The other shoe

The expectation was palpable in the air around the hospital as the hours passed and the lights, bangs and smells continued to emanate from Micah’s room. The news had spread around the pack that Ash and Blaze had found a cure, everyone was waiting on tenterhooks to hear if it had worked out or not.

Inside the room however, it was becoming clear to Blaze that something wasnt quite right. The spell should showing some effects by now he knew, Micah should be showing some signs of improvement by now, but his temperature was just as high as ever and his rash seemed to be spreading.

He daren’t say anything to Ash, knowing full well that the thought of getting Micah back was all that was keeping her going right now. The determination to get this right and for it to work was etched on her face, and in every movement of her body.

The ritual came to its conclusion. The noise, the lights and the magic died. The pressure in the air around the room seemed to suddenly deflate. Ash defeating with it, she was swaying on her feet with sweat dripping from her pale face. Loki only just managed to catch her before she hit the floor, scooping her up and to his chest.

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

Ash woke in her bed, her feet bare, and pants off under what smelt like Micah’s quilt. The rain was hitting the glass of the large windows in her room, the smell of wet grass and trees was heavy in the air, but it was dull and lifeless, not Micah, just wet grass after a storm. Her mate wasn’t here with her.

She slowly began to sit up, her body was stiff and sore, it felt like she had spent the last several hours being knocked around a boxing ring by an opponent several times larger than she was. She was half expecting to see her body covered in bruises when she got out of bed.

Ash let out an involuntary moan, the door to her bedroom burst open and in came Shaddow, Blaze, Loki and Mark. The hellhound took a leap at the bed, from barely a step in the room and landed on the bed next to Ash, his head on her lap as he looked up at her and gave a soft whine. Ash curled her fingers into the beasts fur as she looked to the huddle of men in her doorway. “It didn’t work?” She asked, though it was more of a statement, if Micah was awake, they wouldnt have needed to wrap her in his bedding.

it was Mark who moved forward to offer comfort. Sitting on Ash’s other side and wrapping an arm around her shoulders, while Loki and Blaze stood in the doorway, their heads bowed.

“I don’t know why it didn’t…. the spell went perfectly” Blaze began.

“He’s still unconscious, the doc is worried about him. We don’t know what to do now.” Loki explained.

Tears were falling down Ash’s face as she looked around at the men in her room. “Just, get out… I need to shower” she said shakily. Pushing Mark away and struggling from under the hellhound.

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

Once again, Ash was ensconced in her room of dusty, old books. Shut away from everyone and everything, only Shaddow could get her to take a break to eat or drink. Even Blaze was concerned about her now, and beginning to loose hope that they would ever find anything.

The mood in the pack was miserable, heavy and anxious again. People were panicking, not knowing how to keep themselves safe, they kept their distance from each other, hardly speaking to one another now just incase the other was infectious. The number of people falling sick was growing, many were concerned that the sickness would overwhelm the whole pack.

The searching was repitivie, mind numbing and going nowhere. Ash was frustrated, her hair was a mass of tangles, the black bags under her eyes were big enough to hide half the pack in. They had been at it for hours, or was it days? Time had lost all meaning for Ash. She rephrased her question over and over, trying to find answers in books that didn’t seem to want to give her any.

Until, eventually, the answers seemed as plain as day. It was as if they were written all across the stubbornly blank page infront of her. It was so simple, so blissfully simple.

“Its happened before! I know what this is!” Ash cried, well more croaked, she had been silent for so long, and she hadn’t had anything to drink either. “I need catnip, skullcap and blisterwort… as much as we can get” she added, carrying the book from the room at a jog. “Where the fuck is Loki? He was all over before!”

Blaze was jerked out of his trance by Ash’s voice. His legs unfolding from under him where he sat in the corner of the room. The sudden change in Ash, her burst of activity was scary almost. Blaze rose to his feet gracefully, quickly following in her steps as she dashed from the room. “Ash, Ash slow down, explain it too me, is it a spell? A potion? What is this disease?”

Ash however just pushed on blindly. Screaming loudly for Loki or Xavier, or mark. Yelling out lists of random herbs and equipment. She seemed to be indifferent to Blaze and shadow behind her, trying to keep up and figure out what she was planning.

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

“Do you know what she is planning?” Mark asked as he peered around the door of the meeting room that Ash had commandeered in the hospital. It was pretty much the only place in the clinic that wasnt full of patients.

“I have no idea, but if it works then I will give that girl anything she wants for the rest of my life” Loki replied, pacing in the hallway outside. The strain of the situation clear in the pallor of his skin, and the way his hair stood up on end like he was unable to stop running his hands through it. His chin was unshaven, and there was much more than a days worth of stubble, it aged him somehow, but not in a bad way, Loki would clearly be a handsome old man.

“I think its a potion, we need to stay out so we dont contaminate the energy, it looks delicate.” Blaze told them, he was sitting in the doorway, with shadow by his side.

“Contaminate the energy? What on earth…” Mark looked at Loki who simply shrugged and continued his pacing. “But it will work, right?” Mark asked Blaze.

“This one isn’t my find. Ash seems convinced, and it was enough to get her out of those books so I guess she’s pretty confident.” Blaze said serenely, his eyes didn’t even open.

It was several hours later before Ash emerged from the room. She was shaking with exhaustion and barely able to hold herself upright. “Y…you need to give them all some… drink if they can…” she managed to whisper before falling into Loki’s waiting arms.