The Five Horsemen Book 1: Death Warmed Over

Chapter 13

Zephirah POV

It has been a few days since we all woke up to the ‘big s**t show’, and my siblings and I fell into a rhythm. After my sister and brother had killed all the people with guns, the hallway, and the area around us cleared out. Whoever was in charge only sent in a few people once to see us. It did not go well for them. They didn’t come in with guns, no. Much worse in fact, they came with medical supplies and equipment. They were “wondering if we would be willing to donate some samples for them to study while we waited for Hemy to wake up.”

While my sister didn’t fully shift into War, she did let him out to play with them. I admit, I was a little jealous. Fam didn’t want to play like the others, or at all. He barely spoke to me at all. He was content to nap and “hibernate” as he put it, while my siblings bonded more with their Horsemen. It seemed like after the initial wake up call, aka him killing everyone trying to hurt me, he was kinda ignoring me. I felt hurt, but he didn’t seem to notice. He put up mental shields around his own mind and just shut me and Mari out. I could tell his actions hurt her too and she and I have bonded over that.

What my siblings don’t know, other than my Horseman not caring about me, is that me and Mari, have been shifting in secret. We shift in our bathroom so no one sees, and the shower is on to prevent major fires… “Bruuurreee!” I heard Mari chirp at me in my mind, she and I didn’t use shields with one another. Fam gave us all the cold shoulder and we didn’t want that with each other. I could understand her chirps now, it was absolutely awesome! It was like she and I had our own language, speaking of, turns out the Horsemen knew every language anything or anyone has ever spoken. They, now I guess we, have this cool ability to hear someone speak a language once and it will automatically translate in our brain. My sister Emm pointed out it was like the Tardis from ‘The Doctor’. It’s a really cool thing that we can do, even with other species, like the Fae apparently. They have so many languages because there are so many different types some have their own languages in families so tat their enemies can’t understand them and their plots against them. Weird flex but whatever floats their boat and all that.

Knowing all of these languages has helped bridge the gap between Mari and I, which is how I know her chirping at me whenever I think about the accidental fire, she’s basically telling me to ‘f**k off, it was an accident. Let it go already.’ I don’t mean to keep thinking about it, she knows this. It’s just hard qnnot to, not only due to the scorch marks on the wall…and floor…and ceiling, but because it’s just that funny! I still remember her flapping around in a panic before I reminded her that she can control the flames and put them out. I could feel her embarrassment through our connection and when we meet in the meditative state we go into to meet with one another, I pet her pretty, soft, beautiful feathers and tell her I love her and everything is gonna be okay. She really likes it when I pet her feathers. She preens and basically purrs in contentment. We cuddle together until we fall asleep, I truly love her and the time we spend together.

“Enough of this bullshit. He is gonna talk to us whether he likes it or not. Think you can knock down those walls he put up in the meditative world we created?” I ask Mari, I am tired of his bad attitude. This has gone on long enough and I am sick of feeling rejected by my own counterpart.

“BRRRUUUUEEEE! (f**k yeah I can!) Mari chirps happily. After shutting the door to my room, the one I originally woke up in-thank the Gods the bodies were gone; turns out Phoenix fire will burn bodies without leaving a smell- and sat on my bed with my legs crossed. I closed my eyes and tried to relax. I pictured a “Living Space”; just an ordinary living room with a crème-colored couch with giant cushions to accommodate Fam, an arm chair in the same color, a light brown coffee table and 2 end tables for either side of the couch. White walls with dove grey trim, nothing fancy just basic stuff, and that was it, not even windows. I didn’t want to be distracted by anything, plus this was a mental space, not an AI generated home tour. I then envisioned a hallway off of the room to the right, It had 3 doors in it. 2 doors on the right, 1 down at the end facing me. That was the one that I was headed to. It was a black door with the paint chipping off, “Beware” and “Stay Out” stickers all over in varying phrases, caution tape diagonally across the door itself and a heavy ass chain in front of it, along with padlocks and deadbolts up and down the door. This is what I saw every time I came here. I heard nothing from the room, not even footsteps. I saw no lights on under the door, nothing. I took a deep breath, not just in mental space but real time too.

Here goes nothing I suppose. Mari flew up to land on my shoulder and nuzzled my left cheek in solidarity. I knocked on the door and waited. And waited some more. And a little longer. Ok, thanks it, I’m done being a push over and being ignored. I looked at Mari, “Your turn then.” Se fluffed up her feathers and looked back at the door with me, though I did have us take a few steps back first. I could feel the power and pressure building around me, then the door exploded inward.

“SON OF A b***h! WHAT THE f**k IS GOING ON?! I’M TRYING TO f*****g HYBERNATE AND MY GODS-DAMNED DOOR IS BLOWN OFF!!!!” That was all the warning we got before I was slammed in the wall behind me all the way into the living room with a hand around my throat and an extremely angry Apocalyptic Horsemans face only a few inches from my own. “Give me 1 reason I shouldn’t put you over my f*****g knee, pull your pants down and spank your ass raw until you can’t sit for a month!” Fam growls. Ok, now is not the time to become very horny, but what he said literally made me drenched in seconds, plus that growl went straight to my c**t. His hand on my throat was making me want to whimper in pleasure and submit too, so that was also a problem. I needed to have a serious conversation with him, not let him f**k my brains out. Although, I’m not exactly opposed to it. Let’s face it, the man was a God in looks, I didn’t know what the others looked like since none of us have shifted into them to ensure the military can’t figure anything out, or risk us getting blown up; but this man was over 7ft tall with broad shoulders but a lithe build, like a swimmers body but still more muscular than the average swimmer. Gold eyes that were sparkling, red and gold thick, wavy hair down to the middle of his back in multiple Viking braids, and a small white scar over his left eyebrow next to a piercing I wanted to lick for some reason. He was staring at me with anger as he waited for me to answer him, and when I didn’t, he inhaled as he opened his mouth to probably yell again when he froze. His expression went from anger, to confusion, to surprise and landed on banked heat with a glint in his eyes that said he liked what he scented. It was at that moment that I remembered that they all have advanced senses, including smell. Well, f**k it, he knows now.

“I wanted to know why you don’t like me and won’t bond with me like my siblings have with their Horseman counterparts. You didn’t answer after I knocked for the last few days. Ignoring me, will not make me go away here, just tell me why you don’t like me. Please.” I said, but ended on a whisper from trying to keep the tears away. I could feel my eyes getting misty and told myself not to cry in front of him. His face fell, and he let go of my neck and took 2 steps back.

“You think I don’t like you? Zephirah…. I LOVE you. That’s why I am trying to keep my distance. The last person I bonded with, a male siren, I ended up killing him because I didn’t keep my distance. I didn’t notice at first, but he started skipping meals every now and then. Then one meal a day turned into two, he always had an excuse too. He was busy, he wasn’t hungry- even though I could feel that he was-, so on and so on. The excuses became more frequent until one day I looked back at his memories and saw that he hadn’t eaten food in three weeks and hadn’t feed on a human in months. He died of starvation. Me! I killed him with my powers because they slowly consumed him! My powers killed someone I loved and after that happened, I looked back at all the one’s I have embodied since the beginning, and it was all the same. I just didn’t notice because he was the first one I embodied that I loved. I’ve loved before, but never one I’d bonded to. Being bonded to me is extremely risky, I will eventually kill you, I’m just trying to make sure you live longer first. I am so sorry, I never wanted you to know this part of me. I’m sure you are horrified now and I completely understand. I will go back to being by myself, here in this mental space to avoid anything bad happening and to give you space. I’m so sorry Zaphirah, I never meant to hurt you, I just wanted to save you, from me.” He ended his explanation on his knees, crying, with his arms wrapped around himself like he was trying to keep from falling apart even more. Even kneeling on the ‘ground’ of the space, he was as tall as I was hunched in on himself.

I don’t know if it was the heartfelt confession of him loving me and trying to not hurt me, or the fact that there was just something sexy about a grown man, supernatural or not, cry out his feelings without shame, but I stepped up to him as he continued to sob and wrapped my arms around his head. He startled a bit and stiffened, but he eventually sagged in my arms and wrapped his arms around my waist and up my back, clinging for dear life and sobbed harder. I just whispered soft affirmations, letting him know I wasn’t mad or upset with him, he was okay, everything was going to be okay. And it was, I didn’t know how I knew, I just did.

“Bruueeeh!” Mari called out from behind me. (Having me as your shifter half will prevent him from killing you. I am a phoenix, my powers with keep him from accidentally starving you. There is no worry here.) I couldn’t have been happier, Fams head came up slowly and with red rimmed eyes and a tear-streaked face asked, “Did she say what I think she said?” I nodded my head and squealed in happiness as he picked me up around the waist and started spinning us in circles whopping for joy. Best news EVER!!