[Karl Holds the Line] It was late at night. The sun had long since set and the full moon was rising bloated above the horizon. It made his skin crawl, made his blood boil.
He approached the building through the umbra and set foot on the webbed roof, crouching down. Calling out through the totem link to Marni, his eyes closed. Dressed as always in dark clothes with raven black hair buzzed close and those glacial pale eyes full of fire. Yet there is emotion through the bond, some tight feeling of control that doesn’t quite hide everything. Yet aside from a tiny detail, he looks no different from any other night. On his left hand a golden band encircles his ring finger.
He waits there for Marni to arrive, eyes cast to the sky. Around him buzzes a few of the spirits of the Charm, flitting about, always close to the pack now.
[Marni] It’s late, and she’s just fallen asleep, all tangled limbs and sweaty bodies pleasantly exhausted from the evenings activities. Her reply is a sleepy protest, even as she’s already moving – slipping from her place curled against Ray, lifting his arm off her and soothing his protests as she slips from the bed. She grabs a particular one of hi discarded dress shirt, buttoning a couple buttons but leaving the rest open, and pulling on a pair of shorts that don’t quite go over the growing bean.
Barefoot then, she moves through the building, and too the roof, before slipping across to the other side… interestingly enough – the stolen dress shirt survives the journey.
She stretches, and then approaches, hiding a yawn behind her hand. “Hey.”
[Karl Holds the Line] He rises as she appears turning to face her. His head slighjtly tilted in an animalistic sort of expression of curiosity and interest. His instincts have only grown the last couple of months. Wolf has grown stronger.
“Hey there.”
His voice is low, deep and dark. There is tension in him, more then usual she would say even with the full moon that sets him on edge with all of his rage.
“Sorry for waking you.”
He goes to meet her then and it is a very human gesture as he gives her a quick hug. A human thing and uncommon for him. Always with the touches before, a brush of arm against arm or hand over shoulder or against back, but seldom as much as a straight hug, at least not in human skin.
“Needed to see you.”
[Marni] He’s not the hugging type – but she always has been. His arms come around her, and she snuggles in instantly, all warm curves topped with tousled curls. She lets him go when he pulls away though, and studies him intensely for a moment.
Because something isn’t right.
“Yeah? What’s up?”
[Karl Holds the Line] He draws in a breath, and then because he is brutally honest and never one to shelter those close to him…
“I have to leave.”
He gives her about a second to swallow it but goes on before she has a chance to interrupt.
“Got a call from home. My brother and his pack has gone missing and the sept he was protecting has come under attack. My father lies buried in the grave of that caern.”
He doesn’t know if the gnawer would understand the significance. Karl has been close-mouthed about his family and his past. All he has shared is that his father was a kin who died in battle to protect a caern.
“Had this sept not been at War, I would have asked you all to come with me, but I will not ask such a selfish thing now. I will return as soon as I can but… It could be a week or months.”
IF he returned at all. Ther’s was a life of danger which they knew as natural.
[Marni] Her gaze narrows slightly. “You’re leaving.”
And then she takes a step back. And another.
againitshappeningagain
And a third, before she turns her back on him and moves to the edge of the roof, looking out over the city, yet not seeing a thing.
“You just took Alpha. You just demanded that you lead us, and now you LEAVE? You know what happens then? DO YOU?” She whips around to look at him again, her eyes wide, tearfilled, memory and pain visible in the lines of her face. “They die. All of them. Because I can’t protect them all.”
…It’s all happened before…
“that’s your job.”
[Karl Holds the Line] He waits until she is by the edge of the roof before he steps closer to her. He draws in a deep breath, looking directly at her.
“No one of us can protect them all alone.”
He steps up to her but doesn’t quite reach out for her yet. His voice is low and there is a touch of sadness but also desperation in it.
“You have to look after each other. That is the only way. Victor will step up. Mama has his back, as she always does. And they have you to make sure they don’t lose sight of what is important.”
He looks into her eyes, meeting her gaze evenly.
“I will return. Know that. I will return but until then, you have to look after each other. You have to help them remember the ties. Can you do that?”
[Marni] “IT DOESN’T WORK THAT WAY!!”
He steps closer, and she steps away. She shakes her head, a violent spill of curls as she pulls away. “That’s what he said too. He always said that. And then he left. and then they DIED.”
She can’t meet his gaze. She won’t. He’s leaving her – they all leave her. She told Mama that being with her was a death sentence. She warned her. It’s starting all over again…
“youcan’tdothistome” a pained whimper. “Ican’tgothroughthisagain.”
[Karl Holds the Line] She steps away, raising her voice and he turns to look at her. Then as she whimpers he catches her with strong hands and he steps into her, wrapping his arms around her. He hugs her close struggle as she might.
“Listen Marni… There are no guarantees, but you are not the same. We are not the same. You have Ray and the bean to consider. Mama will look after the pack and see them through. You know this. Trust in her, trust in yourself.”
He won’t ask her to trust in him. He had done that and now he had to leave. There could be no other way, but it doesn’t make him feel any better. If he had a choice, he would take them all with him.
“Trust in them.”
Trust in the pack.
[Marni] And she does struggle. She fights him, despite knowing he’s stronger than her, that she can’t get away.. from him, from this, from anything that strives to tear her down, to crush her. “Mama gave us to YOU…. she didn’t want to lead…”
achingly, painfully soft… “I trusted you.”
She wrenches herself away from him again, or tries…”What about Moira? and the baby? What about them?”
[Karl Holds the Line] She fights and at first it is impossible to escape, yet finally he does let her go. He doesn’t follow her anymore. He simply looks at her. She was right of course. They had trusted him.
“Moira is coming with me to Germany.”
Simple as that. Moira was not one of very few warriors protecting the sept of this city like the Moonrunners were. He did not know how long he would be gone and he would not leave her behind.
[Marni] He’s taking her – and somehow that makes it so more real, final. She trusted one Fenrir, and he left, and the pack died – all but her. THey all fell, because she couldn’t protect them all. She trusted a second, despite her misgivings, because Mama urged her too… she let him behind the wall she built, she let herself trust and get close again..
…and so history repeats itself.
She steps farther away, tears flowing down her face, agony clearly writ across her features..
“Go on, then. Just like the rest of them. Go.”
[Karl Holds the Line] He watches her, forcing himself to take in each detail, the way pain is so open on her face, in her voice in those tears. It makes him want to howl. Yet he can’t. But he forces himself to watch, to memorize. He is the cause of this pain and he will not shy from it.
“I will miss you Marni. I will miss all of you.”
And then he is moving away, turning from her and going to the edge of the roof.
[Marni] He moves away, and she can’t watch, she can’t see another one leaving, another one leaving her behind, leaving the pack without a leader… setting them on the path she’s already seen to a deadly conclusion…
So she turns, and stumbles to the corner, to the farthest place away from where he is, removing herself, stumbling to the edge, into a corner, where she falls, and curls into the small space there, hugging her knees to her chest, burying her face… heartbroken.
and alone.
[Karl Holds the Line] He steps of the edge, the strength of their still shared totem lifting him into the air. There is a moment as he raises itno the dark, quickly vanishing from sight, but not from the feeling of the shared bond.
~Would you come with me?~
It is not fair to ask. It is selfish and horrible. He know the others in the pack. He knew that they all would stay now and they would stay for Marni’s sake. He did not ask them because he would not pull them from her. So he asks her instead. A horrible thing to ask, but one he could not leave without asking.
~Would you follow me away from the city?~
[Marni] It is a knife to her heart, that he would ask. Instead, she gives him the only thing she can – the only thing she can think of that would protect the others that she loves, too. Freedom to leave, to live.
I can’t. I have Ray. Take the others… those that wish to go – take them.
Protect them. Keep them from her, and the death she brings. She doesn’t want to risk them, to have them stay for her and to pay like Indira did.
[Karl Holds the Line] ~Ray is yours now. Would he not go with you wherever you went?~
Then there is a moments silence, a quiet in the bond.
~No one will leave you Marni. They will stay to protect you and the bean. They stay because they can. I do not have that choice.~
There is a feeling of distance, growing slowly.
~Goodbye Sticky Fingers.~
And then he is gone, as quickly as the totem can carry him on beating wings. Out of sight, but not out of Mind. Not yet.
[Marni] I would not tear him from his life here. It wouldn’t be fair to him.
He says goodbye. She doesn’t. She can’t. All she has left is this feeling of despair, of disaster on the horizon.
Of loss. Aching, agonizing loss.