The Tale of Two Brothers

Chapter 2 kiddies. Tell me what you think!



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Tucker was over his shoulder, still out cold, possibly completely dead, but he wasn\'t about to take a chance. The shark leader, so called Jasper, had secured one of the safety boats for him and now, they were headed towards the small island the shark shifter called home. Apparently, the shark was married, had four sons, two daughters and enough electronic equipment to fit any of Nats needs. During the early setting of the sun, Nat had woken to find two black eyes staring holes into his head. Jasper had broken down the door and had a gun pointed at his head. it wouldn\'t kill him, unless it severed his head completely off, but it would hurt like hell and slow him down a whole hell of a lot.



Jasper wanted a promise that Nat and the dead body wouldn\'t do any harm to anyone on the small island. Seeing that no shifter trusted the word of a vampire, he didn\'t know what to say. After shrugging, and promising he wouldn\'t hurt anyone, even with their consent, they\'d set out. The other sharks were taking the ship to a port and going to ask one of the local witches for some mind numbing potion. They needed to wipe the memories of the crew and passengers. he\'d offered to do it but it would have used a lot of energy and the sharks didn\'t trust him that much.



When the reached the island, Tucker had been thrown over his shoulder and they started a trek through thick forest. Not a word had passed between them and Nat thought it better to remain silent than to talk and chance being attacked by someone twice his size. He may have the perks of being a vampire but he had the feeling, which was a big one, that Jasper would kick his ass in a fight. He wasn\'t chancing it.



They reached a clearing, after what seemed like five or so hours of walking. The clearing wasn\'t really a clearing so much as a village. Or town. Bigger than a village was a town right? Right. Shaking his head, Nat looked around and noted that most of the inhabitants were male and that the females that were around were instantly behind a bunch of strong, abled bodies. Jasper started speaking in a language Nat didn\'t understand. There were a few words that sounded familiar but other than a syllable here and there, nothing.



"What are you speaking?"



"Fish tongue."



"What did you tell them?" he gave a small nod of his head to the men that were moving towards them slowly.



"That you were under my protection but you are not to be trusted." Nat grumbled something unintelligible but followed behind Jasper as the big man started walking. What a coincidence that they walked to the biggest place in the town. Or would that be house? Huge, mansion like house.



"Am I missing something?"



"Not likely vampire." Jasper glanced over his shoulder and smiled. That smile made Nat wince. he did not want to be on the receiving end of that mouth. Ever. Nope. That just made Tuckers mouth seem like a bunch of tit teeth when he was half shifted. And he walked around like that? Constantly? Ehu...it would suck to be his wife.



As if sensing his thoughts, a petite women, with a bunch of curves in the right places, walked out of the front door, hands on her hips, black hair rolling down over her shoulders in straight locks. The hair itself touched her ankles. Her eyes were like sea foam with just a touch of green. If that wasn\'t enough of a clue as to what kind of being she was, he voice was a dead give away. Nat had the inclination to drop his brother\'s body long enough to cover his ears. She wasn\'t screaming and didn\'t have a raised voice but it was the voice itself that made Nat think his head was going to explode. She was a sirenae. Pure blooded and right down to the bone.



A siren\'s voice operated on different syllable levels than a normal beings or humans. Think of a dog whistle and then multiply it by about a hundred, give it a sexy, sultry tone, and you have a sirens voice. There was a reason mer\'s hunted them. They were creatures of lust and sex, even more so than a succubus or incubus and they commanded hordes of ocean dwellers. With the power they wielded in their throats they could kill anyone within a two hundred mile radius, more if they were under water.



When Nat\'s shoulder was tapped, he looked up. He noticed he was temporarily deaf. Damn! With a frown, a few grumbled words and motions with his free hand, he informed Jasper of what the woman had done. Jasper looked back to the woman and gave her a looked that said "pain". She just smiled evilly and wagged a finger at him. When Jasper walked forward, Nat was pushed gently. He started walking and sighed. First, he was told he had to get on a boat. Then his mission failed. Then his brother died. Now, he was stuck on an island surrounded on all sides by ocean and was deaf. If he didn\'t know his luck any better than he did, he would have asked if anything else could go wrong.



Once inside, he was led by the woman who\'d deafened up to a room where he was motioned to put Tucker down. Gently, he laid his brother on the bed and started peeling off Tucker\'s clothes. When he was down to Tucks boxers, he looked at the woman and she shrugged, just watching. With a huff, and a thought that sirenae had no inclination towards manners, he removed the red silken boxers and tossed them into the pile of clothes. After pulling the covers up around Tucker\'s body, he picked up the clothes and looked around for a garbage can.



The woman pointed and he saw one. Not big enough. Shaking his head he looked back at her. She fumbled around in a pocket of her low riding pants and pulled out what looked to be a choker. Nat just thanked the turn of his luck even though he didn\'t start counting his chickens. Slowly, his hearing was coming back and he caught garbled words. After twenty minutes of hand gestures, garbled words and a few huffs and slaps, his hearing had returned. Her accent was very thick but her words were understandable. He could see why Jasper was married to her.



"There is a trash downstairs. Cloths will be sent up but why do you take around a dead body vampire? Unless he is not dead by a ghoul?" Her eyebrow was raised as she asked.



"Not a ghoul, woman." She frowned and poked a finger into his chest.



"Listen good vampire, you are here under my husbands protection but I am Queen of this island. If I say you die, you die. Respect me." Nat just raised a brow.



"And here I thought sirenae were more formal when dealing with potential allies. I see I was wrong. Not only are they rude but they are needy." Walking passed the fuming woman, he took one last look at his brother, preyed once again that he would live, and walked down the stairs. Jasper was surrounded by a bunch of kids. They looked like they were going to over whelm him but the shark was just laughing and picking his way through them. "Trash?" Jasper pointed.



"Kitchen." Nodding, Nat walked through the door that was indicated and started looking for the trash. The kitchen was bigger than three of the bedrooms where Tucker was sleeping. The trash was by another door which, he guessed, lead to the cellar or pantry. Looking around, Nat found a fresh garbage bag, opened it, dumped Tucker\'s clothes in it and tied it off. He brought the thing with him. As he turned around, he walked right into what felt like a solid concrete wall. It just happened to be Jasper\'s chest. "What did you say to my wife vampire?"



Rubbing his forehead, Nat looked up and his eyebrow twitched in annoyance. "Only that she was being rude in asking for my undying allegiance. I am not a mer nor am I an ocean shifter so I do not owe her the allegiance she was asking. Respect for being in her home maybe but she is not my queen."



"That is not what she said."



"Then I don\'t know what to tell you. It\'s obvious you don\'t trust a word coming out of my mouth so there is nothing I can say to soothe your anger. Please, let me pass. I must see to my brother."



"He is of the dead. Bury him." Before he knew what he was doing, Nat found himself on top of Jasper, hands holding fist-fulls of the shifters shirt, and hissing.



"Do not say that!" He got off, feeling himself starting to lose control, grabbed up the trash bag and left the kitchen, willing himself to calm. He would not believe Tucker dead. If he believed it then it would happen. Tucker was the last of his family. The family that Nat worked every grueling day of his eternal life to protect. He would not die.



The siren had left the room, thankfully. Nat tossed the bag aside and closed the door quietly. He stood there a moment, eyes closed, taking in the scents around him. The sounds. A family lived here. Not just a man, woman and six kids but a working, family unit. Something he had so long ago. Shaking his head and tuning everything out but Tucker, Nat walked over to the bed and sat on the edge, grabbing a hold of his brothers hand again.



It was some time later when Jasper came through the door and tossed something at him. A sat phone. Jasper walked into the room and took up a chair that Nat hadn\'t really paid attention to. Opening the phone and dialing in the encrypted number to Jack, it didn\'t take but two rings again for Jill to come on the line.



"No shit. I need Jack."



"Woa buddy, you sound rough. Hold on." No elevator music. If there was one thing about Jill, even though she liked to pick, when it came right down to it, she didn\'t impede Jacks or Nat\'s job. She was on the ball when they needed her to be.



"What?"



"Mission failed. I need pick up."



"Where are you and how the hell did you fail?"



"Unaccounted errors."



"Such as?" Agitation, anger and desperation crept into his voice and he stood, starting to pace as he yelled into the phone.



"Unexpected fucking errors Jack. My brother is laying here not ten feet from me possibly dead as a fucking nail. The targets hired helpers damn it and took over the ship as I was speaking to you! Thanks to the help of an unlikely ally, I am safe for now but I need a pick up. Get me help. Now." Through his rant, which lasted not more than two minutes, Jack was silent.



"Lat and Longe." Nat looked to jasper who was staring at him intently.



"Where are we?"



"I will take you to another area for your pick up." He gave Nat the information that Nat relayed to Jack.



"How long will you be?" Nat asked Jasper. Jasper answered and Nat told Jack. Nat felt like rabbit in the middle. "Get there by sun up and take cover under the dirt. Pick up will be there at sun down." The line went dead. Nat closed the phone and tossed it back to the shark who still stared. Nat ignored him to walk over to Tucker\'s side again.



"He means much to you, this brother?" Nat just nodded and closed his eyes. "I will prey to the great one that he comes through." Nat didn\'t tell him there was no need. it would be disrespectful and he was enough of that already.



"My boss says we need to move out. Pick up will be at the spot at sun down." Jasper stood and walked over to Tucker\'s other side. The shark looked down to Tuck\'s face and seemed to wince.



"He will turn into a vampire?"



"I don\'t know." Nat\'s voice was soft, barely there. "I hope he does."



"A vampire who hopes? What an odd world this is turning to be." Nat looked up to see Jasper smiling. "The war is coming again and this time, I fear the humans will band together." The shark looked to Nathaniel, smile gone, face full of seriousness. "If the humans should band together, the other races will fall without much of a fight. We must come together if we wish to stop this war before it gets started."



"I didn\'t even know there was a war coming."



"You wouldn\'t. You are young yet. I can smell it on you, sense it coming from you. Has your sire not told you of the last war?"



"No."



"Hn." Jasper looked from Nat back to Tucker and then started for the door. "If you wish to leave now, then I will get clothes for your brother and then we will move out."



"Thank you." The shark stopped at the door but didn\'t turn around.



"There is no thanks needed vampire. Just remember who helped you when the time comes."



"I will." Jasper left and forty-five minutes later they were setting out for the pick up point. Jasper was flanked by two larger males that Natthought were sharks but he wasn\'t so sure. They seemed almost...wild, too wild to be sharks and didn\'t have the reserve or mischief air about them that mer\'s did. Their scent spoke of ocean, or large bodies of water but that\'s all it gave away. Other than the fact they weren\'t humans. He didn\'t ask about them and they didn\'t ask about him.





The walk, more like hike actually, passed by in silence. It wasn\'t comfortable but no one bothered talking to take it away. It didn\'t bother Nat any. His thoughts were focused on how he was going to talk to his contractor and talk the man -or woman- out of putting a hit on his head, about Tucker making it through the transformation, about how safe it was to sleep under dirt in the middle of the sun. Basically, they were a whirlwind centered around the failure on the cruise ship. He had never failed. Except when he died. Another unexpected error that. His first but certainly, as proven by the night before, not his last.



Eventually they came to the clearing where the copter would pick up Nat and Tucker. Jasper waited for Nat to bury Tucker under the dirt before he held out a hand. Nat shook it and they parted ways. The other men waited for Jasper to go out of sight before they looked to Nat. It was then that Nat noticed something. They were twins. He hadn\'t really been paying attention. Now he noticed.



"We see something."



"Something that could help or harm." Nat shuttered inwardly. They sounded freaky talking like that. one after the other. What was next, them talking in sync?



"What do you see?" He couldn\'t stop himself from asking. They just smiled at him. Nat winced. Again with the teeth he wouldn\'t go near with a ten foot pole. Together, they spoke.



"Two parts of one, a soul budding to full. There in reach will they unite, unlikely mates forced together through the Fates cruelty."



"And that means?"



"We see no more." With that, they linked arms and left the same way Jasper did. Were they oracles or something? Certainly sounded like it. And somehow, what they said gave Nat the creeps. Deciding it best to ignore what they said all together, Nat buried himself under the dirt and waited for the day sleep to claim him. Soon, he would be back in his apartment and Tucker would be back on their Arkansas ranch, tending the horses. With that thought, he let himself fall into a pit of dreamless slumber.





Nat woke to the sound of talking and a rumble that shook his very body. Opening an eye, he realized he was in the helicopter. How the hell had the pick up found him? Was it the pick up? Fully awake in seconds, Nat looked around and spotted someone over in the corner. Oh, the pilot. A hand was holding something towards him. Headset. If they were the enemy they would have had him tied or left him for the suns rays. taking the headset. Nat put it on and looked around, Tucker was safely tucked and belted to one of the seats.



"Hey Sparky! Finally awake are we? Good. Jack sent me. It\'s a good thing I wasn\'t already busy with the Agency so you lucked out. As for the limp one back there, he started twitching when we pulled him out of the hole. ETA to the private port is about an hour. You\'ve been asleep longer than you should have been. Have you fed recently?"



"Who are you?"



"My name is Anderson by my friends call me Ducky. Why?"



"How the hell did you find us?" The hand that handed him the headset pointed to the passenger seat. Woah. Nat really was out of it. He hadn\'t even realized there was another person there.



"Toto\'s nose."



"Toto? Is that what you call me now-a-days?" The person in the passenger seat, or rather, co-pilot seat, turned around and Nat got a face full of Jill. What the hell was she doing there?!



"JILL?! What the hell are you doing here?"



"Stop yelling Batty! I can hear you just fine thanks. And I\'m here on Jack\'s orders. He isn\'t just my husband you know." She grinned. Nat frowned. "Stop frowning. I\'m here because Jack got the feeling you hadn\'t eaten anyone lately and he wanted you rested up. And he also wanted me here in case Tucker decided to turn and go bad you know? In case you couldn\'t do the whole beheading. Now sit back down and let me come back there." He sat and waited for her to come back before grabbing her and giving her a little shake.



"What is the matter with you woman?! You would let me drink from you? Are you that stupid?"



"Jack says you\'re under control enough to not hurt me and to keep Tucker from doing it if he does rise up again."



"Would you jump off a bridge if Jack told you too?"



"Of course! He\'d be on the bottom to catch me stupid." She poked him between the eyes and he growled at her. When she sat next to him, she brought her delicate wrist up in front of his face. "Eat up. Just make sure there\'s enough for me to do my job and feed Tucker." Nat didn\'t want to do it. As much as he enjoyed threatening to kill her, he didn\'t actually want to do it. He was only ten years dead. Feeding without help of an elder vampire was hard for ones as young as him. He didn\'t have enough self control to know when to stop, although he\'d been good about it the last six months or so. That\'s why Jack sent him on this mission. But..."Stop procrastinating. I need to help Ducky drive you know!"



"Do not! You just like pushing the big buttons."



"Ducky!" Before a pissing match started, Nat preyed he\'d have enough control to stop and brought her wrist to his mouth. Licking the skin to prime it for his teeth, he willed her to feel no pain, not really knowing if she would hear his mental push due to Jack, but sank his teeth in. When the first bubble of blood welled, he retracted his teeth but held tighter to her wrist, even going to far as to pull her into his lap. His eyes closed and he groaned around the flesh between his lips. There were two times when a vampire felt pleasure. Feeding and sex. And a vampire only felt pleasure during the act of sex if they had their destined mate. They couldn\'t even get hard without that mate let alone experience the pleasure of release. But feeding...it was definitely the only time a vampire felt such pleasure without sex. It was why some vampires turned rogue.



The statistic of a vampire finding their mate was about one in every five hundred thousand. The reason they were so high is because it wasn\'t just humans that were counted in the mate process. The Fates were cruel to every living thing. Some vampires were mated to non-humans, like Jack. For the ones that never found their mates, well, they welcomed the sun. What was eternity without someone to share it with right?



A small pat on his head made Nat growl. His eyes opened and rolled up. Jill was staring at him with a smile. He didn\'t want it. Didn\'t want to see it. He pushed her away and hissed at her, a little blood trailing down his lower lip. She looked rather startled but shook her head and looked to the wound. "The least you could do it stop the bleeding Nathaniel." He looked to the wound and pulled her wrist up to lick it closed. Without another word, she stood, slowly, and walked back to her seat.



"What\'s up his ass?"



"He doesn\'t want to be welcomed."



"Really? What a tard yea?"



"Enough Ducky. You have your orders."



"Yes mame."



The rest of the hour passed in relative silence. That was until Ducky decided to start singing. It took Jill threatening to crash his baby to get him to stop. Never threaten a pilots ride. It was just inviting war. Ducky made her sorry for it too. He did a few tricks that had her turning green and nearly puking in his lap. He stopped after the third trick. When they landed on the private air strip where they were headed, Nat grabbed Tucker\'s body and ignored Jill. She didn\'t seem to care that he was ignoring her. For ten years she had tried to welcome him but he wouldn\'t let her. There was no way in hell.



Welcome meant the death of his humanity. He still clung to the little bit he had left and had no intention of giving up one of the only gifts his mother had given to him.



On the private jet, Nat set Tucker down and looked at him. He moved a stray lock of blond out of his brother\'s face and wished he\'d open his eyes. If what Duckey said was true, about him twitching when they lifted him out of the hole Nat had put him in, then he might just open his eyes. Everything in Nat preyed he did. If Nat lost his brother, then he might not need a welcome into Jack\'s house to lose his humanity. He might go insane.



"What\'s his whole name?" Snapped out of his thoughts, he looked over to Jill. He guessed he hadn\'t really told anyone about Tucker other than Jack.



"Anthony Tucker-James Raugth."



"Why do you call him Tucker?" Nat looked down and thought for a moment. Why did he call him Tucker?



"I don\'t really know. I like it better I guess."



"Anthony is a nice name."



"It is but it was our father\'s name. Tucker doesn\'t like it too much."



"Why is that?" Well, no harm in telling her. She wasn\'t about to tell the world. And Tucker couldn\'t hear anything anyway.



"Our father was a hunter. he was also an asshole who liked demon touched alcohol."



"I heard that stuff is nasty."



"It is. It brings on rage in shifters if they drink too much of it and after the beatings he gave us when we were younger and the ones he gave our mother, I guess Tucker thought he liked his first middle name better than his first."



"That bad?"



"My mother almost died from one of the beatings. After that, she withdrew. My father went on a blood hunt the next day and we were gifted his hide when he died two weeks later."



"Hn." He looked up to see her looking at Tucker. "He\'s kind of cute."



"You\'re kind of married."



"Doesn\'t stop me from making observations Nathaniel."



"What happened to Nat?" She shrugged and looked away from Tucker and in the direction of the Cochin.



"You don\'t want to be accepted into the family so why should I continue to treat you as such?"



"Because your husband brought me into unlife."



"But you don\'t act like it." Her voice was filled with venom.



"Does it bother you so that I don\'t want to be welcomed into your house?"



"Yes it does. As you know I can\'t have children and you are the closest thing I\'ve got and you treat me like I\'ve some horrible disease and need to be kept at arms length. I don\'t like it Nathaniel. I don\'t open my heart to many and it seems, the one time I open to someone who is not my husband, I get it shoved right back into my mouth." He didn\'t know what to say to that so he said nothing. After a while, he asked how far out they were. "We\'re in the Carolina\'s right now. We\'ll be in New York soon."



"Before the sun comes up?"



"No. Get some sleep." Nathaniel took the time to look over his sires mate and he noticed the fine lines adorning the corners of her eyes and mouth. She looked like she hadn\'t slept in a few days. Probably true seeing as how she made it to his rescue in a day. Shaking his head, he took a seat at the end of the couch where he\'d placed Tucker and closed his eyes. She was a witch. She could take care of herself. If not, she\'d at least bring down the whole plane.





Nathaniel felt the pull through his sleep. Somehow, he felt the need to wake but the layers of sleep he had to battle made him just want to give up and wait for the night. But the sense that something was wrong forced him through and he opened his eyes, looking around the cabin of the plane. He noticed Jill still over in her seat with Tucker standing over her but other than that, nothing struck him as wrong. He did a double take, jumped out of his seat and grabbed Tucker away from Jill. With another look, he noticed she was breathing heavy, there was a little blood on her arms from a couple of minor scratches but other than that she was fine.



Looking down, Nat noticed his brother was snarling like an animal, eyes pure black with red flakes here and there, hands extended into claws, canines lengthened. Hunting mode. Moving slightly, Nathaniel held Tuckers arms at his side with one arm and stuck his free arm in front of his brother\'s face. Tucker sniffed, whined and bit into the flesh. Nathaniel groaned and winced but gently, one at a time, let go of Tucker\'s arms. His brother did what any vampire would do when feeding, he grabbed onto Nat\'s wrist and held on for deal life. He kept drinking, and drinking and drinking until Nat had to issue a command for him to stop. Tucker stopped and started blinking.



His eyes cleared and he looked around. A frown creased his forehead and he looked at Nat.

"Nattie?" His voice was a whisper as he looked over his brother. Nat just smiled and pulled Tucker into a tight hug.



"Welcome back little brother!" Tucker looked confused as they pulled apart.



"Where am I?"



"On a plane." Tucker put a hand to his chest and rubbed, his frown deepening.



"I feel empty Nat...real empty." Nathaniel knew the feeling and just wrapped an arm around his brother, helping Tuck to his feet and walking him over to the couch to sit down. He looked at his own wrist, licked the wound that was still bleeding and looked to Jill.



"You okay Jill?"



"Yea. I think so. He under control?" Nat looked back to Tucker who\'d heard Jill\'s voice and was looking at her intently. He was still in hunting mode. Would be for a couple of days. Hell, after a week, he probably wouldn\'t remember his first few days of being a vampire. Nat sure as hell didn\'t. He came too and talked to Jack after he\'d been through his blood lust.



"Tuck?" When his brother didn\'t answer in any way, Nat waved his still wounded wrist in front of his brother\'s face. Tucks attention went to the wound and he watched Tucker lick his lips. "Anthony." Tucker looked up and growled.



"Don\'t call me that Benjamin." Nat winced. He loathed his first name to the point he thought about giving it up but his mother had given to him with love.



"Can you control yourself long enough to meet Jill?"



"Who?"



"Me." She stood and walked over to Nat\'s side and leaned against him, just out of reach of Tucker\'s hands. Immediately Tuck\'s eyes went to her and glued there until Nat waved his wrist in front of his brothers face again. Tucks attention was torn and he made a small sound in his throat. He didn\'t know which one to go for, the fresh wound or the still pumping blood that sang to him. Yes, Nathaniel knew that feeling to. he\'d tried attacking Jill, at least, that\'s what Jack had said and only the blood offered by his sire had stopped him from hurting the woman. He was surprised the woman didn\'t hold it against him. "You okay sugar?" Tucker nodded and moved to wipe his eyes.



"What\'s the matter with me? All I can hear is her heartbeat and her blood is singing to me."



"About that sugar..." She looked up to Nat who sighed and sat down next to Tucker, holding his brother\'s hands at bay so he couldn\'t attack Jill. "So I\'m voted to tell? This is your job Nat. You made him not Jack."



"Made me? Huh? What aren\'t you telling me Nattie?"



"Please don\'t call me that Tuck." Nat took a breath and closed his eyes. "I saved your life Tuck. My targets shot you full of silver and you died." Tuck didn\'t believe him so he moved one of his hands to lift up his brothers shirt. Tuck looked down and his face paled, even more than it had while the life drained out of him.



"Jaaaeeezus! You let me die! Or get shot?! What the hell is the matter with you Benji?" Nat slapped Tucker and waited as Tucker calmed himself.



"First off, don\'t call me that horrible name. Secondly, I didn\'t let them do anything. How the hell was I supposed to know they had auto\'s full of special silver? By the time I got to you, your heart had stopped and you were already seeking revenge. I blacked out and came too at the wrong end of a shark arm thank-you-very-much. Thanks to the fish heads, I was able to save you and that\'s why you\'re sitting here."



"B-but! What did you do to me?!"



"I gave you immortality Tucker."



"Huh?"



"You\'re a vampire now sugar."