Changer's Blood (Balancer's Soul cycle) (31 page)

“Would you like to follow us to our house and get something to eat?” Sarah
invited
the two of
them
.

“I wouldn’t mind a snack
.” Mark said
,
looking at
her
.

Kara
looked at Sarah’s sincere expression
. “I missed lunch and I’m a bit hungry.”
Her
stomach rumbled at the perfect time.

“Follow us then.” Sara
h
said with a
loving
smile.

Connor
flew around to her side. He spun and said to Mark “We will need to fly low.” Mark nodded understanding it would be easier to spot three big flying objects higher in the sky rather than closer to
the ground
.

Both
Connor
and Sarah leaned forward and started flying at an angle
,
towards the trees and to their home.
Mark looked back and Kara
remembered to grab both
handles
of
his
split
mane as he maneuvered his wings into a shallow decent
to follow
the two flying Balancer
’
s before them
.

Mark flapped his enormous wings as he made it just above
the tree tops. It only took
two minutes to fly to their home rather than three hours by hiking on foot.
They
needed to fly more often
, she decided
.

Connor
and Sarah landed first into the clearing of their house.
From up here Kara
could see all the work
her
brother put into the house that he built for his wife.

Mark said “Hold on tight.” And
she
did
with a white knuckle grip
.

He t
ucked his left wing to alter their
course. He opened them
in a more
forward
direction
and held out his arms and legs as
they came close to the ground. They
were gliding slowly as
they
touched down. He skipped se
veral strides trying to slow their
speed
and not crash into anything important
. When
they
eventually
stopped
Kara
dismounted.

It took a minute to get
her
legs reoriented with the ground as Mark reared back on his back legs again.

Connor
walked up to
them
as
Kara
saw Sarah enter
ing
the cottage. He walked normally as if he didn’t get hurt. He handed
the archery
equipment
back with a smile. She
had to ask “Do all Balancer
’
s heal so quickly?”

He looked down at his ankle. “
No, but
Sarah and I also regenerate
much
quicker
than others
.”

“But not as quickly as we can.” Mark said
,
strutting up to
them
with his wings tucked in.

She
had a reasonable question. “Brother
,
if you can regenerate; why didn’t the brand on your chest disappear?”

He smiled at
her
and said softly “When I became what I am, my body could only fix new injuries
and
not old ones that have already healed. Jack is the same way. He has a scar from his past
,
that is still there, but if you look at his
left
arm you would have never guessed that it was completely severed
off
at one point.”
She
was shocked yet again.
Being an immortal must be amazing.

Mark cut in by adding for his kind
.
“Changers can also regenerate
, it takes no longer than five minutes to completely re-grow a lost limb. I
f we focus on closing the wound
it heals faster
. Or if we wanted we could keep it open
…
”
He said the second
sentence seriously.
Connor
nodded
,
understanding the two meanings behind keeping a wound open. To either change another or kill yourself
from blood loss
.

“Come on in you three!”
S
arah called from the front door. “Mark
,
if you want to come in you
will
have to get rid of those wings
.
I won’t have you wrecking my house or leaving feather debris that’ll need to be cleaned later.
” She added with a smile.

Connor
rubbed his chin. “I don’t know Princess. I wonder if we should batter them
up
and have
some
barbecue wings with supper.”

Mark
’
s eyes went wide and they suddenly started glowing.
H
is bones
began
snapping as his feathers started molting. Seconds later
,
his wings were no more.
She
could
n’t
help but laugh along with
Connor
and Sarah.
Kara
stared at one of his black feathers
a few moments later
. “Mark
,
your feather’s dissolving.”

“Of course it is.” He said
,
showing his canines. “When I shed anything off my body
,
it dissolves because I’m no longer a
part of it.
It’s the same way with my hair because
it
too will break down into the soi
l when I shed.
Without my blood it dies in a few minutes
”

Her
boyfriend changed back to his normal human self
before
they
entered the cottage.
She
saw that his black fur dissolved into the grass as well.

Sarah gave
Connor
a heaping tray of ground beef that he went o
utside to grill. S
he then
handed Kara
a knife and punchbowl full of mixed fruits. The bowl was filled with red and green apples, bananas,
peaches,
mango’s, honey
d
ews and other assorted fruits. She
started cutting up the fruit and put it
o
nto a serving dish.

Sarah’s hands blurred
into motion
as she cut up potatoes and started frying them in a skillet.
Her speed was amazing
to witness
, but Kara’s
motion sickness didn’t act up
this time
.

Mark head
ed
in and out the front door
,
carrying grilled me
at patties to which he slid between
hamburger buns.

When the last of the meat was cooked
,
Connor came in and put
Tool in a box and headed into the shower.
W
hen he came out
shirtless
,
he took over
Sarah’s job
and let her take a quick shower
.
A Balancer’s quick shower.

As
Sarah returned to the dining room
,
wearing clean clothes Kara
asked “Could I take a shower too?”

She
offered
a heartfelt smile. “Go ahead and you can borrow some of my clothes.”
Sarah
was always so nice and gracious.

Kara
took a hot shower and it pulled every knot out of
her
muscles. Apparently Mark wasn’t the best place to sleep on while he was flyi
ng. She
came out of the showe
r and went into their bedroom. Kara
ope
ned one closet and knew it was her
brother
’
s because it was filled with black sleeveless shirts
that were far too large
.
He never had much variety to the color scheme of his clothes. Kara
opened
up
her
sister-in-law
’
s a
nd surprise; it too was filled with smaller black shirts, but it had only six shirts that had a different color and none were pink.
She
also saw
Sarah’s
wedding dress tucked in a corner.
Sucking it up
Kara
borrowed a brown t-shirt and a pair of blue shorts.

She
needed more color variety in Kara’s
opinion.

When
Kara
re
entered the kitchen
,
the dining room table was
stacked with food. She
sat down next to
M
ark as the
other
couple sat together on the other side.
She
couldn’t see Sarah because of the mountain of hamburgers
. There were six bottles of soda and four glasse
s
filled with ice.
Why
i
s there so much food? Who could eat so much? They
are
probably going to give us some to take home
I bet
. That ha
s
to be it.
They
finally started eating.

Kara
became
full after three hamburgers and
six pieces of the mixed fruit.

She
watched
in awe
on how much
her new
family
really
needed to eat.

Kara
counted Sarah finishing
off
with eleven hamburgers, three plates of fried potatoes, four plates of fruit and she drank two of the two liter bottles of soda.

Mark ate fourteen burgers, one plate of potatoes and two plates of fruit. He also downed a full bottle of cola before
asking “Do you have any milk?”
Connor
pointed to the fridge with his thumb before continuing eating. Mark walked over and drank an entire gallon of milk
while
taking a breath only once before finishing it off.
As Mark sat down again
she
saw
her
brother finish off the rest of the table
.

Connor
ate a total of nineteen burgers, five plates of potatoes, seven plates of fruit an
d drank three bottles of cola. Kara sat wide eyed as she
stared at him.
I knew that he would be hungry from all he did, but this…
When he caught
her
gawking
he
asked
“What? Did I spill anything?”
Connor
rubbed his face and looked down. Not one of them made a single mess as they ate.

It wasn’t a disaster. It was a massacre of a meal.

“Are you all full yet?” Kara
asked them all.

They all shook their head saying
no
.

Kara
felt a wave of fear if any of them went to an all you could eat buffet.
The poor establishment would go bankrupt within hours.

Now that
Kara
could see Sarah’s head again,
she said softly “Anything we eat gets instantly converted into energy.” She stood up and lifted her shirt high enou
gh to show off
her flat belly.
If I ate eleven hamburgers I would look like I was four months pregnant.
And Kara
saw Sarah smiling at
her as she
knew she was reading
her
thoughts
again
.
It was so unfair.

Connor
also stood up, but he wasn’t
showing off
his washboard abs. H
e walked around the table and opened a drawer that was next to the sofa. He pulled
out
a new cell phone and put it to his ear as he wrote down the messages.