Illstar

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The transformation didn't faze him anymore. It'd happened too many times for him to wonder what was happening. He felt the tail slither around his hand and it didn't stop him. His tail-free hand slid up her side, fingers sidling underneath her shirt. He wanted her to take her clothes off, and there was almost nothing stopping him from tearing them off himself.

However, he realized that there was suddenly a quick beeping. Being caught up in Nova and her intense kisses, Aerin hadn't noticed it until right now. He pulled away, looking down at his arm. He realized that the wires and other... hospital things were attached to him, and that the monitor was keeping a track on his heart rate. A heart rate that was very high for someone who had just woken up after a two day coma.

He grumbled, resting his forehead on Nova's shoulder. Any moment, he would hear footsteps. And after one moment, he saw James, Anna, Eric, and Ben walk in. They all seemed to note Nova's rather suggestive position on Aerin's lap, or maybe they were surprised at her change.

"Okay, now are we going to ask what she is?" Ben asked, holding out a hand to the human and his Reszna.

James was the first to speak, to take the one step he'd tried to before. "Aerin, Nova seems... unwilling to answer our questions. Maybe you could help us out." Aerin looked down at Nova before his hand came up to stroke her hair, completely unafraid of the change. "What is she? She's unlike anything we've ever seen before."

Aerin glanced at Nova again, asking how much he should or shouldn't say to these people. He'd told her that he wanted them to help, but there was still personal information that she might have wanted to keep quiet about. Well, there was obvious information like her change, but how much of their relationship as well as Comet's knowledge and Nefenarasa's presence... they were still strange things to Aerin.
 
Nova had tensed at their entrance, ears flicking back and her expression anything but pleased. All she wanted right now was to be with her life-mate, to revel in the fact that he was semi-healthy and himself again, that she could touch him and kiss him and hear his voice as it should be. She'd missed him so much, had been so scared that she'd lose him and now that they had a moment together, she had to share it with people she didn't know, didn't particularly like yet and didn't trust in the least. People who wanted to know what she was, would be asking questions and studying her every move, formulating opinions and perhaps even forming bad ones that would see her strapped to a table again.

Nova's thoughts couldn't go any direction but a bad one right now and she knew it, could understand this about herself and so she said nothing when the humans came back in. Her mind was starting to make separate categories now. She thought of everyone as either human or alien now. Everyone but Aerin. He was just hers. He was her life-mate, her Aerin. And she...she fell somewhere in-between the two.

She didn't want to answer them. She wanted to lash out at them and make them leave. That primal desire shone in her eyes when Aerin's gaze met her own and she looked away, almost ashamed of it but she didn't move from him, only leaning into his head with a small croon-like sound that had Anna raising a brow and tilting her head in interest. Perhaps they should be asking who in the world AERIN was that he could control such an...exotic creature. She couldn't stop staring, none of them could and it wasn't Nova's positioning on Aerin but rather appearance, truly nothing they'd ever seen before.

Nova opened her eyes back up and looked to the blond again, nodding slightly, her voice soft enough to stay just between them. "Tell them. Only if asked." Better to know how smart these people were and to know immediately their reactions to things. That way Nova could know whether she might have to tear them apart later.
 
Aerin understood, and he gave her a short nod before he curled his legs up. He shifted her so she was on his side as he swung his legs over the side. The first initial motion of standing up had him dizzy enough to hold onto the side of the bed with a stumble. He was aware that the others had made a few steps to help them, but they were still too scared of Nova to come inside the plastic and assist him. She hadn't changed from her alien form, and with good reason. Aerin knew she didn't like them, and he was still wary, but they had given him a cure. A real cure. Not the drug Nefenarasa had used on him.

Aerin took a few seconds to recover and still had to use the bed for support when the world stopped spinning. "Ask your questions," he said, watching all four of them shift uncomfortably. One, the man named James, finally came up as close as he would dare.

"What are your names?"

"Aerin Belsaiven and she is... Nova." Giving them her last name might have them wonder. Then again, they were already wondering about her.

"Alright...," James glanced to the rest of them before asking, "...What exactly is Nova?"

"A Reszna."

"A what?"

"...An alien. Part of one, at least." His answers were completely steady and void of any real lie-like sounds that the four others had no real reason to disbelieve him. "How are you able to... calm her?" Control seemed like the wrong word to use.

"I'm her life-mate." Ben scoffed and everyone else shot him a glare of their own. James looked to Eric, motioning for him to come forward and announce what they were really curious to know about.
 
Nova didn't want to be moved, but she understood why he did it and she let him, staying kneeling on the bed, sitting back on her calves. She watched Aerin carefully, but didn't help him, knowing very well how capable he was and how fast her reflexes were should he fall. No, she refocused on James as he moved forward, glowing, slitted eyes narrowing slightly at his proximity, ready to stop him if he got any closer.

Her eyes snapped to Ben at his sound of dismissal and her mouth opened, a deep nasal-like hiss leaving her mouth as her forked tongue flicked out past her fangs. All took a step back, Anna cursing under her breath and Nova stood from the bed with all the grace of a jungle cat, but she didn't leave Aerin's side and Eric recovered hesitantly, not moving from his spot, but speaking nonetheless.

"We found something...odd in her blood. Not the, uh, Reszna part, something different." His gaze flickered to Nova and then to Aerin again. "Does she know she's infected? Anna says she claimed that she wasn't but the virus IS in her blood."

"Not active. Not infected." Nova's voice made all their eyes shift to her and her tail swished and lashed through the air behind her, giving complete testament to how she felt about such a thing. Eric's brows furrowed a bit. "Nova, do you know why the Illstar hasn't affected you? We found something in your blood that's...taking it away, fighting it. Like...a cure might. It seems very similar to the antidote we gave Aerin."

The hybrid's eyes widened, looking to the blond and then down at her own skin, immediately wondering. A cure?
 
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Aerin, unlike everyone else in the room, was perfectly fine as Nova came to stand at his side, and there was a slight smirk on his face as Nova growled at Ben for knocking his word choice. They were becoming more aware of Nova's protectiveness over Aerin and how she was simply not going to tolerate either of them. It was almost amusing to him. However, the talk of finding something different in Nova's blood was startling.

A cure within her own blood? It seemed impossible. It almost seemed like something someone would have had to put there...

"...I think that's what Nefenarasa wanted. Maybe your power stems from that."

"What power, Aerin?"

Now that one he couldn't explain. Not even Nova could. It triggered when she was doing everything she possibly could to protect herself and him. So he answered truthfully, "I don't know." It seemed like something too new, too recent to tell them. "Are you able to get the cure out of her blood?"

"We... don't know. That's what we're trying to figure out. It might be similar to what we used on you, but it's not the same. Whatever is inside of her seems to really be curing it. What we used on you is something that shrinks the virus, but we can't get rid of it completely. It'll come back within two weeks, but we'll give you more. You're the only infected to ever come near this place." Aerin looked down at Nova, one hand curling around her waist. She could save him, but how? He didn't like that he was going to revert back to his infected state, but if James and the others had enough to supply him while they studied Nova's cure, what was the harm?

"...Can you take the plastic down? Or give us a different room? I'm not going to hurt anyone." Nova had the power to stop him even if he did, but he didn't want to think about that. James looked back at the others, disputing on whether or not to let them stay in the same room, but judging from Nova's predicted reactions, she wasn't going to leave Aerin alone.
 
They thought they were speaking so quietly, but Nova's ears were perked, hearing every word and leaned into Aerin's side, a low growl in her throat at their discussion of whether she should stay with him or not. They couldn't decide that. They thought it was their choice, but unless they made the right one, she wouldn't be complying and at this point she didn't care if she had to hurt them to make them leave her be with Aerin. She'd been through too much to care anymore.

"He's still infected. Two weeks is a rough estimate, James. He might revert sooner and what then?" Anna supplied lowly and Eric glanced back at the two - they couldn't seem to stop looking at Nova - and then at the others. "She traveled with him and the Illstar was bad in his system. He hadn't harmed her, though. Maybe she keeps him from doing so." It seemed logical, but Ben rolled his eyes and resisted the urge to point, though, the implication as clear in his voice.

"And what about HER. Who's going to stop her from attacking us if she perceives we done something wrong?"

"He seems to have some control of her." Eric replied and Anna shook her head. "There's no way she's going to let us study him, much less her. Did you see the scars on them both? They've got so major issues. They aren't going to trust us."

"Maybe we can help that by giving them this request, Anna. Give them some time."

Ben frowned. "We don't have time."

Eric gave him a hard look back. "We don't have much of a choice. It's either try to gain their trust, do the ethical, humane thing or we become monsters and force them. Now I don't know about you, Ben, but that doesn't sound like something I want to be guilty of."

Nova looked up at Aerin, one ear trained on the people still speaking, but her focus on him as she curled into his side. She hated feeling such fear, such fear that he'd be taken from her again. The thought that she could have just gotten him back again only for him to be ripped away once more was enough to make her entire form shiver with tremors. Not again. She couldn't bear it again. Her glowing eyes met his green of a gentler nature. "I won't leave. I won't."

They couldn't make her.
 
"I think that we should. If we give them the time they need, they can both recover. We can watch the relapse effects as they occur, and it gives us more time to look at what's inside of her. If her blood really does hold the cure, we have to figure out how and why. On top of this power he mentioned, this is all getting to be more than we ever thought it could be. They can help us as much as we can help them, especially Aerin, because he's infected. This is what we've been wanting to do, and we can't throw away our one chance." James seemed adamant about the entire ordeal, allowing Nova and Aerin to have their own room. They were risking a lot by trusting the alien and her life-mate, but, really, when were they going to get another chance like this?

Aerin looked down, feeling her tremble against his side. "No, Nova, it's alright," he shushed, wrapping his arms around her. "You don't have to leave. They won't make you, okay?" His head leaned and kissed her forehead. "I don't want you to leave. They know what you are to me. But... remember, they're helping us. They want to cure me, and you're the one to help them with that. You have the power to save me, and they don't. They need you as I do." His hands came to stroke the sides of her head gently as he looked into those glowing eyes. He still found them beautiful as anything he'd ever seen, and it made him kiss her on the lips, a deep and intimate kiss that had the group noticing.

"...Guess they weren't kidding on that whole life-mate thing," Ben mused, and, not for the first time and certainly not the last, the others glared at him.
 
Yes, they needed her. But so had Nefenarasa. And the Reszna had known what Aerin meant to her, too and vice-versa. She'd used that against them, to get what she wanted and from what Nova had witnessed concerning Nefenarasa and humans alike was that the Illstar had changed everyone and most not for the better. She wouldn't trust these people, that they wouldn't resort to crueler methods if they didn't get what they wanted in the time-frame they wanted and that distrust wasn't likely to change until Aerin was fully cured and they had no reason to want him anymore - no reason for she and Aerin to stay.

No, until they were free to leave, she wasn't inclined to trust any of them.

Still, she didn't dispute Aerin's words as she looked up at him, his kiss effectively putting everything out of her mind but him and Nova moved closer, her tail twining around his wrist and up his arm as if it was trying to tell him not to stop, but a slightly cleared throat had her pulling away from Aerin reluctantly, sharp eyes going to the group to find that their tongues seemed to have frozen again, watching her and her eyes narrowed before Nova purposely started to change her form back. Once she was fully back to human, rounded pupils, nails and smooth teeth, too, the hybrid arched a brow, her glare no less powerful in this form. "Better? Function now?"

Anna and James the decency to look embarrassed. Eric looked fascinated, a bit amused and Ben...well, Ben was just frowning.

Anna cleared her throat again and made a slight gesture to the door. "If you two want to, um, have another room, we'll show you one you can use." she offered.
 
It seemed Aerin was doing the trusting for both of them, but even he was wary. These people had given him a cure, and they weren't trying to keep Nova away as Nefenarasa had done. Not that they really had the means to do so, but they weren't even trying. It was a better sign, but it was still difficult to know what they were really planning. But Anna was allowing them to have another room, and Aerin took Nova's hand as he watched James peel back the plastic and let them out. Nova might have been able to leap over her protective plastic barrier, but Aerin was not so strong.

James followed alongside Anna as she led the two down a set of sharp-cornered halls, but their designated room wasn't very far from Aerin's original. It was small with one bed, and there wasn't white paint on the walls, instead a soft yellowing tan. The floor, unlike the rest of the rooms, had carpet, thought it was stiff under his feet from not properly being washed and rid of dirt. A pot with soil was in the corner, though nothing was sprouting up just yet. There was a single bed in the center with a table on each side. There were no IV drips yet, but Aerin knew there would be. They had to monitor him, and Nova, if she was going to eventually help them. There was a metal dock in the corner that might have been used for a television set at one point, but it was empty. Some of the blinds were bent and broken, but they did their job blocking out most of the sunlight. It appeared very much like a room the doctors might have used for an elderly patient, but Aerin didn't mind. It was their room, and that was what mattered.

"It's not much, but it should suit your needs," James said. He spoke carefully, as if 'needs' were something far more sacred than he wanted to think. Which, of course, in Aerin's mind, was entirely true. James and Anna were quick to leave, going to speak with the rest of the group on the development of Nova's possible cure and Aerin's current state of recovery. Once the door was closed, Aerin sat down on the bed. His legs had been trembling from walking, and he was finally given a chance to rest them. His eyes closed and his hands laced before him in silent thought.
 
Nova relaxed when they left, as if a switch had been turned off and she looked around carefully, searching for cameras and she was relieved to see none. She approached the bed then, wishing that Aerin could heal and recover as fast as she could so that she wouldn't have to worry about him so much. But she wouldn't change her choice of life-mate for anyone else. He was hers and she'd take him exactly as he was, did take him as he was.

The hybrid moved to the bed and behind Aerin, sitting with one leg beneath her and the other stretched out beside his and hanging off the bed. She came as close as she could to him, her form pressed against his as she wrapped her arms around his torso and placed a kiss on the back of his neck, nose burying into his hair, recently cut but still shaggy as she liked it. "I love you." she whispered to him before she kissed his neck again and then laid her head on his shoulder with a soft sigh.

"You'll be all right. I will...let them...help you." The sentence was broken up, slow, but it was an effort to speak truly and Nova remained quiet. "You'll be all right."

He had to be. She couldn't bear it if he wasn't.
 
Aerin let her sit behind him, though he did want to see her. His head turned to the side as her lips brushed his neck, and when his eyes opened, the verdant irises were soft. They were the eyes of someone who had no worries for once, just like before when all he wanted was to draw. He watched her nuzzle his hair and he smiled. At her words, he gave a nod. It was tough for her to relinquish him over to them, even though she would be with him constantly. She was making a big step and he knew it.

"I know. Thank you," he said, turning in her grip to trail one finger along the side of her face. He studied her features with all the grace and tact of an artist, finding every perfection and every flaw and thinking on neither. The sharp lines of her face always softened when she smiled, and that was what he wanted to see. He shifted in her arms and his nose brushed the curve of her jaw as he lightly nipped her skin. He had enjoyed doing it, but a brief flash of memory crossed his mind and he stopped his teeth from going farther. Biting was the main way that most infected attacked, and he didn't want to remember that.

Aerin let his lips kiss her where his teeth had been, silently covering up what he'd done. She would have felt it, obviously, but he didn't want to push any boundaries. So he let his mouth move up to her cheek and then to her lips where he worked instead, his hand slithering along the hem of her shirt while the other slid down her leg.
 
Nova had already started to give him a soft curve a smile at his touch alone, but it faded to a much more relaxed and yet intense expression when she felt his teeth against her skin. It instantly caused a stirring in her blood and the hybrid's grip on Aerin tightened for a moment in anticipation, no fear in her at all. This was different than an attack. She could feel the difference. Every instinct inside her could feel the difference and right now it wanted nothing more than for him to continue. But Aerin didn't have the same nature she did, he was still very much human and didn't always sense the same things that came so easily to her, so when he stopped and kissed her instead, Nova didn't correct him. No, she enjoyed that instead and gave him a soft whimper of encouragement as his lips met her own.

His hands burned in such a familiar, welcomed way wherever they touched and Nova wasn't shy about moving her own hands to lift his shirt, break away from Aerin's mouth and pull it over his head. Her fingers were more than happy to wander their way down his torso with gentle, sensual care as her mouth captured his again eagerly, her entire body leaning back, crawling back on the bed and helping him follow.

She'd missed him so very much and Nova was going to do her best to show him how much.

----

The end of her blue tail twitched and swished lazily across Aerin's stomach as Nova lay curled against his side. She was back in her Reszna form, unable to help that at the moment, and she gave a content, relaxed crooning sound as she rested her head in the crook of Aerin's shoulder. Her body was still humming happily - and her tail's continued movement against the object of her affection probably contributed to that - and Nova finally gave him that smile he'd longed to see, her eyes truly happy, slitted but brown.

"I don't think...we should ever....leave this bed." She nodded firmly to herself, speech still slow, but seeming to come a bit easier at the moment. "Can get you...art supplies....get food and...then stay here." It sounded like a reasonable plan to her.
 
His first thought was, No, I don't want to leave even for those things. Unfortunately, he knew his hunger and his artistic mind would eventually betray him, so he only chuckled at her words. "I like the sound of that," he said, stroking the top of her head softly. His fingers twirled circles around her ears, content to rest back against the flattened pillows with Nova at his side. However, they would have to get up. Aerin wasn't going to stay cured forever, and the scientists had said as much. The thought almost made him sigh, but he wanted to enjoy the moment.

Aerin leaned to nuzzle his life-mate, giving her a smile in return. His happiness was tainted by the idea of the Illstar in his head, but he tried to chase it away by kissing the top of Nova's head. "I'm glad you're here with me." Part of him wanted his father, and it wasn't an uncommon thought. All he had now was Nova, and Rifle, if the poor hound could be considered a real companion anymore.

"Thank you," he said again. He felt like he could never thank her enough for her future actions. She'd saved his life countless times and she was going to do it again. His free hand came up to twist her tail around his index finger, watching the scaly appendage dance along his skin. "I don't think I'll ever be able to get enough of you."
 
Nova crooned softly at his caress, her ears flicking periodically in a reaction she couldn't help, but she was content with the contact. After so long apart, together and yet still apart, she was going to soak in any and every touch like the parched desert drank up water. She smiled at his nuzzling, feeling the urge to playfully nip at him but she refrained mostly because it would involve more movement than she wanted to employ at the moment.

What could she say? Like a satisfied cat she was being rather lazy.

"Me too." she responded back to Aerin softly and then she looked up to him, a bit puzzled by his thanks, ears perked as she tried to figure out what he was thanking her for. In the end she didn't come to any sort of conclusion, but decided to leave it especially when he very thoroughly distracted her with his ministrations to her tail, love making not having dulled the nerves there in the least. Small jolts traveled up her spine, tingles of pleasure creating a more acute hum through her body, and Nova crooned in a purr-like way as she gave him a slight smirk, glancing from his fingers to his face, his words the extra puzzle piece.

"I've noticed." she teased, her own fingers having found the the inner section of his hip, tracing light patterns there on his skin. She'd keep at it, giving him the same kind of shivers he was giving her for as long as he kept it up. Frankly when they got up would be up to him today because while Nova knew they had things to do she also knew that today she wasn't entirely inclined to be friendly toward people. She'd manage if Aerin decided he truly wanted to leave but she wasn't going to be the one to initiate it.

Not unless Rifle came back...now THAT she'd have to get up for.
 
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After some time of sitting there, Aerin felt his legs and hands twitch. He had long learned the sporadic movements meant he needed to stand or pace or something to shake the idleness from his muscles. Nova's weight on his chest was comfortable, and he had a hard time forcing himself to swing his legs over the bed. Pressing a light kiss to Nova's head, he sat up, removing her from her spot. He didn't say anything out of concentration on his limbs. When he stood, he nearly stumbled, saving himself on the table next to the bed. His hand hit something vaguely familiar, and he looked down to see his fingers resting on top of a notebook. It was simple and white with tattered edges and a spiral binding. A dull pencil rested in the metal spirals.

Aerin didn't remember it being there, but that was lost on him as he picked it up. Opening the first page, he saw a scrawled note on the inside flap from James and Anna. They hadn't come into the room since Nova and Aerin were here, so it must have already been there when they entered. Perhaps he'd been too tired or too worried about Nova to care. Sifting through the pages, he smoothed out the bent ones and scraped his nail along the tattered ones to rip them evenly. His fingers itched to draw something, but he had to walk first.

Reluctantly setting the notebook down, Aerin gathered his clothes from the floor, wincing as his arms bent to put his shirt on over his head. He didn't waste time with the clothes, though he found the walls were wobbly and spinning when the shirt passed over his face. "Should I be this weak?" he asked, mostly to himself, though his words were out loud. He didn't like feeling as if he was going to fall over at the next minute. It made running difficult and often impossible.
 
Nova grumbled under her breath like a disgruntled cat as she was moved, but she didn't fight Aerin on it or protest any further than that. Her neon-green eyes watched him closely, reflexes ready to spring into action the moment he might stumble beyond being able to catch himself, but her life-mate remained upright and the hybrid sat up slowly herself when he found the notebook and she gracefully slipped out of the small bed herself as he slipped the shirt over his head. She dressed a lot faster, grimacing in some distaste for the hospital clothes, a nurse's scrubs she thought they looked like. Sure, she'd been about to become a doctor herself and had worn scrubs many times, but that life had been left behind and now all she wanted was some normal clothes, a way to escape all of this and Aerin.

That's all she needed.

Nova let her form revert back to her human state, knowing that it would be easier to deal with James, Anna, Eric and Ben without the abject staring her Reszna form would bring. Her movement was no less fluid in this form, though, as she approached the blond and wordlessly helped steady him as he worked on the rest of the clothes. "We're both weak. You're human. I'm not." She didn't mean it as an insult and Nova sighed, brushing her fingers back through his hair tenderly, brown eyes meeting such beautiful emerald green.

"Virus took strength. And wastelands. Need to eat. Sleep. Get better in time." Her speech remained broken, as minimal words as possible, but Nova was more than sure he'd understand anyway. He was her Aerin. He always understood.
 
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Aerin felt her support him more than he saw her. His vision sometimes faded in and out, and he wanted to stop relying on it if it was going to continuously affect him. He looked away at her words, knowing just how true they were. She was able to withstand so much more than he was, and he wasn't exactly considered a weak human being. His eyes found hers as her fingers parted his hair. His hand came up and gripped her shoulder, using her to stand up straight. In her pausing speech, she spoke what he was thinking, even if he didn't want it to be true.

"I know. Thanks," he said, a hug accompanying his words before he glanced back at the notebook. Sliding the pencil from the spiral, he flipped open to the first page, doodling and leaning his elbow on Nova's shoulder so he could prop himself up. He sensed and heard the footsteps before he saw Anna and James through the small window on the door. James was about to knock, but seeing them both awake, he simply walked in. "I hope you're feeling better. Both of you."

Aerin didn't look up from his drawing, which was a point of view on the beach looking out at the ocean, something he wished he could do. "I'm still weak, but I guess that's to be expected."

"You aren't infected for now. We can take this time to study you and try to come up with a more permanent cure." There was a glance at Nova, but James couldn't find the words to say that he wanted to test her too. Aerin's pencil scratching stopped and he looked between the two.

"Do you want to do this now?" he asked, startling James from his thoughts.

"Oh, yes, if you'll both permit me, us, to do so."
 
Nova was growling low before they even opened the door and the sound didn't leave, merely rising and falling in a low crescendo as the man spoke, constant. She didn't move from Aerin's side - and really, at any other time and if he'd been healthy, she would have playfully slipped out from under his odd positioning leaning against her just to see him fall over - keeping closer to him than before, protective. Her sharp brown eyes flickered over both James and Anna, finding her bristled more to the female human than the male. Whether that was instinctive, claiming Aerin as her own, or because there was something to actually dislike about Anna would remain to be seen.

The words between James and Aerin made the growl deepen, displeased, but she'd told Aerin she'd let them help. She didn't LIKE it, but she had promised. She would let Aerin answer for himself, but her only response was a slight baring of her fangs. Let James wonder if that was compliance or not.

"Is that a yes?"

Or not.

Anna had spoke up, looking between the two and Nova forced - literally forced - the growl to stop as she took a breath and moved her tongue, figuring out how to make her tongue move the way she wanted when all she really wanted was to snap at them. "Yes." It was gritted out and then Nova's head snapped up, eyes wide, dilating and then her entire body rippling back into her Reszna form, causing both James and Anna to take several steps back, alarmed.

Neon green eyes didn't look at them, though, ears perked and quivering, straining to catch a sound as her body had grown rigid against Aerin's. And then she finally looked up at him, saying only one word.

"Rifle."

And the alarms of the hospital security started to blare.
 
Aerin had stopped listening, having grown used to Nova's growls. She would let them know when she was ready, though if she had her way, that would be never. It was when she stopped moving that Aerin looked over, feeling her muscles coil and tense. He set the notebook down, removing his elbow and supporting himself on the bed. When she spoke the hellhound's name, he was almost surprised. He winced as the security alarms blared overhead, his senses still sensitive to just about everything. James and Anna sprung into action, running out the door and bounding down the hall.

Aerin put one hand on her cheek, looking down at her. "You need to go find him," he said. His voice was soft, but he knew she could still hear him. Somehow, she was always attuned to the sound of his voice. "I can't go with you, nor would I be able to do anything even if I could. You're the only one who can stop him. Do what you must." With that, he gave her a gentle kiss on the forehead and a push toward the door. He didn't want Rifle to kill anyone, but he wasn't sure if Nova would stop the hellhound if it meant keeping him alive. He was the only wolf left from the original three, and Aerin didn't even know if calling him a wolf was accurate anymore. Either way, Nova was the only one capable of handling him.
 
She didn't want to leave him, she really, really didn't. What if someone took him while she was gone? What if they started testing on him while she was away and they hurt him? He was too weak to fight right now. She wasn't much better even if she could fake it. How could she leave him after everything they'd been through, when they were so unsure what was going to happen? But how could she let Rifle go on a rampage either? She might not like these people, but Aerin was right; if there was the slightest chance they could help him, she had to let them try. And if the hellhound tore them to shreds...

The hybrid growled, not liking her options, but she looked back into the eyes of her life-mate and finally whirled around and disappeared down the hall. She had to trust him just as he trusted her and when it came to him trusting her, that was a huge step for any human to make. She wasn't exactly normal.

Nova snorted at that thought even as she finally burst outside and up onto the wall that had obviously been built before everything went down the tubes, probably to try and keep the Illstar out while trying to find a cure. The first thing she saw was blinding sun, but her eyes adjusted quickly and Nova became instantly aware of the gun being wielded by Ben and the aim he was taking toward the hellhound slashing its way through the fencing behind the wall. The Reszna hybrid moved like lightning, hitting the human, her body knocking into his as he fired off a shot that went wide. He looked at her in shock and she snarled in fury at him, wrenching the gun away from his hands and flinging it away to skid along the wall, rage coursing through her blood.

"NO!" she roared out in warning before she looked back to Rifle, now inside the fence and she didn't hesitate to vault over the wall. Her claws tore into the stone as she slowed her descent and then leaped the rest of the way down, landing on the ground in a crouch. She barely heard the noise going on above her from the humans, knowing they would be alarmed and questioning, and that they'd have no answer and only guesses, but that wasn't her concern right now.

Rifle was and the hellhound was enraged. He'd followed them out here and had spent some time trying to figure out how to get in. Now he had, bracing himself against the electric fence and now he was hell-bent on rescuing the two he'd been traveling with. He wasn't really paying attention to the fact that one such person was approaching him. He snarled savagely, racing toward the wall and then suddenly came up against the hybrid. She snarled at him and something pinged in his hazy memory as he saw her ruby-red eyes. She growled at him, dominating as she advanced and he growled back, but started to crouch, belly touching the ground, both angry and yet submissive.
 
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