Chapter 24 - Unexplainable Power

“Why do you smell like me? We haven’t met in weeks. Why do you have my scent on you?” He questioned in a suspicious tone. Irvin felt sick to his stomach. He lost all his confidence to tell Zadkiel everything. He didn’t know if Zadkiel could handle that. He was afraid for not one but so many reasons.

“No. I’m smelling like me.” Irvin instantly rejected the thought of Zadkiel.

Zadkiel narrowed his eyes on Irvin and leaned in to sniff Irvin but Irvin took a step back. This made Zadkiel more confused as he looked up to meet Irvin’s nervous gaze.

“What are you doing? There are people around.” Irvin hesitantly replied, pulling up the collar of his jacket so Zadkiel wouldn’t smell him again.

“Irvin, you do know that I can smell you from right here as well, right?” Zadkiel gave him another suspicious glance.

“I know,” Irvin murmured. Zadkiel was so confused. Not because Irvin was being strange but because why he was getting so bitchy about a scent.

“No. Something is different about you. You don’t smell like yourself. You smell like a mixture of you, me and something else. It’s not entirely my scent. It’s a little different.” Zadkiel frowned, looking at Irvin from his head to toe.

“Maybe, it’s just a perfume. Leave it be.” Irvin sighed, trying to act like this conversation was exhausting him. Zadkiel didn’t want to let it go but he thought he had bigger issues on his hands to discuss.

“Explain yourself, right now?!” Zadkiel demanded stepping back and crossed his arms over his chest, keeping a stern gaze on Irvin. For a moment Irvin thought that he was being investigated about the scent but then he realized that Zadkiel was actually demanding an explanation for his absence.

“I was in America for some business work,” Irvin stated. Zadkiel rolled his eyes and took another step back.

“America is so poor. They don’t have mobile phones?” Zadkiel taunted with a bittersweet smile on his face.

“They do. I was in mountains.” Irvin answered but before Zay could further interrogate, another voice boomed from his back.

“Mr Ford, these days he gets to know about your arrival before me and I have no idea how,” Mark spoke. Zadkiel turned around to look at him. He was standing at the door and was slowly making his way to them. His pace was so slow that a snail would be faster than him. Zadkiel thought if he kept walking at that pace, he’d reach when he and Irvin would have their own kids.

“Father, are you on a garden walk?” Zadkiel spoke but his voice was low so only Irvin heard it and sniggered behind his hand.

“Mr Joseph, I’m here to pick up the boy and talk to you about something else,” Irvin answered as he kept his distance from Zadkiel.

“You talk like you’re here to pick up some groceries,” Zadkiel commented without facing him. “By the way, Father knows that you aren’t taking me for only medical purposes. He said to live the rest of your life as you like.” Zadkiel mumbled so only Irvin could hear. Irvin whispered a shocked “really?” and Zadkiel gave a head nod.

“I’m all ears, Mr Ford,” Mark responded to Irvin’s previous statement.

“Let’s talk inside.” He offered to Mark who stopped in his position and gestured for his hand to join him in going back inside the building. Irvin put a hand on Zadkiel’s back and whispered “I’ll be right back” before heading inside the building with Mark.

Zadkiel headed straight for Abel. He didn’t care if he was told that Abel wouldn’t wake up for the next 16 hours. He was excited to get the fuck out of the bloody orphanage. He skidded through the hallways to the sleeping hall. He jumped towards Abel’s bed and sat beside him.

“Abel, wake up!” He gently caressed his friend’s back but the latter showed no movement.

“Abel, Irvin’s here!” Zadkiel was so excited that he almost screamed with joy. The boy stayed lying on the bed without moving a muscle.

“Abel!” Zadkiel shook him so forcefully. Abel groaned in his sleep.

“Don’t you want to get out of here?” He whispered the question in the boy’s ear who just slapped Zadkiel’s face away.

“Fine! Suit yourself!” Zadkiel huffed and sat back on his bed, staring at his best friend’s lifeless body. Well, it seemed lifeless.

He started packing Abel’s stuff as well as his own. He would carry Abel out of the place if he had to but he wouldn’t leave without him. When he was done with Abel’s stuff that consisted of few clothes, toiletries, footwear and randomly collected junk, then he started doing his own.

He was in the middle of folding his clothes when Irvin arrived with Mark beside him. Zadkiel gave them both a smile and continued doing the packing.

“Ready to go?” Mark was the first one to speak. Zadkiel lifted his head and glanced at him with a happy look on his face and nodded. Mark gave a pat on his shoulder. Zadkiel smiled at him before crouching down to grab his shoes from under the bed.

“You look excited,” Mark remarked. Irvin stayed silent watching both of them. Zadkiel stood up with the shoes in his hands and looked at Mark.

“Thank you, Father. I can’t thank you enough for this.” His smile was soft and he was genuinely grateful. Mark waved his hand dismissively and pulled him in a hug. The shoes fell from Zadkiel’s hands as his chest collided with Mark’s. He wrapped his arms around the person who he always looked up to as his father figure.

“Stay safe.” He whispered in Zadkiel’s ear and rubbed his back before pulling away.

He then turned to Abel’s sleeping figure and ruffled his hair gently. He looked at him with a soft smile and admiring glint in his eyes. He dipped down to place a kiss on his forehead and turned around to give Zadkiel one last smile.

“Take care of my children.” He said to Irvin who gave an assuring smile to him as he rested his hand on his shoulder.

Zadkiel didn’t know why he was so emotional to go. He wanted this all along. He wanted to run away from this place but now that the time had arrived, he was sad. His whole life was in that building. It’s like he had assured himself that the world only consisted of the people inside the building. It was strange to just walk out of here and he didn’t even think for once that he’d feel so gloomy. He didn’t know that he’d find leaving Father so hard when it was all he wanted.

“Thank you for everything,” Zadkiel whispered. Mark turned around and placed his hand on Zadkiel’s cheek, gave a small pat before turning around to leave.

As soon as Mark left, Zadkiel sat on the bed as the flashback of all the happy times with the boys, Sisters and Father hit him. He rewound all those times he smiled, laughed and had actual fun with the boys.

What making him more emotional was that he didn’t have enough time so, there was a good chance he was seeing their faces for the last time. He was sure that he wouldn’t be this much emotional if it wasn’t for the fact that he might die without greeting them again. He had always thought he’d die between his friends but now that possibility was gone.

“You need a moment?” Irvin spoke, bringing him out of his mind. Zadkiel then saw that Irvin was kneeling before him, his hand on Zadkiel’s knee.

“Can we wait till lunch? I want to say a proper goodbye to everyone.” Zadkiel requested.

“Sure.” Irvin agreed instantly. He sat beside Zadkiel on the bed.

“What happened to him?” Irvin asked, nodding towards Abel.

“Got punishment this morning.” Zadkiel shrugged though he himself didn’t believe the reason for it.

“What? What do you mean?” Irvin frowned, staring at Abel.

“Leave it. Tell me where’s Sean?” Zadkiel didn’t want to answer that question. He didn’t know why he kept it secret.

“He’s injured.” The curly-haired lad answered.

“Injured? How?”

“He was attacked by another pack in the mountains.” Irvin beat around the bush. Zadkiel rolled his eyes.

“You know it’s time you tell me about this whole pack thingy and everything,” Zadkiel demanded. Irvin stared at him for a while. He could see Zadkiel wouldn’t back down.

“So, we were called by this pack in the Appalachians. We were invited there for their cultural event. I had to go there but then I had to make arrangements for Abel so, I stayed and sent a team.” Irvin started. He still wasn’t going to tell everything.

“The team was attacked on their way by another pack who seemed to have a very old dispute with us. I had to go to bring back the team so that’s what took long to come back to you.” Irvin explained.

“Sean got injured in the fight.” He put a stop after this. He wouldn’t let any more information out.

“Are you fine? Like all of you?” A concerned look was on Zadkiel’s face. Irvin gave a small nod.

“They didn’t kill anyone of us. Those were never their intention.” Irvin told him.

“I don’t understand all of this. Why can’t we live like humans? They don’t attack each other.” Zadkiel frowned.

“You sure they don’t?” Irvin gave him a look. Zadkiel understood Irvin’s words held much deeper meanings. He just ignored and looked ahead at his friend.

Zadkiel thought about all his dreams. The one where he was lost in mountains. The one where he saw Irvin talking to two familiar figures and Irvin was in some cage. He linked those to this and it all fit. Irvin was in the mountain and was attacked maybe at some point was in a cage too but he couldn’t understand the two figures because he didn’t know anyone from the Appalachians.

“How did you convince Father for Abel?” Zadkiel questioned, ignoring all his thoughts. He tried to convince himself that they were just dreams and a coincidence.

“He didn’t put up much protest. I was surprised as well. He said he would do anything if it means the betterment of his children.” Irvin responded. Zadkiel wasn’t surprised to hear that because Father did care about all his children. Zadkiel knew why he acted the way he did when Zadkiel was in question. He just wanted to protect the other kids.

“Yeah. His way of showing care is different.” Zadkiel murmured.

They both sat for a moment of silence. Both of them were lost in their own thoughts. Both of them hiding something from each other. Irvin was afraid to share it and Zadkiel just didn’t want to share something that meant nothing.

“You know you’d have to wake up your friend. He’d like to say goodbyes as well.” Irvin spoke, breaking the silence.

“Yeah. I know. Let him sleep for a while.” The raven-haired boy answered.

They both got quiet again. There was an unknown tension between them. Zadkiel didn’t know why and Irvin didn’t want to address it. Zadkiel could tell that it was bothering his mate but he didn’t ask about it. He had a fair share of secrets so he wasn’t going to pester Irvin to vomit out his.

“Let’s sit behind the bleachers. I love that place.” Zadkiel suggested trying to cut the thickening tension. Irvin soon relaxed and stood up.

They both spent the rest of their time talking about things that wouldn’t cause any weirdness amongst them. They didn’t discuss their weird nature or Irvin’s tour to the Appalachians. They talked about what they like and what they don’t. What movies they watch and what they don’t. They talked about their favourite songs, dishes, football players and teams, and books. They talked about their dream house. Their desired place to visit.

In all of this, the time spent so smoothly that they didn’t even realize that it was lunch time. They both got so much lost in each other that they forgot to keep track of time. They both decided to wake up Abel before heading to the other boys to say goodbye.

Now they both were trying their best to wake up the sleeping beauty who had looked like sworn on his life not to move a muscle. Irvin was so frustrated that he even wanted to kick his back to wake him up but Zadkiel slapped him on the back of his head so hard for even giving that idea. Zadkiel sat beside Abel and placed a hand on his head, massaging his scalp. Irvin was finding it difficult to hide his irritation.

“Abel, wake up,” Zadkiel whispered in his ear, still massaging his scalp. Abel shot up like he rose from death and gasped for air.

“Thank good, gracious lord!” Zadkiel sighed, scooting a little away to let the boy catch the air and his consciousness.

Abel looked around seeming lost for a moment before he realized where he was and fell back on his bed, closing his eyes. Zadkiel pulled him up by his arm.

“Get up, you donkey!” He sat behind Abel so he wouldn’t try to sleep again.

“Zad… oh… I want to tell you… tell you something… but… I’m sleepy.” He mumbled, leaning against Zadkiel and closed his eyes again. Zadkiel grabbed his head between his hands from the back and shook it.

“Stay awake!” He scoffed at him and just like that Abel was wide awake.

“I’m up!” He told Zadkiel so he would stop shaking him. Zadkiel stopped and stood up.

“We are going. I packed all of your stuff. We’ve enough time to just say our goodbyes.” Zadkiel informed him, standing beside Irvin.

Abel sighed and slipped out of his sheets before standing up on his wobbly legs. He grunted in pain as he stretched his muscles. His face was still very much littered with bruises.

“I need to use the bathroom first.” He limped towards the bathroom.

“Don’t sleep in there!” Zadkiel yelled from behind.

Zadkiel did the last of his packing. Then he remembered the stock of aconite he had in the drawer. He pulled out the box that had aconite bottles and a box of unused syringes and put them in his duffle bag.

When he turned around to look at Irvin, he was frowning at Zadkiel. Irvin seemed lost and yet his gaze was following Zadkiel’s every movement. Zadkiel thought he was thinking about the syringes and the aconite. He chuckled when he assumed that Irvin was thinking about Zadkiel doing drugs.

“Those were not drugs. Just my medicine.” Zadkiel spoke, chuckling but Irvin’s scowl deepened.

“Hey…!” Zadkiel placed his hand on Irvin’s bicep. That was so hard as a rock and so thick that his eyes involuntarily darted towards his hand resting on the bicep and he squeezed it.

“You woke up Abel,” Irvin whispered, making Zadkiel pull back his hand and blush. He didn’t know what got over him but then he focused on Irvin’s words.

“Yeah. I did.” Zadkiel looked at him weirdly.

“Zadkiel, you don’t understand. You woke up Abel. It’s like he heard you in sleep and obliged.” Irvin looked at him like he was trying to prove a fact.

“Of course, he heard me in his sleep. That’s what happens when someone tries to wake you up.” Zadkiel gave him another weird look.

“Zadkiel, for fuck’s sake. Try to understand. You have the power to control someone’s mind!” Irvin rolled his eyes in frustration. Zadkiel scrunched his nose in confusion before he burst out laughing.

“No, I don’t.” He kept laughing. Irvin sighed, rubbing his temples.

“Yes, you do!” Irvin stated, holding Zadkiel’s shoulders and looking at him sternly as if it would make more impact. Zadkiel stopped laughing.

“So what if I do have it? I mean it’s normal right? We all have it. I mean people like us.” Zadkiel nervously smiled, thinking he did something wrong. Irvin let go of his shoulders and turned away.

“What’s wrong?” Zadkiel asked in a low voice as if he’d scared that someone would hear it. Irvin turned around to look at him. His face had lost all the colour and it was pale.

“No, we don’t.”

‧̍̊˙˚˙ᵕ꒳ᵕ˙˚˙ ˙˚˙ᵕ꒳ᵕ˙˚˙‧̍̊

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I need to tell yall that I've changed the name of the pack from "The moon stone pack" to "The onyx tails Pack"

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