Bad Luck and The Law of Averages (The Old Guard Fanfic)

Chapter 8 - Purity

Joe didn't know what to do. Nicky was making tiny strangled noises, sprawled on the bed as if caught in some terrible fit. Then there were the changes. Shining eyes, the same endless grey blue, but luminous like no human's should be stared straight up, and Nicky had claws. When those expressive lips had been pulled back in a snarl of pain, Joe had seen fangs.

If it had not been Nicky, maybe Joe would have felt fear, but he was not afraid of his husband, only for him. Nicky was bleeding. It had started on Nicky's chest, but it was spreading. Nose, eyes, ears, wrists, legs, anywhere blood vessels were close to the surface.

Of course, he had noticed the leather around Nicky's neck when he had come back earlier, but he had thought nothing of it. If Nicky needed the comfort of the cross, so be it, but this, this was inhuman. Andy charging into the room, closely followed by Nile and Booker broke him out of his inaction.

"We have to get that off," he said, pointing to what had once been Nicky's mother's gift.

It was sinking into Nicky's skin like acid though metal.

Andy climbed onto the bed beside him and produced a knife from god knew where.

"You hold him down, I'll get it out," she said.

Joe nodded. He moved forward, placing his hands on Nicky's shoulders as Andy knelt up. Their bodies usually rejected foreign objects automatically, but they had had to remove a few by force from time to time. It was never pleasant, and Joe braced himself, praying that Nicky's pain would be over soon.

Heedless of the blood, Andy went to work. She cut a short line up to one edge of the cross, pulling back Nicky's skin before it could knit back together where it was almost folding over the metal. Joe never took his eyes off what she was doing, praying it would be quick.

"Fuck," she said as she hooked the tip of her blade under to leverage it out and the steel went right through it, "it's like mercury."

"It's spreading," Nile said from where she was standing. "It's spreading under his skin."

"His body should be rejecting it," Booker added, sounding almost as frantic as Joe felt.

"Nicky," Joe implored.

"We have to cut him open," Andy said. "We need anything that can scoop this out of him."

Booker was out the door before Andy finished speaking.

"Turn him over," was her next instruction.

She moved to the left, sliding her hands under Nicky's side. Joe braced his knees, curling his fingers over Nicky's shoulder and nodded at Andy. As one they moved, but Nicky wouldn't budge. It was like he was suddenly made of lead or glued to the bed sheets.

"What the fuck?" Andy growled.

"Guys, I think you need to back off," Nile said.

"Never," Joe snarled, but he found his fingers slipping from Nick's skin.

For a second, he thought it was the blood, but then he saw the glowing rivulets under his hands. He couldn't hold on. No matter how he tried, he was forced away from Nicky, grabbing desperately and finding no purchase, like two like poles of incredibly strong magnets sliding over each other and away. He could see Andy trying everything she could from the corner of his eyes, but they were both helpless. Neither of them gave up, but no matter what they tried, if was as if there was a force between them and Nicky.

Joe heard Booker come back, but it all seemed hopeless.

Nicky convulsed again and coughed with a terrible gurgling sound, blood and spittle running down his chin, before going still.