(MxM) Tales of a Shifter (P3)- The Secret Threat

Chapter 20 - Tender Cruelty

Chapter 20

"Brandon! Brandon get up!?" Ezekiel shouted at him, but Brandon didn't respond. He didn't move or moan. Jacob had struck him out cold.

Shock, pain and surprise had kept Ezekiel mostly silent as Brandon and Jacob had played out their intense drama. But as they had spoken Ezekiel had fought and clawed at the bottom of his strength trying to Shift. Or simply gather the power to stand up and fight, but Jacob had gone too far. And as Brandon scent hit the air....a sharp unintelligent rage lit up his soul.

"You're a dead man...do you fucking hear me! " Ezekiel started to surge to his feet, his eyes locked on the man he was going to kill for harming something so precious and vital to him.

"Ahhh!" Ezekiel couldn't help but roar as his head was suddenly yanked back by the roots of his hair and one of the lions put a long sharp blade to his throat instantly cutting into the skin just enough to draw fresh blood and keep him from struggling lest Ezekiel rip his own wind pipe to shreds.

Suddenly Ezekiel sensed another movement in front of him and he looked forward only to receive a sold knee cap to the face. His eyes and teeth shook beneath the painful blow.

Completely dazed by the blow Ezekiel fell into the mulch before him fighting to remain conscious as liquid fire lanced across his jaw and broken spine and warm blood gushed from between his lips and nostrils. A banquet of copper that danced over his tastes buds like a wave.

"Ezekiel was it...?" Jacob murmured his question on a growl, standing over him, dusting off his leg as if Ezekiels blood somehow had touched him. With grudging note in his voice Jacob chuckled. "I must say.....I'm very impressed boy you can take one hell of a beating."

Ezekiel tried to get the earth to stop shifting long enough to spit a response and failed... so Jacob continued to speak. He dropped down on his hunches next to Ezekiel and said

"And let me also just say....You are right to be angry, I did over react just then." Jacob seemed to muse out loud in an understanding and overly rational voice. Then Jacob snorted and shrugged. "But hey what is a little blood and spit lost between two people, friends like us?" He seemed to muse now to himself and Ezekiel.

Spitting out a mouth full of fresh blood Ezekiel wiped a hand across his blood stained lips. "People like you?" He asked on a pant, honestly to beaten to absorb much information or to think. But something about Jacobs statement niggled his brain.

"Yes." Jacob sighed, and cut his glowing amber gaze to Ezekiel's. "Do you know that HE has never spoken to me like that?" Jacob imparted as he were speaking to a long time friend and not a man he had almost killed three times in the last half hour. "Brandon has never been so vocal about killing me. He cares for you..." Jacob stood and the feeling of a leg crushing against Ezekiel's ribs had him gagging and coughing and lying in the earth as Jacob turned and slammed his boot into Ezekiel's face. Showing a sudden and red hot anger. "So who the fuck are you Guardian!? What are you to my Lil One that he would threaten to kill me for harming you!? Speak up!"

"Son of a BITCH!" Ezekiel shouted as he spit out a fresh gob of blood from his numb mouth. A moment later the feeling came back enough to his mouth that he was able to snarl out a response. "My fucking name is Ezekiel....and if you are his friend why would you attack him! What do you want?"

"I never said I was his friend." Jacob simply and unhelpfully replied, then he grew silent and shook his head to himself. With no warning Jacob shot up to his feet, turned and walked a few feet away.

Ezekiel sighed as he dropped his head into the dirt. The hopelessness of his situation slowly began to dawn on him. He couldn't move more than a few inches. He groaned as he managed to turn on his side and curl around his stomach, his most vulnerable place weather in leopard form or not. He had to get him and Brandon out of this....but how. His back was badly damage. It would be many more hours before he would be able to move at anything faster than a limp....What could he do?