Chapter 70- Aftermath

  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 from the glass. And both Lander and Walter proved to have superficial wounds form their own encounters with the

  beasts, and after a few seconds of rest....all of the brothers were more than ready to get their revenge. Ready to hunt the intruder’s that had tried to end them.

  ****

  “So, Heres the plan. I’ll remain here with the Brandon. Ezekiel....Lander, go get on their trail.” Walter began as the brothers huddled together. “If u see the intruders don’t go after them alone. Simply scout the surrounding fields for now....Make sure that they’ve at least left the perimeter around the house and aren’t trying to double back for another

  ambush.” Water easily commanded, obviously in charge.

  The Eldest brother stood stiff and still, supporting his right leg, and tilting his left leg....which was the only sign that his elder brother

  had suffered a broken fibia not ten minutes ago. Slowly the big cat inside would heal Walter....but Ezekiel knew that it would be hours still before his brother would be able to do more then limp a few feet and only with tremendous agony:

  Ezekiel nodded as Walters commands ceased. But in the back of Ezekiels mind he registered the fact that....since the attack Brandon had not only distanced himself, but that he had become as silent as a ghost.

  Now Brandon stood a few feet back, nearly in the middle of the day room glancing at all the damage. Looking uncertain and unhappy.

  >Felling the distance between them aquetly and not really knowing how to close it.....Ezekiel turned to Lander suddenly and tapped him on the back of the head.

  “Hey....”

  Ezekiel began, tilting his head in Brandon’s direction so that his brother would follow him with his eyes. “You have something to say to him Lander. He saved your life.”

  To Ezekiels surprised Lander actually smiled at him. His green eyes shining slightly. “Your right....” Lander hissed...and without another word he turned and made his way towards Brandon’s space.

  Ezekiel trailed behind him suspiciously and to his aggravation he was justified to be anxious.

  “Hey....Candy Pants!” Lander called in a bold tone that had Brandon flinching and turning to face him.

  Once Lander had caught his eyes he stepped into his space, crowding the mortal. “So I know things got a little intense back there... and I just wanted to tell you...?” Lander began sounding sincere, but his smile was more of a sneer as he growled in Brandons face.

  “That No one asked you for your fucking help...” Lander growled then he turned, smacked Ezekiel on the back. “How was that?” He snarled and walked in the opposite direction, leaving them

  behind.

  “I’m sorry.” Ezekiel sighed.

  Shaking his head Ezekiel quickly went to Brandon and hissing under his breath, Ezekiel rubbed at his shoulder. “Brandon forget him...he’s just mad that he got his ass kicked and needed your help.” Ezekiel said as he let his brother walk a few steps away.

  Then Ezekiel rolled his eyes at Brandon and reached out to tap Brandon on the back of his hand. “Anyway. Thank you...Thank you for helping my brother.”

  With a blink Brandon shrugged and noticeably stepped back from him, perhaps so that he couldn’t be touched again. “Don’t thank me....I only did what you asked me to do.”

  Brandon supplied coolly. And something in his words confused Ezekiel. The dull flat stare that Brandon cast about the desecrated room was speaking to his current state of mind, but Ezekiel didn’t know what was causing him to speak and move so... lifelessly.

  “I owed you Ezekiel....” Brandon finished and looked away.

  “Wait. You owed me? What do you mean by that? You jumped into a potentially fatal battle....just because I asked you too and you felt obligated?”

  Ezekiel asked him and hoping to get his attention he reached out and touched his shoulder. “Hey...what do you owe me?”

  >Brandon looked back at him then. Nothing showing on his face or in eyes, he was just so cold. Ezekiel didn’t know what was on his mind. But his next words caught the Shifter off guard. “I owed you....for the things you’ve done for me.” Brandon said.

  And Ezekiel surpressed the desire to sigh. A part of Ezekiel instantly knew that Brandon had only helped Lander because Ezekiel had screamed at him to move, but another part secretly believed that Brandon had helped....because he had wanted to. Because Brandon cared about his brother dying....but now Ezekiel understood that perhaps Brandon felt....a debt to him

  and him alone.

  And that idea slightly saddened Ezekiel....because he had in-fact done very little for Brandon. Nothing that any decent Shifter wouldn’t already do. And Ezekiel realized

  that Brandon saw his actions as...abnormal. Somehow...simple kindness seemed abnormal to him.

  " Look you don’t owe me anything...” Ezekiel tried to tell him, but Brandon simply stepped away from him and with obvious irritation he gestured to himself.

  “Yes I do. I owe you... and I owe you more even now, and I don’t like owing people Ezekiel...but I owe you my life....twice now.”

  With a slight grimace Brandon shrugged and continued. “So, now I’ve got to pay you back. Helping Lander was just a part of, what I owe you...nothing else. I don’t need you to thank me or read anything into it either. Like a business transaction. Nothing personal.”

  “You are so stubborn.” Ezekiel commented softly, holding Brandons eyes. Then Ezekiel got an idea. It often seemed that the best way to convince a stubborn

  person....was to agree with them. So he did.

  “Alright...fine.” Ezekiel began, smiling and taking a step closer.

  “I’ll let you pay me back right now. No more feeling indebted to me. Will you do anything that I ask you to do to pay me back in full?” He inquired softly. Brandon must have sensed the sinister edge to his words by now, because he cut a small suspicious look at Ezekiel before slowly shaking his head “Yes.”

  “Yes?” Ezekiel smiled and pursed his lips as He reached out and took Brandon’s left wrist in his hand, then he lifted it up between them “What...if I asked you to take off this glove...just

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  one?”

  In a split second the dull stare was transformed into an annoyed glare as Brandon snatched his hand away from Ezekiels hold and shook his head. “No...The gloves stay

  on Leopard.”

  “Okay...What...about taking off everything else?” Ezekiel hissed leaning stepping in to his space and letting his eyes drift down Brandon’s body then back up. It was anything but covert, but seeing as he was mostly teasing

  Ezekiel didn’t think it would hurt. He put his knuckle against Brandon’s throat and ran it up the side of his neck, tracing his smooth pulse, and stopping beneath Brandon’s chin, chucking his eyes up to Ezekiel’s, and again he leaned in. “Or what about a kiss instead?”

  This time Brandon didn’t move back. He straitened up and glared at Ezekiel. “Never.”

  “No? But I thought you owed me? I thought this was like a business transaction. Pay up, nothing personal right?” Ezekiel said back, innocently. Brandon’s glare became more pronounced, so with a smile Ezekiel shrugged and dropped his hand.

  “Hey you’re the one who wanted to pay me back...your the one insisting that you did this out of a sense of oblighation. Well prove it! Prove that you don’t really care about me

  ..or Lander. Prove that your really that cold towards me. So?”

  Suddenly Brandon sighed, reached down and snatched the leather glove off of his left hand. And before Ezekiel could say another word, Brandon had lifted his uncovered hand turned it around and flipped him the bird.

  “There blue boy. I care.” He said. “Were even.” Then Brandon smirked at him, leaned back, slipped his gloves back on and walked away.

  “Good.” Ezekiel chuckled. Though the rebuff wasn’t anything that he should be happy about, he was just glad that the cold distance in Brandon’s eyes had fled.

  ***

  A few moment later Brandon watched Ezekiel and Lander dive out of the window three minutes later. He felt cold engulf him, the moment Ezekiel disappeared.

  Everything in him wanted to scream at the brothers to stop.

  He wanted to tell them that they had no idea what they were dealing with, but he didn’t say a word.

  And fortunately Ezekiel and Lander returned fifteen minutes later. The two Shifters climbed back through the shattered window and crunched across the glass strew about the floor as they made their way over to their brother. Both of them were Shirtless and their claws and teeth were in full shift. Brandon caught a glimpse of their eyes glowing bright with unfulfilled aggression, but for the most part....they looked to be unharmed Brandon.

  Brandon found himself breathing a sigh of relief against his will. But he was happy that no one had gotten killed. Too many people had already died because of him.

  Glancing around at the carnage that the beasts had done to the day room he felt a familiar smack of guilt land on his back.

  “What they hell were those things...?“” Walter breathed easily lifting a couch off its back and setting it upside right.

  “We don’t know...I’m mean did you feel some of those hits!? They were so strong, and wild almost like they were hyped up on something.” Ezekiel hissed tossing the arm of the table down on to the ground in frustration. “They were like....these crazed jackals, hooping and calling to each other. I couldn’t understand anything they were saying though.”

  “And they were fast....I’ve never see anything that big and agile....“Walter said as he calmly, removed glass out of his hair and dropped it onto the ground. “They moved like Shifters, but had the shapes of men.”

  “Like men? No, they were more like abominations. Their thoughts were empty, I couldn’t understand what they were doing” Lander, who was holding his recently broken shoulder, cast his angry green eyes about the room and hissed.

  “They destroyed this room....and made it smell like shit too!” he said scrunching up his noses, which in turn flashed his elongated canes. “This whole damn run sticks of piss and asshole. And one of ’em kept trying to slather me with that slimy black shit leaking out of its mouth!”

  Lander suddenly growled and walked over to his older brother, without permission he took his brothers wrist and lifted his arm, twitting it slightly in the light. “Look at this shit Walter...its all over your arm... It reeks of rotting horse flesh.”

  Instantly Brandon looked Lander, Ezekiel and Walter over from head to toe. But he breathed easy once again when he realized that none of the brothers, except Walter had any black saliva in their cuts or open wounds....Brandon knew that the black slime that the beasts produced was highly toxic....especially to Shifters.

  But Walter barely glanced at the black spit all over his upper arm, before pulling away from his Brother and calmly replying. “It’s just spit....it can’t hurt me....” He told his sibling, his dark brown eyes breaking away to look at nothing before he added. “...Even if it does smell like shit.”

  Brandon wanted to yell at the larger Shifter to hurry up and get the toxic sludge far away from his skin....but if he did that.....there would be questions. Questions he didn’t want to answer.

  Brandon sighed and put his head into his hands. Ezekiel seemed to take that as a sign of distress. Suddenly Brandon had large soft hands on his face and neck. Still shocked and numb by the appearance of the beasts Brandon’s reaction to his touch was dulled at first.

  “Hey...oww.” Brandon squirmed as Ezekiel used his thumbs to tilt his head back. Ezekiels glowing eyes locked on to the various bloody cuts on his face and neck. Brandon could feel the warm energy rolling beneath his skin, like invisible steam rising off of his body as the Shifter came down from the fight.

  Ezekiel pulled him closer, his eyes locked on Brandon’s face and for the first time Brandon, felt the blood drying on his chin and neck, he remembered that he had sustained multiple cuts from the shattering glass, but even now he could barely feel the sting of it.

  For a second as Ezekiel glanced over the bloody damage, the slim pupils in his eyes got even thinner...sharper....less human. Hungry......

  Brandon swore that he even sensed a stillness settle over the Shifter. An awareness in his blue eyes that felt far too focused on the blood that it saw..... Then Ezekiel blinked and his pupils rounded out again.

  Ezekiel tilted Brandon’s face to the side wordlessly then as though nothing strange had happened he hissed at him. “Did you get hit by the glass or a claw?”

  “The glass. It was just some glass....” Brandon said, even though he wasn’t entirely sure. Coming back to himself enough to begin trying to push Ezekiels hands away.

  Ezekiel ignored his initial resistance and kept examining his injuries. “The bleedings stopped n your lip, and the other cuts just need a patch, but you’re gonna need another few stiches for that cut in your cheek.” He said to Brandon. Shaking his head. “You’re lucky. Those things could have killed you.”

  No....they would have killed you. They’ve been ordered to try to take me back alive.

  Brandon thought to himself but didn’t say out loud. Instead Brandon brought his hands up through Ezekiel’s and pushed out, shoving Ezekiels hands to the sides. “Stop that....I’m fine.”

  After that Ezekiel backed off. The small room seemed like a funeral hall, as the brothers silently routed about in the damage, until finally with a sigh Ezekiel spoke. He had wondered over to the window where the intruders had first managed to climb into the room. He was crouched down slightly peering into the night.

  “There is fresh, unfamiliar blood all over the carpet...I think one of them is bleeding to death from that knife I put into is back...” He remarked, stepping back form the sliced up paint and wood.

  His blue eyes went to his brothers, as his boots crunched heavily in the glass shattered all over. “We’ve been out there...for nights on end hunting these things and now they just bum rush us....It’s so odd that they attacked us here. They must have sensed the danger....most wild animals stay away from light and homes....they don’t claw their way into them.” Ezekiel aptly pointed out.

  “Those weren’t wild animals....they were monsters. And Dads gonna be furious when he find out...if he isn’t already on his way” Walter input without much inflection other than a sigh as he gleaned about the destroyed room. He shook his head and told his brother with a strait stare. “Get ready to be out hunting there in the woods hunting things nonstop for the next few days”

  “Hey....” Lander barked at him, before reaching out and tapping his brother on the shoulder with his knuckle. “Get that shit off of your arm already....” He hissed, glancing at the oil-ish looking smear spread across Walters forearm and bicep from the saliva of the intruders.

  Walter shifted his arm up for inspection, grunted, and then walked over to the window that the Ghouls had slipped crawled in from. He slowly couched down and took up the ends of what had once been the widows cream colored curtain, now nothing but a cut up rag.

  Slowly and patiently he began wiping at the black incur on his skin, only looking back a few quite moment later to ask. “I also don’t understand why they did this. What do you think they were they trying to accomplish?”

  Lander shrugged his shoulder. “Who knows....? Who cares?” He relied.

  But Ezekiel shook his head at Lander and offered his own input. “Well from what we’ve seen these things are hunters....and flesh eaters. They have fangs and talons and they were huge... So do you think they were possibly trying to hunt one of us? Look at the claw marks...they are the same as the ones we saw in Bills house....Do you think....? Ezekiel stopped.

  “Come on Ezekiel!” Lander scoffed. “Nothing preys on Shifters except for other Shifters....and maybe even those Hunters that like to skin us for money. Short of that...were at the top of the fucking food chain!”

  “Still....those things are getting bold.” Walter supplied. “Invading, then killing moose’s and horses and now attacking our homes.” Walter told his siblings with a heavy air, though nothing about his tone or expression really managed to change.

  Calmly he tossed down the shredded piece of curtain that he had used to remove the black spit from his arm then he straitened up to his full height and took a deep breath it was the only sign that the larger brother was feeling any pain from his injured. But Walter simply let his breath out and said next. “We also haven’t found any leads on Billy’s whereabouts and after this I’d have to agree with Ezekiel. I’m begging to suspect that Billy got taken by these things. They are hunting us....”

  “I hope not.” Lander shook his head, for the first time that night not hissing or growling in anger. “What are these things...?” he asked his brothers.

  “I don’t know and sooner we figure out what they are, and where they went, the sooner we can protect everyone in the village.” Walter growled, his face still not displaying one iota of emotion even though his voice was calm and authoritative.

  Brandon swallowed at his words.

  The sooner we figure out what they are, and where they went, the sooner we can protect everyone in the village.

  The words reverberated in him but his own dark mind whispered back in answer

  I cant help them....