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

<p>For the most part, we travelled in silence. Cyrus was a frowning mess as he tried to navigate, cursing every time the boat flipped out in the opposite direction that was intended. Some of the streets were deceiving, leading off into dead ends; the newfound sense of daylight which had come with Lumen's Sabrina-the-fucked-up-witch act helped more than words could say. Without it, if left to the mercy of the dusky grey skyline, we would have been lost the second the dryland left our sight.</p>

<p>/"So you're really scared of the dark?/" I checked, just because the silence had become insufferable. The breaking of the water, the make-shift oars plunging and resurfacing, it was all that there was. The beastly sounds that had struck up a lullaby in the air whilst the other two had slept ceased to exist, yet, they still lingered in the chambers of my mind, a demented sound that I feared would never truly leave me.</p>

Chapter123