When she fell his mind was still reeling from the radiant smile she had granted to the world just few seconds earlier. First thought that flickered through his mind when her arms flopped down and her face twisted to a grimace wasn’t one born from relief as he had often pictured it to be. No.

He wanted to scream out his rage and anger, lash out and tear to shreds anything, anybody getting too close. It wasn’t supposed to happen now. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. He felt disappointed. Cheated. He had played with poor hand, and reaper had called his bluff.

“Fuck off, Jean. There’s nothing you can do.”

He forced his voice to stay calm and level, but couldn’t stop the enraged growl rupturing from his chest when Scott approached, seemingly intending to block his chosen path. His bared teeth snapped once, sharply, just few inches from the other man’s face forcing him to retreat in fear of loosing the tip of his nose.

The girl weighed next to nothing. He could already see the angry bruise forming on her pale cheek, born from when she fell on her face to the green grass.

His feet weighed like led. His whole body felt like it had suddenly gained tons of extra matter, pulling him down to the ground. He grit his teeth together, small muscles on his cheeks twitching and forced his back straight, keeping his gaze locked to the grand entrance of the main building where professor Xavier sat on his wheelchair, knowing, yet pained look on his face.

“I warned you…”

Quiet whisper followed him through the heavy oak doors. Yes. Professor had warned him. Countless of times during their numerous discussions professor Xavier had addressed the issue with his usual, roundabout way, telling long tales about beloved pet dogs and cats. Had even told him to avoid getting any more involved with the girl than what he already was.

“For a telepath you sure are dense…”

Only sturdy stone walls heard Wolverine’s retort as he took the stairs to the second floor. It didn’t matter. The girl didn’t matter. What mattered was that the reaper had cheated. And nobody cheated the Wolverine. Nobody.

He had lived practically without his enhanced senses for the last few days, but every now and then he managed to get a whiff from her scent. The bitter, acrid taste of decay wafting in his nose and mouth, telling him that it wouldn’t take long anymore. Not long. But longer than this. She should have been good for at least few more days. He had had it all planned and ready. Wake her up early; give her a dose of his senses, then a brief ride on his bike to a nearby lake. Something she hadn’t seen before. Seagulls that came in from the sea, even few albatrosses if they were lucky. She could have sat there on a blanket for the rest of the day and drift off as he kept dosing the morphine to keep her from noticing the end that would have been sneaking nearer.

He laid her on his bed, not risking her to go to rigor mortis in the spun cradle. Sat on the edge of the bed and just stared at her for a moment, drinking in her features that looked for the first time fully relaxed. Raised his hand to wipe off few strands of hair from her forehead and cringed when the tips of his fingers scraped against her skin, leaving blackened traces at their wake. And felt the tingling.

Except it wasn’t just tingling now. It was burning. Scorching his veins as it crept forward, finding every nook and cranny in him, spreading rapidly towards his heart that started stuttering and coughing, convulsing in him as if it was trying to escape right through his chest from the threat that was approaching fast as he laid his bare palm over her cheek.

Her eyes fluttered open. Her lips parted to a soundless scream, her whole body trashing and convulsing uncontrollably. It was working. His mutation was flooding her, healing her as he himself started to sag, his head falling against his chest and his eyes snapping tightly shut. It was working. Finally.

“You won’t have her!”

He bared his teeth and snarled his threat to a dark, hooded figure standing at the side of the bed, not knowing whether it really was there or if it was a hallucination. Figure faded slowly as the girl drained him, leaving him to a heap on the bed and standing up, wicked smile on her face. And he knew. Knew what he had to do, because it had worked too well.

“I think I’ll finish you off later. For now I have some other plans…”

She turned her back on him, shedding her clothes from layer after layer as she kept walking towards the door he had left unlocked because he had thought he wouldn’t have to lock it this time.

He leaped from the floor with a mighty roar, his claws tearing their way out through his knuckles, diving through her back and stopping her from leaving the room. Stopping her from consuming the world in her hunger.