The Tale of Two Brothers

Ohmehghawd Chapter 8 everyone!

Read, review, comment. It\'s all loved.





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The next few days were hard for everyone in the safe house. Flame had double duty with making sure no one killed each other while protecting the bunch of blood suckers from burning alive while Nat tried his damnedest to avoid Tucker at all costs, except for the two times a night he needed to be a blood donor. The service for Jill had been the night after all of the drama since the Sealer had taken great care with the witch\'s body. It was sad to see her body burn bright under the full moon and difficult for Jack but he made a vow over her pale body that he would wait for her to come back. And he would kill every single being who helped with the massacre. When the abruptly died, Jack, Nat, Tucker and the sealer watched a bright fissure of white light shoot up from Jill\'s remains. The light touched jack for a moment before it shot high into the sky, straight for the moon. Jills soul would be back, she just needed to wait for a new body.



Tonight, the safe house got two more guests. Both were shifters thankfully but they were just as moody as the four vampires. A few hours after the shifters arrived, the founder of the Agency had shown up. Now, everyone was sitting around in the living room while the six foot and change demon stood in the center of them all, and explained what was happening. So far, they had found out there was a team of five to ten men working against them and the sources who gave them that information were sure the men were working for the new fanatics.



The new fanatics were actually an interesting group. The founder had given them as much information as he had at his disposal and what they found out was...well...there were no words for it. The fanatics weren\'t playing as religious figures, they were religious figures. They were priests to a new god who rewarded his followers with one revamp card. After they died a second time, they died for good. When they died, they went to be with their deity, or so they were bent on believing. Another thing they were bent on believing was that this world belonged to the humans. All monsters needed to be destroyed because they were plaguing the earth, tainting it with their presences. Tucker, making everyone believe the bleach he\'d used for his hair went to his head, made the connection out loud that everyone had made in their head. Monsters equal Others. Others were pretty much anything that wasn\'t a humie.



After the founder was done speaking, he asked for questions. Nat nearly slapped himself in the forehead. Of course, Tucker would be the one to raise his hand like a little school girl and ask a question. To say that everyone except him thought the action was funny would have been understated.



"Why do they think we taint this world so to speak? Weren\'t we here first?" The two shifters actually agreed with Tuck. Well, okay, not completely stupid but that bleach really had gone to his brain.



"Actually, shifters live on a separate plain than this one. The first shifters came over while man was still in it\'s beginning stages. The humans were the first ones here Mr. Raugth."



"Okay, fine. They were here first, but how are we tainting it? I mean, I guess I can understand where they are coming from but, aren\'t we helping to make this a better and safer place? Don\'t they see that?" The founder pushed his slowly sliding glasses up his nose and shoved one of his hands into the pocket of his slacks.



"These fanatics believe that we taint their world and they will not see reason. They see what we do here, no matter how much help we give to this world, as fortifying ourselves. Giving ourselves more power so we can later take over and enslave the human race." When Tucker went to speak, the founder held up a hand to stop him. "Let me finish." Tucker just nodded.



"They blame their wars on us, their economical problems, the problems with society, homosexuality, drugs and anything that poses a problem to the development of the human race is blamed on us. Why? We are not natural here. We did not originate here so we are a taint. A stain if you will. They want to be rid of us."



"That makes absolutely no sense." When Nat went to say something, Jack stopped him with a hand on his thigh. The founder just looked at Tucker and smiled.



"I think, Mr. Raugth, you need a history lesson."



"No, you just combine words that don\'t make much sense." Tucker really was acting like a blond.



"Fine. Let me try it this way so those of us who don\'t understand what I\'m saying, can." Tucker went to argue but the founder over talked him. "Since we are not human, we don\'t belong here. We are not one of earths natural species so again, we do not belong here. Think about Adam and Eve in the bible. Lucifer presented temptation and they took the plunge. To them, we are Lucifer. They think humans are not sadistic enough to start their own wars and they blame it on us, saying it is an attempt for us to get rid of them. What they don\'t know is that we are not here to kill them off but coexist peacefully.



"Since the humans fear what they do not understand, coming out to them at this point in time would only cause more harm then help. Ninety percent of the human population is not open minded and they will think just as these fanatics do, that we all need to be purged from the earth. If any of you remember the Crusades or the Salem Witch trials, then you know what I\'m talking about. At both intervals, one of our own came out to the humans and in turn, all they got was nothing but slaughter. During the Witch Trials alone, we lost over two thousand Others." he turned back to Tucker. "To them Mr. Raugth, we are all demons who sit on the shoulders of humans and urge them to do horrible things. To them, we are the spawns of evil and they have taken it upon themselves to purge us from their beloved planet. They think once we are gone that the humans will go back to a peaceful existence."



"Are we trying to take over the world?" If the founder hadn\'t laughed at tuckers momentary stupidity, Nat got the feeling that everyone in the room, Tev included, would have groaned. Turning around, the founder ignored Tucker\'s question anad went back to explaining how we were moving our own strike team into place to get back at them.



"Do we know the location of their headquarters?"



"Unfortunately, we do not. However, we are looking over every viable connection to any of the fanatics that have been brought to our attention. So far, we have traced one of their main bases to this state. Other than being in this state, we are currently in the dark."



"So, if we don\'t know where they are what good is a strike team going to be?" The founder rubbed the bridge of his nose, pushing has glasses up again.



"The moment we find something out about where they are located, our-" he stopped in mid sentence and looked towards the windows. Three seconds after him, the shifters were looking at the window and a second after them, the vampires. Everyone was on their feet and surrounding the founder. The windows in the main hall crashed open and men came pouring in. There were nine total, and one of them was short enough that no one thought it was a male. The founder stepped out from between the bodies surrounding him and looked at the big man who was the obvious leader. "To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?"



"Your death." Nat heard the accent and flinched. Russian. Nat looked to Jack who was staring at the people in our main hall. Looking from jack to Tucker, he noticed the younger vampire staring his way. he made a small motion with his hand and Tucker nodded. What he didn\'t notice was the two shifters watching them intently. In and instant, Tucker went left and he went right with the two shifters up the middle. There was gun fire and then a sound that sent a wave through Nat and the group of Others. The only one left standing was the founder. Okay, and Tev.



The founder looked to the one who\'d let out the sound. "Why, it\'s nice to see that one of our own has betrayed us. Why is that Sting?" The small, black clad, what everyone thought was human, uncovered their face. It was a girl.



"I had a little chat with your brother, Prince." The founder looked from the woman to the main man.



"And why have you betrayed me Barinskov?" The big man just shrugged.



"The money is good."



"And mine is not?" Again, the big man shrugged. The founded just sighed and took off his glasses. he looked to his left, glancing at TevAmun. "Please get the rest of them out of here. As unfortunate as it is to have one of our own against us, they will not stand a chance." Tev just nodded once and started towards the shifters first. he was stopped when a gun was pointed at his head. Tev just stared at the gun and in movements that went unseen by everyone in the room, had the gun bent and across the room and the man who\'d pointed it at him lifeless on the floor. The red head looked at the other men who had guns pointed at him. He drew his lips back from his teeth and hissed.



"Call him off or he dies."



"I can\'t do that Barinskov." The Russian just nodded. The sound of gunfire would have been deafening if everyone on the floor wasn\'t already deaf. Jack however, and Nat, didn\'t need to hear the gunfire to know that the men in front of them had tried to hit Tev. Fighting their way through the pain raging in the skulls, they both stood and started after the men with guns. Jack snapped one in half like a twig and threw his lifeless body at two more while Nat had done the very vampire thing and started draining them. After the second one, he was full enough that he just bit down and yanked, successfully tearing their throats and letting them fall on the floor to bleed to death. When all was said and done, Jack and Nat had taken out the six remaining men and were moving towards the one called Sting. She just smiled and let out another scream. This one incapacitated Jack and Nat both while making the rest of the men still on the floor pass out from the pain. She then walked over and knocked Jack out. Nat watched in relative horror as she sauntered over to him and that was the last thing he saw.





When he came too, Nat felt like something was sitting inside of his skull, using a sledgehammer on his brain. He didn\'t want to open his eyes but he knew he had too. Blinking one eye opened, he stared at what was obviously the ceiling. It didn\'t, however, look like the ceiling of a cell and in fact, closely resembled the ceiling back at the safe house. Opening his other eye, Nat turned his head slowly. He was back in his bedroom at the safe house. Looking to his left, he noticed two other people in the bed with him. One was Tucker and one was Tev. It was bad enough to be in the same bed with Tucker but Tev...oh no.



When Nat went to move, he felt something holding him around his waist. When he looked down, he noticed a pale arm holding him down. He followed the arm and noted it was attached to Tev. Apparently the vampire didn\'t want him going anywhere. If it hadn\'t scared the hell out of him, he might have just moved out from under the elder vampires grasp. When the arm just suddenly lifted off of him, he thought he might yelp but instead he just looked up to the other vampires face. Tev\'s eyes were open and they were boring holes right into him. Nat sat there for a moment, staring deeply into the red head\'s eyes.



"Where\'s-" Tev\'s hand shot up and covered his mouth. Nat just blinked, nodded and stopped talking. When Tev moved his hand, Nat laid back down on the bed and thought about what Tev hadn\'t said. Obviously Jack was missing, or captured, but why hadn\'t anyone else been taken? Unless the founder had been captured as well? But still, that left the mystery of why he, Tev and Tucker were still there not including who else might still be there, and why they were still in the safe house and not moving. When he frowned, Nat felt something touching the frown lines on his forehead. When his eyes looking up, again, he saw Tev\'s hand. The touches were feather light and barely there and they just ran over the creases. When Nat relaxed, the hand stopped moving and just rested against his head.



What the hell was going on and where the hell was TevAmun, number one freaky ass vampire? "Are you alright?" Nat asked, just to be safe, but there was no guarantee that Tev would answer. He spoke when he wanted to and not much more. When Tev didn\'t answer him, Nat just thought he should have known. Then, Tev moved and crawled off the bed without a look back at him. What? He hadn\'t said anything wrong had he? It was just as he went to roll over that he felt Tucker stir. Oh. Maybe that was the cause? Possibly. Deciding it be best he wait around until his brother woke up, Nat just sat up and moved his legs over the edge of the bed. When he was done feeding Tucker he was gone.



Tucker moved and then a loud thud was heard. Nat looked over his shoulder and forced himself not to laugh. Tucker had just fallen out of the bed. With a sigh, Nat stood and stretched. He walked around the side of the bed and looked to see if Tuck was alright. Yes, he was, but still slightly lethargic from sleep. Crossing his arms over his chest, Nat waited for the younger vampire to get back on the bed. When Tucker looked up, Nat shoved his wrist in Tuck\'s face. No words needed to be said for a feeding so, he didn\'t. Tuck grabbed his wrist and looked at it for a moment. His blue eyes rolled up and Nat looked away from him. With a frustrated sound, Tucker bit down, hard. Nat winced and looked back to Tucker. There was no reason for that but Tucker probably thought he deserved it.



As he watched Tucker feed, Nat got a feeling deep in the pit of his stomach. He didn\'t know what it was and couldn\'t identify it so he just ignored it. Or tried too. When Tuck pulled away and licked his wrist, Nat turned and started out of the room. He stopped when Tucker spoke.



"I thought vampires didn\'t get erections?" He sounded genuinely confused and Nat felt that way. When turned back to Tucker and went to speak, but Tuck just pointed down and he looked. Sure enough, there was a bulge in the crotch of his pants.



"No..." Nat\'s eye darted back up to Tucker who was staring at his body intently. Shaking his head, Nat turned and stormed out of the room. So what if he had a bulge. This was not happening to him. No. Fate was already cruel enough to him they didn\'t need to give him this. This was just...[i]insane[/i]. Mated to someone he thought was his brother. No. Never. But the more he thought about it, the more it sank in. He had a mate. He could get hard. What about Tucker? In the midst of his thoughts, Nat had stopped in the hallway and was looking at nothing. Fate really was a cruel master. First they give him Tucker, then they take his mother away, then they kill Tucker, then they kill Jill, now they have successfully taken away his master and paired him with someone he would rather do without. Looking skyward, he cursed them. Damn the three of them into the lowest pits of hell.



"Hey! You okay man?" Nat blinked and looked to his left. Flame. Nat just nodded and started walking away. "You were just staring off into space. What\'s up?" Flame came to his side and stayed in step with him. Well, he would have had Jack to talk to but Jack wasn\'t here. That thought in itself put him in a very sour mood. How the hell were they supposed to get them back?



"Any word on our strike team?"



"Huh?" Nat stopped and stared at Flame.



"Our strike team, you know, the one the founder was talking about? Do you have any word on it\'s location?"



"Uh, since the founder and your master have been kidnapped, we have no one to order said team." Shaking his head, Nat changed directions and headed to Tev\'s bedroom. He knocked, and waited. When no one answered, he opened the door and peered in. Empty. He turned and stared into the hall way.



"Tev, where are you?" He wasn\'t whispering and he wasn\'t yelling but talking in his normal tone. When the red head appeared in front of him moments later, he winced. Shouldn\'t have used his name but, some things needed to be done. "I apologize for using your name." He bowed his head in a show of submission before he started talking about why he had used the vampires name. "Since you hold a chair seat, third to be exact, you have more sway over the strike team with the founder missing. Jack has told me that the founder leaves you in charge when he is out so, we are going to need you to take up that mantel to get him back. If you can do that and get the team to meet us in the city, I can call in a few favors and get us some extra help." he looked to Flame. "If you weren\'t human, I would ask you to come with us, but at the moment you are the most vulnerable of the three of us-"



"That has not stopped me before. If you\'re going to start a war then I sure as hell want in on it." Nat just frowned. Of course he would say something like that.



"Fine, but stay down and if you are up against anything stronger than human, call to one of us." He looked back to Tev. "Have the shifters been captured?"



"Killed." Nat muttered something under his breath before his brain started into high gear. He had a lot of work to do and not much time to do it in. The issue with Tucker was going to have to wait. Good enough for him.





By the time all was said and done, Nat had called in almost every favor owed to him. They had found out that the cars were blown so they would be moving by foot to the city. Not such a problem except they had a new vampire and a human to travel with, so, one of his favors had been spent on something utterly stupid. Transportation. It wasn\'t something he wanted to cash in on so to make it not so stupid, he told the guy he also needed some weapons. The list was pretty out there but when the limo pulled into the driveway and he got in, there was no doubt in his mind that everything he\'d asked for was there.



After telling the driver they needed to make a few stops, Nat set about looking through his weaponry.



"How the hell did you get all of this?" Flame looked to be in hog heaven.



"Favors." After locating the sword he\'d requested, he started sifting through the weapons and tossing some to Tucker and flame. "There is extra ammo for all of that so make sure you have enough." When the car stopped and the driver came on the speaker announcing they had arrived, Nat got out of the car and told everyone to stay. He shut the car door and shoved his hands into his pants pockets. Staring up at the two story house, he remembered the last time he\'d come. It had been to kill a soul sucking demon.



Nat walked up the stairs of the house and just before he let his knock land, the door was opening.



"Good to see you again." Nat just nodded. "Come in."



"I appreciate you doing this for me."



"Nonsense. You saved my life by taking out that demon. The least I can do for you is help out, besides, if not for the founder, I wouldn\'t have this house." Nat nodded.



"How are the kids?"



"When you killed the demon impersonating their mother, it was evident that the demon had placed a spell on them. They snapped right out of it and since then, have never been happier. They are sad that their real mother is dead however, but they understand she\'ll come back somewhere." Nat just nodded.



"Showing gifts yet?"



"She is, yes but it saddens me to say that he is not."



"I thought for sure he would take after his father." The man in front of him laughed.



"It disappoints me too, but there are other things he can do to make me proud. Like stop teasing his sister endlessly."



"Kids." The two men walked through the house into a back room. The room was very dark but Nat had no problem navigating it. Before his death he had near perfect dark vision, being a vampire only amped that up. In the center of the room sat a table, on which sat a bowl. To the left of the bowl, a leather pouch he knew contained very old bones, inscribed with runes. To the right of the bowl, a deck of cards, or rightly, tarot cards. Behind the table was a small book shelf. It housed all kinds of books, but the one that stood out the most was a leather, hand bound tomb. The spine was the only thing he could see, but he could see the stitches, made by hand, and gauge how big the book was. Twelve inches in length, it was at least five in width. That was all he could see, except for the unknown language burned into the leather.



"Have a seat." Nat took a seat on the floor, since there was no other chair, other than the one he couldn\'t see on the other side of the table. He watched the man walk over to the bowel, sit down and pull out that leather bound tomb. "Hand me that ball over there would you?" He pointed and Nat turned. Oh, he hadn\'t noticed that. There was another shelf. It was piled stock full with equipment. Nat dutifully reached over and grabbed the small glass ball. It was clear but had a blueish center, almost as if something had been put inside of it. Knowing gypsies like he did, he wouldn\'t doubt it.



He handed it over and watched the man set it inside the bowel. he rested his hands over it for a moment and let out a small breath. "Shall we begin?"