Chapter 51

“Anyway Brandon you don’t seem too surprised about everything you just heard?” Ezekiel commented, gesturing towards him and speaking without a whisper or a hiss now. “Is it...common in the mortal cities to see things like this...Do your people perhaps have abilities too?” he asked him.

No, but His people had a power. Raw....dark....Power. And Brandon knew that HIS people did things with that power....that he didn’t want to remember.

Brandon honestly didn’t have an answer about what the mortals did or didn’t do. He had only ever been around monsters and darkness. He knew very little about anything and most mortals he had only just began to interact with when he began his....“Journey.”

So he answered simply and vaguely. “Well it WAS startling to hear about your powers and everything...” He began, grasping for words as he went along and trying not to bumble them.

“But I....um....I learned about Shifters and their societies from schools books and off the web while I was...um traveling around....so most of this is no big surprise to me, I guess.”

Ezekiel chuckled. “That’s interesting...” He began looking at Brandon and smiling. “You mortals read books to learn about us in school, and we read books to learn about you...somehow nothing really compares to a real conversation like this...does it?.”

Brandon smiled back at him slightly and he sensed at that moment that both of them had settled in to a mutual, companionable rhythm. They exchanged a few more questions, wrapped in a strange cocoon of familiarity that didn’t make sense to Brandon, but also didn’t seem unnatural. He talked to Ezekiel as though he hadn’t been completely separated from most human contact all of his life.

“So, do you and all the other Shifters in this village really change? Do you change into Leopards, I mean?” Brandon inquired, completely unable to imagine the man before him as an animal, even though he sensed something.....predatory in his eyes. “I can’t exactly imagine you with spotted fur and four legs and a tail?”

“We don’t change we Shift...and we are what we are.” Ezekiel tried to explain, but when he saw the look on Brandon’s face her tried to revise his words. “Look, I’m me, but I’m the leopard too. We were born together, we share the same heart and mind. It wouldn’t be fair to keep him locked up. So I Shift into him and yes....I grow a tail and everything you described right down to the fur.” Ezekiel finished with a calm smile, looking like a man talking about his most prized possession instead of a beast taking over his body.

“Well would you rather be a Leopard or a man?” Brandon inquired sensing that Ezekiel had great care for his other half, but Brandon also could see that he didn’t dislike walking around on two feet either.

Ezekiel chuckled and nodded his head. “There are times when I like one form over another I guess....” Ezekiel answered with a slight hesitation. “Leopards are so aware of everything. Not to mention being a man all the time is boring and often slower, but I can’t choose one without killing another.” He said his eyes shining and still slit, but full of a carefree light that Brandon didn’t want to enjoy.....but couldn’t wholly resist.

“So what you’re telling me is that you are both of them?” Brandon concluded, but once more Ezekiel shook his head.

“No, we are neither.” Ezekiel told him sharply. “Not man not beast. Simply Shifters. We. Just. Are.”

“Okay.....” Brandon conceited, personally coming to the realization that it didn’t have to make sense to him, if it made sense to the Shifters.

“Well, what about food?” He probed with another question. “Do you guys eat meat or are you all domesticated and gnaw on leaves of lettuce and eat with forks and spoons.”

Ezekiel chuckled and leaned in close. “Can you seriously see me walking around here with a bowl of wimpy leaves in my hand? I mean look at me. Im a mans man.” He demanded softly.

Brandon shrugged ignoring Ezekiel’s self important smile that was getting more and more eye catching the more that he did it. Brandon fingered the cup sitting in front of him, drawing Ezekiel gaze towards it for a moment.

“Well you did just brew me a cup of tea, like a good lil house wife and clean the kitchen…So I was confused…..” He teased.

Ezekiel hissed at the jest, then smiled far too easily and openly. A nostalgic tilt came over his lips, making him look like a big kid.

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“Yeah I guess. But My mother taught me how to do things like that…and just so you know I haven’t made a cup in years. I personally prefer a hot grill, to a shiny kitchen.”

“Oh well, you’re a regular cave man aren’t you… “Brandon drawled at him. “Let me guess….you take your meat raw and bloody Right?

“Yup or just plain raw…I love the blood the most. There’s nothing like a fresh kill.” Ezekiel laughed, a light moving in his eyes that seemed separate from his gaze. “I honestly don’t know how your people gets along with out a pair of sharp teeth and some of these…?” He said raising his hands and putting them on the countertop. And between Brandon blinking his eyes; Ezekiel’s teeth and nails were suddenly and noticeably elongated.

The very pointed tips of two white fang brushed his bottom lip and the rounded nails of only seconds before had become long pearly white claws.

Like a fascinated child Brandon turned and leaned into wards the Shifter. Not noticing that as the two of them conversed they each separately took chances to move closer together. Brandon poked at the solid claws on one hand, not feeling the smoothness that he guessed was there, because of the leather, but he still felt the claws hardness.

Smiling in surprise Brandon found himself softly flipping the Shifters hand over and pinching the point of the claw, which nearly pierced through his gloves. “Your nails their so….well…deadly, but also pretty cool.” He found himself mummering as he pulled back.

“Don’t worry about them too much…..They are both retractable.” Ezekiel said back and then he demonstrated this.

His nails shook slightly as they grew inches in length in only a few split seconds, quickly turning into the clear and deadly, but eye catching claws of his inner Shifter. Then with a thought he seemed to pull his nails right back in. Brandon put the clawless fingers down softly.

Then Brandon leaned in to look at his teeth next. Wordlessly Ezekiel tilted his head back and let himself be explored by Brandons curiosity.

Suddenly Brandon’s side protested at the movement, reminding him that he had to keep a firm hand on his injured stomach, but he still raised his other hand and placed the tips of his fingers on Ezekiel chin and glanced up into his slightly opened mouth.

“Hmmm, I gotta say…You people are regular killing machines….” Brandon commented as he traced the curves of the teeth with his eyes.

There were actually six of them in all. Two long nearly blade like canines stationed at the top and two more medium length fangs sitting beside the longer top teeth. Then at the bottom row were two more sharpened teeth, barely longer than two inches, but just as sharp looking as the other four upper canines.

“And suddenly I have a whole new respect for your mother.” He said as he dropped his hand with a small shiver. Ezekiel laughed, dropped his head and looked right at him.

And the combination of his smile, filled with tools for killing and his eyes, dancing with both a dangerous glow and a charming openness was diabolical. Brandon pulled back shocked when he felt his heart stir into a ache of odd longing.

He’s so beautiful….

Brandon thought.

There were so few good things….or good images that he had experienced in his life. So little beauty.

But this Shifter looked at him and it was enough to nearly make him forget that beautiful things don’t exist in his world. That he didn’t get to touch beautiful things.

But these were things he could never afford to forget.

The boyish smile melted away like a dream as Ezekiel tilted his head, using the movement to capture Brandon’s gaze.

“Jeez, I’m starting to notice that every time I look at you…You have this habit of catching your breath.” He tilted his head back level. “Am I that frightening to you?” He tested softly, obviously sensing Brandon’s withdrawal, but not pulling back himself.

“Yeah, I bet you wish you could frighten me.” Brandon returned scoffing, using bravado to act unfazed, looking at the Shifter and easily coming up with an answer for his odd behavior.

“But I was really just surprised for a second. It’s your eyes. Their quite stunning. The way your iris shrinks and plumps out…” Unconsciously Brandon reached out and caressed the space beneath the Shifters right eye. He didn’t feel his skin beneath his fingertips, but he felt the heat.

“Every time I’ve seen them they have been glowing slightly and the pupils are slit in long thin ovals…” Brandon began “….Are you always mad or something?”

Ezekiel blinked at that question, then replied. “Well, most Shifters eyes glow a little bit or at least change shape, sometimes for no reason at all Brandon. But our eyes mostly tend to light up when our inner beasts come closer to the surface. Still, most of the time our eyes will glow when were in danger or simply in a highly emotional state of mind…”

Emotional state of mind?

Brandon mused to himself as he looked at the Ezekiel and the Leopard before him. As he remembered another beast…another person with glowing enchanting eyes.

That Shifter…was a monster….

He thought to himself….his mind slipping into a dark corner of memories that was never far away from him.

Jacob…he was always around me and his eyes always seemed to glow just before he’d unravel….

Brandon felt the darkness trying to rise up higher. So heavy that it stung his eyes and throat, threatening to spill over. Trying to prevent it, he kept talking even though he could barely even see Ezekiel’s face anymore.

“Do they get like that when you’re hungry too? I’ve seen eyes glowing like this when…” Brandon stopped suddenly and blinked.

He wasn’t in his dark thoughts, he was staring into Ezekiel’s eyes realizing that he was talking far too freely.

Ezekiel frowned at his hesitation. He reached up and grasped Brandon’s gloved palm holding it as he pulled it down form his cheek. He squeezed it gently. Comfortingly. Holding it between them.

“When what Brandon?” he softly pushed, his eyes searching his face.

Brandon froze as he realized that Ezekiel was touching him far too late. He felt the weight of his hand, the heat through the leather gloves. He snatched back his hand.

And a knock far away in the other room shattered the moment like glass.