-Chase-

I had a lot of time to think about my actions. I spent hours and hours with Roe's words echoing in my head while Dante fought for his life on the couch. I changed his bandages three times an hour every hour because the bleeding just wouldn't stop. I did everything I could to keep his temperature down because he was almost boiling. I tried to hold him still whenever he started thrashing around in his nightmares, partly awake but never really conscious.

I did that to him. My actions caused this.

On the next day, when Dante was sleeping peacefully in the guest room, I stayed next to his bed. I still couldn't sleep. The images of blood gushing out of his stomach whenever I changed the bandages invaded my mind, filling me with anxiety, regret, and fear.

"...the chaos that resides in you..."

And Roe's words made it so much worse.

I took Dante's hand in mine, finding some kind of comfort in the fact that his fever was gone. By some miracle, he had begun healing again. It was almost surreal to think the wound on his side was the same one I couldn't keep closed last night. It looked so... innocent. There was nothing threatening about it... And yet, it almost took Dante's life.

I had so many regrets... I couldn't even stand myself at that moment. My thoughts repeated themselves over and over again... I should've been more careful. I should've spent more time planning this. I should've listened to Benjamin when he tried to warn me. I shouldn't have been so goddamn confident. All I could think of was getting to the lab, even when Dante was wounded.

He could've died because of my recklessness.

I brushed my hand through Dante's hair, swearing I would never make that same mistake again.

An hour later, my own aching body demanded me to move, so I made sure Dante was comfortable before I stepped out of his room, leaving the door slightly open. I walked down the stairs to the first floor and stopped to look around, trying to replace the negative thoughts with something else for my own sanity. Everything was covered in dust, especially the thousands of books that lined the walls. There was not an inch of room on the countless shelves.

I walked to the closest one and peered at the titles, but none of them rung a bell. Not the authors, nor the books. I slowly walked past them, noticing that some of them were really old, but looked untouched.

And then, just when I found something interesting, I heard a quiet cough behind me. I turned to look at the old man Benjamin, who was stepping through the door, carrying a few bags with him.

"How's your werewolf doing?" was the first thing he asked while placing the bags on the ground to walk to me.

"He's resting," I said, and turned to take the big, brown book from the shelves. "Elven cures and other natural remedies," I read the title out loud.

"Yes – I have quite a collection of all sorts of medical things," Benjamin said when he stopped next to me. "None of these books were useful, but that didn't stop me from getting my hands on every single one of them..."

"I'm impressed of how far you went to find the cure," I said, looking around. "This house, for example."

He let out a deep sigh. "And still I failed," he muttered.

"I won't," I said almost harshly, making him laugh.

"I can see you are determined. You will need that."

The word, determined, made my skin crawl in an unpleasant way. That determination almost got Dante killed...

"May I ask...?" Benjamin spoke when I didn't, and continued after I nodded, "How did he lose his ability to heal?"

"We don't know – Aaliyah suspects that..." I suddenly felt sick when I thought about what she said...That Dante had been so badly tortured that his body couldn't heal anymore...

"So it is as I suspected..." he breathed out. "There are a few reasons why a werewolf would become unable to heal themselves, but I think I know what happened."

"You don't know half of it," I mumbled, putting the book away.

"Hmmh..." he uttered. I could feel his eyes on me, so I turned around to face him. "Would you like a cup of coffee? Or tea?" he asked before I could say a word.

"I don't need anything."

"You need your strength if you want to take care of your werewolf," Benjamin said. "You haven't eaten anything after we arrived here. Come – let me make you something."

When he mentioned eating, my stomach growled demandingly at the thought of food. I stared at the books but didn't actually see them. The old man did have a point... I couldn't take care of Dante if I was weak from hunger.

"This is a good opportunity for us to talk," he continued. "We should start making plans on how to begin his treatment. I'm... I have the impression that he's not comfortable with me?"

"He's..." I breathed out and started walking to him. "He was kidnapped by some sick scientists that used him for their experiments."

"What?" Benjamin asked with wide eyes.

I told him everything I knew while he was making dinner. He listened in shock and disgust as I described some of the things they did to Dante. I also mentioned his fear of scientists and medical procedures.

And the lab itself.

Ben nodded slowly after I stopped speaking. He was clearly shaken by the things I told him, and I couldn't blame him. I felt sick just by thinking about what Dante had been through.

"I understand now," he said quietly. "But you have earned his trust. That will make things easier. We just have to work slowly and make sure he feels as comfortable as possible – we wouldn't want to trigger his transformation on purpose."

Except we already did just the day before... Another thing I cursed myself for.

"Every now and then, I've heard rumors about humans trying to take advantage of supernatural beings," Ben spoke quietly. "But this is the first time I've heard of such an organized group of people... It makes me sick to think that my kind could do something so horrible..."

"I know how you feel..." I muttered.

"We will make this right," he said with a determined voice. "We'll begin his treatment as soon as he has made full recovery."

"Why are you doing this?" I asked. "You don't even know us."

Ben looked at me shortly, before focused on the oven again. "My first patient was one of my dearest friends. I couldn't save him, but he made me promise I wouldn't give up until I found the cure, even if it was too late for him. When I lost this place to the trolls, I thought that was it, but now we are here. You have given me my home back, so my work must continue. That is what Eric would have wanted."

"So, you're doing this for your old friend?"

Ben nodded. "For Eric. For Sharon. For Vinona, and Albert, and David, and Graham, and Caleb... I couldn't save them. I spent months with them in this house... I watched them getting overtaken by this... cancer... I watched the humanity leaving them, and no matter what I did, how far I went... it wasn't enough."

"I'm surprised you haven't given up."

"I did give up," he breathed out. "But I must try it one more time. Maybe this time I will succeed. Maybe now we have better equipment, better technology and better ways to gain information," he spoke and turned to look at me. "And now I have help."

I nodded without hesitation. "You didn't have help last time?"

"Not nearly enough," he said. "I had plenty of contacts and people who could get me what I needed, but no one was brave enough to invest their time helping such dangerous beings. No one seemed to care... Their loved ones did whatever they could of course, but none of them were experienced in science or medicine or alchemy. You know, the things I really needed help with."

"Now you have me," I said. "I'm good with potions, and Aaliyah is ready to help whenever she is needed."

"And you are a warlock. My knowledge on Njizrski is limited," Ben said, looking at me with excitement in his eyes. "And it isn't the only realm out there."

"True, but I'm only connected with Njizrski," I told him.

"It is still an advantage I didn't have before. But first, I'll need to make sure Dante is suffering from the same disease. I'm going to need his blood," he said.

"I'll get you whatever you need," I promised.

After we ate, I went to check up on Dante, but since he was still fast asleep, I didn't want to bother him. I returned back to Ben to tell him I wanted to go take a look at his lab. We had to come up with a plan to make it seem less threatening to Dante. After all, he only took a short glimpse of it and even that was too much for him.

Ben led the way down into the basement floor, and even I had to admit that the heavy doors seemed sinister. I was especially worried about the fact that there didn't seem to be a way out if the doors were accidentally closed. At least I could make a portal out if necessary, but still...

I decided to make sure I always had a sharpie with me from now on.

After stepping through the first door, and walked the short hallway to the second one, I stopped to a halt. The lab was exactly like I had imagined: a lab. Stainless steel and all sorts of gadgets and equipment any hospital would have covered the entire space, but the most notable thing was that all the electronics were old. Like, super old. Probably the first of their kind old. The only computer on the corner was massive.

"How did you afford all this? And how old are you exactly?" I asked, turning to look at Ben.

He laughed shortly. "Most of these are donations from werewolves. I was a wealthy man from a wealthy family, but I never would've afforded all of this on my own. And I think I'm closing in on my one hundred fiftieth birthday if my memory serves me correct."

"Fiftieth?" I repeated in shock. "Not fifteenth? Fiftieth?"

"Yes, I think so," he chuckled. "I maybe have been taking some illegal potions to prolong my lifespan."

"They're illegal on purpose," I pointed out, but he waved his hand dismissively.

"I have been spared from unwanted side effects. Besides, I couldn't abandon my work," he said.

I nodded – who was I to lecture anyone about illegal activities?

I stepped into the laboratory, peering around. It was really spacious, almost just as big as the second floor, but the cage took almost one-third of the space.

"It's quite big," I said, pointing at the black, threatening cell. I had no idea if we could ever convince Dante to step a foot in it. Even I didn't want to go in it.

"Yes – I learned that they like having a lot of space. If the cage is too small, they will do whatever they can to break free. But, if they have enough room, they'll eventually settle down."

"They... as in...?"

"The beasts," Ben said, leading me closer to the cage. "They are quite mild-mannered beings when you know their dos and don'ts. "

"Mild-mannered?" I chuckled, bringing forth the memory of running for my life and ending up with massive wounds on my back.

"Surprising, isn't it?" he asked. "Their instinct is to kill anything that moves, and I believe that's the only thing that drives them. Leave them alone, and they settle down. They don't destroy things on purpose, and if the container is large enough, they don't feel the urge to break free. This entire room is designed to accommodate them and calm them down."

"Like how?" I asked, looking around – it didn't seem calming to me.

"Well, the biggest issue we had was smells. Even if they couldn't see or hear me, they could still smell me. The air conditioning was designed to take away the smells, so they didn't feel threatened anymore. You don't want to be in here when the machine turns on though – you might get sucked into the turbines," he spoke, pointing at the several big, round fans in the walls.

"I'll try to remember that," I said. "I just can't see how they can ever be calm..."

"The transformation usually starts when they are angry or scared, and what I've learned, the process is very painful, agitating them even more. That is when they are most vicious, but you can see a change in them as soon as they've burned through that rage, especially during the early stages. That is usually when their humanity resurfaces, and the transformation begins when they start to calm down, but later on, it won't trigger the transformation anymore."

I nodded slowly. That was exactly what happened with Dante on both occasions. The only problem was that this room would never calm him down.

"We need to do something about all this equipment. He's not going to stay in an environment like this."

"Yes – I also need to upgrade the entire lab, so we might as well get rid of it all and refurbish the place with his best interest in mind."

"You'd do that for us?" I asked in awe.

"Of course. Besides, I have also learned that my work will be much easier when the patient is comfortable," he smiled.

"Thank you," I said. "We appreciate your help."

"You're welcome. But now, you should go back to him. You both need to rest. In the meantime, I'll see if my contacts are still willing to help," he said, starting to retreat to the stairs. "And feel free to give me a list of things you guys need. I'll try to see if I can get them for you."

"You don't have to do that," I said. "All I need is a portal back home so I can get everything we need."

"That ability is going to be very handy," he said before vanishing upstairs.

I turned to look around one more time, wrinkling my nose at the old, dusty stuff. I noticed a pile of boxes in a corner with several notebooks on top of them. I walked over to them and grabbed one.

His notes.

I opened the first page, nearly forgetting everything else as I started reading in excitement, but then I closed my eyes. Dante needed me. The notes could wait. I put the notebook down on top of the pile and left the basement, climbing all the way up to the second floor.

Dante was still asleep when I stepped in and didn't even flinch when I checked his wound. I spent some time going through his old injuries, but they were all fully healed now. Except for the gunshot wound and the one below it. The one those horrible fuckers had made with a silver knife over and over again... At least they looked a lot better, but I could see that Dante's transformation had interfered with the healing process.

Oh, how I hated myself for going through with that stupid, reckless plan...

"Morning..." Dante muttered, opening one eye to look at me sleepily.

"Good morning, although it's not morning," I smiled at him, touching his forehead to check his temperature, but he took that hand in his and kissed my palm. "How are you feeling?"

"Much better," he said with a content sigh.

"Good," I uttered, watching him closely. "You're still a bit pale."

"I can't seem to stay awake," he muttered, closing his eyes. "How are you?"

"I'm good – Ben showed me the... basement. We are going to change it, so you'll feel more comfortable being there."

"Oh?" he peered at me.

I told him shortly about what Ben told me, and what we agreed on. Dante seemed happy when I stopped speaking.

"That's nice of him," he said. "Remind me to thank him later."

"He's worried that you don't like being around him," I told him, moving to sit down next to him, leaning against the headboard.

"...he's fine, I guess," Dante mumbled. "Just... you know..."

"I know," I breathed out. He was afraid of everyone regardless of who they were or what they did, and Ben was a scientist... Or a doctor... Whatever.

"It wasn't exactly calming... that place," Dante muttered.

"I know, but we're working on it," I said reassuringly, lying down next to him. I rested my head on his pillow and placed my hand on his shoulder, feeling really tired all of a sudden. "It'll be nice once we're done with it."

"I bet," he murmured.

I smiled and moved closer to him carefully. He moved his arm so I could rest my head on his shoulder. I did exactly that, rolling on my side to caress his chest and chin while he placed his hand on my shoulder.

I tried to remember if I had ever felt so strongly about anyone else before, but I honestly couldn't. Yes, Dante had returned in my life only a few weeks ago, but that didn't mean my feelings weren't genuine, so Roe was free to shove his words up his ass.

Because that moment felt so much better than any other intimate moment I had shared with any other person.

Especially when I felt his lips gently brushing my temple.