Bruno stirred weakly on the couch without opening his eyes and muttered through his delirium:
"They'll… tear us… to pieces…"
For a few seconds, silence returned. Only the whisper in Ethan's head,that distant, indistinct one, grew a little louder, as if the souls inside the stake were also listening to the conversation.
"Kill… kill… kill them all…"
Gideon's already pale face, drained from blood loss, turned completely white. He stared at the black stake in Ethan's hands as if it were a live grenade with the pin pulled.
"Wait… wait a second," he said hoarsely.
"You seriously want to drag that thing with you into Laurent's house? Your condition says otherwise, you'd better stay behind."
Ethan turned to him. Gideon slowly shook his head, trying to stand up, but immediately winced and sank back down, pressing his palm to his bandaged side.
"You saw what that thing did to Roy?" Gideon continued, his voice gaining strength.
"It devoured his souls like a starving dog. And now you're saying you can't move more than four meters away from it?"
"This isn't a weapon anymore, Flash. This is… some kind of parasite on his arm."
"You're not the only one dealing with something this strange."
Bruno shifted weakly on the couch. The morphine had dulled the pain but couldn't silence the unease.
He cracked his eyes open and turned his head toward the conversation.
"Gideon's right…" Bruno rasped.
He tried to push himself up on one elbow, but only managed to turn his head slightly.
"Ethan… listen… we barely made it out of that hangar alive."
"You're already covered in these black cracks. What if something goes wrong at Laurent's house?"
"What if you get hurt, or if that thing starts devouring you right there?"
"You should rest…"
Bruno spoke with great effort, as if every word was draining his last strength.
"We're in no condition to storm that bastard's lair right now."
"I'm… barely alive. Flash… look at your arm."
"And you… you're chained to this cursed stick like a dog on a leash."
"We could all have drunk that vampire blood to heal our wounds, but our pride won't let us cross that line…"
Gideon nodded, backing his friend up. He reached out and grabbed Flash by the pant leg, forcing him to stop.
"Let's at least wait until morning," Gideon said, almost pleading.
"Rest properly. Change the bandages again. Bruno will need another dose of painkillers when the first one wears off."
"And you… at least try to sleep without that thing next to you. Maybe you'll feel better…"
Flash sat in silence, staring at the floor. He didn't interrupt right away, letting the others speak. Bullet shifted uneasily from paw to paw on his shoulder.
Ethan stood motionless, gripping the stake with both hands. The black lines on his left arm had visibly spread further,now clearly visible even in the dim lamplight.
He could feel something quietly stirring inside the wood, as if hundreds of tiny fingers were touching his palms from within.
"I understand what you're saying," Ethan finally replied quietly.
"I'm scared too. But Flash is right. If we wait until morning, one of the hunters will already be here."
"Anna and maybe even Gérard, must have felt Roy and Morwen die. They'll be waiting for us to recover."
Bruno tried to sit up again. This time he managed, though his face immediately twisted in pain.
"Then at least leave the stake here," he whispered.
"We'll take only weapons."
"If you can't move far away… let one of us stay in the apartment with it."
"I can try to hold it here…"
Ethan shook his head disapprovingly.
"No."
"You saw what happened when I stepped just a couple of meters away. I nearly turned inside out."
"What if it hits me in the middle of the street? Or during the fight at Laurent's?"
"I'll just collapse and lie there until they finish me off."
He looked at Gideon, then at Bruno. His eyes held a mix of stubbornness and quiet desperation.
"I don't want to drag you there in this condition. But I can't just sit here and wait for them to come for us either."
"This thing is already inside me. And if we don't find a way to control it or at least understand what to do with it, then in a couple of days I might not even be a pain in their ass anymore."
Gideon let out a heavy sigh and released Flash's pant leg. He leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes.
"Fuck…" he muttered.
"We're all going insane."
Bruno sank back onto the couch, staring at the ceiling. His chest rose and fell heavily.
"Just… be careful," he said quietly.
"Don't play hero alone. We've already lost too much."
"I don't want to lose the new guy on the team."
Flash finally lifted his head. His voice was calm, but carried an iron resolve:
"Two hours," he said.
"We rest, then we move out."
"Ethan carries the stake."
"We cover him."
"No heroic stupidity. We get the information. Let Ethan deal with that vampire himself."
Ethan sat down on the chair opposite the couch and laid the black stake across his knees. He stared at it in silence.
The black lines on his arm continued to creep slowly but relentlessly upward.
Ethan never managed to rest properly.
He lay on the old, sagging couch in the living room, the stake pressed against his side under his arm like a living thing.
Every time he drifted into unconsciousness, the darkness inside the stake began to devour him.
In his dream, he stood in an endless black void. From all sides, hands reached toward him, hundreds, thousands of hands made of thick smoke.
They grabbed his legs, his arms, his throat. The skin on his body cracked, and instead of blood, the same black ichor that had once pooled around Roy's dead body seeped out.
The voices whispered directly into his ears, blending into one long howl:
"Release us… release us… we're hungry… you are our new home…"