Unchained Instinct ( Complete)

Chapter 27


Evening had turned to night and Kurt lay on his bed in his old room...not Logan’s...not their’s...staring up into the shadows on the ceiling. He hadn’t turned down the bed, nor had he even bothered to change into nightclothes. But, his mind had calmed and now his thoughts worked at solving the mystery of Logan’s sudden threatening behavior.

He had to control his emotions, contain them so they’d stopped interfering with his thinking process. He had to figure out what was going on and how to deal with Logan. This continuous turmoil in his life had taken a toll on him and when he’d told Rogue he felt as if he was losing his mind, he hadn’t been speaking figuratively.

People had stopped outside his door, but no one had bothered Kurt and that was the way he wanted it. Yet, he sensed the tension in the house and that the others wanted to help. He wished they could, but nothing any of them could say would ease the pain in his heart or the trouble in his mind. After a while, everything had quieted. Kurt glanced at the bedside clock. 11:18pm.

And still Logan had not come home.

Kurt rolled to his side and imagined Logan returning from wherever he’d been...spending time with whoever he’d found...and not finding Kurt in Logan’s bed. But Kurt hoped by then Logan’d had time to think on his behavior, on the hurtfulness of his words and hand and come home with an apology and begging for forgiveness.

What had happened while he had been gone those few hours? What had changed inside Logan to make Logan treat him so harshly when all Logan had given him before was love and respect.

When Kurt added up all those factors he got the same answer he always did. None of it made sense.

So, what did that mean? That there was an answer. Kurt just needed to grasp it.

Footsteps in the hallway caught Kurt’s attention, startling him from a near doze. The steps stopped a few doors down, door opening then after a pause closing once again. Kurt pushed up to his elbows, his heart trying to crawl up his throat.

He hadn’t locked his door, a deliberate refusal to fear his lover, but now the apprehension rose up inside him and he reached to turn on the bedside lamp. His breath caught and Kurt whipped his head around at the sound of the doorhandle turning. Logan stood filling the doorway then entered and closed the door behind him, turning the lock for good measure.

Kurt pushed up to sit and stared into Logan’s eyes, a gaze unreadable at the moment.

“Whatcha doin’ in here, elf?” Logan asked, tone still neutral. “I thought we were sleepin’ together these days.”

“We were,” Kurt replied, keeping his own tone cool. “But you left that arrangement up in the air when you left earlier.” Kurt leaned forward, trying to see something of the Logan he loved in this man who had so suddenly become a stranger. “Talk to me, Logan. Tell me what’s going on with you. Tell me why you treated me the way you did.”

“Why?” Logan growled, eyes suddenly cold and hard. “Because I wanted to, sweetheart. That’s why. Because you belong to me and I do what I wanna do with what belongs to me. And I expect you to keep your mouth shut about it.”

Kurt shook his head, a strange calm coming over him. “No. This is wrong. This is not real.”

Logan crossed the room with lightening speed, grabbing Kurt by the shirt front and hauling him off the bed. The fist struck Kurt in the jaw and stars shot across his vision, but he held onto the blooming realization that the answer he had been seeking was right before him.

Logan flung him to the floor and kicked him hard in the side. Kurt let out a huff of a breath and tried to roll away only to have big hands grab him by his shirt again and lift him to his feet.

“You listen to me, baby,” Logan growled in his face. “From now on I’d better find you in my bed when I get home or there’s gonna be some hurtin’ goin’ on. You’d better learn that fast and you’d better learn that now.”

Kurt shook his head again. “No. Logan would not say these things to me.” He disappeared from Logan’s grip, reappearing five feet away. “Logan would never treat me this way.”

“You’d better start believin’ it, kid!” Logan snarled. “This is me. This is the real me. Get used to it.”

“No,” Kurt said again and his eyes narrowed. “Logan would never hurt me.”

“Stop sayin’ that, ya little brat!”

“Where is he?! Where is Logan?!”

Logan’s demeanor changed slightly, a laugh breaking out, but it sounded false to Kurt. “You’re losin’ you mind, sweetheart. Goin’ off yer rocker.”

“No. If Logan wouldn’t hurt me and Logan wouldn’t treat me this way then that means you are not Logan. Where is he, Mystique?! What have you done with Logan?!”

A banging came at the door. “Kurt? Are you okay?” Rogue asked through the door.

Kurt glanced away then back to Logan. “Did you think I wouldn’t figure you out? Did you think you could make me hate Logan?”

“I don’t know what yer talkin’ about, elf. You really are losin’ it big time. If yer gonna act crazy maybe it’s time for me ta look elsewhere for satisfaction. Yer little psychodramas are gettin’ old.”
Logan headed for the door, but Kurt “popped” over, blocking Logan’s way. “Get outta my way before I gotta really hurtcha, elf.”

“You’re not going anywhere, Mystique! You’re going to tell me where Logan is!”

“Kurt?” Scott’s voice called. “What’s going on? Is Logan in there with you?”

“It’s not Logan,” Kurt called back, trying to unlock the door without taking his gaze from this doppleganger. “It’s Mystique!”

“You little fool!” Mystique stepped back and began the transformation back to herself. “I had to do something to make you see what an animal Logan is. But he has you completely under his spell.”

“Kurt!” Scott yelled, the door rattling, but Kurt couldn’t manage the lock and keep his eyes on Mystique at the same time.

Mystique edged towards the window, but Kurt teleported, blocking her way. “You’re not going anywhere until you tell me what you’ve done with Logan. Where is he?!”

A sadist’s smile pulled at Mystique’s mouth. “He’s suffering just as he should be for thinking he has the right to take my son and turn him against me.”

“Logan didn’t do that, Mother,” Kurt hissed, letting the loathing he felt for this woman seep into his tone. “You did that. With the things you’ve done, with the choices you’ve made. And just how far were you willing to take this charade?”

Mystique started and flung a glance behind her when the door blew off it’s hinges. Scott stood there with Rogue and Jean...and Gambit? When had Gambit become one of them?

“Answer him, Mystique,” Scott said. “Just how far were you willing to go to make Kurt hate Logan?”

She pointed a finger at Scott. “I don’t have to answer to you, little boy. I don’t have to answer to any of you.”

“But you do have to answer to me, Mystique...and to Kurt,” Charles said when the crowd parted and allowed Charles to roll into the room. “What have you done, Mystique? Where is Logan?”

Mystique let out a spine crawling laugh and Kurt felt a shudder run through him. “You’ll never find your precious Logan. He’s in a very “safe” place. Shielded from your scrutiny Charles or little Jean’s as well. Go on and try to find him...before it’s too late.”

Kurt “ported,” grabbing Mystique by the arms and shaking her. “You will tell me. Where is he?!!”

“As I told you before, my son. Look for him in hell.”

Mystique transformed, slithering out of his grasp, a flutter of black wings heading for the balcony doors.

“Kurt! Duck!” Scott shouted and leveled his beam at her, singeing a wing.

Mystique let out a screech, but made the open doors and took to the air. Kurt leapt, grasping for something to hold onto, but claws reached out, slicing his forearm in three deep gashes. He cried out and fell, catching the balcony with his tail and swinging up to stand on the railing.

Kurt scanned the sky for Mystique, desperation and terror squeezing his heart. He gripped his arm and felt blood run down between his fingers, covering his hand. “Mystique!”

A long haunting call came back to him, sending a chill of dread down his spine.

“No...no, no.” Kurt chanted the word as if uttered often enough reality would change. Kurt sensed the others behind, wanting to offer him comfort. But no words would comfort him now, no deed or gesture could possibly untangle the invisible cord strangling the breath from him. “Logan,” he said, a sob escaping him.

Rogue reached up and tugged Kurt down from the railing, an arm going around him. “At least that answers the question, bro. Ah knew Logan would never treat ya like that.”

Kurt nodded. “But Mystique has Logan and she’ll hurt him.” Kurt turned his gaze on Rogue and the others and let them see the fullness of his despair. “She will make him suffer because of me.”

“We’ll find Logan, Kurt,” Scott stated with confidence. “She can’t hold Logan for long. Nobody can.”

Jean’s fingers went to her temples and an expression of concentration came over her pretty face. After one long minute, Jean dropped her hands with a sigh. Looking up, she met Kurt’s hopeful gaze, but Jean just shook her head.

“I...I couldn’t find him.” Her expression turned alarmed and she turned to the Professor. “I scanned for miles, Professor. I can’t find Logan.”

The Professor tried to hide his concern, but Kurt saw it, in the lines around the man’s mouth and the deep furor between his brow. “Let us try Cerebro, Jean.”

“She said we’d never find him!” Kurt cried out, his panic rising with Jean’s failure. “She said...I’d have to look for him in hell!”

“Kurt, calm yourself,” the Professor said, reaching out to him.

“Calm myself?!” Kurt replied, flinching away. “How am I suppose to do that?! My psycho mother has kidnapped my lover and intends to hurt him...if she hasn’t already.” Kurt ran his fingers back through his hair, uncaring of the blood still running down his arm. “This is insane! My life is insane! Kidnapping, torture, rape...Gott in Himmel. That is my life!! So how should I calm down?!”

“Kurt....” Professor Xavier’s voice was soothing, trying to lull Kurt’s fears. “Listen to me.”

“NO! I”m tired of listening. Now it’s time to do something and I know where to start!” Kurt teleported away, his intent clear to him.

If anyone knew where Mystique was holed up, it was The Brotherhood.