Total pages in book: 29
Estimated words: 27296 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 136(@200wpm)___ 109(@250wpm)___ 91(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 27296 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 136(@200wpm)___ 109(@250wpm)___ 91(@300wpm)
Sometimes it took Colt everything in him to hold it together himself. His brothers couldn’t live outside of Serenity Falls without there being major issues which is why it was so important that they didn’t get to the point of being put down by the townspeople, or worse, becoming the zombeasts who were only free to roam on Halloween night when there was fresh meat to hunt.
The thought of his brothers becoming mindless animals, shook him to the core but if something didn’t happen soon, he feared that’s exactly what would happen.
Colt strolled over to the bar and leaned over to see Sandy still cowering in the corner. The top of his shiny bald head reflected the hovering lights hanging from the ceiling.
“It’s safe to come out now. I think the worse of it is over.”
Sandy wobbled to his feet and released a heavy sigh. “You know, I hate to do this but I’m going to have to report them to the council. This is the third time in six months that they caused a brawl in this bar.”
Colt raked his hands through his hair in frustration. Getting reported to the council meant there would be some form of punishment which was usually a few weeks in the tank, but too many reports resulted in something far worse. The influence Colt carried in town was usually enough to keep his brothers out of more serious trouble but this time things looked really bad.
He noticed one of the corpses belonged to the Hendrickson family. Rolf Hendrickson currently sat on the council and wouldn’t take kindly to one of his kin being killed in a brawl caused by one of the Black brothers.
“Look, I’ll pay for the damage of course. But can’t you look the other way just this one time?”
Sandy placed his hands up. “Exactly how many chances am I supposed to give them? I don’t mean any offense but your brothers are menaces.”
“Haven’t we all gone through our wild phases? I had mine and I clearly remember the stories my dad used to tell me about the two of you tearing through town. He said both of you left a trail of bodies in your wake. Can’t you cut them some slack this time?”
“First of all, fuck you very much for using your dad’s memory to get me to excuse the mess Leland and Zeke made of my bar.”
Colt took a sweeping glance of his surroundings. “From where I’m standing it doesn’t seem like they were in this by themselves and yes, if using my father’s memory will remind you that people fuck up from time to time then so be it.”
“Fine! This is the last time though and they can’t come back.”
“I’ll make sure they won’t.”
Sandy pursed his lips. “Somehow I doubt that. I’ll send you a bill for the repairs.”
“Thanks, Sandy.”
Sandy made a shooing gesture with his hand. “Go on, get out of here. I think I’ve had enough dealings with the Black brothers to last me a lifetime.”
Zeke was leaning against the truck staring at the starless sky when Colt made it outside.
“Get in,” Colt ordered hopping into the driver’s seat.
Colt figured the short car ride to their house would be in silence but surprisingly Zeke was in the mood to talk.
“I didn’t intend to fight tonight.”
Colt flexed the muscle in his jaw to prevent himself from saying the first thing that popped into his head. He took a few deep breathes before replying. “Maybe you didn’t intend to but you and Leland caused a lot of damage. It took some convincing to stop Sandy from reporting you to the council, although they’re bound to hear about it soon enough anyway considering one of the casualties was one of the Hendrickson boys.”
Zeke shrugged. “There’s like twenty of them.”
“That’s beside the point. You and Leland can’t do whatever the fuck you please whenever you want. That’s why there’s rules in place to ensure stuff like this doesn’t continue to happen. You don’t want to go back to a time when our kind was hunted and we had to fight daily for our survival.”
“You weren’t around for that either. Mom and Dad barely remembered it.”
“It’s still our history. We don’t want to go back to the way things were. We have a pretty good system going now.”
“Do we really? Because some people think we should be able to hunt freely. It’s the same faction that got our parents killed and turned Sandy into a neutered shell of the man he used to be.”
This was the most words Colt had heard his younger brother string together at once in a very long time.
“Where is this coming from, Zeke?”
Colt suspected that there was more to tonight’s fight than either one of his brothers was willing to talk about.
“The hunt is coming up in a couple of days.”