Elaina turned to face Angelus. She wasn't expecting to see him out here and had hoped that Angelus was not following her. "So he has eyes."
"What happened?" For a moment, Angelus almost sounded sincerely concerned for Elaina. She reminded herself that he was a stranger to her and she to him so why would he really care what had happened?
"My job" Elaina was short with him.
"Which is?"
"Done."
"Not what I meant..."
"With all due respect, My job is none of your concern." She knew exactly what he meant. He wanted to know what she did but she felt no need to tell him.
"At least let me accompany you back." Angelus had a way with words. He knew how to make a demand, yet not sound demanding simultaneously.
Elaina let out an exasperated sigh. She figured he would not take no for an answer. She may have just met him, but based on her initial meeting with him, he was not someone you said it to. He was inexorable as a king that demanded to be obeyed. She knew why he wanted to accompany her back. It was dangerous at night. Not because of humans, but because of the creatures that lurked in the darkness. She wanted to tell him that there was no need. She could handle herself just fine. IF she wasn't capable of handling herself as well as she was, her fate would've been the same as the hunter. However, she said something entirely different.
"Let's go." Elaina began her journey back to the manor. She couldn't help but look up at the night sky full of twinkling stars.
A small smile appeared on her lips. As dark and dangerous as the night was, she loved it. She found a sense of peace when the light of day faded and the world became dead quiet.
"I never got your name." Angelus said, walking beside her.
"Elaina. Elaina Van Angeline." She didn't bother looking at him. As handsome as she thought he was, she wasn't Kalyn, who drooled over every attractive man she saw. There were far too many things that were more important to her.
"Angelus Cel Tradat." He glanced over at Elaina to see her staring at the sky. He looked up to see what had caught her interest, but saw nothing out of the ordinary to him.
Elaina noticed his face twitch in disgust, as though he smelled something foul. She wondered what crossed his mind. The last thing she needed was to get to know someone she doubted she would ever see again. The world was a large place and being a slayer kept her busy and traveling to different places. There was only one group of people she saw regularly and those were those who were part of the order.
By now, they were at the doors of the manor. Based on the sounds coming from inside, no one was in the foyer area. Elaina figured they were all still in the ballroom, dancing until their feet hurt.
"Let me help you with your cuts and gashes." Angelus spoke softly.
"I can do it myself.." Elaina rolled her eyes. She didn't need his help.
"What of the one on your shoulder blade?"
Elaina knew that he had a point. She didn't want to have to rely on someone else but reaching the one on her back would be difficult. It would prevent her from properly treating it. Even though she didn't really need to, if she didn't her fast healing would raise alarms with the order. People would have questions and ones she would not want to answer.
"Fine, you can help." Elaina agreed.
Angelus led her through the empty halls, past the cracked open door of the ballroom, and into a kitchen. Elaina sat down on a chair by a table while he rummaged through things to find certain items. The first thing he did was place a kettle of water on the stove to boil it. While waiting for that, he pulled out a bottle of wine that was less than half full.
"Hold on a moment.." Angelus went into a nearby pantry and returned with honey and vinegar. He placed them on the table beside her before he disappeared for a few minutes and came back with bandages and a cloth. Once everything had been gathered, he used the wine bottle to combine the boiling water and vinegar. He covered the opening with his thumb and shaked the bottle to mix the ingredients together. "Remove your dress and lay back."
Elaina's face turned red at his demand. She clearly didn't think this through when she agreed to letting him help her. It never occurred to her that this stranger would end up seeing her near naked. If anyone walked in on the two of them, what would they think?
"R-Right…" she whispered, pushing the dress down to her waist to expose her torso. She instinctively wrapped her arms to cover herself. Thankfully, he wouldn't have to see her fully naked, but being in this position was embarrassing enough to her. She leaned back until she was flat against the wooden table.
Angelus chuckled quietly to himself at Elaina. "This may sting a bit.." He said.
Nothing she didn't already know. This wasn't the first time she had been injured, nor the first time she had them treated. Elaina may be good at what she does, but she is no invulnerable god. Angelus hovered over her with the wine bottle and poured a bit of its contents into the gash across her collarbone. As the liquid penetrated the wound, she felt a burning sensation. Elaina exhaled sharply, as though that would expel the pain. It eventually faded as Angelus smeared some honey across it and pressed a cloth against it.
"Hold that and flip over."
Elaina held the cloth in place and rolled over so that her back was exposed to Angelus. He poured more of the concoction into the gash across her shoulder blade. This time, the pain was more intense, causing Elaina to use her free hand to grip the edge of the table until her knuckles turned white. Angelus smeared more honey across the gash and placed another cloth over it as well before wrapping her in a bandage to hold both pieces of fabric in place.
"Thanks.." Elaina sat back up to pull her dress back up. Just in time for the kitchen door to open and Kalyn and Silviu entered.
"There you are! We've been looking everywhere for you!" Before she knew it, Kalyn had wrapped her arms around Elaina.
She tried to squirm her way out of the embrace in silent protest. How she hated being hugged and touched like that. She grunted in displeasure as she pried Kalyn's arms away from her.
"Are you ok?" Silviu asked, his expression soft and full of concern.
"Whose the mysterious god-like specimen?" Kalyn said, turning towards the dark-haired man Elaina had been alone with. Of course, she would be more interested in knowing about Angelus. Elaina rolled her eyes at her question.
"I am fine, Silviu. Thanks for your concern." She said.
"I am Angelus. I should get going and leave you guys to talk.." the dark-haired vampire said, smirking at Kalyn. He walked away, but stopped once he reached the kitchen door. He looked over his shoulder at Elaina. "Oh, and I recommend not going out at this time of night again, Elaina. You could have gotten hurt a lot worse."
"I don't need your concern." Her eyes narrowed on Angelus. How dare he try to tell her what she should and shouldn't do. A part of her wanted to walk right back outside into the moonlight just to spite him. Although his words almost sounded threatening, Elaina doubted that was his intention. But then again, she didn't truly know what his intentions were. A part of her wished she could pick apart his mind or at the very least read it to get to know more about him.
Her words caused Angelus to chuckle to himself before he exited the room, leaving the trio of slayers alone.
"What happened? You disappeared from the ballroom, then we couldn't find you." Silviu asked, leaning against the wall closest to where Kalyn and Elaina were.
Elaina looked down, trying to comprehend exactly what had happened tonight. The feral stalking the woman, then the ghost of her past may or may not have been there and then.... they ambushed her. It was certainly an eventful night.
"He's alive... I think... I don't know. I thought- maybe I'm just going insane." Elaina whispered, looking down at the dirty wooden floor. She certainly felt like it. Over the years, she had doubted that the vampire from years ago was alive, but now there was a slice of hope.
"See Silviu! She has finally lost it!" Kalyn giggled.
Elaina shot Kalyn an unamused glare. If looks could kill, she would've been dead several times over. Now especially wasn't the time for jokes. The last thing she wanted was to be the butt of one of her god awful jokes. There were more important matters at hand. Kalyn took a few steps back and lowered her head like a dog that had been caught being bad.
"Sorry.." She muttered.
"I noticed a feral in the ballroom in the shadows. I don't know how he got in, but he did. Anyway, I followed him once he followed someone outside. I killed him just as he tried to attack her. Afterwards I noticed movements in the nearby woods and when I got closer, I could've sworn I saw the man I have been hunting for more than half my life. I followed him deeper into the wooded area, I think as a distraction. When he was gone, I turned back to the manor but smelled blood. I thought maybe someone from the masquerade had gotten hurt, so I followed the scent, but found a hunter instead. When I approached, Eight feral vampires surrounded me. Looking back, I think the hunter was a trap, and I fell right into it." Elaina explained her side of things. She looked down in shame at the fact she had let herself fall into what was likely a trap like that.
"You took on eight lesser vamps alone!? They could have killed you!" Silviu cried out, pushing himself off the wall.
"I didn't have a choice, Silviu. It was to stand and fight or let them kill me. I was surrounded!"
"Guys..." Kalyn spoke softly.
"You could have run. You could have gotten help" Silviu shook his head. He was so occupied with lecturing Elaina that he hadn't heard his sister talk. Elaina didn't hear her either.
"Where? The manor? Lead them here where this is an entire buffet for them?" Elaina shook her head. The very last thing she would have done was exactly that. It would have defeated the purpose of why they were there. Running back to the manor would have put everyone here in danger, and Elaina refused to be responsible for it.
"GUYS! Stop!" This time, Kalyn raised her voice to get Elaina and Silviu to stop arguing. The last thing she wanted was for them to be arguing at a time like this.
Both Silviu and Elaina fell silent and looked over at the medium ash-haired female. Kalyn had her arms crossed like a mother who was done with watching her two children argue over god knows what.
"Elaina is alive, and she is fine. That is all that matters." She said. Elaina and Silviu looked at each other in surprise. Kalyn was the last one you would expect to be the voice of reason. Usually that was Silviu or Elaina.
"Anyway... What happened while I was distracted in the forest?" Elaina asked.
"Nothing out of the ordinary here." Silviu shaked his head gently.
"Same as my brother. Nothing here." Kalyn confirmed.
"I suspect there is a nest somewhere nearby... Eight ferals in the forest is a lot to be coincidental. The one who sent the letter was the man who lured me into the forest or the leader of the nest. That man could also be the leader of the nest. It almost appeared he was laying in wait for something, like a signal." Elaina said. She thought over what she had just said before it came to her. The first feral she killed, "The smell of first blood. That had to have been it! Everything is just too coincidental."
Silviu nodded. What she said made sense to him, and he couldn't help but agree with it. "We'll locate it and deal with it come sunrise."