Incubus [malexmale]

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Eight (Killian)

 We followed the two men back to their village.

Zen had gotten down from Alexius' horse and walked alongside it, talking animatedly to his older brother in their language. He spoke fast and the words seemed came out in sharp pronounciations. It sounded suspiciously like a mixture of Latin and French in all honesty, but I still didn't understand what he was saying. Whatever he was saying annoyed his brother, however. Zen didn't tell us his name, just hopped off the horse and ran to his brother and started talking.

The man was taller than Zen by a good foot, body rippling with rock hard muscles and six pack that bulged threateningly. He carried a torch of green fire, fire that I was sure involved some magic. He wore the same loincloth as Zen, same tattoos, but his face paint was different. A thick white line ran over his nose and cheekbones with two little dots at the ends, matching the dots that ran down his cheeks like teardrops. Small white flicks appeared in the corner of his eyes, making them appear narrower. His blonde hair was a shade darker than Zen's and trailed down his back in a thick braid. His horns were larger than Zen's as well, curled slightly like a ram's horns. And once I got a better look at him, I could definitely see the resemblence between the two.

The other man walked in silence, his black hair slicked back from his face with grease. His face paint was black and red, outlining his eyes and waving down his cheeks where it wrapped around his throat like a snake. He wore a tanned loincloth in the same fashion as Zen's. He seemed almost as stern as Zen's brother, who was hardly amused with anything Zen was saying.

I glanced at Alexius, who watched them with glinting eyes, as if he were trying to figure them both out just by staring at them intently. Behind us, Nico and Ana were silent as the grave, moving quietly through the trees on their horse. I looked back at Alexius, frowning.

Before, he was about to say something, but we were interrupted. What had he wanted to say? It seemed very important, because I could see him trying to choose his words carefully. He was having difficulties and for a second I wondered if it was the poison he'd been injected with earlier, but the look on his face told me it was just his emotions that were keeping him at bay.

Part of me ached to hear him say that he loved me, but that was asking too much of him. No one had ever told Alexius they loved him, until I came along. And even I wasn't enough to bring Alexius to say the three little words that would have a whole new world of meaning to him.

Would it be something about Erini? After all, that's what we'd been talking about when he came to an abrupt stop. Was he nervous about going after all?

I didn't have time to dwell on it, however, as we neared a large clearing in the forest. We'd managed to get through the thickest parts within an hour. Now, we stood in the village of the Incubos people.

Their homes were made of rock and some of wood, only one of them being a two-story building that looked very much like a religious or political building. The people all dressed like Zen, save for the women, who wore leaves or drapes of cloth over their breasts. They all had tattoos and face paint, their skin tanned by the sunlight. Everyone stopped what they were doing the moment we entered the village. Women gawked and whispered, withdrawing to find their children that looked on with excited, bright faces that were merely ignorant of the power and danger of the situation. The men narrowed their eyes and curled their lips in disgust, coming forward. One man bolted for the two-story building immediately.

"Get off your monsters." Zen's brother ordered. I glanced at Alexius, who frowned and slowly dismounted his horse. I did the same, glancing back at Nico and Ana, nodding to them that it was safe. They obeyed and climbed down, but stayed close to their horse in case they needed to flee.