Page 101 of Tethered Souls
I hate that I can’t even trust my own brothers anymore, but it doesn’t stop me from picking up my phone.
Varius:You’re on babysitting duty this afternoon. Trail Talon. Don’t let him see you. You know how shy he gets when others see him performing.
Maddox sends a shit emoji, but I know he’ll be there. He won’t be able to sneak into the brothel as a client though. Everyone wears full-faced gold masks like offSpartacus– a rule that was added after they realized how dangerous my little brother could be with his ability to shift into various sizes thanks to his shadow magic. As Talon doesn’t have the identities of any johns to pass back and with the brothels deep inside Death Hunt territory, meaning we can’t hang around outside to follow them home, Maddox taking one of their identities is too dangerous.
Even if he copied the exact likeness of one of the johns, pulling off such a deep swap requires intimate knowledge of that person. How they move. How they talk. What secrets they’ve shared with their ladies. One wrong slip up and they would kill him.
Shifting into an insect isn’t much safer for him; he’ll be way too easily killed, but tonight warrants that risk. I text back, asking if he needs more meat. If he gets stuck as an ant, Mother will kill me.
Maddox:Added Alexis to the pot so fine for today but how much am I babysitting?
Magic can’t create mass from nothing. It has to take it from somewhere. If a healer is working with someone who’s lost too much blood, like Micha did when our uncle nearly killed her, they have to use up some of their patient’s fat or muscle to make more. When they’re too far gone, like the reaper was, a blood transfusion is necessary, which is why Aleric brought bags of it with him. For Maddox to shift into an ant, no extra is required, but if he wants to turn back into himself, he will need the entire difference of mass in meat. It can be animal or human, but he is much happier killing the latter. Animals are far more innocent.
Although Alexis was taller than the average woman, she was slim. She won’t even cover one shift on her own.
Varius:I’ll get you more.
Maddox:I get the green?
I tap the side of my phone while I think about giving him the green light to kill as many people as he wants. He has a taste for it. Is a proper little serial killer who’s obsessed with the hunt, but I don’t like him shitting where we eat.
Maddox:I’m gonna have to watch T get his dick wet
Maddox:Come on, bruh, have mercy
Maddox:His cock is so much bigger than mine. Seeing it’s gonna make me sleep on the tracks. I need something to look forward to
I look at my phone dryly.Dramatic little shit.
Maddox:Look
The urge to throttle him becomes a necessity as he sends a flaccid dick pic through. He’s a grower, and given he’s dipped it in his sweet tea, it’s even smaller than usual.
Maddox:*pleading face emoji*
Maddox:Even when it’s hard it ain’t that big
Varius:Two weeks of green.
We need to know what the Death Hunt is planning. If I have to sacrifice a few dozen people to do it, then so be it. The safety of my Family will always come first.
Maddox:Yeees. If you ever need tickets to the ballet, I’ve got you covered bruh
I start to put my phone down, but it beeps again. It’s a dick pic, hard, with a frowny face drawn on it in marker. I delete it with a glare.
But just then another one comes through, the frowny face crossed out and replaced with a smiley one.
The fucking little shit.
Deleting the whole chat, I wish I could do the same with my memory.
But at least we’re finally getting somewhere. Once we have a way to grab Cid, we’ll interrogate him until we know what the fuck is going on. When we do, though, will we need to make an alliance with the Blood Fangs in order to survive the coming war?
Thirty-Five
HER
Gaining Varius’ trust was always going to take a long time. I knew that. But after three and a half months of being his fiancee, I’m starting to get a bit impatient.
