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[FOR THE CURE]


Esli stared at the words in front of him. He read them slowly for the fourth time as if there would be something hidden and to be discovered. Nothing but what Gideon was conveying came through. Well, sort of. He already saw the warnings in the messages due to the content and what was being suggested for action.

A cure. That really was hard to believe but then again so was the alarming rate that the vampire population was rising to. It was beyond epidemic. It was becoming the active extinction of mankind. Artificial intelligence was in a race for domination with the vampirism spreading across the populations. Could this discovery, the news delivered or intercepted, be a sign of that? Either way mankind was appearing to have drawn the shortest straw in what they perhaps blindly initiated to begin with. Nothing about that fact could compel him more to act than what it had already cost him… her. His wife.

Lasair was so heavy with the weighted emotional, psychological and physical reminder of the wickedness and evil that was in the world around them. She lost sleep. She tossed and turned fighting what she couldn’t defeat. Esli was present for it. He spent the hours his head was on a pillow watching, waiting for her to win the internal battle that he couldn’t fight for her or rescue her from. He did everything he could think of to support her. Saying nothing, saying what he felt, asking her what he could do, apologizing for what he was sure he could have prevented from happening if he had not failed somewhere. When massages, silence, contact and even distance ran him into walls he invested hours on his knees praying when the days turned to weeks.

Grief for the couple was not entirely the same. It couldn’t be. He wouldn’t possibly know how it felt to have a life deep within his body supposedly safe from harm only to have it extinguished by some demonic force. And that is how he saw it. No words were available to him for what took place. Their child, God’s blessing, was murdered. She was subjected to feeling the loss in her bones, her worn stretched muscles that no longer cradled the moving hope they had for the world they lived in. She was continually haunted in mind and body.

Esli was not out of the woods either. He felt the loss in every second of every hour they saw their way through.What inspired her to smile had lost it’s meaning.The sun rarely saw her fiery head. She lost track of her days and nights. It took his hands lifting her to get her into the shower, to cleanse her and wash her. But the pain, the reality remained. Nothing could wash away the truth. Everything routine was gone. Understandably he had not heard the sound of her laughter and knew it would perhaps be gone for good. She was grieving and it was hers to own and to work through. His love would not fail to continue for however long it took. With the guidance of God he would do what was right. He had his own ideas on what could make a difference, shift what was going to be the darkest period either of them have ever faced.

Even more so as he glanced at the words sent from his brother. If there was a cure he wanted his hands on it. He wanted to reverse what damage had been done and destroy the power of what was against everything God had created. He could be accused of being vengeful, unforgiving and questioning. It would be accurate. Those are warning signs that his faith was taking a hit. The way he saw it he had to do something more than sit in the dark and lose his wife. God needed to set that flickering light in her soul on fire once again. There was only one answer. Rise. They both had to along with their brother. Esli wasn’t about to leave Lasair behind when there was a war that could be won if Gideon’s information was certain. She had every right being in the front lines making it happen. He never made decisions for her before and he wasn't about to try doing it now.

“Lasair.” His voice was soft as he sifted through the layers of cotton and pillows to find her. The sun was bright, the rays seeping in through the smallest cracks and warming the space exposed. His hands searched slowly, gently to make contact with her body. “Gideon messaged. He has found out information that suggests there is a cure for this evil that is plaguing the world. It is being held in a secured place. We can stop it from spreading. But he says they need help protecting it. Obviously it is in great jeopardy of being destroyed before it can be used.”

Hopefully she was listening. He waited. He was not expecting any particular reaction. His wife had been on an extended tour of personal hell that was invading both of their lives. Given that alone he was prepared to hear anything or nothing. Elsi would act as he was called to in the manner that God would expect. That meant he would consult with his wife. He errored in not doing so before and it cost them God’s blessing. He would not fail again.

"Come with me. God's will shall be done."

The travel through the interior of the building became a challenge. He had his briefing and was privy to those who would be considered trustworthy and invested in protecting the cure. Fangs or not it was apparent the cure wasn’t an altogether bad thing for some with cool blood pooling in the center. It didn’t change his mind on how he saw things. He wanted the world cleansed of the abomination and no mercy would be given when it finally happened. Esli ignored asking questions, doing any meet and greet. He was finding being in the same room with anything nearly dead pushing his limits of tolerance.So off he went hiking through the corridors patrolling for whatever wasn’t welcome. Orders were orders. Plain and simple it was attack with everything he had and defend what was stored in the location at all costs.

Which he did. But he sort of had some early issues with his hair trigger tolerance of those that seemed to be distracting him from his main objective. Perhaps it was common for some to get along with the dead but he missed that memo. Hell, he missed a lot of things and when he finally pulled out of his coma he would admit as much.

Back to the beginning. Esli wasn’t exactly sure what he expected to happen once he arrived with Lasair and signed up for the call of duty. But he found out fast and what happened next was rather quick. Nameless faces came from out of nowhere. His fang bearing radar had his heart pumping double time with a rush of vengeance that he couldn’t curb long enough to match a name or a face. Everything was going at a breakneck pace and at a rate that hardly gave him time to ask for identification. This was his first issue of several. A few hits seemed to be making a dent in things and slowing down those trying to invade. Briefly. Then he found the haze of vampire chaos swirling around him that had him looking eye level at what appeared to be the waist of something he never seen the likes of before. From there it was downhill, or down a hall, down kneecaps, bouncing off walls, blood loss and a few last thoughts. It could have been the boat size boot up sent up his *** or the send off kiss he gave the ceiling. No one could expect him to think clearly either way. While the sirens wailed in the rush of being whisked away what came to the paladin’s mind was odd at best.

Lasair is going to be mad. Oliver will be ecstatic.