Reapers - Thirteen Brothers

XXXI - Change Of Heart (2 of 2)

I wanted him to say it out loud. I wanted to hear from him the words, "I take you, Aramis Rayne as my familiar, through thick and thin, for better or for worse..." Ugh! Erase! Erase! That didn't sound quite right, did it? Sigh.

"Focus!" Vincent yelled as the woods blurred past us, interrupting my train of thought.

"W-what?" I whipped my head to his direction, flustered.

"Watch out!"

It was too late when I saw the huge oak tree in front of me. Vincent threw himself toward me and caught my hand, pulling me closer to him. I slammed hard on his chest while his back banged against the giant trunk. I tried to blink the wooziness out of my system and looked up. The tree creaked loudly and started to sway.

"Oh, snap," I barely managed to mutter before the tree tipped over to us.

Vincent, yanked me and we rolled away from it before we were turned into immortal mush. The tree fell to the ground with a loud crash which made the ground shake, accompanied by the scurrying of terrified animals. My head was pounding and when I opened my eyes, I saw Vincent under me, flat on his back. His neck was warm against my face. His breathing was ragged. Other than that, he looked okay.

When he opened his eyes, his forehead slowly creased. I gulped then awkwardly crawled away from him as silent as I could. My cheeks burned as I sat on the ground, waiting for him to go ballistic like the four other times I messed up. That was my fifth try and it seemed to me that draughting didn't like me very much.

"Congratulations! You just killed a tree which is probably more than five times older than you," he grunted sarcastically, sitting up to give me a tired look. "I give up. You're worse than Byron Flynn and he doesn't even speak English. I guess some people are just... not trainable."

If it was his idea of being polite, it wasn't working. "Way to go to rub it in," I muttered sullenly.

"Okay, so now what do we do?" he said while brushing the leaves off his coat without much success so he just left it off. "Run all the way to Centralia?" he scoffed.

I got up, snatched his sleeve and towed him back on track. "Actually, we're not that far."

It took us less than ten minutes to get there on foot without draughting. Vincent looked a little annoyed but he didn't say anything either. Maybe he was rethinking his decision of taking me as a familiar. He didn't actually say the words or else he wouldn't be able to take it back. Reaper's honor. I just assumed. All this time, maybe he was just humoring me so I wouldn't bug him anymore. But I didn't talk to him about it mainly because I was scared to hear that my fears were the truth.

We started to the southern part of the Borough where there would be fewer wraiths. In theory. Vincent led the way to the same Gates we went to every night. The town was jarringly silent save for the creaking hinges here and there. It was giving me the creeps. The kind of feeling when you're riding a bus heading for home, knowing that you would be grounded forever once you get there. Only, this was worse. I missed being grounded.

We pressed on until we reached the backyard where the large sinkhole was situated. No Strays tonight. I wondered where they went.

Vincent bent over the edge of the sinkhole, muttering in an ancient language I didn't recognize. I served as a lookout on the rooftop, maintaining the Transference link intact. I was so used to it now that it was almost spontaneous. If I closed my eyes, I would get a vague idea of where Vincent was; his movements, his breathing. Even inside the safety of the mansion, sometimes, I would find myself searching for his presence and unconsciously establishing the link. Which was stalker-creepy.