Here is the sneak peek for next week’s chapter! Focusing a little on Erwin this time:
Erwin had finished the second cannon when the music started.
He had been slaving in his room for hours, cobbling together old leaf blowers and gas cans with all sorts of pumps and motors. He had been pissed when he made them, which had caused him to make a couple mistakes here and there. He had even pinched his finger at one point, causing him to flap his hand and utter a particularly colorful curse.
But as he continued, his anger faded into sadness and guilt. He shouldn’t have yelled at Caleb. He shouldn’t have kept things from Caleb. He shouldn’t have been so stubborn and bitter and scared. He knew that his boyfriend was worried about him, that he was probably just as terrified as Erwin was, but that knowledge still didn’t quite smother his desire to face the Mother and finally make Her pay for what he had done to him.
Worse yet, he was still scared. He was scared to lose his mind, his body, and everything he had managed to do with his life so far. He was scared of losing Caleb after they had finally gotten their shit together.
The thought had him sniffling before he knew it. “Dammit,” he muttered as he wiped the tears from his cheeks.
At least he was done with the cannon he was working on. He could probably afford a quick meltdown break at this point. As he was wiping the tears from his face, music started to filter in from the living room. He lifted his head to stare at the door, furrowing his brow. What was that? He slowly got to his feet and opened the door.
A sneak peek at next week’s chapter! The whole gang is together this time!
“How should we do this?” Alice asked as she took her jar. “All at once? One at a time?”
“All at once sounds a little too Heaven’s Gate for my tastes,” Jess said as she unscrewed her lid. She gagged immediately. “Oh god, that is foul.”
Everyone else immediately opened up their jars to take a whiff. A chorus of gags and retches followed.
“Oh my god,” Leslie retched, holding her jar at arm’s length. “What is that?”
“It’s like an entire produce section went bad,” Jess said.
“It kind of smells like…” Caleb paused to take another sniff, curling his lip when he did so. “Durian?”
Erwin laughed despite himself. It came out more like a cough. “Only you would know what that smells like.”
“So much for pretending it’s Mountain Dew,” Alice said, giving Leslie a teasing look. Leslie stuck her tongue out at her.
“Well, I can’t do anything about the smell,” Erwin sighed. “Or the taste.”
“Oh,” Alice made a face. “Oh, this is probably going to taste like ass.”
“If we down it fast enough, neither should matter,” Erwin said and held his jar out. “Cheers?”
Everyone else followed suit, clinking their glasses together. “Cheers.”
They all downed the formula at once. Jess emptied her glass like a college kid at a frat party. Leslie shuddered and shook her head the entire time. Alice took hers like a shot while Caleb tensed and made a face. Erwin almost spit the formula right back into his glass, but forced himself to keep swallowing it down. It was sour and bitter and vegetal and cloying all at once, a mix of so many different awful flavors that combined into something that made his stomach churn. He choked it down and quickly abandoned his glass on the table, willing himself not to immediately vomit it all back up. As he blinked the tears from his eyes, he felt a strange tingle start to spread through his skull.
A sneak peek of next week’s chapter! Some fluff this time around:
A hand came up and carded through his hair.
“Hey.”
Erwin grumbled, cuddling closer to the vampire’s chest. “Go back to sleep.” So much for a few more moments.
Caleb chuckled and the sound warmed Erwin’s heart. A kiss was pressed to the crown of his head. “Good morning to you too.”
Erwin tightened his arms around Caleb’s waist. “What’s so good about it?”
Caleb laughed again and Erwin felt the vampire’s arms hold him just a bit tighter. He sighed at the vampire’s touch.
“I thought you would be jumping out of bed for that cure.”
That was true—Circe had told him that she would have the cure ready for them today. He had relayed that information to Caleb, though he had left out what he had done to get said cure. It wouldn’t matter after today, though—once Erwin was cured, the Mother would be out of his head and he would pose no interest to Circe or anyone like her. It would be good to no longer be a scientific oddity but, right now, he only wanted one thing.
“That’s for later,” he grumbled into Caleb’s chest. “I just want to lay here.”
“I’d say you earned it.”
Erwin pulled back enough to look Caleb in the eye. God, he was so beautiful, especially first thing in the morning. “Really?”
“Mmm-hmm.”
“You’re not going to chase me out of bed?”
Caleb laughed. “No.”
“Hm,” Erwin bit his lip as he shot a suspicious look at the vampire. “Who are you and what have you done with my hot piece of a boyfriend?”
Caleb practically chortled. “‘Hot piece?’”
“You heard me.”
“You should have a permit for that mouth of yours,” Caleb snickered. When his eyes dipped to Erwin’s lips, heat began to pool in Erwin’s stomach.
“Are you saying that you, Caleb Vatore, are not a hot piece of ass?”
“I can be multi-faceted.”
“Well of course,” Erwin said with a shrug. “Just one of those facets is, like, crazy hot.”
Caleb snorted in laughter. His smile was blinding. It made Erwin’s heart beat a mile a minute. His hand came up to cup Erwin’s face, his thumb rubbing an arc into his cheekbone. A warm look flooded the vampire’s gray eyes and it just about left Erwin breathless.
“I—”
Erwin’s stomach clenched. He swore his heart stopped. He held his breath as he waited for whatever would come out of Caleb’s mouth next.
The sneak peek of next week’s chapter where we meet Pascal’s doctor contact!
Pascal was tense next to him.
Erwin could tell by the way he was gripping the steering wheel—the scientist was holding on so tight that his knuckles looked shades lighter.
It wasn’t really a secret that Pascal was not looking forward to this meeting. He had been acting off ever since he had brought it up, even if he knew that it had to be done. He had even looked dour that morning when he had picked Erwin up, like he’d rather do anything else than resort to dealing with… whatever they would be dealing with. Erwin thought back to the texts he had gotten from Alice the day before—whoever this doctor was, she had plenty of history with Pascal and none of it seemed pleasant.
His phone dinged and he fished it out of his pocket, heart warming immediately. It was Caleb.
-Please be careful. Let me know when you get there and when you’re coming back.-
He typed out a quick -i will- with a heart emoji. Hopefully that would ease Caleb’s nerves—he had been beside himself ever since Pascal had told them that he could only take one person. It hadn’t helped that he had also insisted that one person couldn’t be Caleb. It had taken a lot of convincing.
“That Caleb?” Pascal asked.
“Yeah,” Erwin said as he sent a few more heart emojis for good measure. He got several back. “He said to be careful, keep in touch.”
“I’m sorry,” Pascal sighed. “I know he would feel better being here, but…” he swallowed thickly. “This is one of the last places he should be right now. Trust me.”
Erwin nodded, watching the yellow lines on the road speed by. They were just a little ways outside of Strangerville proper, driving towards the properties that tended to belong to the more eccentric types of rich people. Despite the slight change in scenery and the massive change in tax code, the Mother’s plants were growing here too, though they were fewer in number. Erwin took a breath as he watched them go by. They weren’t that far from the city limits—if the Mother had legs, She could easily push them the rest of the way. He swallowed hard. She planned to walk out of Strangerville wearing his face and if She did, the rest of the world would be screwed.
“This person we’re meeting with,” he started, trying to keep his mind on the task at hand. “Who are they?”
“This is incredible,” Pascal marveled as he read over Caldwell’s list of possible anti-parasitics. “She essentially made a vaccine.” He took his glasses off, rubbing his eyes. “God, if only we had this in the lab…”
“It wouldn’t have gone anywhere,” Erwin said with a shake of his head. “The lab was compromised. She knew that.” Hence why Caldwell had hidden everything in her floorboards. He would have done the same thing.
“There were people she could trust,” Pascal sighed. “I would have helped her. I would have done anything to make sure this saw the light of day.”
Erwin thought back to the inside of Caldwell’s house. He didn’t recall seeing any pictures of friends or family. “I don’t think she thought she had anyone,” he said. “Especially not after Roswell got to her.”
Pascal sighed, fitting his glasses back on his face. He looked understandably haunted after learning how terrible his work situation truly was. “God…”
Silence fell over them as Pascal stared down at the scrawling notes. Erwin couldn’t blame him for being so distressed—he had actually known Caldwell while she was alive. All that Erwin knew were scattered memories that gave him a strange amount of introspection into her life. It wasn’t hard to feel some sort of kinship towards Georgia Caldwell. Like Pascal had said, she was a loner, just like Erwin. Her family most likely lived far away, like his. She was an only child, just like he was. She had no friends, just like he hadn’t before meeting Alice and Caleb. She had no pets—just plants that had already rotted away.
Chapter 31 is live! Please be advised that I have included a content warning for this chapter for death, suicide, and mention of vomiting. This one gets a little intense, so please read with caution!
Here’s a sneak peek at the next chapter and the start of Act III!
“What part of ‘steer clear’ did you not understand?”
To say Pascal was frustrated would have been an understatement. He had been pacing a hole in Erwin’s carpet since he arrived, completely neglecting the chair that had been offered to him. All Erwin and Caleb could do was watch from the couch as the scientist edged ever closer to a full-on meltdown.
“This is bad, this is really bad,” Pascal continued. “I told you there was a breach!”
“I know.”
“And you went anyway?”
Erwin averted his gaze. “I did.”
“Why?”
“Everyone was gone,” Erwin said. “It was the perfect time to get answers.” He ignored the look that Caleb was giving him. They both knew how well that had gone.
“How far did you get?” Pascal asked.
“I saw Her.”
Pascal paled. “You—” He cut himself off, taking a deep breath. “That door needed to stay sealed. And now… You’ve seen what it looks like out there.”
“I know,” Erwin sighed, his own frustration building, but never getting above a simmer.
He wanted nothing more than to bite back and mouth off like he normally would. But after last night’s encounter with Roswell, he couldn’t find it in himself to fight. He was tired, run-down, and running on only a few hours of sleep. It had been hard to get any rest after last night’s revelations, made worse by the fact that the Mother would not stop goading him. She had wound herself around his brain stem and kept him awake most of the night, asking for him to return to Her. She promised him knowledge and She promised him power—he did not budge. He didn’t dare to give Her the satisfaction of being acknowledged.
But when She promised him peace, he nearly broke.
“I’m sorry,” he said and Pascal paused. “You were right. It was stupid.” The scientist crossed his arms over his chest, watching Erwin carefully. “Is that what you want to hear? Are you going to stop being so fucking mad at me if I say that?” Maybe he did have some bite left in him.
Pascal sighed, the tension releasing from his shoulders. He took his glasses off to rub his eyes. “I’m not mad at you. I’m just disappointed.”
“That’s worse. You see how that’s worse, right?”
Pascal sighed and finally took a seat in the desk chair. Erwin hadn’t moved it since last night.
“I’m sorry for getting upset,” he said. “We’re worse off now. I’m going to be honest, Erwin—I don’t know how we can even begin to fix this.”
Erwin spared a glance in Caleb’s direction and the vampire returned the look. They hadn’t even gotten to what happened when they encountered the Mother or even Roswell’s sudden appearance in Erwin’s home. Pascal’s brow furrowed.
“What was that?” he asked. “You two just exchanged a look.” He blanched. “Oh god. What else happened?”
Here is the sneak peek of the next chapter and the conclusion of Act II!
Caleb stayed strong as he watched Erwin enter the house.
Once the door closed, he crumbled. His breath rushed out in one long, heaving sigh. He ran a hand through his hair as his thoughts tangled together. His nerves were shot—he had barely been able to keep it together once they left the lab. But he had to. He couldn’t fall apart, not when Erwin was already a mess. But what had happened at the lab had sent his head spinning.
“Shit,” he hissed as he scrubbed a hand over his face. He let it linger at his eyes as he took a breath, bowing his head.
That had been a close call. He could still see it in his mind’s eye: the Mother, Her fearsome tongue lashing into view as Erwin drifted from his side. Panic had lanced through him, like a knife to the stomach, when his boyfriend’s hand had left his. Caleb had almost lost him.
The feeling slammed into him like a freight train. He steepled his hands over his mouth as tears threatened to build in his eyes. Thank god he had been fast enough.
He took a breath and turned back to Alice and the truck. She was standing half out of the cab, her dark eyes sparkling with concern.
“What do you think happened back there?” she asked softly as he joined her.
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