“Has anyone even considered how we’re going to explain this to Mother?” Evan’s voice bounced down the dank hallway and its musical lilt sounded out of place in the darkness. Nocturne abandoned his cloak at the doorway, not meeting the eyes of his companions. Truth be told, he had been considering this all the way back from their lair and had found no easy answer.
But in reply he smirked and said, “Of course I have Evan. Don’t worry about it. Let me handle this.”
“Meaning he had no clue,” Silver’s lip pulled into a sneer. Nocturne shot his jealous rival a menacing glare, but the loud clomping on the stairs distracted them.
They all stiffened as Romulus appeared, except for Evan, who rushed forward. Romulus continued towards them, approaching cautiously.
“Romy! Guess who’s home! Did you miss me? Did you? Did you tune my guitar?” Evan wrapped his arms around the other blond, ignoring the tightness of Romulus’s lips and the rigidness of his torso.
Nocturne shook his head when Romulus turned to him with the question in his eyes. Evan poked him in the stomach. “Romy you’re ignoring me!”
“My apologies Evanescent,” he brushed the boy off and continued to address Nocturne. “Are you telling me you didn’t find any to kill? We are hardly difficult to find!”
“We found them quite easily,” Nocturne admitted. “But…they were not what we expected.”
Understanding lit Evan’s eyes, and he whispered loudly to Romulus, “Oh! I get it! You want to know if we killed the werewolves like we were supposed to!”
A collective sigh traveled through the other four and Romulus relaxed. When their quiet breath had dispelled, the air seemed lighter around them. They breathed freely for a moment in each other’s company before Romulus murmured, “I see.”
Four faces turned to question him, and he smiled gently at them. “I had worried you would come home and think me a beast as well.”
“I believe it would have made us beasts ourselves if we had killed them,” a fourth voice intoned from the corner.
Nocturne nodded. “Eternal is right, Romulus. We watched the werewolves for two days before we planned to kill them, and by the end, we couldn’t. The third day we spoke to them. They welcomed us into their shack and were shocked when we told them our purpose,” all the boys smiled at the memory of the people who had surprised them so much. “Then they begged us to leave before the full moon so they would not harm us, and sent us away with two boys they had rescued.”
“They reminded us too much of you for us to kill them, wolf-brother,” Eternal’s hair swept over his face as he shook his head. “The boys they had rescued were victims of a coven war. Vampires, Romulus… our family. Why would they do this? Why were we ordered to kill your people when there are clearly other troubles to be concerned with?”
Heaviness settled in Nocturne’s chest at the sight of Romulus’s torment. He knew the answer before it left the werewolf’s lips: the reason behind all the pain of the pack and the human victims alike.
“It’s a blood feud, Eternal. It’s all about power.”
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