Chapter 27- Subdue


    The panic that tried to grip him in that moment was so sudden and so unwanted that Ezekiel shoved the grip it attempted to take on him away instantly. But even as he turned away from panic...he knew that he had to act quickly.


    Ezekiel snarled and turned on his heel and went to pull the door open and alert his family until something across the room smashed into the ground and the sound of desperate scrambling filled the air. And then, two seconds later, all sound ceased.


    Ezekiel''s head snapped in the bathroom''s direction, and with a small hiss, he dropped his hand from the doorknob and tiled his ear toward the bathroom. Silence was all he got at first...then he heard the short, rapid breathing of someone who was desperately trying to hide.


    "Hello?" Ezekiel said, but no answer came back. He hesitated to approach the bathroom for a few moments as he tried to parcel out the mortal''s exact whereabouts in the other room by sound and smell. But his ears only picked up the faintest breath on the air...and his nose was absolutely no help.


    The entire room that he was standing in was absolutely drenched in the smell of the mortal''s strange blood, antiseptic, and the faint tinge of rot from the mortal''s ghastly wounds. Everything was skewed for Ezekiel and his inner beast. So he sighed and walked across the room and stepped into the bathroom doorway cautiously, glancing around to spot the stranger.


    But he didn''t have to look far.


    The first thing Ezekiel saw when he stepped into the doorway was the massive pile of trash spread around half of the bathroom floor. Thin cloths drenched in drying blood, gloves, towels, and napkins soaked in alcohol/ chloroform, a shattered soap holder, discarded bandage and gauze packages, and an overturned medium-sized wastebasket covered the tiles and rugs leading over from the sink to the toilet, and shower. And there, standing slightly hunched over his side, with bandages still over his forehead, was a shaky, handsome, if somewhat pale, feral-looking green-eyed mortal. The sight of him was instantly effecting, evoking the feeling one would get seeing a large, beautiful Buck standing perched in the woods, ready to fight or flee at the crack of a twig.


    The second the mortals eyes met Ezekiels his entire body went ridged with violence. He didn''t speak he charged at him. Ezekiel assumed that he was trying to escape again and threw his hand in front of him in the universal sign of STOP. But the mortal just came at him faster.


    "Hey...Hey, wait!"


    Ezekiel said, and he would have grabbed the stranger and stopped him, but a second before the mortal got close enough for him to apprehend, his light green eyes glazed over in a scary light, and he reached beneath his shirt and pulled out a syringe.


    Suddenly, the image of the bathroom in discord and the gauze and bloody cloths all over the ground.


    Damn it....he raided the trash for a weapon and found the needles that mom must have thrown away...!


    Ezekiel realized as the mortal came upon him, drew back, and tried to plunge the needle into his arm. Ezekiel jumped back out of the bathroom doorway.


    "Ye-ouch! Are you freaking serious...!" Ezekiel growled as he dodged three more swipes and stabs that the mortal tried to deliver with the syringe clenched in his hand. Then suddenly, faking another thrust down, the mortal jumped forearm, slammed his hand into Ezekiel''s throat, and shoved him back into the wall with a solid thump as Ezekiel''s momentum was suddenly interrupted.


    Ezekiel snarled as the leopard inside of his roared in outrage. Ezekiel let the power surge up, and as he let his claws flow out of his fingertips and his teeth lengthen into fangs....the only thing that snapped him back to rational thought was the sharp and uncomfortable prick against his corroded artery.


    "Have you come to kill me?" The mortal whispered in his ear as he pushed on the needle he held to Ezekiel''s throat. The tip of it just about to prick his skin. With the prospect of having a needle jammed into his throat, it took Ezekiel a moment to register what precisely the mortal was saying, but when it did finally dawn on him, he hissed in frustration.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    "Kill you? What the hell are you talking about? No one''s trying to...." Ezekiel said, speaking in a steady, soft voice as well. He adapted the mortals near whisper. He didn''t struggle....he could see how upset and panicked the mortal was, and Ezekiel didn''t want him to make a rash mistake and stab him. Nor did he want to scream at him and alert his family to what was going on.


    He knew that the stranger was on terribly thin ice already, and once more, it looked like the current situation was just another misinterpretation born from his father''s actions earlier.


    Ezekiel tried to reach out to the mortal to calm him..... But the man flinched away and pressed the needle against Ezekiel''s neck even harder.


    "Don''t move!" The mortal said, speaking slightly above a whisper now. He sounded frantic and frazzled. "Just stop trying to move....!"


    The door knob jingled suddenly as one of Ezekiel''s family members grabbed the door knob and began to turn it. The mortal''s head whipped from the door to Ezekiel back again, and Ezekiel could nearly feel the panic choking the stranger suddenly. The feral look in his eyes caught Ezekiel by surprise.


    "Ezekiel?" Came his mother''s voice, alerting him to the fact that she was possibly about to walk in. Ezekiels felt the mortal''s attention shift in the direction of the door. His incredible green eyes hardened as he began to pull back, the needle dropping for Ezekiel''s neck, and with a swift spin, he tried to go for the door.


    Mom!


    Ezekiel grabbed the mortal by the throat before he could take a step further, lifted him, and spun. He pushed him into the wall with a territorial snarl.


    The mortal grunted and struggled, but Ezekiel ignored him as he focused on the door.


    "Mom! Don''t come in yet, everything''s okay!" He yelled back at his mother through the door. "We''re talking...so just wait out there until I tell you to come in."


    "Oh..... okay." The door knob made a sharp "Shink" as the bolt slid back into place, and his mother released the latch. "Is...is everything okay?" Glen asked him, but Ezekiel didn''t respond because the mortal was still holding the syringe, and Ezekiel had to get it off him quick.


    For a second, they were at a stalemate, and Ezekiel couldn''t help being slightly distracted by the mortal''s face....he was quite the eye full. His eyes were captivating for no reason. And there was nothing about his face that was feminine, but beneath the sickness his face drew all of Ezekiel''s attention. The almost gossamer eyes that he had, his dirty blond hair just barely brushing the tips of his ears, and a soft mouth.....just like Ezekiel had thought before, the man was effortlessly beautiful, effortless in a way that distracted the mind. But even though his face was just a little bit too bewitching....he wasn''t weak or tiny in comparison to Ezekiel at all. He was only two or three inches shorter than Ezekiel in height.


    He can''t weigh much less than me, either.... I''ve probably got a good twenty pounds on him.


    Ezekiel silently analyzed, glancing at the mortal''s shape, but the clothing the mortal was in, which was obviously too long for him, kept Ezekiel from truly guessing his size and height just then.


    A pair of thick grey sweats that spilled over the mortal''s ankles and feet and a long-sleeved green shirt that still smelled faintly of Nate also obscured most of his skin from Ezekiel, but Ezekiel could still sense the fire on his skin. The heat between them, pure physical steam from his fever almost made Ezkeiel feel ill....the strength of it worried Ezekiel suddenly.


    How the hell is this guy back on his feet? Is he delusional?


    Ezekiel thought to himself....as he took a moment to gauge the heat that he was feeling on the mortal''s neck and the thready heartbeat beneath his palm on the mortal''s neck, and he was both surprised and disturbed.


    Oh man....he must be running a temp of 100 to 103 degrees.... he''s gonna go into a comma if we don''t get him cool.....but man, from the way he moves, you wouldn''t think he was about to drop dead!


    At another time, his strength would have earned him Ezekiel''s respect. But Ezekiel found that the mortal''s behavior towards him only made him frustrated.


    Every time we''ve met, he''s been so high-strung that he refuses to listen to me! I''ve got to get him to see that I''m not a threat.....Then if mom doesn''t want him to die, we''ll have to get him naked and into a cool tub Asap....


    Ezekiel shook off that seemingly inappropriate conclusion as the mortal suddenly bit his lip and looked down at his stomach. The sharp tang of copper came over him.


    Wait...Blood? Fresh blood...


    Ezekiel realized as the strange warm burn settled on his tongue, but just he forced himself to focus as he realized what the fresh blood could mean for the stranger.


    His guts....it was like he had to push them back in....I used stitches....


    Glen''s words echoed in his head as he shook the scent off.


    Damn....The stitches must be damaged.... I''ve got to get him back into the bed!


    Ezekiel hissed urgently as he lessened his hold on the mortal''s throat partially and leaned back slightly. "Shit....I overdid it. Are you okay?" Ezekiel tried to ask the stranger, but the mortal never let him finish


    "Get the fuck away from me!" With a bit back moan, the man opened his gossamer eyes, glaring at him, and faster than Ezekiel could guess his intention, he slipped forward and slammed his forehead dead into Ezekiel''s right eye. With an enraged hiss, Ezekiel felt the pain bounce around his eye socket and straight into his brain before his hand slipped, and suddenly the mortal was on him.