I can't comprehend what I'm seeing. My mind swims, circling the drain as I attempt to fathom how the two were before me. "I-" Tired, so tired, it'd been just the two of us for so long as far as who I could rely on. Every time we handed off a task, it came back to bite us, so seeing this face in this time period-

He'd looked exactly how I remembered him. Soft, small, dressed fashionably yet stealthy with heavy strawberry blond curls and honey-colored eyes. Feminine, beautiful, gentle with a venomous glint behind those pearly white teeth. 

Adriam flinches, eyeing my leg. The expression snaps me out of my stupor. They were here, I had done it, I had warned them effectively and now they were alive. So what did that mean? What had I done?

 "Gods you really did end up seeing that mage, didn't you?" he murmurs, kneeling beside me to streak his fingers through the blood on my torn pant leg. I hadn't realized how badly my leg was burning, I jerked away from him only to freeze when I heard Verando groan. Pulled into too many directions after my wolf was crammed down for twenty-four hours, my brain was pushed over the edge. I'd used, I'd been taking enhancers, I'd time traveled, and my skin felt like it might implode.

"We have to bind him. Now. Right now." Before I fainted, before I died, before there was nothing left of me. Pushing away from Adriam, I crawl back toward the downed warlord. Victor is soundless as he helps me wrap the chains, though the pair glance cautiously back and forth. My pulse begins to calm as we start at his hands, I note that one of his wrists could potentially be fractured though it seemed to be already healing. 

Verando smelled wrong, how far down as Fenrir buried him? 

His arms are sliced and cut, in various states of disrepair from contending with our family inside the house. Layers of blood caked his skin and clothes, down his neck, and in his hair, soaking through in thick black streaks refreshed with dark red from Caspian and the werewolf. 

With Verando's shirt in rags, his skin nearly steams as we wrap the chain around his waist, over his elbows, up and over his biceps to hold his arms firmly behind his back. At the end of it, Victor jumps up to grab one of the padlocks. Snapping it shut on the end, he frowns disapprovingly at the bound, limp warlord. 

Now sitting upright, his head dips as Victor steadies him. Would this be enough? Could this possibly hold Fenrir? My body sways, blurring my vision, I've lost too much blood and not eaten or slept nearly enough. I couldn't do this, I was going to lose it.

"How did... Adam, why are you here?" I manage, shaking, fatigued, in pain, and horrified. I can't look at him, I keep my eyes locked on my soulmate, taking in every injury. The steady drip of the wound on his neck seemed to have slowed though it slowly spreads over the links of the chain, staining them the deepest shade of red.

Impatient with me, it would appear he was still tempted to treat me as his hands hover over my body with an uncertainty of where to start. "When you came... you told me you would do whatever it took to get back to your lover. Obviously, given our history.. I figured out who you were talking about. Thanks.. for the info on Victor, by the way." He pulls his lips into a small smile, carefully touching my face to guide my gaze to him.

Swaying his finger, I do my best to follow it. He checks over my eyes, "You've been thrown around yourself. When was the last time you slept?"

"Randy has been taken over by Fenrir." I gasp out, falling back onto my palm, flinching at the discomfort in my body. "Ah- Darrius! Xaiver-" Leaping to my feet, I nearly collapse as Adriam catches me, then giving a sharp look to Victor he flicks his head towards the house. The Russian is gone in an instant. "Tomas is already inside but Victor can go help him, we smelled all the blood, and I had a suspicion that something was incredibly wrong. "

"Tomas?" I whisper, wide eyed. 

The small blond smiles gently. "A vampire. Rowan needed him and Penelope struggled, so he took the vow to join the coven under the guidance of Mother."

Tomas... was alive? Rowan. Was Rowan alive?

Adriam's attention shifts to Caspian, once I've given up trying to stand he moves to check the man's pulse then frowns as he closes the dull golden eyes. "Did Verando do this? Is there anyone else?" His attention turns to the two cages.

I shake my head frantically, "No. No. It was... Fenrir is controlling him. It wasn't Randy's fault."

"Fault or not, the cycle should be complete if Caspian is dead-"

"Gods.. no, Helen has a piece of Whitewind in her... Verando's mother- Malka-" I didn't have the energy for this. Rubbing my temple, I hear the low growl rumble from my soul mate and instinctively I reach for him. My wolf fights back against me, rejecting the thought, for this man before me was not my husband.

"Did you really bind me with the chain of a strigoi?" The voice is harsh, dark, and practically inhuman as the black eyes meet mine. Breathing hard, blood seeped from his lips and slid down his chin, no doubt from the trauma of being thrown into the log wall. His body trembled just as mine did, fatigued, for these vessels weren't meant to house gods in these human forms. Much as Verando had held Whitewind, the god had never tested it to such extremes. 

Adriam seems shocked, raising his eyebrows. "Oh my, you really aren't kidding."

"Why would I lie about this?" I snap back, remembering all over again why I was fine with Adriam's death in the first place. He was a realist, it was difficult for him to think past his own knowledge and beliefs. 

"I'm two hundred-odd years out of the loop, honey, there's going to be some catching up to do. You don't exactly blog about this sort of thing..."He retorts, wrinkling his nose. "The smell of sulfur is unreal." I, unfortunately, had to agree. Hell, as if he'd been yanked from the underworld, it would appear we'd finally managed to get him contained.

The man before us steams, skin lightly smoking wherever the chain touched. 

"Blessed chain from a strigoi crypt. I truly did not see that coming, the vessel is the crypt and I'm locked in the tomb... mmm.. so what now, throw me in the ground and bury me?" The responding grin chills me to my core, Iris had warned us that we would need to bring Verando to the surface. 

What was left to trigger him, how else would we get him out of this?

The tiny french man moves confidently towards the man, grabbing him by the rear of the chains to carefully drag him toward the one cage in good repair. "Well I suppose that's for you to find out, considering the state of you, you're not much of a threat to us, now are you? Now, let's see if you're like a bird and can allow our person to get some rest if they're no stimulation." 

Putting him in the cage, he closes the door quickly. Verando does not try to stand, I wonder if he even can. 

"What makes you think I won't maim this vessel trying to get out of here?" He spits, glaring over his shoulder. The black eyes make me sick to my stomach, I can't look anymore as I struggle to my feet. 

"There is nobody else to house you, if the legend is correct, you would go straight back to hell if you didn't have this body. So, play nice, you're on a razor's edge of burning out your lifeline." He helps me up, putting my arm over his shoulder as he flicks off the lights and leads me back toward the house. 

"Caspian's body-" 

"Leave it. Maybe it will trigger Verando to fight back against that thing. Gods, Nic, I knew it would be bad but not like this."

I text Legardo to tell him to stay away before I sit on the couch to hold my child. Xaiver sobs, uncontrollably, I rock him as much as I rock myself as I'm just so thankful he's alive. Adriam watches the small boy as if he'd seen a ghost, recognizing the smokey hair and light eyes. 

His skin had begun to tan, he looked like the perfect mixture of his parents and Adriam knew them both to well to not see it. "Kitten?" He murmurs. 

I nod, pleading with my eyes for him not to delve. 

There was enough to do to keep Adriam away from me. 

Verando had nearly killed the Siren, dismembering him into something that was almost unrecognizable. Taking some of the blood from the deer that had been saved for training, Victor feeds it to the Siren in a hope of helping him heal faster. He would recover, but it would take time. 

Tyler and Helen were bruised and broken but would survive. We'd feared Tyler's jaw was broken but it seemed mostly to be a cracked tooth and some swelling. Helen was nursing a blackened side and Adriam pinned for an ultrasound but acknowledged that it was unlikely to find one at this hour. With it nearing four in the morning, I questioned how any of them could function. 

Echo's lackies were dead, all of them, maimed and gutted in various places surrounding the home. Echo, herself, was still unconscious and had not woken up.

Landon and K had not returned, I welcomed them to stay as far as away as they could stand. 

We had lost, badly. 

I'd fought wars, monsters, and hell's worst creations, and this loss felt the most bitter of them all. Our Alpha, my warlord, was a vital player who had succumbed in a way I'd never expected him to. The world suddenly goes black, exhaustion takes hold and I feel myself slip into nothingness. 

The back of my eyelids are black. The room is quiet, too quiet, I sit up quickly and nearly collide with the small Frenchman. 

"Adam?!" I'm shocked all over again. That means it was real, it wasn't a dream, we were truly living this nightmare.

"Good... mmm, I suppose it is morning. You've been out for about twenty-four hours. You were so dehydrated I couldn't even find a vein. Thankfully for you, I'm the best doctor have existed. You're lucky I prepared and brought a car full of supplies."

Did he always expect the worst when it came to us? Flinching at my collar bone, I place my hand over it with a frown. "Where's Randy?"

My curtness didn't surprise him, we'd never been best friends and it didn't come as a shock that we weren't now. When Adriam knew me, I was unapologetically his king, so it came as no surprise that I had little patience for formalities. An experienced veteran knew better than to waste time. "Secure in his cage, your plan was a success, Fenrir has not been able to escape. I've instructed Victor to attempt to feed him, but Fenrir is refusing. We did attempt to clean him but it got so dangerous I was worried Verando would snap his own neck."

Rubbing my collar bone, Adriam begins to drone on about my injuries. It was displaced, they would need to put a plate in it if it didn't heal, it could damage my shoulder joint and they were concerned but hopeful. My leg was not good, it was healing but incorrectly. They'd managed to run down to a local vet and get a portable x ray machine, this showed just how shattered the bone was. If I didn't get surgery to fix it and repair the fragments, I could go septic. 

I would lose my leg. 

"Verando's afraid of water." I mutter, an excuse for his behavior. 

Adriam snorts, rolling his eyes at my lack of consideration for my own injuries. "What an odd fear. Really. Water?" He begins checking my dressing as I blink away the sudden clarity. 

"Caspian tried to down him. He tortured him for 12 hours, leaving him on the brink of suffocating... he... truly hates water. He could hardly shower until just recently."

Adriam shudders. "Gods... horrible."

"Verando's afraid of water." I repeat. This could work, it would be bad, it would be painful, but this could work.

"I heard you honey, I don't need a recap. That's just awful."

I grab Adriam's shoulders. "Verando is afraid of water. He reacted to you trying to clean him. That mean's Verando is in there. If we play this right.. if we-" It hurts me to think about it, my wolf whimpers in the back of my mind. "If we put him in water, it will spook him to the surface. It might give us just enough time to put the brand on him, it might be the only way we are going to get Fenrir to the bottom and Verando to the top."

"I'm sorry, a brand?" Adriam stammers, shaking his head in disbelief. "You're going to brand Verando?" 

I pat my chest, frantically searching for the book but I'm naked. "Clothes. My clothes?"

Adriam hands me the foul coat and shirt, disapproving but knowing better than to throw the clothes away. We were handy, we were good at hiding things, he raises an eyebrow as I mutter over and over again to force the book to reveal itself. 

Like lifting mental weights, it's exhausting to finally get the book to very slowly roll out of it's sleeve and form. My body is shaking, sweat dripping off my temple, I wipe my nose bleed with the back of my hand as I flip frantically through the pages before showing Adriam the symbol. 

"I don't like this." He tells me, indicating my state of fatigue. Touching the symbol, slowly he nods. "This is a Nordic symbol of holding. At least, it is now. This is what you want to put on him? Typically it's a tattoo."

"Iris said to brand him."

Adriam taps his chin. "It would be faster in the immediate. But.. brands fade and if any piece of the seal breaks then-"

"Fenrir is free." I sigh, rubbing my aching thigh. "Brand.. then Tattoo?"

Scoffing, the french man sits on the edge of my bed as he reads the pages. "You have a lot of faith in that man's ability to sit for all of this. You've obviously never given him an injection."

Much as we hadn't often got along, I did appreciate Adriam's ability to think into the future. Stepping right back into our lives so seamlessly, he didn't dare say things pertaining to our plan's failing. To him, we would succeed, and I needed that right now. 

Helen enters the room, limping, sore, with a black eye and busted lip as she places the tray of fruits and a pancake in my lap. I devour the breakfast, my body screams for something to give it energy. "Well, in case you're wondering, Malka is not as strong as Fenrir."

"I saw his body, you kicked his ass." I manage between bites. 

She frowns. "That was Papa fighting back, Nic... I..." With a shaky breath, she avoids Adriam's sympathetic touch. "Nic, he fought so hard to not hurt us. He truly did. I can't do that, I don't ever want to do that again. We have to help him, we have to do something." 

"I'm coming up with a plan... we have to get someone to make this brand out of a single piece of iron." I gesture to the book and she takes it out of Adriam's hand cautiously, I was proud of her for being suspicious, even though we were comfortable together she still looked at the blond as if he were the villain of this story. She was finally learning, finally becoming an adult. 

"A brand? Like for cattle?"

I nod, practically swallowing the strawberries whole. "Know anyone?"

"Landon. John. John has cattle, I bet he could make a brand but Landon might have a better and faster method. This says it can't be joined, it has to be a continuous piece. So we need to forge it? Or can we pour it?"

Tyler follows in, holding two cups of coffee. One for Adriam, one for me, I'm shocked by the reddened eye and various cuts and lacerations covering the man's body. "I saw the ice. You tried your best." I know the look of defeat, I know how it looks to completely blame yourself for what happened. Comforting him was the only option at this point, he already blamed himself. 

Saying nothing, Tyler just glances at the book, delicately crossing his arms over his chest as he rests his sore hip in a more relaxed stance. Finally, he nods once. "My father can make that. Might take all day.. have to go into town to get some iron... but we can make that. I'll go today, let's get this fucker out of Verando and out of our lives. What else do we need?"