The Tale of Two Brothers

Chapter 7.

O_o the plot thickens!





=====

The monsters had escaped. His fist came down on his desk as the leader of the team he\'d sent out finished the report. Not only had they escaped but they had gone into hiding. There was no information or anything that could lead them to this hiding spot but they were sure that the monsters were still in the state.



When the team lead stopped talking, he just stared over the eight men he hired to do this job. Mercenaries. They could change sides in the middle of a battle. A frown appeared on his face. That could not be allowed to happen. But then again, if he killed these men, no more would come to his adds. He could not convert them because they were not pure. He was quite caught in between a rock and a hard place. he could always pay them more money to stay on his side, but he had come to find out that the monsters had seemingly unlimited funds. Where they got the money was anyone\'s guess but he had his theories.



Standing, he looked over the eight men in front of him. They were still in their mission clothes, some had goggles on and some had masks while the rest wore nothing over their face. The first man that had answered his add had said he would need a team to complete the mission. The men were all ex military and the leader was ex KGB. They were well equipped to continue but...there was always the chance they would change sides to whoever had more money. He looked passed the men and issued a sharp, one word command. The team looked around and they seemed rather shocked to find people coming out of the shadows around the office. They all went on guard and the team lead stared at him with deadly intent. No words passed between them but the smile that showed on his face made the Russian wince.



It was nice to get a point across without having to say anything. He sat back down in his chair and motioned to one of the people who guarded him at all times. he spoke in hushed undertones and when the man disappeared seconds later, the team looked around quickly. The door to his office then opened and the man who had just stepped out returned with a black bag. The bag was given to the team lead and he watched as the Russian opened the bag and looked through it very carefully. No, the man wouldn\'t find any devices in that bag. It was a sign of partial trust. he did not trust easily, but there wasn\'t really any other option. If he wanted this team to continue to work for him, he needed to show the first signs of trust. It grated on him but, there were some sacrifices that needed to be made.



The Russian looked at him and nodded. It was more an inclination of his head before he turned and started out. His team followed behind him. When the door to his office shut and he was once again enclosed in shadows, he growled. Trusting mercinaries. Well, at least they had gotten to the strong hold. By their count twenty five were dead, the building was completely unstable and they had some records pertaining to other monsters. The Russian had said he wouldn\'t surrender the data until the mission was complete. Something about that statement was unsettling but, a slow grin spread across his face. If the Russian betrayed him, he would just blow the man up. If you never trusted a mercenary, then a mercenary never trusted their employers.



Oh what a world.



"Great one, we found someone sneaking about the facility." His attention was grabbed by the man who\'d given the money to the mercenaries. He waved the man away and the man in turn went to the door and opened it. When a woman came sauntering in, he quirked a brow. When she stepped passed the ring of wards, what she was crawled down his skin like ooze. Monster. He held up a hand and she was grabbed. She didn\'t seem to like that very much.



"Do you know what we do to monsters here?" His voice was like liquid acid. His guards shuttered but the woman just smirked.



"I\'d like to see you try." She let out a scream. His guards fell to the floor, hands covering their ears. He just cleaned one of his out. Well, the variety of monster was limited down. "I have a proposition for you." She stepped over the fallen guards with no regard for them. And that would be one of the reasons that monster must die.



"I don\'t make deals with monsters."



"Oh, but you need my help." She grinned and he got a view of razor sharp teeth. Her voice and screams wouldn\'t harm him but those teeth would.



"And what makes you think I need anything from a fish?"



"Everyone needs help." She leaned against his desk and got a hairs breath away from his face. "And you need mine to bring down the Agency."



"I\'m listening." Well, this was definitely an interesting turn of events. A monster betraying monsters.



"I know the locations of each safe house under the Agency\'s watch, eighteen of the Other owned and operated business locations and, I can get you a shot at the founder himself."



"But?" There was always an ulterior motive.



"I want safe passage for myself and my family to a remote island in the middle of the Pacific." She got a little closer. "And if you betray me, I\'ll eat your blackened heart." He sat there, hands steepled in front of his face, looking into her eyes. Yes, he believed that she would try if he should betray her but he had many hard lessons in trust. There was only one being he trusted and that was his god.



"What makes you think I will take your help?"



"Because you don\'t have any clues." Well, she\'d done her research. He thought about this situation for a moment. A long moment. Looking passed the woman, he noted that his guards had passed out. His eyes went back to the woman\'s face. She might be useful. And after she had helped him, he would slay her and her entire family. The less monsters the better.



"What do I call you?" She stood and with one hand on her hip, she gave him a grin that revealed her razor sharp teeth once again.



"They call me Sting." His eyes got a little bigger. "That\'s right, seat five on the Agency\'s chair."



Things were certainly looking up.





Flame had helped Nat get Jack to a chair in the living room and clean up the mess that had been made by one of the overly expensive vases that had crashed to the floor during Tev and Jack\'s scuttle. It seemed that Jack\'s buzz lasted a lot longer than Nat\'s so talking to him at the moment was out of the question. When Flame couldn\'t answer his questions and Tev was no where to be found, Nat had taken to sitting on the other end of the couch, waiting out Jack\'s state of drunkenness.



Jack had once told him that vampires, when they took blood from their sire\'s, all experienced different things. For most, it was euphoria comparable only to human drugs. Jack admitted he felt like he was drunk when he drank from Tev while Nat himself felt high as a kite. Nat didn\'t know what Tucker felt like because he hadn\'t asked, not that he really wanted to talk to his brother at the moment. Nat had flame go and make sure Tucker didn\'t leave the room and cause problems. A few times he thought he might actually have to go up there and break up a fight, but Flame was holding his own.



In the time he\'d known Flame, all of an hour now, he had found a few things out. Flame was actually human but he came with an interesting ability. Flame was a pyrokenetic. He could manipulate any form of flame to do his bidding and, using was could be closely compared to a witches mana, he could create flames. Creating flames made him a little weaker and his mana source could only be recharged by sleep. Since he\'d only made one flame tonight, two technically, he was doing fine. Flame could also, at his will, raise his body temperature high enough that it would burn anyone who touched him but, amazingly, the temperature of his body didn\'t affect him so he didn\'t need to be rushed to a hospital. He was bane to vampires. Lovely.



Nat was startled out of his thoughts when Tucker came walking into the living room. Nat jumped to his feet and looked around for Flame. Tuck just looked behind him and seemed to remember Flame was around somewhere.



"He\'s only knocked out."



"What are you doing out of the bedroom Tucker?" His voice was not pleasant. Not that he wanted it to be. His brother had seriously freaked him out with the...kiss.



"I came to ask when we are moving against the freaks who burned down the house." The scent of his lie creeped into Nat\'s nose. When someone lied, most non-humans, himself included, could sense it weather it be by hearing, smell or just a feeling that ran down their spine. Shifters could smell lies whereas vampires could hear and smell them. Demons could feel out a lie but they mostly relied on their hearing.



"You are a horrible liar Tuck." His brother shrugged and took a few steps towards him. Nat wanted to back up, away from this situation but if you backed up, you gave the enemy what they wanted. Sadly, Nat was considering his younger brother an enemy at this point.



"Why did you leave like that?" Tuckers voice sounded slightly distant but there was a harder edge when he spoke. And of course he wanted to talk about the one thing Nat would rather be avoiding.



"I don\'t want to talk about this right now Tucker." He looked back at jack who had laid his head against the back of the couch and closed his eyes. If Nat hadn\'t known better, Jack\'s perfect, statue stillness would have made him ask if anything was wrong, but since Jack was over two hundred and he\'d gotten over the need to breathe even when not talking, he was very much a statue. Nat looked back to his brother to realize that Tucker had come a little closer.



"You don\'t ever want to talk about anything Nat." He took a few more steps. Any closer and they might be touching. Nat did take a step back then. "Why did you leave the room like that?" Nat growled, eyes hardening.



"Go upstairs Tucker."



"No." Tucker crossed his arms over his chest. "We need to talk."



"Not. Right. Now." He was doing a damn good job about keeping his anger under control but the longer Tucker stood in front of him and didn\'t do what he was told, the harder it got to control himself.



"Now is as good a time as any."



"If you don\'t move back to that bedroom Tucker, I will make you."



"You mean take away my will to resist? Or just force my body like you did the other night?" Tucker stepped closer and now they were just a hairs breath apart. "Why don\'t you force me to do something else Nat. You wanted to before you left, or was I mistaking the look you gave me?"



"We\'re brothers Tucker, I would never think about you that way." Tucker growled and looked to the floor before looking up. Nat saw something in his blue eyes but what, he didn\'t know. For once, he didn\'t know what his brother was feeling.



"Let\'s get this straight Nat, we are not and never have been brothers. Your mother found me in the street when I was a baby." With that, he turned and walked away, out of the living room and back up the stairs. Flame came walking into the living room just seconds after Tucker stepped out but he was rubbing the back of his head.



"Damn, the kids got spunk, I\'ll give him that."



"Are you alright?" Nat looked over the man.



"Oh yea, if you call this giant bump on the back of my head alright." he chuckled and moved to one of the chairs. "What was that about?"



"I have no idea." Nat sat down and rubbed his temples. he was getting a headache. A very bad one. Were vampires supposed to get headaches? Jack would say yes. Tev would say yes, and now he could say yes. Damn it all to hell. What did he mean they weren\'t brothers? They were so. Their mother had gone to the hospital to have Tuck, or so it was explained to him that way. he\'d been nine and a half when Tucker was brought home and it had been one of the happier days in his life. Why was Tuck saying something like that.



"He wasn\'t lying." Nat\'s head snapped to the side to see Jack in the same position he was in the last time Nat had checked.



"What do you mean he wasn\'t lying? Of course he-"



"I could smell it Benjamin. He wasn\'t lying." Jack didn\'t bother looking at him but Nat just glared daggers.



"So you\'re name is-" Nat had his gun against Flame\'s temple faster than the blink of an eye.



"Say it and die."



"Nat. You\'re name is definitely Nat." Flame held up his hands and didn\'t bother looking at the gun. Nat could smell he wasn\'t afraid. How often was his life threatened to make him not afraid of a gun? Shaking his head, Nat just strode out of the room without looking back at Jack. Not lying. Phbt. Of course he was lying.



Half way up the stairs, lost in his thoughts, Nat was assaulted by a memory. He had to sit down as it flowed through his mind. It was the night his mother almost died. It just happened to be the same day as Tuck\'s tenth birthday. With each hit his father landed, he screamed at his mother, eyes rage red. Nat had tried to help her but his father had broken his arm and nearly snapped his neck like a twig. He had taken to holding Tucker away from his father. His father screamed out that Tucker wasn\'t his child, they looked nothing alike, that his mother had been unfaithful. When his mother had stopped fighting, his father had stopped beating and turned to Tucker. Nat had taken one of the worst beatings of his life keeping his father away from Tucker. His brother was only ten and wouldn\'t survive a beating like that.



After his father had had enough, he\'d left and Nat had assumed it was to go get even drunker. After the door had closed, Nat crawled over to his mother and checked for a pulse. It was thready and barely there. That night, Nat had done something he promised himself he would never do. Being an alpha by blood, he could command wolves. In that, he could force a wolf shifter to change, or, bring on their beast. To save his mother\'s life, he called to the wolf inside of her with his power and watched as her bones cracked and reshaped. When her body had completely changed, her pulse got stronger and her body started healing at a faster rate. Then he\'d changed himself. After speeding up the healing process, he went back to his human form and went to check on his brother. Tuck had ran to his bedroom and was hiding under the bed. He was curled up in a fetal position, eyes closed and murmuring things softly under his breath. When Nat pulled him out, Tucker wrapped his arms around his older brother\'s neck and cried.



There was no way Tucker was not his little brother. It just wasn\'t possible. And then what Tucker said came to mind. His mother had found Tucker on the street. Any memories of his mother around the time she would have been pregnant didn\'t show her with a distended belly. He hadn\'t smelled the pregnancy on her. When she came hom with Tuck, it had just been natural that he accepted the small baby as family. He smelled like their mother and he even looked like her. But...



Holding his head in his hand, Nat closed his eyes. He had taken beating after beating to keep Tucker safe. He had given Tucker immortality to keep him safe. And he had died to keep Tucker alive. It was all Tucker\'s fault. How had he known? Why hadn\'t he said anything sooner? Like before Nat had died? Coming to his feet, Nat strode the rest of the way up the stairs, and with each step he took, he got angrier, more depressed, sadder, more confused. When he stormed into the bedroom, Tucker dropped what he had been playing with and came to his feet. Nat just walked over to him and let his fist fly. Tucker hit a far wall with a sickening thud and the wall started to crack.



He was back on Tucker without thought, laying into the younger vampire. He didn\'t even register the bloody tears falling down his face. Punch after punch went into Tucker\'s body but he couldn\'t stop himself. Everything just came pouring out.



"How could you do this to me?! I died for you! DIED! I lost my wolf for you! I left so I wouldn\'t hurt you! I protected you like my blood! How could you lie?!" He grabbed Tucker by the scruff of his shirt. "ANSWER ME!" He gave Tucker a shake. Someone had grabbed his arms but he fought them off. Then two someones and he was dragged away from Tucker. "Why Anthony? WHY ME?!" His struggles were really useless and all he succeeded in doing was bringing himself to his knees. The tears were still coming down his face. And he still didn\'t register them.



"Nat? Nathaniel?" he wasn\'t listening. Wasn\'t hearing. "BENJAMIN NATHANIEL RAUGTH!" Nat stopped instantly. His eyes closed and he felt himself deflate. His arms were released and when he opened his eyes, he was staring at the floor.



"He killed me Jack..." A sharp pain bloomed on the right side of his face. Then he was brought to his feet and dragged from the room. When he was surrounded by darkness, Nathaniel grabbed onto Jack and let go. He cried like he never had in his life, not even when his mother died. He couldn\'t stop. He had given up everything for Tucker. He had given up the opportunity to find a mate within the pack so he could go to work and help Tucker. He had given up the opportunity to have kids to take care of Tucker. He had given up a position within the ranks so he could help Tucker control his wolf. He had given Tucker everything he was, and this was how he was repaid? There was no pain to amount to this. None.



"It\'s okay Nat." Jack held onto Nathaniel while he cried and sobbed. He whispered soft words to soothe, to calm him and in the midst of the tears and sniffles, he carried Nat to the bed that Jack had been assigned but hadn\'t used that day. After laying down next to his fledgling, Jack pulled Nat into his arms and held him tight, one of his hands rubbing small circles on nat\'s back white the other ran through his black hair, massaging his scalp. When Nathaniel had stopped everything, even breathing, Jack pulled away a little to look down into his face. Nat\'s eyes were open but he was staring ahead. Ahead was Jack\'s chest. "Nat?"



Nathaniel blinked and looked up to his sire. This was real right? It wasn\'t a lie? Of course not. If there was one being on this planet that wouldn\'t lie to him, it was Jack. Jack hadn\'t lied once to him in the ten years they had been together. Deciding to take his mind off of why he was with Jack, Nat addressed the subject of the fight between Jack and his sire.



"Vampires don\'t get erections unless they are mated, and that standing, Tev doesn\'t have a mate so he was frustrated while I was drunk on power. Drunk and frustrated don\'t mix Nat."



"So you two started pounding on each other?"



"I\'m a Scot Nat. Of course that\'s what I did." Nat smiled a little and sighed, a hand moving to rub his eyes. Jack stopped him and moved his hands away from his face. "Hold still." Nat would have protested being cleaned like a child but he didn\'t. It was an honor to be cleaned by your master, or leader in shifter society so, he\'d just take it like it was. Although, being cleaned via tongue was a little disconcerting. Maybe that was why Tuck objected to it? he growled as he thought about the traitor and when jack pulled away, Nat buried his head in his masters chest.



"He dies when I get out of here." Jack sighed and shook his head.



"If you kill him, you will regret it."



"No, I won\'t." His seriously meant it too. The thought of watching Tucker\'s head fly free of his body appealed to Nat in ways he never thought it would. he got delight out of thinking about how he was going to kill Tucker. It was after way number eight that he realized what was happening to him. With each new appealing way of committing murder, he was losing his humanity. Soon, he would be no better than Tev or any of the other elder vampires. Well, why did he have to have his humanity now? His mother was dead, Jill was dead and Tucker wasn\'t really his brother so there was no one to be relatively human for. Well, except Jack. He owed it to the Scot. So, with a sigh, he just closed his eyes and pushed all thoughts of Tucker and his betrayal away. "Jack?"



"Hmm?" Nat looked up to see his sire staring down at him.



"Make me forget." His voice wa soft as he asked. Jack just nodded. Nat scooted up a little and leaned over Jack\'s neck. After a lick for the prime, he sank his teeth deep and proceeded to make himself high enough that he didn\'t care if Tuck told him he was a girl. The world faded out to one thing.



Blood.