(MxM) Tales of a Shifter (P4)- The Blood

Chapter 32 - A Bleeding Heart

Chapter 32

Ezekiel couldn't breathe. It was like his heart had been clutched in a vice the moment Lander broke the connection to Brandon's memories.

Every moment of the mental connection had been disturbingly visceral. Ezekiel had felt, and smelled and seen all that Brandon had once seen. Though Lander all of them had experienced Brandon's past more real then any film and more deeply than he had really been prepared for.

Even once the connection was severed and Ezekiel's family had left the room, he still felt like there was a mountain of boulders crushing the life out of him.

Discordant emotions and horrible memories seemed to be playing on a loop in Ezekiel's soul....and yet the pain that these images and feelings brought over him were separate from him.

They were Brandon's memories. Brandon's pain.

The residual knowledge of everything that had transpired in his past....was nearly intolerable. Seeing the senseless abuse and the death had Ezekiel suffering a powerful chill all the way down to his core.

Ezekiel felt....raw all over....and yet as terrible as the understanding that he had now gained....Ezekiel knew that Brandon was in a much worse place. Mentally, emotionally and physically.

Ezekiel understood that his problems were a hundred times larger than any that Ezekiel could have ever fathomed before.

Brandon's aversion to touch and to people, it all made painful sense now.

His lean body nestled in Ezekiels arms seemed so unreal in those first few seconds.

How could he have survived all that?

Ezekiel had to internally ask himself, as Brandon shuttered against him. One broken wail after another tumbled from his lips as he rocked on his knees and clawed at his shirt as if he wanted to peel away everything.

Jacob, Nora and Hovel. The three people in Brandon's life that had loved and broken him. The Alchemists. The nameless victims of Hovels sick experiment.

His rage, and confusion and anguish was as wide as a valley and as deep as the ocean. There was nothing to say. There was nothing that Ezekiel could do to stem the tide except feel shocked and overwhelmed.

How can he still....function knowing what he knows? After doing what those bastereds made him do!? How is he here after all of that suffering!?

And the answer to those questions was nowhere to be found.

The only thing Ezekiel had to reassure him that Brand was in fact a survivor of those remembered evils, was the body lying in his arms, and the salty brush in the air from Brandon's tears

Ezekiel tried to embrace Brandon closer, tried to rub some warmth back into his shivering frame and arms....but everything he did was inadequate next to Brandon's obvious suffering. It was painful to even be near him when Ezekiel couldn't do a thing to halt the tears that were burning trails across his cheeks.

For a long moment Ezekiel just held him, rocking him, caressing his head.

Until the sharp scent of fresh blood slapped Ezekiel in the face....with a power and kick that the scent had never quite managed to reach before.

Ezekiel snarled as his eyesight sharped painfully, and his fangs started to grow without any warning.

With the scent of Brandon's blood came the predictable dryness in his mouth....the obscene thirst for Brandon's essence was never far away, but....nothing compared to the urge that hit Ezekiel in that moment.