The Price of Pursuit

title: The Price of Pursuit
author: Tricia
rating: NC-17 (slight non-con)
summary: While trailing after dark magick in pursuit of Hadrian\'s father, Caled and Hadrian encounter a former lover of Caled\'s who is also following the same trail. A man who develops an obsession with Hadrian and will do anything to get him. ote:ote: this story is from JuxtaposeFantasy.com, a large original yaoi fiction site which also features original mangas. In lieu of feedback, please check out the site!


The Price of Pursuit --Part 1
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He watched Manix fall as though he viewed it through the lens of a warped glass. Everything around Hadrian blurred to the point that he could see nothing but the silver-haired mage as he stumbled backwards, crushed beneath the weight of the snarling wolf. No, not a wolf. Whatever the creature was now, it was a far cry from what nature had originally intended it to be. This thing had been twisted by foul magick.

It\'s dripping, snapping teeth tore into Manix\'s sleeve as the Elder tried to keep that deadly bite away from his throat. Hadrian watched the scene in horror Distantly, he heard Syellen screaming. Caled shouted something at her, but Hadrian couldn\'t make out the words. He knew without turning that his companions were similarly beset by these strange creatures and would soon suffer Manix\'s fate. Hadrian realized grimly that help would not be forthcoming. Though he dreaded the choice, he knew he could do nothing else.

He reached out with his senses, opening himself to the Life energy that he unconsciously blocked at all times. Unchecked, it rushed over his senses like a wave of blinding color and energy. Hadrian gasped, feeling as though he had been struck by a bolt of lightning. Every nerve ending in his body flamed with sensation. His eyes widened, his blood roared, his breath came out in quick, excited pants. So much energy. It filled his veins with an ecstasy that made him gasp in erotic pleasure. He trembled as Life filled him. He could do anything...

Until It recognized him.

It shrank away from him with a horror that nearly buckled Hadrian\'s knees.

\"No,\" he whispered, reaching blindly into the air.

Life pulled away from him, shrinking from his touch. Disgust poured over him. Despair. Taker of Life! It hissed in his mind and in his soul. The timber of the energy shifted. Though nothing changed in the appearance of the things around him, on a magickal plane Hadrian could see how the plants and trees shriveled and turned black from his contact. Bile rose in his throat. He struggled not to vomit as all the living things around him cringed away from him in revulsion.

He wanted desperately to sever the contact, block out the aversion of the energy around him. But Manix suddenly cried out. The creature had torn into his forearm and was shaking the limb viciously as if to rend it from his shoulder. Hadrian could not wait.

Like the rapist he was, Hadrian pulled at the energy that tried to escape him. He yanked mercilessly, pulling invisible threads. Sweating with the effort, he fought to gather the force to him so that he could cast it like a net toward the creature that attacked his friend. Life shrieked as he forced It to his will. Taker of Life! It wailed in accusation. It chilled his soul until he sobbed aloud.

He forced himself to work through the agony, shaping the energy and propelling it toward the creature. The beast flew off of Manix in an explosion of fur, striking the trunk of a tree with a sickening sound. It slid to the base, nothing more than broken bones in a bag of skin and hair. Hadrian turned to the other creatures that circled them, his head pounding with the stress of controlling the resistant energy. With a wave of his hand, he sent them all smashing likewise into trees. Caled, who had been about to spear one with his sword, dropped the point of his blade as the creature before him was flung violently away. He turned shocked blue eyes upon Hadrian, but the sorcerer could not bear to hold the gaze while his inner torment whirled within him.

With a stifled cry, he severed the connection with Life, slamming up his barriers as swiftly as he could. The maelstrom abruptly ended. The sudden silence within his mind and soul made him drop weakly to his knees. He brought his shaking, gloved hands to his face, hearing the echoes of loathing in his mind. He was repulsive. His touch was a horror. He was a rapist of Life. A murderer...

Large hands were on his shoulders, curving around his heaving shoulders. The familiar contact freed something within him. With a sob, he flung himself against Manix\'s body, needing the reassurance that he could be touched, that not everything would turn from him as Life had. He knew he was clutching the Elder too tightly, he heard it in the soft hiss of pain. He didn\'t care. He buried his face against the mage\'s robes and clung in desperation.

Manix understood. The mage\'s arm was bleeding and tremors of exhaustion and shock ripped through his body, but he did not pull away. \"It\'s all right,\" the older man murmured, gently stroking Hadrian\'s hair. \"We won\'t turn away from you. We\'re here. We won\'t turn away. \"

*********************************

Caled kicked at the lifeless body of one of the wolf-things. It yielded beneath his boot with a sickening softness, every bone in the creature\'s body having been shattered to powder. The mercenary shuddered. Magick had always left him uneasy. Hadrian\'s particular style of magicking left him downright ill.

He\'d been caught off-guard by the sorcerer\'s decision to magick. He knew Hadrian did everything possible to avoid the use of his powers. If Hadrian\'s face during the attempt had anything to do with it, Caled could see why. He had never seen such an expression of horror and self-disgust before. It made him wish he had not witnessed it. The aftermath had not been much better. The sight of Hadrian, looking as though on the verge of being physically sick while wrapped in Manix\'s bloody arm was equally disturbing.

Grim-faced, Caled started to turn back to the others when a rustle of leaves drew his attention to the trees. He sucked in his breath and raised his sword. Another of the creatures stood out there. But this one was different. Unlike it\'s dirty brown fellows, this one was an ivory white. The sheer strangeness of its color left Caled temporarily frozen in place. The creature\'s azure gaze locked with his in challenge. This one thinks, Caled mused.

The creature\'s gaze flicked beyond him. Though he could not explit, it, Caled knew that the creature was seeking the others. It was looking for something. Or someone... Caled shook his head, rousing himself from the spell he had fallen under. He took a step toward the creature, but in an instant it had turned and fled into the forest. Caled let it go, regretful. He could not pursue it on his own.

He walked back to where Syellen had lain Manix across a hastily made bed of leaves. Caled watched from over Syellen\'s shoulder as she peeled back the shredded sleeve of the mage\'s robe to reveal the ravaged flesh of his arm. The mercenary frowned. The flesh was deeply torn, but what was more worrisome was the blue tinge to the edges of the ripped flesh.

\"Magicked,\" Syellen muttered with barely concealed worry. \"The bite of those...things was magicked to be poisonous.\"

Caled\'s lips pulled back in a snarl. His glance fell to Hadrian, who sat on Manix\'s other side. The sorcerer was holding Manix\'s hand in his gloved one. Hadrian hadn\'t broken the contact since using his powers to kill the creatures. The odd dependence stirred the mercenary\'s interest, but he did not comment on it.

\"Can you heal him?\" he asked instead.

Syellen took a deep breath. \"Yes, so long as it is not some complex Casting. But it will take Manix time to recover.\" Her hand rested gently atop the mage\'s forehead, above the eyes closed in pain. \"He is already developing a fever. He cannot travel.\"

\"There is no need to travel just yet,\" Hadrian said quietly. They were the first words he had spoken in almost an hour. \"We shall stay here and allow him to rest.\"

\"That we cannot do,\" Caled told him. \"I just saw something that requires our attention.\"

Hadrian looked up at him, frowning. He had recovered some of his color, but still bore the lines of stress around his eyes. \"What did you see?\"

Caled motioned towards the nearest furred body. \ of of these things, but entirely white. A most unnatural coloring. I\'d wager it is the pack leader if creatures such as these follow the normal behavior of wolves.\"

\"White...\" Hadrian\'s eyes became unfocused. \"There was a white wolf on Shard\'s Point. I don\'t know how it had come to be on the island on its own. I could never catch it, even though it appeared often enough when I was away from the castle. Gavedon could not explain it. He never attempted to.\" His vi cle cleared, focusing on Caled again. \"We need to catch it. It may hold the answer to who created these creatures.\"

\"Did you not hear me? Manix cannot travel!\" Syellen protested, her brown eyes flashing with anger.

\"Hades and I will go alone,\" Caled told her. \"You remain here with Manix and heal him. Can you do that?\"

Syellen bit her lip, looking down at her master with a mixture of worry and love. \"I will try my best.\"

Caled nodded. \"Then it\'s settled.\" He waited expectantly, watching to see if Hadrian would have difficulty severing the contact with Manix. After a telling pause, the sorcerer carefully laid the older man\'s hand atop the leaves and stood up. His crystalline gaze was determined. \"Let\'s go.\"

**************************************

\"So do you intend to tell me what happened back there?\"

Hadrian eyed the mercenary with distrust. \"I think it was fairly obvious.\"

Caled suppressed a laugh. Hadrian viewed conversation with Caled as simply another form of torture. \"I\'m referring to what happened afterwards. The way you latched onto Manix like that.\" Grinning perversely at the younger man\'s sudden flush of color, Caled went on. \"He told me something about what happens to you whenever you magick. You reacted the same way back when we were en route to the Greying Cliffs.\"

Hadrian\'s color deepened at the reminder of that journey. It had ended with a confusing, drug-induced bout of violent, passionate sex between them. Caled prided himself that he had not referred to what had occurred between them until now. Though the gods knew, he had questions.

Such as, how much of Hadrian\'s behavior had been because of the drug forced upon him by the Dimorada? he he enjoyed it as much as he appeared to? More importantly, would it have occurred if neither of them had been under the unnatural influences of that night? They had both silently agreed to pretend that the event had never happened. But the questions lingered...

\"So?\" Caled prodded. \"Are you always like that whenever you magick? Needing human contact like that?\"

Hadrian shrugged, clearly uncomfortable with the line of questioning. \"I don\'t know. Since Shard\'s Point, I haven\'t used my power often enough to know if it is something that happens regularly.\" He rubbed wearily at his forehead. \"Let it be, Caled.\"

Caled was hit by an unexpected urge to rub that furrowed brow with his own fingers. Surprised by himself, he forced his attention back te foe forest. While it was true he and Hadrian had been intimate beneath the Greying Cliffs, Caled had managed not to think on ir ser several weeks. Sheer disbelief that it had occurred allowed him to block it out. He wondered why he was thinking about it now. Perhaps it had something to do with seeing Hadrian clutching at Manix. Caled didn\'t think himself jealous, but the sight had been oddly disturbing to him.

\"I think I saw it,\" Hadrian said in a hushed voice. He pod ahd ahead. A flash of white peeked between the trees.

Caled drew his daggers, holding one in each hand. For this, he would prefer to come in close to this mysterious creature. Beside him, Hadrian had drawn his own weapon, holding it with more confidence after his brief lesson with Caled. The mercenary spared him a nod of approval before creeping carefully ahead.

Caled prided himself on his powers of observation. His workendeended upon him being aware of his surroundings. But perhaps Hadrian\'s presence distracted him, for he caught the sound of movement a fraction too late to react to it. A loop of rope sailed through the air, expertly encircling his neck. He slashed at it, but it tightened so swiftly around his neck that he was forced to drop his daggers to pull at the constriction before it strangled him. A painful jerk on the rope sent him sprawlingoughough the leaves. He heard Hadrian make a choking sound and hit the ground behind him.