“Afterwards, I left the city and traveled to New Jersey to catch a flight here, from a different airport in order to make it harder for any connections to be made between myself and where the tracker left from. Was that enough detail or would you like me to tell you each time I took a shit as well?” Marcus is always so straight to the point with his conversations, laden with his gruff and matter of fact tone.
Klaus jumps in to answer him, “Yeah, I think we got a good enough picture. Thanks for taking care of that. Now, maybe we can discuss what we’re going to do with her?” He better watch his tone. Out of all of us, Marcus is the most possessive over her. Klaus won’t make it a nanosecond without a black eye or a broken jaw if he talks about ditching her somewhere, or uses the words ’dead weight’ again.
“What do you meando with her? We’re going to figure out how to wake her up. What kind of question was that, Klaus?” Marcus replies, in disgust. Uh oh, here we go.
“Listen man, something’s going on here,” Klaus forges on with his explanation. “Hearing each other’s thoughts when we’re touching her isn’t normal. I haven’t picked up anything supernatural about her. Have any of you?” He pauses to see if any of us will contradict what he just said. He’s right, I haven’t picked up any hints of her being a shifter, we’ve crossed paths with some of our ancestors who can’t shift but discovered the use of magic. I haven’t picked up a magical signature from her either.
“Like I said, we’re going to wake her up. Once that happens, she can help us figure out the rest. End. Of. Discussion.” On second thought, I was wanting to punch Klaus for a good portion of today. If Marcus does it for me, that’ll be more entertaining. Now, I suddenly hope Klaus decides to push the issue.
Alex clears his throat. Damn it, he’s going to distract Marcus from my show. “I may not have picked up any indication she’s a shifter, however I think you guys should know what happened before you found me passed out in the woods after the attack.” He pauses and stares at the floor like he’s trying to gather his thoughts as he wipes his hand over his face a few times.
“I was doing my best to hold off the PMC fuckers. The hope was to be able to last long enough for Klaus to reach us, I knew he had to arrive any second, but then I heard an order given that they weren’t worried about hitting her with bullets. I believe the exact words were ’HQ says their testing says she’ll be untouched.’ Once I heard that I was reminded about what I found in the science lab before finding her.”
“Wait a fucking second... she was in a science lab? Why are you just now telling us this?” Klaus sounds irritated that we haven’t heard of this before.
Marcus mumbles, “I knew.” Then he offers a shudder and shares a glance with Alex.
“And when exactly do you propose I could’ve said something? When we were split up every second since, or when we were running for our lives? There was no point in repeating the nightmare story more than once.” Alex has a hint of anger in his voice towards Klaus for even suggesting he was holding back details on purpose.
Klaus holds up both of his hands in a placating manner. “You’re right, please carry on. Although, I would like details about the bunker at some point.”
Alex momentarily narrows his eyes at Klaus, testing his resolve to shut up and let him continue. “As I was saying, I found some information while I was in the office portion of their lab. They had all kinds of videos on trials performed on ‘test subject number one.’ I didn’t watch all the videos because obviously time was a factor, but they’d done all kinds of vile things to the subject. One of the tests involved shooting her.” Alex pauses in his story, so taking the opportunity, I hold up my hands in the shape of a T to try and call a timeout. I wanted to ask him a question without pissing him off, or interrupting like Klaus did.
He peers at me expectantly, so I take it as my cue to ask my question. “Are you sure she isn’t this test subject they were talking about? You said you didn’t watch the videos all the way through, did you ever see what the subject looked like?”
Alex rolls his eyes, annoyed at my question. “Well, if you would’ve just let me finish my story you’d know the answer to that. The first videos entailing the tests they conducted, dated back to around when filming was first invented. And even then they had a whole video documenting what they had already done since the technology wasn’t invented yet. I didn’t watch any of those first videos long enough to see the subject’s face, but I do know it was her in the most recent videos. Those facts aside, there's no way she could’ve lived that long in a coma-like state. She would have to be one of us, yet none of us picked up a hint of supernatural aura coming from her.”
He pauses in thought, so I cut in again, “Yeah, but you know we can live for pretty much ever. So, it could be entirely possible something’s interfering with us being able to recognize her as one of us. Don’t act blind to the facts in front of us just because you don’t want to believe them.” I put the truth out there for everyone to think about for a moment. They like to call me the nerdy one. Which means they often brush off the things I say, and only sometimes respect them after giving it a bit more thought.
“Right... maybe... I guess it’s possible... let me just finish and we can talk about it more.” Alex clearly sounds a bit thrown off, and he pauses trying to remember where he left off. “Anyways, they said they weren’t worried about her getting shot, and gave the order for everyone to open fire. I saw no possible way to get us out of the situation. Even if Klaus showed up, he wouldn’t have been able to take everyone out at the same time.”
Alex clears his throat again while rubbing the back of his neck and glances at Marcus for a millisecond before looking away. Ah, he’s nervous about Marcus’ reaction to what he’ll say next. “So when I saw no way out of the situation, I... uh... kissed her.” His voice squeaks on the last word. Aw, that’s adorable—cue Marcus’ possessiveness.
Or so I thought. Marcus just gives a nod agreeing with what Alex said, like it was the most logical reaction for Alex to have in that moment. Relief washes over Alex and color comes back to his face that I hadn’t noticed was missing. He seems surprised at how Marcus was so accepting of his actions and hurries up to continue talking, as if worried Marcus might change his mind and take a bite out of him.
“As soon as our lips touched, I felt a jolt, kind of like an electrical spark, and then we were frozen in place. I wasn’t able to move at all, and suddenly I was staring down at my body. It felt as if I had been projected out of my body and observed myself from a bird’s eye view.
“All of the mercenaries started to open fire on us and before their bullets were able to hit us, Fates, it was like watching a movie. It was so surreal how everything was happening in slow motion... Then before the bullets had a chance, fuck I’m repeating myself. A wall of air hit me and I watched as my body was flung backward.
“The same wall blocked the bullets and ricocheted them back on the path they had originally come from, which is obviously toward the mercenaries who shot them. The force killed all of them instantly due to the amount of firepower they had been shooting with. During this time, my body was thrown back in slow motion while everything else was flung back with a speeding force. Then when my body hit the ground, I was back in it, instead of watching from above.
“I felt like I was about to die... then I passed out.” At this point of his retelling, he’s staring out into space. Almost as if reliving the traumatic event all over again. Marcus seems to recognize the distant look too, because he puts his hand on Alex’s shoulder and just leaves it there as a sign of comfort.
“I woke up and hallucinated a butterfly. She had the most annoying voice I've ever heard.” Poor Alex. He seems a bit lost. We’re all silent for a minute processing everything he said.
I’m slightly shocked when Klaus is the next one to speak, not sure why it surprises me. He just has this aloof air about him whenever we’re on the topic of Princess or anything to do with her. “I felt that wall of air... it was like nothing I've ever encountered in my life. It picked me up off my feet and flung me into a tree while I was still in wolf form. One second I was hauling ass trying to get to you guys, and the next my legs were scrambling in the air. The impact was so forceful, when I hit my head, my vision went instantly black. You guys know, you found me.” He shakes his head like he still can’t believe it happened. While we already knew his portion of what happened, it’s different having the full picture.
My mind goes back to the mention of a butterfly. It seems like there’s something there in the back of my mind that I've read at some point involving butterflies, but I can’t quite drag up the memory of what it could be. My thoughts are distracted when I see Marcus lift up our girl’s legs to place them across Alex’s lap. How odd for Marcus to switch his tune when it comes to his claiming of her. Not that I’m upset by this.
The gesture snaps Alex out of his daze. He places both hands on her, one on each leg and caresses them with his thumbs. “Do you mind telling us more about the bunker?” I ask Alex.
“Yeah, sure. So, when I got to the park it felt like there was an outside source leading me to the bunker’s entrance, and events just lined up to be perfect for making my way inside. Once inside, it looked like any ordinary apartment up until I came upon the lab they had down there. I’m not super knowledgeable about the shit they had in there, but it all seemed top of the line, high-tech items.
“I kept following this pulling force, until I found her.” His eyes gaze lovingly at Princess before continuing on with his recounting, “As soon as my eyes landed on her, I knew there was no possible way I was going to leave her there. Unhooking her from the machines they were using seemed like the logical thing to do first. Then I heard Marcus’ voice in my head talking about the science guy heading back to the bunker so I hauled ass out of there. You guys know the rest.”
Thinking about the moment he came climbing out of the hatch makes me remember the Queen’s Thistles that was covering the ground. I rub my hand over my head, is it even worth my time explaining what it possibly means? So many things are clicking into place in my mind regarding this whole situation. I've tried to tell them bits of our history I’ve researched, and every time I try, it just goes in one ear and out the other.
I don’t mean it in the context that they just aren’t interested, I mean they literally act like they can’t remember a single word I've said. Knowing them, it isn’t possible to keep up the same charade for centuries. The only logical theory is that for some reason they can’t retain the information.
