Fang-Kissed

Chapter 6

I kept to myself the rest of the day and then I lay down to sleep in my dorm with Kami. She sleeps like the dead, straight on her back, no arms or legs bent, just her eyes shut. I had decided to paint in my room and just... grieve, earlier.

I had been unemotional about it thus far because it was hard to take in the enormity of what it meant... what being here meant I was Fang-Kissed to a missing First-Runner.

Missing for two years and probably never coming back.

I had painted a silver backed wolf, I imagined his grey eyes being white in the darkness, reflecting the moon. I painted what I believed Raze to look like. Tall, head held high, paw lifted as he smelled out the enemy ahead.

As I painted, that's when I cried, and I was glad I had the room to myself.

Maybe it was the kiss with Raphael but it broke my heart when I processed what it meant. I kissed my mate's brother. I was a horrible person because I had enjoyed it. And... and I shouldn't have.

By now I've cried all my tears and the room is quiet as Fortitude is empty of the top Fangs, who are out on night patrols.

I can't sleep very well regardless. I lay awake as I smell the green breeze come in through the window. I left it open, needing the air to move to feel at peace. It was warm enough to do that anyway.

I look around the basic empty dorm, aside from our beds and our stuff strewn around and my art, it's mostly undecorated. I don't like looking around too much though, because I hate seeing shapes in the dark. I had a wild imagination and I'm already seeing things move. The shadows played tricks on anyone's mind, especially if you had crappy mortal vision.

I close my eyes, but the moment my lids shut, all my hairs stand on end.

Someone is watching me.

The feeling is extremely robust, but the door isn't open and the window is on the second story level.

I peel open my eyes carefully and I notice a shape in the centre of the room. I squint and the fuzzy form moves.

I open my eyes wide, and I am frozen when I see Raze standing there in the moon light, directly in the moon rays.

Raze, it has to be him.

But it's... it's one hundred percent his ghost.

He looks a lot like Raphael, but no scar and a pristine uniform. Tattered. Old. And him? He is transparent. His form shifts in the moon light, a phantom, or just a delusion.

I look over his hair, not buzzed but a few inches long. A lush grey, not from age, but from his wolf genes being so strong. Fang Gold Royalty. The First Prince. Dead.

I get a shock when the apparition of Raze moves toward me and gets down on one knee. With no expression he just watches me and I watch him.

I'm not scared.

Because I know it's him.

"Are you dead?" I whisper. Raze leans on the side of my bed, looking in pain as he sits on the floor and stays close to me and my face. He is just observing me. Perhaps ghosts can't talk, "I didn't know this would be my fate," I whisper, looking over him, "...didn't know we would never meet, or that you would be a Fang... a legend too... a dead one..." I trail off and he looks content to be quiet.

Raze doesn't smile but he watches me with a maturity I know is just from how long he's been successful at his duty to the realm, and I know he listens to every word I say, considering everything. He is very, very different from Raphael. I can see why his little brother would try to shake him, Raze is so calm, it's almost infuriating.