Chapter 23
Silence rang inside of Pogue's ears as he stared at the man sitting on the edge of his bed. William was here, Caleb's father was sitting less then a foot away from him and Pogue still couldn't believe it.
The last time he saw this man was when he was fifteen, before William disappeared. He vividly remembered how much the elder's disappearance hurt him–William was the only father he had left in the world at the time– but his pain was noting compared to Caleb and Evelyn's and now William was here, and his appearance hadn't changed one bit since the day he disappeared. His clothing was even the same!
For a while neither one of them spoke, their silence started stretching into long minutes. William sat perfectly still, his sharp eyes boring into Pogue and the empath squirmed mentally from the intensity of his look. The silence grew to an unbearable level and Pogue honestly thought he'd go insane unless he heard some noise soon.
"William..." Pogue started, hesitantly.
The older man's eyes where still cutting into him and after a long period of silence, William finally spoke.
"Pogue."
A shiver went down Pogue's spine. Even his voice sounded like Caleb's, the only difference was Caleb's voice was softer while William's had more bite to it.
"Well, you've certainly grown a lot in three years. I almost didn't recognize you." William's voice rumbled through Pogue's entire body and his mind.
"William, what–"
"Am I doing here? Simple." William finished, sharply. "I'm here to see you."
"Me? Why?" Pogue asked, swallowing around the lump that was slowly forming inside of his throat from the way that William's dark eyes were staring at him.
"Because you and I need to have a little chat and I finally have the opportunity to do so."
Pogue squirmed again. William's strong presence was brushing across his mind as he spoke, slowly touching and prodding at his memories. It felt also felt like William's voice was coming from two different places: from the man sitting in front of him and from the depths of the empath's head.
Pogue drew his knees up to his chest and stared at the elder Danvers confused. "About what?"
William hesitated for a moment, before he heaved a long sigh and spoke.
"About my son."
Even though he expected it, Pogue flinched from William's answer. Of course, why else would William be here?
"You know about Chase then?" Pogue asked.
"Yes, I do." William replied sadly.
A small string of emotions touched Pogue then, sorrow, helplessness and anger; the later being the strongest. He studied them for a moment, letting his mind feel how powerful they were, before speaking again.
"And you know what Chase has been doing to him?"
Once again, William nodded sadly. "As a matter of a fact, I know first hand what that ungrateful brat has been doing to my son."
"If you know, then why aren't you doing anything about it?" Pogue growled, his anger rising.
The elder Danvers wasn't at all disturbed by his outburst.
"Why aren't you?"
William's answer caught him off guard and Pogue felt his temper snap.
"I've been trying to dammit." Pogue growled, glaring at William. "What's your excuse, you're stronger then Chase is."
William was silent fore a moment and hung his head. "Unfortunately you're wrong."
Pogue stared coldly at him. From the way William was hanging his head, it was obvious that he was hiding something.
"What do you mean?"
William heaved a deep sigh and raised his head. "I don't have my powers anymore. I willed them to Caleb four months ago."
Pogue mulled over William's words for a moment. "You willed – What do you mean? I thought you died three years ago?"
"Not physically but close enough to it."
Pogue grew angry and growled inside of his throat. Why did every single covenant elder speak to him in riddles?
"Not physically, what the hell does that mean?"
"It means boy, that I over-used my powers to the point where it almost killed me." William snapped, growing slightly irritated from Pogue's interruptions. "But somehow, Gorman and Caleb managed to keep me alive at the colony house. On the night when my son fought Chase at Putnum barn, Evelyn bagged for me to will Caleb my powers, so I did."
Pogue listened quietly, his mind reeling from William's words. He replayed the elder Danvers's statement inside of his head and a thought quickly dawned on him.
(Wait, if he willed Caleb his power, then how come he still alive?)
"Who said I was?" William whispered softly.
"What?" Pogue's breath hitched as he startled and scooted away from the elder Danvers.
William just read his mind!
William watched him for a moment, his brown eyes darkening slightly before he sighed and scooted closer to the boy. He gently raised his right hand and violently swung at Pogue's face. Pogue had just enough time to brace himself for the impact but none came; William's hand simply passed through his skin ghostly, his fingers felt like air as they touched Pogue's flesh.
"What the hell– what the fuck are you!" Pogue yelled, his eyes flashing and turning black, ready to defend himself against this stranger.
William just heaved a frustrated sigh and used his powers to touch Pogue's mind.
At the moment, I'm literary a figment of Caleb's imagination.
"What?"
William groaned and remained silent for a long time; Pogue had a feeling that the elder was trying to think of an easier way to explain things. Finally William cleared his throat and decided to vocalize his words instead of speaking into Pogue's mind.
"When I willed my powers to Caleb, a small part of my soul went with them and attached it's self to Caleb. Unfortunately, it left Caleb defenseless and that boy took advantage of it, also attaching himself to my son. Since then, Chase has discovered my existence and tried to remove it so he could have full control over Caleb. At the moment, I'm the only thing that's keeping him from fully ripping Caleb's mind to shreds."
Slowly, Pogue begin to piece William's words together. He could picture William's presence living inside of Caleb's mind, shielding him from Chase. It easily explained why it was so difficult for him to tap into Caleb's mind that day he fought him, or that night when...
Pogue mentally shook his head to clear those images away and continued thinking over William's words. He remembered seeing Chase take over Caleb's body and hearing William's voice when he taped into the other boy's memories. As a matter of a fact, he remembered hearing William's voice inside his own mind once before.
"That dream I had where I was talking to a light...that was you, wasn't it?"
William nodded. "Yes, I've tried to contact you many times before and after that but it grew too difficult so I resulted to a different method."
"Like pulling me inside of Caleb's body and seeing through his eyes." Pogue finished for him.
"Exactly, since you're an empath it was easy enough to do. The hard part was trying to keep Chase from noticing you, as you could tell, and every time my powers fell short and I was barely left with enough strength to guard Caleb."
The feeling of complete helplessness brushed against Pogue's mind as William lowered his head. Pogue remained silent and tightened his grip around his knees. He could vividly recall every time he was pulled out of his body and into Caleb's. His skin crawled from just the memory of it, the feeling of having no control of over himself or his body while a stranger propelled you forward like a puppet sent a painful shiver down his spine.
"How come you're here then?" Pogue voiced, his eyes taking in William's form. "If it's that hard for you to contact me then why are you here?"
William raised his head and narrowed his eyes. "Oh it's not difficult anymore, you saw to that."
"What do you mean?" Pogue hesitantly asked, cringing from the bitter tone William used.
Once again, William's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Because of the fact that you and my son have been intimate it's not that difficult for me to locate you."
Pogue's breath died inside of his lungs even before William finished his sentence. Oh god, William knew! He knew what happened between him and Caleb. He could feel the rage and anger poring off of Caleb's father in thick waves.
(Thank god he can't physically touch me at the moment; otherwise he'd probably throttle me.)
He scolded himself, remembering that William could read his mind and forced himself to keep his mind blank. It wasn't a good idea to anger William further. Even though William's body was perfectly still and calm, his eyes were full of rage and anger.
"William, I didn't know that wasn't Caleb, I swear–"
"Save it. The fact that you feel more then your share of guilt for it is the only reason I haven't ripped you apart yet." William stated coldly. "And the fact that you're the only one that can help him."
Pogue carefully listened to the older man's words before he dared himself to speak.
"How can I help him? I'm no match for Chase, he's already proven that." Pogue grumbled bitterly.
"Save your excuses boy, we both know I don't have time for them."
"It's not an excuse; he damn near killed me the last time we fought."
"And you'll let him do the same to Caleb? You'll just sit there and let Chase rip Caleb's mind to shreds while he slowly destroys his body?"
Pogue glared at him but remained silent. What could he do, Chase was three times stronger then him? He'd be lucky if he lasted a minute the next time they clashed.
"I don't know what you want from me William, but I can't fight him. What chance would I have, he'd slaughter me in a heartbeat."
William's eyes flared angrily in their brown depths as he slid off the edge of Pogue's bed.
"Then you don't deserve my son..." He whispered angrily as he headed towards the open doorway.
Pogue watched William's retreating back silently until a painful question formed inside of his mind.
"Wait..."
William halted in the doorway and slowly turned around to face him, his dark amber eyes gleaming dangerously in the darkness.
"That night when I...was Caleb the one in control?"
Even though he already knew the answer, Pogue had to make sure.
"No he wasn't. Afterwards he regained control when Chase was weakened but that was the only time."
Pogue's chest tightened painfully but he forced himself to ask the next dire question.
"Was Caleb aware of what was happening?"
William slowly shook his head. "No, thankfully I had enough strength to block it from his memory, including afterwards when he begged for you to kill him."
Even though his heart felt like it was in an icy grip, Pogue couldn't help feeling grateful that Caleb didn't remember that night.
"Anymore questions?" William asked, looking impatient.
Pogue shook his head quietly.
"Then we are finished." William said coldly. "Should the need arise, I will contact you again... hopefully in my absence you'll find the time to grow up and take responsibility for what you've done to my son."
With that, William's figure wavered and disappeared into the darkness, leaving Pogue alone. He sighed and rested his forehead against his knee.
(What am I gonna do now?)
--
Tyler grunted as a pair of warm, foreign lips forcibly pressed themselves against his. His first reaction was to push the body they were attached to away from him but Reid's strong arms came around him a quick moment later, gently holding him to the spot. Even if he could force himself to move, he doubted he could even break Reid's grip around his shoulders.
Reid was crushing him against his slightly larger frame while his tongue lightly probed at Tyler's bottom lip. Not knowing what else to do, the younger boy slowly opened his mouth and Reid took full advantage of it, sliding his slick tongue into Tyler's warm mouth. The younger boy shuttered against him from the feeling and Reid couldn't help his slight grin, knowing that more then likely this was Tyler's first kiss. He removed his mouth a short moment later and pulled back, gazing directly into Tyler's baby blue eyes.
The younger boy looked like he was in shock, his eyes blinking rapidly and his mouth twisting and trying to form words.
"Reid. what–"
Reid's eyes where glued on Tyler's face, watching as the younger boy's cheeks flushed a slight pink color and his eyes turned foggy. God Tyler looked beautiful and Reid felt his stomach turn nervously.
"I'm sorry Tyler." He sighed quietly. "I didn't mean to do that but–"
"Why'd you do it then?"
Reid flinched, Tyler sounded angry.
"Because...ah hell, I don't know why."
Tyler raised an eyebrow. "You don't know why you kissed me?"
"I do, but I don't know how to explain it." Reid admitted sheepishly.
Tyler stared at him even more confused.
"Reid, you just fucking kissed me and I want to fucking know why."
"Because Tyler." Reid swallowed and forced himself to be brave. "You're...I'm...god, why is this so damn hard? I've wanted to for a while I guess."
"You guess?"
Reid sighed and slid closer, ignoring Tyler's signs of discomfort. Slowly he reached for him and much to his surprise, Tyler didn't move away. He didn't do anything actually, not even when Reid's hand gently touched his thigh.
"Ty–"
Tyler shivered from the contact but didn't say anything. The warmth from Reid's hand was slowly crawling up his leg and god help him, it felt good. His hand itched to grab Reid's and bring it up closer but he ignored the feeling. Reid shouldn't be making him feel this way, it was wrong. The blond was his best friend, his brother, this was wrong!
Then why the hell was he leaning into the touch then?
Reid smiled and inched closer, until the two of them were shoulder to shoulder. Tyler fidgeted nervously as Reid slowly slid his arm around the younger boy's back. A moment later Tyler shrugged it off and slid off the bed.
"Reid, stop it." The younger boy paced nervously between the beds. "What are you– we can't do this."
Even though Reid's chest tightened from the pain of Tyler's rejection, he forced himself to speak.
"Why not?"
"Because, it isn't right."
"What's not right about it? The kiss or the fact that it came from me?"
Tyler stopped pacing. "Both alright. You're like a brother to me and we're not supposed to feel that way."
Reid resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He knew Tyler was lying.
"So you can honestly say you don't feel the same way about me then?"
As he expected Tyler didn't answer right away.
"Reid, I don't know okay. I love you like a brother but–"
Tyler cut off; even he could tell his lie was wearing thin. Truth be told, he did feel more for Reid then "brotherly" but he didn't know if he should voice it.
"Tyler, sit down." Reid said softly and patted the spot next to him.
Hesitantly Tyler did so, making sure he kept a reasonable distance between them. Reid stayed where he was, eyeing Tyler softly.
"Look Ty, we both know there's been something between us for a while." Reid started, hoping Tyler would finish for him.
Tyler just nodded slightly and didn't say anything.
"If that kiss really didn't mean anything to you then just say so and we'll forget it ever happened." Reid said, turning towards the younger boy.
Tyler was silent for a few moments before he mumbled his reply. "I don't wanna forget it."
Reid's heart fluttered slightly. "You don't?"
"No. It was my first kiss..." Tyler said softly. "And the more I think about it...I don't think I wanted it to be with anyone else."
Now Reid's heart felt like it was going to burst through his chest at any moment.
"Aw Ty, you're such a romantic." He chuckled and once again, tried his luck at scooting closer to the other boy.
Tyler didn't move, a sign that Reid found discouraging at first but then realized that the younger boy was nervous, so Reid just took it upon himself to move even closer. He watched Tyler for a long moment, looking for an indication that Tyler was uncomfortable and when he found none, he leaned closer and kissed the younger boy once again.
Tyler didn't push away, he just remained where he was and after a long moment he hesitantly brought his arms around Reid's broad shoulders.