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

/"Don't tell anybody,/" Cyrus murmured, eyeing the grim course of our destination. /"But I'm still scared of the dark. It terrifies me./"

Murky, saturated by an unnatural stillness, the water's surface waited for us, and beyond it, an all grasping realm of shadows and despair, a place where even the dull-set light of this world failed to reach. Lumen's magic had faded completely, and with it, the unnatural world had fallen back into peril with a vindictive force. The hostile gale, however, seemed to have little impact on the sunken city, and the storm skirted over it, untouched, leaving behind only the ghastly noise that cursed the lands, and the unforgiving cold.

/"I'm telling everybody,/" I replied. /"Clarke said I should get with the festivities? How about a Christmas card to everyone that knows you, letting them know what a bitch you are?/"

Chapter121