Blood Brothers: A Short Story Exclusive Read Online Free PDF Page B

rumors,” Arthur said. “Dark stories of monsters and creatures of the night. None of it to be believed, of course. I suspect the stories are there to scare people away from the truth.”
    Arthur stared expectantly at Simeon, hoping to hear that truth.
    Instead, Simeon touched Christ’s face on the page with one curiously long fingernail. “There is much about the Sanguinists that defies belief.”
    Arthur did not know what to say to that, so he kept quiet.
    Simeon scratched his nail down the notebook page. “Show me what you already know.”
    Arthur handed him a folder of the manuscript he was working on, with notes scribbled to indicate where documents and pictures should be inserted.
    The man riffled through the pages swiftly, too fast to truly read it. “You have passed this along to no one?”
    “Not yet.”
    Simeon met his eyes for the first time. His eyes were brown and fringed by thick lashes, handsome eyes, but what struck Arthur most about them was that they did not blink. The hair rose on his arms, and he took a step backward from the man, suddenly realizing the prickling danger he had sensed earlier had come from this man, not from some hidden threat beyond his apartment.
    “You are close to the truth,” Simeon said, no longer hiding the menace in his presence, looming taller. “Closer than you know. Too close for our comfort.”
    Arthur took another step back. “The Belial . . .”
    “The Sanguinists defy us at every step, but that war must be kept secret.” Simeon stepped after him. “Our darkness cannot thrive in the light.”
    The buzz of a motorcycle on the street distracted Arthur. He glanced toward the sound—and Simeon was upon him.
    Arthur crashed painfully to the floor. Simeon pinned him there. Arthur struggled against him, but Simeon had an implacable strength that Arthur had only experienced once in his life—on the day Christian nearly killed him.
    “You want the truth,” Simeon said. “Here it is.”
    The man’s lips split to reveal sharpened teeth, impossibly long.
    He flashed to that moment with Christian, suddenly remembering what he blanked out, what his mind would not allow him to fully see.
    Until now.
    There were monsters in the world.
    Arthur redoubled his struggles, but he knew he was at his end.
    Then a crash of shattered wood and glass rose from his bedroom. He pictured his window exploding. But he was on the third story.
    Simeon turned as a dark shadow flew into the room, tackling the monster off Arthur. Gasping, Arthur crabbed on his hands and feet away from the fighting, backing into his study’s cold hearth.
    The war raged across the tight room, too fast to follow, a blur of shadows, accompanied by flashes of silver, like lightning in a thundercloud. The battle smashed across his desk and crashed into his bookshelf, scattering volumes across the floor.
    Then a feral scream, full of blood and fury.
    A moment later, a head bounced across his wooden floor, spilling black blood.
    Simeon.
    From beyond Arthur’s desk, a shadow rose and shed its darkness. The figure wore a black leather motorcycle jacket, open, revealing the Roman collar of the priesthood. He stepped around the desk, his pale face scratched, bleeding. He carried two short swords in his hands, shining like liquid silver, marred with the same black blood as seeped across the golden hardwood floor.
    Impossibly, the figure grinned at him, showing a familiar glint of rakish amusement in his green eyes as he sheathed the swords.
    “Christian . . . ?”
    Beyond fear now, Arthur gaped at his brother. Despite the passing of forty years, Christian was virtually unchanged, no more than a boy in appearance compared to Arthur’s lined and aged face.
    “How?” Arthur asked the mystery standing before him.
    But Christian only smiled more broadly, crossed over, and offered Arthur his hand.
    He took it, gripping his brother’s pale fingers, finding them cold and hard, like sculpted marble. As Arthur was pulled to