The Stronghold 2: Immortals

Dominance Issues

Over the next few days Brian did nothing but eat, whine or threaten to beat the living daylights out of me. I almost broke my laptop by hurling it and myself against the wall in frustration and seriously considered murdering my friend to make him shut up. For two days after that I locked the door to his room, leaving him a load of food, and refused to open it again until I was certain his randy phase was over. Eventually everything calmed down and he fell into a deep sleep, curled up in a corner of his bed with his duvet like a tent around him. As his most recent fit of begging had told me to stay in the room with him I was sat in a chair I'd dragged through from the lounge, listening to music on my laptop with my headphones on. I'd had to adjust the width of them at first as I was so used to putting them on over my quiff it was a shock when they slid down around my chin. 

"Shaade," Brian mumbled suddenly, his voice cutting through my rock music like a knife. I pulled my headphones down so they hung around my neck and looked at the freshly-created werewolf questioningly. His upper torso had large scarring from where Jake-the-werewolf had bitten him. As Brian still seemed to be asleep I was about to go back to my music when I heard him speak again.

"Shaade, help."

In an instant I was up on my feet, darting across the room so that I could crouch in front of his face. "What is it?" I asked, my voice loud in the quiet of the room.

"I can't open my eyes. Something has me," Brian whimpered.

"What's it doing?"

"Trying to take over... it was fighting but it likes your voice... neither of us can see you so keep talking until I can open my eyes and please, try and find my glasses."

"Um, okay," I said, eyes scanning the room for his fixed spectacles. "Well, the thing you're on about inside you isn't a thing. At least not a separate thing. It's the werewolf in you, see, and it wants dominance. There was something not quite right with Jake and I don't know what. Werewolves from my world don't tend to be sane anyway so maybe you've got some kind of intelligence rabies that's messing with your head. I don't know. It could just be something natural but I've never heard of it happening before... Wait! Yes I have! Strong emotions in the wolves can change their feel for the human. If they want you to do something they will try and take control. All you can do to stop it is calm yourself down and then work out yourself what it wants you to do. Listen to your heart, your head and your wolf because it won't stop until it gets what it wants. I found your glasses." I held out the glasses to Brian just as he blinked open bleary eyes. He mumbled a thanks and took them off me, slipping them on and then blinking some more as his surroundings cleared.

"You do realise you're trapped in headphone lead, right?" he pointed out. I looked down at myself and saw my elasticated headphone wire wrapped all around my body and around some furniture too. 

"I'm so clever," I laughed, taking off my headphones and disentangling myself. Brian smiled shrewdly and wrapped his arms around his knees. Instead of being pale and cold like Blade's had been Brian's scars were red and angry, a perfect way for Jake to finally claim him as his own. Something inside my head clicked as I realised that and without being consciously aware what I was doing light had spread from my fingertips. I sat down on the bed behind Brian and hugged him, tracing the outline of his scars with a finger. He was strong and well-built with it but the scars made him looked creased, like a piece of paper had been crumpled. As the light set to work Brian shivered and leaned back against me. Even though I could heal things in a second I continued to hold him, ready to use the light and the irremovable scars as my excuse. 

"What time is it?" Brian asked at last.

"I'm not sure," I admitted. "You've been asleep for about two days so it could be day, night, another dimension..."

"You mean you haven't been outside at all?"

"No. You told me to stay and I did. I have."

"Thank you," Brian said quietly. It went silent again but it was a comfortable silence, one that neither of us felt the need to break. I'm not sure how long we sat like that but I know that Velena appearing in our heads was what roused us to do something.

"Guys, we have a situation up here," Velena said, sounding nervous.

"What is it?" I responded, watching Brian closely lest the wolf rejected the telepathic communication. He had quite a strong jaw, I noted, and his eyes were really blue. Earthy colours would look good on him, but nothing would look better...

"Shaade!" Velena shouted. "Be careful what you're transmitting?"

"What did I do?" I asked in panic, feeling my face burn with embarrassment. 

"I did not need to see that," was all Velena said. 

"Shit."

"Be glad Brian slips in and out of range," she said. "He can only hear some of what goes on and I doubt he can get pictures."

"He's still too tired," I said, looking at how darkness shadowed the codebreaker's eyes and how his breathing would slow every so often as he dozed off. "Just talk with me."

"Okay," Velena said. I didn't feel anything but was informed that she had disconnected and we could talk to one another.

"So, what's going on?" I queried.

"There's some woman with a robotic arm and a gang of other women demanding to see you. They have a centaur."

I held back laughter and lowered Brian back down onto his bed. He murmured and curled up in the warm spot where I'd been sat, tugging the blanket over himself. I smiled and then vanished from the room.