A Guardians Duty

“I said stop hurting them! No more!!”

Bonsas’s heavy eyes swung to him and glared at him. Ezekiel turned his eyes aside and admitted his submittal to her with that small gesture. Gripping his talons hard he hissed over his lips.

“I beg you. Leave my family alone...please. Just take a seat, and I will tell you everything I can, High Elder.” he whispered and licked his lips as he looked around at his family.

“I will tell you what my family didn’t want you to know, and why they did it for my own sake. I will tell you what became of Jacob. ”

Lander and Mantilo’s voices cut into his brain like two frozen nails, and Ezekiel flinched as their words rumbled into his consciousness at once.

Wait! What are you going to say exactly? No matter what...If we talk....Brandon will be on more than Hovels kill list....the Dragons will go after him next.

Mantilo calmly expressed that he sounded conflicted but was willing to follow Ezekiel’s lead.

“I know.....

Ezekiel offered.

So what are you going to do... Bonsa can not know about him. The crimes Brandon committed will not be ignored. Its too dangerous!

Lander snarled.

Ezekiel almost smirked inside as his brother's words hit home and spelled out to him in no uncertain terms how clearly his family cared for his Mate. How scared they were for Brandon's future, how hopelessly they had all come to be wrapped up in the Druids' affairs.

You draw us in—all of us—like a magnet. The power of your bloodline truly is a little bit scary. 

He ruminated, thinking of his lover somewhat amused.

Ezekiel then shook his head as he looked over at his parents and brothers and smiled at them in gratitude. “It’s okay.” He told them.

They were trying to help him. Trying to help him protect his Mate and more than anything else, that moment outlined to him how much they all care for him and wanted them both to be happy, but this was too much....he couldn’t just ignore his duties to his people. Once a Guardian always a Guardian. Brandon, being his Mate, did not negate this truth.

“Speak! Talk...What you are waiting for?” Bonsa pressed impatiently. She had taken her chair at the table and sat glaring at the Guardian in impatience.

With a slightly sad chuckle at the situation he was in, the Shifter shrugged and sat up high.

“I just don’t know where to start. It’s a really long story, and telling some of these things is going to endanger someone very important to me,” Ezekiel said slowly, fighting the painful wave of hate and betrayal his Leopard was feeling toward him.

Protect Mate! Protect!

The powerful thoughts and feelings of the Leopard came, but Ezekiel just put him aside—put the pain lacerating him aside. It was almost impossible to speak.

Fighting for control, he stared at the Lioness, drawing her frosty gaze. “But whatever happens next... We are not the ones in the wrong here. That is the truth.” He breathed, sat up tall, and calmly waited for her response.

Elder Bonsa paused, twisted her lips in thought then shook her head and sighed. “I am not so sure that it IS the truth. For you see there is blood and violence thick in the air here. I can sense that something took place on these lands. I can even tell you that something dark and scarily powerful marks this home, these fields and even this family.” Bonsa glanced around herself and put a hand out into the air as if to grasp something unseen by the naked eye.

“Ah, it shimmers and vibrates in my soul. Such a strange energy saturating the air, it’s like nothing I have ever experienced. There is also blood residue thick in the air. I can almost smell it soaking your woodlands to the south, where the earth and tress stink of rotted flesh. It is like an army has perished there...” she said looking Ezekiel up and down as though she was searching for answers.

Rot? An Army....

Ezekiel shook his head.

AH! The dead ghouls....Wait that can be our proof that were being targeted by the Alchemists! But thats not enough, I also have to tell her what became of Jacob.

He couldn’t deny it any more. He couldn’t let his Clan pay the price for the things that had taken place, and he felt that Brandon wouldn’t want that either.

“You can smell blood to the south huh? Well I guess I better start from there. Blood... it’s in every other damn conversation I seem to be having lately.” Ezekiel chuckled trying to be light for a moment, but his voice was ragged and full of reluctance.

He sat back and shrugged his shoulders. “All right, there’s blood on our soil, but it is not blood that was not rightfully spilt by people who were just trying to protect a very dear friend—a friend whom the Lions and the Alchemists wished to cause great harm.”

Friend? Brandon was so much more than that to him now...but Ezekiel wasn’t just going to tell a stranger that. He also knew that if it was revealed that Brandon was his Mate, he could be drawing a target on himself or being seen as simply trying to fabricate a story to keep Brandon safe.

Elder Bonsa looked into the Guardians eyes, and sighed deeply. “Young one, I know a Reaver may not think this is true. But no blood is ever rightfully spilled.” She told him.

“But I don’t sense that you are lying to me....anymore.” said the Lioness, taking her seat once more.

The five silent guards all around her didnt shift or move to speak at all. The entire time they remained beside her like dummies made of flesh...making Ezkeiel wonder if they are even live at all.

Bonsa flared out her arms, then folded them into her robs. “Tell me your truth Leopard cub.”

Ezekiel looked at his father to see if the Clan Head would prefer to speak on their behalf. But Mantilo simply nodded at him to continue his expression both proud and sad, as his father definitely knew the sacrifice it had to take to do something that Ezekiel knew could potentially endanger his Mate. Mantilo empathized with his struggle, but his father also seemed to feel as he felt that this conversation had to happen regardless of personal feelings.

Soothing away the unhappy snarls of his Leopard, he told the Elder exactly what she wanted to know. He told her about Brandon, but kept all mention of his strange powers out of the tale only telling her that he had been a test subject for the Alchemists rituals. A innocent who was tortured and who had eventually managed to escape. None of his family members or Bonsa interrupted as he recounted the last five and a half months of turmoil.

Months that had seemed like a lifetime.

Lander looked surprised as Ezekiel cut up the story slightly in multiple places, taking pains to omit speaking of Brandon's powers until he had no other choice.

Ezekiel moved the story to a climax as he told her about Jacob and the Alchemists invading. He recounted the Ghouls pouring like locusts from the woods to kill them.

He explained to her that Jacob had invaded their lands and attacked Brandon mercilessly and was then struck down in self-defense by Brandon ending the Lions life. When he had finished Bosna didn’t comment. Instead she seemed to openly look to the side and whisper quietly to herself.

Ezekiel frowned, and his heckles raised, and his skin flooded with goosebumps as he caught her movements. She even flinched and touched her temple as if in pain suddenly. A familiar gesture that made his skin crawl because of how many times he had done the same thing.

Then like a whisper on his skin Ezekiel felt a strange niggle at the base of his skull. A presence...unknown eyes turned and focused on him in particular, then it was gone.

She’s speaking to someone! Fuck is she talking to the Dragons or another Elder in her head? Is it a Elder who can talk like Lander talks to us?

Ezekiel wondered to himself as he watched her bite her lip and look back at him a second later.

It seemed that no one else had noticed the behavior, but Ezekiel was deeply disturbed and distracted as she spoke to him again.

“Ok...I have heard your truth and now know that this boy Brandon is at fault for the death of the Lion.” That was all she said, and then she stood up abruptly, ignoring Ezkeiel as he tried to speak.

“No more conversation! Take me to the dead Ghouls Guardians of this Clan...and then I will speak with you all further.”