Dark Moon (ManxMan)
Chapter 3

There's something about Cobie and Colson just couldn't tell what exactly it was. It's three in the morning and Colson can't sleep, he had spent the night tossing and turning, waiting for Michel but the Beta doesn't show. Colson pulls on his onesie, pull the hood over his head so the fluffy ears could show. He quietly made he way down the stairs, careful to make his heart as quiet as he could. When he stepped into the kitchen he replaces Cobie rummaging through the fridge, a bowl of yogurt, marmalade and Colson made a face when Cobie pulled out a jar of pickles.

"Don't be a creep, Colly." Cobie called from inside the fridge. Colson doesn't bother asking how he knew he was there, he made his way to the cupboards and grabbed a bag of chips.

"Why we you up?"

"Couldn't sleep. Too hot and too cold plus I was hungry." Cobie said as he set his ingredients on the table. He poured a spoon of marmalade onto the fourth and grabbed a pickle, he dipped it into the yogurt and took a bite. "That's nasty, even for you Cobie." Colson gagged, sticking his tongue out as he did so. "Why the hell are you eating this shit?"

"Felt like." Cobie said. "Why are you up?"

"Couldn't sleep."

"You spent the whole day with Aetos yesterday." Cobie states and Colson nods. "Are you going to start treating him like a decent person?"

"I'll think about it. I like his house, I like his food. It might take me a while to like his as a person." Colson truthfully says, he has never lied nor kept anything away from Cobie, well, beside his and Michel's after hours activities. "Take your time. He's not going anywhere."

"He's not the one I want to spend time with." Colson says and Cobie waved a yogurt covered pickle at him and shakes his head.

"Michel isn't it."

"We don't actually know that."

"Colson. I love you and I want the best for you and the last thing I want is to see you hurt. What if down the line you and Michel end up dating then he feels the mating pull with Gabriel and claims him instead? What if on the day of your own claiming ceremony, he feels the pull with Gabriel and claims him instead? How would you feel?"

It hurts. It felt he he had been shot and stabbed at the same time, he felt like he was about to thrown up too. He looks away from his brother to the table.

"I don't want him to hurt you and if he does, I'm going to shank that asshole. I'll personally press my gun to his mouth and pull the trigger or even better..." Cobie smiles. "I could make the air around him thick and watch him struggle to breathe."

Colson winced at the visual, he eyed his brother carefully to make sure he hadn't missed anything. Something felt different. "What's going on with you?"

"Erik and I were trying to replace out who exactly this Baba person is but we have nothing to work on. We only have that one suicide case." Cobie said before taking another bite of his nasty snack. "He's been on edge ever since and nothing calms him down."

"Not even a good sexing?" Colson teases, wiggling his brows.

"Oh no, that works. It works a lot." Cobie chuckles to himself and Colson starts gagging again. "What are you, 12? You asked me a question."

"A yes or no answer was required not something that would require me using mind bleach." Colson replied, shoving a handful of chips into his mouth, munching on it aggressively.

"Then don't ask me sex questions."

"Well, fuck you too."

"Real mature, Colly."

Colson stuck his tongue out at his brother like the matured man he was. The siblings talked for a while, munching on their snacks. A few minutes later, Erik walked into the kitchen and falls into place at Cobie's side. "Can't sleep?" The Alpha asked Colson before turning to press a kiss to Cobie's head.

"Nope." Colson replied as he stood up from the chair. He made his way over to the bin and trashed his empty bag of chips. Watching Erik and Cobie made him feel lonely, he longed for the kind of relationship they had.

Even now, Colson watched as Cobie raised his pickled nonsense to Erik's mouth and the alpha just ate it, no arguments, no struggle.

"I'm going to bed now." Colson tells them. He watched as they nod, Erik's. Ode pressed against Cobie's neck as if he was breathing him in and he probably is.

"Bye, bro."

"Never say that again." Colson shakes his head at his brother. He walked out of the kitchen and made his way up the stairs, to his room and fell back onto the bed. The clock on the wall reading four thirteen. He rolled onto his side and stared at the wall. He can't spend his days at the pack house with nothing to do. He needed a job, something to take his mind off the many things plaguing it.

Colson doesn't realize he was so close to falling asleep. He fell asleep with his hands tucked under his head and his body coiled. Alone.

"I want to go and see a movie." Colson tells Aetos. They're in the kitchen and the vampire was making omelettes.

"What movie?"

"I don't know. I'll just close my eyes and pick a random one." Colson said, his cheek resting on his palm, elbow on the table as he watched the vampire move.

"Are you going alone?"

"I'll ask Cobie but I don't know if that's a good idea. He cried this morning he found out there was no Cheerios." Colson said with a light frown. He would have to speak to Erik about Cobie's weird habits.

"I can't believe none of you have noticed yet." Aetos says with the shake of his head.

"Notice what? What do you know?"

"I'm an old man, I know a lot of things."

Colson rolled his eyes at the vampire. He knew he should ask and he wanted to. However, before he could Randall walked into the kitchen.

"Good morning."

Colson raised his cup of tea to the Omega who grabbed a box of cocoa pops. Aetos placed the eggs onto the plate and slid it towards Colson, who dug in.

"I want eggs too."

"You snooze, you lose." Colson said to Randall who shook his head at him, albeit fondly. Aetos sat down across Colson, a glass of lemonade in front of him. "Do you actually enjoy things that aren't blood?"

"On occasion."

"I have... so many questions." Colson says, a small smile playing on his lips.

"I have a lot of time." Aetos says, the for you, silent and loud. Not loud enough though because Colson doesn't hear it or even feel it. When Randall takes his seat, the conversation picks up. Several pack members walked into the room, preparing breakfast and taking a seat.

It had taken a while for Colson to be used to this many people at once. All of them coming and going and they were all tactile, touching and holding onto themselves either by the sleeves or the shoulder, elbow or even hair ruffles. Colson loses his appetite when Gabriel walked into the room. He looked spectacular in a blood red velvet dress that stopped mid thigh and white sneakers, a small cap on his hair. Colson drops his fork onto the plate and stood up. He didn't want to compare himself to Gabriel, that was the last thing he wanted to do. He drops his plate into the sink and made his way back to his room, looking right in front of him and ignoring the urge to look at Aetos. Colson she's his clothes when he got to his room and made his way to the bathroom. He stared at his reflection in the mirror, the hickeys on his chest had faded and it felt like everything that happened between him and Michel had been a dream. But he knew better. He knew it wasn't.

He had his bath, enjoyed the feel of warm water on his skin. He pulled on a pair of dark jeans with rips on the knees. He grabbed a beanie and slammed it onto his hair, his phone and wallet and walked out of his room.

He needed to leave. It felt like his heart was being squeezed and can't place the feeling he has whenever he looks at Gabriel. A quiet voice at the back of his mind says it's grief but Colson doesn't want to accept it.

He slid on his earphones and got on the sidewalk, slipping his phone into his pocket. Joyner Lucas' voice blocking out his thoughts. Colson looked at the sky, humming along with the song, his hands in his pockets, one folding around his phone.

He stops at the stand and waited for the traffic lights to turn red so he could walk across. He was half way through the zebra crossing when a Lexus sped down the street, Colson as well as some of the pedestrians jumping out of the way. The car looked like it was out of control and there was a driver in it.

Colson doesn't hesitate to run towards it, two other people behind him. Before they got to the car, it swerved and hit one of the poles.

The other cars were at a stand still at the other side of the crossing, everyone piling into the street to get a closer look at what happened.

The front of the car was severely damaged, the windscreen broken. Colson pulls open the door and stared at the man inside it. The man was bleeding from a large cut i his head and from where a piece of the windscreen had pierced his chest, his eyes were pitch black, looking at them felt like looking into the empty, his expression sending chills through Colson's body and he was crying.

"Hey... can you hear me? I'm going to move you. Does anywhere besides your head and your chest hurt?" Colson said as he tries to move the man.

"He's coming. We are going to fall."

"Who is coming?"

"He's coming." The man repeats. "Baba's coming."

The man's head lolled to the side and his chest went still. Colson immediately placed his hand on the man's chest, looking for a heartbeat. The man had died with his eyes open.

"Excuse us, sir."

Colson moves away so the paramedics could get to the man. He had said Baba was coming and it sends chills down Colson's back. Two people have died because of this Baba person and no one seemed to know who it was. "Are you alright?" One of the paramedics asked s d Colson nods. He explains to them and the pack warriors who had arrived what he had seen. The warriors listened to him and too down notes.

When Colson turns around, he sees Aetos trying to make his way through the crowd. His legs immediately began to move until he was right in front of Aetos who pulls him into a hug. "You're okay..."

"I am." Colson said, squeezing his eyes shut.

"Erik is on his way with Cobie. Your heart was beating so fast, we thought you might have been..." the vampire cuts off, his voice going scratch towards the end.

"I'm fine. It happened right in front of me so I was a little scared." Colson replied, his voice coming off as a whisper. It was then that he noticed his hands were shaking and his head felt heavy.

He stays in Aetos' arms until he could hear Cobie scream his name as he made his way through the crowd, Erik right behind him. Aetos lets go of Colson so Cobie could hug his brother. "You're okay..."

"You've gotta stop freaking out." Colson tells his brother, earning a pinch to the side from Cobie who was close to tears.

"I can't lose you, Colly. I just got you back."

Colson pulls back and takes Cobie's hand in his, he pressed his brother's hand to his chest, right where his heart was and looked right at Cobie.

"See?" Colson said. "I'm fine. I'm not going any where. I just got you back too and I'll be damned if I ever leave."

It takes Cobie a while to calm down, Erik's arm around his waist. Once Cobie was calm and could think clearly, the threat of tears gone, they got back to the issue at hand.

"The warriors said you witnessed it. The car almost hit you."

"All I know is the light turned red and I was about to cross when the car sped up, I jumped out of the way, the car went a few meters down before it swerved and hit the pole." Colson said, his arms crossed in front of him, hands tucked so Cobie wouldn't notice they were shaking.

"Did you see the man? Did you replace out what happened?"

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"The only words he said were: Baba is coming, he's coming." Colson tells them. Cobie frowned st the words and Erik lets out a loud growl.

"Do you reckon it was the same Baba the little kid was talking about?" Aetos asked and Colso shrugged.

"Did anyone see the little kids eyes after he died?" Colson asked.

"Michel and I did. His eyes were pure black, blending with his iris." Erik replied, a frown still on his face.

"Pretty sure, the John Doe's eyes were the same."

"One is an incident, two is a coincidence." Cobie said.

"I really hope there's no third one. Because three is a pattern." Colson sighs, he looks away from the people in front of him to the pole behind him where large wolves were trying to pull the damaged car away. Besides their eyes and words, he wondered what else these two events had in common.

The faster they replace it, the faster this shit would be solved.

"Let's get you both home." Erik says and Colson nods. He needs to be somewhere that wasn't the middle of the streets where a number of people were. Thankfully, Erik has parked somewhere close, so the walk to the car was short. Aetos pulled open the car door and Colson got it. On the ride back home, he couldn't get his hands to stop shaking, he tucked it between his legs and it still wouldn't stop.

He took it out, clenched and unclenched it and it still wouldn't stop. Colson goes still when he feels Aetos' cold hand on his. He wanted to tell the vampire to take his hand away but when he looks down he noticed his hand had stopped shaking. It was just resting against his legs, Aetos' hand on it.

Colson looks up from his hand and faced the vampire who was staring out the window. The sun gave him this soft glow and if Colson hadn't know this man beside him was a five hundred year old vampire, he'd think he was someone who just liked the feel of sunlight on their face.

Erik took a still emotional Cobie to his room while Aetos walked Colson to his, standing a bit at the back, he looked like he was ready to turn and walk away if Colson so much as says so. And he couldn't blame the vampire, could he? It's something he had been doing for months.

Now that he was slowly getting to know Aetos, he replaces himself wanting to know more about him. He wanted to know how different the vampire was compared to Michel. Ah shit. He shouldn't be doing this. He shouldn't be comparing the two men together.

"You have to rest. Maybe sleep a little and snack on something a little later." Aetos spoke once they got to the front of Colson's room.

Colson doesn't know what to say, so he settles for not saying anything at all. Aetos stood before him, his hands pushed into his pocket, looking even more handsome as ever. How had Colson not notice how dark his eyes are? "I could come back and make you something for dinner."

"Or you could come in and keep me company until I fall asleep." Colson offers. He doesn't give the vampire room to reject the offer. He just pushed open the door and walked in, Aetos coming in and closing the door behind him. "You can have a seat anywhere." Colson spread his hands out as he gestured at the entire room. "I just want to sleep for a while."

"You just want time to watch you sleep. You just want to fulfill your twilight fantasies. I'm not Edward, you know." Aetos teased as he falls onto a sofa, his long legs stretched out.

"Blah blah blah. Fuck you too."

Aetos shook his head at Colson. Colson on the other hand just raised up his duvet and slipped underneath. Talking with Aetos always seemed easy, the words just tumble out of his mouth. He looks away from his duvet to the vampire who was staring at him. Old habits die hard.

"Stop staring."

"I can't. You're too beautiful to not be stared at."

Colson's cheeks heat up at the compliment and his mouth quirks up by the sides in a smile. He grabs one of the pillows and aimed it at the vampire's head, chuckling at the sound the man had made.

"Silently be a cheese ball, I want to sleep."

Aetos laughs. He mimes zipping his lips and locking it. Colson gives him a thumbs up before rolling to his side, his hand tucked underneath the pillow and eyes slipping close. He felt calmer with Aetos in the room, safer. It causes a whole rush of feelings he couldn't explain.

He wasn't going to think now. No. He just wants to sleep.