The Savages

Chapter 12: A Savage History

The kitchen counter was laden with nine individual dinner plates as Perseverance entered the kitchen, brushing the knots out of his blonde curls with a swish of his fingers.

Most of his brothers sat at the dining table, staring idly down at the polished wood as low murmurs ran through the room. The tension was so thick Perseverance could have heard a pin drop from a mile away. Luckily his thoughts were distracted by the arrival of his oldest brother, towel drying the ends of his damp neck-length hair. He wore only a pair of old blue jeans, clinging firmly to his muscled legs like a second skin. They were obviously old, which made Perseverance wonder why he bothered to wear them at all.

"Alright," Teemu announced in his authoritative voice, dropping his hand on the edge of the table with a heavy bang. The impact was enough to wake Shannon from his slumber, who - up until then - went unnoticed by Perseverance, slouching over the wood as if it were his own mattress. "I need you all to be at your peak today. We really cannot afford to be distracted right now, okay?" He cast a brief, pointed look at Edgar and Rebel in particular before continuing on in a cool manner. "Thanks to Tully's knack for extensively researching every life form on this planet and what they're capable of, we now know we might encounter a few... not very nice people along the way."

"You could just say demons, you know," Edgar commented dryly, sharpening the side of his most favoured dagger against a rectangular bluestone lain flat against his palm.

"But what if they're not demons?" Gary challenged, raising his index finger patronisingly. His medium-length auburn curls were messy and limp, as if he'd rolled out of bed and come straight downstairs. Then again, it wouldn't have surprised Perseverance in the least.

"No matter what we're dealing with, it has to be at least part-demon," Edgar bluntly responded, not much in the mood for humouring Gary that early in the morning. "There's no use in sugarcoating it."

Gary's jaw clenched in frustration, but before he could brutally lash out at his younger brother, Teemu interrupted their small quarrel.

"I mean it, you guys," he said firmly, folding his bare muscled arms across his chest. "If we can all get along really well today, and focus, I believe this mission won't be a complete bust."

Stephen chose that moment to enter the room, wearing a sleeveless white shirt blotched with smears of blood. All heads turned toward him, followed by raised eyebrows and barely audible gasps.

"What?" He scoffed, wiping the last remnants of internal human liquid from the corners of his mouth using his wrist. "a vampire has to eat, too, you know."

Teemu shook his head, picking up two plates in the crooks of his elbows and an additional two in his hands. Slowly, he made his way around the table, passing a serving of bacon, eggs and waffles to each brother until it was his turn to sit down. Perseverance tucked into his meal as soon as it was placed in front of him, not uttering a single word throughout breakfast. The delectable scent of grilled bacon and poached eggs should should have made him dig in like no tomorrow, if not for the absence of a certain sibling. He knew the feeling of emptiness inside him was nothing compared to how Rebel must be feeling; he wasn't entirely sure how he could function without Kasperskies. The two were joint at the hip, like twin brothers in the womb.

"I'll take the four Ricky's to the old lab," Perseverance announced, collecting his plate as he rose from the table. Several tendrils of blonde fell like a curtain over his face, temporarily obstructing his view of Teemu's face. "You guys focus on all the dimensions of hell he might be -

"No," Teemu abruptly cut the end of his sentence short, regarding Perseverance with smouldering dark blue eyes. If looks could kill, Perseverance would have been pinned against the furthest wall with a dagger protruding from his throat. "That isn't how it's going to work, Pers. We all go together from place-to-place. Splitting up never solves anything - in fact, it only makes things ten times worse." He paused, before addressing the room as a whole. "If everyone is done eating, put your plates in the dishwasher. The sooner we leave, the higher the chance of finding Kasperskies alive."