Save him please

“Micah?!” Ash cried, shaking Micah’s shoulders violently. His face was grey and covered in a thin sheen of sweat. “Micah, wake up!” Her eyes filled with tears as the stone settled in her stomach.

Pulling her magic to the surface she held her hands over Micah’s chest, but nothing happened. It was like there was a shield over him, protecting him from all magic, even that which was trying to help him. “Shaddow, go get Blaze!” Ash screamed loudly at the hellhound who was sat on its haunches at her side.

Ash knelt on the bed, pushing more and more magic at the shield like creation around her mate. Her powers stretching out, looking for a weak point. Tears filling her eyes as her searches came back empty. “Come on Micah! Come on! Fight this! You are supposed to be practically indestructible! How many times do I have to see you like this?!” Ash shouted as she tried to lift Micah into a sitting position, “wake up! Wake up!”

Blaze burst into the room to find Ash in her underwear, shouting at Micah, her hair dripping down her back and onto the bedding. Her eyes were glowing a bright purple as she turned her head to the door, the fear clear in her expression “What’s happening? He won’t wake up! I cant cure him!” She cried, the tears beginning to pour down her face.

Blaze looked from Ash to Micah and back again. “Tell me what happened, Ash, your magic isn’t going to help, don’t exhaust yourself when we know it will do nothing” he said calmly, moving towards them slowly and reaching out for Ash’s hands.

“I don’t know what happened Blaze! I don’t know… he was ok last night, well he wasnt quite himself, and he felt like he had a fever but, he wouldn’t talk to me and he didn’t say anything was wrong… but then this morning… he’s really hot and he won’t wake up… Blaze, what the fuck is going on?” Ash demanded hysterically, still clinging to Micah tightly.

“Ok… ok Ash, I’ll tell you what I know, but first we need to get Micah to the doc. I’m going to make a few phone calls and then we will take him to the clinic. You need to get dressed, ok?” Blaze spoke slowly, trying to break through the panic that was flooding Ash’s mind. “You need clothes Ash, and then we will get answers”

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It had been a week since Micah fell unconscious, a week with him in this hospital bed. Ash had not left his room once. The doc and Blaze were starting to get concerned for her. Of the first few warriors who were infected, two passed away and still they were no closer to a cause or a cure.

“There’s something different about her, something is… off… but not… I cant put my finger on it but there is something there” Blaze told the doctor in hushed tones outside Micah’s room.

“Well yes, the Mate bond will be pulling on her even if she doesn’t feel it like a wolf would. She will be feeling some of the effects of the illness without actually being sick I would imagine. And the pressure on her to cure Micah from both within and without-” Dr Jenkins began to reply.

“No, no its not that, I can feel that myself. There’s something else…” Blaze eyed the girl through the glass. “I just… and the way that Shaddow is being with her… I’ve never seen that before.” He gave a long sigh and rubbed his hands through his hair, “this whole situation feels off to me, it feels manufactured and deliberate. But more than that, it feels like something I should be able to solve, like the solution is just there, just out of reach, if only” he let out a most wolf like growl and punched the wall hard, leaving behind a fist sized hole before stalking away from the doctor and into the tent outside to tend to some more the sick.

***********************************************

Loki had taken over the running of the pack in his brothers absence with Xavier. The strain was showing more and more on both of them each day that passed. They were hardly sleeping as the pressure to deal with the sickness grew and grew. The elders were at loggerheads, do we abandon our home land of who knows how long and leave the sick here to die? Do we call the humans and hope they dont figure anything out? Call the mages? Or the palace for help? Would the magic users have an answer? Would they share it even if they did? The questions and decisions were piling up, getting more and more urgent with each death or new case.

In the week since Micah had fallen ill, people had taken to pointing the finger of blame at everyone and anyone. The prisoners in the dungeon, the palace and the royal family punishing them for finding Ash when they couldnt, Blaze and Shaddow must have brought something in with them when they came. Some of the conspiracy theories were actually quite elaborate. That there is something wrong with Ash and the pack are being punished for finding her for example. Or that Blaze is being followed by some dark power and the pack are being taken down for “sheltering” him.

Loki had barely managed to get down to the clinic to visit his brother and Ash, but he was being updated regularly by Blaze or the doctor. They reported that Ash had not left Micah’s bedside, but the pressure that the elders were piling on him to have her search the histories for some mention of any previous outbreaks and a cure was mounting by the hour. He had to admit that they really could use the information, but he didnt want to pull Ash from her mate, who knew what that would do to either of them right now?

On the other side of the argument, Ash was the pack’s Luna, and they needed her now more than ever. She was perhaps the only one who might have a chance at getting them through this where everyone else was failing. The problem remained though, how to pull her away from her mate, how to make her see?

***********************************************

“Hey sis, how you holding up?” Loki called from the doorway, seeming to be covered from head to foot in protective plastic that Ash knew would be driving him insane, it was part of the reason why so many of the sick wolves were not getting any visitors, that and the fear of spreading this whatever it was.

“I’ve been better” she croaked back from her position curled up on the chair by Micah’s bed. “I can’t feel his wolf… its like Zander has been cut off and without his magic, mine isn’t working” she mumbled, Blaze and the doctor had said she had been saying these random things that made little sense, they thought she was exhausted and in a bit of shock making her a little nonsensical at times. Loki just nodded and came a little further into the room.

“Look Ash, I know you dont want to leave him… but you can’t do anything here… sitting here and making yourself sick is not going to help Micah or anyone…” he began softly.

“You think I should leave him too? Of everyone, I thought you would understand Loki! You’ve seen all the times he’s done this for me!”

“Look, I know Ash, I know, he sat by your bed day and night for so much longer, but he couldn’t do anything but be here to protect you from any new physical threat” Loki raised a hand in surrender as Ash’s eyes flashed dangerously “and I know you can do that for him too, but I think, we all think, that you can do more for him… Ash, no one knows what this is or how to cure it… we need to know if there is anything in the histories or locked in your and Blazes mind that just needs unlocking and you two are the only ones who can do that… we can make sure no one comes to kill him in his sleep, we can give him all the medical care we can here… but you… you might be able to stop this, you might be able to wake him up” Loki pleaded with her, seeing his brother so helpless and their pack attacked like this, he was prepared to get on his knees and beg if that is what it would take. “Please Ash… please… help me save my brother”