Orchid Mantis

Erwin turned the filter over in his hands as he looked it over.

“I think this will work. We’ll need to test it a few times to be sure.” He sighed and put the filter down on his desk, rubbing his eyes. “God, I hope this works.”

“You’ll get it figured out,” Caleb said from behind him, his arms looping around Erwin’s shoulders. He nuzzled his face into Erwin’s shoulder and gave him a quick peck on cheek. “Take a break, babe. Don’t burn yourself out.”

“But I’m so good at it,” Erwin said and gave his boyfriend a wry smile, one hand coming up to rest on the vampire’s forearm. He faced Caleb just enough so that their noses were touching. The other man nuzzled close to him, pressing their foreheads together, and Erwin hummed in contentment. It was perfect—just him and Caleb, alone, with Glen Campbell’s Wichita Lineman playing quietly in the background. He could stay in this moment forever if he could. “Just give me a few more minutes? I think I’m close to done.”

Caleb ducked back down into the rubble, safely tucked away from the Mother’s eyes.

He hated to admit it, but She was right—they were bound to come to blows with Her, it was just a matter of time. They just needed a plan.

“Everyone okay?” he asked, turning to Jess and Alice. They gave him muted yet positive responses.

They had managed to reconvene after the Mother had turned the entire lab upside-down. Thanks to Caleb’s speed and quick thinking, he was able to get both of the women out of the way of the Mother’s attacks, only sustaining a few scrapes and bruises.

“Is She really just going to wait out there?” Alice asked.

“Sounds like it,” Jess huffed.

“I wouldn’t bet on it lasting for long,” Caleb sighed. “If we sit tight for long enough, She’s bound to get bored and start digging for us.”

Alice blanched. “What do we do?”

Caleb wracked his brain for ideas but came up with nothing. Erwin had been their planner, the one with the bright ideas and the will to take gutsy risks. Without him, they were in a tough spot. Alice and Jess were ordinary people that couldn’t hope to stand up to a threat like the Mother, even with Alice armed. Caleb himself was running on fumes—he had taken quite the beating from Roswell and the Mother wasn’t going to let up on him anytime soon. If he gathered all of his strength, he could push on, but not for much longer.

Caleb should have been able to stop it, to get Erwin out of harm’s way but it had happened so fast. Now, the Mother was safely ensconced behind a barrier of alien vines, preparing to take Her new host. That couldn’t happen—She couldn’t have Erwin, not as long as Caleb was above ground.

“Oh my god,” Alice gasped from behind him. “What is that?”

Caleb looked up at the large mass of vines that had formed in front of them. The azure vines were wound tightly together, forming an alien cone-like structure. He could just make out their slight movements, slithering against each other like a mound of snakes. Seeing them shoot through the floor had been horrifying to watch, but he couldn’t let that bother him. All he had to worry about was how he was going to get through.

“Whatever it is, I’m getting him out of there.”

“How do you plan on doing that?” Jess asked.

Alice hefted her cannon—the formula that was left in it swished around dismally. “Could this stuff burn through it?”

“I doubt we have enough left,” Jess noted, lifting her cannon. It made a sad sloshing sound. “That barrier looks thick. Even with extras we have, I doubt it would be enough.” She shot a quizzical look at Caleb. “What happened to yours?”

“She crushed it, but that doesn’t matter,” Caleb said, shaking his head. “I’ll get us in.”

Jess blinked at him. “Again, how?”

“Tearing a hole right through it to start with.”

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.

“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.”

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.

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.