Covenant (boyxboy)

Chapter One

"Hey, stop frowning." Connor elbowed me in the hip, which was as high as his diminutive stature let him reach. "It's a party with your family! It's going to be fun."

"I have a big family," I responded, eyeing the huge glass-paneled doors in front of us with distaste.

He'd understand once we went inside. My sister Florence hosted this event every New Year's Eve, and some of our nieces and nephews came from as far as Europe to attend. While Florence, Ruth and I were the only surviving Mekas siblings, at one time there had been eleven of us, born over a span of more than sixty years. I was the youngest, but I had great-nephews older than I was. We were actually considered sparse in number compared to most Nephilim families. But it was still a lot of people.

And family could be more dangerous than a houseful of strangers.

The prospect only seemed to excite Connor, though. His breath puffed up at me, a cloud of white mist in the Colorado winter cold. "Yeah, I can't wait to meet them. I've been in Enoch's Peak for months, and the only one of your relatives I've really talked to so far is the school Directress."

He meant Ruth. And that was intentional. My family members felt entitled to information and opinions about every detail of my life. They'd think the same of Connor too, and there was no way in Hell I was letting them corner him.

Especially not my father.

"Remember what you say, when anyone asks about the Institute?"

Connor rolled his eyes like every teenager in every human teenybopper movie ever filmed. "'It's classified.' Come on, Ezra, you've only told me three hundred times."

"It's important. You can't tell them anything, your life—"

"Depends on it, yeah, yeah, I know."

"Don't let my father catch you alone. If he does, let me know immediately. Don't answer any of his questions, no matter how harmless they seem."

I already knew my father was going to set traps tonight. He'd try to get samples of Connor's DNA, his fingerprints, anything he could get his hands on. He was Chief Medical Officer at Elioud Biogenesis, the research institute where both of us served. He was still furious that my lab partner Bo and I had gotten Connor's project classified, even from him. We reported directly to the CEO, and my father, with all his power, could only access the records we fed him. He'd taken it personally.

He also hated Connor.

I didn't want him anywhere near us, even if he was unlikely to learn anything meaningful from stray strands of Connor's hair, or saliva traces on a glass. For all I knew, Father might try to draw his blood when I wasn't looking, and that could be bad. Or he might tail Connor to the bathroom, seeking a urine sample.

I hadn't wanted to come tonight. Unfortunately, Florence was not someone you said no to.

Connor gave a mock shudder. "Ugh, don't worry, your dad's a scary dude. I'm staying far away."

"If you get tired and want to leave, pray. I'll take you home."

He looked up at me with a crooked smile, and snaked his arm around mine. "And if you want to leave, tell me and I'll pretend I'm tired so you have an excuse." His vivid blue eyes sparkled at me, and I felt my chest expand with too much air.

It was one of those moments I despised myself for, when looking at him made my lungs feel light, sent my pulse skipping. When the narrow pink curves of his mouth and the creamy paleness of his skin started flashing in inappropriate images through my head, and an alarming urge to pick him up made my muscles twitch.