‘I won,’ thought Luke, sitting on the ground and breathing heavily.
Despite awakening the new aura, he now felt the weight of all his previous wounds and the accumulated fatigue from fighting Niklaus (the leader of the vampire branch) and then Elliot.
Because of all the abilities he had used, a throbbing pain pounded in his head, and his breathing grew more irregular with each passing second.
‘I’ll be unconscious soon,’ Luke thought, recalling the first time he suffered from PLPE (Post-Limit Psychic Exhaustion).
It was that time he used up all your psychic energy and kept using his powers even though he had no more fuel in the tank, Wednesday’s words when she explained it to him.
Now he understood why he had regained consciousness so quickly that time. According to the doctors, he should have been unconscious for a month or more, but he woke up after only two days. This was the work of his passive green aura. Otherwise, he would have spent much longer in a coma.
Suddenly, he heard the hurried sound of footsteps. He lifted his gaze and saw Natasha running toward him with unexpected speed, her face marked by effort but also by a concern Luke hadn’t expected to see so clearly in her.
She knelt beside him without hesitation and looked at him intently, almost as if checking that he was still there.
“Luke!” she said, her voice nearly breaking, a tremor in her tone that Luke had never heard from her before.
With her hands, Natasha gently cupped his cheeks, her eyes scanning his face, making sure he was real and okay.
“Are you okay?” Natasha asked, her voice trembling.
“I’m fine… Better than ever, despite dying and coming back to life. Nothing out of the ordinary,” Luke replied sarcastically, his voice growing weaker.
Natasha couldn’t help but smile in relief at Luke’s sarcastic nonsense.
“I thought I’d lost you, you damn idiot,” Natasha said, her tone carrying an unexpected tenderness for Luke. She ran a hand through his hair before pulling him close, hugging him tightly.
Luke was surprised, his eyes widening slightly at the gesture. Natasha, always so tough and calculating, had never shown this much affection.
When they finally pulled apart, Luke found himself staring into Natasha’s eyes. Their faces were close to each other.
“Thanks to you, I was able to win,” Luke said seriously.
Natasha furrowed her brows and looked at him, somewhat puzzled. “I didn’t do anything, Luke. I couldn’t even hurt Elliot. You did everything.”
“If you hadn’t fought Elliot… if you hadn’t drawn his attention away from my body, I wouldn’t have survived. If he had noticed that my wounds were starting to heal, he would have killed me before I could wake up. It was thanks to you that I was able to recover,” Luke explained.
If Natasha had left with the evidence, he would have died. Knowing how her parents had acted in the past, Luke had thought Natasha wouldn’t help him again and would have taken the evidence to the Outcasts’ Council.
Unconsciously, Natasha found herself staring at Luke without saying a word, captivated by his eyes.
Luke slowly reached out toward Natasha’s cheek. The touch of his fingers on her skin was soft yet firm.
Natasha felt her heart beat faster. A nervousness she had never experienced before wrapped around her, something completely beyond her control.
But before she could fully process her own feelings, Luke activated his new aura. A healing energy emanated from his hand. He touched the long cut on Natasha’s cheek, and within seconds, the wound sealed as if it had never existed.
Feeling the energy flow, Natasha let out a small breath of surprise and snapped back to reality. The warmth she had felt in her chest began to fade, but the nervousness still kept her on edge. She frowned, trying to regain her composure.
“What are you doing? Don’t waste energy on me, Luke. You need to rest,” Natasha said gruffly, though she didn’t remove Luke’s hand from her cheek, after all, the cut was already healed.
Luke gave a weak smile and didn’t reply, but with a quick, precise movement, he placed his hand on Natasha’s waist, making her tense up.
“Luke!?” Natasha blurted out in a higher pitch than she would have liked.
“I’m going to heal you,” Luke said calmly.
Natasha tensed even more at the pressure of his grip. On her waist, she began to feel a healing energy working on a cut Elliot had made with his electrified sword.
She didn’t push Luke away. Seeing his condition, she didn’t want to hurt him, not even the slightest bit.
“Don’t worry, Natasha,” he said, looking into her eyes. “I’m going to pass out soon anyway… and it’s important that you’re healed so you can protect me while I’m unconscious.”
“Protect you? From what enemy? Elliot is dead. And what do you mean you’ll pass out soon?” Natasha asked, trying to ignore Luke’s closeness and the way he was still holding her by the waist.
“Elliot’s younger brother is fighting against Wednesday, Enid, and three other auras I can’t recognize in my current state… But they’re friends, most likely Wednesday’s family,” Luke began explaining as he analyzed Natasha’s body and healed her.
Even though he had awakened the green aura only minutes ago, he already knew how to use it to heal others. It was like telekinesis, he had instinctively known how to use it to lift objects.
“Now Elliot’s younger brother is heading this way,” Luke continued.
“He and Elliot surely had some way to monitor each other’s conditions, and now that Elliot is dead, he must have realized it and will want to come here to see what happened. Most likely, he’s in shock and doesn’t believe his older brother is really dead,” Luke added.
They weren’t safe yet. Natasha wasn’t surprised by Luke’s stubbornness or the fact that he was still using his clairvoyance to observe Wednesday and the others’ battle.
“Wednesday and the others are chasing him, but if he makes it here, Natasha, you have to protect Elliot’s body,” Luke said, his vision starting to blur.
“The Soyga book is with Elliot, right?” Natasha asked, and Luke nodded.
If the Spellman patriarch had the demonic book on his corpse, that would be undeniable proof against him. Another incrimination that, along with the recovered evidence, would put the Spellman family in check.
“Ideally, we should kill Gabriel, but I don’t know what state he’s in… So the priority will be protecting Elliot’s body. Hide me somewhere and guard the corpse,” Luke said, and his eyes finally closed.
Before Natasha could respond, Luke’s head suddenly fell against her chest.
“Luke!”
She immediately held onto him. His body no longer showed any signs of fatigue or injuries. He had completely healed her before collapsing.
“Idiot…” she murmured under her breath, quickly debating what to do.
If she protected the corpse as Luke had asked, it meant leaving him alone and defenseless while he was unconscious.
But she hesitated.
She didn’t want to leave Luke behind. What if something happened? What if someone found him in that state? Maybe she was being paranoid, but the thought of leaving him vulnerable unsettled her.
However, she remembered the seriousness with which he had asked her to protect the corpse. That was the plan.
She sighed and, quickly but without overlooking any details, hid Luke in a nearby building. One that hadn’t been affected by the battle and wasn’t at risk of collapsing. The place was empty, probably abandoned.
In one of the back rooms, she found a small, disassembled bed, possibly belonging to the store’s owner. There, with more care than she thought herself capable of, she laid Luke down, making sure he was comfortable.
She had no time for anything else.
She returned to the battlefield, where Elliot’s body remained exactly where they had left it.
She considered hiding it but immediately dismissed the idea. If Gabriel had a way of sensing his brother’s condition, as Luke had deduced, then he could probably track his corpse as well. Hiding it would be useless.
Now, all she could do was wait in a strategic position for a surprise attack, one that, if she was lucky, would be lethal.
If only I could contact Wednesday… Natasha thought from her hiding spot, frowning.
If she had been able to talk to Wednesday and explain the situation, maybe they could have coordinated an attack. Maybe they would have had a real chance to eliminate Gabriel and protect Elliot’s corpse at the same time.
But now, everything depended on too many uncertain factors.
On whether they understood what was happening here and how they would react.
—————————————————
You can read 15 Chapters in advance on my patreon.
Link: [email protected]/Nathe07