Chapter 27After that Brandon soon found himself separated from Ezekiel’s side, as he spent most of the afternoon and evening with Glen and Mantilo.While in the Leopards Mansion, and living with Ezekiel’s family....it was obvious to see the deference, and love....and adoration that Ezekiel and his brothers held for their father and mother.The brothers craved their guidance and leadership....and because Mantilo and Glen were good parents they gave it to them with full and open hearts.But as the night wore on Brandon was surprised to realize that the same devotion and openness that Mantilo and Glen showed their sons extended out wards to each of the Leopards in their Clan. Every Shifter that came up to speak with them...or to speak with Brandon gave them all of their attention or their respect. None of them made direct eye contact with Mantilo for long...or spoke in a brash or negative tone.And even though there was a definite air of distance and dominance around Glen and Mantilo...
Chapter 28Without a further word Brandon was soon pulled away to gallivant with Erin and Glen by one of the far off bone fires.Against his will Ezekiels eyes followed him, before they came back to rest on his father, who was slowly leading him in the opposite direction.His father walked him a few feet away from the home, to a table laden with clay cups, turned upside down and stacked in a pyramid shape next to two giant bowls. One filled with off yellow juice. And another filled with chipped ice. Mantilo didn’t speak until he had filled two cups up with ice and drink, and quietly handed one cup to Ezekiel.The off yellow drink was spicy and hard, tasting of pomegranate juice and lemons and an unidentifiable herb that heated up his tongue and spiced his lips. The drink had been named “Sunset” for as long as Ezekiel could remember. A strong brew that was held all year and dished out only once on this joyous occasion, during the three nights of the Celebration. The Brew was a delicacy
Chapter 29The next three nights of the Celebration went smoothly enough, aside from one small fire breaking out.Brandon spent that time gathering his strength and his will for the travels ahead of him.All of the family members invited him to dance on various nights of the Celebration and even a few of the other Shifters sought him out and passed along a few pleasantries. But most of the nights he spent rehashing the steps of the dances that he had been taught and mingling on the dance floor with Ezekiel’s family.From Glen, to Nate, to Erin and eventually even Mantilo took a place opposite him on the dance floor, which was a shocking experience considering the fact that he couldn’t have imagined such a large and strict Shifter like Mantilo doing something as informal as dancing.But to Brandon’s surprise Mantilo easily out matched him step for step. The Clan head was graceful in all his strength, and surprisingly smooth even taking the time to tease Brandon for his faulty rhythm an
Chapter 30Ezekiel took his time closing in and yet he knew that he was far beyond out of time t do or say everything he wanted to.A part of him simply wanted to be near Brandon. Spend time with him just a little while longer. But another part of him was still bubbling with questions and suspicions. It was hard to know what to do....or what to say.But he knew this could very well be his last chance to do...or say anything. He didn’t really want to waste it. No matter what the outcome would be.So Ezekiel bided his time. He let the moon dance into the sky far to the west of the pine forest, and he let the seven Bonfires burn until the wood no longer hissed and creaked, but simply burned in silence, illuminating the multitude of bodies and activities, as the music floated up and across the fields.Finally the dance began.Couples and parents and brothers and sisters and cousins took to the fields in earnest. Swaying and swinging and cavorting. Feeling the levity of the moment Ezekiel
Chapter 31Stay. You’re not goona leave me. This place is right where you need to be.So stay. Because I’ve been watching you changing....Just tell me what you’re thinking...I’m scared that you might fall.-Eden project (Wake up)“Uh, Ezekiel? I...uh...just noticed...“Brandon took a swift breath and shook his head. “The music changed.” He said as he glanced around, and Ezekiel dropped his hand from his arm.Ezekiel blinked. “Yeah.” He began looking past Brandon out into the night, then his mind registered the music and he cleared his throat. “The uh....the song changed about a minute ago.”Brandon swiped his hair away from his forehead. “I don’t know this song. So I guess this is where I leave the floor?”A cool wind danced across the night carrying with it the drunken shout of pleasure and release. Ezekiel assumed the sound came from the couple that had snuck away earlier to be alone.Brandon blinked at the sound, turned his gaze from Ezekiel for the first time and looked around at
Chapter 32"Oh My God!!” A voice shattered the musical tempo. “It’s here. It’s Here!!!!"A female leopardess in the night roared, but as fast as it started her voice died away. Strangled off.Every head snapped up, Leopard males all around the dance floor, moved to protect their women. A pure shift of awareness took over. Hisses and feral growls climbed across the air. Brandon’s hair stood on end as an aggressive awareness subverted everything else. Something was out there. He could feel it. Something that had been out there for days...waiting...watching. Hunting.Suddenly someone else screamed in the fire light across the grounds to the left. The dancers parted and there just off the edge of the light. Something large stood in the shadows, something too tall, but also hunched over. It could have been a man.A horribly misshapen man. Something breathing, but also chittering. Piercing sounds somewhere between a bird and a dying hyena peeled into the air. Arms too long and skinny...endi
Chapter 33Brandon knew he should have listened to Ezekiel and gone back to the Mansion, at least so he wasn’t in the way as the Guardians tried to dispatch the threat to their home.....but the knowledge that the last of the Ghouls was out there kept him out in the open....out in the field.Brandon was racing out into the open, his eyes scanning the thinning crowds for the shadow of the death in the night.If he was honest with himself....he wanted to do something.Please god don’t let anyone else die because of me....Brandon prayed not really knowing if anyone was listening to him.Then a sound so harsh and chilling that it made him stumble to a stop caught Brandon’s ears and his head snapped up. A child. A Shifter child. A little brown haired boy....alone in the field, surrounded by chaos.Brandon hesitated to assign age to such a being as a Shifter, but he had to believe that the child was very young, too young to run as fast as he needed to, especially since he was now in the thi
Chapter 34A small zing went through Ezkeiels senses. A ghost of a pain in his shoulder and head. He didn’t know why he felt it...or what it meant. It was a bad feeling. It made his stomach turn. It was a feeling that for some odd reason had him thinking about Brandon.Did he listen to me and go back to the mansion?A part of Ezkeiel wondered thinking of the green eyed man, but another part of Ezkeiel knew that he couldn’t afford to have Brandon on his mind just then.Especially when there were people dying around him.Claw and fang proved woefully ineffective on the Ghouls. The hard taunt olive colored flesh and concrete hard sinew of their torsos and limbs prevented Ezkeiel from inflicting more then superficial wounds at first.With this being the fourth time that Ezekiels had had to go up against the supine and deadly Ghouls he and his Clans men were mostly able to avoid their talons and venom....but dispatching the Ghouls proved nearly impossible.The three Ghouls that had launche
*First off thank all of you so much for your time and support and your reads! Please tell me any thoughts you have so far about Brandon and Ezekiel. I would love to hear from you guys. Now lets end this!* Chapter 48 Ezekiel turned around from the wall that he had nearly walked into and began to walk in the opposite direction. He soon came to the other wall in his room and turning he began the whole thing all over again. Pacing. It was a nervous anxious device that people used to elevate the pressure of insecurities. Pacing is something Ezekiel had never done before. To wake up in the early hours of the morning and pace the ground in worry? It was so against his nature to worry. It was also against the nature of a Guardian, a nature that his father had trained into him from the moment he was old enough to hold a blade. To protect his Clan and those that he cared for. His father had always taught him to be composed and filled with surety, but still he found himself bothered endlessly
Chapter 47Brandon sat on the bed, and quietly downed an entire bottle of water. He’d been vomiting on and off for hours now. Weakness, nausea, they always came running up right after a huge loss occurred inside of him. It was inevitable that after each outpour of his strange power, he fell severely ill, it was like an emptiness inside of him grew where the power once resided for a short time.Most of the time he prayed for separation from his power. He spent every minute of every day hoping it would leave him in peace....but the sickness that followed was not a pleasant alternative.Unfortunately coupled with the unbelievable hunger, and pain inside of him there was a mountain of things weighting on Brandon’s mind to keep him from wallowing in sorrow.The escape...was a miserable failure that sat like a guilty blot across every one of Brandon’s interaction with Ezekiels family.....even though none of the Guardians treated him unkindly seeing as his actions had almost gotten their sib
Chapter 46With his cat eyes unsure and speckled with the stirrings of unconsciousness, Ezekiel suddenly reached forward. His hand closed around Brandon’s wrist and lifted it to his lips as he opened his mouth.His canines slowly elongated and Brandon strangled his immediate reaction which was to pull his arm back from the intimidating sight and instead he pressed his arm against the pointed teeth, using the points to help the blood flow out of the cuts he had made with Ezekiel’s claw.A few fat rapid drops fell into Ezekiel’s mouth after that, seeming to get his attention.A growl of pure need.....and satisfaction wound its way up and out of Ezekiel. The sound was like a caress, igniting and stroking Brandon’s own pleasure and confusing him as well.Whoa, I feel like I can’t breathe.Brandon thought to himself, realizing that he was in fact holding his breath in anticipation. His whole being was zeroed in on the feeling of Ezekiel’s breath on his skin, his hot palms grasping him, and
Chapter 45The venom was impossible to stop. There was no cure. There was no stopping the victims from dying.Brandon had already tried to save a life and had instead aided in taking it....There was nothing he could do......The moment Brandon looked at the wound in Ezekiel’s stomach he knew all of this to be the truth, but he refused to accept it.“No....They can’t have you too!” Brandon whispered into his hands.He wouldn’t allow this to happen!Without thinking about what he was doing Brandon tore the gloves off of his hands, dropped down in the sand and grass and shoved his hands against Ezekiel’s chest.Both he and the Shifter were soaking wet from their dip in the lake so Brandon was forced more than once to reach up and dash water from his eyes that was dripping lazily from the strands of his bangs.Then with all of the will power in his body Brandon tried to make the Flame do as he commanded. He tried his hardest to make it heal. He let it out of his soul. Bliss kissed his eve
Chapter 44With little to no problem Brandon managed to keep up with the grueling pace that Ezekiel instantly set.Panting Brandon risked a look back and with a grim breath he reported. “They are following us. Both of them are following us....We're weaponless....and running nowhere.”Ezekiel glanced back getting a quick glimpse of two Ghouls loping after them at break neck speed. One of the Ghouls, the largest, nearly seven feet tall, had skin the color of dead leaves, and heavy thick claws and fangs that were so over developed that some talons curled and some of the fangs shot strait up through its own snout.The second Ghoul was smaller at only about six feet and had flesh the color of cardboard. It also now had a giant knife handle sticking out of its brain that was leaking a furious fountain of blood down its face and jowls to mix into the black goo that dripped thickly from its jowls.Ezekiel glanced away from the disturbing sight, glanced at Brandon and shook his head. “Were not
Chapter 43OK....so far so good....” Brandon thought to himself as he gazed out over the expansive area and the mountains sitting like black and gray sentinels miles out in the dimming sunlight.After a week of planning Brandon had come to the easy conclusion that the norther part of the Leopards Lands would be the best place to attempt his escape from. The entirety of the north was vastly wild brush, tall grasses, bodies of water and thick pine tree canopy’s.Brandon had picked the best time to make his escape. The mid-day. Knowing after weeks in the mansion that none of Ezekiel’s family members were at home during the midday and were instead off in the villages healing the sick, or doing farmers work.“Brandon stop!”Brandon jumped and quicker than anyone would have believed possible, he had dropped his pact to the forest floor and pulled a long, slim kitchen blade out of the belt at his waist.He had stolen the simple blade form the kitchen. “Ezekiel? No please dont do this now!” h
Chapter 42The mortal was as crafty and stubborn as Ezekiel gave him credit for....maybe even more so.After the attack on the Clan Celebration and their falling out Brandon refused to budge. And Ezekiel refused to continue to pretend like he didn’t have suspicions.So he had no choice but to pull back and give Brandon the space that he acted desperate to have.Ezekiel didn’t chase after answers he was dying to have. He didn’t question and dig....and he physically had to stop himself from trying to touch the man all the time.And the fact that Ezekiel could barely stop himself for reaching for the mortal at any given hour....or when they accidentally connected gazes.....should have frightened him....but all it did was make Ezekiel more frustrated with their current standoff. Why did Brandon insist on turning from not only Ezekiels company....but the mutual attraction they felt was confounding.And the dreams!There were no words to explain the confusion the sensual, hot dreams he suff
Chapter 41Brandon felt a momentary hesitation of guilt settling over him as he found himself standing outside of Ezekiels bedroom door. It had been five hours since the attack on the village.Brandon had no idea what was going on outside, or what Ezekiel and the rest of the Guardians had had to suffer in the last few hours, but he knew that Ezekiel would not only be exhausted...but also not in the mood to talk.Which was perfect.Brandon knocked on the door and in moments it was opened to reveal the mostly unclothed body of a god.Ezekiel was all defined muscle and flawless skin, long arms and thick legs, none of which was easily hidden by the short pair of blue boxers that the Shifter answered in. Brandon was practically powerless to stop his eyes from dancing down between the Guardians pecks, past his lickable ribs and belly, to settle for a moment on the small dusting of slightly golden hair just below his navel that summoned a little ridiculous curl of heat in Brandons thoughts a
“Another LOCK DOWN!!!” Brandon screamed minutes after running into his room and slamming the door shut between him and Ezekiel’s sharp gaze.He didn’t care if he was heard. He screamed because he couldn’t bring himself to break down and cry again like he had shamefully just did in Ezekiel’s embrace.“This can’t be fucking happening to me....NOT now!”Brandon walked across the room and slammed his fist into the lamp. The heavy glass toppled swiftly in wake of his frustration and shattered, splaying shards all across the wooden floor. And Brandon didn’t stop there. He kicked the mattress, forcing the heavy wooden frame to shift half a foot, then he swiped his arm across the top of the drawer knocking every item atop it to the floor including the pack he had received from Glen and a decorated box of mahogany and lace that held smooth stones and beadsMORE GHOULS HAVE APPEARED! PEOPLE HAVE DIED. AND TO TOP IT OFF THE FUCKING LOCK DOWN HAS BEEN REINSTATED!! IT’S ALL JUST MORE WASTED TIME!