Brothers and Workers

Chapter 14

Several piles of large brown card-boxes, piled up to the high ceiling were a bad omen for Julian. He counted up to forty-three of them and collapsed at the large desk he had studied at many times in the past. There was almost no space left to move or breath.

'When the fuck did all this show up?' he asked himself as he had not seen them ever before. His eyes wandered over the many closed glass-bookcases and sighed. 'How on earth am I going to classify all this and stuck it inside these shelves?'

'I know now why Morgenthau jumped off that cliff.'

'Did Orion never unpack his things?'

He noticed that the computer he had used to write his home assignments had been replaced by more modern model. 'For someone who hates computers, Orion knows how to shop,' he thought as he switched the device on.

There was only one icon over the Milky Way wallpaper: “Library Catalogue”. A double click and an Excel sheet materialized in front of his eyes.

'I was expecting something better,' he thought a bit disappointed that his predecessor's work was so sloppy. 'BookCAT or Ex-Libris are your friends, mate,'

'This is impossible!” he whined out loud some time later when finding the old databases turned out an impossible task. Everything was efficiently deleted.

“I will have to start from the scratch!” Julian whined at the ridiculously large number of lines the Excel sheet proudly showed him.

He began to read the names of the titles and authors and whistled in awe when he saw that some of the publication dates reached as early as the beginning of the XIX century. The memory of the old leather bound volumes, kept in the last three rooms of the library area, along with a quick calculation of how many books could be stored in one shelf, confirmed the earlier outrageous number.

'Maybe I'll have it ready for the next Millennia.'

Feeling a slight pressure in his temples, Julian preferred to switch the program off and check if there was something else in the hard disk. He found “My Files” folder also empty and sighed heavily. Obviously, Prof. Morgenthau had left nothing personal there.

Julian took a deep breath and bravely walked towards the boxes, wondering how he would open them or if his best move was to fix the catalogue first.

Pushing the desk against the wall gave him some more room to breath and in that moment, he decided to open the boxes, distribute the books along the shelves as he knew how they were arranged, and mark the new ones with post-its to catalogue them at a later date.

'Less boxes means more space to move around,' he went for the practical solution. 'Which one of you will be the lucky one?'

The piles were high and heavy looking and getting the ones on top could be too much for him. 'I'll have to ask Carlos to help me,' he realised and loathed the whole situation even more. 'Keeping Lýkos out of trouble was much easier.'

A single box, standing alone was his saviour. Calculating that if he was able to get rid of it, he would gain some more space for moving around his desk, Julian opened it and began to line up the hard cover books on top of the table. Julian read once and again the titles.

'When did Orion become a doctor?' he frowned as his hands went across the pages of a neurosurgery handbook. 'Nobody in his right mind reads this as a hobby.' “'Molecular Neurosurgery with Targeted Toxins'? What the hell is that?” he mumbled as he left the incredibly heavy volume on top of the desk.

“Ah, you found it. I think I ordered it two years ago but forgot to put it in the list of to read it soon,” Orion's voice said through the jungle of boxes.

'How can you see it? There's no way you can see it from there!' Julian thought. “Can you read this?”

“Hopefully,” chuckled Orion as he did his best to pass through the wall of boxes. “It was an intriguing concept though.”

“Are you a doctor?”

“Do you mean if I have a valid license to practice medicine in this country?”

“I'm not a lawyer or the insurance guy,” Julian falsely protested, visibly amused by the long answer.

“No, I'm not.” Julian expected for a broader explanation but none came. Instead, Orion cupped Julian's face with his large hands and placed a soft kiss on his forehead, making the youth close his eyes in ecstasy.

“Have you started with the library?”

“Barely,” admitted Julian and smiled bewitchingly. “Boss is upset?”

“No, your shift as librarian starts after lunch,” he replied with a soft smile. “Where is Lýkos?”

“Overseeing that my brother does his job properly,” sighed Julian as he remembered how the animal had turned into stone, determined to stay where the older brother had begun to dig holes to put the pillars of the new fence around the deep slope. “He refused to come home with me.”

“He's probably checking that your brother does not unearth one of his old skeletons.”

“Please, don't tell me. I really don't want to know what he does at night,” Julian chuckled. “I fear one of these nights, he will bring a dead rabbit home.”

“Then we'll save one dinner. That would be very thoughtful of him, but don't count on it. You should be at the starving point before he brings you anything.”

Julian laughed hard and kissed Orion on his temple. “Your spring cleaning is long overdue.”

“Since four or five years. I was waiting for you to do it,” Orion smiled and Julian laughed again. “Lucia will send someone to help you with that thing,” he said pointing at the computer. “I didn't expect the storage people to just cram boxes without any order,” he mumbled, visibly upset with the chaos his own library had turned into.

“You buy the latest neurosurgery books and hate a computer? Do you know where Dr. Morgenthau's notes on this could be? We used to have a good catalogue for the Social Sciences area.”

“All his personal files and items were already disposed, Julian. The technician should be here in any day and he will help you to restore... whatever you had going on before. Distribute the books in the shelves according to subject and nothing else. But this is not what I wanted to show you now.”

Carefully pushing the card-boxes aside, Orion broadened the narrow corridor left in front of the four adjacent rooms where he kept his books. Julian was used to be in the first one, where most of “his” books from the University had been stored; the second and third ones, where the collections were kept were closed as usual.

The door that had always been locked in the fourth room had a security code lock. “It's your birthday date,” Orion said with a smile as he quickly taped the numbers. The heavy door opened to reveal a small spiral staircase that descended to the cellar.

The air was fresher than at the surface and Julian wondered why. “The temperature is controlled by a central computer and keeps it stable between 14º and 20º. The humidity level must be at 45%, never exceeding the 50%,” explained him Orion.

“Always wear gloves if you touch any of the exemplars. Some of them are truly old and could disintegrate if you remove them from its case. Please ask me before you touch anything.”

“I'm not planing to touch anything,” Julian said automatically as his eyes took in the large corridor extending in front of him, decorated only with wall size bookshelves protected with thick crystals.

He walked in awe looking at the volumes, unable to read their names, slightly dizzy because of the myriad of sizes and shades of terracotta browns laying in front of his eyes.

“How many volumes are here?”

“I don't know. Around 2.000 I would say.”

“Two thousand? That's like the Vatican's!”

“No, the Vatican Library has around 9.000. Hardly the same.”

“When did you get all this?”

“I inherited the collections from my family and then, enlarged it a bit. Some volumes are also presents from the people who visit me.”

Julian reached the end of the large corridor and the last four shelves, barely illuminated showed some of the books open. He was immediately taken by the intricacies of the margins and initials of one he identified as a breviary. He chuckled at the image of the wolf disguised as bishop, writing at his scriptorium and laughed even more when noticed that the dog sleeping at his feet had a human face.

“One of my favourites,” Orion interrupted his rapture. “Ireland, from the XIII century.”

“Always the witty ones these Irishmen,” smiled Julian as he looked at the next volume, trying to guess what the alphabet could be.

“Only portraying the truth. People were less afraid to tell their minds than today.” Orion watched how the boy's eyes took each detail of the illustrations, the entwined tails of the letters, the excellent gild work. “That one comes from Georgia.”

“I really can't take care of all this. You need a well-seasoned professional, not a student.”

“You will not be responsible for their keeping. I only wanted to show them to you.”

“Are they digitalized?”

“Inside the... computer do you mean?” Julian nodded. “No, I was never that keen on that project or believed that uploading them to the internet for the worldwide scholars enjoyment was a clever idea. I would only get hundreds of request to study my books and I value my inner peace over all.”

“I can even see the quotation marks all over that sentence,” Julian said with a kind smile. For some unexplainable reason, his love hated to draw any kind of attention towards him although he was not shy at all.

“Going along with that project was a mistake. I was blinded... but it's all in the past and you are here with us.”

“To clean all the mess you left upstairs.”

“And to take care of us.”

“For a grown up man, you're more pampered than Lýkos.”

“I've been waiting for a long time to be pampered again.”

“Don't go away tonight, help me to get the upper boxes down, and I'll pamper you in a way you won't forget anytime soon.” The young man closed the distance between them as his hand draw ample circles on his lover's back.

“Ask your brother about the boxes. We have people coming over tonight.” Julian whined at the news. “It's unavoidable.” He gave him a quick kiss on the temples.

“The light switches off by itself.” Orion turned around a left him there.

* * *

“Oh, the porter has arrived,” Julian smirked at his brother that afternoon. “What the hell did you do to Lýkos?” he nearly screamed when the wolfdog entered in the room, leaving fresh mud footprints all around his desk. His normally shinning hair was caked with dirt and dry leaves.

“He should be more careful where he sticks his snout. Didn't see him and got a shovelful of dirt. Seems you'll have to put some extra-hours to get him clean again.”

“Be more careful! Orion, I mean, Mr. Koiranos adores this animal!”

“Wash the puppy and leave me alone. Lucia told me to put the boxes down so the princess doesn't break a nail.”

“Fuck you,” Julian fired automatically and Carlos chuckled like a child. “We'll start by the two first lines of boxes.”

Carlos left the library to return with a ladder and a smirk on his face.

“Shit!” Carlos shouted when he carelessly leaned all the weight of the top of the pile box over his chest.

“Getting old, brother?” was Julian's turn to smirk as he watched the wavering footsteps of his brother on the shaking ladder.

“What the hell do you have in here?” he panted.

“A few books,” Julian replied innocently. “Nothing you can't carry.”

“The fucker who packed this knew nothing. You use something smaller for books! This box is for clothes or lighter things!” Carlos shouted as he dropped the box on the floor. “Careful dog!” he warned Lýkos who had nearly been crushed by the falling box in his haste to sniff it.

“It's a wolfdog, not a dog,” Julian said with a superior air as he patted the animal on the head. “You shouldn't be here,” he admonished him softly. “The brute of my brother could hurt you when he knocks all the piles down.”

“That's not a wolfdog! This is a throwback of a dog!” Carlos snorted upset at Julian's lack of faith in his skills. “Someone truly shit Mr. Koiranos if he was told this is a wolfdog. I know them! Jesus had two and they were much smaller than this one! This guy is a real wolf. I'm pretty sure of that.”

“It all depends on how the breed took place. Maybe his mother or his father were very big dogs.”

“The mother is the dog, not vice versa. He behaves like a real wolf. I guess you should cast him for Fenrir role if you're short of money. ”

“For what?”

“University didn't do much for you, uh? Fenrir, the Viking wolf that grew so much that he was going to swallow the world. Odin had to chain him down... or something like this.” He frowned and watched how the animal laid down next to his brother's chair, more than ready to enjoy the show the brothers were going to put for his entertainment.

“You should stop watching those Nazi films,” Julian said tiredly.

“It's not Nazi! It's a legend from well before Hitler was born, oh Great Lord of Political Correctness. European wolves are not black. Only American ones.”

“Maybe he comes from America. Leave the dog alone, will you?”

“This is a wolf, not a wolfdog. Ask his vet.”

“Lýkos has no vet. He's never ill.”

“This is not a dog, believe me. Does not behave like one. For starters, he's too clever to be one.”

“It's the wolf in him, just as Mr. Koiranos says.”

“Lýkos spent the whole morning watching what I was doing. Laying there. He didn't doze off once. He just watched me dig and dig. I was making a hole every metre and he said nothing. Then, all of a sudden, he stands up and bites the shovel when I was beginning with the last one. He didn't let me dig any longer. I tried to get it back from him, but he went really crazy and didn't back off when I was going to push him aside. Suddenly he moves some fifty centimetres away from where I wanted to dig and drops the shovel there. Then he sits right there and I have to dig where the wolf wants.”

“Maybe you found one of his hiding-bones places and he didn't want to share,” huffed Julian as he searched in the desk for a cutter.

“He was right! There was like a big bed rock there and in the other place was much better.”

“Good, you have a clever boss now. One you can respect,” Julian retorted ironically as he knelt down to cut the box open. He sighed tiredly when he saw the contents were more medical textbooks.

“And then, came this guy. A policeman. Lýkos knew immediately someone was coming and what a show he put on. All hairs up and growling, but never barking, like all dogs do.”

“Well, this is a wolfdog; not Lassie or Rin Tin Tin, Einstein” Julian smirked again. “What did he want?” he sighed at the memory of the more than importunate man.

“Dunno. The cop said something about messing around with a crime scene but I didn't care. Lýkos would have bitten his head off but he didn't do it because I told him I couldn't dig a grave big enough for the fucker in time for lunch. He understands Spanish too.”

Julian sighed louder than before. His brother had never been too intelligent to start with, but the jail had made him dumber than ever. “Lýkos follows the inflections of your voice; he's not a polyglot.”

“No, I said he's a wolf.” Carlos repeated his conclusions to his retarded little brother.

“Leave it.” Julian knew he was defeated as explaining the meaning of the word was too tiring for him. Carlos was pleased to have won the battle of words against his brother.

Triumph-ally he went for the next box and put it down with great effort. “My mobile is dead. Maybe the Spanish roaming system doesn't work here,” he commented as he watched his brother determinedly classify the box contents in small piles over the desk.

“Forget about mobiles here,” Julian mumbled. “Use the one in the kitchen if you really need it.”

“Why?”

“Interceptors or something like this. Mr. Koiranos dislikes mobiles. The people who visit him also like privacy.”

“Can you live without a mobile?” Carlos asked in utter disbelief. “Didn't you die?”

“I'm very much alive, thanks,” huffed Julian.

“You were addicted to that thing. You didn't do cocaine because you were too busy typing there.”

“I nev...,” Julian began his heated defence, but one single look from Carlos stopped it. “Anyway, internet was taking too much of my time. I had better things to do, too.”

“Yeah, Jessy told me you behaved like a twerp.” Carlos affirmed as he frowned to one of the books, unable to understand what was it about. “You treated her like trash.”

“We had nothing more in common.” Julian frowned at how his brother dropped the book carelessly back to the card-box.

“Good thing. Do you know she had a baby-girl? She invited me to the baptism but I'm not the father if you want to know.”

“Did she marry?”

“What for? If she does, she'll lose all her welfare benefits. Mom still gets money for you.”

“I'm well over twenty-five now!” Julian whined.

“Student's help.”

“Oh God. I'm going to be in a mess with the Tax Office or the fucking Social Security System,” Julian said dismayed. “I work legally and pay taxes here,” he whined. “I don't want troubles!”

“It's her problem, not yours. You never got the money,” shrugged Carlos.

“How's she?” Julian asked softly, ashamed of his weakness.

“The same. New boyfriend. Didn't get along with him. At least your benefits are going to a real Spaniard.”

“She won't change now,” sighed Julian.

“I know. Should give her a call.”

“What for?”

“True.”

“Tell you what. You phone her, tell her where you live and send greetings from me.”

“I'm staying at Lucia's sister's house. Four hundred a month and meals included. Best I ever had.”

“Glad for you,” mumbled Julian as he frowned upon the new books he was sorting out of the box.

“And you?” Carlos asked but Julian ignored him. “How about you?” he rose his voice as he repeated the question, upset that his little brother always behaved like a spoiled child.

“Fine.”

Lýkos rose to his feet as the pups had certainly finished their fireworks display. He was tired and hungry. Perhaps there could be something for him in the kitchen.

The young men watched the dirty animal leave the library with great dignity and pretended to be very busy with their own work. They had not spoken to each other in the past and nothing was going to change that.

“Is everything fine?” Carlos broke the long silence and Julian looked at him. “That cop said “crime scene” and the former librarian provided the body.”

“I thought you didn't pay attention,” Julian smirked. “All that crap is something the cop made up. The guy was coming home drunk and slip in the mud. Neck broken, end of story.”

“I don't want to be in troubles.”

“Then, don't talk to cops. They always make trouble.”

“Koiranos is fine, yet there's something weird about him.”

“Education?” Julian sneered and Carlos showed him his middle finger making the youth chuckle, glad to recover part of the earlier lost terrain. “He is weird, but the best person I've ever met. Don't get in his way and he won't notice you're here.”

“Is he good to you? Is it serious?” Carlos pressed.

“Since when do you care about my boyfriends?”

“I got into trouble thanks to one of your boyfriends, remember?” Carlos replied hotly. “But this... man looks too good to be true.”

“Yes, I'm an useless punk who deserves nothing. Is that what you're thinking? Well, I was an useless punk, but I changed and worked hard for it.”

“Some things simply don't match with him. That's all what I'm saying. I mean, the guy doesn't look to come from this century! Yesterday he was sealing a letter with wax!”

“Carlos, you're a boar. Rich people like him, have libraries like this one. Poor devils like us, get big plasma TV sets.”

“That's true,” he mumbled. “So what is a guy like him doing with you?”

“He likes me and I like him very much too. End of story for you. You build that fence and I set the books in order.” Julian barked, upset with the prodding he was subjected to.

“Hey, relax. Got the message. Each one in his corner.”

Both brothers continued to work in silence. The only noises heard in the library was the flipping of pages or the brutal tearing of the duct-tape stripes glued to the boxes.

“What's so weird about him?” Julian finally asked unable to control his curiosity any longer.

“The boss?” Carlos asked distractedly and his brother nodded. “It's a funny thing, but he looks very strange.

“How strange?”

“He's too tall for a French. I mean, he's too tall, even for a Dutch.”

“So he should be playing basketball?”

“The way he speaks, as if there would be something stuck in his throat or the way he uses the language. Pedro says he speaks a very old kind of Portuguese, as if he was the Marquis de Pombal. The head is too big for a normal human being.”

“The head is too big?” Julian gaped at his brother.

“Yeah, too big, but it strangely fits to the rest.” Carlos frowned. “Much larger than what people have nowadays. I mean, the guys at Stormfront would say he's a real Cro-Magnon. Like in the pictures.”

“Maybe that's because he comes from Aquitaine, where Cro-Magnon men were discovered. Perhaps one of his ancestors was naughty with one of them, Dr. Bones,” chuckled Julian, shaking his head in disapproval.

“He does not eat any kind of flours at all. No starches at all. Lucia told me. He eats like one of those primitive guys. Like being in a Paleo-diet.”

“Don't tell the vegans or vegetarians or they will be marching over the house,” Julian cackled. “Don't call the Greenpeace people too. We ate a wild boar leg in France.”

“How old is he?” Carlos asked and Julian didn't know what to say.

“I don't know exactly. Maybe forty, forty-five, at most. He never celebrated his birthday or anything.”

“How so? That's weird.”

“All right, Carlos. I go from a “camel-fucker” to a “caveman”. You should be proud of your little brother,” Julian said acidly. “It's every gay man's dream. To get your own Cro-Magnon.”

“I didn't say that! I only said he looks like one!”

“In that webpage you all have quite a fixation with the good-pure-bred original big European macho, but you never describe how women looked. Are you all sure about your sexual preferences? Should I be jealous?”

“Fuck you!” Carlos shouted truly enraged and offended.

He slammed the door to avoid hearing Julian's laughs.

* * *

'Another night alone,' Julian sighed when he saw his brother gallantly offer himself to drive the car for Lucia. 'But at least, he's behaving so far.' His eyes followed the grey Opel Zafira drive away along the gravel path.

The house felt different if Orion was not there. He felt as if something was missing inside him. Incomplete.

He didn't want to work as he had planned before. The books could wait.

His footsteps resounded in the corridor and Julian smiled at the memory of Orion's phrase; “it's not your fault you walk like a rhino; the shoes are guilty.” Used to the darkness as he was, Julian didn't switched the lights on and dodged every artwork placed on the corridor. He stopped at the tapestry he loved so much, already guessing its figures, without needing to light up the space to see it. He smiled for the hundredth time to the well-known figure of the knight and the large black dog, trotting next to his horse, baring his teeth to the enemy. 'Orion really loves Lýkos,' he thought amused. 'All what he has bought relates somehow to them.

'Just like the manuscript.

'I wish he would love me like that,' he thought dreamingly

Something wet collided against his hand and made him jump.

“It's you,” he whispered once his heartbeat calmed down and saw Lýkos standing there, slightly panting. “Where were you now?”, he asked without expecting an answer.

He went to the kitchen and started the microwave to heat the dinner Lucia had left him. Mind absently he cut a piece of his sirloin and threw it to Lýkos, who caught the piece in the air. Julian chuckled amused and continued to dine in the animal's company. He knew he should feel bored as there was nothing to do without Orion in the house, but there was a tingling in the air that prevented him to relax.

There was something amiss he couldn't quite well place and it had nothing to do with his brother's new position in the house.

He emptied his dish and slowly walked towards the sink to place it inside the dishwasher. For a second he wondered if he should still do it, as Orion had told his brother about their relationship.

'What a way to say we are boyfriends!'

Alas nothing else had been said and he was clearly promoted to “librarian” not to “lover”. In a way he preferred things that way. What happened between closed doors was their business, not the gardener, the cook, the cleaning ladies, the bookseller, the accountant or the lawyer that were dropping by now and then.

Julian knew Orion would not cheat on him or change him for the first novelty that crossed his way. In that sense he feared nothing. Orion was a man of firm convictions, strange sometimes, but as earth bounded as the most conservative person he had ever met.

The small living room where he had always accompanied Orion after dinner, reading or writing his homework for exactly three hours every day, seemed alien to him. Letting the darkness of the night swallow him, Julian sat in the usual Empire style chair.

“Don't you go hunting tonight?” He asked to the bundle that landed on his feet and buried its heavy head between its front legs.

“Well, it's nice of you to stay with me,” Julian bent his body to pat the animal. “It feels kind of lonely here without the master, doesn't it?”

And Lýkos licked his hand for the first time in years. Surprised, as that was a gesture reserved only for Orion, Julian caressed the wolfdog, telling him how honoured he felt that he had also been granted such deference. The youth watched how the dog's sides rhythmically moved and slowed down as the animal relaxed and enjoyed his caresses.

“What do I guard?” he asked out of the sudden and frowned at the sound of his voice. Why was the question coming to him if he had dismissed the cave experience as a drugs induced dream? Nothing what had been said there made sense at all.

“Tell me Lýkos, what do I guard? It can't be you as save for the hair brushing, you need no one to keep you safe... And as for Orion, he could roast me alive if he wanted. He does not need me as a link between you and he.”

He sensed the wolfdog's head turn towards him and watch him for a long time. “It's a tiered universe, Julian,” the boy remembered his lover's words and wondered what he had meant by that.

“The cosmogony of a tiered universe can be divided in three spheres,” he recited the lesson to the attentive dog. “One for the underworld where the dead ones, ancestors, spirits live. A second one which represents our world is made for animals and humans to finally have a third one where the deities live. That's -more or less- how things are for primitive societies. If you are the warrior, then the second realm, the living one, belongs to you as violence or the fear of violence is what keeps men together. The wise man should have the third realm as he can see what we cannot. Didn't he say this wise man could see the future? So we are left with the first one, the underground, where all the dead and the spirits live.

“Lewis says that a shaman's function was to keep the transit between the both these spheres running, working as a gatekeeper. The humans can benefit from the underworld experience and communicate with it. The shaman does not allow the dead ones to stay for too long with the living ones.”

“In a way, that's the ultimate guardian,” Julian acknowledged, fighting against the constrictive pain in his throat. “You can leave Hell; you stay there,” he whispered and shuddered violently.

His eyes roamed the darkness and guessed where everything was. He felt no need for the light. His heartbeat hurt his ears and he swallowed, fruitlessly trying to moisten his mouth.

“But I'm no ghost-whisperer at all. Never saw one and I'm not going to start now,” he told the wolfdog clearly.

“I was almost left there... in Hell, but I managed to escape from it,” he explained Lýkos. “If there's something after we die, it can't be worse than daily life in a city, Lýkos. I start fucking with the bully in the classroom to avoid a beating, you know?”

He exhaled a long breath out as he fought against the many memories of his childhood. The few euros he had saved for months to buy a beautifully illustrated book of folktales, disappeared overnight because his mother needed the money. His brother laughing at his tears because he wanted “something for sissies,” (and at seven years old he had learned the meaning of that word). The cries and erotic moans heard from his mother's bedroom as he slept in the living-room's couch. Being spit on the face by his brother's friends just because he loved the wrong man. His grandmother yelling with her daughter for being such an irresponsible mother, leaving her two children roam free in the streets. Being called a whore because he wanted to feel close to someone but couldn't find his place in the world with anyone. Friends who were expecting him to be a permanent source of fun or entertainment for them. Yes, Julian was very good at providing them with good, sassy stories.

“And be glad we didn't do drugs at home,” he smirked to the dog. “It could had been a thousand times worse than it was.

“I thought that I had closed the door well, but here it is all coming back. The poet was right when he said “Leave all hope those who enter here.

“In hell you have no hope, clinging to the most miserable crumb of normalcy you dig out to make yourself happy.”

“No matter what Orion says, I will close that gate again. Carlos and Ahmed can end their story in any way they want. It was never about me but about them. I have hope now. I have a life now. I... love for the first time. Lýkos.

“Death and life should not meet so frequently.”

Lýkos only fixed his big eyes on Julian and sighed dejectedly. Julian bent his body down to caress him and smiled sadly. He really didn't need any reminders of his past life nor wanted to have them. The wolfdog shifted his position a bit, coming closer to him, and Julian knew he was safe from the past.

'What doesn't kill you makes you stronger,' he hummed the pop song from that American girl who had won a TV contest and was so famous now.

Lýkos tilted his head, watching him carefully; he realised the Guardian was content again and the surface of the waters were calm again. The underwater currents may not, but that was life. He went back to slumber.

Suddenly all the wolfdog's hairs rose and he adopted an attack position, growling at the window's direction. Julian watched him in shock. Suddenly, fear crept into his heart and Julian knew that Lýkos was sensing something amiss and he was alone in the big house.

“What is it?” he asked and instinctively came closer to the animal.

For a very long time, Julian only remained crouched on the floor, his hand gripping a handful of black hairs as his eyes fruitlessly tried to scan the garden engulfed by total darkness. Two brilliant lights almost blinded him when they came out of nowhere and a large car parked in front of his window.

Two men descended from the vehicle and walked in a straight line towards the main door.

“It's just a car, you silly,” he told the wolfdog, laughing at his own fears. “You almost scared out of myself.”

He heard the bell and rose to his height as Lýkos growled. “Come on!” Julian whined. “Burglars don't ring the bell nor wear Armani suits.”

Julian tried to walk to answer the door but Lýkos blocked his way. “If it's someone important, we'll be in trouble tomorrow,” he reasoned with the dog. “Fine, if it's nothing, you can eat them both and my brother can help you to bury their remains.”

Lýkos turned around and trotted towards the main entrance. “Psycho,” he mumbled as he followed the animal.

The two men standing in front of the door bore serious expressions that matched their dark suits. Julian switched the lights on and greeted them in English.

“It is most urgent that we speak with Lord Koiranos,” the taller one said and the minute his foot touched the threshold Lýkos bared his teeth, growling to the strangers in a threatening way.

“Back off!” Julian ordered with a sufficiency he didn't feel. Lýkos advanced and the men took a step backwards. Lýkos placed his massive body between them and Julian, now blocking the door while his eyes shone in a feral way.

“Mr. Koiranos is not here,” Julian answered simply.

“We need to see him now,” the man repeated punctuating the last word.

“I don't know when he will be back.” Julian said, irked with the men's lack of manners. “You can leave a message if you want. I'll see that he gets it in the morning.”

Both men looked at each other as Lýkos became restless, growling in a way that forbade nothing good for them. Julian tried to move him away from the door, but the dog seemed to have turned into a statue.

“Is that Lord Koiranos' companion?” the shorter man asked, his face turning ashen as he gulped at the sight of Lýkos' yellow eyes.

“Yes, this is Lýkos and he's not happy at all,” Julian said with a smirk. “Told him he could gobble you up if he felt like.”

Both men lost their colours and retreated several steps. “There's really no need to take things like that, young man,” one of them said, rising his hand in a conciliatory way.

Julian gaped at him. It was only a bad joke!

“Don't worry, he had dinner before,” he answered. “I'll pass your message.” He patted the dog's side but Lýkos ignored Julian, all his attention still focused on the two strangers.

Julian watched amused how the men returned to their cars and twisted the thick paper visit card they had handed him. He looked at the Cyrillic characters and shrugged. “Should had dropped by my school yard, Lýkos. You really know how to render bullies into pussies,” he complimented the animal, still warily watching the retreating car.

“Seems Orion can read Russian too,” he said as he closed the door and locked it, glad the two men were away while Lýkos scratched his ear noisily with the rear leg.

“Don't tell me you're getting fleas,” Julian observed as he tried to decipher the characters in the visit card. A low growl was the answer he got, making him chuckle. “Obviously, Orion didn't attend my school too,” he mumbled and frowned at the card's funny characters.

“No, of course not. Fleas and you don't mix at all. That's for ordinary dogs,” he said with a smile. Lýkos teeth delicately took him by the sleeve and forced him to walk towards his own bedroom, not Orion's.

“Fine, it seems you want to sleep in my bed,” Julian sighed when the large paw pushed his door open and the wolfdog entered in the boy's bedroom as if he ruled the place. Without a second glance at Julian, Lýkos jumped on the bed and made himself comfortable on the right side.

Already well aware that pushing the wolfdog out of the bed was a lost battle, Julian switched the light on and began to undress himself. Because of the late hour, he assumed Orion would be back very late and it made no sense at all to sleep in his bedroom to leave it before dawn just to avoid a little scandal with the cleaning ladies.

He walked towards the bed and left the card over the night table and gathered his pyjamas from under the pillow.

“Well, “Lord Guardian of the Door” sounds better than doorman,” he snorted before he yawned. “Have to deliver the card in the morning, Lýkos.”

He went into his bathroom and brushed his teeth. 'Rich people are weirdos, but the powerful and rich ones are total psychos,' he thought at the memory of the two, built like tanks giants. 'What could they want from Orion? He doesn't look like the kind of people who owe money to Russian mobsters.'

'Well, in fact, Orion looks like the guy who advises the Russian mobsters.' he thought and immediately shook his head, chastising himself for thinking so low of his love.

'No, Orion's old money. Look all the top politicians or tycoons who come here just to speak with him. He even has a waiting list! According to Lucia the creeps just wait in line for him.

'What could have he seen in me? He's too clever to fall for beauty. He couldn't care less how someone looks if he was hooking up with that Morgenthau guy. He was over forty and looked like a teacher! A boring one on top!'

“Do you understand your master, Lýkos?” Julian asked the softly snoring wolfdog as he removed the covers from his side of the bed.

The dog growled softly as he moved a bit, just to leave some free space for Julian.

“Likewise,” the boy chuckled as he turned on his side to face the large animal and his hand playfully fisted a handful of his dark hair. His eyelids felt very heavy and fell asleep in no time.

* * *

The wolfdog rose his head the minute he heard the well-known footsteps resound along the corridor. The young Guardian was deeply asleep and heard nothing. Perhaps the Seer preferred it that way. He placed his paw over the small form and buried his head in the crook of his hip.

“I'm away for only one night and you recover all your privileges,” Orion said as he entered the room and sat next to Julian.

Lýkos moved away his head from the boy's body and fixed his eyes on his master.

“Eating two humans in front of him would have been too much for the time being,” Orion used their old language as he caressed his lover's dark blond hair. “He didn't mean that,” he protested with a dry chuckle at the silent dog's heated self-defense.

“I'm glad you fulfilled your duties and kept those men away. He's too young and naïve to be involved in any of their schemes,” Orion picked up the card from the night table. “I'll take care of it tomorrow.”

“You must protect him, Lýkos. Even if he passed his trials and is one of us now, he's still too weak to fend for himself. Remember the legend, my friend. His kind were frail compared to us. Their father had to protect them all the time.”

“Perhaps tomorrow he should start to learn his new abilities.”