Work Text:
It was one of these moments when the hunter wondered why the hell the Guard bothered sticking to any of the rules and agreements the Stole had bullied them into. All of them, a bunch of stuck-up lunatics treating people’s lives like some kind of exciting experiment. Swansea wasn’t even the worst of them and McCullum still barely managed to keep his fists low at his sides instead of giving the good doctor a reason to practice his medical skills on himself. Although he missed the reassuring weight of his longsword at his side, he was glad to have left his weapons behind, well, at least the more obvious ones, before he entered the Hospital. Neutral ground and all that shit.
He’d come here to gather information and offer his help, not to show Swansea the way to his own morgue. Priwen didn’t kill humans, he reminded himself as the smaller man continued to ramble about some unfortunate accident and how he’s sure the priest just took a walk with the old lady and of course there is blood on the floor, this is a hospital. It’s not the first time Priwen had offered their protection and the administrator of Pembroke had turned them down. You’d think as a member of the Brotherhood he had to know leeches would flock to fill their bellies with their all-time favourite food presented on a silver plate like this. A hospital, for God’s sake, with the weak and dying, and blood smeared all over the place.
When the door opened the hunter sighed with relief as the newcomer made the doctor shut up, only to realize his mistake immediately after. The pristine clothing, the milky white skin, the incandescent eyes, like it came right out of a woodcut from a penny dreadful. He didn’t know why he hadn’t seen this coming. Of course, Swansea would have one of those beasts walking about as if it deserved anything but a stake to its heart. “God protect us.” He groaned with unmasked exasperation. How the fuck was he supposed to deal with the recent attack on the clinic when the doctor ran it like a restaurant? “You’ve got a leech in the hospital.” He reproachfully pointed at the thing and gave Swansea a dirty look, waiting for the rational explanation he knew he wouldn’t get, because frankly, it didn’t exist.
“Yes, my hospital! My mission is to heal. While you go about warring.”
McCullum felt a surge of heated anger rising along his spine at the doctor’s infuriating arrogance. ‘Warring’ he called it, like the Guard of Priwen was a bunch of wannabe warmongers. It must be convenient for Swansea to forget the small detail that they didn’t roam the city at night to drain the blood of innocent victims. They killed the monsters who did. “You set the table for a snake, and wonder why there’s venom in your food.” Soon, Swansea would come crying when his leech pet got a little itch for blood in its belly and sliced up all his precious staff and patients. Some people had to learn it the hard way, the really, really hard way. But, of course, the Guard would be there to help. It’s what they did.
“I’m growing tired of your song. You’re a woodsman, McCullum, not a doctor. Return to your hunt.”
Well then, the Guard would be on summer vacation in Scotland. He was so done with Pembroke. When – not if – it went to shit, McCullum would be sitting on a rocky beach with a nice, cool tumbler of whisky in his hand, and his only worry would be finding a spot of shade before his skin got sunburn.
Inwardly he sighed. He needed to keep a clear head. The way Swansea played up his haughty attitude he wanted the hunter gone as fast as possible and that could only mean he had something to hide. And the weird skull in his hand he couldn’t stop ogling at? Clearly, a textbook villain if McCullum ever saw one. “Remember, I’ve a good nose for machinations.” One last threat couldn’t hurt before he gave in and turned around. There was no point in staying where he wasn’t welcomed. “I can flare the scent at a mile.” Making his way to the door he finally could get a good look at the leech. Normally he would have just shouldered past the beast blocking the doorway, scratch that, normally he would have just killed it, but what he saw made him stop in his track. Barely a step away, with alarm bells going off in the back of his head to either attack or get some distance between them, which the hunter stupidly ignored.
It was a flicker in the creature’s dead eyes. A haunted look, speaking of pain and exhaustion that went deeper than its physical state. Gone as fast as it had appeared. Still, the smears of dirt on its coat and the tears in its shirt stained with its own blood remained. McCullum had to admit that it was the kind of damage he could find on himself after a fight against Skals or Beasts, not from a fight against humans. It didn’t fit.
A growl came up from deep in his throat as the hunter stared it down. What a joke its appearance was, nothing but a cruel trick to deceive more gullible prey. The thing didn’t have the right to seem this tired, this human. “You can’t hide from the Guard.” He bared his teeth and jut out his chin. A display of aggression, but what the hunter really wanted was to wake its hunger as the gesture also accentuated the column of his neck. If the beast attacked him, it would make everything so much easier. He wouldn’t have to bide his time and wait for it to slip up, no, he could cut it down right here and now. One leech more he could cross off the list, one evil less in the world.
“Leave him, Jonathan.”
McCullum almost flinched as the voice reminded him of the doctor’s presence, and it took him another second wondering who ‘Jonathan’ was until he understood, that the man called the creature by a human’s name.
The leech didn’t take its eyes off him for a second, but McCullum could see it wanted to step away and be done with this power play. Rarely had he seen a leech that was so avers to a fight and at the same time didn’t turn tails to hide in some filthy sewer. Everything about this one was odd and out of place. It made the hunter wary and reconsider his urge to attack. Maybe it would be wiser to keep it under watch for a while, figure out its weakness, where it slept through the day, where it fed at night.
“This is sacred ground. Neutral territory…”
McCullum gave it one last try to provoke the beast and turned his head towards Swansea as if he were listening to what the doctor had to say. It gave the appearance of a distracted human, his neck bare and in easy reach for the blood drinker. Still it didn’t make the slightest move to close in and sate its hunger. Sure, it continued to stare at the hunter with its eery pale eyes, but it was staring because he was an aggressor who wanted to kill it, not a victim it could suck dry.
“And I just had the carpet cleaned.”
Of all the things Swansea said, it was a lame joke about bloodshed that got the creature to back down. It stepped aside to make room for the hunter to pass and McCullum was surprised enough to just take the opportunity and leave. He could feel its eyes boring into his back on his way out and had to suppress a shiver. The creature was beyond creepy. Through the whole scene the thing hadn't said one word, not even bared its sharp teeth like a proper leech.
“By the sacred Stole. This is very bad news...” He could hear the doctor lament and knew it would be a nightmare to get to the bottom of whatever scheme these two were hatching behind closed doors.