From the corner of her eye, El had seen Logan move. She had watched in horror as he threw himself in the path of Ar’n’tor’s attack. She saw the combined power of the three mages crash against Logan’s back as he shielded Smash. She’d felt the physical impact of the energy as it slammed against him, and then nothing. Searching, she realized that he had done his best to block their connection, instinctively closing himself off from her as he absorbed the devastating energy into his body. Then, like light slipping through the cracks of a closed door, some of that energy and pain slipped from Logan’s mind.
The overflow of pain and energy found her mind and seared into it. She screamed in startled agony as she struggled to seal her own mind from his. What seemed like hours, but was only moments, passed before she managed it, the effort leaving her panting.
El feared the worst. Lightning was an overwhelming attack that burned its victim from the inside. The energy cascaded through the muscles causing them to contract involuntarily, painfully locking them. The electricity overwhelmed the connections in the brain, shorting them out and causing potentially permanent damage, which was moot as the heart usually stopped long before that became an issue. It was one of the Elfin mages’ war spells, only to be used under the most dire, life-threatening situations. She had no idea how Logan was managing to stand against it. All her training told her he should be collapsed, twitching on the ground.
With her own pain finally mastered and the link between them firmly sealed, El was able to study Logan’s ordeal. He was in agony, there was no doubt in that. As she watched he collapsed to one knee. She watched his eyes close as his head drooped. Tears came unbidden to her eyes as she waited for him to collapse to the ground. But he never did.
The moment passed. His head snapped up, his massive chest expanding as he sucked air into his lungs before determinedly pushing himself back to his feet. Amazement surged through her.
Gods, she thought. He lived!
From the corner of her eye, El saw Ar’n’tor gape open-mouthed in disbelief as Logan stood. Rigid, his whole body seeming to quiver, to tremor, but he stood. His tunic had been blasted from his body and the skin of his back was blackened and burned where Ar’n’tor’s lightning had struck, but he was alive. Her eyes travelled over him, assessing, checking that he had in fact survived intact. At first glance everything seemed whole, miraculously whole in fact, but as she watched him, watched him crouch into a defensive posture, watched his fists touch the ground, steadying himself, she came to realize that something wasn’t right. His movements were too animalistic, too instinctual.
She understood then, that he had not come through the attack completely unscathed and she had a sickening realization that the visible damage to his body was the least of her concerns. Her fears were confirmed when he opened his eyes. It was as though they continued to burn, continued to fight. She found no trace of his humanity - just the cold predatory eyes of a wild creature preparing to kill or be killed. Her heart sank.
A primal, bestial force had taken control of Logan during those agonizing moments as the lightning coursed through his body. That regression to the animal that lived deep within had likely granted Logan the strength to survive Ar’n’tor’s attack. Unfortunately, that bestial force had not relinquished its control over its host. His humanity, his compassion, the part that made him Logan had been lost within the pain and had yet to return.
As she watched, he searched with all the senses Hephaestus had provided him. His ears twitched as they tracked every sound, his nostrils flared as he sniffed the air and his eyes moved constantly between narrowed lids as he focused on the creature who caused him pain – Ar’n’tor. The beast sought vengeance for the pain it had endured.
Unsealing her own mental safeguards, she sought the link that connected them, following that connection with her mind, hoping to be able to comfort him. She couldn’t reach him. She hit a metaphysical wall. The barrier that he had slammed down to protect her from his pain still held, still separated them. She strained her mind against that barrier, tried to push past it, but it was no use. The barrier held and a deeper feeling of dread began to fill her. What if she couldn’t get him back? What if the pain had pushed him too far into insanity?
Who’s Pandora And What’s With The Box?
Something echoed faintly in his mind. It was distant, little more than a whisper, really. He shrugged it off. He didn’t know where he was. He didn’t even really know who he was. His mind wouldn’t focus that far and in truth, he didn’t really care. The rage had flowed through him on waves of agony that had been impossible to hold at bay. All that really mattered, all he really understood, was pain and no pain. It was that simple really, it either hurt or it didn’t. And in the end, nothing else mattered.
If Logan’s sanity was missing, his senses were not. His sensitive hearing located everyone around him, telling him their exact positions and categorizing them as threats or not on a continual basis. Several creatures were lying on the ground, whimpering or crying in pain and these he dismissed immediately. Several more were standing around him, carefully keeping their distance. These might become threats, and he could hear their elevated heart rates and knew that they were anxious. These he also dismissed, but continued to track. The final three stood in front of him. These three also had elevated heart rates, they also watched him and something about the lead figure drew Logan’s gaze. As his eyes fell upon the Elf, recent memories flooded through Logan’s primal brain. He knew the Elf before him, knew that he was the one who had brought him such agony. One simple word surfaced in his befuddled mind.
Kill.
A growl rumbled up from deep within him.
Logan was aware the very moment the Elfin mage reached for his magic. A strange tingling down his spine told him the instant the mage started to draw the energy of the other mages through him. He felt it as that energy was moulded it into an attack. Logan was prepared to spring away, to avoid the attack and the pain that would inevitably follow. But he could smell the troll lying prone behind him. Hear its pulse and wheezing breathing. A quick glance assured him that it was not moving. Even in his animal state, Logan recognized that he had been protecting that creature when he was first attacked. He might not be able to reason out why, but Logan knew that protecting that troll was something he needed to do. Like a wolf protecting his own, he knew that the figure behind him was his to care for, his to protect.
Growling again, Logan stalked carefully away from the prone body. Keeping his senses focused on the Elfin mage he checked to ensure that the mage’s attention followed him as he moved.
Watching Logan as she was, El was in a good position to see his indecision. She saw him weighing the safety of a friend against his need for revenge. That conflict filled her with hope. The man she had fallen in love with was still in there, buried deep perhaps, but still there. She heard him growl deeply, his eye fixed on Ar’n’tor. She watched him stalk to the side, drawing the mage’s attention away from Smash. She realized what Logan was doing. He was moving the line of fire so that Smash would not be directly in its path, and in the process giving himself the room and the freedom to move. Ar’n’tor, never having fought an actual battle, didn’t seem to realize that by following Logan he was giving up his single greatest advantage.
El’s heart filled with joy as Smash stirred. She realized that the big man was beginning to come round. The troll’s incredible constitution was dragging him back from unconsciousness. El’dreathia felt relief as she watched him push himself up, first to his hands and knees and then very slowly and painfully to his feet. He was battered and his tough skin was badly bruised, but he would live.
Unfortunately, El’s joy at her friend’s recovery was short lived as it was quickly replaced with a terrible sense of dread. Smash’s movement had drawn Ar’n’tor’s attention. The mage lashed out with a blast of energy and it was all El could do to telekinetically push the troll. A combination of luck and gravity saved the big man as lightening cascaded
past him.
El saw Logan glance back at the troll checking to ensure he survived. She saw the feral smile that crept across Logan’s lips exposing the sharp points of his canines. El’dreathia felt ill. She realized, in that moment, things had just gone from bad to much, much worse. Logan’s actions were no longer hampered by the need to protect his fallen friend. No, now he was free, free to hunt, free to kill.
Logan’s long arms reached down to let his knuckles lightly touch the earth, stabilizing him as he slowly began to move. El was fully aware that his apparent slowness was a deception. It was done instinctively to lull his prey into a false sense of security. She knew that when Logan attacked there would be almost no warning, almost no time to react. He would be little more than a blur. But, for now he simply, slowly circled the trio of mages. His movement disoriented the Elves, forcing them to constantly shift their positions in order to maintain their triangle.
Again and again, El battered against the barrier that kept his mind from hers. And, again and again, she was brought up short.
Logan felt the Elfin mage casting, smelled the magic gathering as he circled the mages.
No more, he thought. No more pain!
Logan was already moving as Ar’n’tor finally settled on a target and launched his attack. The crackling blast of lightning surged toward Logan, or at least toward where Logan had been. He was rolling well clear by the time the blast burned a swath across the ground where he had been standing mere moments before. Ar’n’tor frowned at his miss and began drawing energy for another blast. His two support mages were breathing heavily from the exertion, sweat running down their faces from the strain. Logan, little more than a blur of pale white skin, leaped for Ar’n’tor, clawed fingers swiping for the Elfin mage’s throat.
The magical shield stopped him mid leap, the flash of energy as Logan impacted the unseen wall was momentarily blinding. Reacting instantly, Logan twisted in mid-air and used that same unseen wall to launch himself somersaulting back and away. He landed in a defensive crouch, one had up to ward off any impending attack and ready to move again, should the need arise. Ar’n’tor gaped in astonishment. In that moment he understood that he had not seen the attack coming and would never have been able to defend against it. He looked toward his unlikely saviour, El, who met his gaze with cold fury in her eyes before turning to face Logan.
El had saved Ar’n’tor, but it wasn’t out of any sense of kinship or compassion. She simply realized that if she allowed Logan to rip the obnoxious mage limb from limb he might lose his humanity completely. With her magical shield firmly in place she was willing to turn her back on Ar’n’tor as she stepped between him and Logan.
Logan eyed her warily as she moved in front of his prey. A deep growl sounded from his chest. Recognition of a sort kept him from attacking this new obstacle, as all his senses screamed at him.
She is pack. She is mate! Logan’s instincts insisted. But confusion reigned in his animalistic brain as he warred with the realization that she had blocked his attack. She is protecting prey?
Calming The Beast
El and her magical wall stood between Logan and Ar’n’tor. Her pulse was racing.
This might very well be the stupidest thing I’ve ever done, she thought resignedly.
She had never seen Logan like this, so far over the edge, so far gone. Ar’n’tor’s lightning attack should have killed him, should have stopped his heart and left him dead on the ground. But, somehow he’d survived. Hephaestus had really outdone himself, and not for the first time she wondered if there really was anything that could kill Logan permanently. In quieter times, when they were both feeling more than a little morbid, they had discussed it. They had speculated that Logan’s head would need to be completely separated from his body in order to actually kill him, and even then it was just speculation. After what she’d just witnessed with Ar’n’tor she had her doubts that anything could actually put Logan down for good. In this case, Ar’n’tor hadn’t managed to kill Logan, he had only managed to hurt him.
And, she thought with a grimace. That was an understatement if ever there was one.
Even the small amount of overflow that had initially seeped past Logan’s mental walls had nearly made her pass out in agony. She couldn’t begin to imagine what he had felt in those moments when the electricity was coursing through his body and, on so many levels, she was good with that.
But there he stood, ready to fight. The only thing Ar’n’tor’s attack had actually succeeded in doing was to drive Logan’s psyche over the edge. The primal part of his brain was controlling him and she couldn’t figure out how to get to him mentally, the walls that had blocked so much of his pain from her, were still up and far too solid to breech. Talking to him wasn’t working. The attack was too fresh, the pain too recent. Logan was far too focused, far too single minded to understand anything he heard. No, all she could do, her last resort, was to physically get in front of him and pray to the gods that he recognized her.
So far, thankfully, they seemed to be listening. The animal that was Logan had halted his attack and eyed her warily, sniffing intently in her direction. She heard the low rumbling growl come from deep within his throat and she couldn’t help but wonder how long she had before the animal won out.
“El’dreathia, get the Hades out of the way!” Ar’n’tor’s voice was ragged with exhaustion and filled with annoyance. “And move this damned wall.”
El knew that the Elfin mage was filled with power, his response to his too slow reaction to Logan’s thwarted attack. She also knew that containing that magic wasn’t an easy thing for a mage to do. Holding power was far more exhausting than simply casting it. The energy ran through the body, challenging it, seeking escape. Even the strongest mage could only hold it for so long before it was either released consciously or burst from the mages body in a spectacular, albeit messy, display of energy. And even knowing all that, El found that she couldn’t care less about Ar’n’tor’s predicament. If worse came to worse, the magical wall separating Ar’n’tor from her and her friends should protect them from any unexpected discharge of energy, and any anatomical bits that came at them as a result of Ar’n’tor exploding. She did have a momentary concern about the mages acting as Ar’n’tor’s back up, but then, if they weren’t able to protect themselves then they shouldn’t be out here in the first place.
Besides, she thought. It’s not as if I summoned them.
El ignored Ar’n’tor’s demands and instead kept her attention focused on Logan as she searched his eyes for the man she knew.
“Logan?” she pleaded. “Logan? It’s me, El. I need you to come back to me now.”
Some part of her deep inside knew that this was the moment, knew that if she couldn’t bring Logan back now, she would probably lose him forever. If she failed, the animal before her would rampage and likely flee into the forest. What she knew as Logan would be gone, lost in his insanity forever. Carefully, she searched with all her awareness magical, physical and emotional. She desperately sought anything she could use, any way to get into his sealed mind.
And finally, after what felt like hours but she knew was only moments, she found it.
The opening was small, barely a crack really, a tiny hole in his mental barrier that came with the memory of their linking, the memory of that first night before they had gone into Tael, when they had opened themselves to each other. Seizing hold with all her will, El slipped her consciousness through that break and found herself in the primal core of Logan’s animal mind. His anger and rage buffeted her like the winds of a hurricane. The sheer violence nearly overwhelmed her and she found herself metaphysically gasping for breath. Mentally steadying herself, she searched his mind for anything that would help bring him back. When she finally found it, she was stunned and mentally kicked herself. She’d had no idea but, with everything else, she should have guessed.
Pulling her awareness free from Logan’s mind she rounded on Ar’n’tor. Frustration bubbled up ins
ide of her. She should have realized it sooner, the magic! She could still feel Ar’n’tor’s hold on it and she should have realized that with all of his abilities, Logan could too. That was why the beast wouldn’t ease off. It was still threatened. It couldn’t allow itself to relax knowing that an attack could come at any moment.
“Let it go, Ar’n’tor!” she demanded of the Elfin mage.
“El’dreathia, don’t you dare…”
“You’re an idiot!” she snapped, cutting him off. “You’re still holding power, still drawing it. That’s why he won’t back down.”
“El’dreathia, he’s human. He can’t feel mag…”
“No!” she snapped again. “He’s most definitely not human. And, yes he most certainly can feel it. Now let it go!”
“El’dreathia, be reasonable. He’s barely in control. He’s little more than an animal. At least let me subdue him first, for the good of everyone.” A condescending smile stretched across his face as he continued. “I promise I’ll try not to kill your little pet.”
El felt him pull on more magical energy. Logan felt it too and he slipped back into his attack crouch. El let out an exasperated sigh.
Gods, she thought in frustration. I really hate stupid, macho males.
She forced calm into her mind and voice, a calm that she really didn’t feel. Sending waves of calm through her tenuous link with Logan she felt like she was trying to bail the ocean out of a sinking long ship with a bucket.
“Ar’n’tor, you’re a fool.”
The mage frowned, but El continued before he could speak.
“You’re not getting it. He feels your hostility, feels the power you’re drawing and after what you’ve put him through, he equates you with pain.”
It was clear by the look on his face, that her words were having little effect. With her own small growl of frustration, she continued.
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