Sweet Surrender [MxM]

Chapter 10

Heading quickly to her room Venerra opened her dresser drawers and removed five different outfits and four different pajamas; stuffing all of them into her pack. Pushing them down, she worked the zipper until it zipped shut and then she left her room heading to the bathroom across from her room in the hall.

Slipping through the door, she went up to the sink and stood on her tip toes, stretching to grab her toothbrush and hair brush. Once they were firmly in her grasp, Venerra turned and skipped out of the bathroom, heading outside towards the barn, smiling and humming to herself.

But she wondered how Varian was doing. Was he getting better? How long was he going to be sick? And just what sickness did he have?

"Changed vampires don't get sick....Varian told me that. They're supposed to get better right away." she whispered to herself, entering the barn and heading for the horses.

Cana was always first. Walking up to his stall she unbolted the latch and opened the bottom door. Cana's resounding whinny made her heart leap with joy, and Venerra reached up for him and he lowered his massive head, blowing her in the face from his nostrils in greeting.

"It's nice to see you too Cana!" Venerra exclaimed, holding his snout and nuzzling his cheek. His big brown eye looked her right in the eye, shiny and warm. Kissing his cheek, Venerra pulled away and let him go and answered with a friendly snort.

Backing up, Venerra held her hands behind her back and smiled up at Cana as he stepped out of his stall and walked out to the pasture. Turning to the next horse, she made her way all the way down the aisle, letting each horse out to go to pasture.

Turning away from the last stall, Venerra looked up to see Nathan striding into the barn.

After cleaning up the mess in the house, Nathan had decided to walk outside to see how Venerra was. Upon seeing her, he figured she didn't look any different than usual. At least she didn't seem to be too put off by all the blood.

He glanced over to where all the horses were making their way slowly to the pasture before turning back to Venerra and sighing. "So, do they need to be fed or anything before we go?"

"They each need two scoops of food. Except Cana. He gets three." she responded. Nathan nodded back slightly before looking around and frowning.

"... Where exactly is the food?"

Venerra grabbed his hand, pulling him toward the storage area in the back of the barn while skipping. She stopped in front of a large bin, which Nathan recognized from the time he'd helped Varian. The two cups for the food were on the shelf beside the bin.

"You take one cup and start on the end with Cana, and I'll start here." Venerra directed. Nathan nodded and grabbed one of the cups, filling it with food from the bin and going down to where Cana's stall was, beginning to fill the food areas. He couldn't remember what they were called, but he knew they had a specific name...

He was pulled away from his thinking when he heard humming, turning to Venerra. She was indeed humming, nothing in particular, but still. She also greeted each horse by it's name and kissing their snout or petting them. Nathan watched her for a minute with a slight smile when the sudden onslaught of a headache caused him to turn back and wince, pressing a finger to his temple before shaking his head and continuing his job.

Venerra stopped and turned to him, her eyes changing to an aqua color. "Your headaches must be getting awful being away from big brother for so long." she said.

Nathan nodded with a quiet snort before he frowned, turning to her. He didn't remember telling her about his headaches. "... Did I tell you about my headaches?" he questioned anyway. Maybe Varian had told her. Or maybe she was just really perceptive or something.

Venerra smiled innocently, eyes shifting to a metallic gold, "No, but Varian gets them when you aren't around, so naturally you'd have them too. Didn't you know that?"

"...I knew. I just find it unfair that you're only in first grade and know more than I do." he responded quietly, glaring at nothing in particular and sighing.

Her face fell, pausing as her eyes turned green. "Did you know that your soul is bigger than average by half?"

Nathan frowned slightly. "... No. Though out of curiosity, what does my soul have to do with this?"

"It's one of the reasons why you're so upset without big brother. Your soul is green, but that extra part is navy. Big brother's is navy too, but he is broken. You have too much soul." she explained.

Nathan stared back blankly, attempting to process what was just said and failing. So he decided to go back over this one thing at a time. However, the first thing that stuck out at him was blurted out first.

"Okay, let's backtrack a little bit here... My soul has a color?"

Venerra smiled so wide that it sort of scared Nathan, showing the gap in her teeth. "Everyone's soul has a color. It represents their will. Green means your will is strong, but faltering without another color to blend with."

Nathan actually snorted that time, rolling his eyes. "Oh, that's nice. 'Faltering will'. Alright, whatever, moving on- My green soul has an extra navy part to it? How does that happen?"

Venerra tilted her head, pausing. "Varian told me a story once saying that if something really bad happens to a person, it can break their soul. And that broken part is usually stolen in another person."

Nathan shook his head at that. For all this, he would've preferred his delusion about being human. "Oh, so now I'm a soul stealer.... Jesus... Alright, um... So Varian's soul is navy... And I supposedly stole part of it... I guess the Grant thing was the whole breaking part... How do I... Get rid of it? Or give it back? Or something?"

Venerra's bottom lip protruded out slightly, "You didn't steal his soul, you saved it." she corrected, sounding slightly hurt.

Shaking his head, Nathan held his hands up. "Okay, fine, alright, 'saved' his soul... God that sounds cheesy... Anyway, you didn't answer the question. How do I... Give it back? Can I do that? Or am I stuck with it?" he asked curiously. He hoped the last part didn't come out wrong, but... It was an odd thing. Having someone else's soul, saved or not, was too science-fiction for his taste.

She paused again, biting her bottom lip. "The only way a soul can be exchanged is, 'when the two; one with too much and one with too little, are at the peak of their love and come together in either a bond of heart or a bond of flesh'."  she quoted. Nathan nodded slightly, rubbing the back of his neck.

"... What exactly is a 'bond of flesh'? Interesting quote by the way, where did you hear it?"

"Varian told it to me once in a story. I don't know what 'bond of flesh' means. I asked him and he said I was too young to know that kind of thing yet."

Nathan thought about it for a minute, before getting an idea and really hoping that wasn't it. He frowned before sighing, "Alright... Interesting..."

He was curious if this would help Varian. He wasn't sure since Venerra said 'peak of love', and, well, you can't really be 'peak of' anything if you're in a coma. Looks like he'd have to talk to people anyway...

Damn...