"Whit are we? Yer rescue gang? Seems to me we do nothing but bail out yer silly vampire arses."
Duncan's teasing voice came to Aiden as if through a fog. Lying completely still, he took stock of his body as the werewolves, once again in human form, bantered playfully with each other around him.
He felt like a freight train had punched its way through him. Which, he supposed, it had. And it went by the name of Waano.
"Ye know, if it was nae for us, they'd be an extinct race by now," Marc commented.
"What would ya ken aboot it? Ye've been holed up with Leeha 'n her lot for weeks," Duncan teased.
"Aye. No thanks tae Lucian," Marc bit out.
Lucian shot him a hostile glance. "Shut yer filthy hole!"
"Haud yer wheesht!" Cedric barked out. "He's comin' round." As the pack master of the group, and the largest wolf in the room, his voice rang with the alpha timbre of authority. With a few more looks and shoves, the others settled down.
Aiden opened his eyes to find four concerned male faces gazing down at him. "Hallo, mates," he managed to rasp. "Fancy meeting you here."
Cedric grinned, his startling ice blue eyes filled with such warmth for his friend, they were more blue than white. Reaching out, he clamped his hand down on Aiden's shoulder. "Good tae see ye, Aiden lad. Sorry we took so long tae get tae ye."
"I think you all just like to make an entrance," Aiden told him suspiciously. "Show up at the last possible moment and save the day."
Cedric laughed, and gave him a once over. "We didna think ya were gonna make it, but ye look good." He nodded in agreement with himself, looking around at the others for them to back him up.
"Oh, aye, ye dae," Marc agreed.
"Aye. Ye look downright bonnie," Duncan teased.
"Och, 'ave seen him look better."
They all turned to glare at Lucian.
He just shrugged. "Wha'? I'm only bein' honest."
"Yes, well, I feel positively horrible," Aiden responded as he attempted to sit up. Four pairs of hands reached out to help him, yanking him up from the couch he'd been napping on. His stomach rolled and he threw his arms out to stop them from pulling him all the way to his feet.
"Give me a moment," he gasped as he bent over, swallowing down the bile rising in his throat.
"Aye. Ye look a wee bit green," Duncan wrinkled his nose and backed away, leaving the others to deal with any repercussions they may have brought on from moving him too soon.
Cedric tossed his long, dark ponytail back over his shoulder as he indicated for the others to give Aiden some space.
"I'll be all right," he reassured them. Just as soon as he scrubbed himself with a scouring pad and drank a gallon of strong whiskey. He felt disgusting, like he'd just rolled around in manure, and swallowed some while he was at it. And now it was roiling through his bloodstream. Maybe the alcohol would decontaminate things.
The wolves watched him from afar as he tried to keep from heaving.
"Is there a shower here?" he managed to choke out to Lucian, the closest one to him.
He nodded and pointed to a door down the hall. "Aye, over there."
One arm wrapped around his middle and the other held out to the side for balance, Aiden stumbled in that direction. He barely took any notice of the antique furniture as he passed.
When he reached the loo, he quickly shut the door and turned the water on as hot as it would go. Ripping off his clothes, he made it into the shower just as the first heaves hit him.
By the time he was finished he was on the floor of the shower stall, naked and exhausted. He felt like he'd vomited up his insides along with all the blood in his system, and was slightly surprised that he didn't see any of his organs trying to squeeze down the drain.
He heard the soft knock on the door, but didn't have the energy to answer it. The door cracked open anyway and he heard Cedric's deep brogue.
"I dinna mean tae disturb ye, just wanna make sure yer all right."
Aiden groaned pathetically in response.
The door opened wider, and he saw Cedric's dark head duck under the doorframe through the blurriness of the shower curtain. Or maybe it was just his vision that was blurry.
The wolf quietly closed and locked the door behind him. Squatting down onto his haunches, he pulled the curtain back just enough to peek in at Aiden's face.
Aiden rolled his bloodshot eyes towards him. "I can't get clean," he rasped. "I need to get clean."
With a nod, Cedric dropped the curtain closed again and rolled up his sleeves. Folding a towel, he placed it on the floor to catch the spray of water. Next, he grabbed the soap and a cloth, and knelt down outside the shower next to Aiden. Sitting back on his heels, he pulled the curtain aside and soaped up the wet cloth.
He paused with the cloth midway between them. "This dinnae mean we're datin'," he told Aiden in all seriousness.
Aiden grinned weakly. "No worries, mate. You're not my type."
Cedric frowned. "How come nae? I'm vera bonnie. Thick, dark locks...sparkling eyes...big muscles. I dinna know how ye cannae be attracted to me."
Aiden shrugged weakly. "It's my loss, mate."
Cedric smirked. "Aye. That it is." He aimed for his face with the cloth, but Aiden stopped him again with a hand on his arm.
"I realize this would be brilliant new material for the pups out there to ride me about for years to come, but I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell the others the details. I believe I'll be all right in a bit. I just need to get clean, and rest."
"Ye 'ave my word," his friend vowed.
"Thank you. I do have a reputation, you know."
"Aye," Cedric smirked. "I know."
Quickly and efficiently, the pack master scrubbed his friend clean, even washing his hair.
Although he knew the wolves were quite comfortable with seeing each other naked (they had to be as there were no clothes made stretchy enough to survive the change they went through), Aiden would've been highly embarrassed if he'd had the energy.
Fortunately, he didn't.
As he rinsed the soap out of the cloth, Cedric asked him if he needed anything else before he got him out.
"You wouldn't happen to have some strong whiskey?" Aiden asked.
Cedric grinned. "We may 'ave a wee bit o' somethin'." Opening the bathroom door, he bellowed for Lucian to bring a bottle to him, interrupting the continuous arguing between him and Marc. Bottle in hand, he slammed the door in his pack mate’s face and turned back to Aiden. "Do ye want tae get out first?"
"That would probably be good, yes. I'm beginning to prune." Lurching to his feet, he steadied himself on the walls of the shower stall while Cedric turned off the water and wrapped a large, fluffy towel around his bare arse.
A huge arm wrapped around his waist as the alpha wolf supported him so he could step out. Sitting him on the closed lid of the loo, he handed him the bottle. "Drink up, lad. I'll go find ye some clothes."
Aiden tipped the bottle up to his mouth and took a few large swallows, rubbing the large scar on his flat stomach. The whiskey burned going down, but it felt rather good. He waited for it to settle, and then took another hefty swig. He didn't have to worry about getting sloshed. Unfortunately, liquor didn't affect vampires any more than a nice cup of tea.
The alcohol started working its way through his bloodstream, burning away the filth inside of him, and he began to feel slightly less contaminated.
Cedric knocked softly and came in with some clean clothes. "These are Marc's, but I think they'll fit ye."
"Thank you." Aiden took the clothes from him and laid them on his lap before taking another swig of the whiskey.
The immense wolf stuck his hands in his jean pockets and shifted his weight from one foot to the other. He cleared his throat a few times, opened his mouth once or twice, smoothed his hair back with one hand, turned to leave, and then turned back.
Aiden arched an eyebrow in question, although he was pretty sure he knew what his friend was going to ask.
Cedric cleared his throat again. "I dinna ken how tae ask..."
"I have a demon inside of me." Aiden tilted the bottle up again, swallowing down the remaining liquor. Wiping his mouth with the back of his arm, he handed the empty bottle back to the wolf, who reached out for it automatically. "I'll get you another bottle," he promised.
The master of the toughest pack of werewolves in North America paled as he stared at his friend. "Ye 'ave a..."
"Demon. Yes."
Cedric stared at him blankly for a minute, then shook his head in denial. "Dinna be daft. If ye had a demon inside ye, I would ken."
Aiden stood up on shaky legs and dropped his towel. There was really no sense in being modest now, was there? He started pulling on the borrowed clothes.
"Oh, it's there. Trust me on this one, mate. Although it took me a bit to figure it out myself, as he's only just recently come out to play."
"Wha's he been doin' the rest o' the time?"
Aiden paused with his hands on the button of his jeans and frowned. "I really don't know." With a shrug, he stuck his arm through the sleeve of the grey T-shirt and pulled it over his head.
"But, ye dinna 'ave grey skin 'n ye still 'ave all yer locks. Ye dinna look like those things we fought when we went for Luukas. How can ye 'ave a demon inside of ye?"
"Those ones are different," he told him as he sat back down, exhausted from the effort it took him to get himself dressed. "Those things that attacked Emma when you sent her off by herself to 'check for guards'?"
Cedric looked away guiltily.
"They're the failed result of Leeha's little experiment. She has a secret room deep in that mountain, and there's this ancient stone altar in the middle of it. Demons are tied to the altar somehow, put there by someone much more intelligent than she is, obviously. But somehow, she found a way to release them."
"Aye. But if their no' but rottin' idiots, I dinna think we 'ave much to worry aboot."
Aiden rubbed his eyes tiredly. "If only the rotting ones were all we had to worry about."
Cedric crossed his arms across his massive chest and glowered down at him. "Spit it out. Whit exactly are ye trying tae tell me, vampire?"
"Those grey ones, they're only used for guard duty and such. The real ones we need to worry about are the ones she's creating from Luukas' vampires. Apparently, her blood doesn't make vampires that are strong enough to handle it, so she has to use vampires created by a Master vamp." His eyes were grave as looked up at his friend. "She's possessing them with those demons. She's building an army."
"And how do you ken this?"
"Because she took me there, and she told me what she was doing, and then she did it to me. Only my demon has gone rogue. I woke up over here in a grain container with no recollection of what happened to me or how I got here."
Cedric's massive chest rose and fell with the deep breath he took. "Och. The bitch is beyond daft. How does she think she's aff tae control th' things?"
"That's the thing. She can't. She's losing control of them. Which is why she conjured out the bad boy inside of me I guess. From the reaction of the others I've run across here, I think he may have been the boss man in their own dimension. Their knickers get all in a twist whenever I'm around."
Cedric scrubbed his face with his hand. "So, the vamps we just chewed up an' left fir th' sun...they were possessed? No' just gone rogue?"
"Yes." Aiden smiled suddenly. "However the joke's on her, for this bloke," he slapped the center of his chest. "Doesn't seem to want anything to do with her, or her desire for world domination, or whatever it is she's after. He's only popped up a few times, and only partially. Tonight was the first time he took over my body completely. And he ran off again as soon as you blokes arrived."
Cedric nodded in understanding. "And he left you feelin' less than braw."
"He left me feeling absolutely disgusting," Aiden agreed. "Like my body was turned inside out, soaked in sewage, squeezed through a clothes wringer, and thrown over a rack. Would you give me a hand, mate?"
Lifting him to his feet, Cedric helped him to the other room and onto the couch.
"Oh, you didn't happen to find a little ball of prickly things in the hood of my coat, by chance?" Aiden asked.
"Th' boot brush? Aye. Duncan cried like a bairn, but he managed tae put it in that box." He pointed to the table. "It jumpt around 'n' huffed at us, bit seems tae hae settled down now. I gave it some water and some of the food in your bag."
"Thank you. I was worried that he hadn't survived Waano's ball of energy trick back there. Would you make sure nothing happens to him? He's important to someone, and I need to get him back to her." Grabbing both pillows, he put them both on one end for his head.
"Aye," Cedric assured him. "I'll do that." He glanced towards the window. "The sun is coming up. Get some rest. I'll close up the curtains and catch up th' pack. Then, we'll figure out what tae do." As he turned to walk away, he paused.
Catching Aiden's eye, he warned, "If th' thing comes out, we'll do what we 'ave tae tae protect ourselves."
Aiden returned his somber look. "I wouldn't expect you to do anything less."
With a solemn nod, Cedric ushered the others into the other room to get some food and rest themselves.