Flint Strike

Chapter Six

The night air was slightly cool and it smelled just like it had the night he had been banished. He pulled out his lighter and a cigarette. He tucked the cigarette between his lips and put the pack away before lighting up. He took a heavy drag, holding the nearly spicy smoke in his mouth before he opened his mouth and inhaled the smoke that escaped his mouth into his nose. The relief was nearly instant. All scents were gone except for that dark herbal blend that shut everything else out in his nose and sinuses. It was almost a comfort to him to have his former clan's scent gone from inside of him. It was better that it was gone, it made him feel more stable to have it gone.

"You know ma would have killed you if she knew you were smoking." Brutus' voice was calm as he leaned against the bar's exterior. It took all of Flint's discipline to keep his expression calm and even when all he wanted to do was curse a mean blue streak out of the moon for her sick sense of humor. "She's probably already turning over in her grave. Could power the old family farm with how quickly she would be spinning." Brutus chuckled as if he were trying to lighten the tension that had appeared when he did.

Flint took a heavy drag of the cigarette deep into his lungs, happy that the herbs were blocking out his scent receptors so he couldn't actually smell his brother. He let out the smoke in a heavy exhale. He looked over the cigarette, watching the cherry glow bright red in the dimply lit area. Flint knew that he was taking an easy way out by not saying anything but he wondered if there was anything he could say to his brother. He doubted there was anything but empty platitudes and 'how have you been's that would lead to nowhere but awkward silence.

Brutus lasted longer than Flint thought he would before he let out a sigh. "Clary phoned me a few minutes ago and I almost didn't believe her when she said you were back in town but she was right. Here you are, Flint." Another sigh followed the words and Flint took another heavy drag of the cigarette, staring at it intently before looking off to the dark forest. Flint wondered how it could look practically the same as it had fifteen years ago. "She and Jared never mated, you know." Flint didn't react but he did mentally engage at the name. He had forgotten the male's name, it was strange how someone so pivotal in getting him banished from his clan had been so utterly forgettable to him. Then again it had been his family more than the male that had gotten him banished.

"Are you just going to stand there smoking or actually talk to me?" Brutus' voice had a low rumble of warning to it and Flint leaned against the bricks of the bar and stuck a hand in one of his pockets.

"Why would I talk to you? I don't know you." He kept his tone casual and he lazily turned his head to look at his former brother. Brutus actually looked hurt at the words and Flint clamped down on any impulse he had to try and placate him. Brutus had dug that hole, he was going to have to deal with the mess that it had filled up with.

"Don't be like that, Flint." His tone lowered and Flint shrugged as casually as he could manage with the feelings that were filling him up. There was just too much emotional baggage that was being dumped on him at the moment. He once again cursed Mick for forcing him to go on the mission.

"Like what? I'm just passing through." He took a heavy drag of his cigarette, inhaling the dark herbs into his nose once more. He was already cleared but he wanted to make sure none of his brother's scent came in. For all he knew that would be enough to trigger the hormonal haze that was riding his back. For all he knew that would be enough to bring his beast out to play and he really didn't want to deal with the aftermath of that.

"Look I came here to let you know that you can come home." The words made Flint freeze while lifting the cigarette back to his mouth. "We tried to find you, Flint. Two years after it happened. Jared and Clary broke up and we tried to find you, to bring you back into the clan but you disappeared. We wanted you home, we missed you. We still miss you." There was a vulnerable pain to Brutus' voice that was nearly enough to break Flint but it had been fifteen years and he had a new life. He was making something of himself. And if he had to be honest with himself, despite how tempting the offer was, he didn't think he could handle being back in a normal clan. Not anymore.