Brothers

Chapter 13

“Your brother will be here around twelve o'clock, dear. He always comes at that time. I didn't know this man was really your brother. Maybe I was a bit harsh to him. I really thought it was a joke. I'm so sorry, darling,” with those words Lucia excused herself, truly ashamed of the way she had treated the older brother.

“Mr. Koiranos says he should help Pedro,” Julian said miserably, still using Orion's last name as he preferred to keep things quiet for the time being. “In the garden.”

“That would be wonderful. His back is killing him,” the woman commented as she served Julian breakfast. “Lýkos missed you a lot. He was so happy when he realised we were going to get the plane.”

“Don't expect Carlos to do much,” Julian mumbled as he warmed his hands on the hot cup of tea.

“He looks rather different to you, doesn't he?” Lucia busied herself to unpack the groceries she had bought that same morning.

“We are half-brothers. Different father,” explained Julian feeling worse than before as he realised his brother would be there in less than two hours. The smell of the scrambled eggs made his stomach churn and the boy gave up to the idea of finishing them.

He walked around the kitchen but felt restless. He took the silver brush from the shelf and decided to cure his frustration by thoroughly brushing Lýkos, using more strength than necessary.

A low growl made him stop and he quickly withdraw his hand from the animal's back. “Yeah, you don't want to go bald,” he mumbled as he saw the many black hairs entangled in the silver brush bristles.

“On top, we have that policeman lurking around,” Lucia said as she washed now the haricots. “When you and Mr. Koiranos were away, he came at least four times.”

“Oh, everything is fine with Dr. Morgenthau? I mean, fine besides he's dead.”

“I think so. His cousin was very grateful to Mr. Koiranos. He fully paid for everything.”

“Ah,” Julian felt the well-known heat of jealousy creep his way through his heart.

“Moving the body back to Austria was quite expensive, but Mr. Koiranos didn't mind. Otherwise, the family would have had to bury him here. Such a stupid accident!”

“Why did he do that?” Julian asked very irked as once more Morgenthau was still present in Orion's mind. “Didn't that man have an insurance policy?”

Lucia shrugged. “That policeman asked me the same several times. He was furious because the body was sent back to Austria. He says that it will be impossible to perform any further tests upon it. In my opinion, he's crazy. Dr. Morgenthau's death was an accident. The coroner said so and the family thinks the same. What does he want to find? That he probably drank a lot and broke his neck on the way back home? Maybe he took the bus home because he was so drunk -and that's why his car was in Lisbon, and mistook the path in the darkness.

“Accidents do happen, but this man does not want to believe it. Yesterday, Mr. Koiranos ordered Pedro to build a fence over that place. There are a lot of tourists trespassing during the summer season and maybe another misfortune arises. Your brother looks strong enough as to do it. Pedro can guide him.”

“Yeah, Carlos is a brute,” Julian mumbled but Lucia didn't hear him, too busy with her chores.

“Will he stay for lunch?” She asked when saw Julian leave the house through the rear entrance.

“Probably. You can feed him anything.”

Walking along the forest didn't calm his nerves. Julian was concerned. He was sure his brother will not be able to hold his tongue for long and would insult Orion in some way.

Or worse, he would mock of him and his relationship with Orion.

Julian was sure Carlos would be a thorn in his side. Like always.

“For the first time in my life, I'm really happy but my family has to get in right the middle,” he told Lýkos. “Good for you you don't have six cubs to cope with.”

The wolfdog stopped in his tracks and licked the youth's hands for the first time in years. Julian was surprised as the only displays of affection he had received from the animal had been some playful headers or burying himself in the boy's bed, more than ready to sleep in there.

Julian crouched and caressed his head, getting once more lost in his yellow eyes. “Yeah, the mess with Ahmed is my fault. It's only for a little while,” he realised out of the blue.

“It's all a matter of keeping distance. In the morning we go out, in direction to Sintra and in the afternoons you keep me company in the library. Orion said I have a lot of pending work in there.”

He knelt down on the wet, cold ground and rested his head against the wolfdog's as his hand petted his neck.

“You're right as usual, Lýkos. It's nothing,” he said out loud. “A few years at most, it's nothing at all.”

He rose to his full height and checked his watch, noticing it was already midday. For a brief moment wondered why time had flew by so quickly, but he shrugged. “Gotta get the son of bitch before he messes it up,” he told the dog.

* * *

For Carlos José Ignacio Santos Pardo, it was a great shock to see again his little brother.

Walking back for what had to be the the fourteenth time to the large mansion, he had crossed with a young man walking a monstrous size black dog and nodded to him as he certainly looked as a real European, unlike the trash he had suffered in prison.

For him, it was no wonder that 75% of the inmates were immigrants as they all were criminals.

“Carlos,” the well-dressed man addressed him and he blinked. Twice.

“Julian?” The man standing in front of him little resembled to the skinny Goth-boy he knew. He was dressed rather conservatively with beige trousers, a white shirt, a dark brown jersey and a blue navy Montgomery duffel coat.

“Yes, it's me.”

“Didn't know it was you,” Carlos said. “You look... almost like a normal person.”

“Same you,” Julian mumbled.

“What's that dog?” Carlos pointed at the very still Lýkos. “It's huge.”

“His name is Lýkos. Belongs to my boss, Mr. Koiranos. Treat him well or he'll bite you, and you'll be out sooner than you think.”

“Looks like a mean guy,” Carlos watched how Lýkos bared his teeth warningly when he took a step forward.

“He doesn't know you. Lýkos is very territorial. Leave him alone and he'll do the same for you.” Julian began to walk towards the house, feeling at a loss for words. He heard his brother following his steps, but he didn't care at all or offered to help him with his bag.

“Mom sends greetings for you.” Carlos said out of breath as he caught up with Julian.

“Really?”

“No, but that's what am I supposed to say, right?”

“Right.”

“Hey! Don't be so defensive.” Carlos caught Julian by the sleeve. At that moment, Lýkos' hairs bristled and he growled in a way that made the beefy young man remove his hand quickly.

“Down you!” Julian admonished the wolfdog, but the beast would have none of that.

“Lýkos, this is my brother. Relax please,” Julian said with in a softer tone. He walked to the dog and put his arms around his neck, “Please, don't make trouble,” he whispered in his ear and the animal laid down his belligerent attitude, still keeping a warily eye on the stranger that somehow smelled like the Guardian.

“Quite a monster you've got there,” Carlos smirked. “Was it going to bite me?”

“Probably,” shrugged Julian. “He hates people coming unto me. Remember that.”

“Sure. Look I don't want trouble with you, OK?”

“Likewise.” Julian turned around and continued to walk towards the house with his brother following him, checking his every move, still trying to understand the change in his little brother.

The imposing villa emerged from the sea of threes and Carlos just gaped at it, unable to comprehend why it had changed so much since he had visited it two days ago. There was something there. Something he could feel like an electrical wind sweeping over him. His spine shivered and suddenly he remembered the school trip to Avila to visit Saint Teresa's of Avila's shrine. He had felt there the same suffocating energy that he was feeling here. Dismissing the feeling as it was certainly the result of his own nerves of getting the job he had been searching for over four years, he shook his head to get rid of the invisible hands that oppressed his chest.

“How's the boss?” he asked as Julian walked as if nothing happened.

“You will not see him much. Mr. Koiranos is always busy. You will help the gardener and stay outside the house.”

Carlos clenched his fist to suffocate the desire of punching his brother as the little creep dared to speak to him as if he were another servant.

“Thank you, Julian,” he replied with a false modesty, and now Julian's own mercury reached the surface.

“I'm not doing this because of you. He said it was necessary. Mom also insisted on sending you away, well getting rid of you.”

“Jenny or Jessy _don't know which tart -, said you changed a lot and not for good. Never paying attention to anybody or returning calls.”

“I don't waste my time any longer,” answered Julian.

“You just sent everybody to hell, that's for sure.”

“Yes, that happens when you leave hell,” Julian replied acidly. “You tend to forget about sending postcards.”

“You look different,” repeated Carlos.

“I am different. For starters, I'm an University graduate with a degree in History and I have a job as librarian. I'm not any longer the toy who hanged clothes and paid your bills.”

“Yeah, you're not a wimpy-kid,” his brother shrugged, unimpressed by the youngster's tirade. “Good change. See what happens when you stop messing around with “Muzzies”? When you stick to your own people? Lucia told me this Koiranos is a real French.”

“Right, just like you do,” sneered Julian. “How was Meco?” he fired back.

“Why do you always get so defensive? Be glad you got rid of that camel-fucker. Look where you're now and think where you'd be if you were still shaking your ass to him.”

“Mind your own business.”

“I certainly will.”

“And mind your language too. Mr. Koiranos is an educated person,” Julian added nastily and Carlos shrugged.

Casting one last glance of deep disdain towards his brother, Julian walked the last metres to the kitchen door and opened it. Lýkos rushed through his legs almost making him lose his balance in his mad dash to be the first one to get to the china water bowl left next to the oven.

“It's not as if I'm going to drink from there,” mumbled Julian watching how the wolfdog noisily drank the water as if his life depended on it.

“Let him be, he's a dear,” Lucia looked at the wolfdog tenderly. “The girls are away for today. Mr. Koiranos will go out at three. Pedro has to drive him to Lisbon.”

“Ah,” Julian was shocked his lover would leave without telling him in advance. “Do you think he could see my brother today?”

“Yes, he will be free in an hour or so. He asked me to tell him to wait. Pedro is very glad someone will help him.”

“Carlos, this is Ms. Riveiro,” Julian said to his brother. “She is the housekeeper.”

“We know each other. Hello Lucia.”

“Carlos. I'm glad everything seems to solve to your satisfaction.”

“I still haven't got the job.”

“I think you'll do,” the woman said with a warm smile, and Julian watched his brother with a mix of distrust and barely concealed hatred. Since when had he started to be a charmer and how much had he told Lucia so far?

The perspective of wasting a full hour with him and worse, be his baby-sitter, wasn't appealing at all.

The perspective of having Carlos spitting his life story to the old lady was worse.

“Wanna a coffee?” he grunted.

“Oh no, thank you,” Carlos answered. “I don't want to abuse Mr. Koiranos' hospitality.”

“No trouble,” Julian growled this time.

“Don't you have to walk the dog? I think I interrupted that today.”

Just when Julian was about to lose his patience and vulgarly shout his brother, Lucia smiled broadly and interfered with a “ah yes, you go for the magazine too. Lýkos was waiting for you to come along. Don't worry, I'll keep company to your brother.”

Seething as he glanced at his brother's scornful eyes, Julian grabbed Lýkos' collar none too gently and pulled from it. An ominous growl, perfected to remind the boy of his own status within the pack, made him quickly disentangle his hand from the collar.

“It's a fine animal,” Carlos chortled, very amused with the exchange between man and dog. “Has every reason to be proud of itself,” he added as he brutally patted Lýkos head in the same way Koiranos used to do it.

Contrary to Julian's expectations, Lýkos didn't bite his hand off and placed his paw over his trousers in a proprietary manner.

* * *

“Mr. Koiranos will see you now, Carlos,” Lucía said almost two hours after Julian had left with the wolf-dog.

A bit nervous, Carlos brushed his trousers in a way that reminded Lucia of Julian. Despite that they were so physically different, there were indeed some ticks that gave them away as brothers.

Carlos was shocked to see the red-haired man, built like a giant. The mere sight of the man, dressed in a conservative and dark blue suit, felt as if he had been punched in the stomach. The earlier sensation of his blood turning into bubbling soda and being smashed by an unseen electrical power returned, rendering him powerless. He could do nothing else but stand tall and gape at the stranger writing with a golden pen on a thick sheet of paper.

“You are Julian's brother,” the man stated without rising his eyes from the papers. He signed the letter and opened the lid of an antique inlaid rosewood writing box.

“Yes, I am, sir.” he replied softly, intimidated for the first time in his life, watching how the man melted some sealing wax over the page with ease. Out of the box came a small stone he used as stamp.

“I understand that there was a slight legal incident before you sought employment in my house,” Orion said once the wax was dry and was pleased with the figure engraved in the dark red wax. His steely grey eyes rose pinned Carlos down.

“That is correct, sir. I... got into a fight and served time for that.”

“What were the circumstances of that brawl?”

“I..” Carlos was at a loss for words and decided to come forward. “I punched one of Julian's friends and he fell the stairs down. He broke a rib or two. I didn't like the way he spoke about my brother.”

“Yet you disapprove of your brother's actions.” Orion stated.

“At that time, he was a bit on the wild side. Mixing with the wrong kind of people.”

“Which is?”

“People from outside our culture and roots.” Carlos barked out, unnerved by the cold and effective way Orion cross examined him.

“You do understand that cultures evolve or are replaced by another at some point. Don't you? Hanging on to the past, not always seems to be the best strategy.”

“I hang on to my roots,” Carlos repeated belligerently. “I don't like people who come to my house and insult our ways. We didn't invite them. They should adapt to us, not vice versa. It irks me that our values are to be mocked while we are accused of intolerance and forced to pay for their livelihoods at the same time.”

“How long have you been unemployed?”

“Three years.”

“Your previous trade?”

“In the construction sector. I'm an electrician but did a bit of everything.”

“Very well, you can start to work tomorrow morning. You will help the gardener. Your contract will be ready in the afternoon and the lodging will be paid aside. I expect you to be here from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Pedro will be your superior.”

“And Julian?” Carlos couldn't help to blurt out.

“He is your younger brother, isn't he? His duty is to follow your advice though he will be engaged in his duties at my library. There will be not much contact between you two.”

“As you wish, sir.” Carlos couldn't believe his good fortune. Not only the man was a true European and a gentleman, but he also knew how to run things.

“My peace of mind is most valuable for me. I will not tolerate any disturbances to my lifestyle. Bear that in mind.”

“Yes sir,” gulped Carlos.

“I hold your brother in my highest esteem. I hope this does not pose an inconvenience for carrying your obligations out.”

Carlos blinked a few times as he connected the carefully worded words with the image of his punkish little brother. Then, the idea landed in his brain and he gaped before he gulped louder than ever before.

“That... won't be a problem, sir.”

The wolfdog pushed the door open and trotted to his master burying his big head in his lap as he dropped a dark leather tube on the floor. Koiranos just patted the animal with affection. Carlos turned around and saw Julian standing at the door, waiting to be invited in, unlike before, when he was storming everywhere, as if he were the centre of the universe.

“Leave your brother into Pedro's hands, Julian,” Orion said and Carlos noticed his voice had somehow warmed.

“Yes, of course, Mr. Koiranos,” Julian replied as he saw for the first time his lover dressed in a formal suit.

“I hope you don't mind if you have to dine alone tonight. My business may take longer than expected. We'll have breakfast together tomorrow morning. I'll take Lýkos with me today.”

“Come this way, Carlos,” the boy motioned his brother to follow him before he closed the studio doors.

“Are you with this guy? Together?” Carlos gripped Julian's biceps.

“What?”

“I understood that from what he told me. And he said it so too. You're again fucking around. Jesus! Can't you get a job without fucking with the circus owner?”

“It's none of your business!” seethed Julian and Carlos pined him against the wall making him wince in pain.

“It's very recently! I did nothing for the past four years!” Julian defended himself. “Besides, he's more Aryan than you!”

“Fucking around is wrong! You'll screw it up!”

“I'm not fucking around! I'm very happy with Orion and would be happier if you hadn't happened in my life.”

“For a second, I believed you've changed, but you're still the same little slut. You almost fooled me.”

“You should fuck some more and leave me alone.”

“Julian, can't you see it's wrong what you do?”

“As if you'd care. Should I tell you which one of your Nancy friends was the first one I fucked with?”

“You're a creep but I've known since years that I have a little sister.”

“Fuck you!” roared Julian.

“I don't care if you're gay or if your boss is. What I don't like is your whoring around. Can't you even get that?”

“Wow, you've really changed your ways,” Julian smirked.

“I understood many things back in prison.”

“Lost the soap in the wrong place?” Julian gloated and Carlos released his arm, his face becoming terribly sombre.

“Mind your own business, Julian.” he growled. “I'll get the gardener by myself. You, fix the books.”

“Yes, don't bend over your back too much, brother,” Julian smirked as he watched his brother walk away.

Carlos stopped in his tracks and turned around; Julian covered as his brother's face had turned into one of pure hatred. “Maybe it wasn't my fault the soap fell,” he hissed angrily.

“I'm very sorry, Carlos,” Julian mumbled hating each word he had pronounced. “I lost my nerves. Forgive me, please.”

“Forget it,” he shrugged. “It's over and I don't want to go back there. But mark my words. One day, I'll set the bill with that camel-fucker who dared to insult us.”

“Carlos, let it go. It's over. I will never see him again. Since when do you defend my honour? You're the first person to say I'm a horny bitch.”

“I was only trying to keep my house clean, you know?” Carlos bit his lips to suffocate the rising bile, frustration and sadness. “But society makes it harder and harder. TV says you are supposed to fuck your entire class before 14 and if a pervert does whatever he wants with you, it's all right. I'm the one who should be “open minded”, not an homophobes. I should accept every perversion and start considering sheep as a good bride to be. Everybody, even Mom, thought it was OK for you to do booze, whore around, learn nothing good, all in tolerance's name.”

“Carlos...”

“You were impossible to manage! Do you have any idea of how I felt when I had to pick you up from the E.R. for drinking your ass to death? You were fifteen! You got that job in a nightclub because you fucked with the owner!”

“Just once! I didn't get this job for fucking with the dog!”

“Don't you see it's all a master plan to turn us into lambs? To turn us into slaves? No family, no identity, no wages, only social welfare and not even that as it's cannibalized by those ugly monkeys from the desert or the jungles. They bring them in so employers can pay us shit! You've been brainwashed since you were a baby. Your class was crammed with mini gangsters from Latin America or Moors who couldn't speak a word. They couldn't write two words together, but teachers told you that all what white man had achieved over the Millennia was trash! Their culture was better than ours. You were supposed to throw everything away and do all what they wanted! They want us to make us feel ashamed of who we are! Go and see what happens when you tell the Japanese they're trash! Go and tell the Russians they should change!

“Mixing and interbreeding is for the rich people. Not for the poor devils like us, Julian. It always ends badly for us.”

“Are you done with your Spengler Moment?” Julian grunted.

“Mr. Santos Pardo is only stating any man's natural tendency to protect his own tribe, Julian,” Orion said as he cut in the conversation. Julian frowned, furious that Orion had now seen what a brute he had for brother and perhaps think he would be likewise.

“Foreigners were always kept isolated from the villages as they could harm the community's system of values. As a young graduate you should already know that contact between civilizations is never an easy foe and it always ends when the dominant one, the one who has the strongest foundations and confidence in its own values system has conquered the other.”

“And you, Mr. Santos Pardo, you should not conceive society as the result of a few men doings. A “master plan” as you called it. Think more on the cancers of any society; effeminacy, indolence, self-indulgence and selfishness as the roots of your concerns. When men renounce to be true warriors, the whole structure collapses.”

“I'll bear that in mind, sir.” Carlos said. “Excuse me now. I would like to speak with Pedro before you go away.”

Koiranos only nodded as Lýkos moved forward, ready to follow the young man. “And Julian...” he addressed the boy casually. “Take heed of your brother's advise. He truly means no harm to you.”

* * *

Murderous rage would have been the perfect description for Julian's feelings when he turned around for the hundredth time that night. In his own bed. Alone. At three in the morning as Orion had still not showed up.

What he couldn't discern was if the cause of his rage was the man's patronizing words; his brother's haughty attitude after his “empowerment” by Orion; the fact that all his crazy ideas were supported by Orion; the lecture the Nazi gave him on how Feminism was the root of all evils and men should be men again, “like Koiranos; that's a guy who has balls,” and that, according to Carlos was the equivalent to the Nobel Prize; the fact that Orion had disappeared to do who knows what without a single explanation or call.

Therefore, he went to bed in his old bedroom.

The self-minded pig could prove to be a man and sleep alone.

The fact that Lýkos landed on top of his cover and snuggled at his feet ready to sleep in his bed made him sigh heavily as he turned his back to the door, pretending to be asleep so Orion would go away. He heard his footsteps disappear in direction of the master bedroom.

Like Dog, like Master.

The bed creaked under Orion's weight and before Julian could turn around to send him to hell, the man embraced him as he buried his nose in the creek of his neck.

“Why are you not in our bed?” he asked with genuine curiosity as he gave a kick to the wolfdog to make more room for his long legs. “This one is too small if Lýkos barges in.”

“Because I'm furious with you!” Julian answered as he elbowed Orion on the stomach. “Why on earth did you tell my brother about us? Why did you go along with him? Do you have any idea of the pain in the ass he's going to be to me now?”

“He is your older brother and as your father is not here, I should ask his permission to make you part of my family.”

Julian sat on the bed and blinked a few times as he digested the words. He counted up to ten. Slowly, and then counted up to thirty.

“My mother does not care if I'm dead or alive and you go to my bully, gays-hater brother to ask for his blessing? Are you... crazy?”

“If he is here, he is the head of your family then. It's the smallest show of respect I can offer him. As you have witnessed, he has approved our union and holds no grudges against it or us.”

Julian hated to admit Orion was right. Carlos had not started a war over his relationship with Orion or complained about him at all. Coming to think, he had been quite civilized over dinner time, only ranting about the general decadence of the Western world.

Or asking how the university had been for him. For the first time in his life, his brother had taken a genuine interest on what he was doing.

“Both of you are very headstrong,” Orion commented as he settled to sleep there. “Each one of you should hear what the other has to say and realise you are not so different from each other.”

“You were not there like I was! Do you have any idea how many times he hit me? How many times he yelled at me?”

“Did you deserve it?” Orion asked nonchalantly.

“Nobody deserves to be struck!”

“Have you ever seen how wolves educate their pups? They bite them once and the pup remembers forever she should not be so bold or disobedient. Like Lýkos has done on several occasions with you. It seems to have worked.”

“Wonderful, Orion. Let's thrown the psychology books to the trash can and get the ethology ones out.”

“If you would have heed his warnings, it wouldn't have been necessary to inflict so many punishments upon you.”

“Are you taking his side? Again? I can't believe it!”

“Did you change for good or not?”

Too furious to answer Julian buried himself under the covers, inadvertently kicking the partly asleep wolfdog. Lýkos had enough of interruptions and jumped out of the bed, walking to his own cot in the corner of the room.

“Hear me well, Julian. I will repeat the same words I told to your brother. Solve any existing problems between you two as I will not tolerate that our partnership is threatened or disturbed by any outsider.”