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Sorry I took so long to continue this guys! I won't be leaving the guys hanging!

Chapter 31 - Happy Trails?

"Well, how do we do this then?" I ask Rin.

"Well, you don't have your power so you don't do anything. I'm gonna need some power from these two in order to complete the rite." Rin points to both Lawrence and Rain.

Rain nods as it appears to make sense to him and Lawrence raises an eyebrow quizzically.

"I also need a map and needle with thread." and she looks to Soothing.

"That much I can do at least." he says and walks out of the room.

"Oh and a bit of hair." says Rin.

I catch that last bit a little late as my eyes were currently following Soothing from the room. The sting of having a part of my hair being yanked out is enough to get my attention rather rapidly though.

"OUCH!" I rub my head and glare a little at Rin.

"Oh hush, this will make it easier for me. Once Soothing gets back, I'm gonna need both Rain and Larryboy here to donate a bit of energy to me during the ritual." she says.

Lawrence doesn't exactly look happy at his nickname and folds his arms, a dark look crossing his face. For a moment I thought he was going to say something, but he doesn't. Perhaps he still feels responsible for this kid because she's a Kahn?

Rain on the other hand is nodding along like he knows exactly what's happening. Which is good, cos I don't have a clue.

We walk out of the room and down to the break room again. I was feeling excited at the thought of being able to regain my beast, but at the same time, I couldn't help but feel scared as to what we might face along the way.

I glanced towards Lawrence, his face seemed more than a little preoccupied. I watched as he turned to me and his mouth opened to say something before staggering forward. It was pure luck that I was looking at him when he toppled because I wouldn't have been able to have been fast enough to catch him otherwise.

"Lawrence! What's wrong?" My arms holding him up, but I noticed almost instantly that he wasn't as heavy as he used to be. I had held this man below and above me before, I knew that my strength had increased, but that wouldn't explain his change in weight.

"Nrrgh, motherfucker.... Ouch... I didn't need that." He says rubbing his head and the weight changing position as he stands up by himself.

"The hell was that all about?" I scowl at him.

He looks at me and I can see he's trying to think what exactly to say to me. He's unsure about something and definitely not keen to let me know something. However his look changes from one of painful thought to a pained look of defeat.

"Look.... Since I got here, I've been having memory flashes. Reliving events from my past as well as just seeing them. It was just like watching a play back at the beginning, but since I passed into the umbra, something got worse and I started to actually act out events." He sighed softly.

Frowning, I tilt my head and think back, that would be about the time that... Oh.

"Wait, was that why you kissed Soothing?" I scowl at him.

He actually sighs and hangs his head for a moment before nodding gently.

"It wasn't him I was kissing, it was my.... It was someone very important to me from my past. I woke up from the memory just as he shoved me back." He rubs his neck.

"Well that's convenient, that's one hell of a weird excuse though Lawrence. Should I honestly believe that?" I can't help but scowl at him.

"Believe it or not, it doesn't matter Alias. The memory flashes are getting worse and now I'm starting to get pain along with the flashbacks. I don't know what's wrong and I don't have much of a chance of figuring it out. All I know is that now I've got a bigger problem, but I'm actually willing to put it to one side so that you have half a fucking chance with the man you love." He actually growls out and turns away from me.

My hand grips his wrist and stops him.

"Why are you bothered about my relationship status Lawrence? Are you trying to make up for the mistakes by making someone else happy?" I hold his wrist firmly.

"Nothing that complicated Alias." He says, not even turning around.

"Then what the fuck is it?"

He turns back and meets my eyes.

"I'm just trying to help someone I call a friend." He says.

Just meeting his eyes, I see what I'd missed since we'd been re-united. Under his eyes were darkened circles, his face had lines of worry etched upon it. His cheeks were shallower and his body had lost weight. It was clear signs of restless sleeping and with everything else that had happened to him, I was betting he was getting night terrors and the weight of his loss was threatening to bury him. One thing we both had in common, even when we were dead, we both craved love. Yet both of us had forbidden loves. I had lost mine in one moment of weakness to my inner demon. He had tried to be with his and it had cost the tiger his life.

Was I really one to judge this man? He had done naught but try to help, even if his methods were questionable, he hadn't at any point let us down. Even going so far as to put himself in grave danger to free Riyada. I trusted the vampire somewhat, but this nuwisha was so open, so vulnerable that I didn't trust it.

Oh Lawrence, I'm sorry. You're still the same man I knew, but you're plagued by your feelings and humanity because you cannot deal with the loss of the single most important thing in your life. I hadn't the same flaw, I loved Colt and Leonis, but my core goal was destruction. I wanted to destroy the ones who had forced the pain upon my bloodline, so the loss of my love was a pain that could be redirected into vengeance. You don't have that luxury.

Yet here we are, a new stage and yet I am the one who is playing the hero and loved by all and you are the one seen as a mischief maker who is out to get whatever he can. When the truth is I'm nothing shy of a person offered redemption and a chance at a new start and he has to try to fix his mistakes. I cannot begin to fathom how hopeless his situation may feel right now.

"I'm sorry Lawrence. Thank you for helping. But do me a favour." I say.

"What's that?" He frowns.

"Call me Alex." I smile gently at him.

He looks at my face and then a smile breaks out on his face as well.

"Alright Alex. Let's get on with this, we're burning starlight."

I nod and we move into the breakout room.

Inside the room, it would appear that Soothing is ahead of us and has set up a map on the coffee table. He looks up as we enter and I can't help but meet his gaze with a smile, his own smile breaking out as well on his face.

"Right, here you go Rin. Good luck." He stands up and holds out a needle and thread towards the Kahn. She takes it from him and nods.

"Okay, I need as much spirit energy as you two are willing to part with to do this. Channel it into me and I'll do the rest, alright?" she says looking at Lawrence and Rain.

Both Lawrence and Rain nod to her and rather surprisingly Lawrence moves first to Rin's side and raises his hands up, palms facing towards her. Rain mimics him on the other side of Rin and the pair of them close their eyes. Rin dangles the needle from the thread over the map and then starts muttering softly. I can't understand what's being said but she starts moving the needle around the map.

I watch intently as they stay pretty much in the same position, moving the needle over the map over and over again. I'm not sure how much time passed whilst they were doing this, but I watched as Rin did the same thing over and over again until she eventually stops.

"I can't believe it... I'm sorry Alex, I really am... I can't find it." She says.

My heart sinks through the floor in despair at that statement. I bite my lip and sink into the sofa and put my head in my hands. I really don't know what to do now.

"Forgive me for interrupting, but can you tell me exactly what you were hoping to achieve there?" says Lawrence.

"I was trying to track down his beast." She says.

"So you were using a ritual to try to track down something a mage stole?" says Lawrence.

I groan softly... Of course, I'd been so caught up in the hope of the situation; I'd forgotten the key sodding thing. It's a mage. Not a single mage worth his salt would steal something like this and not expect an attempt at locating where it had gone. Of course they'd have just covered it up or used magic of some description to obscure it from any location spells.

"What?" says Rin, her hands on her hips in anger as she looks between Lawrence and I.

"You tried a spell to find a mage. Few mages would be daft enough to steal from werewolves and not hide themselves after. If you 'had' found something, it would have meant that we were about to walk face first into a mage who felt more than a little confident about taking on an entire pack. Translation, bad ass mage." Lawrence grunts and sighs.

I bite my lower lip. I have no idea what else to do right now. I don't have a clue where to begin or even who the hell might help out. We were pushing it with the pack right now as it is.

"On the other hand. I might have a lead." says Lawrence.

My head snaps up and looks at him. I dare not hope too much right now, but I really could do with it.

"The file I gained, had details of a place that had something to do with the siphoning of energy from shifters and ontop of that, there were details of procedures to remove their... Oh what the hell did they call it? Oh yes, make them ex-reality deviants. Which sounded a lot to me like they were ripping the part of them out that made them changers or whatever they class as a reality deviant." he says.

"So... There's a chance that my beast might be there?" I say almost hopefully.

"There's a chance Alex. It's the best I can offer you right now." He shrugs.

"It's better than nothing. Can you lead us there?" I ask.

"Providing the layout of this New Orleans is pretty much the same as ours, then yeah. Let's shuffle." He stretches out and then looks at Rin. "Oh cheer up, it was worth a try at least, this way we knew how deep the shit would be."

She huffs and turns on her heels, walking out the door and trying to keep her head high. Still, she tried and it gave us 'something' to be aware of. Here's hoping that whatever Lawrence is leading us to will give us the means to get my beast back. I quite liked this beast; it felt like I was part of something more.

Lawrence and Rain follow her out of the room and I look over my shoulder at Soothing, he gives me a gentle smile. I smile back and turn to the door, but stop; I'm not going without a kiss goodbye. Turning around, he's moved closer and looks like he's heading towards the door too. It doesn't take more than a couple of steps and I'm in his path, then in his arms.

My lips meet his and part almost hungrily as I run my tongue against his. His firm body squeezes me tight against him and I clasp his broad back in my hands, the want to stay almost overwhelming me. I can't help myself as my hands run down his back and sides, one hand immediately darting in to grope him. Heat rushes to my face as I feel his size throbbing in my hand.

A soft growl rumbles from his throat and I break the kiss, placing both hands on his chest and panting a little. The rush of adrenaline still causing my heart to thud in my chest and tighten my throat, I look up into his eyes and he pants gently as well.

"Had to know whilst it was still alright." I blush and smile sheepishly.

"Funny, me too." He says before his own hand snakes down and grabs my groin. I groan out in pleasure and squeeze his upper arms before his hand moves.

"Now we're even. Make sure you come back to me and us." He grins and I blush, not really wanting to leave him right now. I nod and sprint out the door to catch up with the others, silently praying that we succeed.

The others lead me outside and Lawrence hailed a taxi. I really must get myself a car at some point. I was so used to Leonis doing most of the driving whilst I took care of the club. Eeesh, there's a fuckton of things to consider after this. I don't have a home of my own at the moment, nor do I have a source of income. On top of that I'm running the risk of having my internal organs made external because I know too much about garou and such. Well, I guess one problem at a time there at least and the first one is obviously making sure I stay alive.

We drive through a few districts that I recognise somewhat. We're still in New Orleans. Huh, I didn't realise that we'd not actually left, we must have just thrown out a dummy trail or something. It's hardly my forte to keep people guessing, so I'm currently more than a little glad that someone else is thinking about the details I keep missing. I guess this is part and parcel of being part of a pack. I used to rely a lot on Leonis to take care of the smaller details whilst I was face first in the bigger stuff. Now I have someone I actually need to take care of and people who will help watch my back. Provided they don't have to kill me that is. Grrr, I gotta keep hoping. There's not a lot more I can do just yet. Here's hoping wherever Lawrence is leading us has more clues as to the whereabouts of my spirit.

Still, that is something that's worrying me. I've never heard of mages or anything of that ilk that fucked around with spirits. I mean I know of vamps that communicated with them, but that's the spirits of the dead usually. Same with the mages. But to rip apart a soul containing a combination of spirits which is essentially what werecreatures are, I honestly think that if I'd have started out as a werewolf, I would not have survived what that mage did to me.

Not that it feels great at the moment. There does feel like something is missing with me and although I've managed to settle into the feeling of being human again, it feels like... I dunno, like I'd been 'downgraded' into a standard model of person instead of a better one. Such a weird way to describe it, but it's the best I can think of right now. Plus, trying to think of words to describe it is distracting me from the actual feeling.

The taxi pulls to a halt and Lawrence hands him a bill. We get out and it pulls away. A glance around reveals a familiar setting to me. It's the dock area where I was imprisoned on a shipping container a while ago. Only it looks a lot nicer and a damn sight more technologically advanced. Things that I can only assume are cranes are poised over the water's edge, with shipping containers stacked to great heights around. In the centre of it all, looms a rather foreboding building that must have been a factory at one point, yet now it appears to be shut down as the whole lower level of windows are boarded up.

"Okay, if you haven't guessed by now, stealth is pretty much the watchword here. Be VERY careful, as this place will have sensors that detect if you are what they call a 'reality deviant'. Which is basically, not entirely normal and human." says Lawrence.

"What is this place Lawrence?" says Rain.

"From what I remember of the paperwork, it's a place they stored harvested spirit energy. Since you had your spirit ripped out of you, it seems a possible place to have Alex's spirit stored." replies Lawrence.

"Wait a moment..." says Rin

"What's up?" says Lawrence

"There's a fuck load of spiders coming out of the windows..." she says.

Lawrence whips around and jumps onto a nearby fence, scaling it with surprising speed and looking at the place. I move up besides Rin and look where she's looking with Rain on the other side and I can just about make out a lot of small creatures crawling from the windows. There's so many, that I assumed they were just paint around the edges of the window.

I glance up at Lawrence who's perched atop a chain link fence, he doesn't exactly look happy about what he can see. I'm guessing this is something he wasn't expecting. Where the hell did all those spiders come from? Did one of the mages have a spell backfire or something? I look back at the building and the flow of spiders heading down the walls, it seems to be petering out.

"ARGH!"

I whirl and see Lawrence land feet first and roll over and back up to his feet before spinning around and looking up to where he was a moment ago. Now there's a woman stood there, her hair almost blood red, which her lips also appear to be, her entire body clad in black leather. For a moment my heart stops as I see the pale pallor of her skin and then the points of two teeth peeking from her lips. A vampire?! NO!