(Nic's POV) 

Days had passed with little intel on the rogue human, despite multiple attempts to use my ability to follow their scent. Much to my dismay, the city was clogged with smog with little wind to carry much of anything anyway, let alone a chance to waft a scent in my direction. It was as if we'd returned to the reminants of civilization as it was when we had originally arrived.

I reminded myself that we had to look at the bigger picture, we couldn't help everyone at once. But, still. Passing by the pale faces, uncovered and exposed, did little to assure me that we were doing enough.

 With each passing evening, it became more and more apparent that the hunting expedition was becoming more of a savage raid on the civilian's lives. We had been tasked with the order to hunt the human down and bring them in. Instead, I was standing by while Echo used her own tracking abilities to keep tabs on the local rif raf, storing notes on the dealings close by the train hubs. It wasn't the enhancers or suppressants, more so various goods stamped with different branding. 

Most notably, the boxes marked with the Artifice Emblem and where they would be heading. 

I hadn't pegged the trio as smugglers but the interest shown was more what one would equate to thieves than prospective buyers.

Each night that we came back empty-handed, each frustrating attempt, lead me to believe that the goal here was much more than a hunting a single human. Echo was frantic in the way she spat at Kestrel, excluding Helen from most of the inner workings and tasking her with the unpleasantries of keeping me in line. 

I was to well versed in bootlegging to believe that Echo wasn't showing clear interest in the cargo coming in and out of this barren town, keeping me as far away from their outer interests was high on the priority. It also proved to me that Helen had not totally turned against us, she was being excluded too.

In fact, the more I eavesdropped, the more I came to suspect that the person gathering these sick and dying humans were a much different group all together. A private sector perhaps, or someone acting alone. It was information they felt necessary to keep from Helen, I tried to hone in on just how badly it bothered her each time they sent her off to help me track. 

 Everything that triggered me into wanting to run convinced me that it was more relevant that I stay. With no proof other than broken sentences, going to someone like Lotta with this information in it's current state would do me little good. Helen was to out of the loop to convince to reveal any of the inner workings, much as it might be nothing beyond heroes acting as heroes. 

What did I know about 'good work' when it came to inner cities?

The more time I spent with these people, the more suspicious I was becoming. Perhaps it was just me who was paranoid.

The government worked with the heroes, an asset in the current tension of muddied boarders and rebel groups skulking in the dark. I would need more than a hunch and bad vibes, I had hardly enough evidence to convince myself.

I rub the back of my aching neck, an ache that had been with me for three days now. Three days on a less than stellar bed, three days being ripped apart from the inside while Echo proceeded to do everything in her power to trigger my wolf in the off moments of our hunting. I suppose I had bigger things to worry about than the minor details of what Kestrel and Echo did in their spare time.

Lost in the seductive nature of a secret society, it helped to distract myself from the feeling of being slowly liquified. 

Her brutal verbal assault and abrupt shoves were part of her coarse personality, for certain. But the intent was obvious to me after the first evening of disappointment in my lack of wolf. Any frustration she gained from our absence of success was directed souly towards me and my short comings as a fledgling lycan. She had been tasked with triggering me and she was determined to make good on that challenge. 

I was fed, clothed, clean, but I was beyond sore and exhausted. From the tips of the hair on my head to the bottoms of my feet, my body ached with the fatigue of being tricked, teased and prodded to perform a task it felt incapable of. Echo provoked me until I was screaming for mercy, the wolf desperate to hold on while I pleaded for it to finally come out and stop this anguish.

Torture did not compare to the deep seated internal ache of each bone in my body cracking and splitting in a way that felt volcanic under the surface, as if I were just an unstable fault line ready to erupt. 

Except, I never did. The more she pushed, the farther the wolf retreated.

The drug might as well have been invisible to me, too. Receeding back into the depths of my mind, the wolf wanted to take no part in the anguish of my waking life. If it was on my side, possibly we might have found the human by now, but where we currently stood I was more or less powerless once more.

Sighing, I bow my head in an attempt to stretch my back. I shouldn't have taken the insight into my desires, I would have been out of here by now if I had just allowed Classy to take me to the human. I missed my children, I missed my husband, the gained perspective of being out in the elements raw and exposed had gifted me a new found respect for the ease of comfortable living in our home.

In a city that lived in the dark, there were far too many places to hide and not enough of us to hunt every corner. Much as I wanted to make my way to the tavern, I couldn't risk exposing its origins to a group of feral acting youth that frequented this area, not even if one of them was Helen. 

The thought caused me to frown as we walk down the cracked sidewalk once more. 

Helen. 

Helen who had done nothing but take a back seat to a roll Verando had gifted her. Helen who had receeded back into herself when she had come so far. Stealing a glance at her, I shouldn't feel so harshly, judging by the look on her face when she was alone with her thoughts she wasn't pleased with this either. In a way, we were a lot alike in that neither of us knew where we fit into this new world.

I couldn't blame her despite how much I wanted to. 

I had joined this path, too, and left the difficulties of training with my husband behind. I thought they would be easier, I had thought this would be a fast track to getting my issues solved. I could only imagine that she had, as well. Malka had never been easy for her, a constant struggle that I had seen her grandfather face for long years in the war to save my country. 

Echo and Kestrel trend ahead, I'm to tired to make trouble and they must feel confident in that as they leave us lagging behind in the haze. Racking my brain for something to say, I know I must bring up something. I must confront her, steer her back on the correct path. 

"Do you think he will ever forgive us?" Her soft voice breaks the silence. 

I know who she speaks of, the thought hadn't really crossed my mind. She had helped to kidnap me, she had aided these two in their mischief and she had abandoned his teachings. "I think the better question is, will he ever forgive you?" I can't help my callous tone, much as I try to stop it from seeping out. "Truthfully, I think he will be more disappointed that he handed his people over to you and you've decided to let a neutral lead. Helen, you understand that this is not where you belong."

Her full lips fall, pulling downward into a frown as she scrutinizes the sidewalk. Her thin shoulders don't hunch as they used to, though her body lacks the presence of her given position. This was not the Helen who had helped us on the streets on NewYork and again, here in France.

 "Malka rejected the alpha position, she doesn't want to lead just anyone, she wants to lead everyone. Nic, how the hell am I supposed to do that? Ever since I renounced that side of her, she hasn't spoken to me. I've been trying to get back to her ever since." Those familiar light eyes fall on me and I recognize the look of leadership weighing on fragile shoulders. In her reveal, I realize she had mislead me into thinking that this had been going easily for her.

Helen had not been raised with her role in mind, not as Verando had. Legardo might have created a pure being but in that he raised a tender soul that struggled with the ways of war. Only this wasn't war any longer, this was a rebuild. "And you think befriending Kestrel and Echo is going to help that? This is supposed to be balance, balance can not happen when the blind are leading those who refuse to see." Swallowing back my own words, I sigh at myself. I hadn't done much better. "I think it's time we both grew up."

"How many more times do I have to grow up?" She laughs sadly. "I feel like I'm an eternal child. Look at me, I'm running from my husband because he treats me to well." 

Her words cause me to scoff, I was quite familiar with her families issues. "Unfortunately, that part of you is genetic. Ask your grandfather and father about their commitment issues before you damn your own. I'm not sure what it looks like but I know it's not this, I think we're all a bit war torn." I certainly felt it. 

Spinning our wheels, unable to find peace, our group had split and fractured into pieces that were disunited and trying to find meaning in a world that wasn't sure if it wanted us. Humans and magic users working together while turmoil ensued in the outer edges of society like a pot boiling over. Where had all our companions gone? Possibly, I was feeling so alone because I had no idea where anyone was?

My nose twitches, catching a new scent all together. I hesitate only for a moment, eyeing an alley we had passed many times before on our nightly patrols. "Do you smell that?" I ask her, absently as I can manage to not indicate the origin of the scent. While I wasn't sure if Helen was entirely against me, she hadn't done much to convince me she was on the side of good either. 

"All I can smell is smog. This city is dreadful. We can't stay here much longer, it's not good for our lungs."

 I imaged it was more so that Verando was becoming increasingly suspicious as to why I hadn't called him again. The trio would do anything to prevent further investigation from him or any of his allies. The eyes of the warlord were sharp and piearcing, escaping this botched kidnapping unscathed would be a miracle and with my own person not thoroughly convinced, they would very well return empty handed. 

With a soft sigh, I know that the only person I can trust in this instance is myself. Silently, I apologize to the light haired girl as I take a step backwards before turning on my heel and bolting in the direction of the hotel. Even in the smog, I was faster than I had ever remembered myself being. For a moment, I'm back in the woods outside the lost elf castle and I'm running freely through the brush. 

The nipping air of the memory quickly turns to plumes of debris as a ventilation shaft sputters a cloud of soot into the air. I run through it despite my better judgement, knowing any bit to mask my scent would help. "Nic!" I hear Helen's voice in the distance. She would have to wait the few moments for Kestrel and Echo to join her before chasing after me.

 It would give me just enough time.

Every instinct in my body told me to get back to the hotel, to baracade myself in that tiny room and call the one person who would surely come to my aid. Yet with each step, I felt myself taking a different course. I couldn't run back to the hotel, it would be the first place they would look for me and it wouldn't prevent the risk to my family. He would have to leave to come for me, putting our children in the hands of someone else and with a threat looming, there was no other person I trusted to protect them. 

My children needed him more than I did and that had to be my priority. 

I curse myself as I turn off into on of the side streets, slipping through ragged vendors and wishing I blended in better. "You can't leave yet." The voice in the back of my mind beckons to me. My task was not yet complete, not for my kidnappers but for my own sake as to what was happening to those who took the drug. Slipping my hand into my pocket, for a split second I consider taking those tempting little pills. 

Pressing my back into the dirty wall of the abandon building, my lungs burn as I force myself to come to grips with the reality that my magic would not help me find my target. That scent had been totally unique, it was my best option and unfortunately back the way I came. Glancing up through the off colored luminessent light from the building signs above, I curse my royal upbringing. 

Navigating city streets had never gone well for me. 

"Your not alone."

The voice does little to convince me of that fact. I'd never felt more alone in my life. "I'm about to go hunting for a human instead of going home. While I might not be alone, I fear I've gone completely mad." I retort under my breath, earning a disembodied chuckle as I snag a scarf off the edge of one of the carts. My money was locked away in the hotel room, another one of the disadvantages of not returning. 

"You need to pay for that, kid!" A man yells, causing the hair on the back of my neck to bristal. I might be short but I was quite pleased with the amount of maturing the wolf introduction had done for my body. I thought my days of being accused of being a child were over. 

I say nothing, bolting off into the fading crowd that came with the ending of the nightlife in the small shabby town. The best I could hope for was a police officer catching me, while I might spend a night in jail, they at least might know who I was. "Unless they aren't apart of the alliance and they feel magic users belong in fairy tales." The wolf spits at me. 

A corrupt police officer? I scoff at myself as I slip down a side street, avoiding the flash of the lights before jerking away from an outstretched hand of Kestrel nearly gripping my shirt. He leaps off the fire escape and I burst back into the crowd to bolt towards the array of lights. So much commotion over a scarf, yet given the nature of the town I couldn't say I blamed them for showing an interest in an open theft.

I slide easily between two carts and run down the familiar street once more, wrapping the scarf over my head and running through the same sputter of debris to douse my scent once more. The scent catches my nose once more, sweeter, fresher than before. I push myself to run faster, no longer feeling the exhaustion, no longer succumbing to the fatigue I had felt just moments before. 

"Return to your homes immediately." The loud speakers sound over head, familiar of the Artifice heavy towns in America. "Curfew is now in effect. Return to your homes immediately." The wail of the sirens make my ears ring, the only relief being the sweet scent dragging me back to that forsaken alley filled beyond recognition with various articles of trash and discarded goods. 

It was a good time to be small as I wedge myself between two box springs, forcing myself deeper into the alley way as the flicker of red and blue lights pass over the small opening in a slow march. My heart pounds excitedly in my ears as I move as quietly as I can manage, the tunnel of junk and broken goods squeezing me uncomfortably tight as I fight for air in the cramped space.

 "Ouch."

The voice causes me to freeze. I quickly lift my foot, step on a bottle and drop to my ass unceremoniously at the feet of the heap of clothes before me. "I'm sorry." I manage, flinching at the various bits and bobbles sticking out in all directions from the carved tunnel of trash. Wires and metal pieces remind me much of the raccoon traps my father used to build, one way in, no way out.

I try to not focus on the irritating pinpoints sticking into my arms and legs. The clothes pile moves a ghostly hand, peering at me with black eyes from under the wool hat. "Classy said you were looking for me. Took you long enough."

The sickly voice drops my heart into my stomach, it's not a tone that brings any sort of relief in the finding of a being such as this. This voice was hoarse, weak, a breath that my sensitive ears gathered all to well. The smell alone was all that was foreign to me, I'd been with to many dying men to not recognize the symptoms. Still, the sweet aroma wafted into my nose like a temptress teasing my senses. 

"You didn't make it easy." I respond quietly. 

"A seer offered you my location, you chose a cock." The man coughs, a faint sputter against his hand. "I suppose I can't blame you. I'm strung out on a drug that's been killing me for months. Can't say I should be pointing fingers."

"Who gave it to you?" I sigh, resisting the urge to touch him, there would be no comfort from my hand. I recognized the position well, he was as comfortable as a man could be in those twilight hours of existence. 

"Classy." He snorts, as if it were obvious. "I think your question should be what do they want with me."

"Do you know?"

Rolling the blood shot eyes, he looks like he'd strike me if he had the ability to. His face is tattered, covered in wounds from a body unable to hold up to the strain of magic. "If I knew I wouldn't have stuck around in this shit hole of a town. Nobody comes back once they take them, but it aint the suits doing it."

The suits? Did he mean officials? I already knew that. "Have you seen a Johnathan Campbell?"

"Sounds familiar. But not as a dealer. Classy entertains 'em, if you know what I mean. He's a customer." Coughing once more, I exhale for him as he wheezes and clutches his chest. "You sure do have shitty timing." His hand comes away from his mouth, saturated in red and making my chest throb in an uncomfortable lurch that makes me want to lean away from him. 

"Nic! Come out!" A voice calls from the entrance of the alley.

"It's three on one, if I have to go into this heap to drag you out, your family is going to be the least of your worries." Kestrel snarls, earning back lash from Helen who warns him not to threaten me. 

The man glances around my shoulder, a smirk curling over rotted teeth. "Looks like you have your own trouble."

"Seems to follow me, I'm afraid. It's a good thing I didn't find you, you know they were going to take you." I warn him in a hushed tone. "I'll go out, you stay here. I'll send someone for you, someone good who will actually help you." The bone hand snatches my wrist, black eyes suddenly alive as he leans forward. 

"I'm a goner. Nobody survives taking these pills, not a one, but it doesn't mean you can't get some benefit from them. Those lycan assholes have been hunting here for months, it's about time they got a taste of their own medicine." He offers his wrist and I wrinkle my nose at him, confused to his intention. "Listen, I don't know who the hell you are but Classy trusted you. Classy is the only one who looks out for us, if she trusted you, if she sent you to find me, you must be better than those fucks outside."

My lips part and he shoves his hand forward, I turn my face away. "I don't-"

"I can see it in your eyes, you've already taken the drug once, the damage is done. You're a lycan, a shitty one but that can be helped. I have the ability to push people, to compel them to do what I ask." The thin hand moves from my wrist to my face, I'm shocked at the force as he pulls me to look at him. "You take my blood, you teach those assholes a lesson, and you get the hell out of here to get these people some help. Human blood is more potent to you beasts than any drug, mixed with the enhancer, it will trigger your wolf to come out."

He coughs, spattering my face with blood. The sweet aroma hits me so strongly, I nearly take him up on his offer. It shocks me to my core, the offer hits numb ears as his eyes lock with mine. "I'm not killing you." I tell him firmly.

"You don't have a choice. I'd rather die here than screaming for my life while those bastards do whatever it is they came for." His eyes begin to glow, my body feels rigid as he presses the cold, clammy skin to my mouth. "Take my blood. Kill every one of those pricks. Get out of here and find a cure for this drug or you're looking at your future."