Choices - Chapter 21 Part 3
Title: Choices
Chapter 21 - Into the Fire 3/3
Pairing(s)/Characters: Jack/Ianto, Owen, Tosh, John, OCs
Rating: NC17 (overall)
Warnings: supernatural themes, violence, m/m pairing
A/N: Here’s the conclusion to chapter 21, although I’m afraid you may all want to skin me alive by the end of it. Enjoy anyway.
21 - Into the Fire - Part 3
JACK
o-o-o
My heart soars at the sound of Ianto’s voice. But as I pivot toward the kitchen, but my heart sinks. Ianto is covered in blood, his T-shirt in tatters and several deep gashes across his chest, shoulders, and right cheek.
“Oh my God,” I gasp.
“Your God can’t save either of you,” the monster rasps and chuckles. She lifts me up to her eye level by my hair and it feels like my head is ripping off my body. “You belong to me now, boy.”
“You seriously want to rethink that, Gwen,” Ianto says, stepping through the kitchen door into the family room.
Gwen laughs-a thunderous below that shakes the entire house. “You’re making threats? Oh pet. You-a half-dead mortal with no leverage?” she snarls, lowering my feet back onto the floor, where I dangle like a puppet. “I’ll deal with you after I’m finished with your tasty little pet here.” She shakes me by my hair.
“Oh, I have leverage. And it’s ironic that you should mention pets...” Ianto’s smile makes my heart sputter, and I feel my arm reach out for him. His eyes bore into mine, and in the door behind him, I see five pairs of glowing red eyes staring back at me from the dark kitchen. Ianto steps aside and at the same instant he snaps his fingers, and three enormous dogs, one with three heads, explode from the kitchen door, teeth bared and are on me in a heartbeat.
Except, they’re not on me, they’re on her-the thing holding me. And Ianto is there too. He has my hand and he’s yelling something at me. With the noise of the dogs and my confusion, I don’t get it right away, but then I understand. He saying, “Use it, Jack!”
My Sway. What do I do? I don’t even know what it is or how it works.
“Let me go.” It comes out in a strangle croak and nothing happens. I try again. “You don’t want me! Let me go!” I say louder.
I feel her grip loosen as she bats at the snapping dogs with her other hand. Ianto is pulling my arm. Dogs are everywhere, snapping and snarling.
“You don’t want me!” I scream. I yank myself away from Gwen, leaving behind some of my hair, and then Ianto is dragging me across the room. One of the dogs follows me, and I crouch, ready to unleash a kick, but Ianto pulls me back just before my foot connects with its shoulder.
“You really don’t want to piss Rhys off. Especially after he just saved our sorry asses.”
“Rhys?”
“An old friend of mine. I was on what you might call canine patrol for a long time-guarding the Gates of Hell. Bargryhst and I were pretty tight for nearly a millennium, though it took him a while to recognise me in all my humanity.” He gestures to the bleeding claw marks across my chest.
Rhys tips his head to the side as he whimpers in apology, then he turns to sit, his back to us and growls at the foray at the bottom of the stairs. I can’t watch as the dogs rip at Gwen, so I turn back to Ianto and try to find a spot I can touch him.
“Why didn’t they attack me too?” I ask, nestling into his right side.
“I told them not to.” He grins again. “And my talisman-your piercing-came in handy to locate you. Now it’s Rhy’s job to protect you.”
I let go of Ianto and turn to look at the dog sitting in front of me, his shoulders the same height as mine. “Protect me from what?”
Ianto’s face darkens for just a moment. “Hell,” he says, “and everything in it.”
I start to tuck back into his side when I feel something brush past my head. Ianto suddenly pulls back and double over. “Ahhhh.”
“Ianto. What’s wrong?”
He groans and looks up at Gwen, his face contorted in pain and his eyes glow red. Then I see the glint of the handle of a dagger sticking out of Ianto’s shoulder. As he pulls it out, I understand. Gold. Ianto’s weakness.
Heart pounding out of my chest, adrenaline on overload, I turn to Gwen and see John advancing down the stairs, enveloping her in a white light. It’s almost like looking into a cloud during an electrical storm. Little flickers of lightning flash in the white light. The hair in my body stands on end and the smell of ozone saturates the air. And when the lightning bolt shoots out of John’s palm and hits Gwen, I gasp.
Gwen’s face twists in agony, and her groans roll through the house as dogs continue to attack. But her focus is on Ianto and me, and under the pain, there’s a triumphant sneer.
As I stare, frozen with fear and rage, another golden dagger materialises in Gwen’s hand. That shocks me out of my stupor.
“Stop!” I yell. “Leave him alone. He doesn’t to you anymore.” I step forward between her and Ianto. “I’ll come with you if you leave him alone.”
As Gwen roars in victory, Ianto grabs my hand, still doubled over. He’s shaking his head, his eyes wide and bulging as he bites back an agonised moan. Curls of black smoke issue from the bleeding knife wound in his left shoulder. “No. Use your Sway.”
I can’t think. I choke back a sob and turn to Gwen. “Stop!” I yell again, and Rhys growls as I pull loose from Ianto and take another step forward. “Leave Ianto alone! I’ll come with you. Just leave Ianto alone. Please!”
My heart’s throbbing as I move slowly across the floor toward the stairs. My shirt rips where Rhys tries to get a mouthful of it, but I keep walking. John’s white light flashes brighter in a warning, but I ignore it as I step within reach of Gwen.
Gwen raises her head and roars again. At the same instant I feel talons pierce the flesh on my shoulder, I crouch and lunge for her other clawed hand, where she’s still holding the golden dagger. I grab the dagger, swing around, still in a crouch and leap up, pushing it hard into her chest. “Go to Hell!” I scream.
But it’s drowned out by her scream, high and long, a sound I can’t imagine doesn’t rupture my eardrums. As I hit the ground, I close my eyes and hold my breath, not knowing what the sensation will be when she kills me.
As Gwen’s scream dies away, intense heat sears through me. But instead of agony I feel serenity settle over me. Maybe death, even at the hand of the devil, isn’t so bad after all.
But then I realise the heat is coming from behind me, and I open my eyes to find Rhys between me and Gwen, tearing at her arm. When I turn, Ianto’s there and it’s not just his eyes-his whole body is glowing red. It’s his heat I feel coursing through me as he wraps me in a protective field.
John’s light flashes again, nearly blinding me. Gwen shrieks, and through the glare, I see thick black liquid oozing from where the dagger pierced her chest as tendrils of black oily smoke enfold her upper body in a cloud. What feels like a sonic boom knocks me back a step, and when John’s light fades, all that remains where Gwen was is a bellow of hissing black smoke and the stench of burnt meat and brimstone. Her and the dogs are gone.
John rushes down the stairs, his glow fading as he comes, and now I can see the expression on his face. Anguish.
“John?” He runs past me, and I feel black dread squeeze my heart just as I hear a thud behind me. I turn back to see the image that I’ve been unable to shake since I awoke with it in my head: Ianto lying crumpled on the floor, corpse-white under smeared crimson blood.