#randomkelseysims

She glanced back with a worried, studious eye the second her husband came into her peripheral. Several weeks had passed since the day where she caught him having a conversation with Brannon inside the house. Despite desperately wanting to eavesdrop, she didn’t. The last thing she wanted was to work herself back into Eldon’s bad graces, and the conversation hadn’t lasted long after she spotted the pack leader anyway. Brannon had been escorted away, and Eldon had gone back to his usual activities.

He’d appeared fine for the first few days following that, but then...well, he looked positively exhausted. His eyes were constantly glazed over, and she’d actually seen him trip once or twice in the past week. He spoke little to anyone, she found him wandering about at hours long after he should have gone to bed, and almost all he did anymore was read. When he walked into the study area now, he might as well have not have even noticed her. It was different from him flat out ignoring her like he had after she revealed she let Jessie go. Their relationship was somewhat better in that they were able to converse.

And she had to converse with him in that very moment. Something was wrong, and Eldon clearly wasn’t handling it well.

He must have overslept if it was already so dark outside. It didn’t matter that he could see perfectly well in that darkness. Embarrassingly, it terrified him. He tossed himself over to the door where he slammed on the lights and allowed their shine to comfort him. The tendrils of darkness he swore he saw vanished in an instant. The gentle buzz of power filling the bulb above his head played a soothing sound. Shaking his head, his rapid breaths slowed. The visions of his mind faded before they revealed themselves to him again.

Now everything was fine, see? The moment was over. It would all get better.

The bursting return of vision overwhelmed him to the point where he wasn’t even aware that he thrashed, desperately wrenching and kicking the covers away. His body didn’t require air, yet his lungs heaved unceasingly. Cold sweat trickled the back of his neck, and sweat was also what he called the wetness lightly coating his cheeks. The latter he quickly rubbed off as he propped himself up with eyes darting this way and that. See? What he saw was still the truth. He was strong now. He was in control.

Why, then, could he never be rid of these night terrors? They always returned no matter how many years passed, although he was well aware of the reason why the memories were popping up this time. The lone blessing was that Aurelia luckily was never with him when he got like this. He did not need her to fuss over him, for the more he was reminded of the nightmares the more they happened.

However, things would be fine. They would. He was in control. He was.

Then the wind blew harshly outside, rattling the windows and moaning as encroaching shadows crept forward from the darkest corners of the room. He leapt off the bed in a flash.

Forty years or so. That meant the culprit had to be about sixty by now. He or she could even be much older than that, and so feeble too. So feeble that any chance of being a threat was long gone. Besides, it’s not like that person would be hanging around a past crime scene with ill intentions on the impossible, severely low chance some unwitting children hiked the long trek to the distant house in the dead of night. That would be ridiculous.

What was more ridiculous was that every step he took away from the children made the thought of them grow heavier in his mind. Why bother with them? Again, they weren’t his to watch. If something happened, it would be their own fault. Less wolves meant more peace for him and his family. There was no sense in worrying. No sense in imagining the worst.

No. He wasn’t doing either of those things to begin with. He definitely wasn’t.

Yet he stopped walking abruptly when he couldn’t help but to let his powers search out the thoughts of the four wolves. Even at this distance their minds were easy to reach. His muscles tensed, however, when he could only find three of those minds. One wasn’t there, and those who remained now panicked over the fact that the one called Renee, of course it would be her, could no longer be found.

Brannon struggled to maintain a straight expression when his couch space was suddenly intruded. Oh, Eldon sat an appropriate distance, naturally, but the fact that the vampire so casually took a seat next to him had a weird sort of disgust curl around inside his chest.

“So, what was it about that man that has you coming here? Was he an ally or an enemy of yours? Did you mean to take him out yourself and are upset that I did it first?”

“No...” Brannon replied slowly, “We have no idea who you took out. We just found all the blood, thought the killing was rather brutal, and I came here to find out why in the world you were so aggressive.”

“Oh, well that’s much more boring and predictable.”

“I hope there’s a good reason for it all,” Jolene said kindly, pulling Brannon close and wrapping her arms around his waist, “For your sake more than his. You’ve done a lot to ensure his safety, even if he doesn’t realize or recognize it. We don’t need him going blood crazy right now.”

“No, we don’t.” Brannon agreed softly.

Her lips comfortingly met his. They met a second time. Then they entangled deeper. On it continued until Jolene let out a laugh while pulling her husband’s hands up from where they’d been going lower and lower.

“Careful now.” she warned in amusement.

“What?” Brannon teased playfully.

“Don’t go getting too handsy. We have to be careful until we’re sure my birth control is back on track. We had one scare already. Pack leaders we may be, but rich we are not. We haven’t even able to get Renee and Vivi out of that small room they share yet. I don’t know what we’re going to do with Joey when he gets out of the crib.”

“Things will be fine,” Brannon promised encouragingly, “We’ve got my higher pay coming in soon, remember?”

They shared one more long kiss.

“Are you sure you don’t want to go upstairs?” Brannon proceeded to tease again the second he had his breath back, “I could really use some distraction until the vampires wake up.”

“Distraction? How about you go to work already, you goof?” Jolene chuckled, shaking her head and giving him a loving smack on his rear end.

“She’s been acting really weird the past day or so.” Jolene expressed to her husband as soon as she knew the girls couldn’t hear her.

“Renee, you mean? Completely agree,” Brannon answered, “She’s been rather clingy, sorta nervous about something.”

“I think we seriously do need to talk to her later today.”

“For sure. I was planning on it already. I just wanted to get that other talk out of the way first. I’m dreading it so much I can’t think of anything else.” Brannon complained, wearing a pouting expression as he closed the fridge and turned around.

“Talking with Eldon about what you and the others found last night? I mean, I know it was...a lot of blood, but it doesn’t sound as if even whatever he was doing did anything to break the pact.”

“It was a fuck ton of blood, Jo,” he shook his head stiffly, his expression stern, “No body or anything of course. Maybe it wasn’t him, but there was no wolf or even human scent, aside from the victim’s, near where we found it all. Breaking the pact or not, I cannot stand that kind of brutality. There was no way that person went kindly.”

“And you.” he spat at the human, giving him a shake when the child was out of sight.

“I’m s-sorry!” the man wheezed as fingers pinned his throat tighter, the corners of his eyes turning wet with fear, “I-I’m sorry!”

“The apology always comes too late,” he dismissed the mortal, cocking his head to the side as he studied him, “It does no good either. You are of the same horrible breed he was. No matter how many years pass, humans never change. That girl’s father, the other races of the world...they tell me I am evil because your blood is the source of my food. They make you out to be simple, pure creatures in need of nothing else other than protection. They say that the good some of you do outweighs the crimes of the others.”

His fingers gripped tighter still. His nails dug deeper. Blood began to flow more freely.

“Humans are the plague of this planet. Your kind commits evil deeds faster than one can blink. At least with you out of the way the world will be safer if only for a brief second.”