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Wolf and Man	By : Need2ScreamNow Category: Singers/Bands/Musicians > Avenged Sevenfold Views: 2928 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. I do not know the members of Avenged Sevenfold. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 6
- 7
- 8
Present Day

Zack hopped off the bus and was greeted with a hundred squeals and cries of delight from the fans that had lined up at the barricades to meet them. He smiled and waved, he started walking down the line shaking hands, hugging, and signing things for their loyal followers.

He was close to the end when a smell caught his attention, it was a disgusting cloying smell that permeated the air and made him nauseas. He tried not to wrinkle his nose and looked around for the source of the stench as he signed a girl’s CD. He swept the crowd again and before he could dismiss the smell as something else he froze. There was a man in the crowd, no more than twenty years old, he had wavy black hair and green eyes. His frigid glare met Zack’s surprised stare and for a moment Zack’s world stopped spinning. He shook his head and forced himself to ignore the man and continued to go down the line signing things.

“Matt, we have a problem.” Zack said breathless as he got back on the bus. The singer looked up, “What?” he asked guardedly.

“The Hunters know.”

“Are you okay? Did they see you?” He jumped up and began checking him over worriedly.

“I’m fine and yes, he did see me.” Zack sighed as Matt’s hands roamed over his body.

“Only one? That means he’s only a scout, we can take him out and they won’t know.” He mused out loud.

“No!” Zack shouted horrified.

“What? No? Why the hell not?” Matt gave him an incredulous look.

“We can’t kill him…its…Isaac. I can’t…we can’t hurt him.” Zack whispered. Matt was still staring at him, “Who the hell is Isaac?”

“My…my baby brother. Isaac.” Zack started to shake and looked at the floor.

“This is not up for debate Zack.” Matt’s hazel eyes flashed coldly in the low light, “I have to protect this pack, I’m not going to make exceptions to that because you know each other.”

“He’s my little brother, I don’t just fucking *know* him! I was there when he was born, I helped him learn how to read and write…” Zack felt a heavy despair settle on his heart as Matt’s eyes stayed hard as glass, “If he means so much to you then maybe you should have stayed with him.” Matt snapped losing his patience; Zack recoiled from the cold words.

“Zack,” Matt’s voice was gentle and laced with regret, “Zachary I didn’t…”

Zack let loose a vicious snarl that shook his very bones and stalked past the singer and left the bus.

France 1612

“Matt, am I fat?” Zack stared at his reflection in the greenish water with borderline disgust. Why was it Matt, Brian, James, and Johnny looked lean and fierce and he looked soft and squishy?

“Fat? No, what makes you think that?” he came up behind him and wrapped him in a tight hug, the tight muscles in his arms rippled under his skin. Zack sighed and shook his head, “Nothing, just curious.”

“Zachary you are Apollo in the flesh.” He whispered huskily as he kissed his shoulder.

Then there was that. Matt always had some wise or cute saying that was perfect for every moment and Zack always had to ruin it by asking what the hell he was talking about. Matt didn’t mind explaining, but Zack hated it. Everyone else always seemed to know what he was saying and he had to make them slow down and back up to fill him in. When they were out in public and someone on the street stopped to talk to them Zack always moved to the back for fear someone would try to talk to him. He could barely understand the English the others used and now there were in France, what the hell was he supposed to do now. Everyone else could speak French, even Johnny and he was more than two decades younger than him!

He sighed at his own stupidity, “Who’s Apollo?”

“Greek God of healing, prophecies and the sun; what’s wrong?” Matt asked worriedly. Zack sighed again, “Nothing.”

Matt turned him around and looked him in the eye, “Zachary, there is nothing wrong with you. I hate it when you do this to yourself.” He pulled him back into the hug, Zack inhaled his wonderful smell and relaxed.

“I always feel stupid,” he whispered quietly, “I always have to ask you what you mean and everyone else always knows what you’re talking about.”

“Zachary,” he pressed a kiss to his temple, “Brian, James, and I have been roaming this earth for centuries, we’ve had time to study and learn. Johnny was part of a wealthy family, they sent him off to boarding school as soon as he was old enough.”

“And I’m just the stupid little peasant boy.” He grumbled. Matt sighed, “You are not stupid; you just haven’t been given the chance to learn.”

“Whatever you say.”

“I’ll make you a deal; for two hours every day I’ll teach you whatever you want to learn if you stop calling yourself stupid.” He pulled Zack away again and leveled him with a stern gaze. Zack felt a small balloon of happiness fill his chest, he nodded and snuggled close to him again. Matt chuckled, “Thought so. Now, what do you want to know?”

Zack grinned happily and thought for a moment, “You.”

“What?”

“I want to know about you.” He whispered, Matt’s husky laugh floated through the air, “Alright, what do you want to know about me?”

“What was it like when you were growing up?” Zack found his usual comfortable position against his taller lover and settled for his lesson.

Matt began his story, his deep tones rumbling through his chest and lulling Zack into a light doze, “Guess I should start at the beginning…when I was born they were just beginning to pave the streets of Rome in gold. They didn’t really keep track of time then and really at that point it didn’t matter, the empire was growing rapidly, everyone was wealthy, and the arts flourished.

"I grew up in the outskirts of Florence, beautiful countryside, my family would probably have been considered upper class. My father was a merchant and my mother sculpted when she wasn’t busy with me. We were close enough to Florence to take a weekly evening walk to the city center and admire the new art and buildings being put up. Many artists were sculptures and they worked tirelessly on statures that were as tall as buildings, working every detail into the likeness of whichever God or Goddess they had chosen.”

Zack listened to his voice and the steady beat of his heart and slipped into a dream world with streets made of gold and colossal statues that reached up to the heavens.

When the voice stopped he woke up a little and found it dark, Matt was still holding him in the same spot, Matt began humming a simple tune and Zack slipped back into his dream.

“Zacky, wake up. Zachary, wake up.” The soft voice tugged him half-way out of his slumber, but he wasn’t ready to wake up yet. He grumbled and curled up tighter, fleetingly he thought of shifting to his wolf form but immediately scrapped the idea; he was comfortable like this. Suddenly a very cold, very wet nose pressed against his back, Zack yelped and jumped away from the nose he growled and turned around and found

Brian looking at him with a cocky grin, “Time to get up princess.”

Zack growled and then tackled him, they wrestled around for a few minutes, Zack actually managed to pin him for a second before Brian shifted into his wolf form and slipped out of his hold.

“Brian…” Matt shook his head when he found the two of them growling and snapping at each other.

“He started it.” Brian laughed rolling Zack onto his back, Zack shifted and pounced on him again growling. Matt sighed and walked around them, “Come children, the market is open, if you want to get anything to eat we need to go.”

Zack barked happily and darted after Matt, running into him and knocking him on his butt when the Alpha stopped and turned to see if they were following. Zack yelped and took off into the bushes barking happily as Matt growled and went after him in his own onyx form. Brian shifted and padded after them silently with his pink tongue lolling out as he laughed.

The French Marketplace was by far one of the most exciting places Zack had ever been, not even Germany could compare to it. Everything was bright and it smelled amazing. There was a rainbow of fresh cut flowers, dozens upon dozens of fresh baked breads and rolls, a dozen more selections of roasted meats, and cheese and wine were everywhere.

It took every ounce of his self-control not to drool or run from vendor to vendor smelling everything. The only bad thing was the people, they were everywhere too and it seemed like they all wanted to talk to Matt.

Zack hung towards the back and tried to decipher what the people were talking about but the meanings of the words they used eluded him. The worst is when everyone would laugh, he had no idea what was going on and then BAM! Everyone would start laughing. He let his long hair conceal most of his face and kept his head down, people tended to avoid him if he didn’t look as friendly or open as the others.

“Who, may I ask, is this strapping lad in the back?” the cheerful voice was heavy with his French accent. Zack’s head snapped up when he felt everyone turn to look at him; his stomach tightened with fear, his heart stopped and then restarted at twice its normal speed, his mouth went dry and he felt his hands go clammy. One of his nightmares was coming true, he had no idea what was going on and now they wanted him to answer questions.

The man’s beady eyes looked him over patronizingly as he waited for his answer, Zack cowered internally, he didn’t want to be at the market anymore, he wanted to go back to the forest and hide.

“Zachary.” He whispered, the man quirked an eyebrow; Matt said something trying to divert his attention but the man was like a bulldog, he had locked his jaws onto something and he wasn’t letting go until he was done.

“Zachary eh, perhaps you should speak up the seniors find it particularly difficult to hear such soft-spoken boys. Now why are you hiding in the back, so morosely, this is France! The sun is bright on the country, they tyrant is gone and the future is bright!”
Zack felt himself getting a little dizzy, he had no idea what this man wanted from him, more and more he was wishing for his four legs and the wind in his face as he sprinted away from these people.

“He is a little shy in crowded areas.” James said smoothly as he and Brian subtly moved together to shield Zack from the man’s probing gaze.

“Well perhaps he needs to be socialized a little better.” The cranky man spat.
Matt came up behind him, apparently forgotten by the man, and whispered quietly in his ear, “Zacky, angel, calm down. Come, let’s get some air.” He pulled him away toward a less populated corner of the market.

“Calm down Zacky, nothing is going to hurt you.” He whispered once they were in the less crowded area; Zack was shaking uncontrollably.

“Zack you need to calm down, if you get too panicked you’ll start shifting uncontrollably and we really do not want these people to take up their witch hunts again.” He murmured brushing his lips across his forehead.

They waited there until Brian gave the subtle signal that the man was gone; Zack felt himself blush with embarrassment, he was the only one that freaked out, the others were fine dealing with the man. He stayed in the back with his head down as the other four started up one of their complicated conversations. He was pretty sure it had something to do with science; they kept referring to someone called Zacharias Janssen*…whoever the hell that was.

“Pardon,” a lilting female voice called from somewhere to his left, “I do apologize for the intrusion, but I overheard your conversation.” She was a small woman, well dressed, in a deep blue dress that was embroidered with tiny and complex designs on the cuffs and around the neck and hem; obviously she was upper class. Her medium length blonde hair was tied up into a bun revealing her slender white neck and flashing blue eyes. Her English was tinged with her French accent, but she had clearly been studying the language for awhile and the accent didn’t make her as difficult to understand as the old man that had gone after Zack.

Once the first words were out of her mouth Zack dropped back even further from the group once again wishing he was safe in the woods as the five began debating whatever it was they were talking about. Zack was slowly inching his way further from the group so he could make a quick getaway into the woods when the wind shifted and brought a foul stench to him. He clenched his jaw to fight back the nausea and began searching out the hideous odor; he had smelled something like it before, when they found Johnny, apparently the young wolf’s own unique scent had dampened the disgusting odor.

He slowly started to move toward the group where the smell seemed to be getting stronger. He stopped when he was almost directly between James and Brian so he wouldn’t be pulled into the conversation; the odor was coming from somewhere closer to Matt. He felt a growl build in his chest when he thought of something so rank next to Matt. He searched the circle, but the only person he found that the smell could be coming from was the woman.

He stared at her for a moment trying to find something that would tell him otherwise, but his nose didn’t lie. The woman was the source. That made her dangerous, the hair on the back of his neck rose; he didn’t realize he was glaring death at the woman until Brian elbowed him. He shook his head breaking himself completely out of his daze of anger, the woman didn’t seem to notice; she was too busy flirting with Matt which made Zack angrier. He wanted nothing more than to walk over and drag Matt away from the evil bitch but he had no way of explaining his actions without giving himself away.

The group talked awhile longer and then made plans to meet the woman later that night to talk further. Once she was out of earshot Brian snickered, “I didn’t think you were the jealous type.”

Zack looked at confused, “What?”

“You were glaring at her like you were ready to do battle.” He laughed.

Matt snorted and took his hand, pulling him close, “I’m only here for you.” He whispered. Zack nuzzled his neck and scanned the crowd for the woman, he found her only a few vendors down from them staring at him coldly.

“Matt, we need to go.” He murmured against his warm neck; Matt pulled back and looked at him confused, “Why? What’s wrong?”

“The woman, she’s…she’s not good, I think she’s a Hunter.” Zack pressed himself closer to him; the rank odor was clinging to his skin and drowning out his own pleasant scent.

“Zack I know you don’t like her but that’s no reason to accuse her of being a Hunter.”
Matt sighed. Zack shook his head, “No, I mean it Matt, she smells horrible, it’s the same thing I smelled when we found Johnny. It’s like rotting fish in a bouquet of flowers.” He whispered he was still staring at the woman. She was no longer glaring, now there was a light of curiosity in those frigid blue depths. Matt pulled back and looked at him for a moment silently and then sighed, “Zachary, I will admit the way you smell things is exceedingly interesting, but I’m not going to base all of my decisions on it. If she was a Hunter she would have killed us outright, there’s nothing wrong with her.”

Zack blinked and tried to hide his hurt, he’d never lied to Matt before, and he wasn’t now. The woman was dangerous and he didn’t want any of his pack mates anywhere near her.

Close to dusk Zack dragged Matt back over to the pond they’d been at the day before and tried again to convince him to call off the meeting with the woman, Mariana.

“Matt, please,” He rested his cheek on Matt’s shoulder and whispered against his neck, “don’t go. She’s not…”

“Zachary, I’m not arguing with you. She is a normal human, she is not a Hunter and she is not dangerous.” He said stepping back from him, he leveled Zack with a cool gaze, “We won’t be gone long, you can stay here if you want. We’re just going to have dinner and finish our conversation; it should only take a couple hours.”

“What are you talking about?” Zack asked quietly, he didn’t want to go, but if he could at least pretend he knew what was going on he would.

“Atomic Theory.”

Well pretending to know what was going on was out of the question…

“What’s that?” He didn’t want Matt to go alone if he wasn’t on his guard.

“Nothing you would understand.” he said distractedly looking at the setting sun. Zack recoiled from the barb; Matt might as well have just slapped him and called him an idiot to his face. He turned away from Matt to look at his reflection in the pond, his soft, squishy, stupid reflection.

“Zachary I have to go, we’ll be back later.” And with that he was gone.
Zack continued to stare at his pale reflection until it was to dark to see it, and then he slowly stripped out of his clothing and took off into the trees as fast as his four legs could carry him.

*Matt POV*

Mariana really was a pleasant person to talk with, she was smart and funny and easily countered with Brian’s cynicism, which was really a feat in itself. Zack’s warning kept nagging at his mind though, as much as he was trying to relax and enjoy himself his quiet voice continued to echo through his head. He had told Brian about Zack’s strange behavior and he could tell that his long time friend was also thinking on the words.

Zack’s peculiar sense of smell had been a mystery he’d been turning over for awhile. While he himself could smell certain things, body odor, certain emotions had their own peculiar smell, and a plethora of other things he never once smelled smoke on Brian unless he’d been near a fire. And ice? Never, he could smell water if it was close enough, but not ice, and never on Brian.

He forced himself out of his jumbled thoughts back into the conversation when Mariana turned to him; she smiled coyly and lightly rested her delicate fingers on his arm, “Where is your other puppy?”

Matt was momentarily at a loss for words, he tried to remember what they’d been talking about, they had been jumping from subject to subject since they sat down together, not one of them had to do with animals.

Realization hit him like a vicious kick to the stomach, Zachary…she was talking about Zachary.

“At first I was confused as to why he didn’t take to me as quickly as you four, but I talked to one of the elders about it and it seems the boy has a very inconvenient trait.” her light, musical voice carried through the tense silence at the table, “You see, when we originally set out to purge your filthy existence from this world we thought we were invisible to you, and for the most part we are. But every now and then we find a wolf that knows us for what we really are. Usually they’re killed before we realize it so we’ve never been able to find out how they know, but now that we know your little dog has this trait we can question him.” She finished brightly.

Matt felt his world slowly begin to fall away from him; he had been right on one count, she wasn’t a Hunter, she was bait, but he’d been horribly wrong in the one place it mattered; she wasn’t harmless, she was dangerous, just like Zacky had told him. He felt his breathing constrict as the rest of her words sank in, they were going after Zacky and he was alone in the forest. If they caught him, they would torture him until they had all the information they needed, then they would kill him. They were going to torture and kill Zachary, his beautiful, kind, loving Zachary. There was a ringing sound in his ears and the voices around him were hollow and distant. He barely registered the small silver knife she pulled out of her sleeve; the blade glinted evilly in the bright moonlight.

He didn’t think, he reached over and grabbed the hand with the knife, with a sound like crunching gravel he slammed her fragile, doll-like hand against the table shattering it. She screeched in pain and dropped the knife, her scream was cut short when Matt twisted her neck around until it cracked loudly and she collapsed face first onto the table dead.

“Find him!”

But Brian, James, and Johnny were already running helter-skelter toward the trees.

*Zack POV*

He ran until the pain of Matt’s words was overshadowed by the pain in his limbs and then he pushed himself to run even faster. He was going to run until he forgot who he was, until he forgot how stupid he was, how soft and flimsy he was, how weak he was. He finally tripped over his own feet in complete exhaustion and came to a crashing halt panting heavily. He almost forced himself up to start running again but collapsed again, there wasn’t really a point to it. He lay there trying to remember the last time he’d been worth anything to anyone…his family probably, but even then that was a fuzzy area. He had left them at a crucial time to go with a man he knew nothing about and now here he was. Matt wanted him to stop calling himself stupid, so he did, and then he had turned around the very next day and called him stupid.

His stomach rumbled hungrily, he ignored it. He didn’t deserve to eat, maybe if he stopped eating he would get lean and muscular like the others.

The one thing he couldn’t ignore was his thirst. His mouth felt like it was on fire and his tongue felt thick and nasty. He dragged himself up and forced himself to start looking for something, anything, to drink. He scented the air, faintly he could smell water, it was still another mile at least. He caught something else on the wind, a rank smell that made him gag, something like a dead fish in a bed of flowers.

He ran until morning, no longer out of self-hate and hurt but out of fear, his paws fell heavily on the hard packed ground and he had a headache from hunger and thirst, but every time he stopped the smell was there, never farther and thankfully never closer.

He splashed through a stream and took a quick gulp of the icy water, it wasn’t enough to slake his burning thirst but it would keep it at bay until he lost his pursuers.

*Matt POV*

They couldn’t find him, they’d been following his scent all night and they still hadn’t found him. He was going to go insane with worry and guilt. Brian bounded up next to him and gently nudged his shoulder, Matt nodded once and slowed then stopped, they were all breathing heavy; they were built to run, but not at a full out sprint all night.

“We’ll find him Matt.” Brian whispered, he kissed the side of his muzzle and then shifted back to his wolf form and began scouting ahead to see where Zack’s trail went.
Matt walked over to the sleeping Johnny and licked his cheek; he was smaller than the other three which meant he had to work twice as hard to keep up. Matt felt another bout of guilt flare up when he thought about how hard he was pushing the pup. Johnny cracked an eye and after a moment slowly got to his feet and weakly wagged his tail. James stood close and licked his muzzle lovingly. Matt turned and started a slow trot in the direction Brian had taken off in.

*Zack POV*

He tripped at the crest of a hill and went tumbling down end-over-end until he slammed into a thick tree at the bottom. He was so tired and sick he didn’t even have the energy or the will power to whimper in pain. He laid there listening to the sounds of the surrounding forest and fell into unconsciousness with a rotten smell steadily growing stronger.

In his dream the Hunters found him, they were big, bigger than Matt and James and they had blood red eyes, their stench made him choke and gag. He tried to stand up but he was kicked to the ground again by one of them and then one of the Hunter’s faces began to melt and shift and suddenly Bryce was staring down at him hungrily. His bright blue eyes tore the flesh from his body and left him totally exposed. He whimpered in fear and tried to call out to Matt, but he couldn’t speak, he had gotten so stupid he couldn’t remember how to speak.

Bryce reached down toward him with a silver blade in his hand and pressed it to the exposed muscle on his arm, he shrieked in agony as the blade began to eat away at his delicate muscles. The Hunters cackling laughter echoed around him and they pulled out their own blades and bent over him.

Suddenly a ferocious snarl made all of them stand up and look around; from out of nowhere Matt charged the group his white teeth flashing and his hazel eyes full of hate. Zack relaxed when he saw the large black wolf coming toward him, his cavalry had come at last; but instead of getting scared and running like they were supposed to the Hunters and Bryce laughed and stepped back.

Matt’s form began to twist and melt until he wasn’t the gracious savior he was supposed to be he was another tormentor. His black and silver pelt disappeared and he stood over Zack on two legs, his face was twisted in a derisive mask of malice and he brutally kicked at Zack’s vulnerable stomach. He started shouting at him using words he couldn’t understand, then Matt’s face morphed into his father’s and his words turned to curses.

Zack sat up screaming, it was night and the half moon’s light was filtered lazily though the thick canopy above him revealing a small peaceful brook and a part of a deer carcass. There was a thick smell of blood in the air and the foul odor of the Hunters seemed to be clinging to everything.

“Zachary, Zacky it’s alright, it’s alright angel.” Matt’s soft voice whispered in his ear, his warm arms surrounded him like a wall of comfort and protection. Brian crouched down in front of him looking him over worriedly. Zack began to relax and Matt’s gentle voice scared away the clinging remnants of his nightmare. He turned his head so he could smell his skin and finally relaxed all the way when he caught his scent.

“He’s fine Matt, it was just a nightmare.” Brian concluded after running his hands over him once. Matt’s grip tightened on him, “Zachary Baker, I love you.” He whispered. Zack turned and crawled into his lap and easily began drifting into another, far more pleasant, dream.

Present Day

Zack sat under an ancient looking pine, the low hanging limbs concealed him fairly well; if someone wasn’t actively looking for him they could easily just walk right past him. He leaned against the trunk and closed his eyes and tried to escape from reality.
He’d left the bus almost two hours ago, that meant that he had probably another ten minutes before Jimmy found him and dragged him back. He sighed and for a moment thought about just leaving, but he shook his head, clearing the thought, just because he was mad at Matt that didn’t mean he had to make other people suffer.

Right on cue the breeze kicked up and brought with it the distinct smell of spring; he sighed again and waited for Jimmy.

“Zack, we’re leaving in twenty minutes.” The lanky drummer’s voice was softer than usual; Zack looked up and met his blue eyes with his own green ones. Matt had told them, everything. He closed his eyes and tried to fight back the waves of mixed emotions washing through him.

“Zachary,” Zack opened his eyes and looked at him curiously, they rarely called him Zachary anymore, “I don’t know what he said, but he didn’t mean it. He’s worried about you, he always worries when you leave.” He crouched down in the entrance of the tree and held out his hand.

“If he didn’t mean it he wouldn’t say it.” Zack said ignoring the hand; Jimmy sighed and dropped his hand.

“They are here to kill us Zack that is their sole purpose on this earth, to hunt us down. I know how hard it is to lose a sibling,” he whispered, “but…we have to do what we have to do to survive.” He held out his hand again and this time Zack took it.

They got back to the bus with only a few minutes to spare, Jimmy left him alone as soon as they were on the bus and Zack flopped back onto the couch in the front lounge and closed his eyes.

He couldn’t tell if he fell asleep or if he just lost track of time but the next time he became aware of his surroundings he could feel Matt standing only a few feet away. He didn’t open his eyes but Matt could tell he was awake.

“Zack…Zachary, I’m sorry.” He kneeled down next to the couch and lightly kissed his
cheek; Zack didn’t flinch. He was angry at his mate and he wasn’t in a forgiving mood.

“I didn’t mean to be so cold. I love you, you are my life and I will keep you safe whether you want me to or not.”

Zack growled low in his throat and turned his head away.

“Fine.” Matt whispered and then he got up and left.

*Zacharias Janssen- Invented the compound microscope in 1590.

A/N: Do my eyes deceive me!? No! I really did put up two, count ‘em *two* chapters in one day! Oh yes the rains have come =) There may even be a third chapter update tomorrow, I’ve already started on it, hell it may be up tonight…no probably not tonight…its going to be a bit lengthy. But its going to be totally action packed =D

*Edit* Ah, thank you 'beth' for Jimmy's eye color :)

I’m a review whore so tip well ^_~ lol
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Wolf and Man