A better friend would have gone and checked on him; I should not have left him alone while I romped around with their leader. My heart, which had been so full, plummeted as I saw the scene before me. The smell of rust and salt is heavy in the air, only this time, I'm numb to the gore.

 All I can see is Tonic; I can only imagine how he would never recover from this.

"Tonic." My voice is barely above a whisper. I drop Verando's hand and rush forward; my feet struggle to find purchase on the slippery marble floor; the blood is sticky and slick all at once. The gushing, sucking noises of my feet stumbling through the practical silt of remains mixes in with the thick substance. 

I'm vaguely aware that Verando has sprinted after me; he throws his arms around my waist and pulls me back. 

I fight against him, thrashing to get free, shoving at his arms. "He needs me!" I plead. 

Tonic would not be a victim as I was, alone and without anyone to understand his pain. He needed me now more than ever, and I would go to him. I'd already let him down once before; I'd be damned if I let it happen again.

"He needs help," Verando tells me sharply. "Nic, I'm telling you to stand down."

 I snap to look at him, glaring daggers, my eyes burning with resentment that he dares restrain me. "I'm not one of your men! You can't just command me to leave him there to suffer!" 

I'm not met with the scowl I was expecting. Instead, he holds me firmly, his hands like steel vices on my biceps.

Ever the one in control, the calm and even tone attempting to coax me out of my hysteria, he watches me with an expression as solid as stone. "We have to get Sota. When a lycan goes rogue, there can be no mix-ups. Tonic is very dangerous in this state; we don't know if it's him or the wolf who's in control. 

We must wait for backup if we want to help him." He tries to warn me, but I shake my head in disbelief. 

What better person to help him than his leader? Why was I the only one who saw the urgency?

I had forgiven killers before, in my head I was already attempting to come up with a dozen different ways that would explain him out of this situation. 

"Tonic would never hurt anyone!" I shove him away, freeing myself but my feet don't move. I respected him too much to rush away; he wouldn't stop me unless he had a reason, no matter how much I might want to.

"Look around you! He's proven he will hurt someone; you don't know him, Nicolas! You are not going over there; you are staying here. I'm not giving you an option." His harsh tone cuts through me, echoing off the chamber walls and rattling my confidence. Verando never yelled, so to hear him speak so harshly, my body threatened to bow without my permission.

"Nicolas!" He commands my response. 

I couldn't help Tonic if he banished me from this room. 

"Yes, Alpha." My voice is low and cold. 

Tonic needs help, but not their help. He needs his friends to help him grieve. Despite my efforts, the gore surrounding me, and the blood filling my nose, I can't convince myself it's true. It has to have been a setup. To truly be convinced, I must hear it from him, and maybe not even though.

 Dark magic, mystics, shapeshifters, we could be looking at a doubleganger.

"Stay here. Do not move a muscle. I'm trusting you to only keep an eye on him; do not engage, do you understand? I'll be right back." 

Reluctantly, I nod, crossing my arms over my chest as he leaves. My eyes wander the throne room, finally drifting to the motionless young man.

He cut them up. 

There are pieces of elf everywhere, parts and glimpses of what could be a torso strewn across the room in a cyclone of disorder. My eyes pass over the impressions of marble under all the red. Claw marks managed to mar the stone floor as the elves tried desperately to fight him off. 

I look at the cold faces of those who had fallen victim to whatever this is, the rawest form of expression in a total mental breakdown. The look of shock and terror remains, their jaws slack, their eyes wide. I can feel the memory of my parent's death in the back of my mind, gnawing away at my happiness.

War takes more than lives. This place should be burned to the ground for how many had lost their lives here. 

The longer I remain among the dead, the more I begin to realize that I had been irrational in my justification. With the steady dripping of blood running down the grand stairs, I shudder. 

Spotting movement, I see that two elves are still alive; they are battered, bruised, and bloodied. They sit in a far corner, no longer bound but too afraid to move. Tonic was still as stone; I pressed my lips into a thin line, raising my finger to press it to my lips to indicate to them to remain quiet.

 His head remained buried in his knees as if he might be sleeping, surely it would be safe for me to got to them.

They shrink away from me as I approach; one closes his eyes, and the other looks relieved it could finally be over. Cautiously, I kneel, attempting to make my face look as gentle as I could manage given the circumstances. 

"It's ok. I'm not going to hurt you." I reassure them, my voice hardly above a whisper.

"You'll have to forgive us if we don't necessarily believe you." The stronger of the two quips, his voice unnecessarily loud.

"That's what that young one said right before he-" The more damaged of the pair shivers as he clutches his companion. 

My heart breaks for them; the damage to their mental health far outweighs the bodily harm they have endured. Sometimes, it's the meek who are unfortunately spared; this young elf would likely be mentally deranged for the rest of his life after this horrible night. "I understand your skepticism, but you must be very quiet. I'm going to try and remove you from this room."

The more fragile of the two startles me with a blood-curdling scream. 

Feeling his presence before I see him, I slowly stand, turning to see Tonic standing behind me. His eyes are dull; he's covered in gore from head to toe. His face streaked, his hair matted down. I startle, taking a deep breath as I charge my fingertips in preparation to defend myself. 

The more damaged of the elves screams, incoherent, pleading for his life. 

Tonic reminds me of a predator, the way he cocks his head and sets his eyes on his kill. I hold my hands up, hoping the sudden movement will attract his attention. "I think you need to quiet your friend down." My voice is soft as I speak over my shoulder to the elves.

 Stepping towards him, his lip curls, warning me not to come any closer. Once more, I exhale; this is much different than squaring off with Alpha. The feral expression the man held, the crazed look in his eyes, I was not dealing with a sane being. 

"Tonic, it's ok. Nobody is going to hurt you."

"I know." He responds, dull. "Nobody is ever going to hurt me again. I fixed that problem; I became strong."

 I gape at him. Oh, Tonic. "You've been quite busy." I allow.

"It had to be done!" He roars, and I attempt not to flinch at the barking tone. "They could not be allowed to live; they were dangerous! We should never have brought them to our home; they deserve to die. Knife ear scum." 

His voice darkens as he continues; his eyes are empty and black. They look bottomless; so little of my Tonic is left in this husk of what used to be such a bright and innocent man. 

I must reason with him and attempt to draw him back out of this before my warlord sees him. Should he attack, there would be nothing I could do to protect him. 

"You know that's not true, Tonic. They were doing their job, just like you were doing yours. This is war. People die." I find myself quoting Verando, hoping to find some sort of common ground. 

"NO!" He snarls, eyes hard as he glowers down on me; the heat emanating off of him throws off warning bells. The wolf was close to the surface, my eyes flick to the doors, pleading for Verando to hurry up. 

Never before had I realized how tall Tonic was or how intimidating he could be. 

"None of us should have to die! It's the elves who killed my friend. One of my best friends! My brother! It's your people who enslaved us and caused this mess! We don't have to die!" He takes a step towards me, a rasping snarl ripping from his chest. 

My heart threatens to leap out of my chest, it pounds erratically as I try and stay calm for both of us. 

"I think it's time someone else died. Someone who deserves it." His rigid arms tremble, every muscle in his body tight, coiled like a spring as he prepares for the assault. 

Any thought of defending myself vanishes; all I can focus on is the pain he's in and how I desperately want to take it away. 

"You're right; nobody else should have to die. Nobody. Not the elves, the lycans, or the magical users." I try and dissuade him, a final attempt to appeal to what part of him I've grown to care for. "You can stop this right now. Let us help you. You need to grieve Tonic. It wasn't your fault Delta died." I can see I struck a nerve because his jaw sets and his eyes widen. 

"Don't say that. " His voice is low, hardly audible.

"It's not your fault," I tell him again, grasping at the light behind his eyes. Some part of him had been reached; fighting to come back to the surface. "There is nothing anyone could have done; his fate had already been decided."

 The young man closes his eyes; I wait on bated breath, but I know he's lost when he opens them. I'd judged this wrong and would pay the price for it. Silently, I apologize to Verando, hoping he wouldn't blame himself for my death. 

"I said shut up!" He bellows. In slow motion, he lurches, and my hands charge, yet a force hits my body from the side and flies through the air. 

 The wind leaves my lungs as I hit the wall, blasting air against the stone to protect myself as best I can from the impact. My body crumbles as I crash to the ground, my leg throbs almost as bad as the rest of my body. I contort soundlessly on the ground as I try to breathe. 

My vision blurred, I make out the approach of feet and freeze the floor, cursing as Tonic marches through each attempt to bind him. His hands close around my throat like a vice, elevating me to his full height as he belts me against the wall with an intensity that rattles my bones.

 I'd groan if I could breathe, doing everything I could to form a barrier of wind to keep my body from being pulverized; my hands wrap around his wrist as I attempt to freeze his hand. 

"It's your turn." His voice is empty, hollow of any consideration for my life slipping away at his fingertips. Gasping for air, I struggle to get free, but he's shockingly strong. My hands leave black imprints, his skin becoming frostbitten as I send a surge of magic into him and thrash against his palm. "You will atone for this."

His hand releases, and I slump to the ground, rolling onto my side; my eyes catch the fading form of the cathedral ceiling. The intricate stonework twirls whimsically above my head as my vision swirls in and out of consciousness and I vaguely hear myself gasping for air.

"It's ok. He's alive."

 Gagging and sputtering, the discomfort of air forcing its way into my chest only meant that I had survived this ordeal but not on my own accord. Someone had come to my aid; I couldn't believe Tonic had spared me.

"I told him to back off!" 

This voice is angry. 

I would laugh if my throat didn't feel as though it had been ripped out of my body. Damaged, I wondered if I'd ever sound the same again from all my interactions with predators and their desire to cut off my airways. This was the second wolf strangling I'd managed to survive, and the first wasn't nearly so determined.  

Slowly, my wits return, and I push myself up onto my hip as I reluctantly touch my bruised throat. Even the thought causes me to wince; I dare not press or prod. Scanning for my attacker, I see that Victor has him restrained.

"What the hell were you thinking?" Verando bends, kneeling to inspect my throat with a heavy frown.

"Well I was using your little speech about death and then I was flying through the air," I tell him sarcastically, my voice is rough and hoarse, reluctant to form the words with the damage. The answering snarl causes me to flinch more than I should; judging by the look on his face, Verando instantly regrets frightening me. 

"Those two were conscious; I wasn't going to be able to get to them in time if they triggered him. I didn't want him to kill them; I thought I could... I don't know.. get them out?"

Adriam kneels by my side, his warm fingers gingerly brushing the skin of my neck. "Don't speak. You could have damaged something." 

I glance at him; he's in Victor's shirt and shorts. His tangled curls are bushy from sleep. He looks even younger and smaller without all his accessories. 

"There is going to be some swelling. I hope you weren't banking on a singing career, as there might be damage to your windpipe and vocal cords; he really grabbed you."

"He could have snapped your bloody neck!" Verando growls; my eyes only see Tonic, who thrashes against Victor's iron grip.

Instinctively, I stand, and as I quickly take a step, Verando grabs my wrist, making me flinch. Yet, the expression on his face brings me to pause. "

I have to help him; he would help me," I manage, "I know your customs too well; there's no treatment for this.. not for him, not for an omega. You're going to put him down, right?"

"No-"

"Randy." I sigh, pleading with him. "Please... I have to try."

Adriam clears his throat, coming to my aid. "Let him try. They do have a good relationship. I have tranquilizer ready, we have Victor holding him, and we can control him if he gets out of hand." 

In the back of my mind, I'm well aware that Adriam would be fine if I met my demise.  Verando refuses to loosen his hold, and I place my hand over his. "I know you think I'm wrong, but Randy, I have to try."

Reluctantly, he releases me, shaking his head in disgust at the spectacle. "Any attempt on you, and I'll gut him myself." The threat is very real, and I swallow back the surprise at the intensity with which he speaks. 

Focusing on the task at hand, I begin my cautious approach to the deranged man who had been my best friend not days prior. "Tonic, I'm fine. You didn't hurt me."  

"I was going to before these traitors stopped me!" He snaps, looking menacing with his crazed expression. Fully exposed, he bares his teeth at me, lurching against Victor's grasp.

Verando steps forward but I hold out my hand, glaring over my shoulder for him to give me a chance.

"No, that's not true. You would never hurt anyone, I know you Tonic. This is not you. This is not who you are." 

"It's who I have to be!" Savage, he screams at me, wanting free of his restraint held by the immense Russian.

If I'm going to get through to him, I must be bold. Bold is what it took to reach Alpha; it only made sense that Tonic would need the same. "It's not! We are fighting for another way." 

Come back to us, Tonic.

I near him, putting my hand out to touch his face. Victor's expression warns me; he holds the younger male tightly. Taking a long, slow breath, I cup his cheek, his expression softening minutely.  "You know that I would never hurt you, Tonic. Please.. let us help you."

"You're right." His voice is barely above a whisper. "I need to make a bigger impact." 

His body shudders as he begins to change. Victor snarls as he tries to keep a hold of him, but the wolf fights out of the large man's grasp. I slip in the blood coating the floor; his teeth clamp onto my shirt as he pulls me towards him. I feel the canines slip against my skin; the razor-sharp fangs burn as they graze the sensitive flesh.

"Victor, get him!" I hear someone yell. 

The Russian grips the smaller gray wolf by the neck, squeezing him firmly to cut off his airways. He strikes at us with his paws, refusing to release me. I feel his nails occasionally take purchase, crossing my arms over my face to protect myself. Ice blasts from my feet, shooting downward in my panic, for I know that the defense maneuver I wanted to use would have killed everyone around me. 

I wasn't good enough to do short bursts in close contact; I was too out of practice to think I could handle this. 

 Tonic finally goes limp, and Victor drops him as he releases me.

"Is he dead?" I feel tears spring from my eyes, my teeth chattering from the chill of my body.

"No. Sleep." Victor tells me and frowns as he takes in my appearance.

 I'm covered in scratches on my arms and legs; my lips part as a second gray wolf appears before me, snarling as his ears lay flat back against his skull as he guards me from the down beast. 

"We need to lock him up until he has time to come down from this," Adriam commands.

"Like hell. Hand him over." It's not Verando but Alpha who speaks; I can recognize the off-tone of the animal within the man. 

"You can't kill him," I demand the wolf, who snaps his jaws in threat of me coming any closer. Broken, battered, and bleeding, I stand before him with no fear. I'd made my peace with his beast; if he killed me now, it would be just. "You don't scare me, Alpha. I've told you my terms, and I'm telling you now, you're not killing Tonic."

"He hurt you." Alpha barks, fur bristled. Victor backs away as the gray wolf looms over the unconscious one. "He's a danger to everyone, an omega."

"And you love him, or he wouldn't be here now. Kick his ass for this when he's better, but we're not spilling any more blood today. It's my life he tried to take, and I say he walks." I shoot back, swallowing the emotion as my wounds begin to sting and burn. 

"Your judgment is flawed!" Alpha seethes, and I can't argue with him there. I'd made some poor choices, this being one of them. 

 Victor lifts the wolf quickly, holding him over his shoulder. "Can not take back death, but can always kill later. Give time.. do not kill tonight, big enough mess to clean up."

I realize I'm trembling from the shock of the situation as Tonic's figure exits the room. I stumble backward, and Alpha quickly wraps around me, allowing me to lean on him. Thankfully, none of my cuts are particularly deep; they mainly just sting. 

My hands tremble as I try not to move, horrified as every ounce of lore floods my thoughts. "Am I going to turn into a wolf?" I ask shakily.

"It would serve you bloody well, right? Of all of the idiotic things you can do, Nicolas, this was one of them!" The large, light eyes examine my cuts, and after a moment, he passes his tongue over one of my arms; I shudder at the sudden closure of my gashes. "But no. It doesn't work that way with scratches anymore." 

"I need to give Tonic some sedation, but I'll be back to examine that wound on your leg; Lycan saliva can only do so much. Randy, get him out of here..."  

I look towards Alpha, and he leads me wordlessly out of the throne room and into the servant's quarters where the showers are. He gestures to the showers, and I tug numbly at my clothes, but I'm too out of it to remove them.

Shifting back into a human, Verando assists me; I try not to make eye contact as he strips me down and then turns on the shower. The warm water is excruciating on my cuts, burning into them as if he were pouring hot coals over my skin. I hiccup at the pain, and he carefully gathers my other arm in his palms, slowly passing his tongue over each gash. 

I might be disturbed if it wasn't immediate pain relief. 

"We've lost him," I murmur, trembling against the chill of the water that only grows colder in my depressed state.

Unreadable, Alpha very gently strokes the dried blood from my skin with a soft cloth. "Tonic was not meant for war." He doesn't look at my face, refusing to make eye contact.  Thankfully, my torso was mostly spared. "But I'm not going to give him another opportunity like that. If I have to end him, to save him, I will."

I can tell he's quietly seething; fear etches into my mind, and I resist the urge to shrink away from him. "Are you going to punish me for disobeying you?" I ask, but I don't know if I can handle it now.

Suddenly enraged, he glowers at me. "Do I look like I'm going to punish you? Do you think I'd want to fuck you when you're shaking like a leaf, looking at me like I did this to you?" He snaps, meeting my gaze with eyes blazing. He was mad, truly enraged, his skin burning so hot it was uncomfortable to stand beside him. 

Kind of. 

I shrink away, and he forces himself to stop, shutting his eyes and taking a long, slow breath. "The wolf is too close to the surface; it's taking everything in me not to slaughter him and make you a coat from his damned pelt. There's a time and place, but right now, it is not that time or that place. I think you have learned your lesson. Tonic has punished you enough."

That we can agree on.