Alessia moved to Diego. Drake moved to the scuffle on the ground between Erik and Lana. Alessia got to Diego and put a hand on his back to help steady him. He gave into the help with gusto, leaning into her fully and she had to steady herself to properly hold him up.
“What happened?” she asked.
He groaned and removed his hand. A laceration and blossoming bruise awaited notice at the crown of his head.
“She took a cheap shot,” he said, sitting up under his own power. “I’ll be fine.”
No, he wouldn’t. They needed to get him food and water and rest that didn’t involve ants crawling in his ears or rocks causing kinks in his neck. She looked over to see that the wrestling match on the ground had been contained. Drake and Erik worked together to hold Lana down and she huffed, out of breath, into the dirt, sending a small cloud of dust up into the air each time.
“We need to move,” Alessia said, standing up. “We can’t stay here.”
“Agreed,” Erik said.
“We’re not going anywhere until—”
“Yeah, yeah, we’ve heard that before,” Alessia said. “You can stay if you want but we need to move. Diego will die if we don’t find food and water and the rest of us won’t be far behind. I’m sick of sitting around and waiting for someone else to decide the next step in a plan that I had no say in, so this is what I’m doing. I’m taking off at sunrise with Diego. The rest of you can come if you want or you can stay here, it makes no difference to me. I have no idea where anything is so there’s no guarantee we’ll find anywhere safe for us, but it’s better than waiting around and starving to death. That’s what’s happening at sunrise and you can take it or leave it.”
Alessia walked away, resolved. She felt good about that even if her palms were sweating uncontrollably and her knees were ready to buckle. This was the first step in a direction for her that led to a world where she wasn’t some sidelined person or waiting for someone else to make decisions for her. She felt good about it, even if she was completely terrified.
Drake followed. So did Erik with Diego slumped onto his shoulder in a stupor of a walk. She didn’t hear Lana following behind them, but she also didn’t care. She kept moving. That was part of getting this whole storming out thing done, not worrying about the entire world being willing to follow her. Sometimes just a few loyal friends were enough. Sometimes her own ego and sense of pride was enough. She’d take what she could get. She moved on out.
***
“We need to head south,” Drake said. “We’re up north and the best bet is to head down.”
“You want to walk back to SoCal?” Erik asked. Diego had managed to move more under his own power but he was waning fast.
“There’s a better chance for shelter down there,” Drake said.
“I got an idea,” Erik said, reddening in the face. Alessia knew that look and knew she should step in to try to stop whatever was about to happen. “Why don’t you take that impressive dragon crap and fly us back to L.A.”
Drake rounded on him, turning sharply. He was stalking towards Erik and Alessia moved between them, putting a hand on Drake’s chest. He backed off, just a bit, but she could feel the power building there. She pressed hard into his solid chest, doing everything in her power to push him back, to put space between the two men.
“You’ll want to be careful, kid,” Drake said. “You’re quite literally playing with fire.”
“Oh, spare me the puns,” Erik said, rolling his eyes. “Yeah, I get it. You’re a big scary monster. You’re fire made flesh, you’re all sorts of scary big, monstrous things. I get it. But we need to get moving and you’re a bump on a log with your pity-me crap. You just like playing the brooding lover.”
“I don’t play anything.”
“Yeah. You’re just naturally so brooding and deep and spiritual all the fucking time,” Erik said. “I know your type. Every girl on the planet does. We all read Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff.”
Drake was getting red in the face. Alessia had never seen him blush before, she didn’t know that was something he was capable of—either as a dragon shifter or as Drake himself. She wondered if Erik had truly struck a nerve with his taunting. Alessia tried not to snort too much. She didn’t doubt that Drake did affect some of his brooding to come across like some 90s vampire type, skulking in the shadows, hiding from daylight.
But right now wasn’t the time for them to be measuring their manliness. They needed to get Diego to a hospital, they needed to get him shelter, and they could easily be hunted by something worse once James found out they were gone. And then there was the looming shadow of Damien Orlando and the network of shifters he controlled. They were out in the open and in incredible danger.
“Knock it off, both of you,” Alessia said, standing her ground between them, her head on a swivel between them. “We’ve got to keep moving, not ripping each other a part. You two can duke it out all you want when we find a hospital or at least a motel with a drug store. Diego needs help and I’m not above leaving you two imbeciles here if you’re going to slow us down.”
Maybe all that time in the cell, her pent-up annoyance and rage finally came into use. Or at least bubbling over. She didn’t care. She was willing to give them both black eyes if it meant they knocked it off.
They both turned to look at her but neither said a word, perhaps hoping that the other would be the one to accidently set her off. That was the only way they could really win this whole argument. Whoever pissed Alessia off more was the loser in this situation, so they played a game of chicken, waiting to see who messed things up for themselves first. But as far as she was concerned, they were both equally guilty. If one pissed her off, the other would get just as much anger.
“Good,” Alessia said when enough minutes went by and no one spoke. “Drake, Erik has a point—don’t even open your mouth, let em finish—-you can cover more ground than any of us. See if you can’t find a town nearby. A hospital would be ideal but I’ll take a CVS right about now if that’s all we have. Find it and come back.”
She’d turned into some military commander. She liked it. Drake looked more than a little taken aback by her, maybe even a little turned on by her. But she ignored that. They’d have a long talk later about all that maybe—if she decided she forgave him for his imbecilic way of showing affection and defending it. She bit back a smile though. It was kind of hot, the idea that he was jealous of her and willing to fight it out. It was frustrating, just like it was in movies, but she wasn’t about to deny that, in retrospect, it was really hot.
“Go,” she said when he was still just standing there, staring at her. “We need to help him before it’s too late.”
He nodded and walked into the wooded area. He didn’t like transforming in front of others, she realized immediately. Maybe it was like getting changed for dinner or for bed; it was intimate, but in a much more spiritual way. She’d seen it once and wasn’t sure she could burn the image out of her mind. A few seconds later, a large mass took off from the trees. Drake was airborne and on his way. She turned back to look at Erik who was glaring in the sky, looked at her with a brief glance, and then turned away.
***
Erik and Alessia didn’t talk while Drake was gone, at least they tried not to speak. They both put their attention towards dealing with Diego and his wounds. But, Diego was one person and they were forced into some close quarters, despite the whole of the California sky around them. It was suffocating.
Alessia tried to think of noncommittal things to say to him, ways she could start a conversation without getting deep into things. But mentioning the weather only got her so far and was an incredibly obvious way of trying to get a conversation started. Erik wasn’t dumb. He was intuitive, though she never would admit that aloud since his ego was already large enough as it was.
They danced around each other as they took turns looking over Diego, asking him if he was okay, if he needed anything.
“If one of you asks one more time,” Diego grumbled out with all the energy he had left. “I’m going to just off myself right here. Even if I did need something, it’s not like you could get more than leaves and some fucking rocks.”
Alessia looked down, suddenly very interested in her shoes. She’d hoped Drake would be back by now. She wondered if that meant something bad had happened, but she pushed those thoughts aside. She could only deal with so much at once and she wasn’t about to throw paranoia that he was somehow dying in a ditch somewhere to that list of things worrying her.
“I guess we must be farther out in the wilderness than we thought,” Erik said, stepping away from where Diego struggled to make himself comfortable on the ground. “I thought professor pissy would have been back by now.”
Alessia ignored the nickname. “I had hoped so too. I hope it doesn’t mean something bad,” she voiced without meaning to but she desperately needed someone else to tell her she was being too paranoid.
“I’m sure he’s fine,” Erik sighed. “He’s a strong guy. I mean there might be some shifter-hunting degenerates out here, but I’m sure he’s okay.”
She didn’t know if he was actually trying to be helpful or not, but it wasn’t working all that well. He probably knew that too. He got up and walked away without giving her much more than that. He’d taken to pacing, pretending to do something or anything at all and she couldn’t help but be incredibly irritated by the whole idea of it.
She watched him kicking at stones, pretending to be interested in blades of grass. She really needed to just woman up and talk to him. Though she didn’t like Drake being gone for so long, this was probably the best chance they would get to try to talk things out without worrying if Drake was nearby. She thought about all those 90s shows she would watch with teenagers in love triangles and wondered how it was possible for a grown woman who was closer to thirty and her graduate degree to end up in the same problem.
She took a breath. Then she went over, resolved to talk to Erik and get something accomplished, one way or another.
Chapter 15
She took one last moment to look Diego over. He was pale and breathing a little heavier than she would like, but he seemed content in his napping. His breathing was deep and steady, if a little pained. His face seemed as content as could be. It was enough to settle Alessia’s nervousness as she walked over to where Erik stood with his hands shoved in his pockets, staring out in the valley beyond them. If nothing else, this place was gorgeous and Alessia could be grateful for that much. Nature and all that. It wasn’t worth the weeks of imprisonment and the threat of death. But it was something.
“Hey,” she said, coming up to stand next to him. He didn’t flinch a bit. He expected her.
“Hey,” he said.
“Nice views,” she said. “Who knew that outside Los Angeles, this place was actually gorgeous.”
“National Geographic, probably.”
She didn’t know if she was supposed to laugh or not at that, so she gave him a snort and then they went back to silence. She stole glances at him through the corner of her eye. His arms were crossed now and he stared out into the air with such seriousness. He seemed so much older than the smirking man from her seminars. He seemed like an actual scholar, a student of thought. She supposed spending days in a dungeon and being held captive would do that to you.
“Something on your mind?” he asked with much reluctance. Asking her what was wrong would open a can of worms for both of them.
Everything had been a whirlwind. She’d turned him down, he’d realized why. She’d slept with Drake, and then immediately went to beg Erik for help. He gave her help and was severely punished for it. He’d been helpful for her. He’d been a good friend. And now, his life was probably changed forever in a way that would never go away. He had a scar now, some that probably could even be seen since they seemed to like torturing him.
“I feel bad,” she said, honestly. “I got a lot of people hurt.”
Erik snorted. “You give yourself a lot of credit. I mean, yeah, you asked around and got some things in motion, but at least give us the power of choice here. I did what I wanted to do. I wanted to help you and I wanted to help Drake. That wasn’t your fault. Just like him getting kidnapped wasn’t your fault.”
She smiled to herself. She didn’t believe him, not really. But she liked hearing it. It wasn’t all hot air. He believed what he said. That didn’t make it true, but it made it very heartfelt. He wanted her to feel better and he wanted to do it with truth.
“Shit sucks,” he said. “Yeah, you gave me the options but I made the choice. You can’t force that shit and it was my fault. So, I’ll take the blame for it and move on.”
Okay. She’d take that. She’d let that be the truth for her. She didn’t need more. She’d accept that at face value and move on. It was easier than trying to pick it apart and find the ways he was wrong or she could find loopholes in his forgiveness. She nodded into the air at a question that wasn’t asked because she would accept everything he laid at her feet.
Now the only thing she needed was for Drake to get back and for her to have her talk with him. They needed to discuss some things as well, for clarification. Part of her wished that Diego was awake enough to hear her ranting; she wanted someone to bounce these things off of. She wanted to let it out to someone and Erik wasn’t the person she would force to listen to this. She didn’t return his feelings and she didn’t want to encourage him, but she also didn’t want to torture him. He deserved more than that.
So, she was left to tumble the issues around in her head.
***
Night fell and Drake was still very much gone. Alessia wouldn’t sleep tonight and she knew that Erik wouldn’t either. Diego was in a permanent state of sleep and she didn’t think that was a good thing. He wasn’t getting any better, despite the rest. He needed antibiotics, they needed to clean him up, get him food and water. They would need to keep moving soon and hope that Drake somehow found them. Alessia knew the solution waiting for them. She didn’t want to admit it or give into it, but it was the way things would be soon.
“How should we move him?” she asked, nodding to Diego.
Erik looked up and turned. “You’re giving up on your boyfriend so easily?”
“Getting him better needs to be the first priority,” she said as if the possibility of Drake being captured and tortured wasn’t at the forefront of her mind.
“Well, we can take turns carrying him,” he said. “He can’t walk on his own. He could stumble a few steps on our shoulders with some leaning but I don’t think it will get much farther than that.”
Alessia nodded. She didn’t have the strength to carry Diego on her own. They’d have to do what they could to avoid hurting him permanently. Nothing was broken and the bruises were mending. He didn’t seem to have any internal bleeding but that didn’t mean all his wounds were obvious.
“So, should we move now or wait for daylight?” Alessia asked. She wasn’t sure which was more dangerous and which was the suicide mission.
“I say we go now,” Erik said and Alessia didn’t want to think he was saying it just because he wanted to try to lose Drake in their struggle to get to shelter and civilization. “Daylight is too obvious. Everyone wants to move around in daylight because it’s nice and safe, but this way will be better, trust me.”
She decided there was some truth in that. Everyone always waited until daylight to start moving; they felt safer, but if everyone did it, then everything out there would know where to find humans. Not that she was suddenly giving into all sorts of fears and fancies like vampires and werewolves (though Diego was the closest thing she’d ever gotten to something like that).
They packed up what little camp they had, did their best to disguise the fact that anyone had been living and moving through there, and made their way towards where Drake had flown off to. At the very least, they could follow his trail that way, working t
owards him, assuming he didn’t circle back around or choose to make his way back to them through a different route. They’d hopefully catch him as they moved through the wilderness, headed south towards civilization they hoped was there.
It became clear very quickly during their excursion that they couldn’t last long, carrying Diego the way they were. He couldn’t make it on his own. They let him down for a brief amount of time, tasked him with trying to make his way out on his own, but it always ended with him succumbing to some weakness or another and tumbling to the ground. It bothered Erik, Alessia could tell that much with the way he groaned and moaned as he bent down to pick Diego back up to his feet. But he kept it to himself.
She never would have pegged him for the type to be quietly selfless. He seemed like the picture of a man who would complain and be the first to suggest they leave Diego behind while trying to make their way to safety. But he didn’t say a word. He glared, he groaned, he might have even growled once or twice, but he moved on, all the same, quietly helping Diego along and moving the group. She didn’t want to admit their roles had changed, that he had morphed into the leader position. She’d hoped to retain that for herself since it was her idea to break off from Lana and move south.
But he was also very good at what he did. He was a natural when it came to directions while Alessia was quite useless at it.
“Don’t look so gloomy,” Erik said when she incorrectly tried to point them south. “It’s not like you need to know stuff like this. I just went camping a lot.”
“I just thought I would be better at this whole setting out on your own thing than I am,” she said, sighing.
Erik turned to look at her; she saw it out the corner of her eye and felt it in her cheeks as they heated under a prolonged gaze. He had a way of looking at her that was constantly analyzing and she didn’t know if it excited or scared her more than anything else. “You don’t always need to have the practical skills to be a good leader or an asset to a group. I’ll be the brains, you be the heart of the operation.”
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