Chapter 11 - Team Work
All three of Ezekiels brothers shared anxious unsure looks.
Then all of then leveled their eyes at him. As if to say "WE TOLD YOU SO!"
But before Ezekiel could even think of the words his mother opened her eyes.
Without a word she put a small hand to the mortal's chest. Then putting a hand to her own wrist she began silently counting the mortals pulse. Tight lipped and not sparing any of them one glance she bit off two words. "Explain this!"
Ezekiel, and all of his brothers were grown men, although Ezekiel had only just turned twenty three, he was definitely not a child.
He didn't fe
Chapter 12 - HellSomeone was touching him.Brandon felt it all over his skin, no he sensed it. Eyes. Hands. Something wet and slimy spread on his flesh.His breathing was so slow that he couldn't hear anything but the thrumming pain spreading out of his stomach into every inch of his body.His skin was too tight, it was melting. It was popping. His eyes itched. Nothing felt solid. The earth rolled.The thoughts that tried to take hold slipped and ran away from him like spoiled eggs.And the cold......he felt the cold like thrones beneath his clothes. Grating on every nerve like nails. Ripping. It stabbed
Chapter 13 - Disrespect"Dad wait..." Ezekiel began.Mantilo walked forward, snarled and pushed Ezekiel aside.Ezekiel stumbled to the side and let him pass as he bit his lip anxiously. He knew making a move to defend the man would only lead him to a worse fate.Mantilo went closer to the mortal's sick bed. He feared what his dad would do, but Ezekiel also knew that trying to stop the man was pointless."A mortal? Are you insane!?"He growled approaching the stranger in the bed. Mantilo looked over the feverish, slumbering moral and clenched his fists at his sides. Ezekiel could sense his anger and unease growing as he spoke. "Get him out of here! We n
Chapter 14 - Off The Hook?"Haa ha.. No one can cut through the bullshit like mom." Nate breathed out happily with a bemused smile pointed up at the ceiling as he walked down the hall with his brothers.Their father Mantilo, his back wider and more rigid then any of theirs marched before them, leading them down the hall away from the second floor.They were finally leaving Glen with the mortal and heading back to the front door for all that Ezekiel could guess. Heading down the spiral staircase, which muffled their footsteps as thick brown carpet bounced beneath their bare feet."Yup..." Walter mumbled from far to the right. A rare smirk touched his grim mouth then was gone the next second.
Chapter 15 - GuardiansMantilo watched his youngest son steadily and let him stew in silence for a few seconds.Ezekiel like the rest of his sons was not a child.Ezekiel was twenty three years old and the youngest. Nate was right before him in age also in his early twenty's.Walter was the oldest of his sons at age twenty nine. And Lander came in just below him in age at twenty six years.But Shifters were different then Mortals in they way that they aged.Where mortals were known to age once a year, for Shifters, the first few years of life was the same as a mortals. But after puberty.....after the Shift
Chapter 16 - His PainSo he dreamed. Brandon couldn't move. He couldn't hardly breathe. He felt a great agony pounding at the base of his head, but all of this seemed so far away.So Brandon dreamed in that far off place just between sleep, unconsciousness, and death.Because he knew he was dying.Even in this foggy state of consciousness his heart whispered to him what his mind couldn't say. He was a goner. How much longer would it take? How long before the release was final? Or how long before he woke up and was forced to live underneath their thumb all over again?He didn't know. So he dreamed.Strangely enough dreaming was far t
Chapter 17 - Unknown AgonyGlen struggled to ignore the intruder's screams as she moved along the hall walking away from his room.Ever since coming to her only a few hours ago, the mortal had been a bloody, emaciated, smelly, and now moaning bunch of agony. Glen had suffered through the first few hours because the mortal had kept his distress contained to a few pathetic drawn out moans and leg twitching, but in the last half hour his moaning had transformed into full throated screams. And try as she might to discover the source of the mortals agony she soon came to realize that this pain was purely mental. Spiritual.And try as she might to stay dutifully by her patients side as Glen knew all healers should....she just couldn't stomach that. It was too visceral. To fami
Chapter 18 - No HurtSometime later...Ezekiel mounted the front porch steps panting harshly. His lungs begging for more air then he could actually draw. He cradled a giant bag in his arm that was packed full of surgical supplies ranging from surgical needles, thread, gauze, antiseptics, scalpel's, peroxide, alcohol and a box full of surgical gloves and masks.Ezekiel held all of this stuff close to his body. He'd run all the way to Kim's healing home. It had taken time for him to get her to swear an oath of silence and even longer for him to detail the mortals injuries and, then to recount the story to her, before she had conceded and offered her help.Then once she had loaded him up moment later he had paid her, t
Chapter 19 - Hanging By A ThreadPerhaps his touch had distracted the mortal.Perhaps his words had broken through the fever dreams? Or maybe chloroform was just too hard to continue to battle in his exhausted state, but the mortal shuttered as his chest expanded suddenly.He took a breath and then he succumbed seconds after Ezekiel withdrew his hand from the mortals face.And like a switch going out the mortals head dropped, his eyes drifted shut, and all of the tension in that fevered, shivering, and bloody frame swiftly faded.Ezekiel sighed and gently, removed himself from the bed, so he could stand beside his mother. Glen continued to hold the chloroformed