Man at Arms

Chapter Eight: Snake in the veins

CHAPTER EIGHT

"What the fuck do you want, Callus?" I growled, watching Circe's ass swaying like a bloody swing, and sighed when she slid into her car and left.

She's out of my grasp again. Her sudden appearance in the facility still moved the bloody hell out of me. Just when I decided to forget her and proceed to my normal dysfunctional life, she graced me with that biblical face and those amber eyes that always have that Come-eat-me-Daddy look.

Walang sumagot sa kabilang linya pero nariririnig ko ang paghinga ni Callus.

"Tell me what the fuck is going on, Callus!"

Alright, I admit, I'm kind of worried. Just tiny, worried about my donkey ass of a brother.

"I...I'm..."

Goddammit!

I marched to the car and Nazi jogged to open the passenger seat for me. "I'm on my way. Don't fucking die yet, Callus!"

"I'm not dying," he scoffed.

Umangat ang isang kilay ko kasabay nang pagsara ng pintuan sa tabi ko.

"Just...bloody hell, Nazi, quick!"

Sa pagmamadali nauntog ito sa hamba ng pintuan. He bowed at me through the rearview mirror and floored the gas. I saw from the side mirrors that my motherfuckers were tailing us.

"Are you still breathing?"

"Of course, dumbass."

Born four seconds before Callus made me the eldest, to carry the burden of responsibility for my twin. We aren't alike, I got my mother's obsidian eyes while he got our father's icy grey that always reminds me of the walls where Lucian would chain me.

We were seven when our mother was murdered and nine when Lucian shot our father. Not that it was sad, but he had actually given us a favor.

Callus tried to be the big guy between us, meddling with my life, sending men to check on me even though I'm a bloody grown man capable of himself, and even sending women to my bed because he was worried his twin might go celibate. We didn't have telepathy or whatever bloody thing they expected from twins. Our bond deepened as we grew up, we have become empathic that I don't need to gut out an answer from him to know he fucking needed me.

And he fucking needed me at this bloody moment.

Callus may have tried to be tough for us, pero alam namin pareho na sa huli ako parin ang panganay. Ako pa rin ang mas matapang sa aming dalawa.

Nang makarating ako sa bahay niya ay alam na nang mga binti ko ang pakay nila. I run up to the stairs, two steps at a time. He may not have been dying as he sounded over the phone, but I knew better than that.

He's numb, and he'll die not realizing he's gonna die.

I booted down his office door, the room was dark, but my eyes immediately found him. I will always find him. Hindi ko alam. Kahit nakatayo ako sa kalagitnaan ng matao na lugar ay lilingon ako sa pwesto kung saan nakatayo mismo si Callus. I'm not sure if it was a twin thing, but Callus said he could feel me when I was around. It kind of freaked me out at first, since I always wanted to be the sneaky bitch.

I saw him slouched on the couch. His arm was hanging over the armrest, blood dripping from his hand on the floor with a soft thump.

Dumiretso ako kaagad sa banyo, kumuha ng bimpo bago bumalik sa pwesto niya. Lumuhod ako sa tabi niya at nilapat ang bimpo sa sugat sa kamay niya. Something sparked on the floor, caught in the moonlight through the mirror, and I clenched my jaw when I saw the bloody knife.