"Someone clearly has your attention." Rose made sure to inject more venom into her words than normal, picking at her nails.
"Don't you need to be a pretentious bitch elsewhere?" Dorian grumbled, still watching the girl as she opened her window. The window faced the woods, which typically were uninhabited, save for when her brothers would hunt. It had been two weeks since they'd come to the town, and two weeks since the entire town had begun to grow ill. The two events were just coincidences, and the dark creatures hiding in the trees didn't care for the humans dying. This village was relatively poor, and it would mean a better economy for them in the future.
"Oh, brother, why don't you just take her if you like her so much? I'm sure she'd be a fine meal, and a large one at that." Rose was quite petite, and kept her blonde hair swept into a soft french twist. "Mom and dad would be so disappointed to see your lack of initiative. Her family is even quite large, and I'm sure they'd never notice if she were to- I don't know- run away?"
Dorian ground his teeth, "Please do see yourself away from me. I may strangle you at this point." They were not biologically brother and sister, however they'd had the same makers and were raised together. "I am simply curious about her, that is all," He grew defensive by the minute.
"What caused you to gather interest in the girl?"
Dorian had a very shallow reason for that- he just thought she was beautiful and wanted to meet her. She gave off this aura of one who wasn't quite belonging in their surroundings, and he had watched her miss meals and miss sleep just to ensure her siblings were cared for. He had watched her teach her siblings every other day how to read and write, which was impressive in a village like this. "Just thought she may be interesting, such a hard working girl."
Rose immediately saw through it and whacked him on the back of the head, "Are you dumb? Have you lost your mind? You couldn't possibly have a human partner. Stick within our species."
"You forget that we both were once mere humans."
"Dorian, you forget that we were the only two changelings that survived our transformation. What do you think would happen to her? She certainly looks strong, but she also appears to be proper and moral- and most likely not interested in becoming part of the night. Ergo- she is a human, and you are an idiot." Rose was at her wit's end with Dorian, was he so oblivious?
Callum put a hand on Rose's shoulder, startling her slightly, "We know he is an idiot. When he inevitably kills this plaything we will move on to the next village. There is an illness here and I am far too apathetic to it. The constant smell of death lingers over this place, and I look forward to our next move."
"Do you plan on trying to talk to the girl ever? She so rarely comes out at night, and surely appearing in her room would cause a commotion." Rose arched her eyebrows, ensuring Dorian would realize the judgement she passed to him.
"I don't know yet!" Dorian snapped, turning his head from the window as she pulled the curtain so she could change. "You all are so annoying, do you intend to keep me forever? Most groups as large as ours split within fifty years, and yet here we are, one hundred and thirteen years later, still laced together. Simply leave me here if I am that dumb and if you can't stand me." He had never been so irritated with the group.
"That is not truly how you feel Dorian," Rose blanked, slightly terrified of the concept of living without the one she had been with the longest. "Please take that back, having six people truly is not too many, and we depend on you for location scouting."
Callum sneered, "I can scout locations just as well as Dorian!" He was only in his tenth year as part of the group though, and was not fully aware of the various requirements for location scouting that could only be learned with experience and age.
"You are serving no good currently Cal, please leave!" Rose snapped, flicking him on the forehead. She had been flirting with him for the last ten years, but only to play and never serious, but it seemed he was serious, and quite jealous of Dorian. "Dorian, please do not consider leaving us."
Technically he had decided a long time ago, but he wanted a group entirely of his own to run with. At first it seemed that he and Rose had been chosen for each other, and she had readily accepted the position she was in. Dorian on the other hand was not attracted to the frail blonde girl and simply couldn't handle her attitude. "Your personality must be disordered if you think he cannot be trained, Rose. Please do leave me."
Rose and Callum left immediately, sick of reasoning with Dorian, who it seemed was ready to throw his entire eternity away on a whim.
Dorian came down from his place in the tree and approached the house, glancing in the windows to see all of the children were asleep. The girl had left her window open, and he allowed himself in as quietly as he could from the window. Shouldn't a girl know how dangerous this was? To leave her window open, all sorts of predators could enter her house, and he considered it lucky that only he had entered.
Listening to her heartbeat carefully he determined she was in a very deep sleep. Immediately Dorian searched for clues to her age, she couldn't be terribly old, no older than what he looked like. When he found nothing but some older, plain dresses and a few books he chose to take his last resort.
Gently he tugged the closet open, sitting on the floor in there and shutting the door behind him. In the dark he began to relax his body, meditating to enter her dreams.