Ezekiel didn’t speak, he just listened and Brandon wasn’t sure if he was grateful or angry at his silence. But he knew the Guardian was simply digesting. Puzzling. Taking it all in.

So Brandon sighed and continued. “To the Brotherhood, this Creed was a part of why they hated Druids and Shifters. Apparently their God Bane prophesied my birth. The Creature of tainted blood...I met it...” Brandon choked and shuddered so hard he had to hold himself. His fists tightened and for just a moment he was back into the tunnels beneath the base. Warm blood dripping down his face. Eric’s blood. He was being hunted like an animal. Cornered. Trapped.

“Wait a minute...this is going way over my head.” Ezekiel softly rumbled finally speaking, taking his right hand, uncurling the fist Brandon had made and kissing the center of his palm where Brandon’s nails had left deep indents in the skin.

Then Ezekiel rubbed his thumb along the damaged flesh, dashing away the pain, and it was one of the most soothing things Brandon had ever experienced.

Ezekiel stayed at this task, as he looked up and continued. “Brandon I thought this was all just crazy talk...are you saying this Bane is real? That you met this GOD they worship in the flesh?”

“Yes, but it’s not a GOD...” Brandon said with dark certainty. “It’s something else. Something powerful. And old. And it definitely seems to be the God these fucked up freaks deserve...but I know it’s just a creature. An evil vile powerful creature, but there is no way it’s a God in the flesh. I can’t believe that. I won’t believe that. It spoke to me when I came before it. Then it killed a man, then it tried to kill me. I was so overwhelmed....when it spoke to me, I wanted to melt into the ground.”

Brandon lifted his eyes to the air, as if he could see the hulking beast once more breathing in his face, its fangs before his eyes.

“The Bane was giant, the size of four ghouls combined and as hard as a train. Its fur was white like the Base and it walked like a human, on two feet. When it came to me it said that I was a tainted child. That I am tainted. A curse. A Child of Sun and Moon. Then the Bane taunted me. It said Druids were a blight on the world. It said so much to me that made no sense. And it felt like....like it knew me, Ezekiel.” Brandon tried to tighten his trembling hands again, but Ezekiel blocked him. “I know it wasn’t a God, but how did it know these things? How...?”

“I don’t know babe.” Ezekiel touched his furrowed brow and caressed his cheek. “What I do know? Is that you aren’t Tainted Brandon.”

Brandon blinked, surprised by the conviction and warmth in the Shifters voice. His words unburdening him of a weight he hadn’t know he was carrying.

“You aren’t anything that these fuckers tell you. Okay? These Alchemists are the ones tainted by hatred and evil teachings. ” The Shifter softly expressed. “I don’t know everything, but I know that just because a group of people worship an ideal, t doesn’t mean that it is right or true.” Ezekiel hissed. “Sometimes I wonder about other Reavers when I consider how people believe something so deeply.”

Brandon leaned closer laying his head against Ezekiel’s shoulder and kissing him at the junction of his nape, knowing that talking about his sickness wasn’t easy. Breathing out across Ezekiels slightly erratic pulse he closed his eyes and said. “What do you mean?”

Ezekiel cradled his head, so that he could see into Brandon’s eyes, before he twisted his lips. “I guess, I just, I wonder about all the Reavers before me. The ones that were bludgeoned, or drowned, or left to starve to death over the centuries, because so many Shifters BELIEVED that we were doomed to insanity the moment we drew our first breaths.”

Ezekiel glanced around and gestured to the air. “So may Reavers like me were killed because the rest of them knew what they knew and they practiced it religiously. On every Reaver born. Death came moments after life.” At this point Ezekiels voice softened, turned ragged and Brandon wanted to wipe the pain in it away. “But I have lived for long decades with the Reavers sickness and I am not what they believed I would become. What they all said a Reaver was.”

Ezekiel smirked at Brandon and shook his head as if to say “what a world” Then he turned thoughtful solemn eyes to the Druid and held him closer.

“People believe the wrong things all the time. You know of how my own people once saw the mixing of Western Leopard and Snow Tribe Leopards as a mistake as well.” Brandon nodded and Ezekiel grimly continued. “But even though I and all of my brothers are hybrids, we are more then what makes up our blood. We are ourselves. No matter our abilities. Or sicknesses. Or the words of others. And you are you Brandon. No matter what this creature, this Bane...” Ezekiel hissed in fury. “This false idol that they worship, in this evil place, said about you! It cannot define you. As you say it is powerful, but it is not a God. So your blood does not define you. Only you can do that.”

His throat burned on appreciation at such thoughtful advice. With stinging eyes Brandon felt something inside unwind and he choked out a strangled “Thank you.”

Ezekiel nuzzled his cheek and murmured. “Don’t thank me for telling you the truth. You don’t have to.”

The Truth....It’s just more broken truths between us....

It was ironic that the words his beloved said simply made Brandon all the more aware that he still had more to tell. More horrible things to reveal. Things that frightened him just as badly as the Bane.

“You know I’ve been having a lot of stuff told to me that I didn’t want to hear.” Brandon mused wryly, stopped, and swallowed and said. “I was with Jacob after that stuff happened in the Bowels, with the Bane. He’s the one that dropped me in here with you.”

“Fucking lion actually did the right thing.” Ezekiel stiffened and snarled quietly. Then he sighed and relaxed. “I knew I smelled that bastard all over you when you came back. Did he hurt you?”

Brandon bit his lip. “No. I think he helped me actually. I think he and Hovel came and took me out of the Bowels and away from the Bane, because when I woke up I was in...” Brandon faltered as he realized he had almost said “in his bed’ he cleared his throat. “I was in the Base again, and Jacob was with me.”

“After that we talked and I found out about why Hovel was taking my blood all those years.” A sharp keel of unpleasant bile hit him but Brandon powered through it. “He was harvesting it Ezekiel, and using it as payment to the Lions and also using the experiment as a chance to ply the stone with more and more energy, which I took from the people he gave me to feed on.”

“But why!?” Ezekiel snarled, looking furious. “Why do they need to do any of this!?”

Brandon wasn’t sure to laugh or cry at the question he had been asking himself millions of times over the years being directed right back at him.

Instead he just shrugged and played his hands over his knees, wiping the cold sweat that had started to gather in his trembling palms. Brandon remembered the words of Nora. He softly outlined how Jacob had gifted him the Acolytes diary. He told Ezekiel how Jacob had been sickly. Then he told Ezekiel the hardest part.

“After all of this...” Brandon mused, touching his temple. “All this suffering I don’t know why they want the Acris exactly, aside from using it to appease that disgusting monster. I really think they believe they can use the Acris to achieve their goals.” Brandon stopped and slowly said. “As for Jacobs’s he’s doing all of this for his Clan. His people are sick Ezekiel. Dying out. Remember how you told me about the myths surrounding the Lions? Vampire?” Ezekiel nodded and Brandon shook his head.

“Well they truly do drink blood and apparently all of the Lions Clan is infected with a sickness that is killing them unless they drink blood. Jacob believes that the Acris and Hovel can save them....He...said it’s my fault. That I abandoned him...” Brandon stopped. He felt the hollow well of confusion and guilt all over again as he repeated Jacobs cold accusations.

“Ezekiel he blamed me for the sickness for some reason! He said that I...that it was my fault his people were dying!! The Druids fault....” Brandon pinched his eyes to fight the sting of tears in his eyes.

“The Bane said the same thing about me, about the Druids, but mostly about me. It said that I was responsible for....I don’t KNOW!” Brandon shuddered as he saw Kail in his minds eyes. His tall frame, silver eyes, regal features. Standing at the top of a mountain. “Kail, in my dreams he said seemed to be blaming me for something too. I can hear them screaming at me! So many!” he broke off in a ragged whisper. His brain whirling in circles.

“Hey! Brandon....what are you trying to say?” Ezekiel softly pressed, his face swimming into focus, his warm hands touching Brandon’s shoulders.

Tucking away all the overwhelming sensation for a seconds Brandon, put his hand over Ezekiel’s and shook his head. “Fuck.” Scrubbing at his hair Brandon blinked bleary eyes. He suddenly felt so run down, he wanted to sleep.

“The only thing I know at all is that Jacobs apart of all this.” He mumbled. “So is Hovel. And the Bane...and the man from my dreams. Kail.” Brandon closed his eyes. “And I’m a part of it too. There’s a bigger picture here. Something I’m not seeing. Something that has a clear connection to whatever it is that I’m still missing.”

“Missing. So if this is all connected...?” Ezekiel paused, touched Brandon’s cheek, and tucked his hair back from his brow. As he softly questioned.

“Babe, Jacobs Clan, and the Alchemists and the Bane...they all want the Stone. And in your dreams you told me that Kail wanted the Stone too. So do you think that the dreams you’ve been having are also tied into this...if they are even dreams at all.”

“Possibly...” Brandon made himself whisper in response as he shook away the memory of Jacob embracing him. Jacob beholding him with hatred and devotion. Kail beholding him with the exact same emotions. Kail holding a bloody sword. Jacob attacking him. One standing on a mountain top in a dream. The other asking about a mountain from the past.

Ezekiel took a long moment of silence. He stared off to the side, then he suddenly rounded on Brandon took his hands and said. “Brandon have you ever entertained the idea that these aren’t actually dreams at all that you’ve had? What if...What if you’ve simply forgotten something? And the dreams aren’t dreams at all....your just remembering.”