Blood Ties

40

Alexene staggered back with wide-eyes that made her out to be a frightened little girl.

"You should have told me!" Alexene snapped.

Lycus rolled his eyes, cocking his head to the side as he observed the nerve on the vampire. "He is my brother, not yours. You helped him with his bloodlust all those years ago, but I had to fake his death to prevent the prophecies from coming true and you fucking know what? It worked. Whatever was after him backed off, as did the prophecies."

Alexene bared two pointy fangs and she was in Lycus's face, reddish and bluish veins pooling across her pallid skin.

He had forgotten how demonic vampires were.

"I claimed him as a brother! Not by blood, not by relations, but for who Rexton was. A kind, humane being worth more than the abuse and neglect of his parents. You should have told me! You forget I have connections, Lycus, I did then and I most certainly do now." Alexene snapped venomously.

"What are you saying? You could've helped us?" Lycus rhetorically questioned, no trace of acceptance or gratitude in his demands. "These prophecies were told since his infancy, every year, same oracle, different words — I wasn't going to allow something bad to happen to him."

Alexene's eyes seared with bloody malice. "So in turn, to help him, you locked him away. I would have helped! I would have searched high and low for an answer, and asked the oldest and youngest of vampires if they knew anything. I still would."

Lycus's claws ripped from his nails, a growl tearing from his chest but he stopped, the sound of an engine sounding through the woods.

"This conversation is done. I've already told Rexton why he was truly confined, but say nothing to him. He hates himself more now because of it." Lycus growled.

"He should hate you and Gabriel, Lycus." Alexene countered pointedly.

Lycus walked away from her, knowing her final words to be the truth and nothing more.

The car parked and Rexton was the first to jump out, dashing to the back and lifting the boot up.

And the anxiety seeping out of Rexton was too suffocating to ignore. Lycus traced his steps to his brother and gently clapped his shoulder, trying to catch the expression on his face.

"What's wrong?" Lycus asked.

Rexton said nothing, grabbing a motionless Cole by the shoulder and dragged him out of the car.

It was pitiful to see Cole captured by the wits of hunters.

"I'm going to head back home, Erisa. You coming?" Franklin Jaeger said to his niece.

Lycus watched the hunters from the other side of the car, slight murmurs of conversation passing through. Erisa and Cadence stuck closely together as they spoke with Franklin, mentioning the current state of things and where that could lead.

The end of a war, Lycus concluded to his inner thoughts.

Franklin Jaeger stepped back from the girls with a subtle nod and gave a goodbye wave to Rexton. "I'll see you around, Rexton."

Rexton smiled brightly at the ageing man, an act Lycus hardly received from him.

Erisa didn't look ready to leave just yet, even if her part was done and made the conscious decision in sticking with Cadence.

Franklin gave the girls hugs and left in his old car, the engine sounding off in the distance.

Cole's human form was the same when Lycus last saw him many years ago, slender and strikingly wasting away.