-Dante-

Once we finally got to the hotel, we were both exhausted after the long drive. Chase was doing his best to not let me see how tired he was, but I could tell the drive had been a bit too much for him. It looked like even his small bag was heavy enough to pull him down when he grabbed it, so I hurried to take it from him.

After checking in to the hotel – me being paranoid about my new identity – we headed straight in our room to get some sleep. Chase didn't let me start worrying about sleeping in the same room with him in case I turned bad again. He just shoved the potion in my hands without saying a word. I knew he was way too tired – and in pain – to talk and I knew I was only annoying him even more, so I just drank the potion.

When I curled under the covers, I was miserable. His silence was almost too much for my tired mind... I felt cold and lonely and sad, but before those emotions could take control, I could feel Chase sitting on the edge of my bed, placing his hand on my shoulder.

"You don't have to worry about a thing," he spoke softly. "Tomorrow we'll know a lot more." I nodded, turning around to see him. He had a tired smile on his lips, and he touched my cheek. "Sleep tight."

All those sad feelings were immediately washed away.

I guess the potion kicked in at that moment since when I woke up the next morning, I couldn't even remember if he had left my side. I forced my eyes open, feeling groggy, and saw his empty bed. It was bright in the room.

"Chase...?" I mumbled.

"In the bathroom," I heard his cheery voice and soon he stepped into my view wearing only a white towel on his hips. "Did you sleep well?"

"You tell me," I muttered, trying to clear my throat.

"You did," he smirked. "Well, at least I think so – I didn't wake up even once during the night."

"What time is it?"

"Twenty minutes past ten – we missed the breakfast already but there's a coffee shop down the road," he spoke, stepping back into the bathroom.

"Sure..." I muttered, already feeling anxious about stepping into a crowded place.

I pushed myself up from the bed and looked around in our tiny room. It was nothing special, just a basic hotel room, but there was a balcony. I walked to the door and opened it, letting in the fresh air. The view was really nice since the hotel was located on a hillside, facing the tiny town and a lake. I hadn't even noticed them last night.

"Gorgeous, isn't it?" Chase asked right behind me, making me jump. "Oh, sorry! Didn't mean to scare you..." he chuckled apologetically, placing his hand on my bare shoulder.

"Sneaking up on me... That can be deadly, you know," I grunted, but he just laughed lightly. "You're in a good mood," I added.

"Of course! I slept like twelve hours and today we will find out more about you!" he practically chirped and walked to his bed, leaving a cold spot on my shoulder where his hand had been. "And I don't have to be at work!"

"That's always the best part," I agreed and turned to look away when he grabbed clean clothes from his back.

"The best part is that I can spend more time with you," he said, but his voice had changed.

There was a thought that had tried to make its way to the surface of my mind, but I had kept ignoring it.

"With me?" I laughed, pushing that thought back to where it was trying to get out of. "There has to be a ton of better options than me..."

"I don't think so," he said quietly. "Go take a shower – I'll go find us something to eat in the meantime," he spoke.

I let out a deep sigh, stealing a glimpse of him changing before I went to the bathroom. For a short moment, I let myself try to figure out what was going on between us, but the sudden hope I was feeling made me sick to my stomach, so I pushed those thoughts out of my head.

I had no right to even have those thoughts, after all...

*****

It took us only fifteen minutes to drive to the old man's house. He lived outside the town, surrounded by vast fields, so his house was easy to find. I felt nervous when Chase parked the car in the yard, and even more nervous when the front door flew open all of a sudden.

The man who stepped outside, giving us a nasty glare, didn't look older than sixty or seventy, so our first thought was that we had ended up in the wrong place after all. We exchanged nervous looks, but then Chase stepped out.

"I'm sorry – we're looking for Benjamin Heist. I was under the impression that he–"

"Yes, that's me. What do you want?" he asked with a hostile tone, as I got out of the car as well.

"We need your help," Chase said, closing the door. "My werewolf friend here is sick, and we're trying to find out–"

Again, the man interrupted him. "No. I'm retired. Go find someone else," he said and turned his back on us.

"Could you at least let me see your research notes!" Chase said demandingly, and the man turned to glare at him.

"There is none! Now get off my property!"

I just stood there, feeling empty inside. I never thought that coming here would help at all, but I guess I was still holding onto hope since I was so numb.

"Let's just go," I muttered, and Chase turned to look at me angrily.

"We drove four hundred miles to find help," he said and turned to look at Mr. Heist again. "I will steal his work if I have to. I will find the cure, no matter what."

"I already told you...!" Mr. Heist spoke with an annoyed tone, turning to look back at us. "It's gone! All my work is gone!"

"What do you mean, gone?" Chase snapped at him.

"My lab, my books, my equipment... gone! I lost everything when the damned woodland trolls raided my place!"

Chase was stunned by his words. This really wasn't going well. I tried to tell him again that we should just go, but he shushed at me and walked closer to the man.

"Okay – let's start from the beginning. I'm Chase Cooper, and this is Dante. We found an article that said that you had found a rare werewolf disease, and we think Dante has it. Is there anything you can help us with?"

"No – like I said, I'm retired," Mr. Heist scoffed. "I haven't had a patient in almost twenty years, and I stopped doing research after I lost everything. And I mean everything."

"Could you at least point us in the right direction?" Chase asked, doing his best not to get annoyed with the man, even though he clearly was.

"That way," he said, pointing at the street. "Now, leave me alone!"

"No," Chase said sternly.

"What do you mean, no?" Mr. Heist glared at him.

"I mean exactly that. No."

"I'll call the cops!"

"You don't have a phone."

"Yes, I do, but I'm not giving my number to anyone because I want to be left alone!"

"Look, just give us something to work with, and we'll leave," Chase said. "You said you had a lab?"

The word, lab... I started to feel nauseous at that point, and suddenly I had no idea if I even wanted help from this man.

"Not anymore since the trolls took my lands," Mr. Heist grunted.

"Okay, where is it?" Chase asked, sounding like his hope was being restored.

"Up in the mountains. Why?"

"I'll go check it out and see if we can find anything useful."

Mr. Heist blinked his eyes at him a few times. "Go check it out? Are you deaf? There are trolls up there!"

Chase suddenly stretched his to his side, and without looking away from Mr. Heist he blew up a small, rotten shed he had in the corner of his yard. "I can deal with trolls," he said.

Mr. Heist turned to glare at Chase, looking even more angrier than before. "You better fix that."

"And you better fix your attitude," Chase retorted. "I came here to find answers. I'm not leaving empty-handed."

They had a short staring contest, but then the old man snorted loudly. "I hate warlocks..."

"You probably hate everyone," Chase snapped back. "What about my answers?"

"Fine – get in before you get us all in trouble," Mr. Heist said, surprising me completely. "But you might not like the answers I have."

Chase followed him, but I couldn't move a muscle. The bad memories were lurking nearby, and the hostility of Mr. Heist wasn't making things any better. I just wanted to stay in the car or go back to the hotel... I did not want to go into that house.

"Dante?" Chase turned to look at me when he realized I was still standing by the car. "What's wrong?"

I couldn't even reply to him. I looked down, feeling embarrassed, but I still couldn't move. Chase walked back to me, and carefully placed his hand on my chest, trying to get me to look at him.

"You're pale," he breathed out. "Talk to me..."

I shook my head, keeping my head down. "I can't go in there..." I managed to mutter. "I'm sorry..."

"It's okay – I'll... I'll... uh..." he spoke, clearly trying to think of a solution, but the old man returned outside.

"What? You're not coming?" he scoffed.

Chase peered at him, then at me. I could feel his disappointment, which made me feel even worse.

"I'm sorry, we've had a rough few days..." Chase told him apologetically. "I... Can I call you or something? I think we need to go back..."

"Is he all right?" Mr. Heist asked, and this time his voice didn't have hostility in it.

"I'm fine," I whispered.

"You're not fine," he muttered back. "We'll just go back to the hotel and get some rest. I can call him later."

"What are his symptoms?"

Chase turned to look at Mr. Heist again. "His wolf isn't normal – and he can't control the shapeshift. His blood isn't normal either."

"Is this another symptom?" he asked as any doctor would.

"No... he's just been through a lot," Chase spoke.

"Can you tell me more about his condition?" Mr. Heist asked, and when I carefully peered at him, I saw him sitting down on the steps in front of his door.

I tuned out and tried to focus on my breathing while Chase told him pretty much everything he knew about my condition, leaving out the part how it started. It wasn't a long conversation since Chase was clearly trying to be fast.

"The symptoms are similar," the old man said when Chase was done talking. "But he's a turned werewolf, right?"

"Yes."

The yard was filled with silence for a short moment before Mr. Heist cleared his throat. "I don't know how much I can do for you because without my equipment, I have no way of making sure it is the same disease. I've had six patients over the years, and they all were born werewolves. The disease I was working with has never been found on turned werewolves, but there hasn't been that many cases I haven't heard of."

"But it's similar," Chase said. "Did you find a cure for it?"

Another silence. He didn't have to say it out loud. We both knew what the answer was.

"No," he then sighed. "I can tell you more about the disease itself, but I'm afraid I can't give you anything useful, like my research notes."

"Okay – just tell us what you know," Chase said, but then turned to look at me. "Is this fine? Do you want to go?"

"I'm fine like this," I told him. As long as I didn't have to go any closer to the house or the man...

"There's nothing to be afraid of, boy," Mr. Heist said while lighting up a cigar. "I'm just an old man. I can't even run with my busted knee..."

"Tell us about the disease," Chase asked nicely.

"I consider myself some kind of an expert, but even I don't fully understand how the disease works, but as I said, I had six patients who helped me to learn more about it," Mr. Heist began, speaking quietly. "The first one I encountered was a friend of mine."

It was easier for me to relax now that the atmosphere had turned calm and I could focus on his words.

"I never formed a solid theory about how it starts. The patients had different backgrounds, different bloodlines, different lifestyles. I started calling it werewolf cancer because of the symptoms. It begins abruptly. One day the wolf form was perfectly normal, but the next day it was already transformed."

He fell silent for a moment, probably collecting his thoughts as he smoked his cigar. Then, he let out a deep breath and turned to look at us.

"There are three phases the disease goes through as it progresses. The first phase lasts for a month or two. During that time the person can somewhat control when the transformation begins and ends, but more often the transformation starts on its own, mostly when the person is being threatened or having strong negative emotions. Once transformed, they are still intellectually present and aware of what they're doing, although they are mostly at the mercy of their instincts. The wolf itself is still relatively small."

"That's what Dante is going through now," Chase spoke.

"Then there's still time," Mr. Heist nodded. "The second phase is the longest one, lasting from three to six months. During this time the wolf is slowly growing bigger and becomes even more vicious. The person has no control over the transformations anymore; is not aware of himself while in the wolf form and has no memories of it after returning to human. It will take them longer and longer to return back to their human form."

He fell silent and turned to look at me. "And then comes the final phase."

"What happens then?" Chase asked carefully, and suddenly I felt like neither of us wanted to know...

"The wolf takes over," he said quietly, looking sad. "Once they've stayed in the wolf form more than twenty-four hours, it's over. They won't turn back again."

"W-What...?" Chase spoke, while I felt numb again.

"My fourth patient was able to return to her human form one more time after twenty-six hours, but the next transformation was her final one," Mr. Heist explained slowly. "And there was nothing I could do to help her. Any of them. I never found a way to stop the progress, and I tried everything I could think of."

"What happened to them?" I asked.

"The final phase is the shortest one," he replied, giving me an apologetic look. "They stopped eating, drinking, even sleeping..."

"They died," I breathed out, turning my back on him and Chase when my emotions took the best of me.

I had only a few months to live.

"I'm sorry... I did everything I could, but it wasn't enough..."

I was going to die. I suddenly forgot how to fill my lungs with air. The nauseousness grew stronger as my knees became weak. This was not the answer we were looking for. I wasn't even prepared to hear something like this.

"I'm dying," I whispered.

"No!" Chase said, appearing in front of me. "I won't let you!"

I looked at him, his ice-blue eyes. I could see tears burning in them. He placed his hands on my cheeks, but the warmth of his skin didn't help this time.

"It's over, Chase," I said, but he shook his head.

"No! We don't even know if it's the same thing!"

I closed my eyes, so I didn't have to see him anymore. The thoughts I had that morning were returning, but only to mock me. For a second, I had dreamed that there could be more between us, but it was just that: a dream. Nothing but a dream...

Because I had no future.

"I won't let you die. I will find the cure, no matter what it takes," Chase muttered, but his voice was shaking. "You hear me?"

I rested my head against his, taking in his scent that I had grown so fond of. He said he had grown fond of me...

"He's been doing this for decades," I whispered. "What can we do in a few short months? It's over."

"No! It's not over!"

"You know it is..."

"No! It's not over because I said so!" he said, sounding almost angry. "And don't you dare to give up on me, Dante. I won't let you."

I was already crying. The silent tears couldn't be stopped. I wanted to believe in his words so bad, but all my hope was gone. He wrapped his arms around me, hugging me tightly and giving me a shoulder to cry on. I really needed that. It was the only reason why I was still standing.

"You returned to me," Chase whispered in my ear. "I'm not letting you go this time. I won't let anyone take you away from me. Not even death."

I wished his stubbornness was strong enough to make that happen.

I wished it was that simple.

"I don't want to die..."

"Don't worry – I won't let you."