#imagine the song wander sings sounds fairly similar to his normal songs but a) it's scarier and slower and b) it's accompanied by

[narfin-frood]

Hi, I just wanna say I'm IN LOVE with your Wander 💗 I think ur versions of the characters are so AWESOME! I'd like to know how it will be Wander and Hater's dynamic, in the show Hater chases Wander and here looks like Wander's gonna chase Hater. That's SO INTERESTING. I NEED TO KNOW MORE! c:

THANKYOUUU he is my POOKIE BEAR... and basically, wander thinks hater would be SOOO much happier if he just assimilated with him. he perceives his desire to get out and experience the world instead of sitting around his castle all day as avoidance from the issues that trouble him and the scarier parts of his own life.

and of course the way he tries to convince hater the first time is through song. when that doesn't work, he vows to chase him down and "befriend him", which ends up being his undoing.

[salaciouscrumpet]

Whumptober Day 21

Whumptober Day 21 Prompt: “Laced Drink”

So, uh, this one ... kinda got away from me a little? By which I mean it’s over ten pages long, and I didn’t quite know how to end it. I had fun writing it, though, and sharing some more of the worldbuilding I’ve been doing for my series.

CW: Offensive language

Characters: Charlie, Luke, Kate, miscellaneous others 

“What do you mean, you lost her?” Charlie hopped around on one foot, trying to wriggle his way into his jeans, his phone cradled between his ear and his shoulder. “She’s in a fucking Camaro, it’s not exactly subtle!” 

Devon’s voice on the other end of the line was frustrated and bordering on angry, and Charlie immediately regretted snapping at her like that. He wasn’t angry with her, just the situation. Beside him Luke struggled with a pair of pants before realizing they were Charlie’s and therefore wouldn’t fit, and with a huff of annoyance he threw them across the room and stormed off in search of his own clothes. They had undressed in something of a hurry and their bedroom was a disaster. If they’d known there was going to be an emergency call from Devon they would’ve taken more care with their things. 

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Charlie said quickly, before Devon could – rightfully so – get offended with him. “I’m just … Do we know how long it takes to metabolize?” 

“He didn’t say,” Devon replied, and it was clear that she was every bit as worried as Charlie. Charlie heard some muffled talking in the background, a man’s voice raised high and whiny, but he couldn’t make out what was being said. He assumed Devon and the others were still questioning their suspect. He wished he was there to do it himself. “I don’t think he knows. He was just the delivery man.” 

“Come on.” Luke’s hand latched around Charlie’s arm, hauling him out of the bedroom. Charlie let himself be led, even as he finished zipping up and snagged a T-shirt off the mirror by the door. The shirt was Kate’s, which meant it was both too short and too tight – it also had a picture of Princess Leia in the Rosie the Riveter pose on the front, with the caption “We Can Do It!” in big bold letters – but he couldn’t be bothered trying to find something else to wear. Nobody was going to be critiquing his fashion choices while he was out frantically trying to find his potentially sick and dying best friend. 

Luke and Charlie thundered downstairs and out the front door, leaving Bear in charge of the farmhouse. (Charlie couldn’t even remember if either of them locked the door, and honestly he didn’t care – let Bear eat anyone who tried to come inside uninvited, he and Luke had better things to worry about.) Luke had had the foresight to grab his keys, so it was to Luke’s truck that they raced, Charlie still trying to pull on his sneakers and Luke pulling a T-shirt – inside out and backwards – on over his head. 

“Do we have any idea where we’re going?” Luke asked, even as he started the truck and began backing out of the driveway. Gravel crunched under the truck’s wheels, loud against the otherwise quiet night. It had been a perfectly lovely evening: starlit, maybe a little on the chill side (perfect for cuddling, which Charlie had been happy to do right up until the moment Luke started whispering filthy suggestions into his ear), with only the crickets for company. Kate had gone out to play pool with some friends down at the Crablouse, and Luke and Charlie had had the house to themselves. Everything had been going swimmingly and Charlie was well on his way to getting laid when Devon had called to say that someone had dosed Kate with something and that she’d left the bar in a hurry, and now they had no idea where she was or even what was happening to her. 

She couldn’t have been feeling any ill effects when she’d left, or at least not anything that would have impaired her driving abilities. Kate had a fairly intense dislike of anyone who drank or got high and then drove; there was zero chance that if she was intoxicated, she would have hopped into her car and taken off. Devon had said that Kate claimed to be feeling restless and that she’d been irritable before she’d left, and while those emotions didn’t exactly make for the most cautious of drivers – and Kate wasn’t what anyone would call careful to begin with – it wasn’t the same as being drunk. But they had no idea what she’d be given or how it would affect her, only that the person who’d given it to her, by way of a laced drink, had intended for it to be debilitating. 

The truck peeled out of the driveway, dirt and gravel flying. Of the three of them Luke was normally the most cautious driver, but now he drove like the supernaturally-enhanced super-soldier he was, heightened senses and reflexes utterly focused on getting to Kate – wherever she was – as quickly as possible. 

Charlie was just about to admit he had no idea where to begin the search when his cellphone rang, the ringtone immediately identifying the caller. 

“Katie?” he said, as soon as he had the phone to his mouth. 

There was silence on the other end – well, not silence exactly, but no one spoke. Instead, Charlie could hear music playing in the background, Savage Garden crooning about how truly, madly, deeply they were in love. That had to be coming from the radio of Kate’s car, because Kate was utterly unapologetic when it came to her appreciation of cheesy music from the ‘80s and ‘90s. Kate didn’t believe in guilty pleasures; she liked what she liked, and if other people didn’t agree with her, they could go fuck themselves. (Her words, not Charlie’s.) She had a particular love of boy bands: Backstreet Boys, New Kids on the Block, NSYNC, Take That, you name it. 

“Kate?” 

A rustle, and then: “Charlie? What’s goin’ on?” Kate’s voice was slurred and too bright, with a note of surprise that didn’t make any sense, given that she was the one who had called him. Still, the surge of relief he felt at hearing from her was nearly enough to bowl him over. 

It’s her, he mouthed at Luke, before saying, “You called me, Katie. Where are you?” 

“I did? Are you sure?” Kate giggled, a strange, high-pitched sound completely unlike her normal laughter, and then started singing along to the radio. By now the song had moved on to Madonna, but instead of singing along to Express Yourself Kate was singing – off-key and slightly out of tempo – the lyrics to Lady Gaga’s Born This Way, and while Charlie had to admit the two songs were similar it was definitely Madonna he could hear playing over the radio and he knew for damn sure that Kate knew the difference. 

“Kate, focus,” Charlie said, while Luke gripped the steering wheel and swore under his breath. “Can you tell me where you are? Are you still in your car?” 

Silence again, and then – 

Retching? 

Charlie listened, phone clutched tightly enough that he swore he could hear the case crack, as Kate coughed and retched on the other end. In the background Madonna was still singing, but the sounds of Kate being sick drowned out the Material Girl almost entirely. The last time Charlie had heard anyone vomit that much it was when one of the new Alliance recruits ate a package of expired hotdogs on a dare, and that had been like watching the head-spinning scene from The Exorcist. 

One thing, though: if Kate was throwing up, she couldn’t be driving, could she? Charlie couldn’t imagine how anyone could drive while puking, especially not if they were vomiting as violently and frequently as Kate seemed to be doing. So that was a good thing, right? That she had probably pulled over somewhere, and wasn’t driving around out of her mind, god knows where? And she was clearly near the car, since he could still hear the radio, which meant she hadn’t gone off into the woods somewhere. If Kate had wandered away on foot there was very little hope of finding her, but her car – a very recognizable old Camaro she referred to as ‘asshole tax’ – pulled off to the side of the road somewhere would give them something to look for. 

“Hurts, Charlie,” Kate mumbled into the phone, and Charlie’s heart lurched. 

“What hurts, Katie-Kate?” he asked carefully, wincing when Luke shot him a panicked look and nearly drove them off the road. Luke quickly corrected the truck but Charlie was keenly aware that his boyfriend wasn’t paying nearly enough attention to his driving. “Where are you, sweetie?” 

“There’s a … a tree?” Kate sounded uncertain, but it didn’t much matter: they lived in rural Ontario, there were a lot of trees everywhere. He was about to say as much – gently – but Kate continued, haltingly, “My head, Charlie, it feels like somethin’s trynna claw its way out …” 

Charlie chewed on his lip and tried really, really hard not to consider the fact that in their line of work, Kate’s statement could in fact be literal. He didn’t know what she’d been dosed with, but he could think of several nasty monsters that had some way of making themselves or their offspring small enough to climb inside a woman’s body and eat its way through to her brain. And he could think of dozens of other things that could simply feel like that – and none of them were good. Add in the vomiting and her earlier euphoric behaviour – plus the irritability and restlessness Devon had described – and the list of things that could be wrong with Kate grew exponentially. 

Luke suddenly started thrusting his own phone in Charlie’s face, once again swerving dangerously as he did so. Charlie took the phone from him, giving him an incredulous look when he realized the damn thing wasn’t ringing or otherwise trying to get their attention, so what the hell was he trying to do? 

“Find my phone!” Luke said excitedly, gesturing towards the cellphone in Charlie’s hand with one elbow. Before Charlie could point out that his phone was in his freaking hand Luke clarified, “The app, Charlie! The app! Kate’s phone is connected, you can find it on the Find My Phone app!” 

And since Kate was using her phone, presumably they could find her, too. 

“You’re brilliant, babe,” Charlie said, and managed to keep himself from adding Now pay attention to the damn road before you get us both killed. Keeping his own cellphone tucked in against his ear so that he could continue talking to Kate, he activated Luke’s phone and keyed in the PIN, thumbing the Find My Phone app on. He remembered one of his colleagues complaining about an ex-boyfriend who tried using the app to stalk her – he had installed it without her permission – and saying that she thought it was creepy that he, Luke and Kate all had their phones connected through it, but this was more or less exactly the kind of scenario that had inspired them to do so. Not that he was about to tell Kristie that the three of them had the app on their phones in case unknown enemies decided to mess with them; there were some things the receptionist at the vet clinic didn’t need to know about his life, chief among them being I’m a witch with healing powers who belongs to a super-secret organization of supernatural creatures and we all fight monsters together. Let Kristie think he was just overprotective about his partners; she wouldn’t be wrong. 

Just as he saw Kate’s phone come up – and to his immense relief he saw that she wasn’t far; she must have been on her way home – he heard a sudden commotion from her end of the line. He couldn’t quite tell what was happening, but Kate made an unhappy noise and then there was the unmistakable sound of flesh impacting against flesh. Kate cried out and the car horn let out a short beep that was loud enough for Luke to hear. 

“What’s happening?” Luke demanded, and something buckled in the steering wheel where his fingers were clenching too tightly. 

“I don’t know,” Charlie admitted before frantically shouting into the phone, “Kate? Katie? What’s going on? Are you okay?” 

There were muffled voices in the background, a man saying “Give me that!” followed by Kate letting out another pained sound. She had to be out of it if Kate was the only one who sounded like she was getting hurt. 

“Hurry up,” Charlie said urgently, trying to will the truck to suddenly develop nitrous oxide or nitrogen or whatever it was that street racers in the movies used to make their cars go extra fast. For all that Luke had been distracted and reckless it was a good thing he was the one driving, because of the two of them he was the one who stood a better chance of getting them to Kate quickly and safely. That, and it was Luke’s truck, and he knew it better than any of them. 

The sounds of violence increased, making Charlie wish that he could reach through the phone and obliterate whoever was after Kate. He also wished, rather frantically, that he could actually see what was happening, because all he could tell was that there was some kind of fight going on and Kate – already suffering the ill effects of whatever her drink had been laced with – appeared to be on the losing end of things. 

Then, the man’s voice again, this time much closer-sounding: “Give me that, you fucking bitch!” and the call disconnected. Charlie stared at his phone in horror as he heard Luke let loose a string of curses in a mixture of English and Armenian. Charlie was grateful that from his angle he couldn’t actually see the speedometer on the dashboard, because he was fairly confident the truck was going far faster than he would be comfortable with, and yet he still wanted it to go faster, dammit. All he could hear was the anger in that man’s voice and the faint sounds of pain Kate had been making, and if they didn’t get there soon – 

Sirens in the distance. 

Charlie instinctively looked in the rearview mirror, but there weren’t any emergency vehicles behind them – not that he could blame the police from targeting their racing truck. He could definitely hear sirens, however, and they were coming from the direction they were already headed in. He didn’t know whether to scream, laugh or cry – would the involvement of regular mundane authorities help Kate in any way, or was it just going to lead to a bunch of humans getting killed by whoever had targeted her? 

Luke’s cellphone started ringing, startling Charlie so badly he nearly dropped it. For a moment he was tempted to ignore it – unless it was Kate, he didn’t want to talk to them – until he saw the name and number flashing across the screen. 

“It’s Ben,” he said. Ben Ainsley was one of Luke’s oldest friends; the two of them had grown up in the Knights of Oberon together. Ben was still a part of the Order but was one of the few Knights who remained on good terms with Luke, even after Luke was removed from the Order. It was unusual enough for Ben to call Luke out of the blue; the fact that he was doing so just as Kate was in danger couldn’t possibly be a coincidence. 

“Answer it!” Luke hissed, just as the truck rounded the corner. 

Up ahead Charlie could see the flashing red and blue lights of emergency vehicles, as well as what looked to be a police officer setting up one of those emergency orange barricades to block the road off. There were two cop cars, both with lights flashing, a couple of SUVs, and a fifth vehicle, a dark truck of some sort. All five vehicles were empty, although one of the SUVs and the truck both had all their doors wide open. 

As soon as the call connected Charlie could hear Ben’s voice, talking to someone in the background. Then, before Charlie had a chance to even say hello, Ben was speaking. “Looking for someone?” 

“Oh thank god, you found her,” Charlie said, almost dropping the phone in his lap in his relief. His hands were shaking, and beside him Luke loosened his tight grip on the steering wheel, guiding the truck towards the police barricade. As they got closer Charlie could see men and a couple of women in uniform milling around, all of them standing near the barricade, and further up ahead he saw a familiar black car gone head-first into the ditch. His panic dropped a few ticks as he said into the phone, “Is she all right?” 

Luke pulled his truck right up to the barricade and two of the police officers rushed forward, clearly intending to order him to turn around and leave until a tall, broad-shouldered man with a cellphone held up to one ear came and interrupted them. Charlie immediately recognized Ben, who – nearly as tall as Luke and just as well-muscled – would have stood out almost anywhere.

Seeing them, Ben lowered his cellphone and waved the officers off, hurrying over to the driver-side door of Luke’s truck. Charlie watched the cops warily, not quite knowing what to make of their presence. The Alliance only had a few loose connections to mundane authorities, mostly through people like Ardyn and Rishaan, who had jobs connected to law enforcement. The Knights of Oberon, on the other hand, often took great pains to ensure they had solid ties throughout the regular human community, either by having their own members join – politics was a favourite, which was where Luke’s parents had envisioned him going – or by befriending (or blackmailing) mundane humans with the right connections. If the police were here, now, blocking off the road and turning back travelers, it seemed likely they were working with the Knights – which meant the Knights were somehow involved in whatever had happened to Kate. 

Charlie didn’t want to jump to conclusions, but the knowledge that Luke’s parents would have been happy to arrange for Kate to be incarcerated on trumped-up charges or otherwise excised from their son’s life made it easy for those conclusions to be reached. If that were the case, however, he didn’t think Ben would be a part of it. Ben was a loyal Knight, but there were some lines he wasn’t willing to cross, as his friendship with Luke attested. 

Ben waited for Luke to open the door, then immediately started talking, cellphone shoved in his jeans pocket. “She’s sick and a bit roughed up, but we’ve got someone taking a look at her.” His eyes darted in Charlie’s direction as he added, “You’re more than welcome to tag in if you want.” 

It was tempting, but Charlie knew whoever the Knights had brought along would be just as good at healing magic as he was, if not better. It was far more common for the Knights of Oberon to have Fae-blooded members – witches like Charlie – because of their centuries-long alliance with the Seelie Court. Only witches could be charmers – magical healers – which meant there were far more healers allied with the Knights than with the Alliance, who tended to have more sorcerers, fomoir and other supernatural creatures. The Alliance was more diverse, but the Knights of Oberon had more specialists. 

“We just want to see her,” Charlie said as he hopped out of the vehicle and followed Ben and Luke past the orange-painted roadblocks. “What happened?” 

“Why are you here?” Luke asked, and while he didn’t sound suspicious, exactly, there was a certain note of wariness in his voice. He trusted Ben, who he’d known for close to three decades, but he didn’t necessarily trust the other Knights; it was likely he had also come to the same conclusions Charlie had, regarding his parents and their potential involvement. 

But Ben’s words put those suspicions to rest immediately when he explained, while escorting Charlie and Luke past the police, that the Knights had been following a self-professed “demon hunter” who had been using a homemade concoction against people he believed were demon-blooded. In most cases the only ill effects were that his targets got a little drunker than they expected; he had been mixing in large doses of fairy blood, along with some substances the Knights’ hadn’t yet discerned, and the blood of the Fae had a tendency to get people high, especially when combined with other intoxicants like alcohol or illegal drugs. (There was a healthy black market trade on Fae blood and similar supernatural drugs.) In some cases, however, the would-be hunter had gotten lucky and chosen a target who actually was demon-blooded, and the unknown substances in his concoction reacted with the sorcerer’s or fomoir’s blood in such a way as to leave them severely ill and weakened – and in the worst cases, led to their deaths. 

“Why didn’t the Knights let the Alliance know our people were in danger?” Luke asked, his hands clenching and unclenching into fists. He looked at Ben, a hurt expression on his face. “Why didn’t you let me know Kate was in danger?” 

Ben raised his hands in a gesture of surrender, his own expression one of sympathy and regret. “I know, man, I know. I’m sorry, I just got put on this today.” He looked around cautiously and lowered his voice so that both Charlie and Luke had to lean in to hear him as he added, “You know what the Elders are like. It wasn’t gonna hurt any of our people, so they didn’t see any point in reaching out. If I’d known sooner, man – Luke, Charlie, you know I would’ve told you the second I realized Katie might be targeted.” 

It was always strange for Charlie to hear anyone who wasn’t himself, Luke, or Kate’s mother refer to Kate as “Katie,” but Ben was probably one of the few other people on the planet who could get away with it. Although he and Kate hadn’t liked each other initially, Ben had been the one to let Kate know the Knights had written Luke off back when he’d been abducted by the Scions of the Unforgiven, and he’d given her and the Alliance the intel they’d needed in order to rescue Luke. Kate had introduced Ben to Charlie as “the only Knight who isn’t an asshole,” and that introduction had stuck. 

As Ben led them through the cluster of people – more people, in fact, than Charlie had initially realized, and that told him just how seriously the Knights were taking this situation – they finally reached Kate’s battered old Camaro. The engine was still running and the lights were on, and Charlie could hear faint music playing over the radio, something poppy and uplifting with a good beat. Beyond Kate’s car there was an ambulance, its lights flashing, and a pair of paramedics were standing over a collapsible gurney – and on the gurney, finally, was Kate. 

Charlie’s heart leaped in his chest at the sight of her. She looked rough – she was, in fact, barely conscious, and the lower half of her too-pale face was covered in blood – but she was alive. One of the paramedics, an older woman with greying hair pulled back in a braid, had her hands on Kate’s abdomen, feeding brilliant gold magic into her. Charlie didn’t recognize the woman but he could sense that she was using healing magic, and it made sense: a lot of witches tended to fall into professions that would enable them to use their magic to help others. Just as Charlie had become a veterinarian, it looked like this woman had chosen to become a paramedic. He knew other witches who worked in home security, enhancing security systems with warding magic, or horticulture where they could use their magic to encourage plants to grow, all things in a similar vein. Sorcerers – the demon-blooded counterpart to Fae-blooded witches – tended not to follow the same pattern, but as their magic fell to the more destructive side that was probably for the best. 

“Katie,” Luke breathed, coming to stand beside Kate’s gurney, looking like his knees were about to give way beneath him. Charlie knew exactly how that felt, because he was feeling much the same way. Luke turned to the charmer, a pleading expression on his face. “She’s gonna be okay?” 

The woman gave a tight nod, her fingers moving in a graceful pattern over Kate, the golden glow dripping off her fingertips like sunlight. As Charlie watched some of the bruising on Kate’s face disappeared and she seemed to settle back against the gurney, the tight lines of pain around her eyes and mouth fading a bit. Luke tried to keep out of the way so as not to interfere with the paramedic’s work, but the woman gave him a little jerk of her chin, indicating he could move to the head of the gurney. He immediately did so, running one hand through the sweat-dampened curls over Kate’s forehead. Charlie held back, letting Luke have the space he needed; he, at least, could see through his magic that Kate was going to be all right, whereas Luke had only the paramedic’s assurances. Charlie promised himself time to fuss and mother-hen Kate once they had her back at home, to make up for his inability to do so now. 

“If it’s all right with you guys,” Ben said, making an apologetic face, “We’d like to get some samples of Kate’s blood. Normally I’d ask her for her permission, but …” He gestured vaguely in Kate’s direction, his meaning obvious: she was barely conscious, pale eyes glassy and vague, and there was no way she could be considered capable of giving any sort of meaningful consent. 

“Why?” Luke asked, immediately suspicious. 

Charlie already knew the answer, however. “They want to study the drug used on her.” He set one hand on Luke’s wrist, giving it a gentle, reassuring squeeze. “Her blood will give them a better idea of how the drug worked, why the Fae mixture affected her the way it did – and maybe help them try to find an antidote?” The paramedic nodded, barely even glancing at them as she continued her work. 

“Exactly,” Ben said, shooting Charlie a grateful look. 

“Yeah?” Luke said. His hand was still on Kate’s forehead, but his eyes were fixed on Charlie’s face, trying to gauge his intent. It spoke volumes as to his mistrust of the Knighthood, that he needed Charlie to reassure him, even with Ben being the one to make the request. 

If Luke’s mistrust bothered Ben, he gave no indication, and that made Charlie think even better of him, if that was even possible. Ben knew precisely why his childhood friend would have misgivings about the Order, and he clearly felt no anger with Luke over it. The Knights of Oberon had been the ones to burn that particular bridge, not Luke or Ben. 

“Yeah,” Charlie said, squeezing Luke’s wrist again. He could have been the one to give permission for the Knights to take Kate’s blood – it wasn’t like the Knights of Oberon were the kind of organization to give a damn about legalities like whether or not Luke and Charlie had medical power of attorney or anything – but sensed that Luke needed to be the one to agree to it. 

“Yeah,” Luke echoed. He nodded slowly, turning back to Ben. “Yeah, you can do it. But.” His tone turned menacing, his expression hardening, “If I find out Kate’s blood is going to be used against her, I’ll know who to blame.” 

The other paramedic – a man, his physique similar enough to Ben and Luke that Charlie felt it was safe to say he was also a Knight of Oberon – made a sort of scandalized noise at the threat in Luke’s voice, but the woman just smirked as she continued working on Kate. Charlie suspected she had had a few unpleasant run-ins with the Knights herself, such that she would understand how justified Luke’s threat was; for all that the Seelie Court and their related members were considered allies of the Knights, unless one was actually a Knight oneself – or a member of an Incarnate family – they were still seen as lesser. Not that there were many Knights so foolish as to say such things directly to a Seelie Courtier’s face, but it was a safe bet that the paramedic had heard them before. 

“We’ll submit it anonymously,” Ben said quickly, completely unoffended. “Nobody needs to know whose blood it was, and I can make sure the incident reports about this are anonymous, too.” He fixed the male paramedic with a hard stare that cautioned the other man that his words were not a request. 

Charlie was about to ask if Ben could make sure to pass on the Knights’ findings when another man came over to join them. Like Ben, this man was one of the assembled people not wearing a uniform of some type; unlike Ben, he was barely more than average height, but just as well-built. Charlie immediately recognized him as Grant, an older Knight – by about a decade – who often worked with Ben. Grant was, according to Kate, an asshole, but not a complete asshole; he had a tendency to be a little lax with the Order’s rules and regulations, and had also been one of the few Knights who chose to stand by Luke following his exile. 

“They’re all lined up and waiting for you,” Grant said to Ben after giving Charlie and Luke a tight nod of greeting. 

“Oh, excellent,” Ben said, and the expression on his face turned purely predatory. He gave Luke a small, hard smile. “You want to come meet our wannabe demon hunters?” 

“Fuck yes,” Luke breathed out – and the look on his face gave Charlie chills. 

Apparently the other paramedic saw the same thing, because he immediately piped up. “We’re supposed to bring them in for interrogation, not murder them and drop them in the canal somewhere.” 

“No worries,” said Grant amicably. “We’ll leave enough of them to interrogate.” 

The paramedic opened his mouth to argue, then seemed to think better of it, raising his hands in a gesture of defeat before climbing up into the back of the ambulance in search of something. 

A part of Charlie wanted to go with Grant and the others to talk to the people responsible for hurting Kate, but a bigger part of him needed to stay with Kate, especially if Luke was planning to leave her side for any reason. Luke gave him a questioning look, but Charlie just nodded, the two of them swapping places so that Charlie could stand at Kate’s head while Luke headed back into the throng of emergency workers with Ben and Grant. Now that he knew where to look, Charlie could see that some more Knights – at least, he assumed they were all Knights – had a quartet of men on their knees on the ground. There were no weapons being pointed at anyone, but even at this distance Charlie could see that the men in question weren’t going to be stupid enough to try and run away, not with this many people gathered around them. 

Still, it seemed like that sense of self-preservation only went so far, because as Luke and the others approached one of the men lowered his hands – the four of them had been kneeling with their hands behind their heads – and started arguing with the Knights standing nearby. Charlie couldn’t quite make out what he was saying – and then he raised his voice. 

“We know that little bitch isn’t a real person,” he was saying, and oh, Charlie recognized that voice. That had been the voice he’d heard over the phone, the one that had been snarling at Kate before the line had gone dead. “She’s a monster walking around in human clothes, and she deserves everything we did to her.”

“Oh shit,” murmured the female paramedic. Charlie suddenly decided he rather liked her. 

Across the way Luke broke free of Ben and Grant, moving with a sudden explosion of predatory grace as he charged at the man who’d spoken. As Charlie watched, Luke hauled back one clenched fist – and let fly. 

The sound of impact was loud enough that Charlie heard it from where he stood, even with the jumble of emergency radios and Aqua singing about being a Barbie Girl in the background. Luke punched the man solidly in the face, and while it was clear to Charlie that his boyfriend had held back – clear, because the man wasn’t killed outright – it was still enough to knock him out with one blow. 

The other three would-be hunters immediately cringed away and began babbling all at once, all three of them eager to impress upon Luke – and the rest of his company – that they didn’t share their unconscious friend’s opinions of their demon-blooded target, and that honestly, this was probably all just a huge misunderstanding, please don’t let the scary man kill me. 

The male paramedic popped his head out of the back of the ambulance, eyes narrowing as he surveyed the scene in the distance. “Uh. Should we do something about that?” 

“Nope,” said his partner, not even looking up from her patient. 

Charlie grinned at her and rubbed his thumb over Kate’s cheekbone, where a large bruise was steadily growing smaller under the woman’s healing magic. Yeah, not everyone affiliated with the Knights of Oberon was a complete asshole, he decided.