 Hi everyone! Welcome to Tuesday Tales! We are back with Ezekiel Hallow in Featherweight (Hallow Brothers 6). This week’s word prompt is “dance”. **Warning - There is adult situations and adult language.** Don’t forget to check out the other awesome Tuesday Tales! Click here to take a look!  He followed her down the dark hallway only illuminated by a computer screen on the counter. Beneath it, nearly hidden in the shadows, was the safe.
“Could you flip on the light, please?” Dakota instructed as she crouched down in front of it. “Do you think it’s a good idea? Doesn’t that just alert someone that we’re here? What if there’s a camera?” Ezekiel protested. “Okay, worry wart. We aren’t cracking this without a source of light.” “Fine.” Ezekiel slipped his cell from his back pocket and flipped the flashlight app on. The beam danced around the wall before it settled on the dial of the safe. Dakota dropped the duffle bag on the floor then unzipped it. Pulling free the stethoscope, she slipped it into her ears then gripped the chestpiece in her hand. He watched as she pressed it beside the dial and slowly twisted it. She looked adorable as her brow furrowed in concentration. It made him want to kiss her hard and deep right there in the jewelry store. He glanced around the dark room. Maybe this was a bad time. “Hey,” she protested. He refocused his phone. “Sorry.” She scowled at him but kept working. It felt like they stood there for eternity. Time passed so slowly. However, it only took her a few minutes to pop the door open. Inside, amongst the bound piles of cash and files of documents, was another burlap bag. Dakota snatched it out, slammed the metal door, and spun the lock. “Umm, think we should have checked it before you shut the safe? Pity if you have to do it again,” Ezekiel chided. She glared at him as she reached into the bag and pulled whatever was inside out. In her hand was an object similar to what they found in Memphis. Instead of an emerald wrapped in gold, it was a deep red ruby. “Holy shit,” Ezekiel muttered under his breath. Dakota dropped the ruby and burlap bag into the duffle then straightened herself until she was standing. “Let’s go. We’ll compare it to your sister-in-law’s photos when we get back to the truck.” He tapped the screen of his cell to extinguish the light. He hurried down the hall to the back door. As he ran, he listened for her footsteps behind him. Neither of them stopped until they were back outside of the building and around the corner away from the alley, “Look normal,” she murmured to him. “Considering what I am, that’s asking a lot,” he replied.
8 Comments
 Hi everyone! Welcome to Tuesday Tales! We are back with Ezekiel Hallow in Featherweight (Hallow Brothers 6). This week’s word prompt is “square”. **Warning - There is adult situations and adult language.** Don’t forget to check out the other awesome Tuesday Tales! Click here to take a look!  “The prodigal son,” Littlefoot greeted.
“Did my dad know that you betrayed our secret?” Ezekiel demanded. “Excuse me, Zeke? I never betrayed your father. He was my best friend.” “Well, I’m in Tennessee with your old Navy buddy, Eldon. He knows you. And he knows that your friend, Zane, was a werewolf.” There was silence. Finally Littlefoot spoke. “I talked to Zane before I told Eldon about him. Eldon told me of the network he had become a part of. It consisted of mortals across the nation that shared reports of unusual activity to protect them from creatures that wanted to feed on them. I shared what I knew because the last thing your parents needed were vigilante hunters to find them.” Ezekiel shook his head. “He said you told him about the amulet. You made us believe that you didn’t know that the Book and amulet were related.” “I told him that Zane and Evelyn had a bauble full of power. It’s evident. You held it. It vibrates power and did before the Heka was part of our family. I didn’t know there was a correlation between the two until you boys figured it out.” Ezekiel scuffed at the dirt with the tip of his boot until it formed an almost perfect square. “Why am I learning about all this now? Why don’t any of my brothers know this?” “Because, Ezekiel, I made a promise to your father to protect you boys and your mother. I made little contact with Eldon after that. The best way to keep you all safe in my eyes was to keep you sequestered from the rest of the world. No one needed to know about you and the only ones who did know were sworn to protect you.” Ezekiel swallowed back the lump in his throat. “Yeah, okay.” “How are you? Your mother misses you terribly.” “I miss her too. I’ll be home soon.” “Before the full moon?” “Hopefully.” “What’s this I hear about you having a mate?” Ezekiel laughed. “Dakota. You’ll love her.” “I can’t wait to meet her.” Ezekiel started as he felt something touch him. He turned to find Dakota gazing up at him. She wrapped her arms around his waist. “She’ll be coming back with me. How are things at home?” He heard Littlefoot’s sigh. “We need you home soon. The vampires found a new way to reach your family. They’re sending their human minions in at all times of the day to infiltrate the camp. We’ve started making space for them at the reservation but with the change and the full moon, I don’t know how long it will work.” Ezekiel rubbed his forehead. “Shit.”  Hi everyone! Welcome to Tuesday Tales! We are back with Ezekiel Hallow in Featherweight (Hallow Brothers 6). This week is a picture prompt. **Warning - There is adult situations and adult language.** Don’t forget to check out the other awesome Tuesday Tales! Click here to take a look!  The lush green hills of farmland rolled past as the truck raced down the highway. Ezekiel grinned to himself as he felt his hand taken captive and small, but strong fingers encompass his.
This was the perfect life he dared not dream of. The woman he loved sat beside him as they drove. All they needed to do was find the book and he could take her home to start a family. Okay, yeah. They were on the brink of the apocalypse. And yeah, there were hoards of mythical creatures gunning for them. Still, what better time to have a baby? “Turn right here,” Ezekiel was pulled from his thoughts. He twisted the steering wheel to turn it down a gravel lane. “Why here?” “Mabel and Eldon are waiting for us. I sent them pictures of the emerald but they have no idea what it is either. Eldon wants a closer look at it.” “Eldon?” Ezekiel questioned as he glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. “The guy from the fire? Mabel was your waitress.” “Oh. The nice folks who brought us gasoline and matches so we could torch a house.” She smirked at him. “One in the same.” Weathered wooden fencing ran on either side of the road as they bumped along. An old farmhouse complete with chipping paint and a weather vane mounted to the top waited for them at the end. Ezekiel came to a stop between the home and a barn beaten hard by time and the Tennessee weather. In the distance he could see the two little girls who sat on his lap, the ones they had extracted out of that nightmare and turned over to Mabel and Eldon. He sighed as he smiled. It looked like they were adapting well to their new life.  Hi everyone! Welcome to Tuesday Tales! We are back with Ezekiel Hallow in Featherweight (Hallow Brothers 6). This week’s word prompt is “pink”. **Warning - There is adult situations and adult language.** Don’t forget to check out the other awesome Tuesday Tales! Click here to take a look!  “What’s this I hear about you taking out a vampire kingpin?” Josiah demanded, his voice loud and crisp through the speaker.
“We think we did,” Dakota corrected. “Wait, who…” “Dakota, Josiah. Josiah, Dakota. I do more formal introductions when we get home,” Ezekiel responded. Dakota smirked at him. “Get home?” Ezekiel ran the tip of his tongue along his bottom lip. “Do you want to go back to your lonely life on the run? Or do you want to wake up next to me every morning?” Dakota’s heart fluttered in her breast at the sight. “You drive a hard bargain.” “Hey, can we get back to the vampire kingpin?” Josiah interrupted. “Save that crap for when I’m not listening on speakerphone.” “We followed Black to Memphis and found out he killed a jewelry shop owner and took over his store. His men went on a killing spree the night before we got there. We sort of broke into the store to see if the Book was there,” Ezekiel explained. “You broke in…” There was a long pause and a loud exhale. Josiah continued. “Did you find the Book?” “No, but we did find some weird emerald wrapped in gold. We took that. Dee is trying to research what it is.” “So what does this have to do with killing Black?” Dakota watched Ezekiel’s gaze dart to the ceiling. He wrung his fingers together in his lap as his cheeks tinged pink. What little she knew about her mate told her that he was about to get into trouble with his big brother. “I might have broke into the tanning salon next door to the jewelry store, stole the bulbs from the beds, and swapped them for the ones in the ballasts store,” Ezekiel confessed. “You what?” Josiah screeched. “Ezekiel Vespasian Hallow, what the fuck?” “Ezekiel Vespasian?” Dakota pried with a smirk. He shrugged. “Mom named us from the Bible, Dad was into Roman Emperors.” He turned his attention back to the phone. “The bloodsuckers turned the lights on when they got there. They only flashed before it blew the bulbs, but it was enough to nuke all of them including possibly Black. The jury is still out on him.”  Hi everyone! Welcome to Tuesday Tales! We are back with Ezekiel Hallow in Featherweight (Hallow Brothers 6). This week’s word prompt is “bum”. **Warning - There is adult situations and adult language.** Don’t forget to check out the other awesome Tuesday Tales! Click here to take a look!  Dakota slowly sat up and wrapped her arms around his shoulders as she laid her head against his back. She felt him caress her arm with the hand not holding the cell.
“Looks like I better let you go,” Delilah remarked. “Before you two get all frisky on me.” “Nah, not at the moment,” Ezekiel answered. He glanced over his shoulder at Dakota with a grin. “Let me introduce you to Dakota.” She sat up a little taller as he raised his phone. A auburned hair beauty was on the screen. “Hi, Dakota. My name is Delilah. I am married to Sam, the third oldest Hallow. I’m also married to Henry. Welcome to the family.” Dakota waved at the screen. “Hi. I’m Dakota. I met this bum in a bar. He was about to get his ass kicked by a bunch of vampires until I got there. I basically saved his life.” “Hey, now,” Ezekiel protested. “I was holding my own.” She noticed Delilah giving him the same smug look she was.” “I’ll go look into this and let you two get back to mating. I remember those days.” “I think we’re about to hit the road again. It’s about time for check out. We took out a vampire criminal kingpin so we need to put about as many miles between us and Memphis as we can before his hoards find us.” “We think we did,” Dakota corrected. We caught Ezekiel’s quick glare as Delilah responded. “You did what?” “Gotta go. Love ya, Sis. Talk to you soon.” Ezekiel tapped the screen to end the call. When the screen went blank he let out a heavy sigh. “What was that about?” Dakota pried. Ezekiel tossed the cell on the bed. “I probably should have kept what we did under wraps. I should have kept my mouth shut.” “Why is that?” The phone lit up answering his question. The sound of a drill sergeant barking out orders filled the tiny hotel room. Ezekiel pointed around the phone. “That. That’s the reason.”  Hi everyone! Welcome to Tuesday Tales! We are back with Ezekiel Hallow in Featherweight (Hallow Brothers 6). This week’s word prompt is “flower”. **Warning - There is adult situations and adult language.** Don’t forget to check out the other awesome Tuesday Tales! Click here to take a look!  She shook her head. “I don’t know. I just think we should be...aware.”
“I get that.” He pointed across the booth beside her. She followed where he gestured. The burlap bag sat at her hip on the bench. She refused to leave it in the truck. In fact, she wouldn’t let it go until their food was served. He continued. “I want to know what that is and why the vamps want it so bad.” She sighed. “Me too. I can ask around to my sources. It might take awhile.” He shoved another bite of stew in his mouth. At least he waited to swallow before he spoke. “Or we video chat my sis-in-law when we get somewhere more private and she’s awake. She’s an archeologist. She held the Book at one point.” “Wow.” Dakota was distracted enough to scoop a piece of cheesecake onto her fork and into her mouth. “So where do you suggest we go for privacy?” “Let’s find a room,” he suggested. She cocked a grin at him. “Again with the money,” “Give me this. Tomorrow night I promise we’ll sleep under the stars.” She laughed as she took another bite of her dessert. Dakota tucked the bag with the trinket inside her coat as Ezekiel paid the check. He took her hand as she scooted across the bench and followed him out of the diner to the truck. They drove a few more miles until they found a motel on the side of the road. It looked almost identical to the one they stayed in while they were in Memphis except for the beds of flowers outside the office. She clung to the bag as Ezekiel hurried in to find a room. She didn’t miss that he locked the door after him. She smiled a little. Her big bad werewolf was protecting her even in the littlest of ways. It was only a minute or two when he was back at the passenger side door, a rusty key in his hand. He waited for her to pop the lock open then offered his hand to her. Ezekiel winked at her. “Ready for some answers? And sleep? And, you know, me?”  Hi everyone! Welcome to Tuesday Tales! We are back with Ezekiel Hallow in Featherweight (Hallow Brothers 6). This week is a picture prompt. **Warning - There is adult situations and adult language.** Don’t forget to check out the other awesome Tuesday Tales! Click here to take a look!  The little diner was empty at two in the morning. Dakota didn’t even know where in the hell they were. She stabbed at the lone little piece of cheesecake in front of her but didn’t take a bite. She should have been ecstatic. It was over. Black was dead. It just seemed too easy. Deep in her core she knew the worst was still coming. Her stomach flopped in response leaving her feeling sick. She dropped her fork on the wood plank table and pushed the sugary treat away from her. Ezekiel looked up from his mini cast iron pot of beef stew and stared at her, his eyes wide while his spoon hung from closed lips. He popped the spoon free from his mouth with a comedic pop and buried it back in the pot. “What?” he pried. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she returned defensively. “You are turning down perfectly good cheesecake. Something is up.” She huffed. “Do you really think we killed Black?” He shrugged one should. “I have to admit. The quick life of those bulbs worried me. I was afraid they wouldn’t work. But Dakota, the amount of dust we found in that store afterwards meant we had to have fried what, two dozen bloodsuckers? Whatever vampire was in there is gone now.” She pressed her lips tight. “What if Black wasn’t in there?” Ezekiel shook his head as he tore off a piece of cornbread on the plate next to his pot of stew. He dunked it into the thick liquid then popped it into his mouth. Wow. He was such a guy. “Where else would he be?”   Hi everyone! Welcome to Tuesday Tales! We are back with Ezekiel Hallow in Featherweight (Hallow Brothers 6). This week’s word prompt is “dirt”. **Warning - There is adult situations and adult language.** Don’t forget to check out the other awesome Tuesday Tales! Click here to take a look!  Ezekiel shot out the door before she could protest further, letting it slam shut behind him. She huffed instead as she looked at the empty jewelry store around her. The smell of death was getting a little much to take. She retreated down the hall to the door the direction Ezekiel had gone.
Dakota propped the door open with her body as she waited for her lover to return. They were the worst thieves imaginable. The only reason they weren’t busted was that this particular neighborhood in Memphis was now a ghost town courtesy of Black and his cronies. She fought back a shiver but it resonated through her anyway. How long would it be before the rest of the city would follow? She pried open the bag to distract herself from her thoughts. She gasped as her eyes grew wide. Inside sat a deep green, almost forest colored, emerald. It shouldn’t have surprised her since they found it in a jewelry store. However, the gold encasement surrounding it meant it had no place in that business. It must have at one time been out for display. A small pile of dirt nestled in the corner of the burlap. It looked too clean and polished to have come from an archeological site. The whole thing was bizarre. Considering what she chose to do for a living, that said a lot. “Whatcha’ got there?” Dakota’s heart almost exploded through her chest. She jerked her head up to find Ezekiel standing there, his arms laden with long fluorescent bulbs. “I’ll show you later. What the hell are you doing with those?” She pointed to his new treasures. “I told you. Remodeling. Are you going to let me in or are we waiting for Mister Friendly Policeman to wander by and arrest us?” She shuffled her feet back until the door opened enough for him and his load to slip by. She followed, securing the door behind them. Her eyes watered as she gagged. Nope, the scent was no better. She hoped he hurried. She set the bag down on the counter and scooped up a bulb as he scooted the ladder under the first ballast. He hurried up it, pried the bulbs from it then handed them to her. Once she had them secured, he took the ones she offered to him. “I still don’t get it,” she pried. He popped a new bulb into place. “Simple. What are these used for?” “For people to suntan indoors.” “Which means they have UV light built into them. If everything goes according to my plan, Black and his crew arrive tonight, they’ll flip the switch and go up in flames. Instant sunny day inside. Easy peasy.”  Hi everyone! Welcome to Tuesday Tales! We are back with Ezekiel Hallow in Featherweight (Hallow Brothers 6). This week’s word prompt is “careless”. **Warning - There is adult situations and adult language.** Don’t forget to check out the other awesome Tuesday Tales! Click here to take a look!  Dakota stopped for a moment to listen for any beeping. The room was oddly silent. There was the smell of iron and the onset of decay in the air but no sign of an alarm. She glanced around for a sign of life. The place was as empty as it appeared outside. The roll of carpet left a small corridor to slip through to get to the back.
From the center of the crimson and gold roll she could see a pudgy, limp hand adorned with gold rings. Dakota covered her mouth with her fingers as the urge to gag overwhelmed her. She had seen dead people before. This one unsettled her for some reason. Maybe it was because he never saw what was coming. “Fuck.” The word was an exhale from Ezekiel’s lips. “Yeah. Guess we know why this was such an easy buy for Black,” she replied. “Kind of careless, isn’t it?” “Black is an arrogant bastard. I doubt he thinks we’re smart enough to follow him much less find him. And the humans around here think vampires are fairy tales. Ignorance works in his favor.” There was silence for a reply. Dakota slowly turned back to find Ezekiel staring at the ceiling. “What are you thinking?” she pried. “I’m about to make Black swallow his arrogance and it’ll be the last meal he ever has.” Ezekiel scooted around her and shimmed past the carpet. Reaching into the open safe, he snatched the burlap bag sitting inside. He handed it to her with a wink. “Hold onto that. I need to break into another business.” She scowled at him as she hugged the bag to her chest. She could feel something hard with ridges inside. It didn’t feel like a book. “Where the fuck are you going?” “The tanning salon next door is closed, too. A note on the door says it will be until further notice. Either the bloodsuckers offed the owner of that place also or whoever works there is too afraid to come back. I’m going to borrow the bulbs from the beds for the night then do a little remodel over here. It’ll be Black’s going out of business sale.”  Hi everyone! Welcome to Tuesday Tales! We are back with Ezekiel Hallow in Featherweight (Hallow Brothers 6). This week’s word prompt is “skinny”. **Warning - There is adult situations and adult language.** Don’t forget to check out the other awesome Tuesday Tales! Click here to take a look!  Ezekiel glanced on either side of him down the alley before he slipped the nail file into the lock. He jiggled the skinny piece of metal as he tuned his senses into his work. He listened for a click as he poked the tip of the blade into the heart of the knob.
“A werewolf who picks locks. Who would have thunk?” Dakota joked. He pressed his ear to the cool metal of the door to hear better. “My two oldest brothers had the porn. Our cabins are usually kept open to each other. They were smart enough to keep that stuff under lock and key probably because Momma would have taken them behind the woodshed if they got caught with it. So the other five of us got really good at lockpicking so we could ‘borrow’ what they had without them knowing.” He could tell she was stifling a laugh. “You ‘borrowed’ their porn?” He shrugged. At the same time he heard the lock give. He stood then twisted the knob to open the door. “I was a horny teenager with little access to girls. What did you expect?” Dakota smirked at him. “Still watching the porn now?” He gestured for her to go inside. “With you, baby? I’m never going to need it again. If we do go our separate ways, which we won’t, the past few days will fuel any fantasy I could conjure up until I’m dead.” Her cheeks tinged pink at his words as she stepped into the store. “You see so confident that we’re going to stay together. We barely know each other.” “Mating bond, remember? I’ve seen the effects when it’s been denied. Besides, you can’t get enough of me. I’m too adorable to deny. Now, we might want to get a move on it. Every jewelry store I know of has an alarm system and we probably already tripped it.” She frowned as she looked back at him. “How many jewelry stores could you possibly know, Mister Hallow?” He followed her inside, letting the door shut behind him. “The ones in the movies. Move it.” |
Archives
July 2020
Categories |
RSS Feed