Chapter 10 - Hello Darkness My Old Friend.

Slowly but surely they're starting to wake up!

"Is it okay to get close to them Mortimer?" I ask the mage.

"Yes young chap, things should be alright for you now."

I grin and start to head towards Soothing, but my vision blurs and I start seeing stars. Nausea fills me and I put my hand in front of my eyes. I've over done it. I'm really tired and now my body is reminding me of that. As a vampire I could ignore most of these symptoms, but I'm mortal again, I have to pay attention to the fact that I can't run my body to the same limits.

Rain appears besides me. "Bro?"

I shake my head a little. "Yeah, sorry. I'm forgetting my mortal body can't be run as ragged as my vampiric one could. It's a learning curve."

Rain puts his hand on my side. "You gonna be okay?"

"Yeah, just gotta rest. I'll check over Soothing, then I'm gonna crash on one of the spare beds."

Rain nods and I head over to Soothing. His vitals were all normal and I could see he was fighting to get back to consciousness. Shouldn't be long now before the rest of that shit was out of his system.

I can hear voices coming closer. There were people in the prison!

"Mortimer, please move away from the door, don't want you getting in the line of fire just incase."

Mortimer does so, moving around us and towards the lab at the back of the room. The doors open and a woman strides in. She was rather tall, about the same height as me actually. Her hair was long and a deep red, not sure if that was a dye job or not, but she wore it well. She was pretty actually, her chest was largish I'd guess, but it was nicely offset by her tall frame and impressive legs. I wonder if she was just naturally this good looking or if she was a model.

"Are you Alex and Rain?" she says. I recognise that voice.

"Yes, please tell me you're Tina?" she actually gives a small smile and nods. I sigh in relief.

More people pour into the room behind her. I try to count how many, but my vision is blurring again. This isn't good, I'm showing signs of... Of.... I... My thoughts... Can't think straight.

She's saying something, her lips are moving. I have to pay attention. Got to, to...

Blackness rushes up to meet me, swallowing the bright light in the centre.

I wake up, its soft, that bright light is back, it hurts when I try to open my eyes. I blink a few times, my vision slowly returning as I groan softly.

"Big bro! You're ok!" I'm pretty sure that's Rain.

"I told you he would be, he'd just over done it!" scolded a female voice, don't think that's Tina.

I turn my head in their direction. I'm still in the infirmary, they must have just thrown me onto one of the beds. There's a shortish lady with short brown hair and glasses stood beside me with Rain. He looks sheepish but concerned, she looks annoyed. She's wearing a jumper and jeans and has a clipboard in her hand as well. She's even got a sprinkling of freckles across her face under the wire glasses.

"Congratulations on keeping your pack alive and sorting out the parasite. But you're a fucking moron for running yourself ragged like that, you could have rested!" she actually wags her finger at me whilst doing this. I just lay there doing a pretty good impression of a goldfish as I'm simultaneously dumbfounded and embarrassed by the praise and scolding.

"We've finished healing the others up and are waiting for some of them to come around. Soothing is up and talking to Tina and your little brother here has given us the run down on what happened. If you feel up to it, they will need to talk to you as well. Your mage friend has left by the way."

I groan again as I sit up. I'm still tired, but I don't feel half as bad as I did whenever it was I passed out.

"Urgh, how long have I been out?"

"About an hour. You just hit the deck as soon as Tina came in, she said that she was used to men falling for her, but that was taking the piss."

I chuckle and Rain holds out a cup of something for me. I reach out and take hold only to yelp and drop the cup as pain lances up my arm from my hands. The burns, they're still raw it seems.

"Now what the hell have you... oh my, that looks painful." The brown haired lady stares at my hands.

"What the hell did you do?"

I grit my teeth and take hissing breath in, I'd ignored them as much as I could, they were demanding attention now. "The thing that attacked, it bled acid, when I crushed its skull, some of the liquid splashed my hands."

She tuts at me and motions over to another lady who's sat at the nurse station. She's taller than this one with blonde hair that seems to go all the way down her back in some massive ponytail. She looks a little older than the brown haired one, but she seems to wear it well. Even if she is wearing dungaree's for some reason.

"Clarissa, can you heal these please?" She motions to my hands.

"Sure, no problem!" It's a delightfully bubbly voice that I think has a hint of a southern accent. Might explain the denim, but I wouldn't swear to it. She takes hold of my hands and closes her eyes, moments later the pain fades and so do the burn marks.

"There you go sugar!" she smiles and winks. I can't help but smile back.

"Thanks!"

Brown haired lady is staring at me with a frown. I look back at her. "What's wrong?"

"You say that you got those burns when you killed the creature?" I nod.

"So you performed minor operations and moved all of your pack in here with those wounds?"

I blush and look down. "I had to, they were going to die if I didn't do something."

She raises an eyebrow at me, looks like she's about to say something else, then turns and walks away, Clarissa follows her. I look around at Rain who shrugs, then I look further around the room, it looks like nearly all the beds are empty, two still have figures in, but I don't know their names.

"Where are Wyrmripper and Soothing?"

"They're organising the move out. We can't stay here any longer, it's not safe. I think they're currently down near the cafeteria though."

I lick my lips, a coffee sounds good right about now and I want to see how they're doing.

"I think I need a coffee and something sweet and sugary, wanna join me bro?"

Rain grins and nods. We head out together towards the cafeteria. As we make our way there we see quite a few people running from place to place, carrying items and other things. I recognise a couple that were in the infirmary, but it looks like everyone is in a hurry to get packed up and get moving so I try to avoid getting in the way. The cafeteria seems quieter, but they're probably leaving that till last. Or it could be the 3 people sat in it are currently talking very seriously and I didn't notice until I'd already walked in. Whoops.

I turn to move back out and I hear.

"Yo, Alias! Glad to see you! C'mere! You too Rain!" that's definitely Wyrmripper.

I turn and head over to the table. Wyrmripper and Soothing are sat with Tina whom I had passed out in front of earlier. I can't help but smile seeing the two up and back to normal. There's not a mark on them where the creature had attacked them.

"You have no idea how glad I am to see you two up and about."

"Probably not half as glad as we are to be up and about! Tina and Rain have already filled us in on the blanks whilst you were out of it. We all owe you big time."

I blush again. "Hardly Wyrmripper. You guys took a chance on us both by not killing us straight away. I'm just glad that I could repay the favour."

He grins at me. "You paid us back in spades man! I really wanna hear about how exactly it all went down, but as you can tell right now we need to get our shit together and get out of here. That mage friend of yours talked to Rain here and said he'd give us a little bit of leeway with a protection spell or something like that, but we should shift our asses and hole up somewhere else."

I nod along with him. "Fuck yes. It's a bitch we have to go though, cos this place is brilliant for what we need."

"Aye, but again, too risky. Look, the other's should be done packing soon and we're done chatting, so I'm gonna go lend a hand. BEFORE you even THINK about coming and helping, you two are done for the day, you understand?"

I erp and glance at Rain, who's looking at me before we both turn and nod at Wyrmripper.

"Good. You passed out once pushing yourself too hard, let's take the hint this time huh?"

"Awww, and I thought it was just my striking looks that put him on his back." Tina chuckles.

"Hah! You're good girl, but this boy bats for the other team. You've lucked out on that one!" grins Wyrmripper.

"Hardly, now I can tell everyone that I'm so stunning, gay guys pass out in awe!"

I get the feeling I should be insulted, but the atmosphere is just so relieving, I chuckle softly and shake my head.

"Whatever floats your boat m'dear. Thank you for coming and getting their asses outta bed." I jerk my thumb in Wyrmripper's direction.

"Not a problem darling. How are you feeling now?"

"Tired, very tired."

"From what I heard that's hardly surprising. You get back from Erebus, tackle a demon, perform surgery on 10 people and then cure them of a sleeping poison. That's more than just a 'busy day'!"

I blush again and nod. "If it wasn't for Rain's help I wouldn't have been able to do it. I'm lucky to have such a smart little bro."

Rain squirms besides me, looking embarrassed and proud. I smile proudly at him.

"Well now, you two bro's huh? Cute. I gotta go help out. We'll come get you when we're ready to leave. Laters Rain, Alias."

"Umm, Wyrmripper?"

"Ya?"

"Its Alex, not Alias now."

"Huh?"

I blush "Alex, it's who I used to before I became a vampire. I'm not a memory anymore. I'm Alex."

He nods "Sure thing Alex. Laters." and he heads on out.

"Not a memory anymore huh? So what about the things you've done?" says Soothing.

I turn to him. "I've done them, I can't fix that. What I can do is learn and let go. I won't beat myself up for something I can't change and more importantly, someone I'm not anymore."

He nods and a flicker of a smile appears on his face. I notice Tina watching the pair of us intently.

"So, anyone want a coffee? I'd kill for one."

Rain stands up. "I'll make it bro, don't want you dropping this one!" he grins and heads off to the kitchen.

"Bit of a clutz are we?" says Tina.

"Heh, not quite. Rain handed me a drink when I woke up, I'd forgotten about my hands being hurt so I dropped it when the pain shocked me."

"Heh, well that's to be expected if you've hurt your hands. Wait, how did you hurt your hands?"

"The damn demon thing, it's blood splashed me when I smashed its skull in. I washed off the shit, but it'd already done its damage."

"So you're saying you did all of this as well as having acid burns on your hands?"

I flush red again. "Yeah. I'm just grateful it wasn't any complicated surgery, I just didn't have the motor functions with the burns on my hands." I look at Tina as I'm saying this, she lets out a low whistle.

"Damn, hard ass and smart." she looks thoughtful.

"You take milk and sugar Alex?" shouts Rain from the kitchen area.

"Yes please, 2 sugars!"

"Tch, milk in coffee, blasphemy!" Tina grins at me. I stick my tongue out, I'm out of witty retorts today.

"So, what now? What do you want me and Rain doing?" I ask both Tina and Soothing.

"Nothing. You two are to rest until we're ready to go. You've already both done more than your fair share." says Soothing.

I nod gently. "You don't have any after effects from me forcing you awake do you Soothing?"

He shakes his head "I'm fine. Sorry I couldn't fight off the effects enough to tell you anymore though."

I shake mine this time "You're being daft. We're all lucky as fuck at the moment so let's just enjoy whoever dealt us this hand for now. We're alive. Trust me, dying is not all it's cracked up to be."

Tina looks at me with her head tilted "So it's true? You used to be some un-dead creature?"

I nod "Yeah. I'll give you the whole tale sometime. However I owe Mortimer it first.... Well, second I guess." I look at Soothing who looks back at me. I sigh gently and close my eyes. I'm so tired.

"Here bro, coffee." Rain slides a cup under my nose and I smile as I savour the smell. It's amazing how you miss the little things. I raise the cup to my lips and take a little sip. It's still a little too hot, but that sip is delicious. Placing the cup down I grin at Rain "Thanks bro, this is just what this doctor ordered."

"Well, I'm gonna go help keep the task force motivated with Wyrmripper. I look forward to hearing the tale later Alex." says Tina as she stands up and waves over her shoulder at us, heading on out of the door.

I sit there and blow gently on the coffee, trying to cool it down some to enjoy it some more. Rain has a cup too and I see Soothing out of the corner of my eye, staring rather intently at the pair of us. I guess he's still not happy with us. I feel a twinge in my chest as I feel upset knowing he'd gone from being so kind to disliking me and not being happy about Rain. I can't blame him, this world of darkness is full of the repentant being double agents, but I can't help but feel upset about it. Raising the cup to my lips I sip again, its cooler but still not quite cool enough. I find myself looking into the liquid and thinking about Soothing's look just then, running over in my mind what I'd be feeling in his place, but I realise that I just can't. I'd been far too trusting since day 1 and I'd never been able to do anything but give people the benefit of the doubt.

That trust had paid off with these people, but it had been a big mistake back in my world. If I'd have been like Soothing, I wouldn't be here with these people, I'd have been still with Colt, maybe. I close my eyes and banish the thought. It didn't matter, I'll always be regretful for what I did, but I can't be regretful for who I am. I mustn't mourn the fact that I'm too trusting and willing to help. There is hope for everyone, Rain was living proof of that. My little brother.

The surface of my coffee ripples as something splashes into it. Followed by another. I realise that it's my tears. Silently, I'd started crying and it was dripping from my face into my coffee.

"Alex?" Rain's voice.

I raise my head and look at him, he looks ready to cry himself, I must have upset him by crying like that.

"It's alright bro. I'm good. I'm honestly good."