Chapter Text
Tina rushes outside the room, her canines pointed and sharp under her distress. Her claws poke out as she grips the doorframe.
“Are you fuckin’ done!?” She half shouts with a rumbling growl.
“Coming,” is all he manages to say before it happens.
The door’s broken down, bodies appear from thin air- teleportation and something else most likely the root cause. Someone else’s magic is his guess and leading them is North and Simon, who seem as displeased and angry as they should be, but the hurt and betrayal clear in their eyes makes him wince. He’s about to say something when a familiar figure differentiates itself from the small group of monsters that have confronted him. Luther, with his mountainous bulk and stern expression, stands next to them and Niles notes with clear certainty that his fists are balled and shaking.
“The book, Niles.” North spoke curtly, holding out her clawed hand.
He just shakes his head and sends them a sad head tilt, “I’m afraid I can’t do that.”
Her lips purse and Simon looks full of regret, her outstretched hand falls to her side and she doesn’t meet his eyes. “Very well.” Is her whispered reply before she morphs into her animal form.
Her shoulders are wide and her jaw is full of sharpened teeth built to tear flesh apart. Her eyes shine with golden interest as deep auburn fur gets peppered with blackened stripes and the white of her paws part as her claws fully extend to greet him. His eyes flicker to Simon to find that his fangs have indeed come out of their sheath too, his nails pointed and long as he tensed. Behind them the rest of the monsters have readied themselves, all glistening teeth, claws, and poison. North braces herself by Simon and Luther just stares impassively towards him- it’s the calm in his expression that unnerves the witch.
As soon as Simon parts his mouth in a roaring hiss, the battle cry of the other monsters joining in as they lunge for him, does he act. Niles throws a hex bag to the floor and ignites the charm inside, everyone’s held in place for a few thunder-some minutes.
He sends a sharp glare at Luther, “If you move or even so much as use your power I will burn you were you stand.”
“There’s barely anything that can hurt me.” Luther responds unbothered, and Niles sees how he’s slowly leaning forward. His gaze gardens further.
”Mors,” He hissed through his teeth and the reaper pauses. His brows furrowed and he seems to back off, feeling the beginnings of the spell that Niles didn’t finish. He wasn’t planning on killing anyone, yet he needed to do all that he could to save Gavin’s life and if that included killing this reaper then….
Well, so be it.
Tina stood ready at the door, watching and twitching. She even morphed at the site of such a crowd and Niles watched as Chloe slammed the door closed and enchanted it. It felt similar to fighting with Gavin like this, having someone side by side with him as he goes toe to toe with enemies. Except, it’s not Gavin. Gavin’s stuck in bed fighting for his life as Niles deals with the newfound problem. Why couldn’t things just go right!?
In the blink of an eye, the hex bag bursts into flames and everyone that was encased within it’s curse regained their movement. A few of them charged at the witch while others seem to pause and take a moment to work out the kinks of their entrapment. At least four were gunning up on him from all sides, North coming from the front with what appeared to be a Ghoul and another Werewolf on his sides.
Niles frowns, throwing his hands out with his palms opened. He just needed to get to Gavin- that was all. He could do that. ”Defendatur!”
As soon as he utters the Latin, North and her attackers are flung across the room and hit the walls with a sickening crack. There’s little splits in the plaster, scattering and climbing up as far as they could while pieces and chips pop off and sprinkle down. He feels his magic rushing through him; as strong as a sea’s wave during a hurricane, lapping with copious forces at a ship’s haul and dragging it down to the icy blue bottom. He can feel his eyes ignite and shine, they’re purple enchantment locker onto his victims, he even watches their faces fall and twist in concern or confusion.
Before they can charge him again, he holds up two fingers and swoops them to the side. ”Permitte telum.”
His smirk is plain as day as fangs, claws, and glowing eyes shift and transform back into their more human counterparts. Even North is standing perplexed as her now human body tenses up and prepares itself for a stinging blow. He has to win this fight by any means, absolutely can not afford to lose.
“Manete.”
“You used the book for your powers.” North snarls, baring her teeth and it reminds him so much of Gavin that his heart stutters and he’s consumed with urgency.
“No, you don’t understand.” His voice rises with his distress and sudden anger, summoned by the weaning time he knows he barely has left. “I need the book!”
“Are you really jeopardizing everyone’s safety for more power!?” She yells and the venom laced into every accusation stings.
“This isn’t about me, North!” His fists clenched and he has to resist using the thunder that’s roaring up and down his spine. It’s too tempting- it’s Amanda. Coaxing him into devious deeds and compelling him to lash out with all the rage and torment plaguing his mind.
“It doesn’t look like it,” Simon cuts in. His eyes glaze over in determination and stubbornness. Niles would admire it if it wasn’t so down right troublesome right now. And just annoying.
“I’m not- “
“Niles.” Tina calls irked.
“Right. Right.” His hand drags down his face and he flicks his wrist, ”Hal. Muth fah. Hal muth fah.” A simple binding spell would do for now, he just had to be careful on how he split his attention. If he weakened his hold over the enraged monsters, then surely, there’d be endless blood to spill.
“Chloe!” He screams and knocks lightly on the door, “What’s happening in there?”
There’s sounds of a scuffle and something being thrown to the floor, he and Tina exchange looks before she starts pounding at the door. “Baby? Babe open up! It’s me!”
There isn’t a response for a long time and Niles sees how terrified Tina grows the longer the silence stretches on, her nails clawing at the door’s lock and ripping up the wood. She looks like she’d take the entire wall down if Chloe doesn’t utter a word soon.
“Chloe, honey, tell me you’re okay! Let me in!”
Niles puts a hand on her shoulder, gently guiding her out the way. She looks ready to throw a punch his way but he only shushes her and puts his arm up. He can work around the spell keeping the door sealed shut, it’s intricate and complex but not unbreakable. He’s working out the pulsing strength of it before it completely vanishes from underneath his fingertips. The door opens with a silent click and not for the first time, Niles can sense dread and horror on the other side.
Tina doesn’t seem to notice as she rushes inside and Niles curses before he follows after her. Whatever awaits in there is something she cannot face alone.
Tina is blasted within moments and then pinned down by someone with a dark complexion, while Niles feels iron cuffs clamp his wrists together while his eyes stayed train on her form. Out from the darker corners of the room steps Markus. His face is set in stone and cold, Chloe sits beside the bed dressed in her own restraints while Josh struggles to contain Tina and her echoing snarls.
“Niles, I didn’t want this.” Markus begins, his mismatched eyes glistening with resentment and something stern. “And I don’t wish to fight with you.”
The witch can feel his heart race inside these chains, anxiety floundering inside his mind as he remembers the centuries of years he spent locked up and trapped inside his own head. It was gruesome and left him in pieces for many, many decades- and to be confound again was a fate worse than dying mutilated and alone and forgotten. Worse then anything he could think up.
“Give me the book.” Markus speaks in a final warning.
“I can’t do that.” Is his even response, calmness floating above all the petrified fright.
He quickly whispers a spell under his breath, flexing his fingers against the metal and fighting hard against the iron constraints. He hears the soft clickings of his bindings as Markus stiffly approaches him and raises his hand to lord it over the twin’s head. Niles sees and feels the static thrum of power inside his palm, the sparking magic promising something sinister in nature as it reaches out to caress his skin. He feels the monsters behind him, previously bound, now set free by his diverted attention. His eyes land on Gavin again, how pale he looks, how hard he breathes.
He remembers holding Gavin close, remembers being kissed silly in the bathroom on their weekends off, feels his skin itch as the blackness kept creeping higher and higher on his love’s cheeks. It’s licking right below his eye, about to entirely consume him as it works on spreading past his shin and towards his ankles. Niles is running out of time.
Just as Markus parts his lips to speak, Niles erupts like a tidal wave held back for too long.
The metal around his wrists melt and drip off of him like water as they burn off, and before the killing touch of the other witch ever got the chance to touch his skin- he was using his frustrations as a fuel. A loud announcement of, ”Moveantur!” enough to do the trick.
Markus was instantly flung back, as was everyone else. The Coven leader thrown back hard enough into the wall that his skull made a loud crack, North being thrown right into Josh who still hovered over Tina. They both went sailing through one of the windows- the neighboring glass spraying everywhere as more monsters crashed into them. Claws went flying, striking companions as each and every soul got tossed and manhandled like miniature dolls by an angered child. Bodies collided quite harshly with the ceiling before being dropped like a scolding coal onto the hardwood floors, Tina was up and running towards Chloe the second the nails left her back and scalp.
Niles rubbed his wrists, glaring pointedly at those that dared to rise again. Markus was quick to counter him before his hand could rise again. He’d never say it aloud but seeing the red pour from gashes across the leader’s forehead and nose was delightful. ”Meatus impeditus.”
Tables and chairs flew- the decorations adorning the walls being pulled right off their hooks and went flying towards him, he became excruciatingly aware that the hooks had gone too when one embedded itself inside his side. Boy, did that get him thinking quickly as he pulled it out and threw a hex bag or two around. Acting as a missile under his curse, the bloodied item bounced until it nestled itself between the space of someone’s forehead, a sigil burning itself into the skin of it’s victim and keeping their body bound. The hex bags liquefied those vessels that hosted higher deities, leaving behind a few flashes of bright, white light and hushing the sounds of screaming with a blipping background noise. With all the ruckus, he failed to notice Simon lunging for his waist and he was bowed over.
Pinned to the floor with an unhinged jaw full of sharper-than-razor teeth, Niles felt nails dig deeply into his shoulders. He cried out in pain, holding the blond by his chin and trying not to get his throat bitten out.
”Impetus Bestiarum.”
An even number of monsters, including Simon looming over him, lost their breath. They grunted and yelled in agony as the spell worked under their skin, blood welling from the eyes and staining them bloodshot as the crimson trickled down like tears. Niles rolled the vampire off of him and watched as Markus got an eyeful of what was going on around him. The ones that remained on the other witch’s side appeared threatened and shocked, their aggression only growing while their brothers and sisters bellowed in clear waves of discomfort before it all mellowed out into sounds of growls and hisses.
“Don’t do this Niles.” Markus commands, taking his defensive stance as his own people rose against him. His twinkling, mismatched eyes looked especially hurt whenever Simon himself snapped his jaws at his otherwise friend.
“Dele malum hoc.” He ordered and could only listen and watch as everyone turned on one another.
Tina herded Chloe away from the chaos, smart choice- one he should be making too. Markus was swarmed with monsters, fighting hard to subdue and not kill or too badly injury his people. His power was being used in copious amounts and Niles knew he had to be feeling the exertion. Now, however, that sort of thing couldn’t bother him anymore. He had his full powers, he could cast without slowing down or panting too heavily from the expelling energy leaving his frame.
He was, however, painfully aware of how friends tore into one another. Teeth breaking past flesh, claws spraying blood down every wall, cries and screams of agony as families turned against one another. It was a horror show; one right out of a movie, some would say. But he had to be ignorant and pay it all no mind. Forced himself to be unbothered.
As he neared Gavin’s bed, he scooped up his familiar and tucked him close into his chest. The witch pressed a quick kiss to his temple and tried not to panic at the lack of even a shuddering groan. Teeth dug into his hip, and Niles tightened his hold on Gavin while he screamed a spell to get the damn bastard off of him.
He didn’t have time to feel bad for everything he was doing, for creating so many fights and resulting in so much blood loss. But this mattered. This was the only thing that mattered to him. The only person.
And this person was suffering, tremendously. He could tell with a glowing, exploring hand that Gavin had mere minutes left.
Niles, however, did not expect to run into a stockier build. As he stared up, he could only gasp as he was batted away like a fly and Gavin was ripped from his grip. He registered something hard slamming over his spine, stealing the wind from him and making pain bloom in every stretch of muscle he used to get back up. His nose leaked blood, as did a split in his lip and cheek from hitting and sliding over the broken bits of glass and getting under the feet and hands of other monsters squabbling. His gaze turned deadly as it locked with whoever fucking dared to intervene.
Luther stood tall and had his shoulders squared, cradling Gavin’s body gently but holding him wrong. Niles knew that Gavin was in pain the second he saw his fingers twitch and spasm.
Weight hung over his head, slamming him down coldly against the wood of the ground. He choked and sputtered, nails biting into the floorboards as he tried to fight against it and clear his head.
He had seconds. Gavin’s breathing and heartbeat and aura was dimming, so quickly. Niles was growing panicked.
“He’s dying, let me go! Please!” He shouted, eyes widening as Luther continued to force incantations into his skin like ink. As much as he blasted through them, more took place.
”Please!”
Luther stared at him, almost sympathetically, at that.
The gears turned fast in his head, sensing how he was about to lose the love of his life, having to spend all his years alone. His heart picked up, magic crashing against his flesh in a means to escape, a desperate sound escaping him as he kept trying to fight to get to his familiar. Crawling forth on his forearms despite the glass burning into his skin.
”What if it was Alice!”
He saw Luther tense.
He felt the easings of the comprising force lift from him and he nearly fell back into the glass shards as he scrambled up and hobbled over. His breathing racked as he touched his love all over- feeling for a pulse, feeling for warmth, checking for breath, looking for the slightest movement to show he was still with them all in the land of the living. His eyes burned, his throat closing up on him as he found nothing on each list he looked over.
The sounds in the background faded, motion seemed to cease as he took in the laxed expression of his familiar. He would say Gavin looked peaceful if it hadn’t been for the darkness crowding his natural beauty. He felt a flicker of life whenever his magic burned it’s way into his body and tried to strengthen it. Nurture it. Anything. Just to keep him going, just a little longer- until he figured this all out and fixed it.
Luther’s eyes glistened as he heard the erratic pleadings Niles rattled off on.
It occurred to him then, that time was frozen. And he meant that literally. Nothing was happening. Everything a picture framed photo hung for the viewer to see.
Against his permission, a fat tear slithered down his cheeks, unwelcomed.
“Did you-..?” Niles whispers, scared for the answer.
“You know what I am and you know what I do.” Luther starts softly, as if talking to someone dancing on the edge of a building top. “You know that I do not upset the natural order and that I am compliant to Death and no one else.”
“Reapers don’t get their hands dirty.” He finishes in a hush.
“Correct.” Luther shifts, glancing around at the gore frozen for all to see. His eyes seem empathetic, glazing over as if he was the one under all the strain and pressure.
“Then why have you stopped it?” He can’t help but whisper, fingers ghosting over the disheveled mop of curls Gavin has.
“I can’t do much for you,” Luther begins. His tone is light and airy, leaving room for interjection should Niles feel the need. The option eases him but doesn’t stop the pain welling in his heart. “You’re creating more disasters then you’re hoping to fix, if you continue, I fear you’ll be lost.”
“I don’t care.” The witch mumbles through gritted teeth, jaw clenched tight as he holds on to the last shred of unyielding hope he has left. “Whatever he needs.”
“Do not misunderstand.” A firm look is thrown his way and he falls silent. “Listen closely, let things play out. Not all is lost to you.”
Niles narrows his eyes, brain working fast to uncover the meaning behind the vaguely spoken words. Reapers had their own supernatural abilities, yes, but they almost never used them outside of their jobs. “You want me to let Gavin die?”
“Dying isn’t eternal, you of all people know that.”
Gavin is handed over, presented and held like a prized artifact being transferred to a museum. Niles doesn’t like the implications of his words, wipes at the blood dripping down his chin and from the cut in his brow. He can heal himself later.
Luther watches the exchange, sees how Niles’ hands shake as they reach out and clutch helplessly onto his familiar. His eyes betray him again, showing more emotion than what he wishes to express and he’s sniffling and blinking quickly to dislodge any evidence of his sudden grief. Gavin’s not very warm in his arms, and Niles tucks him in close again and fights back the sobs that’s trying to leave his chest. The reaper seems to understand: starring impassively and giving him the time to come to terms with what he’s asked of the witch. Luther has to be used to this sort of thing, seeing as his very job is to do exactly this, yet without being oddly helpful. Niles basks in the moment he’s allowed to have, grateful to find a second’s peace within the destruction.
“Let me walk away from this, for the minute we have left.” Against his will his voice wavers, thick and choppy as his breathing falters.
The reaper doesn’t say a word and Niles takes that as his cue.
He walks out the fractured doors, out into the hallway and down the stairs, skirting around the kitchen until he made it to the couch. There’s still a few fading paw prints and Niles can’t help but chuckle a bittersweet tune as he settles himself down. His back aligns with the armrest and he pulls Gavin flush against him as he reclines and just holds onto the familiar. This position brings back too many haunting memories; how amazing the hours into the afternoon were when they could tangle together and get lost in one another. The harsh stinging inside his core buzzing angrily behind his eyes and he nuzzles his head into the crook of Gavin’s neck.
The commotion upstairs continues, pounding heavily at the floorboards and shakes the walls. The foundation of the home rumbles with each slam of a body or yowl of a monster. Niles has no wish to repair much at the moment, watching as his familiar’s chest stutters and attempts to rise. It barely goes up before it falls and takes twice as long to rise again. He’s out of time- he can feel Gavin’s life force ease out of his body and leave behind a cold and empty shell in its place.
He swallows down the lump in his throat, chokes as it refuses to go down, and hiccups as he hunched back down over his love. The pain he feels doesn’t even compare to the entrapment from Amanda, that fear and helplessness. His physical pains; the hook that stabbed between his ribs, the blood from his nose and lip throbbing, stinging from his split brow, and the bruising along his spine. He has cuts lingering on his forearms and biceps that he doesn’t care to heal over in the moment. The physical is a good distraction from the mounting agony inside his heart- and Niles knows if his injuries weren’t there then he’d make some himself. It’s dark and it’s insanely idiotic, but when he wears his displeasures on his sleeve it’s a bit easier to dismiss instead of the suffocating suffering in endless silence.
It’s hard to comprehend it. The loss.
Never seeing Gavin again, never holding him again. Never hearing his snarky laugh or stupid puns, never being able to ruffle his hair or poke and tease his inflated ego. No long morning walks, no reconciliation, no good mornings or good nights. No one can even grate on his nerves like Gavin. No one to bury so deep under his skin as quickly, no one to plague his mind and keep him up at night. There wasn’t a single person out there that had his eyes: that could compare to the bullshit he spewed. The nagging remarks, sassy retaliations. The compliments to make him blush and the whispered delights that made him hot and bothered in the most hungry way.
There’s no watching the sunset together, there’s no seeing it rise together.
There’s not gonna be anything to wake up to in the kitchen- coffee in contrast to his tea. Paws and teeth marks on furniture and claw marks on his floors, no fur anywhere and clothes littering the floors. No empty bowls or dishes in the sink for him to clean up with another person. No games or challenges during breakfast or dinner or chores. No extra clothes to wash, not another toothbrush in his bathroom, no remaining hairs from a morning shave.
No more Gavin.
Something in him breaks at the realization.
He lets out a heart wrenching sob, the sound of a man who’s lost everything dear, and cries as loudly and as unashamed as he dares into the corpse he loved with his entire soul.
If he were paying more attention, maybe he would’ve noticed the purple light trailing up Gavin’s leg and hiking towards his chest. Maybe he would’ve seen how it seemed to expand and explode and fade slowly away. Perhaps Niles would’ve seen how the dark disease retracted from its positions, receding from the skin all the way until it couldn’t be detected any more. The sickening chill to his skin blooming into warmth, the subtle movement of his chest as he breathed new air.
He didn’t notice because he was too busy clutching Gavin tightly and pulling him as close as can be. His shoulders shook with the weight of his cries, his face quickly growing wet from the overflowing amount of tears.
But what shocked him, what made him take a momentary pause in his grieving, was when strong arms wrapped around him and fingers laced and curled in his mussled hair.
The familiarity of it, the way those fingers moved and danced through his locks was enough. Was something he needlessly memorized in the nights were they laid after being thoroughly exhausted- whether it being the work day or from each other- and those same fingers filtered through his dark hair and tousled it around in a calming and soothing manner. Effectively pulling him to sleep and picking him apart until he was a boneless mess and drifting off into sleep.
His breath catches in his throat as he jets up.
His heart thunders loud and his magic roars inside his head as his wet steely blues meet a forest green laced with worry and concern.
Gavin looks at him.
Gavin isn’t dead.
How sweet it was to kiss his lips again, to feel the warmth soak through his clothes, to simply hold him in his arms again and feel how utterly alive he was. Niles fears his emotions and how they bubble up even more, how those tears stream down his cheeks unabashedly as he peppers more and more kisses any and everywhere he can.
"Gavin!" He smiles, "You're okay."
And the familiar reacts as stiff as he had when he was a corpse. Not at all kissing back or moving an inch- and that worried him.
For a second he looks, swimming in his concern that he’d hurt the other, before he realized just exactly where they’d left off.
“I’m so sorry. For everything,” Niles starts. His voice breaks as the reality sets in.
He’d been so scared and afraid of losing Gavin that he hadn’t accounted for him never wanting his affections in the first place. That pain, smothering him a few seconds prior to his familiar’s revival, slammed back into him and just about broke his spirit.
“I never meant what I said. Please, believe me. I’m so sorry I got you roped into everything, I’m fucking sorry I couldn’t fix it. I tried- believe me, I really tried and I know there is no simple excuse out there to- “
“Niles.”
And he clamps his jaws shut. Blinking away tears that spill regardless as he simply takes in the voice he thought he’d never hear again.
“It’s okay.” Gavin whispers, deaf to the fighting around them. “I forgive you.”
And maybe he could live with himself.
“I wasn’t awake but I was still aware, I heard you. All those nights and all those stupid mornings you bummed off instead of spending at the shop.” Gavin’s smile came easy and Niles feels heat rise to his cheeks as he looks at him. The beautiful bastard that he is.
“I’m sorry.” He mutters dumbly.
“You can’t always fix everything yourself, you arrogant prick.” Though his voice is soft and light, there is a little accusation to it. And a hint of fondness. As hidden as it was. “And your mess is my mess. We’re going to fix this shit together. And you can’t tell me no.”
“Okay,” Niles agrees. Too high off the idea that he and Gavin were going to be okay. That there was a future out there somewhere for them.
“Now, let’s settle all this fighting.”