Tales of a Shifter (P5) The White Mountain

Chapter 93 - Healers News

Ezekiel left Ann and informed his father and Walter of what he had said to the Alchemist. After some discussion Walter was left behind to guard her encase Ann attempted to escape. Mantilo departed to do reconnaissance around the Mansion and before the sun set on the land saying that he would enlist Erin, Nate, and Drin to help him with the rounds.

Ezekiel knew he was silently being excluded from his duties as a Guardian not only because he had just escaped death mere hours ago, but also because to anyone with eyes Ezekiels head and body were just not in the game. His body ached all over, making him stiff and groggy, while his Leopard squirmed and mewled inside of his brain and chest and clawed his skin in irritation. The muscles at his neck were tight and uncomfortable....and all of this was compounded by a seething stinging need to get back to Brandons side....

For the first time since Ezekiel had been home he scrutinized the deep wounds at his wrists and throat as he ruminated on a million different thoughts and emotions....most of them about his Mate.

The silver had burned his system so severely that upon arriving back home he had been mostly delirious from the pain, both he and his Leopard had snarled pitifully as his mother was forced to wash out the deep ragged gashes he had made of his wrists and throat by fighting the Silver so wildly.

For the most part though Ezekiel had nothing on his physical body to remind him of his time with the Brotherhood, aside from the long faded scar that had been left across his sternum from where Jacob had eviscerated him along with a small army of Alchemists.

But all of the other bloody blistered and welted mess of gashes had managed to heal in to pinkish, white fresh skin that looked very odd next to the rest of his vanilla tones skin. Physically he was all but fine.

Mentally and emotionally? There was also a pounding at his breast that was comprised of the fearful sorrow and need of another. His Mates feelings sat on his lungs like a stone and Ezekiel put a fist to his ribs and cursed. He knew he had to go to him and make him accept him in this time of such darkness and uncertainty. He wanted desperately to let the Druid know that he had to let Ezekiel in, he had to let Ezekiel take care of him....but Ezekiel was also aware that Brandon had denied him many times over. And even now that they had come to terms with their love for each other the Druid wouldn't let Ezekiel all the way in...and the pain of that rejection was terrifying.

Especially after having the Druid open like a flower bud in spring to him while they had been trapped in the Base. And so willing to accept him as they laid out their hearts in the infirmary. But Ezekiel knew that much that had passed between them since they had gotten captured had been forced by fear and little understanding. They had experienced months worth of emotional whiplash in the span of a week or two. Passion driven by desperation and Love made frantic by chaos. In the aftermath it seemed that Brandon had retreated back to his old traumatized way of running from the world and intimacy. It was a fresh kind of hell to have the man reject him so completely after all that had passed, but it did make sense..

Ezekiel knew Brandon wasn't really pulling away from him. He was falling back on old behaviors, and old ways of guarding himself emotionally.

Like a coward Ezekiel went to the stair case...and waited there. His eyes trained on the second floor landing where Brandons soul cried out to him. But He couldn't make himself ascend the steps, because Ezekiel couldn't stop himself from remembering all the things that were holding them apart....the strongest of them being Brandons own inability to open his heart. To give Ezekiel everything that he wanted and desired....even the ugliness, even the pain and confusion. Even the darkness.

When Brandon had woken up so sad and hurt and withdrawn Ezekiel had nearly went to force Brandon to let him care for him...but he knew without even trying that he had to pull back. He knew how fragile Brandon had felt, how vulnerable he had seemed...and he had let the man push him away...unsure how to push him this time without breaking him after everything that had happened.