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 you want to go and play with your brother, beebee?/" I asked, voice but a trickle that was meant only for Lumen's ears.

The day had grown legs, rushing towards dusk at an alarming pace. It seemed only an hour ago that I had woken, but many more had managed to exist within then and now. Left a brittle blue, already overlapping into the coming night, the sky had begun to change. I wasn't sure why I found it so comforting, perhaps because it was nothing at all like the mortifying grey of the other world, but despite the freezing temperature, my ass found itself parked on the doorstep.

Lumen, my little shadow, was cosied up in my lap, his alien pacifier jammed in his mouth, Pooh snuggled between his arms, and his duckie blanket covering him. Where I went, he went, even if that was into the rising winter night; it still wasn't as cold as the land of monsters had been.

Chapter131