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He was exhausted. Anybody looking at him could tell that. He kept closing his eyes halfway and then opening them again, a little wider than normal as if to prove he was actually awake to himself. Will kept an eye on him to make sure he didn’t totally pass out.
Lorien’s eyes had almost closed completely when a freak gust of wind snatched at the branches of Lorien’s umbrella and cast it aside, just at the same time as the same gust of wind made the branches above part and a ray of bright sun pierced through the forest to nail Lorien directly in the face, like a punch from the heavens.
Lorien’s scream curdled Will’s blood.
The vampire was wounded and disfigured, the entire left side of his face bubbled and mangled as if a blow torch had been applied to it. Will did his best to cover Lorien, using his body to block the sun’s rays, but the damage had already been done. Lorien writhed beneath him, coughing and gurgling in an unsettling state.
Henry came bursting out of the woods to find Lorien screaming, and Will more or less pinning him to the ground. Will saw death in the alpha’s eyes, but he couldn’t rise from Lorien without exposing him.
“What did you do!?”
“It wasn’t me. It was the fucking sun! His umbrella blew away. He’s burned. Bad!”
“Fuck.”
Henry was beside them now, on his knees beside Lorien, trying to do something, but not knowing what to do. There was no natural first aid for a vampire.
“It’s going to be okay, shhh. It’s going to be alright,” he said, reassuring Lorien in a voice that shook. It was obvious to Will that Henry was shocked by the sight of what a brief bolt of full sun could do to Lorien. They’d all been somewhat aware that the sun was an issue, but none of them had truly considered how dangerous and disfiguring it would be.
It was to Lorien’s credit that he stopped screaming once the initial shock wore off, and Will’s shadow made him safe once more. Henry worked to gather what clothing they had to make a more effective barrier.
Will looked on, unimpressed and becoming more frustrated by the second. This shouldn’t have happened. Lorien should never have been in harm’s way. Lorien didn’t belong here; it was obvious even to him — and he had notoriously bad judgment.
Henry left Lorien for a moment to come and talk to Will. “Alright. When night falls, we’re going to travel a hundred miles north to an old cabin. We’ll have to do it fast, probably carrying Lorien. So…”
“No.”
“No?” Henry gave Will a gruff look. “What do you mean, no?”
“Send him back to the city,” Will said. “He’s going to be maimed out here just so he can spend time with you.”
There was a moment of silence in which Henry seemed to be deciding what to say. Will thoroughly expected to be told to fuck off. Instead, Henry went a different route.
“So you’re saying I should send him where he’ll be safe, even though he doesn’t want to go, and we will both miss each other terribly?”
“Don't try to turn this around on me. I get your stupid point. Lorien’s not going to do well out here, and even if we find a cabin, he’ll be stuck inside it all day. What if we have to run and it’s the middle of the day? Are we going to leave him behind? He’s a liability to us, and he’s a danger to himself.”
“You do hear the words that are coming out of your mouth?”
“You do understand that making a point with me at the expense of actually looking after Lorien is fucking stupid?”
“You’re right,” Henry said. He walked back over to Lorien. “He’s right. It’s time we faced facts. You’re going to be safer in the city. I’m so sorry I allowed you to get hurt.” He kneeled next to Lorien, holding the vampire’s cold hand in his tattooed grasp. He looked guilty and sad. Will had a flash of being in Lorien’s place, with Maddox above him, regretting his decisions, the selfish desire of closeness in the face of danger. For the first time, he didn’t regret being in the wilds away from Maddox.
“Not going,” Lorien croaked. Speech was clearly painful for him. Half of his mouth was burned and moving his lips must have been agony. Will was not used to feeling sorry for Lorien. He’d been convinced he didn’t have much in the way of empathy at all. But he felt terribly sorry for Lorien now.
“Will’s right. We have to stay wild and agile. We have to be able to move, day or night. You can’t move, Lorien. You’d be safer in the city.”
“I. Am. Not. Going.”
“He has to go,” Will said.
“Not. Going.” Lorien grunted again.
“He should heal overnight,” Henry said. “Then we’ll discuss this the following evening. Don’t worry, Lorien. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”
“Besides letting your face melt off,” Will pointed out.
Henry’s glare was vicious enough to make Will put some distance between himself and the pair of them. Third wheeling wasn’t easy at the best of times, and this was not the best of times.
