(MxM) Tales Of A Shifter (P1) - The Meeting

Chapter 35 - Lost Luxury

The moment Brandon saw the precious garments he tried to snatch them away.

But Ezekiel was too fast for him. He jerked them out of his grasp. "Hey Shifter...give me my gloves! I know those are mine."

Ezekiel hissed at him in warning, flashing his teeth aggressively. Brandon glared at him, but he didn't make a move to take them again. The Shifter shook them as he leaned closer, holding the gloves in the space between them.

"My name is Ezekiel...not Shifter." The Shifter told him, his eyes nearly as long as ovals instead of round like a mortal's pupil.

"I don't care!" Brandon said back to him.

"That's fine...you don't have to tell me your name. Just stay calm. I know that these belong to you so you don't have to be so aggressive about it." The Shifter, Ezekiel told him with a sharp smile. "I found these on you when you came here. Along with a knife. A very long knife that you stabbed me with. I lost the blade in the mulch and didn't care to go get it back....but I grabbed these from you pocket."

Brandon's eyes stayed glued to the leather as Ezekiel talked to him. He had a lot tied up in the gloves that the Shifter held. A lot of secrets that he needed them to conceal. So he ignored the Shifters words and after a short silence he snatched for the gloves again, but Ezekiel leaned back and he missed.

The Shifter smiled at him as he wiggled the gloves. "Want to tell me why you have these and why you were carrying a knife with you?"

"Seriously Shifter this isn't funny." Brandon said feeling his head starting to pound even harder.

"Ooooh" Ezekiel said sucking air through his teeth and making a pained expression. "Sorry that's....not my name. I'm sure I just told you what it was, maybe you didn't hear me? Im Ezekiel."

Brandon slapped the covers between them in frustration. "Fine Ezekiel. Happy? I hunt so I need these items." Brandon said in a short manner. "I need the gloves to protect my hands and the knife to skin my kills okay? That's all"

As the Shifter listened to him, Brandon shot forward and snatched the gloves out of his hands. "And they're mine!"

Surprisingly the Ezekiel let him have them.

Brandon's weak hands fumbled numerous times as he tried to slip the leather over his hands. Brandon sighed in relief as the cool leather covered his palms. Brandon smiled up at his hands as he flopped back on the bed. The gloves were vital to him. In ways that he didn't want to acknowledge. The leather had always been on his hands, he needed it to function.

He was overjoyed to see the only other possession that he had in the world, besides himself, returned to him. In fact he was so preoccupied with his returned property that he didn't see the way that Ezekiel was analyzing him until he looked up and saw him watching. His blue eyes moved from the gloves, to Brandon's, throat, then up to his eyes. The clear unnatural slit in his eyes making him look all the more dangerous all of a sudden.

"You're....very odd." He hissed out and looked at his hands again. "I know that you're lying about the wound in your stomach. Something sharp and long cut you and it wasn't a rock." Ezekiel said, tilting his head to the side he cast the gloves a glance then looked at Brandon's throat again. "Your scent is all wrong too...." The Shifter put a fist to his chest and rubbed his hand against his throat as though he were in discomfort. But he quickly cleared his throat and moved on. "I think...that there is something wrong with your skin. Or possibly something in your body skewing your scent."

You have no idea...
Brandon thought to himself. But on the outside he smiled coldly at the Shifter as though he was somehow offended.

"Yeah well who cares what you think?"