[for reid, dated 3/17]

[triskehale]

This can't be happening again. It was so stupid to think that Barry would be safe with Derek, that old patterns wouldn't repeat themselves. How could he have been so foolish as to think that he could open his heart up to someone like that again, and they wouldn't get hurt?

He rushes through a darkened alley, eyes red and fangs extended, and remembers what it was like to fight that copy of himself in that other Darrow. Your love is a curse, Derek.

The scent of Barry's blood stings his nostrils, and Derek thinks about finding it smeared across brick. All he found was that and Barry's scent, thick with anxiety and pain. Fear. Derek followed the trail until it ended, vanished into thin air.

It's horrible, so horrible to think, but at least the blood told him that Barry is most likely still here somewhere in the city. He may be somewhere that Derek can still reach him. Maybe he can fix this.

He needs Luke, and he needs Oliver. He needs anyone who could help, but first on his list is someone with a nose nearly as good as his. He's on his way to Luke's when he runs right past Reid, who smells like anger and grief, and Derek skids to a stop. Whirling around to face him, fangs and claws extended with eyes glowing red in the darkness, Derek feels his heart drop into his stomach. Reid looks awful, like he just lost his whole world.

"Reid," he rasps out around his fangs. "I was just going to get-- is Luke gone too?"

Comments

[youfeelluckypunk]

It's nearly too much.

Luke has been missing for two days now, two days, and Reid has spent the last forty-eight hours tracking down every possible lead but coming up empty each time. There's no giving up, of course not, not as long as every time he calls his boyfriend's cell phone, it still goes to voicemail. Since Luke has gone missing, Reid has called it both for that reason, to make sure Luke hasn't disappeared completely, and just to hear Luke's voice.

Sleeping alone for the first time in months is even more miserable when it's not by choice, and Reid has missed people before but never quite so desperately as he misses the man he loves. His eyes, he's sure, are bloodshot from his lack of sleep and his hair a mess because he hasn't bothered to do more than run his hands through it, but Reid hasn't cared. All of his focus has been on trying to get Luke and Magnus back, and others he knows have also been taken, though to what end, Reid still isn't sure.

The vampires aren't involved, not directly, he's certain of that now; but they also don't have much useful information for him that will help Reid find out where Luke is being held. The inventory that'd been knocked over at the store does little more than tell Reid that whoever had taken Luke was either stronger or simply prepared, though he isn't sure whether either one of those options would really be preferable.

These are all the things running through his mind when Derek calls out to him and when Reid looks up to to see him with those fangs out, it nearly makes him stumble in his grief. His boyfriend is a werewolf, nobody's supposed to be able to touch him, nobody's supposed to be able to hurt him and now, Luke is gone. He's gone.

"He's gone," Reid whispers, blinking slowly, as if he's saying the words aloud for the first time. "I-- I've been looking, I've been looking for two days, but I haven't been able to find anything." He pauses, frowning as what Derek had asked really registers with him. "What do you mean is he gone, too?"