In the silvery waterfall of moonlight, Jonathan Aztec, my second in command, holding rank as Beta of the Northridge pack, was something to behold. His powerful shoulders seemed to carry the waning gibbous, and the shadows that devoured the vast grounds of Battleridge manor granted him a wide berth.
He was a superior specimen. He was a male worthy of the ranking he'd been bestowed. But like all creatures, he wasn't born perfect, and his character flaw was a fault that bled out into the night like a severed artery: Concern.
It charged the air between us, a thick blanket that settled against the lungs like a boa-constrictor's loving embrace.
"What did you find?" I asked. The perverse silence that had entombed the dilapidated courtyard, screaming so loud it rang through my ears like a twisted lullaby, was shattered upon his approach. His boots smacked against the waterlogged ground, echoing in a way that spoke of his failures before he'd even opened his mouth. 
"Nothing,"
.......
"Until I can figure out what's going on, nobody finds out about the boy. Understand?"
"Understood."
"You're not going to ..." The pause that followed dragged out. "He's just a baby, Sterling."
"You're dismissed."

The Littlest Light

/"Jonathan,/" I breathed, eyes closing as a wave of sheer exhaustion formed a cage around me. /"How do I make this stop?/"

It was hard to say what pervaded the air between us: it was hopelessness, it was desperation, and it was tiredness. It was neither. It was all. It was everything and it was nothing, all happening in the time between one breath and the other.

It was thick, heavy and pungent, the fickle space that separated us, capable of being closed with the smallest of movements, was charged and intense. Or maybe it was just the way he was looking at me, his gaze stronger than any force I had ever been forced to withstand.

Chapter88