Folks Of Fury (#1; Tales Of Elysia [COMPLETED])

eleven.

Urging Tromos and Apelpi up to the lit windows at the east third floor of Legion House, was harder than I had thought it would be.
Even then it took an uncomfortable five-minute before the windows pushed open from the constant beak tapping on the glass.
His head shot out in confusion and I sighed in relief. I didn't know if he'd be home though it seemed late.
"Senoy?" He blinked fervently as if not believing what he saw.
"Ezra." Calling his name was the most soothing salve to tonight's anguish.
"What're you doing...no wait there, I'm coming down." And he went back into his room.
I shoved my hands still bearing the scalding branch marks around the wrists, into my pockets.
I had zipped the hoodie up to my neck both from cold and to hide the burn marks there as well.
Ezra climbed out his window and lunged into the air with expertise like he did this every other night.
He landed with a slight thud a few metres from me and seeing him filled me with sudden happiness that I rushed him into an embrace.
Ezra's body froze still, shocked for a few seconds before his arms encircled and pulled me to him.
"Uh...did something happen? I mean I missed you and all but..." He was in mid chuckle when he started to hear my sobs.
He pushed back a few inches and asked again.
"Senoy... What's wrong?" Hazel tones in his eyes darkening with worry as they zipped across my face.
Him asking with such worry and concern, only made it worse.
Ezra held both sides of my face in his palms, gently and assuredly as his gaze finds tear tracks on my face.
"Senoy, if you don't start telling I'm going to think the worst."
I bet it wouldn't match up to this.
I'd never cried since I was four and this was a total embarrassment doing it in front of him.
I cleared my throat and wiped the tears with the sleeves of the hoodie.
"I left the Manor. I-I can't stay there anymore...so I came to ask you to take me to your wood house. Just for tonight. Tomorrow, I'll find another place."
"What happened...what did they do?" He all but growled out.
I shook my head and reached to take his hand. Such large strong hands that had just held me like I was made of glass.
"I don't want to talk about it. Will you let me crash there?"
"Of course. Let me get my bike." He said without hesitation.
And he gave a last comforting stroke on my arm before running to the garage adjoined to the house.
We'd been silent through the drive to the wood house, letting the soft purr of the Ducati claim the night around us.
I must've fallen asleep on his back by the time we got to the cabin. It looked so different in the night.
It would've simply looked like a kid's treehouse except it was larger and mature closer to a log cabin hoisted a few feet in the network of oak branches, winding stairs to the right connecting it to the ground.
Dim lighting flickered on at porch and even brighter lights seared my eyes when Ezra entered and turned them on.
He dropped his bike keys and those of the wood house on the wooden table in what I assumed was the living room- with the velvet backed couches, plasma TV and a PlayStation console plugged to it.
Ezra watched me take in the entirety of his hand-built hideaway. Last time I'd only been in the bedroom.
There were no walls to separate sections, just open space.
The living room led into a sort-of-kitchen though there were signs it was still under work, but I spotted a hot plate, coffee maker and minifridge.
"You want something to drink?" Ezra asked with his hidden intent to make me talk not that hidden.
I shook my head. "I just want to sleep."
His brows furrowed and face locked up in a passive annoyed phase before he answered.
"You can have the bed, I'll stay here." He patted the couch closest to him.
"What, no. It's your place." I started to argue.
"Senoy, you're taking the bed. And I don't want to impose especially with whatever happened."
"Thanks." How can I tell him he wouldn't be imposing as opposed to actually helping me recover?
He beamed softly at me. "Anytime. Really anytime, anywhere... I'll always be here for you."

I couldn't sleep. For hours I turned in the large bed watching the gentle caress of night breeze through the trees and the fracturing of moonlight.
I shut my eyes but all I could see was my mother's cold eyes.
All I could feel was the singing burn at my wrists and neck from the grip of rowan branches.
I had endured too much of that castigating bullshit and had had enough.
I tossed for the nth time before finally giving up and opening my eyes.
The sky was still a dusky violet outside and quietness of the wild that was supposed to be soothing was eerie.
My hands rubbed at the blistering red around my wrists like a ghastly bracelet.
I doubted they'd heal because they were residues of my mother's binding magic.
I'd have to work on breaking it somehow.
The wooden floorboards were cold under my feet as I climbed down from the bed, pausing in that sitting posture for a minute.
I raised my left hand to my eyes and sucked in a breath as I sought to shed off just the glamour in that hand.
The air around the digit wavered and shimmered with a familiar sunset red aura emanating from my skin.
I bit down on my lip as the burn marks started to throb but subsided as I succeeded in shifting just my hand into a auburn brown paw of a lion.
I sighed out in relief of both seeing that my mother's spell was just as she'd said and the release of pain.
I pulled back the magic and my hand returned for me to run both over the braids of my hair.
From the corner of my eyes I noticed the silhouette of a figure at the doorway of the room, soundless and watching.
"How long have you been standing there?" I asked dryly.
"A while." The deep husky voice lathered over those short words as soft as baby's breath.
"Pervert." I accused amusingly to which he chuckled at and started to walk over to the bed.
He sat down beside me, the contact of his bare muscled arms on my skin of mine sent tendrils of heat through my nervous system.
Ezra was barefoot and just in grey sweatpants, the drawstrings tied into a bow at his waist.
"I couldn't exactly sleep so I've been reading for the last hour and decided to check on you."
I didn't meet his eyes which I knew for sure were fixated on me, instead watching my hands. "What were you reading?"
"Dante's Inferno. Original Italian."
I was impressed that I had to look at him. "Ostrogoth runes, now eleventh century Italian? Didn't take you for a linguist, Ezra Khan."
He grinned warmly and turned towards the view of the forest. "Eleanor spoke like over a dozen languages even dead ones. She taught me a few and the others I picked up myself. Reminds me of her sometimes." He was wistful.
I reached to place a hand over his and he opened the hand so they were clasped through the fingers.
Mine slipped perfectly into his, as if made to be held by his, both callused and scarred but I knew it was from different sources and reasons.
Mine, torture, spite and the need to protect myself whereas his from battle and hardwork.
"You loved her very much, I can tell."
Ezra gave out a deep pained sigh and then he faced me, eyes seeming so light now that the amber flecks which used to blend out of sight around his pupils were visible.
"Senoy, tell me what happened at the Manor. I have a sick feeling it's about me."
I somehow knew that he would get to that and I tried to take back my hand but he held it there in his grip as he did my attention.
"Ezra..."
His beautiful face fell in heartbreaking worry for me. It seized my breath and filled me with so much hope that he could feel the same way I felt for him.
"Tell me." He implored dearly, his thumb had started tracing patterns at the back of my hand.
"You're right. It was about you." I started and blinked at his intake of breath.
"But it wasn't entirely. Margot and I had a... misunderstanding. And I was so tired of tolerating all their bullshit and abuse, I just snapped. I hurt her, I won't say I didn't mean to or that I didn't enjoy it. I was so angry and letting go of the restraints I've been putting on my true self to please them was so exhilarating."
"Then my mother came in. She saw what I did to Margot and she... well I've been punished before but this was something else. She bound my powers and Fey nature...it felt like I was going to die..."
My breath hitched as Ezra yanked me into the embrace of his arms.
His hand let go of mine and pressed gently at the nape of my neck.
I hugged him back and released a hard breath, all the while submerging in his erotically sensitising scent.
"This is every shades of fucked up, Senoy. I'll never see why they'd treat you like that. Joshua and Ephraim are half born but we've felt nothing but love for them."
I responded lightly, my eyelids shuttered. "It's different for the covens. They're blood supremacists and the other race aside from the Fey attuned to balance of Nature. My existence as those of your brothers upsets that balance. They can't do anything about Joshua and Ephraim but they sure as hell can with me."
"By the Saints, Senoy I'm so sorry for causing this pain to you. If I had tried to stay clear like you'd asked..."
I shook my head at the crook of his shoulders. "It'd still have happened sooner or later. You just sped things up. And I couldn't stop myself from... wanting you even if I tried."
Ezra slackened his hold on my hand and drew a breath away from me, for the moment he just stared at me in astonishment and his lips parted slightly.
I felt my cheeks flush as I realized I had practically disclosed my feelings for him. I waited for his abject horror and rejection.
But he was looking at me like a stargazer would the first star in the night sky; a miracle painted across the surface of the world.
Ezra brushed across the side of my face with the back of his hand before he spoke with heavy anxiety.
"I really wanted to kiss you that day at the quad after Rita's. I've been attracted to guys and girls before but never someone like you... never like this."
He's into both?!
It made me braver as I let out hopefully. "You can kiss me now."
His eyes shone with desire as he dropped his hand to my neck and pulled me in to crush the slit of air between us and pressed his soft lips on mine.
And it was like the sun was going supernova inside me.
I felt Ezra gasp out in surprise against my mouth, we were kissing... exquisitely slow and explosive.
A hard, scorching and driving kiss, a nip at my lower lip and a clash of tongues and teeth. Both of us pressed tight against each other.
"Senoy." He breathed hotly in my mouth, a whisper and warning. I could hear the ruthlessness in his longing.
Everywhere his body met mine seemed supersensitized; every place his hands brushed over as if spines of pleasure and pain were being dragged across my skin.
Ezra had taken control of the kiss. But now I pressed back as I regained it, biting at his lower lip until he shuddered and nipped at the corner of my mouth and kissing along my jawbone to suck at the frantic pulse at my throat, consuming my heartbeat.
"Oh God." I moaned as I let my hands finally seek out every blend and crevice of his hard body.
His arms wrapped me completely, and suddenly Ezra was lifting me and settling me on his thighs.
I gasped as my ass was met with the thickly aroused curve of his cock.
I scrambled for a moment but gave up to the overwhelming pleasure his arousal surged through me.
His hands splayed over my ass, kneading and massaging with want and lust.
I pulled his face back to mine, attacking his lips with a fierce hunger that he groaned and whispered.
"Fuck Senoy, you're making me leak. You have to tell me...I can't think properly..."
Indeed I felt his hardness throb and I rocked back against him, his hands snapped to hold my hips.
"Senoy..."
I drew back enough to see his face flushed, his eyes were black with hot desire as they held on to a question.
"Have you ever been with a guy before?"
"Once," I remembered a revel on May Eve. I'd been drunk on shoal wine and broadened my sexual experience with a sidhe boy.
I added. "But with you...I want to take it slow." Not out of misery or spite to Margot.
Ezra nodded and leaned in to press a scintillating drawn out kiss on my mouth before he unlatched himself from me.
I exhaled a bit disappointed breath, for my decision, but grabbed Ezra by the arm before he turned to leave the room with a raging hard-on.
I swallowed at the sight of his subsiding erection which jointed to the left slightly, through sweatpants that hung teasingly low on his hips.
He peered expectantly at me. "Can you stay here with me? Maybe I'd get some sleep."
"That sounds better than dealing with serious blue balls through the night." He smirked and added as he slid in next to me. "Move over."
I made room which was easy seeing as the bed could fit a horse.
Ezra turned as I faced away from him, his arm draping over me and pulling my body closer till we were spooning.
Contentment and happiness filled me right there in his arms, his breath steady and warm against my neck.
"You know I never took you to be interested in both sexes."
He snorted. "Yeah not many people would. My family knows, Dad nearly had a heart attack when he found me and one of the sons of the visiting Legion from Europe, naked in the tool shed when I was fifteen."
Hmm lots of action at fifteen for us both.
I chuckled with him, though images of a younger hormonal Ezra and a faceless Hound boy made my gut clench with unease.
Ezra inquired. "What about you? Who was he?"
"A sidhe Fey years ago. It was just casual... and well I was stupidly drunk that night."
"Wow, uninhibited one night stand? You're badder than I thought." He chuckled with amusement.
I nudged his abdomen with an elbow but smiled. "Shut up."
Ezra dropped his head and nuzzled my shoulder before sighing out into sleep.