Stand Together

Jaw tight, Viktor stood slowly and began to turn away. The nightmare had already struck, staying put here now with the pack would do nothing but prolong it and that went against everything nagyapa had asked of him.

He stopped, hands fisting to hide the dark rims of blood drying around his nails. Anybody who could’ve taken charge here was gone. Their parents … Isten … God. Blue eyes closed, his head tipping back as though he could see something beyond the crumbling concrete roof of one of the few remaining buildings on the island. The memories slammed in immediately. The recalled gun fire leaving him twitching as the voices of what remained of his family drifted away behind him. Bullets biting hard, Jaina first, crumpling to the ground, then Laszlo’s wife, his son, nagyanya. Viktor started to shake his head, the tremors rolling back in like the plane was vibrating around him again, straining to get them away.

Their parents … He wanted to fly back, to find them, but nagyapa’s voice had barked out then, and echoed in his ears now. Death, they will only bring more death if you go. Viktor, you must listen now, must do what I tell you… Viktor let out a small moan at that last memory, his claws digging deep into his grandfather’s chest. It would have been his eventually but not this way.

Viktor tried to start towards the plane, the only peace he had found was in the air afterwards. Blood still drying on his hands but his breath coming easier with his eyes on the horizon. The plane would not run on its own, you had to concentrate, couldn’t let anything, including the sound of your siblings’ sobs distract you. He had only let himself fall apart when they had brought them from the plane afterwards.

His eyes drifted to the raw patch of earth and ash, dark against the rest of the ground as he stepped into the open doorway. They had burned them both here. Sent them on to the other side with those hushed words of love and respect that had almost choked him. The weight of leadership was on his shoulders now and he had no idea what to do but as he scanned the broken buildings around them, the cracked blacktop of the runway he’d managed to set down on, Viktor knew they could not remain here for long. The Americans had taken most of their things with them when they had left but there was some here. Perhaps enough to keep his family going until he could back for them, sure they would all be safe.

He started towards the plane, pulling his hands from his pockets to drag them over his face. Eniko was in charge now, she would keep them safe here and he would find safety there. They’d had it for decades, there had to be somewhere they could find it again, then they could try and find their parents again, the ragged remnants of whatever other members of the family might have escaped the ferocity of the battle. Those who might have killed those who had come for them, cutting them down the way Aliz had done the one who had hurt nagyanya.

At the edge of her grave, Viktor stopped, bent for a moment to lay his palm atop that charred earth. They had fled once to keep her safe from the invading communists, every story he had heard of that escape teaching him. ”Itt biztonságban lesznek. Megbizonyosodtam róla.” A promise he wasn’t sure he could keep, but he would spend every moment trying to.

The sound of footsteps behind him had him rising. He’d expected Alex perhaps, or Tazi, but it was Aliz there in the doorway, following him out to fight the decision. Viktor stood slowly, teeth gritted like that would hold together the wound he’d torn open inside of him when he’d been forced to kill his own grandfather. ”It is the only way, Aliz.” There was a weariness there, along with a bite of temper. She had always been the one who had the most trouble listening and doing as she was asked. It had put her in hospital for weeks once before, and had left him terrified until she had come around.

Viktor scowled at her. ”Where we all go together we get attention. You want that? You want them finding?” He slapped his palm against his chest, before he flapped it out at the island. ”Fish, water, fruit. There is enough for now. I take you, maybe we don’t find anything more than men. Those men. You want more of us shot?” Rusty brows drew together as he started back towards her. There had to be enough here, at least until he could get back in a few days. Setting down in a town or city with a whole pack of teenagers with him would only draw attention. Uncle Laszlo and his wife, perhaps not enough to make it less suspicious.

Tagged: ALIZ KOVACS * Word Count: 839
Translation: God/They'll be safe here. I've made sure of that.

Of all of them Aliz would have been the one to stay and fight if she hadn’t been ordered to leave by nagyapa. She might have been small, more fragile in her human form but it wouldn’t have stopped her. No matter the odds she faced or how hard any of them had ever tried to dissuade her, she’d always ignored them, done whatever she wanted. In this case it would have been death, the same way it had been for their grandparents, for their parents. Part of him had wanted to go back to look for them but Viktor knew it would have been suicide, murder if he’d brought the rest of them with him. Uncle Laszlo had known it too, giving him that tiny shake of his head as he’d stumbled through his plan to lay it out for the rest of them. They were all so sure that everybody they had left behind was … gone. They were alone and as Alpha it was his responsibility to keep them alive now.

It was his responsibility to make sure Aliz did as she was told by her alpha, not just by her brother.

Maybe he should’ve prepared for her argument but he hadn’t. Viktor turned to face her, preparing for the weight of those metaphorical fists to hammer at his chest, calling him out on doing this alone while she was forced to sit around and wait for the men to do what they could. She didn’t approach and swing, choosing to stay put and immediately toss his observation back at him. It had a faint huff of humour puffing past his lips.

Viktor sniffed, lifting his chin higher as he straightened up. Not a fight immediately then, but a slow eroding of any argument he had against taking on a co-pilot for a trip that might be nothing but a dead end. ”You want me to take you, spend all time worrying that they come again for you?” he asked simply, his tone weary. He lifted his hands, dragging them back through his hair with his fingers gripping, his nails biting at his scalp like somehow it would hold all of those fears in. They had lost so many in the last 24 hours and the thought of opening them up to more losses was almost enough to have him sinking to his knees in the dirt like the dusty old string puppet nagyapa had entertained them with as children.

Jaw squared, Viktor let his hands dropped as he turned towards his sister. This was the problem. She had her questions, would fire them at him until it felt like bullets from the hunters’ weapons, but each would have the same answer. To fight over them would just be to go around and around in circles until one of them snapped. None of this was right but all he could do was try and find his way through it and keep them safe. ”Then stay,” Viktor said sharply, jabbing a finger at the ground. ”Egyszer, húgom, tedd, amit kérek.” A plea that would likely just have Aliz’s temper rising further. Heat spilling over to scorch ground all already burned by what had happened.

I won’t. The argument could’ve been bitten out but Viktor bit his tongue instead, scrubbing his hands over his face. He could, he knew that, but what was the alternative? They could all stay here permanently and slowly starve to death or they could all go together and in just days find the same sort of trouble in that vicious world their grand parents had always warned them about. No single good option. ”Then you still have chance,” Viktor ground out. ”One or all of us, those are only options. I will be back soon as I find place. You can be patient that long, hmm? Just a few days. Somewhere out there will be place for us.” The roots would never work their way as deep though. The village had been their home, a refuge for his grandparents after the damn communists had destroyed their last. Nowhere else would ever be the same but it would be somewhere safe.

Tagged: ALIZ KOVACS * Word Count: 696
Translation: For once, little sister, do as I ask.

Aliz could always argue until you had to make the choice between giving in to her and bashing your head against the nearest tree. Thud, thud, thud, anything to block the noise that would chip away at you. If he gave her the time maybe she would sway him but Viktor knew he couldn’t. Time was the one thing that they didn’t have. They’d believed they had all of it before, blissfully living in the village, not imagining that the monsters would one day follow them. kibaszott kommunisták. Beasts who would not stop until they were all dead and they had everything they’d come for all those years before. Their existence wiped from the map so they could sweep in as heroes. Nagyanya’s warnings hadn’t been sharp enough to cut through their beliefs that they were safe.

The word echoed through Viktor’s head as he shook his head at his sister again. He could let it tick back and forth like the weight in the old clock nagyapa had turned up from somewhere in the village – like the one the family had owned for years at home – tick, tick, tick, marking each day, now marking each denial of his little sister’s suggestions. No. Caving and letting someone go with hm could not happen. There was too much danger, something they all should’ve seen. They’d not noticed the danger the men posed before and look what it had cost them.

He laughed wearily as he paused with his hands on the back of his neck. There was no way to tear the tension from his muscles, his body would take care of the physical exhaustion and pain but Viktor knew little of it was actually in his bones and flesh. It was in his heart and there was no shrugging that off. ”If they watch my back, I watch theirs … can’t see trouble and protect at the same time. Here, nobody will find any of you. Egyedül nagyobb biztonságban leszel.” Viktor didn’t want to consider what would happen if he didn’t come back. Maybe they could survive for years here but like with the village the island was isolated. There was no easy way out without the plane and he was taking that.

Not for the first time since the shot had rung out and Jaina had dropped to the ground he wasn’t sure of any decision he was making. Every option seemed as though it would lead them into danger. If they all travelled together they were more likely to be seen. If he had to protect any of them then his eyes were on them and not on what might be coming for him – just like nagyapa, unaware the bullet was about to strike because he was protecting them. If they all stayed the food would run out and eventually Aliz’s prediction would come true. They would starve. They would all die.

Throat tight, Viktor took a step back towards the plane. Nagyapa could have passed the Alpha spark to Eniko, or Lazslo, or even Aliz but it had been him he had called for. Him he had trusted. ” Igazad van. Az enyém nem, de ez az egyetlen, ami megvan. Trust me. Soon I’ll be back and none of us will be alone. You’ll take care of them?” Despite her protests, Viktor knew she would. Lazslo and his wife would eventually find their feet again and Eniko would make sure the others did as they needed to but Aliz would be the one to fight it all and so he needed her to take the responsibility. Stepping forward again, Viktor gripped his sister’s arms. ”Protect them here and listen, yes? Eniko will know what to do.” A weight would fall on her shoulders now too. The responsibility of what was left of their pack heavy as an anvil on his older sister, and no lighter around his own neck as he left his family behind.

Tagged: ALIZ KOVACS * Word Count: 658
Translation: You'll be safer alone/You're right. Mine isn't, but it's the only one I have.