"It's no gift, it's a curse." Kratos said, resting his head on the chair.
I watched him, my gift wasn't exactly… well, sometimes I definitely wished that I didn't have it.
"How… how does yours work?" I asked.
He closed his eyes, "I focus intently on someone and I can find something, I call it an opening, and then I simply break through it."
"Hm, what you call an opening I call a channel. I can sense-" I paused as I attempted to count all of the channels around me, "Heh, too many to count. I can sense a lot anyway, and I don't have to break through them."
"And you can sense them twenty-four/seven?"
I nodded, "Yep."
"Interesting, that's worse than mine. Can you read their thoughts?" He asked, stroking his chin.
"Not their thoughts exactly but I can read their feelings and abstract thoughts, I guess."
"And you can only sense Lycans?"
I narrowed my eyes and licked my lips, "Yes, only Lycans." I lied.
"Ha! You are a terrible liar." He laughed, pointing his index finger at me.
I looked away and chuckled myself, this man, I felt very relaxed around him, maybe I shouldn't but it was a bit of a relief that I'd found someone with a gift so similar to mine.
"And, what about your mate? Is it different with him? Any changes with your mark?" He asked, leaning on his desk.
I thought about this, the question felt personal but I would answer it anyway, "His channel's just different. It's hard to explain, it stands out more and it's a little easier to talk to him but other than that, no. What about you and your mate?"
His face darkened, "I have no mate, she died quite a few years ago."
I swallowed, "I'm sorry."
Kratos just nodded and resumed his normal, casual demeanour, "Now, about my brother's proposal… what do you know?"
I sat back down in the tan chair, and said, "Nothing." I knew that it was clearly related to the Haven and Charm but other than that, he wanted forces to protect the Haven maybe, I dunno, I'll just wait till it all comes out.
"Nothing?" He chuckled, "Nothing? You've got to be joking!"
I shook my head, "I'm not."
He stopped and looked at me confused, "Why would you trust him?"
I shrugged, "Not sure. He's given me plenty of reasons not to, but then again, he's given me plenty of reasons to. Trust him." I added and shook my head at the ridiculousness of my answer with a smile.
"That's what I call blind loyalty." He scoffed.
"It's not blind," I retorted, "It's… just loyalty. I doubt he'll do anything horrible though, with his plan I mean."
Kratos regarded me one last time, "Well, that is Thresh."
I smiled, "Will you help?"
"Yes, I believe I will, if you have lunch with me." He smiled charmingly and I laughed rolling my eyes.
"Fine, but only if Thresh is okay with it."
~~~~~~~~~
Thresh was, as long as he came with.
Kratos brought us to a karaoke bar.
One thing I knew about Montreal but hadn't fully realized, was that everyone speaks French here, and I mean like everyone. I don't speak French and Kratos said that it's considered a little rude if you don't speak French first.
I scrunched my nose looking at the menu, I recognize very little words.
"Ooh! Hey, I saw water." I said, and then sighed, water is a very simple word that I would read on labels almost everywhere, l'eau, "Is there any like, fish chips here?"
"Uh…" Kratos hummed as he surveyed his menu, "Ah. Yes, right there." He pointed to a line of script.
"Alright then, that's what I'll be having." I put my menu down and began sipping my water.
People after people climbed onto the small stage and sang, in French of course. I even recognized one of the songs, but it was in French.
"Do you sing?" I heard Kratos ask.
I looked over at him, We were sitting in a booth Thresh was next to me and Kratos across from us.
"Yes, but not in French, I mean I can Lafayette's part in, uh, Hamilton but other than that…" I smirked, shaking my head and looked back at the stage.
"You can change it to English." He said.
"Hm." Was my reply. Might be fun to sing.
Our food arrived and I ate a very, very greasy fish'n'chips, the one back home is so much better. Which reminded me of having lunch with Raph, I sighed. I missed him.
It wasn't really lunchtime anymore, it was around three-thirty now.
After a quick run to the washroom I came back and sat in my seat.
"Why don't you go sing, the stage is empty." Kratos asked, taking a sip of his iced tea.
"Eh, ha ha, yeah no. I, um, I don't think so." I replied nervously.
"Oh, come on. I'm sure you're not bad, Thresh is she bad?"
We both looked at Thresh who had been very quiet the whole day, "She has talent." He bit out.
"See, even Thresh agrees with me. So, take your jacket off and hop on up there."
I laughed and licked my lips, rolling my eyes, this man was something else that's for sure. But, he was fun.
"Fine. But you can't laugh, or make fun of me once I'm done." I jutted my finger at each of them.
Kratos raised his hands, "Yes, ma'am."
I giggled at his words and shuffled out of the booth, then nervously walked to the stage. After scrolling through the listings I finally found a song that I knew. I smiled happily as the beginning began to play.
One of my many favourite movies and a pretty awesome song, the beginning of Footloose began to play.
After finishing I sat back down and tucked my hair behind my ears nervously. Thresh had left sometime in the middle of the song.
"You, madam, were absolutely wonderful. Could you please sing another one?" Kratos said, swinging his arm around my shoulder casually. A strange gesture but it didn't bother all too much.
"Ow." I hissed, the mark on my shoulder suddenly hurt.
"What?" He asked alarmed.
"My mark," I inhaled sharply touching the now sore spot, "It hurts."
I looked over at Kratos, his bright eyes serious.
"What does it-? What?" I asked.
"It means your mate is in trouble." He said gravely with his bright eyes watching me intently.
I felt like a bucket of cold water had dropped on me, I scrambled out of my seat quickly.
Sprinting to try and find Thresh, his channel was not far.
"Thresh. Thresh!" I yelled, trying not to call too much attention to myself.
His back came into view and I tapped, more like hit, his shoulder.
"Thresh, something's wrong." I said.
He turned, turning his phone off, "Yes, we do have a problem. How did you know?"
I blinked and took a step back, "My mark, it hurt. What do you know?"
"Raphael went missing an hour ago and nobody can find him."
Another bucket came crashing down and I felt like I was suffocating, "We need to go."
"I agree."
After telling Kratos that we had to leave, Thresh didn't give him a reason but I knew that Kratos probably had a good idea.
Kratos gave me a tight hug then a kiss on the cheek, "I'm sure you'll find him, wish you the best of luck, see you in a month." He waved us goodbye and we hurriedly left.
Thresh finally gave me my phone back and I tried Raph's just in case and got a message, "Brooke, love. There was another two bodies found, I'm going with the Alpha here and his Gamma to investigate, call me back when you get this. I'm worried about you." He sighed and I swallowed hard, "I love you."
My heart squeezed and my eyes welled with tears, 'I love you too.'
It wasn't worry that was in the forefront of my mind, but fear and dread. I had a sinking feeling the El-kor might be involved. He hurt my mate and there was nothing I could do.
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