Fallen (BoyxBoy)

Chapter 26 - Gravestone

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The smell of smoke became stronger as I headed away from our town, further into our forest towards the cemetery. It wasn't too far into the forest and I reached it quickly. The fire wasn't huge yet, just a few trees framing the plot that made up the cemetery were lit up. It would not take long to spread though, and that was going to be a disaster.

The sound of footsteps nearing was followed by Zev, Lyall and a couple of our Deltas stumbling into the clearing not far from me where cars usually entered the plot.

"We need to put the fire out before it spreads to the forest. Zev, get the –" I paused when the flames snuffed out in an instant leaving only a cloud of white smoke. Seeing movement above the trees drew my gaze upwards to Talian just as he was consumed by the rising white mist. I began to step forward concerned that it might suffocate him, but a massive gush of wind from inside the smoke caused it to blow away from the source. I covered my mouth and eyes as everyone coughed at the initial smoke being blown towards us, but it quickly dispersed with Talian's strong wind.

I watched as he landed after the smoke had cleared, worry etched into his features as one of his hands lifted to a burned tree trunk. It seemed to hurt as he flinched by didn't draw his hand away. The wood must still have been hot. It was clear what he was doing, and it only took a few seconds before the charred bark began to fade back into the natural dark brown it must have been before the fire started.

There were soft gasps of amazement from a few of the other werewolves as the magic began to spread from that one tree to the rest that had been affected, the grass around each tree brightening from black to green before the colour inched up the tree. I watched the grass revitalise, heading further into the cemetery but my gaze stopped following the healing process as I spotted something.

The fire had clearly started from my father's grave. There was no attempt to hide that as a plastic canister lay completely destroyed by the fire where the flowers used to decorate the grey stone. The grass around the grave was not green, but it was clear the fire had been there because the stone was dark. There was no doubt who had caused the fire.

Looking back at Talian, it appeared that he had just finished fixing the forest and I began to make my way over hoping to check on him even though he seemed completely fine. His attention was stuck to the tree he had been touching, his hand had not moved.

"Are you okay?" I stopped approaching as he turned to Nick. I had not even heard Nick's car pull up or realised a few other pack members had arrived, probably also concerned by the smell.

"Yeah, it wasn't much. Luckily it hadn't spread." It was only natural for Talian to be comforted by the person interested in seeing him. It should have been a relief to see someone so worried about him because it meant I didn't need to be so concerned about him being on his own anymore, but there was no doubt what the uneasy feeling in my chest was when Nick moved to lock his arms around Talian. Envy. I wanted to be the one taking care of him.

"Good job, Lian. Thank you." I let out a breath finding it hard to breathe when Talian looked up at the taller man, his face beaming with pride. Fuck.

"What... Shit – Kendrick!" My head snapped towards Zev but he was already backing away from my father's gravestone before he just turned around and seemingly disappeared, running so fast no one saw him leave. Confused, I ran over to the grave and froze seeing the stone darkened by the oil and soot from the fire. The noise around me drowned out as the sound of my heart filled my ears. Next to the name I expected to see, was another carved in recently, carelessly so it did not match the font beside it. It looked like a dagger had been used to scrape the name in.

I stumbled off the grave looking down beneath me. No, there was no sign that it had been dug up or tampered with. The sand was still solid beneath the grass.