Chapter 157: Labyrinth

“Is everything alright?” Lykos asked after he told the vampire to run if it wished.

Namuh looked back at Lykos sadly as he left his paw on the faded reflection.

Lykos walked up and looked at it. Lykos didn't have a reflection so he looked at Sasa's curiously. “Are you sad because you have one, or is it fading? I've never seen you near a mirror before,”

Namuh clawed it and growled.

“Uh, I'm going to guess that means faded?”

Namuh nodded, the slinked away. All Sasa cared about was getting Fenris to safety. She would just deal with her new body later. At dusk Sasa woke and continued her search as she looked at her unevenly colored hair. Once she was free, she would get it fixed. Lykos wanted to talk, but Sasa just put up a barrier saying she wanted silence. Telling her father what she had done scared her enough, she wasn't about to tell anyone else. By midnight they searched all the rooms. Sasa had kept them away from the room the vampire had been in, but Lykos found it anyway. All that was left was ash, Sasa just waited as he growled at the remains.

“You know this will be us if we don't leave,” Lykos said as he came back out, and hand full of the ash folded up in a handkerchief.

“Why'd you do that?” Sasa asked curiously as she tilted her head.

Lykos looked at her a moment before he asked, “Haven't you been told about our burial rights?”

Sasa shook her head no. “I know wolves are burned, it’s the belief that as the flames lick the night sky that warrior makes his way up to Luna,”

“Since we ash we like to spread one another's ashes in respect. Enemies we just leave on the ground to rot and become the dust of the ground. Allies, loved ones, those who died with honor, even a pinch we set to the wind so they can scatter and be free to the world and the flow of time,”

“It's all silly,” Sasa said as she turned around and continued walking.

“It's respect. I'm surprised you seem so untouched by the ritual. Wouldn't you want someone to do your remains respect?”

“I'll be dead, I won't care one way or another. The rituals are in place to bring ease and peace to the living, not the dead. Once you're dead you'll care not of this world any longer. You'll either go home, or not. I'm done talking about this. I don't like it that there aren't people here, human people, or my son,” Sasa said as she started heading for the surface again. Where was her son?

“Sasa, calm down. You're getting so angry there's this red mist rising from you. I've only seen something like it in anime,”

Sasa looked around and saw her aura was starting to cackle and burn with the red haze, “Let it. I want him to know just how upset I am that I can't find my son. If he is missing, I'll skin him alive and screw the consequences,” Sasa muttered a bit more in Egyptian that made Lykos chuckle.

“I never realized you had such a temper. I'll never cross you on a full moon,”

“Sadly, it's wise not to cross me any time of the month. Only daddy, da, and Fenris can tame my temper and none of them are around,” After a moment pause, she added, “Alright, Idmu scares me and can freeze me in my tracks, but other than that nothing else works,”

Lykos just chuckled some more as he followed his friend and her pet. Half way back up Sasa stopped and looked around confused. After a second of what Lykos could swear was sniffing, she cursed in Norwegian as good as he had ever heard Fenris do as she kicked the wall. Namuh roared alongside her and began clawing at the walls. Suddenly Sasa dropped to the ground screaming as she clawed at her collar. Lykos tried to help her, but the shock burned him so severely he had to pull away. Namuh had trouble moving, but managed to bend over and bite the collar. Sasa laid on the ground as Namuh pulled the collar off and gnawed it to bits. She fought to try and pull the poison from the marks he had made on her throat. After a long while Sasa threw the ball of blood up into the air and Namuh caught it and swallowed it. Panting Sasa sat up rubbing her raw neck, newly charred with burns from the collar.

“I forgot the building doesn't like you hurting it,” Sasa said hoarsely.

“Are you alright? Here,” Lykos offered as he bit his wrist and offered it to Sasa.

At first, she was going to say no, but she felt hungrier than usual. She thanked him and latched on. After her throat was healed, she let go and thanked him.

“Now what?”

“We keep going. He made this into a labyrinth. I have access to all the prisoners for food. I will try to keep you alive. Let's see how long he keeps us here,” Sasa said, sounding more bored than determined, as she continued to walk.

Sasa didn’t know how much time had passed. All she did know was that she and Lykos traveled the maze of halls and cells endlessly. It didn’t take Sasa long to figure out she was a rat in a maze and the prisoners were her cheese. At first, she needn’t attack them. She marked the doors of the cells that held werewolves. They still needed to eat solid food to survive. However, if she ever took one from its cell, that wolf no longer received meals. That first wolf was subdued and Sasa let Lykos feed from it. The rest of the blood she stored in Namuh. The shifting blood dragon held her blood for her until the times she needed it most, or she offered it to Lykos so he didn’t go mad. Slowly the need for human blood waned on both vampires. Lykos was first to fall asleep. Sasa hid him in a safe room and marked his door with his name in hieroglyphics. Namuh was left in front of the door to guard it, and act as a beacon when she needed to find him once more. After she lost Lykos, she visited the werewolf Drakon of the dragon packs for conversation. This didn’t last long however; she went at him one night for blood and he had to bop her hard on the nose. She leapt back in pain and rubbed her nose. No one had told her this worked so well. Fenris used to do it all the time, but she only thought it worked because he was her mate. The thought made her cry blood tears as she left the cell apologizing for her behavior. Finding one all for herself she curled into a ball and tried to fight the hunger. Why was it so much stronger this time? Why could she not ignore it like she had so many times before? Last time she let her self-fall into a walking corpse state and didn’t lose her hunger for months, maybe even years. Had years passed? Time always escaped her. She had no way of knowing if it had been weeks or years.

More countless time passed as Sasa sat in her dark room. Nothing broke it until a flashlight shined on her. She smelled human and looked up hungrily as she tensed her body to pounce.

“Sasa, it’s me, Leo,” The human called cautiously.

Sasa growled and barred her fangs. Of course, the man in white would allow her to see him now. In anger she chomped down hard on her arm. The bones cracked under her jaws from the force of her frustration.

Leo dropped the flashlight and dropped to her side, pulling gauze out if his lab coat pocket. “Sasa, don’t bite yourself, bleeding will make it worse,”

Leo gently nudged her head with his hands to get her to let go. Pitifully Sasa did and rubbed her face against his hands. They were just like his father’s and Sasa missed his touch. Taking her arm Leo started to wrap it in the gauze. Smiling weakly, Sasa let him. The action was so kind and gentle she didn’t want to ruin it by reminding the boy she wasn’t human and the wound would heal in a few minutes, the bones in a few hours.

Once Sasa was bound up, Leo started pulling other things out of his pockets. Water, dehydrated food, a brush, alcohol wipes, and even clean clothes from a bag he had bound to his chest. All these he passed over to Sasa. Sasa hugged him as she tried hard not to cry anymore.

“It’s alright Sasa. I had lots of time to hoard this stuff for you. He’s been letting me watch you when I want as he waited for you to starve. It’s been nearly six months since you got locked in here,” Leo explained as Sasa began ripping at her hair and brushing it.

The rest of the night Leo spent telling Sasa what had happened since they got separated. Leo had demanded to know the truth, and Dr. White had showed him the surveillance video of her capture, imprisonment, the c-section they did to get Leo, and everything else. Dr. White admitted that he originally had taken Leo to use against Sasa, but he felt attached to him. Leo could choose, stay and be a hunter with Dr. White, or join his mother. If he chose Sasa he would be stripped of his liberties and lock in his quarters until the time was right to join Sasa. The times he was allowed out to check on Sasa were times Dr. White tried to show what kind of monster she was and if he really wanted that woman over him. Leo couldn’t explain it, but he felt he couldn’t abandon Sasa. As much as Dr. White tried to hide the parts about Sasa still looking for Leo, Leo still heard them sometimes. The only thing keeping her going was him, he couldn’t betray her.

Even if it was just a chemical bath, and a simple prison dress, Sasa felt better after grooming. She hadn’t worn anything but her green coat since they took Fenris away. She still wore it over her dress, but it was nice not to feel so naked. With her hair brushed she braided it into twin braids and tied them off with Leo’s shoe strings. He had brought an extra pair. Even the dry food tasted good. She still wanted blood and kept looking at Leo hungrily, but refused to act on the feeling. After a few nights of her hungry stare when she thought he wasn’t looking Leo offered. Sasa refused. She thanked him, but explained she was too hungry. Starved, the next being she bit would die. Also, he was her pup. There was no way to know if biting him would awaken Luna in him and the last thing they needed was a Luna puppy trying to eat her on the next full moon.