Ch.8: No, Nah, Nuh-uh

Nicholas passed out on and off, slumped like a dead weight next to Valentino. Every time consciousness returned to him, he'd blink and try to move, but then he'd realize that he was still in a moving car, and that someone was still pushing down on his wounds. 

Two fingers pressed to a spot on his neck. Nicholas made a tired noise of protest and struggled to lean away. 

"How's his pulse?" 

Albert's voice. 

"Fine," Valentino said. 

This time Nicholas managed to stay awake. He lolled his head aside, glancing at Valentino, who gazed back, then turned his face away again. 

Nicholas wanted to push Valentino's hand off his wounds, but then he remembered that his own hands were still tied. So he squirmed instead, moving away from him.

"Off," Nicholas mumbled. "Take your hand off." 

"You wanna bleed out and die?" Valentino asked. 

"Yeah." 

"As you like."

"Valentino..." Albert's voice was exasperated. "Don't listen to him. Keep the pressure." 

Valentino sighed. "Okay." 

"Milo..." Nicholas's heart skipped a beat. "Where's Milo?"

"Here." Albert reached a hand towards the passenger seat, briefly stroking Milo's hair. "He passed out too." 

Valentino leaned forward to check on Milo as well, his expression filled with a soft type of sadness. "Albert," he said. "Sasha probably already sent someone after us. You think you can take Milo to your place before they get to us?" 

"I'm going as fast as I can," Albert said. "She... She wouldn't involve Milo in this, would she?" 

Valentino scoffed. "She knows I care about him. Of course she'd want to involve him. But I won't let her." 

"Who the hell is Sasha?" Nicholas asked. "What are you talking about?" 

"My boss," Valentino said. "I'm sure you figured it out already." He looked at Nicholas, and there was something playful about his expression. "Or did you believe that I have a contract with a demon? And that I really bring souls back from the angels?" 

"I knew it was bullshit the second I heard it," Nicholas said. Then he furrowed his eyebrows, wondering what the captors would do after waking up and realizing that Valentino had betrayed them.

They were hell-bent on reviving their son, and Nicholas had a bad feeling they wouldn't give up so easily. 

"What's your boss gonna do to me?" Nicholas asked.

"Dunno." Valentino shrugged. "We'll see. She might make you work with us." 

Valentino's voice was too unbothered for a conversation like this, and if Nicholas's body didn't feel like lead, he would have punched his face.

"In her dreams," Nicholas said, closing his eyes. 

"Yeah?" 

"Yeah." 

Valentino hummed. "What if she makes you choose? You either work with us or die?" 

"Die."

"Well, too bad! Murder is where she draws the line!"

Nicholas opened his eyes just to send Valentino a death glare. 

"Valentino, stop talking to him," Albert said. "Nicholas, you've lost a lot of blood. Please try to rest for now." 

From up ahead, headlights appeared in the distance, gradually growing closer. Then closer, and closer, moving head-on towards Albert's. Nicholas's heart dropped. Were they about to crash, or was that car trying to cut them off? Had the captors managed to chase them again?

The car racing towards them turned sideways with a screech and blocked the rest of the road. Albert slammed the breaks. Nicholas jolted forward, and Valentino roughly forced him backwards again. 

"Dammit," Albert said. He looked at Milo, who was still out, hugging Valentino's hat. "How are we gonna..."

"We'll just go with them," Valentino said. 

Two men exited the car that had blocked the way. Both walked over, staring Albert down as he opened the door and got out. 

"What happened?" one of the men said. 

Before Albert could open his mouth, Valentino stepped out, gently pushed him back, and stood in front of him. 

"Hello!" Valentino said as he looked at the men, his hands automatically going behind his back like this was his default posture. "Look here. Talk to me. I'm in charge."

"What happened here?" the man repeated, nodding at Valentino's blood-soaked clothes. "Whose blood is that?"

Valentino glanced down at his coat; Nicholas's blood had splattered all over him. "Not mine," he said. "Most of it, at least. Anyway, we've got a bit of a situation here. Sasha sent you to get us, right?"

"Who's that kid?" The man pointed at Milo, who was still in the passenger seat. Albert had walked over and he stood guard by his door. Stepping closer, the man bent and peeked into the car, finally noticing Nicholas. "Who are these two?" 

"My clients kidnapped them and wanted me to put their son's soul into one of them. It's a long story." 

"Why the hell would you bring them back with you?" 

Valentino smiled. "And who are you to ask? You're just Sasha's hounds. I don't have to explain anything to you." 

"Valentino," the man said. "This is a problem. Sasha sent us to get you and Albert, not some random guy and a kid." 

"That's not a random kid," Valentino said. "I care about this kid. And if you wake him up and scare him more than he's already scared, we're gonna have a real problem." Despite the threat,  Valentino sounded calm and pleasant. "Shut up and get us to Sasha's office, would you?"

"You've got a lot to explain to Sasha, Valentino. She won't be happy with this." 

"I think Sasha's the one that has some explaining to do, actually." 

The men didn't look convinced, but one of them returned to the driver's seat of his car anyway. The other gestured Valentino to get his gang in. Albert carried Milo from his car to the men's, then came back to help Nicholas. Valentino told him to stay with Milo and dragged Nicholas over himself. 

Albert took the passenger seat, while Valentino, Nicholas, and Milo occupied the back row. One of the men drove. The other was left behind to take care of Albert's car. 

The drive was silent. Nicholas's vision was a little bleary, but he could still make out the surroundings: fields strewn with trees and foliage stretched at both sides of the bumpy road, and there were hardly any houses. Nicholas didn't even know where they were. 

It was a long, long time before the car stopped moving. By then, Nicholas had regained a little bit of his energy. He leaned forward, blinking outside the window. There was a house. And a garden. And that was about it. The place was otherwise disconcertingly desolate.

The doors of the car clicked as everyone got out. Nicholas's hands were still tied behind his back, so he watched as Albert opened his door for him, and then extended his hand forward, intending to help him out. 

So naturally Nicholas scowled and jerked his shoulder back out of reach. "I don't need help," he said, struggling to step out on his own. He lost balance and stumbled a few steps. Albert caught his elbow, but again, Nicholas wrenched himself free as if he had touched hot coal. 

"I said I don't need help!"

"You heard him, Albert," Valentino said. "He doesn't want help. Leave him."

Valentino took Milo, who was starting to come around again, and guided him into the house. Albert didn't interfere after that, but he stayed beside Nicholas while he trudged and limped his way up the porch and in through the front door. 

It was warm inside. That was the only thing Nicholas could focus on. He let out a relieved breath as heat seeped into his frozen face, his numb hands, and he felt like he could drop and sleep on the floor right then and there. 

Valentino took his coat off. "Sasha's not here yet?" he asked, adjusting his vest. 

"No. She'll arrive soon." The man gestured to a room. "Get in." 

Valentino opened the door, waiting at the threshold for the rest to enter. Albert went in with Milo and set him gently down on the single-bed. Nicholas followed, using the wall for support. Opposite to the bed was a couch, and Nicholas plopped himself on it with a tired grunt. He hunched forward again. 

"Untie my hands," Nicholas said. 

Valentino closed the door, then leaned against it, raising a brow. "Say please." 

"I'm gonna bash your head into a wall you little shit."

"Ooh, I'm horrified! That's so scary coming from someone who couldn't even get out of my armlock!"

Nicholas tensed and frowned sharply, blood rushing to his face—from anger or embarrassment, he couldn't tell. "That wasn't a fair fight, asshole!"

"It wasn't even a fight. I barely put in any effort," Valentino said. "And who cares about fair? Not everything is fair. Deal with it."  

"Valentino, stop," Albert said as he sat down beside Nicholas. Valentino didn't speak anymore. After untying Nicholas's hands, Albert started taking his shirt off without any warning.

"Hey!" Nicholas shoved his hand off. "What the hell are you doing!" 

"Nicholas, we have to do something about your wounds. Your shirt is covered in blood, too. I'm sure it's uncomfortable." 

It was really, really uncomfortable. "No it's not! Piss off!" 

Albert sighed quietly, and he was silent for a while, as if thinking of a way to deal with Nicholas. "Look," he said. "Take it off yourself. Take off one sleeve. Let's just have a better look, okay? And then we'll see what we need to do."

Nicholas looked away. He tentatively unbuttoned his shirt, sliding it off his injured arm. And he regretted it instantly. The sight was ten times more nauseating like this. The gash on his shoulder wasn't as deep as the one of his arm, but the skin around both areas looked equally grotesque, all red and torn apart and jagged around the edges. Some of the blood had rolled down his side and soiled the bandages wrapped around his midsection, too. 

And yet Nicholas couldn't stop staring at the mess. 

Albert hissed like he could feel Nicholas's pain. "Nicholas, we can get away with bandaging the one on your shoulder. But the one on your arm is too deep. We have to stitch it." 

Nicholas blinked. "We have to what?" 

"Stitch it. I'll find a needle and thread, and I'll stitch the wound or else it won't stop bleeding." 

And he said it so calmly, like this was a usual occurrence.

Nicholas shook his head. "No. Nah. Nuh-uh. Not happening." 

"Nicholas..."

"Not happening!" 

• • • 

Enjoy the little bit of rest rn because things will be going very very downhill again soon! 

Thank you for reading/voting/commenting, it means so much to me! Hope you enjoyed the chapter. ❤️