Chapter 11

Right away, Aoifa could sense something was amiss. As she spread her will across Darlene's body, Aoifa could feel the woman fighting, she could feel her will to live and her need to be with her Given. What she could also sense was another, foreign, will being exerted over her frail body. This force kept Darlene weak, silent, and trapped. Whoever was doing this to her had a good grip on her life-force, draining her energy slowly. It was leaving just enough to keep her alive.

Aoifa withdrew her hand slowly, sitting back against the chair to think. She had seen things like this in the past, but on a much smaller scale. Usually the patients were able to shake the opposing force themselves before they were in any danger. The will to live and being much stronger than the will of the person harvesting them. Whoever was doing this was powerful, and very strong willed.

But first, Aoifa needed to confirm that this was indeed what was affecting all these people. In the middle of an epidemic, it would be all too easy for someone to target the leaders of the pack and make it seem like she had fallen ill.

"I need to see a few more pack members, people who aren't integral to the operations of your community," she told them as she stood. She could tell that Gabal was immediately against the idea. Before he could say no, she reassured him that she was more than fine to look over a couple people. "I promise not to overdo it. Looking at them expends no mana on my part. If this is what I think it is…" she trailed off and paused for dramatic effect. It was better to make them realize the seriousness of this now. "No one is in imminent danger, but this needs to be stopped as soon as possible."

She watched as blood drained from Samuel's face, his lips completely colorless and set in a harsh line. She could feel his effort to suppress his panic, as well as the desperate restraint it took to lock his knees.

"Samuel," she said gently, catching his frantic attention. "I know what's wrong with her, I just need to see others and make sure they're suffering the same affliction so we can start making large scale plans. She may look weak, but she's fighting, and she can overcome this." Aoifa waited, searching his face and looking for signs that her words had an impact.

She watched him bravely square his shoulders and give a sharp nod. He spun around and opened the flap for her.

"Who would you like to see first," Samuel asked, waiting for her to exit, and hoping his Alpha would have joined objections. He had seen the way Gabal had tensed when his mate mentioned expending more energy. He prayed Gabal would trust her word. He did his damndest to appear optimistic to those around him, but when he was faced with the reality of his weakened Given, his positive force dwindled. To think with just a simple touch, after weeks of uncertainty, his Lady Luna knew what was wrong and could make plans to fix it.

"I need to see the least influential person affected in your pack. Someone that doesn't sway big decisions, that has an average, boring, nonthreatening day-to-day." Darlene was someone very important to the decision making in this pack. From idea to implementation, she was there behind the scenes making things happen. However, if this really was a large scale harvesting… Aoifa wondered if even she would be able to survive a singular attack with the accumulated life force.

As she left the tent with Samuel, Ansel took the time to observe Gabal. He could see obvious signs of stress on his face as the Alpha moved to follow his Given. His was torn between his instincts to protect and his instincts to make her happy. Ansel did not remember it being so hard when he had his own Given. She had been the perfect mate, never arguing or stepping outside her role. She was compliant and quiet, perfectly complimenting his need for order and control. She maintained their home wonderfully and always had a warm dinner on the table after he came home, no matter how late.

Ansel missed his mate dearly. He always imagined the "what-ifs" in life. Examining every way he could have changed to keep his Given alive today. One of his biggest regrets was the lack of time spent with her, and his general lack of interest in her mental wellbeing. After she left him, after his mental break, he finally understood what it was like to be confined to the house, alone, day after day, doing the same thing, staring at the same walls, no company but your deepest, darkest, loudest thoughts. And yet his sweet mate had not said a word. As hard as it was for Ansel to see his friend suffering, he understood that close observation was all that could be done, for now.

Ansel would just have to wait and watch, he would make sure that both Gabal and Aoifa were truthfully portraying their emotions. No one else would be lost under his supervision.

Gabal could feel Ansel's eyes as he rushed after Aoifa. His respect for Ansel had grown exponentially since he had met Aoifa. Losing her would be the end of him. It was an unquestionable fact. To see his friend, changed, but alive, was something that he thanked the Goddess for every day.

So far, being with Aoifa was an exhausting mix of pride and anxiety. Gabal was utterly impressed with Aoifa's abilities and decorum. The way she handled herself and the pack was commendable, and downright attractive. But her use of magic terrified him. This morning had been an eye opener for him, making him realize that his mate had no regard for her own safety. Her use of powerful magic could have easily caused organ failure. Coupled with her belief that she could not die… Troubled did not even begin to describe what he was feeling. Until she could prove her restraint, he would keep a very close eye on her.

The group made their way deeper into the camp, receiving rushed greetings from the medical staff and awed looks directed at Aoifa. The brisk pace Samuel kept had Aoifa at a near jog, but even Gabal did not have the heart to slow him down.

When they arrived, the Beta was quick to rip open the tent, startling the grieving mother inside. Her face held tears, her hands wrung together as she rushed to stand and guard him. Before she could stop herself, she released a feline yowl through curled lips.

She cut herself short when she realized who was here, a strange strangled noise escaping her before she was bowing, neck bared, to the upper echelon of her pack.

"Alpha, Beta, I am so sorry for my misconduct. I did not realize it was you until it was too late. Please forgive me," the tired woman rushed to say. She held the pose until given the order to rise from Gabal.

"No harm done, we startled a panther watching over her young. Normally, I would be more accommodating and announce myself. Today, however, I forgot my manners," Samuel paused with a kind smile and a shallow dip to express his sincerity. "I have with me your Lady Luna, the Life Witch, who would like to examine your son, if you allow."

The cat woman simply gave a sharp nod and watched Aoifa with cautious eyes. The Luna approached slowly, surprising everyone when she knelt by the boy's bedside. His mother straightened, inhaling a breath to calm her sudden flair of emotion. The respect she paid to her boy weakened her stoic resolve. Her straight face dissolved to show the true, struggling mother beneath.

Aoifa, feeling her pain, reached for the boy with a renewed sense of determination. Right away, she felt the same oppressive force drawing out his life energy. It was just slow enough to keep him alive, yet fast enough to keep him immobile. With the question of, "is it everyone" solved, now came to the hard part. Releasing them. Aoifa knew of a few ways to accomplish that. The first, find and destroy what triggered the drain, allowing them to recover on their own. And the arguably more dangerous and difficult one, kill the caster and channel the life energy back to the original host.

Aoifa stood and turned to the mother, thanking her for allowing an examination, assuring her that it was immensely helpful and promising that a solution was in the works.

As they exited, Aoifa requested that they have a private meeting, somewhere no one could overhear. Samuel again took the lead, bringing them a short walk back to one of the pack buildings. This one seemed to be a sports center of some kind, equipment was neatly stacked along walls, people worked alone and in groups, doing various fitness related activities.

They walked straight through to the back of the building where a hall branched into two separate locker rooms, with a door in between that looked like a meeting room or office. Once the door was secured and the blind pulled down over the windows, Aoifa settled herself down on Gabal's lap and began to tell them what she knew.

"Someone is using your pack to harvest life energy. It is not an illness, it never has been. They are being kept alive, just barely so whomever can continue to collect from them, but they are drained enough to keep them comatose. I have seen cases like this in the past, but something of this magnitude is unheard of. Normally, a person can only be kept under such influence for a short amount of time, the will to live wins out over the will of the captor and they can shake off the curse on their own before too much harm occurs.

"However, this is not the case here. The will of this individual is extraordinarily intense. And with all the energy they've already collected… I'm not sure even my immortal self could stand against it and come out alive. When we reverse the effects, there is a good chance this person will try again, or attack the one who reverses it. Whatever they are trying to do here is obviously something big.

"That being said, who cares." She looked into the eyes of each of the men in the room. "Regardless of any possible outcomes, you have my knowledge and power completely at your disposal. Anyone who can stomach slowly draining the life from children, literally, is scum in my book that needs to be fed their own pickled shit pipe." She ignored the shock on their faces and forged on. She was on a role, may as well get it all out and have them ask questions after the fact.

"So, we have two avenues at the moment. We have to find what caused this and destroy it. Or we have to kill whoever cast the curse. Both difficult in their own ways, but one, or preferably both, have to be achieved. I suggest we coordinate teams for both with members of your pack you believe suited to the tasks. Someone to figure out all the things these people have in common, down to the kind of dental floss they use, and one to track down suspects for the possible magic user, people powerful enough to pull off this kind of magic, large scale and perpetual. Any thoughts or questions?"

They sat back for several seconds and stared at her. Each of them trying to wrap their heads around the fact that their people were being harvested like crops by someone who, at this point, had amassed enough power to make the Life Witch herself nervous. And all this information was gleaned from two simple touches.

"I, for one, have several. If it was never an illness, what made them manifest those symptoms? Why did you emphasize yourself when you said immortal like you were any different from the rest of us that don't age? What kind of things can be used to curse someone? And can you give more specific criteria for a user than just "'powerful?'" Samuel, eager as he was, skipped all formalities, speaking to Aoifa like she was just another in the pack.

Gabal felt his beast rise, offended by his lack of respect, ready to defend the position of his Match. The Alpha had a hard time squashing down that instinct, doing his best to put personal feelings aside and focus for the good of the pack. If Aoifa was not bothered, he would not be bothered. He held her tighter to him, using a hand around her throat to ensure she was secured to his chest. Not enough to choke, but enough to give her a rasp. His momentary distraction cost him the beginning of her response.

"–because of the drain in energy. It was their bodies trying and failing to keep up with the new demand. I emphasized the way I did because I am different from you. You are effectively immortal. Meaning you don't age, so unless you are killed you live forever. I do not stay dead. Many, many people have killed me in many, many ways, and yet I always come back. Your Alpha doesn't believe me," she said with a sneaky glance over her shoulder. "And I admit, I am not eager to prove myself. I am not immune to pain or the feel of Death's cold grip." Her pause and accompanying shudder said more than her words could have.

"As for the curse implementation? It would have to be a tangible object, something that does not change or get damaged easily, something transferred from hand to hand, or something everyone has access to regularly, something with patterns or designs that could easily hide a sigil. Maybe something newer, something you had made elsewhere and shipped here, or something made here by someone not from your pack. An example that I had seen before were necklaces from a street vender. They triggered the curse when touched to the skin.

"The caster will be trickier. The truly powerful are not known for staying in the limelight. We should probably begin with the powerful people that have an axe to grind. The stronger the reason, the better. We can start with current day and work backwards, compile a list and start asking questions, we should know when we rattle the right nests." She looked around at the leaders of this pack. The man that came together as a unified front during the greatest crisis the pack had ever faced. They had just been informed that they were fighting an unknown enemy with unknown weapons and power. Despite the newly discovered hardships, they only seemed more motivated to divide and conquer the new obstacles.

Aoifa watched on as the men took over, bouncing around ideas and forming the teams she suggested. They spent time, knowing the pack individuals' strengths and weaknesses, only assigning the more competent to the tasks. They had phoned several allies already and asked for permission to search their archives for pertinent information, managing to give a half truth when asked why.

"Researching a potential enemy of the pack based on new information of recent events." Samuel had said to multiple Alphas.

Meanwhile, Ansel was coordinating research trips for a select few trusted pack members. Leaving the rest of the brilliant minds to be divided into several groups of at home researchers. Both for the caster and for the implementation device.

Now that they had something more specific and concrete to focus their attention on, Aoifa could feel the hope beginning to swell in their souls. Their confidence as competent leaders had taken a beating after going too long without results or progress. Now, in just under half a day, more had been accomplished than all the cumulative months of this "illness" combined.

Aoifa prayed that this was the correct path to walk in order to save these people. Her instincts had never led her astray, but so much more was at risk here. She prayed that she would be able to deliver the results they needed.