The Stronghold 2: Immortals

Paper Interrogation

Lightning shot through me and fireworks exploded inside my head. Before I could do anything Brian had pulled away and was looking at me a little abashed. 

"Sorry," he muttered, turning away. I stopped him from moving by gripping his face in my hands and kissing him hard. I felt his initial reluctance and surprise but he relaxed and I stopped grabbing his face quite so hard, cupping it in my hands instead, fingers brushing lightly over his cheek. It was different to the first kiss I'd shared with Josh, this was sweeter, less forced, and we weren't being watched by Sophie.

"Now we're even," I said when I finally let him go, a smirk on my face. 

"That was unexpected," Brian said, blinking a lot behind his glasses.

"You've had it coming," I said, smirk growing. 

"Oh really?" Brian said, raising an eyebrow. "For how long?"

"How long have I known you again?" I responded, sitting up. Brian's other eyebrow shot up and he moved out of my way, leaning back until we were sat opposite each other but he was still on my legs.

"Really? That long?" he said in amazement. I nodded and started fiddling with a hole in the duvet, avoiding his eyes.

"One of the first things that passed through my head when I met you was 'he's adorable, I want to hug him'," I admitted. "But I pushed it all aside because A, I'm a coward, and B, you said about Jake controlling you and I don't want to corner you or pressurise you or anything."

"I knew you were staring at my ass for a reason," Brian said with a cheeky grin. I cuffed him around the head, laughing.

"So what now?" Brian asked, getting serious again. "Are we together or...?" He left the question hanging. 

"Well..." I thought back to Josh's letter. Move on, find someone else who makes you happy. "You're the first person to actually make me smile properly for quite some time now, so I'd be proud to call you my boyfriend."

Brian's face broke out into a smile and I looked up with a hopeful smile on my own face. "At least if anybody asks it stops them feeling awkward," he said. I smiled again and then yelped as I was wrapped in a surprise hug, pushing me back down onto the pillow from the force of the werewolf's half rugby-tackle. I hugged him back, burying my face in his shoulder with a smile splitting my face in half.

*

Hours later, after talking, joking and a fair few pillow fights, the door to our room was opened by the butler. He looked at us curled up together disapprovingly but said nothing, just waiting for us to follow him downstairs. Brian was the first to move, disentangling himself from my arms and standing up smoothly. I flopped off the side of the bed and slithered along the floor, not willing to do anything.

"There are some forms for you both to fill out," the butler said, looking down at my wriggling, lurching movements with mild fear and alarm in his eyes. 

"Get up, Shadow," Brian said, dragging me upwards by my arm. I remembered that I couldn't speak just in time and instead settled for a narrow-eyed glare. 

"Through here, please," the butler said, taking us down a staircase and then indicating a drawing room of some kind. It had desks in it instead of sofas and the tapestries on the walls showed humans battling with mythical monsters. The one that took pride of place was of hundreds of little men dragging down a snarling, angry werewolf with black eyes and silver claws. It had cuts and gashes all over it and its fur was ragged and patchy. I felt Brian shiver by my side as we both absorbed what it portrayed.

"Ah yes," a crisp voice said. "The werewolf. My personal favourite, even though we have yet to actually capture one of the beasts. My name is Harry Jenkins and I am in charge of administration and paperwork here at Nightmare. Please, take a seat." He moved around to sit behind the biggest desk in the room and waited for us both to sit down.