Chapter 42
And so his fourth night of sleeplessness and now empty sheets passed him by.
Figuring that he wasn't doing anything worthwhile in the bed alone anyway Mantilo forced himself to his feet and made his way out of the bed room and into the dim hallways, colored by warm candle light.
He followed in his wife's wake only until they both reached the stair case. He watched her brown curls and slight frame disappear up the steps toward the room where the mortal would be resting. He could scent his son Lander up there as well. Mantilo quickly guessed that his son was keeping watch. He had probably been put there by Glen herself to keep tabs on the mortals continued well-being. Knowing that no harm would come to his wife as long as Lander was with her, Mantilo turned from the steps and walked a few feet to his left until he came t
Chapter 43Ezekiel purposely turned from the door, ignored the stairs that lead not only to his , but also to the Mortals bed room. He choose instead to walk to his far right and then he walked under the stair case and headed to the kitchen. To his dual dismay and surprise he ran into his mother.Her back was too him as she worked. A few pots beside her bubbled and steamed and his mother's hands worked and buzzed around the vegetables before her. She was chopping and slicing and humming as she worked, and as he watched her she turned and shacked all the vegetable she had cut off the board and into the steaming pot beside her.Trying not to startle her Ezekiel thought to step back out of the room and go straight to his bed, but his mother turned around before he could move. Her bright green eyes sparkled as she smiled and called "
Brandon turned his face up into the warm water as his hands scratched at his scalp. It pooled in the crevices of his eyes and dripped past his ears and down his cheeks like tears. Fresh blood leaked from his sewn up side, the wound inflamed and filled with stitches resembled the maw of an angry deformed demon. The blood swirling down into the drain at his feet made him nauseous to look at so he didn't.So....Glen says the village is on lock down? And until it's taken off red alert I'm stuck here?Brandon mused to himself. Glen had appraised him of this information only a few minutes ago, but he was still struggling to come to grips with the fact that he was now a reluctant guest in the Shifters territory...until the threat had been neutralized.But...what wa
Brandon waited for Ezekiel to speak, but for the longest time the Shifter only examined his wound, so when he did finally speak again Brandon was pulled out of the darkness he had begun to slide into."I don't understand this..." Ezekiel sighed to himself.Brandon exhaled feeling frustrated and sleepy all at once. "What's there to understand? It's a few cuts....""Not that...." Ezekiel chuckled dropping his hands from his side. He steeped behind Brandon out of his periphery view. Brandon forced himself to stand and just as he opened his mouth to ask Ezekiel what he was doing he felt Ezekiel hands on the back of his head. His cool fingers caressed the base of his skull where Brandon knew a three pronged scar disappeared up into his hair line.
Alone I blanketed the Darkness, and Alone I held it at bay-UnknownBrandon sat still for a long time after he left. His body, his mind felt colder without another soul in the room to interact with.And he let himself fall into a sitting unconscious for an untold amount of time.The fatigue carried away everything even the feeling of Ezekiels earlier presence. He felt hollow and by god he loved it. The silence gave him peace and it helped him gather back his crumbling will.He soon managed to stop shaking long enough to realize something.IT.It was finally coming back.It was growing inside.
Once the dream descended, Brandon would always open his eyes to a beautiful sight.The sun rising was far out and beyond him. Starburst yellow and oranges blending with a fog wafting down from the heavens to coat the mountains. These sights were breath taking to him. The sun seemed so close that he often wished that he could reach out and touch it. But no matter how he strained he was unable to move from his spot fixed above the man. Then Brandon would begin to hear them talking. Two males voices beneath him, raised in anger. One voice was familiar to him, because it was his own voice echoing out into the void and sheer rock all around.The man that looked like him stood beneath him. His twin was looking down into the fog and blackness. His hands were clenched at his sides as he screamed at the man standing behind him.
Chapter 48The moment Ezekiel, walked into the room and touched him he felt the strange, but increasingly familiar burn beginning. He smelled the blood.But he tried hard to ignore it. He tried to focus on the medicine....but his inner beast locked into the smell of the mortal's skin, the weight of his body in Ezekiels arms and the feeling of his skin as it accidentally brushed against Ezekiels lips.He remember the strange thirst from their previous meetings. He remembered the want to bite.And an image flashed across his mind.He saw himself pull the mortal against him and he watched himself suck on his soft skin, nibble on it, then his teeth sank i
Chapter 49Minding his speed so as not to intensify Brandons pain Ezekiel surely and patiently led the man in the direction of the kitchen....the place Glen spent her early mornings most days.But...The moment Ezekiel guided Brandon further into the kitchen he realized that he had a problem on his hands."Well...Well...What do we have here...?" Lander nearly growled as he glanced over the two of them. His brother stood across the kitchen with a loaf of bread in his hand, and a plate on the counter top in front of himself. He looked away from Ezekiels and Brandon long enough to sit his bread down on the plate before him.Ezekiel resisted his initial urge to groan and instead focused on ignoring his sibling for the moment in favor of getting the mortal off of his feet. Brandon's eyes were barely open but he barely let Ezekiel support him. He refused to lean on him much even though he was obviously in agony. Ezekiel didn't like it...but he didn't force him either.Ezekiel made a move to
Chapter 50The moment Ezekiels presence and voice faded out of the room, Brandon found it harder not to focus on the pain.Brandon sank his teeth into his cheek, trying to stall the tears that wanted to build as the blood continued to gather on his hips. He felt the damp warmth dripping off his side and hitting the edge of stool and for a split second he wished that his energy would return. He wished that he haven't temporarily banished the power inside that could wipe away every little ache and pain.But just as quickly as he made that wish he took it back and mentally set it aflame.Yes......Brandon knew that the power inside of him could wipe away his pain, but it could also wipe away every living thing in that house with him.So instead of continuing along those ultimately useless trains of thought, he focused on his pain.There was a throb in Brandon's entire left side. Thump....thump....thump. It radiated out of the torn stitches and flesh and organs that he had.....quite foolis
Chapter 76Against Ezekiel's will, the Leopard inside urged him to follow Brandon.Ezekiel simply clocked his exit instead, watching until Brandon had completely disappeared from sight, leaving behind the overpowering scent of his alluring blood on the air.Mantilo easily ignored his abrupt exit and as everyone turned back to discussing the information that their Father had returned with....Ezekiel found his mind lingering, as it often did, on the meaning behind what Brandon had uttered moments ago.You and those ugly beasts don't scare me....Is what he had said to Mantilo, but that snide remark uttered in passing seemed deeper to Ezekiel. It had Ezekiel pondering silently.So what the hell IS he afraid of? What is Brandon's story?Ezekiel asked himself.And for some unknown reason the idea of the answer to that question unsettled Ezekiel even more. And he wondered why someone he thought about this much...was still little more than a stranger to him. And why a sickly unwanted Reaver
Ezekiel suddenly heard Brandon breathing behind him, tight sharp gasps.....like he couldn't quite catch his breath.Taking a moment to step back out of the circle that his brothers had formed around their father and Nate, Ezekiel turned to Brandon and was struck by the emotions swirling across his face and in his eyes.He had expected to see irritation because of Mantilo's refusal to listen to him. (Something Ezekiel was privately relieved about.) But what Ezekiel saw there on Brandon's enchanting face wasn't anything as simple as irritation or even pouting.What Ezekiel saw was an intense mixture of pain and shock. His cool green gaze was slightly widened and his gloved finger tips were clawing into the narrow arms of his chair like he was holding onto the seat in a turbulent sea that only he could see.Only he could feel. And it was tearing him apart.Moved by his obvious discomfort Ezekiel went to the side of his chair, leaned on it and playfully waved his hand in front of Brandon'
On the other side, Brandon shared their silence not because he have insight into the Ghouls motives, but because their motives were all that he understood.The Ghouls had come for him, plain and simple.But aside from their appearances, and their hunting style and the potential threat that they poses to other living things he knew very little about the beasts that had been chasing him. He had learned more from Mantilo and Nate in that moment then, what felt like a life time of running, had ever taught him.How can those things be Rats....? How can they be Shifters?Brandon asked himselfThey are taller and longer than most men and they....they don't speak...they can't speak...They are nothing but monsters.The idea confounded him. But honestly what didn't confound him?Brandon didn't understand himself. . He didn't know why he could nearly taste energy on his tongue. He didn't understand the world that he traveled aimlessly through. A world that held Shifters, and Clans and Dragons an
Suddenly three new Shifters appeared in the door way of the day room.It didn't take long for Mantilo to notice, and with a smile, a warm smile that surprised Brandon he waived over the newcomers from the doorway.Brandon instantly recognized two out of the three that appeared and made their way to the rest of the group. One was Glen and the other Erin...accompanied by a third male, with blue eyes and black short hair. The male was almost three inches shorter then Erin, but as the two of them made their way into the room, he held her hand and on their wrists and hands Brandon spotted matching bands or tattoos around their wrists as well as the identical bands on their ring fingers.He guessed that like Mantilo and Glen Erin and the new arrival were a couple, but Brandon wasn't left to wonder who he was for long, because without any warning Erin's big hazel eyes locked on him and she rushed over to his chair, pulling the unknown man with her."Brandon, Oh no your face!?" Erin exclaimed
In the aftermath of the attack, nearly five minutes passed where Ezekiel and his brothers simply took the time to regroup and compare all of their injuries.And Ezekiel spent most of those scant moments vigorously scrubbing at the foul blood and torn flesh smeared all over his face, caught in between his teeth and clogged up beneath his nails.Using the shredded cloth from one of the tables that had been destroyed he cleaned away the blood as best he could.The Guardian also used that time to put the....rage back in its place. To wrap it up tight and lock it away. He had to. Ezekiel didn't dare let it burn out or dissipate, because for a Shifter like him....a Reaver.....there was no end in sight. The rage was bottomless once unleashed.Luckily Ezekiel had more than enough to focus his attention on, besides the burning need to smash and growl. To Ezekiels immediate and all-consuming relief everyone had managed to survive the attack mostly unscathed.Brandon still sported a few cuts fro
Chapter 71 - Death & AngerEzekiel had fought many fights over the course of his life as a Guardian. Both physical and mental. Some long, some short. Some meaningful, some prideful.And as the youngest boy in a family full of male siblings he had engaged in various battles for dominance ranging from playful to downright bloody....but he could only remember fighting for his life a hand full of times in his history.That split second to avoid tragedy. The rage, the blood lust.....the focus.He felt all of that in the few minutes that had passed since the moose killers, the olive skinned monsters, had appeared in all their horrible glory and began attacking him and his brothers in their own home.The beasts stunk of rancid meat and vicious black fluids ran from their jewels.....The scent of them was enough to turn Ezekiels stomach. It wafted off of them like perfume and for a moment Ezekiel realized that this smell was what had allowed the beasts to hide away from them so effectively. Th
They were hungry...but they had already ate a feast of flesh.The beasts sat in the shadows....their thoughts not far from the darkness that surrounded them. The sharp cutting smell of pine and rotted mulch offended and agitated them as much as the healthy, willowy canopy all around them seemed to irritate them. Branches and thin sticks that trembled in the soft cool wind.The slight almost musical twinkle of the pine needles tumbling to the forest floor, seemed to disturb the hidden hunters making them even more jumpy and angry then they were normally.As though they were unfamiliar with such a thing as falling leaves or healthy air, their bodies twitched and saliva gathered at the edges of their mouths as they became more hot and bothered by the passing hour.But though clearly angered by their surroundings the beasts sat as still as sentinels in the night. Poised on the balls of their clawed feet.And although the pungent scent of horse intestines and blood wafted up from the shape
For another two days after the Guardians returned Brandon was determined to stay in his room. Electing to skip out on patrols with Ezekiel and stay in seclusion...until the third afternoon came and passed him by.Needing to stretch his legs and knowing that the Mansion tended to be empty in the evenings Brandon finally came down to the parlor, turned about in the open area, taking a few moments to decide which direction he would go in. Weather a trip back up the steps to his room would be his choice....or if he would take a seat on the steps and just watch the sunlight glancing inside from the windows around the door?But his choice of activity was decided for him in the next few moments. Brandon nearly jumped out his skin when a slim arm wrapped around his and yanked him down the hall."Glen!" Brandon blurted in surprise as he stumbled. Along behind her small, but surprisingly strong and sure skip."Come on, hurry!" Glen cried. Brandon felt an urgency in her insistent pulling....but
The jagged ill-fitting puzzle pieces of his mind came together by the next morning...so that no one would know Brandons struggles in the nights before.Emerging from his room, Brandon descended the steps the next night and just as he hit the bottom floor, the front door was thrown open and six tired looking Guardians shuffled into the front room. Leading their weary trek into the front parlor where most of the Shifters simply plopped down onto the carpet was Mantilo. All of them shoe-less and with eyes glowing and....claws out on their fingertips that looked sharp enough to gut a man. Instantly Brandon was gripped with....joy to see all of Ezekiels family returned safely after hours of hunting, but shocked and disgusted with the reaction Brandon shook his head and dropped the smile he felt on his face.Brandon tried to turn back, but he had barely shifted his feet on the steps backwards before a familiar and feminine voice was calling out to him."Brandon...sweet heart...?" It could b