19. Stay with Me
STAY WITH ME
I shifted back to my human shape and held Damien in my arms. He was shaking from pain, and I noticed the blood around his wound had begun to turn black.
Fuck, the arrow was either poisoned or cursed. My heart trembled, but I knew I had to keep calm. We were not out of danger yet, someone was trying to kill us, and they wouldn’t stop until we were dead.
There was no guard nearby, as people normally wouldn’t be using the training yard at this hour. We were on our own.
Just then, a second arrow split the air and came for Damien’s neck. I grabbed him and rolled us behind a stone barrier in the Wolf Run, using it as a shield. Damien grunted in pain as the arrow snapped in the process; the arrowhead was still buried in his shoulder.
I laid him against the barrier and asked hastily, “Damien, can you still move?”
He nodded, gritting his teeth. “My shoulder feels numb. It’s spreading.”
I tried to peek from the side of the barrier to see if I could spot the assassin’s exact location. But I had to draw back when another arrow flew at my face.
I turned to Damien. “Can you try to stay awake?”
Damien nodded. “You should run, go find guards.”
“You’d be dead by the time I came back.” I rolled my eyes. I then noticed that Damien’s clothes, which he had shed when he transformed, were not far from our location. If I was fast enough, I could grab them before the arrow found my head.
“Do you still have my knife?” I asked quietly.
“Yes,” said Damien, “I always carry it.”
Well ... I wasn’t sure how to feel about that, but right now it would save our lives. I was about to lunge at the clothes, but Damien grabbed my arm with his right hand, and his grip was surprisingly strong for a wounded werewolf.
“What are you doing! Do you want to get killed?” Damien’s voice was strained with worry and urgency.
I gave his hand a gentle squeeze, just as I used to comfort Leif before I went to war. “I’ll be fine, I promise.”
He stared at me, brown eyes slightly widened in surprise, possibly because I had never talked to him in such a soft voice before.
His grip reluctantly loosened. I took a deep breath, then dashed to the clothes pile and grabbed them.
Arrows came at me one after another, but I was fast enough to roll back behind the barrier without being hit.
“Are you alright?” Damien asked. He sounded weaker. I noticed his face was covered in beads of perspiration, and his countenance had grown ashen.
Shit ... I needed to act fast.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” I reassured him, rummaging through his clothes and finding my red garnet knife. I unsheathed it and found it was kept remarkably well. The blade was even sharper and more polished than before. I shot Damien a glance, but he was in too much pain to notice it.
I positioned myself at the edge of the barrier and carefully slid the knife’s blade out by a few inches, using it as a mirror to observe the rampart and the roofs around the training yard.
I grabbed Damien’s tunic and threw it out.
As I expected, an arrow instantly pinned it to the ground, but it also gave me the exact location where the assassin was hiding: behind a battlement wall, right next to some weapon crates.
I looked back at Damien and said, “Stay awake, I’ll be back soon.”
“No ... don’t go alone, it’s too dangerous!”
I gave him a confident smirk. “Do you think I can’t handle a sneaky assassin? I wasn’t crowned the three-time champion of the North Games for no reason, alright?”
“It’s not that ...” Damien coughed unexpectedly, but then he adamantly continued, his eyes glistened with tenderness and worry, “I know you are a great warrior, but I just can’t bear to see you get hurt. Give me a moment, I can still fight.”
It was an odd feeling. As an alpha warrior, I was habituated to a rough, ruthless lifestyle.
Getting wounded in battles and hunts was as frequent and normal as eating and sleeping.
Even my family, including Leif, wouldn’t worry about my occasional new wounds here and there, as long as they were not life-threatening.
And now there was this strange wolf prince, sitting there with an arrow in his shoulder, telling me he couldn’t bear to see me hurt, as though I was something too precious.
It was a ... surprisingly nice feeling.
“No, you stay here. I can handle this, trust me,” I said confidently. Before he could say more, I shifted into my wolf form again with one swift, powerful leap.
It all depended on how fast I could be, so I gave it my all.
The world around me blurred into horizontal shades and shadows, while all I focused on was that spot on the battlement wall from which the arrows came.
Every muscle in my body was moving in perfect coordination, honed through years of training and instinct.
Each jump and leap created momentum for the next, forming a constant, fluid rhythm of motion.
My body skimmed across the wide and open training yard as though my paws weren’t touching the rough ground.
The arrows rained down at me like a hailstorm, but I was fast enough to evade all of them, as they thudded into the ground or nailed into the pillars behind me.
I paused briefly to gather all my strength in my legs, then launched myself through the air, landing on the roof of the training yard first. I used it as leverage to hurl myself onto the battlement wall.
Seeing that I was coming at him, the assassin tried to run, but I wasn’t going to let him. I lunged over his head and blocked his escape.
He shifted into wolf form, too, growling at me menacingly, bracing himself for close combat. He was slightly smaller and slimmer than my wolf form.
I knew this was going to be an easy fight, so I decided to end it as fast as possible to have enough time to take Damien to the physicians.
I pounced on him with a seething rage that even surprised me. All I could think was that the bastard had dared to hurt Damien ... For that, I would make him scream in fear and pain.
He tried to claw at my eyes, but with a full-force swipe on his head, I sent him flying and crashing into the wall.
Before he could recover, I closed my jaw on the back of his neck, my fangs punctured his thick skin and clamped down on his spine.
He let out a howl, struggling frantically.
His sharp claws left several deep cuts on my chest and shoulder, but the pain only made my blood boil hotter.
I shook my head violently and threw him onto the crates, taking off a big chunk of his flesh. He was bleeding profusely, and the white of his neckbone gleamed in the cold moonlight. He whimpered, trying to get back on his feet, failing from the excruciating pain and loss of blood.
I approached him, steady and malicious, my intent to kill written plainly on my snarling wolf face. “Who sent you?” I asked with a low, guttural growl.
The assassin didn’t speak, merely desperately scrambling away from me. His blood was thick in the air, and I knew he would die soon. I lunged at him, pressing my paw on his ribcage and pressing down hard, until it cracked with a crisp snap. He screamed again as blood gushed out of his mouth.
“Tell me now, or I’ll make your death so much slower and more painful,” I hissed into his ear.
The fear in his eyes made my body tingle with bloodlust, and the thick, sweet smell of his blood blanketed my senses. I was so focused on him that I didn’t register another approaching shadow, a much stealthier one, until it was too late.
I was tackled to the ground by a second assassin, and this one was not a werewolf.
He was still in a humanoid shape, his ashen-coloured limbs were three times as thick and strong as a regular human male, with giant, batwing-like webbings connecting his arms to his torso.
Sinewy muscles bulged like the knots on an ancient oak.
His features were much sharper and more demonic than a human’s, and his eyes glowed an ominous red.
When he snarled at me, I saw a pair of long, protruding fangs.
This was a vampire in his beast form!
How was it possible for a vampire to appear in the heart of Nocturne?!
His giant hand pressed down on my neck while he chanted something in the vampires’ dark language. Suddenly, I felt my body shifting back into my human form against my will. Even though I tried to resist, I had lost control.
Great, not just any vampire, but one from the high-blood lines, who could use magic.
I tried to swing my fist at him, but his beast form was much stronger than my human form, and he locked my arms under his giant, claw-like hands.
Panic gripped my heart as the vampire grinned wickedly, opening his mouth to bite down on my neck.
Once his venom got into my blood, I would lose all ability to fight back within a few seconds. That was why we northern werewolves always took antidotes before meeting the vamps on the battlefield.
I was bracing myself for the piercing pain when another thunderous wolf growl rumbled, and a giant black shadow slammed into the vampire’s side, freeing me from his grasp.
I rolled to my feet, watching in shock as Damien, now in his wolf form, ripped the vampire’s throat open viciously, taking away the assassin’s ability to chant spells.
Damien fought with such formidable strength and savage fury that I could hardly believe he still had an arrowhead buried in his left shoulder.
I shifted back into wolf form again and joined the bloodbath. However, Damien didn’t need much help from me. Before long, he ripped the vampire’s chest open and crushed his heart, one of the very few ways that could kill vampires.
We were covered in blood, panting heavily, and everything seemed to be unnaturally still for a few seconds. Then, Damien shifted back to his human form and collapsed.
I rushed to him, shifting back in the process, and held him in my arms. His body was too cold, and fear’s clammy hand seized my heart once more.
“Damien! Hey, don’t close your eyes, okay? I’ll take you to the physicians!”
“Wait ... check the body.” Damien said weakly, “We need to get some evidence before others find them.”
“We need to get you help first! The arrow may be coated with vampire poison!”
“Just ... help me check their body, please.” Albeit barely staying conscious, he was still adamant, bordering on stubborn. I grunted in frustration but did what he asked.
I rummaged through the first assassin’s clothes and found a sigil ring with a crescent moon hugging a five-point star engraving, a bloodstained letter, and a pouch of gold.
I brought those to Damien, and I saw a glint of recognition when he laid his eyes on the sigil ring, and ... a smidge of sadness.
“You know the ring?” I asked.
“Yes ... But we can talk about it later,” he said quietly.
Right. I slid my arm around his back and let him wrap his right arm over my shoulder, helping him down the rampart wall. His steps were sluggish, and I knew the poison must have spread to his legs by now.
“Let’s get you dressed, then I’ll take you to the physicians,” I said, hoping we were not too late. I couldn’t imagine what would happen if he couldn’t make it ... I refused to think about that possibility now.
“I’ve been wanting to get you naked again ... too bad the timing is not ideal,” Damien said with a weak smile.
I couldn’t believe he still had the strength to flirt when he could be dying from an unknown poison ...
“If you stay awake and stay alive, I’ll do whatever you want,” I said with a taut voice, desperate to use anything to keep his will strong.
He looked at me, and there was something incredibly tender in those enigmatic eyes. He asked, “Promise?”
“In my dead mother’s name,” I said, trying to keep my voice stable.
I helped him put on his pants, shirt, and shoes, then quickly found my clothes in the dressing room. Once I was dressed, I went to steal a horse from the nearest stable.
He was barely awake when I came back. However, when I helped him onto horseback, he said, “Don’t go to the palace physicians ... go to the city, find the last house on Brass Lamp Alley.”
“What?! Why? We don’t have time to ride to the city!”
“Only the physician in that house knows how to deal with vampire poison. I trust her,” Damien insisted.
I considered ignoring his request, since his judgement could be affected by the poison at this point. But eventually, I decided to trust his instincts. I swung my leg over the horse and sat behind him, holding him in my arms, then we charged down the road leading to the city.
I wasn’t exactly familiar with the city, and by the time I found the alley, Damien had already passed out.
The house stood forlornly in the ominous shadow, neighboured by only overgrown brambles and blackberry trees, looking dark and witchy.
I doubted any good physician would live in such a rundown house, but it was too late to turn back.
Carrying Damien on my back, I banged my fist on the house’s black door. Before I lost my patience and kicked the door open, the window lit up, and someone shuffled close.
“Who’s there?” came a wary female voice.
“My name is Fenris. Damien needs help!” I said urgently, my voice trembling, “Please! He is poisoned by an arrow!”
The door swung open. A female omega, in her early forties, stood before me. She was wearing a nightgown and apparently had just gotten up from bed.
“Bring him in, hurry!”
I followed her into a room that looked like a physician’s office, and laid Damien on the examination table. I showed her the arrow wound, and her frown deepened. She began to run around, gathering clean towels, hot water, and various surgical tools and small phials.
I stood there, completely useless, except for staring at Damien’s chest, praying to the Great Wolf that he was still breathing.
It was only when she shoved a towel into my hand and gave me a reassuring glance that I began to realize my face was wet.
Was I crying?
I wiped my face with the back of my hand, watching the wetness with shock. I hadn’t shed a tear since my mother was murdered by the vamps. I never thought I’d weep for anyone again.
And yet, now tears just kept rolling down my face, and I had no control over them.
I had lost all control ever since I met Damien in that fighting ring.