(MxM)Tales Of A Shifter (P2) - The Clan Celebration

Chapter 20 - Hollow Monster

Chapter 20

Brandon burst free of the front door, sobbing as the ache inside flared up nearly crippling him. 

The Flame wanted to feed with desperate lust, it demanded Brandon's compliance, but out on the porch beneath the wooden awnings the essence of life buzzing so thickly in the mansion lessened dramatically.

With a poignant stab in his gut, the Flame suddenly wilted weakly, and slowly started to die away. The pain of need dulled only slightly, but the hunger stopped splitting him at the seams. It was so strong...and the Flame had so little mercy for him....or anyone. Brandon knew it would eventually get its way and force his hand. But for now....he only sobbed in relief as the pain started to flee.

But he could never truly relax. Brandon knew the Flame always found a way. The agony of its fading pulse....would eventually push him to feed. Because with its death, with its diminishing light....purest agony arose every time. IT was as if Brandon was being punished for denying the Flame sustenance.

If he held off for too long it only got worse. Nausea....body aches....blood boiling and brain shattering agony and that was just the beginning.

But for now Brandon only felt the nausea and body aches. For now he could handle this level of pain. Because he would sooner die then feed on the Shifters that were sharing a roof with him.

"Stay away from Ezekiel..." Brandon sobbed weakly he spoke to both himself and the evil inside. He still felt the desire to seek out the beautiful Shifter, to touch him....to taste him, devour every last breath and he hated himself.

"Only a few more days..." he said on a broken cry into his hands as he scrubbed at his face.

His entire body was shaking as he remember how close he had come to going into Ezekiel's room. To seduce him. To feed....

Brandon closed his eyes on the shameful moment. "Only a few more days..." Brandon muttered it like a mantra as he placed shaking hands out on the railing to steady himself.

He dug his nails into the wooden pouches railing, not feeling the wood as the leather over his fingertips barred the sensation. The darkness hung like a deity over the entire Leopards lands. All-encompassing and mighty it hid everything from his view, robbing Brandon of the chance to gaze out over the land that he knew was beautiful and lose himself in something besides his own problems.

But his problems only multiplied as Brandon took a breath and stepped down from the porch. He swiped at the water on his cheeks wishing he could dash away the light buzz of life stirring in the back of his soul. Calling to him. He ignored it as he turned on the thick grass beneath him and took a short painful breath as he walked. At every step Brandon felt the lush grasses under foot wilting. Dying. Falling victim to the Flames unfilled hunger.

HE was a cavern, a hollow, sucking up life, and energy as he walked.

Silently Brandon knew that if he took off his gloves his hands would be glowing as small pathetic tendrils of energy was sucked into him from the healthy grass trampled beneath him.

Too little. Not enough essence. Plants could never satisfy him.

It wasn't nearly enough to quite the hungry need of the Flame but it was all he allowed himself to absorb. Brandon walked slowly to the edge of the front of the home and closed his eyes, tipped his head to his chest and just stood still. The moon was shadowed in the sky casting no light....or comfort.

And it wasn't until Brandon heard the silence around him that he began to realize that he was being hunted. That something large and heavy...was breathing on his neck.