"Huh!" Higgins let out a sigh of relief as he rotated his view from his stared gaze directed at Rayla.
He led with several mind debates on controversies that would arise from whatever decision he took.
Everything had boiled down to this, but the fling that wouldn't desist even after what she made him go through, hampered its will the more, making any of his conclusion all the more partial.
"I'm a little curious though..." Rayla began to word a drawback she held as he initiated light steps away from her.
Her vision had become chastised by the amassed filth that gathered unto her kelt that she didn't notice his attempts. "Why do you insist on not avenging your mate and child?" She asked, meekly.
A blink of sorts accompanied by her raising her head saw her vision focus back on him. "Where are you going?" She asked.
"What does it look like. If I'm possibly going to risk my life for the sake of Nefario, I want to at least be sure of what you pillared so much threat on." He replied.
"But you would kill so many people?" She again brought the consequences of his ignorance to light. "I won't try to stop your rampaging rogue wolf."
"Then don't." He said "There was also a reason I left the resistance."
He had referenced an earlier statement that she made.
Higgins maintained his pace as the moonlight glistened even more.
Compared to the erry feel of shrouded despair choked into the dungeon's rusted steel bars, this was on a higher level, although disputable because of the smell.
"Please just stop!" Rayla shouted as her following behind him had instigated exhaustion. "We need to meet Rachel at the stronghold for the resistance first, you can test whatever you want then."
"You're suggesting I just follow you to a stronghold that I swore by my family's graves never to involve myself with." He butressed his resolve vigorously. "I don't see that happening."
Unknowingly to him, she had accomplished her goal as she made him to finally halt and speak down on her.
"At least take this." Rayla revealed a cannister that contained a somewhat blend of red and black substance. "It's going to allow you to..."
"Is that blood?" Higgins asked. His hunch was right on the money though. She had handed him blood, but the right question would be of what species it came from.
Different blood samples had different effects. Humans' were unpredictable, werewolves' did nothing, most nocturnal's invites werewolves to a frenzy, others have varying effect, but the sample Rayla handed him, was 'wolf bane', vampire blood.
Fabled to weaken a wolf form and render it unable to jaw down, she gave him an alternative that would provide him the proof he so desperately longed for while also making him unable to do much harm.
Although would it have any effect since silver was a false hope to use at this point.
"It's wolf bane, Vampire blood. It'll weaken your wolf and make sure you don't have... urges." Rayla told off his curiosity but with a different effect being instilled.
He had in-mind, defined 'urges' as different from what she obviously meant. "What do you mean?" He asked. At first he was petrified by the possibility of having to inject himself with vampire blood, but now intrigue clouded his resolve.
"I shouldn't be telling a hunter about wolf bane, even." She stated the obvious, but it was quite a shame that she wasn't wrong. "Or no I should, Rachel was the one that implemented it."
"Correction, was a hunter, now just tired. The new leader made it?" Higgins added.
"Yes she did. Your first few turns might prove... difficult for you to come out of. Like if an unwanted pregnancy were to happen then it wouldn't be so easy to go back from it. You wouldn't know how to handle it, especially without guidance."
"Thus, the bane." Higgins intruded. "Exactly" she added. "But I'm guessing that's not the actual reason behind it Rayla." He layered atop her affirmation.
"It's the resistance but people have children, we needed a softer way to tell them." She revealed the actual truth that glared it's obscurity from what the wolf bane held.
"Then that clears everything up. I am not taking a concoction that coursed through the veins of those blood-thirsty bastard just so you can take me to the stronghold of the resistance." He declared his unwavering resolve, especially after his inference of what she meant. "Mavion is the last place you'd see me to, I'd rather take my chances, risk a few deaths and see if the curse you put on me is actually potent."
"I'm not telling you to desecrate an oath you swore on their graves, I'm telling you to avenge them, rather than remain hell bent on seeing through the pain." She began a speech to sway his determination.
"I need you to go with me to Mavion and strive to save yourself with the proof that this will minimize it's effects. Don't become what you hunted and assist me in saving my pack from the corruption within itself." She concluded.
At this point, a silence had set its pace as it brew, allowing her words to truly unravel itself within him. She sought for him to think and decide for himself on what to do.
Would he continue sulking in a memory from ten years ago, or find the courage to take the cannister that she still stretched out from her soft grasp, having the potential of forever being a werewolf as another factor to consider.
"Hmmph!" Higgins let out a sigh as he seemed to, after a series of bequeathing silence, had reached a conclusion. "What did you mean when you said I won't be able to die a peaceful death." He held his hand, caressing his forehead, in a squating position as he stiffened his expression to assume her wandering's amiss.
"What?" Rayla failed to relive the entirety of how far he'd veered from what she thought he would say. "How does that..."
"Just answer the question." As his view struggled to look back at hers, he spoke down on her hesitation.
"If humane methods of killing you as a human wouldn't work, I'm guessing even inhumane ones for werewolves wouldn't be so different." She finally revealed.
"This cure you're talking about, how does it work?" He asked. "What's this about a Yoruba witch in Notre Dame?"
"It rids the werewolf curse in the form of the moon goddess' genes but I don't know if it will work, or work right even." She replied. "It might even have grievous consequences, like..."
"Death!" He intruded, suggesting something he actually wished would happen. "Does that classify as it's not working right?" He added.
"I guess so, but..." she confirmed his sole reason for still involving himself in the sway of her reasonings. "You wouldn't want to die anymore right, you dont feel as guilty for their deaths right? It wasn't your fault..."
"I'll agree to help you and even go to Mavion but with a sided condition." Higgins had risen from his crouched position as he now held a reverb in his tone.
"...What condition would that be?" Rayla drew out her words, stretching them while failing to predict what he had in mind.
"I meet with the Yoruba witch. I chart my own path towards finding my cure and you do not interfere." His conditions were plausible, at least with minimal consequences. "In return for that, I play to whatever you ask of me, deal?"
She feared for what his condition could mean if he had the cure in his hands. "Will he just turn it into a poison for himself?" She thought to herself. "Does he seriously feel the lingering grief still piercing him so much."
"You'd only have that immunity to do as you please, after we have saved my pack." She gave him her own condition. "Only then will I not infringe on whatever stunt you choose to pull."
She had chosen to bargain on a number of terms that saw to her achieving what she needed him for as paramount.
"Deal?" He asked, implying his willingness to go through with her set mandate.
She chose not to grace him with a reply as she again pushed the cannister of wolf bane to his view, hinting as to what he needed to do inorder to affirm what they had wrought.
Higgins led with an unpillared expression, as he clawed it form her grasp.
He turned, began to pace towards the glistening moonlight once more as pulled open the seal and decanted the content down his throat, gulping at every chance he got.
After everything had emptied into his system, he threw the cannister to the floor as it shattered.
The light had made its effect on him known as the rays now illuminated the emerging length of fur from his skin.
His pupils had began to dilate, as his muscles had ripped his clothes to shreds. His bones reformed to the reveal of a single beta's claw emerging from the shroud of a grey-furred beast.
With a bipedal stance, feral canines glistening from the exhaustion wrought in his transformation, acclimated with a ghastly omen, he stood tall, making Rayla revere and marvel to his majesty.
"Woah!" She gasped in awe, etching a quaint smile unto her gaze as his howl became pronounced.
"Howl!!!" Higgins paid his respect to the moon, of which it's goddess' genes now coursed through his veins.
====
"The hell was that?" Ramsy rose his head from the search that he led in the hold. "Was that a wolf's howl?" He couldn't believe it's severity.
He had still been inspecting the site where the thud erupted from when a peculiar howl called to his attention.
"Out of my way!" He then pushed a werewolf that obstructed his path as he made his way towards the dungeon, where else could havoc root from if not a potential vicar of the resistance under siege.
Ramsy had made his way to the dungeon, "What the... Higgins" He awed as he could not believe what his eyes bore witness to, Higgins was gone.
The inquisitor's neck had been snapped while the werewolf of earlier was placed against a pillar, with his guts harvested.
Ramsy squatted to the only visible conscious person as to whether he managed to witness anything substantial.
"What happened here?" He asked, calling on the fading consciousness of the beta.
"...Paul Higgins..." Before his last breath drew, a name had been engraved into his dying tongue, making Ramsy's gaze to bulge.