Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen

I nside the jailhouse, Gunner was stitching a cut on Jack's brow, both men looking up as Cal and Seb came charging through the door.

"What's going on, boss?" Gunner pulled back from his work, his eyes tracking them as they headed for the cell. When neither responded to him, Gunner set his tools down and turned, concern dancing across his otherwise stoic face. "Cody and Jesse… gods are they…?"

"No." Cal was fishing his keys from his pocket, Seb at his side. "They're fighting."

Inside the cell, Jeb snorted a teasing laugh. His face was a disfigured lump from the beating after they got the collar around his neck. With only one working eye, the monster of a man grinned a gappy smile their way.

"What can I do for you, Sheriff?" he mocked. "If I was you, I'd be fetchin' them boys a priest."

"I came for your venom." The cell door opened with a whine as he pushed it on its hinges, stepping inside. Jeb was cuffed and chained up in the cell, all silver bindings that kept him from being able to piss properly let alone attack anyone .

"Did you now?" Jeb leaned over and spit to the side, a bloody glob of spit hitting the ground. "How you reckon you're gonna get that, exactly?"

"By taking it from you." Cal opened the jar Elliot gave him and motioned for Seb to go ahead.

Jeb laughed, having no idea what was in store. Seb moved forward, his eyes glazing over and his motions becoming automatic as he grabbed a fistful of Jeb's greasy mop of hair. The bandit snarled from his hair being pulled, but his skin began to turn a sickly shade of green as he saw Seb's runes beginning to flare.

The scream that tore from Jeb's throat was like music. Manic, pained, desperate bellows of torment as his Lamia half was pulled forward by Enforcer magic, pressing against the silver and causing his skin to hiss. The smell of magically burning skin brought back vivid flashes of wartime, but Cal pushed past it and tried to hold his breath. Forcing the glass bottle into the man's now fanged mouth, he shoved the lip of the jar against his gums to force the milky green liquid to spurt from the tip of his fangs. Jeb continued to scream around the glass, trying to beg for mercy.

If Cal wasn't pressed for time, he would have made it last longer.

Once the jar was full, he pulled back, and Seb dropped him, letting Jeb's form slide back to his human side. Sobs bubbled from the burned and violated bandit slumped forward in his chains.

"Sweet gods," Jack whispered, horrified, stumbling out of their way as Seb and Cal stepped back outside the cell and locked it tight.

"Thank you, Seb." Cal gave the man's shoulder another squeeze, but Seb didn't respond. His eyes still glazed over, he barely seemed to blink as he stood like a statue.

"I'll take him home," Gunner said, stepping up and nodding to Cal to go on ahead. Cal didn't hesitate and gripped the jar tight as he ran quickly back to Elliot's, praying like hell he'd find both Cody and Jesse still alive.

Elliot met him at the door, grabbing the jar in a handoff so he could immediately get to work doing what he needed to in order to make it ready. Mack was replacing a wet rag on Cody's brow, trying to help with the fever and glanced up as Cal moved over to check on Jesse.

"How'd it go? You get it?"

"Yeah." Cal pushed Jesse's hair off his brow, sweat making it cling to his clammy skin. He was the wrong shade, too pale and tinted gray. Small, shallow breaths brushed past his dry lips, his brow knotted in pain but otherwise unresponsive. The bite area was angry, weeping, and swollen, causing a wave of almost dizzying concern to rush through Cal's brain. If they couldn't get this under control fast, an infection might kill them as fast as any poison.

There was no doubt that Elliot cleaned and bled the wound as much as he was able, trying to work the poison out and keeping diseases at bay, but the wounds looked vicious. Cal leaned down, pressing his lips to Jesse's sweaty forehead, shutting his eyes and savoring everything he could about his presence. It might be the last time he had him close, would be able to feel his skin, even if it was burning and wet.

You can't think like that. You didn't lose him yet.

Yet.

"No, you're going to make it. You're going to fight this and come out fine, you hear me?" Cal whispered to the sleeping Jesse. "Not after pulling this shit. You think you can just say you love me and leave? You ain't getting off that easy."

Jesse's brows seemed to crease slightly, and Cal kissed him right where the line formed. "Keep fighting, you stubborn bastard."

Elliot came back to Cal, shaking a small vial in his hand, a syringe in the other. "Cal, I'm gonna need you to shift for this next part."

"Shift? What for?"

"Antivenom is made by building up antibodies against the venom and harvested. In order to do that, I need a large body that isn't going to be harmed by small amounts of extremely toxic venom going into the bloodstream. Like, a horse, for example."

"Cal was maimed," Mack said standing. "He can't shift right now."

"Can you use a regular horse?" Cal asked.

"Not if we want this done now. Your system is going to work this and build up antibodies faster than a non-shifting being. Your blood can mix with the venom cocktail I've made, and we can do this in one shot. Cal, it has to be you. Normal horses would take weeks. We have hours."

Cal began stripping down, and Mack rounded the bed. "Gods, Cal. You're gonna go brain dead if you try and push a shift through a maim!"

"I don't have much choice, Mack," he said through his teeth, throwing his shirt across the room and toeing out of his boots. The maim pulsed on his chest, a hideous reminder of his current handicap.

"We'll go get Seb. We can—"

"Mack," Cal snapped, his rage cooling at the worry in his friend's hazel eyes. Stepping forward, he pulled the man into a hug and slapped his back. "Mack, you gotta let me do this. I can't fail them."

"No one thinks you failed them, Cal." Mack hugged him back tightly. "You know no one thinks that."

"I do. I gotta do right by them. It's the last shot we have."

Mack nodded quickly and took a breath, stepping back. "Alright. But I'm putting ‘dumbass' on your tombstone. You're a dumbass." He wiped at his eyes .

"Probably," Cal muttered and pulled his jeans off, tossing them over the back of a chair.

Shutting his eyes, he tried again to shift, the throb of the maim starting to pound in his head once again. The pain pinched the back of his eyes and pressed on each side of his skull as he kept trying, kept pushing. Colors began to pulse behind his eyelids with each bone splintering slam of the maim against his brain, sparks of stars dotted the blasts of red and yellow with each new wave of pain. A warm trickle came down his nose, the coppery sting of blood filling his senses as he ground his teeth together in focus.

In an attempt to distract himself from the pain, he remembered his time with Jesse, as fleeting as it was. The poker games, the teasing, the stories they shared. The way his muscles rolled, his wit, the way his whiskey-colored eyes sparkled when he smirked after a particularly good jab or when he flirted with him.

The way he tasted. How his skin felt against his.

Waves of memories took him by storm, moving from Jesse to flashes of when he had first met Cody, a rough teenager getting into trouble. That kid took to Cal and his crew like fish to water, always wanting to help and make them proud as soon as they showed him some guidance. What had been a lost kid turned into a good young man, and it hardly seemed like it had been three years since he had found Stallion Ridge.

Somewhere in the distance, like a faraway dream, he could hear Jesse laughing, see a flash of him in the morning sun together. The sunlight playing against his features as he turned his head and looked at him, the light causing his vision to go blurry.

Numbness. Silence. Everything stopped like Cal had walked away from the shell that was being bombarded with blistering pain.

"I can't stop you from going… "

West smirked at him in front of their parents' house, adjusting his hat and putting his hands on his hips.

"I think you pushed yourself too hard, Cal."

"Probably." Cal glanced around the yard, remembering it in vivid detail. In the distance, the clouds were hanging low in the big blue sky, and the land seemed to stretch forever. Cal wasn't a kid as he stood there in front of his brother, but West looked exactly as he had last seen him.

"Am I dead?"

"Hope not," West offered, crossing his arms. "‘Cause that would make me dead too, wouldn't it?"

"Are you dead? I couldn't find you. I tried… Gods, I tried, West. Where did you go?"

"I got lost along the way, little brother. Lost so bad there was no way you could find me." West gave him an apologetic smile. "Maybe one day we'll find each other again."

"So, what now? Jesse and Cody are dying, and I'm either dead or in a coma. Do I get to spend eternity standing in the front yard with you being a cryptic ass?"

West laughed, the sound shaking loose an old, warm emotion Cal had thought he'd never experience again. He knew the laugh like it was a piece of his soul finding its way home again.

"No. This is about you taking a moment to come to terms with something extremely important."

"That I'm dead?"

"No."

"Am I dying?"

Smile. "No."

"That you're an asshole?"

West pulled his hat off and tucked it on Cal's head like he used to do when Cal needed comfort. Leaning down to meet Cal's eyes under the brim, he gave him a smile, his silvery eyes sparkling.

"That you love him."

"Hell, I knew that, West."

"Good. Then go save him. "

Another wave of pain blasted through him as the cage holding him broke loose and his body finally shifted. The glowing maim on his chest faded away as did the pain, but the dizziness caused him to stumble and forced him to sit down. His skin tingled with the magic leaving his body, and his senses swam as he blinked back to reality.

Mack was staring, openmouthed and amazed. Elliot was cleaning off a spot for the needle, getting to work as soon as he could.

" Holy shit , Cal!" Mack hooted. "That was amazing!"

Cal gave a weak grin and winced as he was given the shot.

"You turn your damn body inside out, and the shot is going to be the thing that makes you wince?" Mack sounded like the tiny face tick had offended him as much as it amused him.

"How long will this take?" Cal asked, ignoring him.

"Not long." Elliot handed him some water. "Sip this and just stay sitting down. You look a little pale."

"He just broke through a maim! He should be dead or have his brain fried!"

"Thanks, Mack." Cal sipped the water quietly, shutting his eyes. "I feel like my brain is fried."

Once the venom had worked its way through Cal's body, Elliot pulled a blood sample and got to work crafting the antivenom. Cal shifted back into his human form after a while so he could move more comfortably around the small building but kept to Jesse's and Cody's sides. The antivenom was crafted and given to each of the suffering men, and Cal was told to wait and pray to whatever the hell would listen.