes barging in here wanting to yell about something you had no control over.”

Jason just nodded silently, his eyes squeezed shut as the liquid dripped steadily into his arm.

DEVYN

The wolf scratched at the front door, trying to figure out how to unlock the wolf door below. He’d done it before, more than once, and Devyn knew it was possible, but after an indeterminate amount of fruitless scratching, he’d had yet to replicate earlier successes.

Further in the house, he could still hear Margaret yelling, his mother trying to find Jason in her own way. Neither was working, neither was helping. The wolf needed to escape so he could find his brother.

Stepping away from the door, Devyn startled as the doorbell rang, barks and growls instantly warning whoever was on the other side that they better not fuck with him. He frowned suddenly, a thought breaking through to him, and the wolf fell silent as Margaret stormed into the room.

“Devyn! Be quiet!” she snapped, stepping between him and the door.

The lock clicked quietly as the human threw it back, and Devyn waited anxiously for her to open it. If she just opened it wide enough, he could get out…

But no, she barely opened it a crack, her face falling into a scowl at the sight of another wolf.

“One of your friends?” Margaret demanded, Devyn’s nose sniffling at the familiar scent.

Erith… but not Erith. He was a wolf, not a werewolf? Devyn backed up awkwardly, frowning at the door, and Margaret sighed as she let the black wolf into the house.

The door closed loudly, the woman turning away from them as she pulled her phone back out.

“Just bark when you want back out, I guess. It’s not like I’ll understand either of you anyway.”

Devyn ignored his mother, approaching the dark wolf warily. His nose sniffled over nearly every part of the not-Erith, sneezing briefly at a strange musk coming from the wolf. Nerves… but also lust? It was hard to tell the two apart, but the way the wolf was acting, Devyn was reasonably sure the wolf wanted him.

And Devyn didn’t have time for that.

The door was unlocked, all he had to do was figure out how to open it. And then it hit him. Erith was a wolf. The moon hadn’t hit yet.

It was painful, but Devyn forced himself to shift, the wolf whimpering as the muscles in his wrist tightened and loosened again. He reached for the door, and a hand fell on his shoulder.

“Devyn.”

“Erith?” the wolf grunted.

“Yeah… that was Gara. I’m still Erith…” the elf muttered, Devyn flinching as the scent of adrenaline seemed to increase. “I don’t have a lot of time, but Jason asked me to do something for the two of you.”

His hand slid down Devyn’s back, and the wolf growled quietly.

“Don’t.”

“Oh thank the gods… I… uh… I’m not sure how to do this…” Erith breathed. “Look… I just need to claim you… I have my shirt outside, if we’re not… doing it that way.”

“Why?” Devyn demanded.

“So you have a reason to come to my house. So you can get away for a bit. I’m going to claim both of you… at least, that’s what Jason said. Is he… is he here? I don’t think Gara could smell him.”

“We don’t know where he is. I need to get out of here.”

“Oh. Maybe we can look together? Who… who were those people?”

Devyn frowned, shaking his head silently.

“Okay, well… do you know where he would have gone if they let him go?”

The wolf thought about that for a moment. Jason wouldn’t want to come home, not if it meant getting yelled at by Margaret. He would have found somewhere else to go…

“Lysander?” he suggested.

“The hospital?” Erith frowned slightly. “Okay, that’s an idea. I have money for the bus and wolves ride free. Why don’t we look there? I’ll let your mother-”

“No.”

The wolf pulled the door open, dropping as he shifted again. He bolted from the house, sprinting straight toward where Erith’s clothes were hidden behind a bush. The elf raced after him, ducking behind the cover of the plants as a car drove by. He dressed quickly, straightening out his clothes before standing up.

“Come on, there’s a stop right in front of the school,” he said, motioning for the wolf to lead the way.

Devyn had no desire to go slow, and he made sure Erith knew it. His leg was feeling somewhat better after shifting twice, and the wolf took full advantage, loping down the pavement in a way that made the elf struggle to keep up with him. Two minutes of running found him sitting on a bench with a group of humans staring at him worriedly. Erith took a bit longer to catch up to him, barely making it to the stop before the bus arrived.

“You need to stay with me. I don’t want you to get hurt like Dylan’s dad,” the elf frowned as he slipped a pair of copper coins into the coin box on the bus.

Devyn huffed quietly as the driver helped him into a harness at the front of the bus, Erith plopping into a seat next to the wolf.

“We need the stop at Quarian Street and Wolf Avenue,” he mentioned to the driver, the other elf nodding her understanding.

It seemed to take forever for the bus to stop, Devyn fighting the urge to gnaw on the straps holding him down. He remembered his antler hiding in his room suddenly, and the wolf whimpered, wondering why he hadn’t brought it with him to have something to chew on.

But finally the bus came to a stop, and the two got off nearly a five minute walk from the hospital. Devyn grimaced at the smell of exhaust.

“Yeah, Gara hates roads,” Erith frowned sympathetically as he checked his phone. “The moon should be rising in about an hour. Do you have a change of clothes?”

Devyn huffed quietly, his head shaking slowly. He didn’t need clothes, not for the next few days anyway. Ignoring the elf’s reply, the wolf began stalking toward the hospital, his nose sniffling along the pavement as he tried to pick up his brother’s scent.

“Maybe wait until we’re a little closer,” Erith frowned, a hand settling on the wolf’s nape. “The smells have to be pretty bad this far out.”

Devyn grunted in agreement, before trotting ahead of the elf. He heard Erith curse, then the sound of feet slapping the ground behind him as the werewolf raced to keep up with him.

Passing through the hospital’s car park, the wolves stepped through a pair of sliding doors, Erith stepping up to an elf behind a desk as Devyn winced at the sharp stinging of disinfectant.

“Hi, I’m looking for Jason Farin?” the elf asked uncertainly. “He might have come here looking for… Lysander, I think?”

“Neko? Marble fur, mute, prone to fainting?”

“Uh… yeah, that sounds like him,” Erith frowned.

“Checked himself out twenty minutes ago.”

Devyn grunted in frustration, the wolf turning toward the door again. He should have known the hospital wasn’t going to be any help.

“Thanks for your help,” Erith said quickly, before hurrying after the wolf.

Devyn was already trying to catch his brother’s scent, that vanilla cinnamon mix he knew so well, but the hospital was ruining the track, the scent of acrid burns, blood, and cleaning supplies burning into his nose until he had to sneeze again. Erith sighed quietly as the door closed behind them, the elf taking the opportunity to lean against a brick pillar as he waited for the wolf.

“Up to you now. He probably knows how to get home from here,” the elf pointed out. “I mean, he never goes anywhere without his phone, right?”

An angry snort made him frown, Erith shaking his head.

“Okay, fine, we’ll keep looking. But you need to find him. I can’t do shit in this form.”

JASON

The neko was lost.

His phone had died sometime during his trip to the hospital, he had no money for the bus, and he had no idea how to get back home. So Jason did the only thing he could think of. He walked away from the hospital and hoped to spot something familiar during his wanderings. After all, he had made this trip two times before. Surely something would have stuck out.

But after passing the same CeCe’s for the fourth time, Jason had to admit he’d made a mistake. The neko groaned silently as he stepped through the restaurant’s doors, praying they’d at least have some water he could drink.

A pair of humans glanced at him curiously as he entered the building, the ginger neko sitting behind the counter smiling up at the newcomer.

“Good evening sir, how can I help you?”

Jason pulled out his phone, before remembering it was dead, the whole reason he had just spent nearly half an hour walking in circles. Shoving it back in his pocket, the neko signed silently.

‘Do you have water?’

The ginger neko stared blankly for a moment, before a frown took his face over.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know what you’re saying.”

His ears pricked up suddenly, and he grabbed for a small foldout menu, pushing it toward Jason. The grey neko nodded quickly in understanding, his eyes scanning through the various birds and burgers.

He found the drinks but came up with nothing but soda or cranberry juice. Frowning slightly, Jason motioned toward the drinks with a raised eyebrow. A claw slid over the menu, signing an invisible ‘w’, but the other neko didn’t seem to be seeing it.

“Drinks are two copper,” he said.

A silent sigh escaped the mute neko, and he moved over to the soda machine, pointing to the water. The ginger’s eyes raised in understanding, and he reached for a small cup.

“Oh, okay. Is that all you needed?”

Jason nodded, taking the cup gratefully. He filled it with water before stepping toward a table to rest for a moment.

The neko’s ears picked up the sound of a car’s engine revving, and he glanced at the window, his ears flattening as he saw an object flying toward the window. The sound of shattering glass erupted around him, an explosion of flames rushing across the ground as a bottle broke, and Jason hissed in horror, leaping up from his seat as the humans screamed.

“Fucking cat lovers!” someone yelled outside, and the neko’s eyes spotted a truck peeling out of the car park.

Behind the counter, the ginger neko was fighting with an extinguisher frantically. He finally dropped it and raced back into the kitchen as the flames licked over the tile floor. Jason leapt at the extinguisher, his eyes scanning the instructions as the ginger sprinted back with a bucket of water. A silent cry escaped the grey neko, Jason lunging for the bucket and wrestling it away from the other neko. He grabbed the extinguisher, yanking a pin out the top before squeezing the trigger in a rush of powder.

Slowly the flames died down, only to be replaced with the burning smell of bleach. Jason coughed as he breathed in a lungful of the gas, reeling back as he dropped the extinguisher. His eyes were burning from the smoke, but he fought against the pain, rushing to grab the humans and pull them out of the building as the ginger raced outside ahead of them.

“Fuck… what the fuck…?” the other neko whimpered, collapsing away from the building.

Jason shook his head silently, staring at the black marks on the asphalt where the truck had been. He had known people were upset with the king, but to take it out on a restaurant? That was insanity. It would do no good, unless the good they wanted was death.