It had been almost a day since the incident and I hadn't seen him move from where he was. He hadn't eaten and hadn't spoken. I attempted to feed him myself but he wouldn't even open his mouth. This situation was making me extremely frustrated from worry.

I hadn't left his side and neither had Fenris. To be honest if this trauma that I was starting to develop due to the constant misfortunes of leaving him would leave me single for the rest of my life— I wouldn't care.

Iltut's fingers left markings on Lucian's neck— a sign that he had exerted intense force in strangling my brother. He had yet again added another marking on my brother's form. I had seen every scar on Lucian's body and memorized where they were placed. I refrained myself from asking about them because I was afraid of eliciting flashbacks that would harm my brother. There was no point in inquiring anyway—the scars already told the history.

Fenris was neglecting his own nourishment. He had no appetite and I could not blame him at all because I felt the same way. If not for Ikesha then both of us would have joined Lucian in his fasting.

"How can he recover when he sees the two of you joining him in his neglect? Do not let yourselves be devoured by the monsters that haunt him. The two of you need strength in order to provide him the support that he needs," Ikesha scolded.

I didn't know how much longer I can bear seeing him like this but forcing him to talk wouldn't do him any good and Ikesha was right; this was not the time to show weakness to a person needing strength.

I only hope that he won't reenact his flashbacks or else we will have no other choice but to deposit him into the treatment floor of the hideout.

A knock at the door snatched my attention from my brother who was currently still slumbering.

"It's me," Ikesha informed us.

"Come in," I permitted.

"I'd rather you come out Lucius. I have something to tell you," she responded.

I released a sigh and placed the book that I was staring at for the past few hours on the bed before standing up.

"Keep watch," I told my wolf associate.

"Woof," Fenris dutifully replied.

I met with a stern Ikesha outside the room and kept the door ajar for at least five inches so I can sneak glances.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Iltut still won't answer my inquiries. He continues to feign ignorance," she told me.

I clicked my tongue in annoyance. "We have no need for him. Have Aramastus finish it already. You know how much he hates leaving things undone."

He was the perfect assassin.

"I was hoping that you could interrogate him yourself. Wouldn't you want to know how a supposed dead man just suddenly shows up in a bloody-coating with broken bones?"

My frown worsened and every muscle in my body tensed. "If you send me there I'd torture him rather than interrogate him," I seethed.

There was nothing else that I would want to know from him. He was a scheming hound. I felt nothing but betrayal for him and our parents.

"Lucius, I know it's hard for you to control yourself but I was told by Aramastus that he slipped the coin he found in Iltut's grave into the Wicket and I was thinking that—"

"He...What?" I snapped. "Monte de merda...(Piece of shit)."

I will gut that idiot alive. I told him to keep the coin safe and not to do anything rash with it. We still had no idea of the wicket's mechanism and he acted on his own and got my brother involved in his idiocy.

"He slipped the coin in the Wicket. I was told that before Iltut surrendered himself, he was tortured in various and unspeakable ways that were so malevolent that he started screaming again as he told me so. Did your brother have an older friend with red hair?" she asked me.

I released a scoff. "Not that I know of but if he had; I'd like to meet that friend and invite him for a drink. What was that person like?" I asked.

"He only mentioned of a red haired man with phenomenal power. He came out of nowhere. He said he resembled—no that's impossible," Ikesha brushed off the thought.

"Who?" I questioned.

"Iltut's mind must have been playing tricks on him. He said that your brother's friend looked like the deceased King."

"Jiji?"

Jiji (Grandfather) must have been haunting him for all the fucked up things he had done.

"No, not him," she disapproved causing my eyes to widened.

"Arienai...(Impossible)" I scoffed.

Lucian's friend must have just looked like him but that person was definitely not him. Iltut was delusional.

I had no clue if Lucian had any friends back home and I doubt that the Higher Order permitted him to keep them. But if Lucian's friend was able to put Iltut into a crippling state of hemorrhagic burst then he was some friend indeed.

But someone with red hair...Red hair? I got nothing. I must have missed him when I came back or he must have been dispatched once he was discovered of being acquainted with my brother.

"Then if you don't wish to inquire him of anything I will order Aramastus to dispose of him and retrieve the coin again," Ikesha told me.

"Wait, can you please watch over Lucian? I'll hear it for myself," I told Ikesha.

"Very well then, leave him to me," she assured.

I descended to the bottom floor of the hideout and perceived the echoing of Iltut's screams. We didn't have many prisoners. Actually the only prisoner we had was him.

"Keep quiet rego do cu (ass crack) or else you'll hear your own screams in the afterlife," Aramastus drawled. He was sitting on a chair in front of the cell confining Iltut with his sword staked to the ground before him.

"Kisama... (You)" I muttered catching his attention.

"Ah, Lord Lu—"

I slammed Aramastus' head against the wall creating branching cracks from the impact. My subordinate shook his head to shake off the dizziness that he must have felt and stood still.

"Lord Lucius, your orders sir?" he asked me.

"Tofu no kado ni atama wo butsukete shine!" I snarled.

"Very well my Lord, I shall do my very best to die from having to hit my head to a tofu!" he responded before vanishing.

If he wasn't so powerful I could have kicked his ass out of here a long time ago. He may act like a guileless idiot but Aramastus was far from being gullible. He was a cunning asshole who knew how to rent space in a person's head.

"Lucius...Lucius! Get me out of here! He's coming for me! I need to die...I need to die!" our prisoner screamed as he wriggled pathetically on the floor limbless.

I had once had great admiration for him. He was like a second father to me.

"Calm your nuts old man. Who's coming for you?" I drawled.

But now...I had nothing but a great desire to bury him alive and suffocate him with filth.

Iltut stared up at me with a shaken expression, an expression that my brother must've had for every single day that he had spent with this piece of shit.

My face twitched with anger and the dormant fury within me awakened.

This man had shown me the brilliance of living and taught me ways of becoming the Knight that I was. I believed in him. I admired him.

I blindly looked up to the person who made my little brother's life a living malison.

Who knew that the person I greatly praised would turn out to be a predator to my own brother?

"Your brother did this to me! He did this to me! He is a monster!" he screamed.

A burst of laughter erupted from my throat and instead of having joy as the source of my amusement; I could merely taste the acerbic flavor of resent.

I opened the cellar door and entered the space with him while using up the little chuckles of what was left within me.

"You say that my brother is a monster..." I whispered.

"He is—"

I rammed my foot against his head and started my series of enraged fulmination as I unleashed the barbarity I never knew I had.

"Vaccanfulo ,Vaccanfulo! Qui ni de! (Fuck you, fuck you! Shut the fuck up!)"

"You don't deserve to live! You deserve more shit for what you did to him! Shine! Shine! (Die! Die!)"

My own voice almost drove me to deafness. The clouding darkness that I couldn't show to Lucian turned into an inner storm.

I just exploded and the more I realized that he wouldn't last longer the more that it vexed me. This...did not compare to the years of suffering that my brother had to go through. Iltut needed more years to suffer and the pain in my chest won't ease until I avenge Lucian to his monster.

I halted my kicking once I finally felt that I was merely abusing a corpse. I was trembling with the desire to inflict more pain to him.

"Aramastus," I called out.

My subordinate appeared behind me. "Yes my Lord."

"Bring me the wicket," I ordered as I bent down and fished the coin out of Iltut's mouth.

I stared at the tormented face of the deceased filth before me and rose to my feet.

"If you think you can escape me through death then you are wrong. I will bring you back from the dead as many times as it takes until you beg death for salvation."

...

...

...

I plodded up the stairs leading to the third floor and felt weak in every bit of my body. I grasped the wicket tightly and had nothing in my mind other than returning to Lucian's side.

I think I figured out why the wicket revived him. The wicket wasn't asking for Iltut's number yet. It wasn't his time. Until then, I can continue avenging Lucian until I was satisfied.

Steps with great hassle were heard approaching my way and my senses cleared up when I heard my name being yelled out by Laeroth.

"Lucius! Lucius!"

I met Laeroth halfway the stairs and instantly grab hold of his shoulder.

"It's Lucian isn't it?!"

"He's having a flashback and Ikesha can't steal control of the elements from him!"

I scurried past Laeroth and went straight to Lucian's room with many of the ancients helping in attempting to dominate the elements that Lucian was controlling. Lucian was floating above the bed with his whole body enveloped in a ball of water. He was already showing evidence of being deprived of oxygen as he thrashed around.

The signs of burn on the surface of his feet reemerged and the lesions on his arms reopened releasing a smoky appearance of blood in the water. Fenris' whines and anxious barks filled the room.

"Lucius!" Ikesha gasped. "He's drowning himself. We have to do something fast!"

If Ikesha couldn't gain command of the elements then that would mean that Lucian had greater power within him. We can't pull him out because the water will just follow him and drown him death.

Wait!

"Hand me the belt!" I snarled.

I leaped and stood on the lectus before being handed of the belt that I removed from Lucian's waist.

He must have been experiencing severe manifestations of flashbacks that endangered his life for so many times that the Higher Order decided to create this for him. I pushed my arms inside of the ball and reached for his waist. Once I clasped the belt around him, a prevailing force was released that sent everyone in this room against the walls. The ball of water was greatly discolored in pitch black with a swirling mist of purple encircling it.

Cracking sounds occurred from the ball and my heart sped up in worry. Red beams of light pierced through the ball which then engulfed the room followed by the sound of complete shattering.

Before Lucian could land on the shards of glass on his bed, Fenris leaped and shoved him out. I was instantly on my feet and caught my unconscious brother. Purple roots of light on his skin dissipated and I blew exasperated air.

I couldn't believe it but...

"He can control it," Ikesha concluded. "Your brother can control the side that we always perceived as a curse to our kind."

Whispers flooded the room and most of the concerns were about Lucian being a threat to the Scums which only provoked flames in me. How dare they? Fenris stood guard in front of us and sneered at the whispering ancients.

"Enough!" Laeroth growled drawing silence on all of them. "This young boy does not deserve to be shunned especially by us. We are Scums; we are the exiles of the society. You of all people do not have the rights to judge him. We all meet with our other half once we die so what difference does it make?"

I gave Laeroth a nod of gratitude because his little speech hit light in the state of confusion.

"Most of you know the history of the Prince. He is no ordinary boy. He is special. The souls of the brave lives within him so dare not let their sacrifice be in vain," Ikesha added before turning to us. "Take him to another room Lucius."

The members of Scums made way for us to pass through and Fenris gave them threatening sneers.

We occupied another room and hopefully this will be the last one we'll move into. Once we were settled down and Lucian's wounds were treated, I sat exhaustingly on the chair beside the bed and leaned back.

My eyes had gotten so heavy that I had to close them for a bit. I doubt I'll be able to sleep because of the lingering anxiety especially with the Scums having fear for Lucian now. I hope Ikesha will prevent this from getting out and spreading to the rest of the members.

The sound of bones cracking emerged and my lips slowly curled.

"So you finally decided to change?" I asked without looking.

"Get some rest...I'll keep watch," he replied. Ah from the sound of his voice I guess he was a really big man. As expected from a werewolf.

"There are some clothes in the cabinet. Feel free to explore," I encouraged before yawning. "Your wolf is called Fenris so what about you?"

I heard that the wolf spirit and the vessel had different minds. They can converse with each other which seemed difficult in my opinion. Having your own thoughts raging inside of your head can already be frustrating.

"Caleb, my name is Caleb," he replied. "I am your brother's mate."

My grin spread wider and I hummed in amusement.

"I know...that's why I trust you." 

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A/N: Hope you enjoyed it.