Chapter 5 Breaking Bonds

Lester was almost a mile away from the house when he realized he'd forgotten his coat. He cursed, loudly enough that passers by looked at him like he was a psychopath.

He smiled at them, which he later figured only made him look more awkward, took a deep breath of cool night air, stuck his hands in the pockets of his jeans, and made his way to the nearest bar.

He needed a drink.

Immediately.

Minutes later, after walking like a ghost through the night, he was sitting on a stool in the Rosemary Inn, downing his third cup of whiskey and staring at the TV hanging behind the counter, barely hearing what the reporter —or anyone around him —was saying, the effects of the alcohol blurring his surroundings like the edges of a photograph.

"Another round please" He said to the bartender. He could hear his own voice, husky from whiskey and pain.

"Bad day?" asked the red haired bartender as he poured another glass for Lester, the liquid slushing as it crashed into the bottom of the glass and swerved to meet the rim again.

"You have no idea" Lester said, taking the glass and downing it in one gulp, he squeezed his face, the alcohol burning his throat, and then slammed the cup down hard on the counter. "Another one, and keep 'em coming"

The bartender nodded and took the cup, pouring out yet another glass.

As Lester took the next, and the next, and the ones after that, he wondered which hurt him more, the fact that Sal had lied, or the fact that he'd been doing it just for him.

He'd known this guy his entire life, he knew everything about him, his loves, his hates, his strengths, his weaknesses, his deepest fears, his brightest memories, his thoughts — both good and bad.

He knew Sal in a way that most people would never understand, it was like having a part of yourself existing apart from you, yes they were their own person, and their own being, but they were still you and you were still them and you were alike, the same.

One mind in two bodies, Mencius had said. Yes, that was the right way to put it.

But this Sal was a Sal he didn't know, a Sal who lied when they'd never lied to each other before, not when Sal had killed for Boulder for the first time, not when Lester had found his stash of drugs and taken them for himself, not even when Lester's foster father came for him and Sal had stabbed him to death because of all the wrong things he'd done to Lester before Sal came into his life. Even then Sal had told him the truth.

And yet Sal had lied about this.

'He was doing what he had to do to protect you'

But he'd been unprotected in the end, beat up so hard he was paralyzed, and now that he was out of that he was thrown into a world he barely understood.

Lester was hurt, he admitted that, but more than anything he was confused, so very confused, and it was the worst feeling of his entire life.

The clinking of glass snapped him out of his thoughts, and he looked down as his drink was placed before him.

Lester reached out his hand and was about to close it around the glass when it was taken from his reach.

"Excuse me?" Lester said as he turned, he was not in the mood for bullshit, and he would start a bar fight just to prove it, but the fight left him as he laid his eyes on his whiskey thief.

It was a woman, and she was stunning, sleek black hair that fell down her back and spilled over shoulders like a waterfall in soft, shining curls, deep dark eyes that peered imploringly at Lester over the rim of his glass, full, red lips that came away wet as she took a sip of the whiskey. She lowered the glass slightly, slowly, and the full features of her face— her delightfully perfect cheekbones, the delicate lining of her jaw, the pink flush in her cheeks— all revealed themselves.

"Hey" said the woman with a smile so disarming it would've been enough to crumble the Great Wall of China.

Lester felt himself crumbling.

"Hey" he replied.

His voice was slurred now from all the alcohol he'd taken. The girl didn't seem to notice though, she was still smiling, even as she took another sip from his glass.

"I haven't seen you around here before, I take it you don't drink much" she said.

"No I don't" he said. "But it's been a very shitty day so yeah, here I am"

"Aww" she exclaimed with a pout as she brushed Lester's cheek with her finger. "You look so sad, so...lonely"

Lester closed his eyes as her finger on his face sent shivers of pleasure throughout his body.

"I am sad, like I'm really sad" he said, which wasn't his smoothest pick up line, but this woman was doing things to him, things that took away all sense of suave and smarts from his mind.

She leaned in closer, dropping the now empty glass on the counter.

When had she finished it?, he wondered, he hadn't even seen her drink, but all that seemed to float away as she neared him, the sweet, enticing smell of her perfume, strawberry, definitely strawberry, made all other questions evaporate.

"Why don't we get out of here and I'll make you happy again" she whispered in his ear, eliciting goosebumps from his skin.

Was it just him or was her voice slurred as well, but she'd only taken a few sips, or was it a few gulps, Lester couldn't remember, all he knew was that he liked the sound of her voice, and he wanted to take her up on her offer. He really needed to forget, if only for a few hours.

"Yeah, sure" he whispered back.

He knew she smiled without looking at her.

Before he knew what was happening he was tossing some cash next to his cup on the counter and walking out the bar with an attractive stranger pulling him behind her.

Lester couldn't deny it all seemed too easy, he'd never gotten laid so quickly before, it usually required a lot of talking and flattery and drinking. Every woman wanted something, be it laughs, a listening ear, or a good time, but no woman went home with a man who had nothing to offer, and as far as Lester knew he'd offered nothing.

But as his female companion pulled him into an alleyway and pushed him against the wall, all forms of reasoning faded away.

Lester gasped as his back hit the warm brick stone surface and he closed his eyes from the dull pain that shot up his spine. When he opened them again he met the hungry gaze of the young woman in front of him, he could feel her eyes touching every part of his body they gazed upon, until they went lower and stopped.

She licked her lips with a sensual grace that made blood rush to that very part she gazed at.

When her eyes locked on his again he pulled her closer, not breaking contact with those dark seductive depths until she was pressed against him; groin to groin, chest to chest, and then with a gasp of surprise.

Lips to lips.

He wanted to go easy at first, it was always safer to play the gentleman's card, but she dismissed his intentions by prying his lips apart and ravaging his mouth with her tongue.

From there it was just one sensation after another, the taste of the cherry flavour of her lip gloss and the whiskey she'd drunk from his cup, the sweet scent of her perfume, the feeling of her soft, silky hair in his fingers. Her lips played with his like they were specifically designed for the unraveling of the male species. They both moaned and his hand tightened on her waist, pressing her closer to him. She raised her leg, riding it up Lester's side and Lester grabbed it immediately, his hand cupping her soft flesh with a ferocity he didn't know he had in him. He nearly parted their lips to apologize for his aggressiveness but the woman moaned louder from the sharp contact, and he found himself squeezing harder than ever.

This was the best make out session he'd had in months, years even, and what a blessing it was to experience such bliss after so much time suffering, it was so intoxicating that Lester found himself pushing away from the wall, and lifting her off her feet, before pressing her up against it.

She gasped against his lips but didn't protest when he kissed her again, fiercer this time, making her moan in response, her legs crossed across his waist in approval.

Lester kissed and groaned, tongues and teeth lashing against each other with hunger. He slowly rode his hand up her thigh reached into her dress, ready to touch her in places that would make her go as crazy as he was going right there in the alleyway, but then a sliver of reasoning began to creep into his mind.

He pulled away, hard and panting, nearly out of breath, nearly out of his mind.

Everything felt good, too good, which somehow didn't feel completely right.

"What's wrong, why did you stop?" whispered the girl, he didn't even know her name. There was a whine in her voice, a desperation for more as she took in deep breaths of air and looked into his eyes.

"I don't know..I.." he paused, his eyes scanning her face, she looked perfect, hair set, lips red, cheeks fair and flawless, but after a kiss like that her hair should have been mussed where he grabbed it, her lips swollen from the kiss, her cheeks flushed with heat. Lester suddenly released his hold and let her stand on her feet. "What's happening?"

"What?, what do you mean?" There came that voice again, slurred, like she was drunk, but her eyes were alight and her movements were firm throughout that kiss, and hadn't she sounded desperate just a second ago?

Lester took a step away from the girl, his stomach turning. Something was wrong, he could feel it.

"Who are you?" he said.

The girl laughed lightly, like Lester was being cute, and reached out a hand to him.

"Come on Sylvester, I just want to have a good time" she said, in that enchanting voice.

Lester took another step back.

"I never told you my name"

"Yes you did" she said. "You told me at the bar remember?"

"No I didn't"

She chuckled, it was so soft, so innocent.

Disarming.

Lester may have been drunk, but he knew he'd never said his name to her, and she had never said her name to him either.

"I never got to know yours" he said.

The woman frowned, and Lester thought he'd offended her and felt suddenly sorry for her, maybe they should just get back to kissing, and after that they go to her apartment and....

"Excuse me young man" came a male voice.

Lester snapped out of his thoughts as he heard the voice. He and the girl turned to the mouth of the alley where the silhouette of a large man stood against the streetlight. Lester couldn't see his face, and even if the alley was bright enough he wouldn't have been able to see beneath the hood that covered the man's features.

Lester expected the man to leap to the woman's defense immediately, but instead he reached his hand to something shining at his side, a silver ring belt loop, like a crescent in the night.

"Might I suggest you step away from that thing?" the man said with disgust as he walked forward, yanking the loop from his side.

'What thing?' Lester wanted to say, but before he could utter a word he was pushed to the ground by a sudden force that sent him falling.

His back crashed on the cold hard pavement, light shooting through his peripheral vision, pain arching down the back of his neck and rocketing down his back like lightning, when things came into focus a second later he saw the girl bearing down on him hungrily.

The darkness of her pupils were spreading, swallowing the whites and making her eyes like black fathomless pits.

"What the..." Lester whispered, the daze that had been setting in vanishing in an instant.

"I can make you happy" she hissed, it sounded like water poured over red hot coal, the sensual slurring of her voice turned sinister.

Before Lester could react something sang through the air like the sharp note of a flute, and a large double-bladed axe embedded itself in the woman's head.

Cold blood sprayed across his face in spurts, and it shimmered black against the streetlight.

The girl —who Lester figured by now was no girl at all— slumped to the side in a gruesome heap, and he scrambled to his feet immediately, pushing farther away from the body until he got enough momentum to turn tail and run.

He didn't run far.

He rain straight into the large man's hard chest and felt strong hands grab his arms in a firm grip.

"Let go of me" Lester screamed struggling against the man's hold. "Help!, help!"

"No one can hear you, please, just calm down" said the man.

Lester struggled still, until the man's hold tightened and he stopped, then looked up at his captor.

Kind brown eyes stared down at him from the darkness of the hood, and a soothing feeling washed over him like cold water after a hot day.

"That's better" the man said, he spoke like a New Yorker, with the R's dropped and the vowels elongated. "I'm Peter, what's your name?"

"Sylvester" Lester breathed.

"Sylvester, are you alright?"

Lester didn't know how to answer that, today had gone from good to bad to confusing to terrifying and it had only been a few hours.

He turned around.

He couldn't explain what it was that made him do it, it was some sort of premonition, a feeling that came with the knowing of something he couldn't quite pin down, but as he did he saw the thing flying in the air towards him, mouth open and glistening tiger-like teeth jutting out from it's mouth like sharp iron stakes, the axe embedded in it's head steaming.

Lester felt fear course through him, the heat of panic raced through his veins like a shot of adrenaline, and his eyes widened as they burned with tears.

That was when it happened.

Light filled the alleyway in a yellow burst, golden plasmic energy erupting in the narrow space like a solar flare. In a second the leaping thing was consumed by it, flesh sizzling from a heat so intense it made the brick walls bake and the pavement floor crackle from the intensity.

Lester was blinded by the light, all he could see was gold, white and little wisps of fiery orange, and yet, he could still see everything, as clear as if he was looking at the world in a patch of summer sunlight.

It ended slowly, the light fading the way the sun sets in the west, and when it was all over there was nothing in front of Lester but a pile of ashes that quickly vanished into the wind, the smell of burning filled the alley, and the double bladed axe lay some distance away, it's sharp gleaming blade still dripping pitch black blood onto the pavement.

Lester exhaled a sharp breath and then he turned to face Peter again, whose eyes were wide with awe and unbelief.

"What just happened?" Lester whispered.

Peter opened his mouth to answer, but Lester never heard his reply.

He fainted.

***

Bloom stood on the balcony overlooking the Capital wearing nothing but a thin silk dress, her arms bare for the cold wind to do as it wished to her exposed skin.

Despite the fact that it was high noon and the sky was a bright purple the city below her was quiet and still, the roads empty of horse drawn carriages and the streets bare of children going to school.

Bloom hated the Mourning season, hated the silence, hated the sadness, hated the overbearing weight of grief pressing down on the entire Capital.

It always made her want to cry, but now that she was on the throne the urge to cry had vanished with the arrival of responsibility and was now sometimes replaced with the startling inability to breathe.

Especially when thoughts of things like the attack and people like Trystan came back to her.

She could still see how fast the stinger crashed towards her, could still sometimes hear the sickening sound of piercing flesh, could still remember opening her eyes and seeing that she was fine, but that Trystan was on the floor and that Melchior was with him, his lover's blood pooling at the centre of the throne room.

If not for Trystan these people, her people, would have been mourning her along with all that had fallen protecting her.

If not for him she would have been petals by now.

She gasped at the realization, and realized there was no air to take in.

"Oh gods" she whispered as she struggled to inhale cool air and found that she couldn't. She tightened her grip on the railing, the cold metal biting into her skin did nothing to ease the struggle of taking in air and letting it out again. "Gods I can not breathe, I can not..."

"Bloom" came a voice that undoubtedly belonged to the one person she didn't want to see.

'Do not' she wanted to say, but she couldn't, and before she knew it Marcus had his arms around her, and despite her head protesting his touch her body gave into it. She crumpled into him, both of them falling to the cold crystal floor that reflected the purple of the sky in the manner of the sea.

"Bloom, take it easy" he whispered, he sounded so different from that little fox she'd known from before, but it had been years in Fey Land, months in the Mortal World, and inevitably he had grown. She could tell from the firm bulge of his muscles as she clutched them, the deep silkiness of his voice as she felt it vibrate in his chest, the tall, sturdiness of his body as she rested in his warm embrace.

"Follow my lead" he said, and then he took a deep breathe.

She followed him and breathed, slowly, both their chests rising and falling in unison, until she closed her eyes and relaxed completely into him, her heart that had been racing slowing down to a gentle rhythmic beat.

"That's good" He said, his breath warming her neck, "how do you feel now?"

'Safe' she almost said. 'I am in your arms after all'

"How did you do that?" She asked instead, still not ready to move away from him.

"I don't know I just did what my mother used to do for me, you were having a panic attack, mortals have it sometimes, mostly when they're in a situation they can't control, or when they're thinking too much"

"When did you learn so much about mortals?"

He chuckled lightly.

"There's a line between Shaded and mortal Bloom, but it's very thin, we may not be them but we are like them, and so we have to learn from them sometimes"

She chuckled too.

"When did you get so wise?" she asked.

His breath came warmer than it was before, she thought she could almost feel his lips grazing the back of her neck.

"When did you start asking so many questions?" he said.

'When I started loving the sound of your voice' she thought, but at that thought she pulled away from him and began rising to her feet, though they wobbled as if they'd forgotten what it felt like to move.

"Careful" he said, she could sense him behind her, ready to catch her if she fell. "Are you sure you're okay, you may need to sit down"

"I am fine" she said, her voice came out sharper than she'd intended.

She sensed him retreat, and not wanting him to leave she turned to face him.

Bloom realized with a jolt that she hadn't seen Marcus since the shedim attack, which had been so blurry and bloody and full of adrenaline that she hadn't really registered how much he had changed.

He was tall, almost as tall as she remembered Sal to be, and the soft, delicate features he'd had as a child had sharpened into maturity.

His face that had been round as a child was now defined and sharp, the gold of his eyes like the sun behind the obstruction of thick clouds; faint, but ready to burst out with light at any moment, his hair, long and lush, tumbled over his shoulders in pale blonde waves.

He was wearing mortal clothes that he'd brought with him, a white hoodie and light blue shorts, his feet were bare though as they usually were, his hands balled into fists in the pocket of his shorts, his shoulders tight with tension, his eyes darting across the balcony, anxiously landing on everything.

Everything but her.

"Marcus" she said.

He looked up at her, his eyes flashing with uncertainty.

Marcus may have grown, but there was still an innocence to him, a fragility in the likeness of a snail's shell, offering the illusion of protection when all it took was a step and it would end with a crunch.

Bloom was determined not to take that step.

"I am alright I assure you" she said, and began smoothing down her dress. "You may leave now"

He opened his mouth as if to speak, then he nodded with a small smile and turned to go, his tails swinging behind him as he retreated.

"Wait" she found herself yelling.

When he stopped and turned his brows were scrunched in confusion and his eyes peered at her with worry.

'He must think I am crazy' .

"How did you get past the guards?" She asked, unsure of what to say.

"Oh" he said, surprised by her question. "Well people tend to leave you alone if they can't see you, you just walk right past and they have absolutely no idea you were ever in their presence" He giggled, his entire body shaking with laughter. "It's also quite effective when you take the last ration of chicken stew whilst watching your mother staring obliviously in your direction"

She laughed, and then surprisingly felt heat rush to her cheeks, she hoped he couldn't see it.

"Is that all though?" He asked, his eyes raised to hers in expectancy.

"I, um, I never got the chance to thank you" she said.

"Thank me?" He inquired, taking an inquisitive step forward, his feet against the floor soundless.

"For saving my life, had you not been there I would not be alive, so thank you"

He chuckled, the gleam had returned to his eyes and they shimmered with amusement.

"Seriously Bloom, has our relationship become so cordial that you deem it necessary to thank me for..."

"You leapt on top of a shedim!" She said. "Saying thank you is quite literally the least I could do"

"You would have done the same for me" he said. "I know you would"

"And why is that?"

"Because I remember waking up stiff in a room thick with the smell of flowers, and I remember you walking into that room and offering me a bowl of fruits" He smiled. "I never knew apples tasted that good until you served them to me"

He took several steps forward until he was an arms length away from her. Gods knew she wanted him closer.

"You helped me when I was weakest, the least I could do is return the favor"

"Is that why you came here?"

"To Fey Land, yes, I had a vision you were in trouble and so I came as soon as I could in order to protect you" he said. "but if you're asking me if that's why I came to your room then the answer is no, your life doesn't seem to be in any serious danger at the moment now does it?"

"Well I was unable to breathe just a minute ago"

"That must have been a coincidence"

"Your arrival?"

"Your sudden inability to breathe"

She laughed again, realizing with a gasp that she hadn't laughed this much in years.

"Then why did you come?"

He stepped closer, the smile on his face slowly contorting into a frown as he spoke.

"I came to talk to you about something" he said, his voice had gone lower, as if he wanted only her to hear what he had to say even though it was only both of them on the balcony. "Before I killed that shedim the other night, it said something, something that hasn't been able to leave my mind since I heard it"

"What did it say?" She asked, concerned by the gravity in his voice.

He swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing, before he spoke.

"The Nightshade will lose everything" he recited, saying the words like he was the one that had spoken them himself. "He will lose everything, and Mortikhos will make sure of it"

"Nightshade" she whispered, the name was like lemon juice on her tongue, not bitter, not sweet, just sharp and oddly pleasant. "You think the shedim meant Sal, don't you?"

"I do"

"Marcus, shedim lie all the time, it must have been using something or someone you cared about to disorient you"

"If that was the case it would have used my parents or my pack or..." he paused, as if he wanted to say something else, but then he shook his head and sighed. "Why would it use Sal?"

Bloom was wondering what he'd been about to say but pushed it to the back of her mind.

"Did it say anything else?" she asked.

"ad mercedem incipit" he said immediately. "It's Latin for..."

"The payment begins" finished Bloom. "I wonder what kind of trouble our dear Phantom friend has gotten himself into"

"It can't be anything good" Marcus answered. "Ever since the attack I've been having this reoccurring vision, it's of a purple flower losing it's petals one by one until it was nothing but a withered stalk, Bloom I think Sal's going to die"

"Don't say that!" She said sharply, with so much death around them already Bloom didn't think she could take any more, especially if the person dying would be Sal. "Sal is going to be alright, he is literally the strongest warrior I know"

"I want to believe it too, but Bloom, the name that shedim mentioned, Mortikhos, I couldn't tell what it meant before but I went through your royal library and found a meaning"

"And what does the name mean Marcus?"

Bloom regretted it the minute that question escaped her lips.

"Mortikhos means Ruler of death" Marcus said. "That means whoever Salome has pissed off, has our friend's days numbered"

***

"Hey this is Lester, I'm probably busy so you should leave a message after the beep"

The beep came but Sal didn't leave a message. Instead he swore for the fourth time that day and tucked his phone violently into his pocket, pacing up and down the sidewalk like a raging bull.

"Sal I told you, just give him some time" said Katarina who leaned against the alley wall, her head rested gently, her eyes shuttered close.

They were outside Starbucks waiting for Antony to talk to the manager and find out if Lester had come by here the night before, but he'd been inside for close to thirty minutes now and Sal was getting worried that he might be wasting too much time.

"I can't just sit still, it's eight in the morning and I still haven't heard from him" Sal said as he paced, pushing his hair out of his eyes as it bounced around his face. "What's taking Antony so long?"

"You need to relax okay, worrying isn't going to solve anything"

Sal scoffed and looked at her annoyingly unfazed expression. Was she really resting or was she doing this just to annoy him?

"Lester can see, Kat, how can you expect me to be anything other than worried, he's probably scared or confused, and there's no telling what Shaded creatures might be lurking around getting ready to snatch up an unsuspecting mortal staggering through the streets like a fucking psycho"

She opened her eyes and looked at him, unsticking herself from the wall and grabbing his arm, halting him before he could go on another round of pacing.

"Okay first of all" she said, her tone defensive. "We're Shaded beings, not creatures, we're not animals that see mortals as cows for the slaughter"

She let go of his arm, her eyes softening as she scanned his face, possibly seeing things no one else could.

"Second of all, Lester isn't just a mortal anymore, and yes he might be scared and confused but he clearly doesn't want to talk about it, so why not just let him cool down and let him come to terms with this on his own"

"That's the thing" Sal said. He'd stopped pacing now, the volume of his voice reduced by several decibels as he focused on Katarina; the sunlight shining on half her face, making one side brighter than the other. "He's never had to do anything on his own, he's always had me, we've always had each other"

"And you always will, he may have Changed but he's still the same, I know he'll come back to you, because he loves you"

"But I lied to him"

"Because you love him" she said, putting emphasis on every word in such a way that they had more meaning than they'd ever had before. "Either way the bond between the two of you is stronger than any lie or change the world can throw at it, okay?"

Sal heaved a heavy sigh and shoved his hands through his hair, grasping the curls in a feeble attempt to contain himself.

"Okay" he said. "I'll be chill"

She nodded her head and smiled at him, their gazes involuntarily locking.

Then as if pulled out of a trance by the snap of a finger she looked away from him, turning to the road where cars sped by and mortals walked the sidewalks, all of them completely oblivious to their presence.

Sal didn't say anything again, not until Antony came out through the doors five minutes later, his eyes apologetic as they rested on the both of them.

"I'm sorry it took so long, Dickson was on my case, apparently I'm, and these were his words, a lying pussy, which makes absolutely no sense because—"

"Antony" Katarina said sharply. "Where's Lester?"

"Right, I'm sorry" His apologetic eyes now rested on Sal, who knew Antony's answer before he even spoke. "He didn't come here last night, in fact the manager hasn't heard from him since....you know. It."

"Fuck" Sal swore. He closed his eyes and ran his hand through his hair once again, Lester flashing through his mind like a sped up slideshow. "Fuck!, this is all my fault, I shouldn't have kept it a secret from him"

"You had to" Antony said.

"I've been hearing that crap since Hermes showed up in my History class" Sal said. "But the truth is I don't have to do anything, the rules that were made to shape us are breaking us and I can't afford to break anymore"

He sighed and opened his eyes, looking at his half brother and the girl he was in love with. There was still so much he hadn't told them, and if keeping secrets was making him lose his best friend he didn't want it to be what made him lose these two either.

"Guys, there are things that I haven't been saying"

"Sal forget about that, let's just find Lester" Antony said.

"Forget about Lester" Sal answered, the words left a bitter taste in his mouth. Antony looked at him in disbelief. "He needs to come to terms with this on his own, he'll find his way back home"

He looked at Katarina, hoping to see a smile of approval on her face, but all he saw was curiosity and questions.

"What I need to tell you guys is important, but before I say anything I need everyone to be there when I'm saying it"

"Everyone, as in...."

"Bloom, Melchior and Marcus" Sal said. "All of them"

He took a deep breath, hoping Katarina was ready for what he was about to say next.

"All of them and Casmir"