The malice in Alex's face melted to a mask of pure hunger, and then to a predatory expression of glee. "After you," he said with mock courtesy, indicating the door with a flourish.
A second later they were gone. Where Rosa had stood, silver, misting fog drifted down, passed beneath the door and out. Alex had become a deep, glowing red haze that was pulled along in Rosa's wake. The two moving together like that, seen through the wonder of his newly enhanced sight, made such a vision of beauty that Copper somehow found the strength to gasp, though the breath was meaningless in any sense other than that of punctuated thought.
Alicia, who had stood quietly beside him through this exchange, slid over him now, molding her body to the lines of his. Though he couldn't move, he felt her, and an ache beyond even the hunger that rose to tear at his insides like talons washed through him.
Her thoughts insinuated themselves between his own and calmed him. "Let go," she told him. "Let go and I will take you with them, but you must be swift, before they are too far gone."
He didn't know what she meant, but it didn't matter. He would have done anything she asked. He felt what seemed to be mental fingers grasping the controls of his mind, and the room fell away in a whirring rush of sensation.
The moon shone down in a blinding display of iridescent beauty. Every sight, every mundane object they passed, shimmered with its own light. They moved with an unfamiliar undulating rhythm, and too close to the ground. Copper was drawn along as a spectator, or a prisoner. Instinctively he knew that what he saw was not being processed by his own eyes, but a shared experience. He felt the presence of another – or others.
"I am here," Alicia assured him.
Copper didn't answer. He was fascinated by the sensation of gliding, by the eerie beauty of the trees and the brush. They rushed up the side of the mountain, and ahead two loping shapes had just crested the rise of the next hill. They moved like wraiths, one was silver and the other a deep, golden blonde. They were wolves.
Shock didn't seem possible in his new state, but he glanced down at the legs that carried him – them – and saw that they were lupine as well, a mellow brown color, like coffee with too much cream. Before he could question Alicia through their new mind-link, an acrid scent filled the air and jerked at his senses, washing his train of thought away like the raging flood of some primal, swollen river. It was bitter and intense, and he/Alicia salivated instantly. A growl rose that shook their wolf-frame until it seemed one long shiver, trailing off in a baying howl.
The other two sang as well, a song of blood and hunger, a song of the hunter to the hunted. Somewhere up the trail, crashing brush and heavy, rasping breath that seemed louder than was possible moved frantically up the mountain. Frantic, clumsy steps fled through the darkness.
The ground passed beneath them so swiftly that Copper could make out nothing but a surreal blur. He reached out for Alicia's mind, which had grown silent, but he was slapped back so violently that he shuddered at the intensity of it. There was nothing to grasp at. All was a haze, a burning that consumed from within. Before it could occur to him to be frightened by this, he was swept up in it, and his all semblance of coherent vanished.
Ahead he saw that, although they were close on the heels of the others, they would not reach the lumbering, frightened man ahead in time to share the kill. He staggered and glanced back over his shoulder at every other step, shuddering so violently with fear that he was unable to get up any speed. Not that it could have mattered. He was drunk; Copper could distinguish the scent of the alcohol even from this distance.
The man spoke, though there was no one to hear, cursing and praying in short breathless gasps.
"Mother of God," he babbled, nearly incoherent, "Father most holy, protect me… Oh God, oh God, oh God…" Over and over, like a sad, hopeless litany. His god did not seem to be listening.
Copper and Alicia were about ten feet behind when, with a snarl, the wolf that was Alex leaped in a golden arc through the air, grabbed the man's neck from behind and yanked him violently to the ground.
Their victim screamed once, but it was short and not loud enough to carry, cut off at its center with a gurgling, liquid sound that drove Copper completely over the edge. There was a quick sensation of flight and a crash, though he couldn't actually "feel" the impact. He sensed it, tasted the warm coppery rush as flashing fangs buried themselves in a flailing arm and bit deep, but these were Alicia's experiences. Copper felt all at once elation beyond his experience and a yearning for the fulfillment of the hunt. He felt cheated, only peripherally a part of what was happening. It was like being a psychic voyeur,- unbelievably enticing, yet frustrating.
The man, especially up so close, had a glowing aura, a sheen of life, that clung to him. It was slowly draining away as three sets of jaws ripped and tore, as three throats ran red with blood. Copper sensed the ebb and flow of the blood, felt the heartbeat as it pulsed faster, then slowed and finally stopped. It was hypnotic, drawing at him with an inescapable pull. It was an eternity of moments before he felt the familiar tug at his thoughts that signaled Alicia's return and allowed him to share with her once more.
Her mind was oddly calm, almost lethargic. The sensation was intimate and very sensual.
"I must release you now," she said. "You will feel the hunger, but do not despair, my love. I will return to you soon, and you too will feed."
There was a brushing touch at his senses, like a caress covering every inch of his body at once, and she was gone. The darkness returned, and he nearly found the strength to scream, because the hunger that latched onto him at his release rippled through him like flame. He tried to writhe, to struggle against it, but no movement was possible. The pain seared him, and he could do nothing but endure. There was no option of surrender. The hunger was his, and he belonged to it, and until he fed, he knew, he was at the mercy of the others.
A sudden memory flashed through his mind, the memory of a tale that Alex had told one dark night that had chilled his bones. It was a story from Alex's distant past of a brother long dead. Copper reached for it like a drowning man reaching for a lifeline, and brought the memory into focus. He could almost hear the words as they had been spoken, could almost see Alex's cruel, bitter eyes as he relived them, savoring the memory.
~*~
"He was always favored," Alex said, his eyes far away. "Though I was swifter and stronger, he was favored. 'Your brother is the eldest,' my mother would always say, 'he will inherit someday. You must support him.'
"He did not want my support. He wanted me humble, wanted to use his position to perpetuate his own false sense of superiority. And he wanted me broken. It was obvious, to me, if not to everyone else, and I hated him for it more than I have hated any other in the days of my existence.
"I avoided him whenever possible. There was the hunt, and there were my studies, neither of which interested him in the same way as they did myself. He spent his hours training with the older boys. He was weak, not the best with a weapon or a thought, but the other boys knew that one day he would be their liege, so they pandered to his arrogance.
"I took to spending more and more time at the hunt, ranging farther and farther from home. At times I would be gone for days, always returning with more than the other hunters; not that mother or father would ever take more than passing notice. It was on such a hunt that I met Evander, and my true life began."
~*~
Copper had always been disturbed by the way Alex spoke of his true life. The arrogance that made this man-creature believe he was destined for some great purpose made him even more dangerous than he would have been otherwise. After decades, the anger and fire that had filled his living breathing body with hate and energy still burned as bright as or brighter than they had when he was a boy.
Copper drifted, and the ghost of Alex's voice continued.
~*~
"Evander came to my fire one night, melting from the shadows soundlessly. He could have thrown my husk to the rodents and
the crows with no more effort than a cat toying with a small bird, but he did not. He came to the fire, and we talked, long into that night and again on the evening following. He didn't conceal his nature from me. He preened, like a beautiful woman who demands admiration. He was beautiful in a way I had never considered possible for one man in the eyes of another."
Alex's eyes had flashed to Copper at that point, as if daring him to refute the statement, or to laugh. "And I don't mean in the way of some dandified little-boy gazer, either. His beauty transcended anything sexual in a way that was totally new to me. Rather than taking me at his leisure, he seemed to enjoy the seduction of convincing me to give myself freely.
"I was never the same after that first time we met. I awoke to the night after he had made me as himself, and he was there, cradling my head and feeding me the blood of a rabbit he'd killed – just enough to get me on my feet and give me that chance. I never saw him again. He left me, the hunger rose, and I learned. I strengthened my abilities and savored my moment of vengeance, which I knew had finally come.
"It was two weeks later when I went to my brother. The family hadn't yet missed me, feeling sure that I was only on another extended hunt. I caught him just after sunset returning from a long ride. He'd left his horse with the groomsman and was making his way in to dinner when I stepped from the shadows and grabbed his arm."
"Brother Alex!" he said, as though glad to see me. "You have returned! I trust we shall eat well this night. Did you bring us a stag?"
"Much, much better than that, brother," I answered, not releasing his arm. "I have a secret to share, a grand secret. Do you suppose you can promise not to tell?
"He struggled in my grasp, but I could have held him before the change, and afterward he was like a child to me. I let him see my new smile, and then I took him.
"He was so weak, so pathetic. He was drained and without life so quickly my thirst was barely sated. Throwing him over my shoulder, I took off into the night, coming eventually to one of the hunting lodges I frequently used. I had already been there, barring the windows from the sunlight and preparing a place for myself, and for my dear, dear brother, to sleep. He looked so pale, so helpless, and my true revenge was still in store.
"When he woke that night, I was at his side. I held up a flask, filled with the blood of a newly slain lamb, but I held it just out of reach. I will never forget his expression, beseeching me and helpless. I poured that rich red blood down my throat and never let my eyes break contact with his. It was as though he shriveled before my eyes."
"I stayed there with him for a week, each night finding a new revenge, a new torture. He never seemed to grow weaker, and the pain never seemed to slacken. His eyes were on fire with desperation.
"The final night I came to him, I brought his fiancé, Gwendolyn. She came trustingly; I told her I'd discovered him in the woods and that he was hurt, and that he needed her. It was true. If he could have gotten to her throat, he would certainly have slaked that need. I fed upon her as he watched, dragged the corpse all around him to let the scent of fresh blood surround him. He amazed me then, because he almost moved. Almost."
"I climbed to the roof and tore away the shingles with my bare hands. Then I ripped out the planking beneath, so the moonlight shone in clear and bright.
"I waited with him there in that light and I told him my story. I told him that I was going to live forever, that I had proven, finally and irrevocably, who was the stronger. I told him how our parents would find him eventually, and would undoubtedly see what he had become. They would find Gwendolyn as well, and draw their own conclusions. Then I smiled at him a final time, drank in the pain in his eyes, and I left. I never looked back."
~*~
Copper remembered the emotion in Alex's eyes that night, the pure, unadulterated hatred. He felt only too keenly the helplessness of the long dead brother's situation, the absolute betrayal. He knew that without aid, he would suffer the same fate, and he knew that Alex hated him with nearly the intensity he had his sibling. Only Rosa's intervention had saved him from swift death on several occasions. Would Alex leave him the same way he had his own brother? Could he trust his new lover not to do the same? Did he truly know their thoughts well enough to know they would not leave him just as he was?
The memory of Alicia's body and the hot, warm blood that had slaked her hunger had melted away when she disconnected from him, leaving him completely solitary in his growing anguish. He'd been vaguely aware of her essence as she slipped out, like a golden mist that slid beneath the door and was gone. It was something that had always amazed him, this ability to pass in and out through doors that he himself had insured to be absolutely tight – impervious to the light of the sun beyond.
He didn't have long to wait. The door opened shortly, and Alicia slipped back in. In her arms she cradled a small pig, and she hurried straight to his side, a look of concern in her eyes. She knew his pain. Quickly, with only a swift flick of her wrist, she opened the animal's throat and held it aloft above his parched, waiting lips.
The scent had found him from the door, the quickened, fearful beating of the animal's heart pounded in his head like the resonating beat of a great drum. He saw the same sheen of energy surrounding it – not as bright as it had been on the man they'd killed, but beautiful and intoxicating all the same. Life. He wondered if he'd always looked that way to them. He wondered if he'd been beautiful.
As the first drops of blood trickled down his throat, he felt a quick spasm of strength, and he opened his mouth wide, greedily gulping at the torrent that followed. His hands moved of their own volition, reaching up to snatch the animal and clutch it to his lips. He raised his head and buried his face in the quivering flesh. It was begun and over so quickly that he would never be able to sort it out completely in his memory. There was a sensation of ultimate power, a seductive glow of rapturous pleasure.
The gnawing pain left him as if turned off by a switch. He felt whole and strong, alive as he'd never felt before. That much, at least, he knew for a half-truth.
When he had drained it, he threw the pig's carcass aside with a shrug and dropped his head back in ecstasy. He arched his back, eyes closed, and stretched, felt the sinewy strength that coursed through him. He was intoxicated. His thoughts swirled; the room faded in and out. It seemed to last forever, though, in retrospect he knew it must have been only a matter of a few moments time.
"Copper."
He heard the words, sifting in from someplace far away, but he couldn't quite bring himself to acknowledge them. It felt too good.
"Copper!" Alicia's hand slapped against his face, rocking him to the side, and he came back to a groggy semblance of reality. "You have to control it," she said. "You have to take charge of your senses, or you will never survive this. Do you hear me? I won't always be there to drag you away."
As the room came back into focus, he saw the intensity in her eyes, and he shuddered. He felt what she was saying; the mesmerizing effect of the blood had nearly blanked his mind. What if he'd needed to escape, or to fight?
"It will be worse with a man," she told him. "A thousand times worse, and a thousand times better, but you have to control it, or you will be lost."
As she spoke, Rosa and Alex slipped in from the darkness. Rosa smiled at him, but Alex was fairly grinning. "So, the pup has fed, has he? Did you like your pig, little brother? Was it not appropriate for you?"
A gleam rose in Copper's eyes, and his muscles tensed with new strength. An almost supreme confidence flooded him. Alicia put her hands quickly on his shoulders and held him in place with a strength that surprised him. He had thought somehow that his own newfound powers would be nearly the equal of the others. He knew Rosa was stronger, but he had not known just how much.
"Ah," Alex continued, "Our puppy is a feisty one. Let him go, Alicia dear. Or are you afraid that I might hurt your new toy?"
Copper's teeth ground together, but Alicia's grip held him easily in place.
"En
ough," Rosa cut in, coming to stand between the two. "Now more than ever we will need to stand together, at least until I am sure of our new – assistant." Turning to Copper, she added, "Do not become arrogant, little brother." He started at her words, for she had never called him brother before. "He would rip you limb from limb with little effort; on this you must take my word."
"I remember a time when a young Alex felt very much as you do," she continued. "He found out, as no doubt you will at some point, that there is an order to all things. With age and knowledge comes power. Even now he sometimes forgets himself."
Copper saw the flames leap in Alex's eyes, but the man didn't make a move, nor did he refute Rosa's words. It was a standoff. Alex could not best Rosa; Copper was helpless next to Alex, and Rosa kept them all in check. A dubious peace, at best.
"I should think you'd be happy with our new brother, Alex," Rosa added, her face softening. "I know how you hate to share my attentions, and these two will undoubtedly be keeping each other quite busy. Will you not calm yourself and join me?"
Alex moved to her helpless in his own way, Copper realized, as he himself was. The two moved off into the corner of the room and left Copper and Alicia alone.
"You have a lot to learn, my love," she told him, pulling him to his feet and over to a couch in the far corner of the room. "But there have been enough lessons this night, at least of the power."
Where her hands touched his flesh he felt the same odd blending he'd experienced when she'd taken his mind along on the hunt. The sensation of arousal was very different than it had been in his mortal form, stronger and more complete. He saw in her eyes that she felt it too.
The darkness wrapped itself about them in its endless cloak of black, and they wrapped themselves about one another as well. There were many, many hours until the night would return.
~*~
In the village two men were still awake, gazing into the depths of the fading night. Father Adolph sat, steam rising from the teacup on the table before him. He had awakened to the baying of wolves, and for some reason the sound had disturbed him. He'd heard them before. They came down to the lowlands to hunt occasionally. The sound had never bothered him before, not like this. They were hunters, animals, but only that. Somehow this seemed different.
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