They regrouped where they had been before and assessed the damage to everyone and the casualties. A few minutes later an explosion rocked the ground and they looked toward where the fire was and smoke. It just felt like another job really, one that had gone better than they thought. Quick and smooth, everyone liked that. Well smooth for fighting creatures from hell.
"It's a good hike to the vehicles, let's move." Neil said and they moved off in the direction they needed to. Savon stayed where he was for the moment looking at the raised hill. He thought he saw movement there. After a minute he saw it again, it was a dark shape but then it was gone.
"What are you looking at?" Kayla asked him. She peered over where he'd been looking clearly picking up on his unease.
"Nothing." He responded not sure where it went. He turned, Todd had stopped as well a short distance away and was waiting for them. They ran to the rest of the group and hurried with them to the vehicles. Savon checked them all for possession before they would be taken to their current residence. Savon felt like eyes were on him the entire time, and it was annoying.
"This job is going to kill me." Todd groaned moving rather stiffly toward a vehicle, and there were a few laughs.
"It's not a job. This is life." Someone added and there were a couple more chuckles. It was true after all. They were at the vehicles and making sure that everyone was good, and safe to travel.
Savon looked toward the shrubs and trees not far away. It felt like something was there but he wasn't sure what it was. He didn't want to lead something back if it was attached to him. He moved toward the trees as others bandaged wounds. He didn't know why he was suddenly feeling this, he'd never had a problem before. He always made a clean escape, so why the edgy feeling?
'I'm waiting.' Savon froze at the growl like voice, it was a male voice and he looked around but no one was by him. It was odd, it sounded like the voice spoke out loud, but he wasn't so sure it hadn't been partly in his head. His eyes shown brighter for a moment as they scanned the area.
'I don't need another voice in my head.' Savon spoke more to himself, but as always his other half was right there.
'No shit, it's crowded enough in here already.' For no reason at all Savon felt a bit of a laugh. He thought himself crazy, but enjoyed the dark companion anyways. He was staring at the trees, something was there. It was a dark presence but it didn't feel threatening, and not truly evil. Something was off though, he moved as if to walk way.
"Why do you not ask? Not speak to me?" Savon stood there. He heard it that time and he knew it, but there wasn't anything there. Shit, what did he have attached to him? He was always careful of those things. He couldn't be possessed, it wasn't possible for him to be. But he felt like something was there.
"Hey, you okay?" He turned to find Todd there. "You look confused."
"I am." He said looking around again. "Do you feel like something is here, watching us?"
"I always feel like something is watching. I'm overly paranoid like that. Why do you feel something a bit more serious?" Todd glanced about as well.
"I don't know." He supplied. There was the feeling of confusion and annoyance coming to him from nowhere and he didn't like it. It was messing with his head.
"Stop." He snapped after a minute. He didn't realize he spoke out loud at first.
"Stop what?" Todd asked.
"As you wish." Said the phantom voice and the feeling stopped coming to him momentarily. It was hard to tell if it was out loud or in his head.
"Nothing, did you hear a voice just now?" Todd looked at him, a raised eyebrow.
"Look I know you're weird. But between you and me, let's keep the voice stuff to ourselves." Todd said with a smile. Savon waited a minute and didn't feel anything, and gave Todd a smile.
"Doesn't everyone have a voice in their head?"
"Yeah, we aren't supposed to talk about it. It's freakish to indulge the voice, though I think that to ignore it completely is to ignore a part of yourself."
"Very deep Todd." Savon almost chuckled, and he realized that he liked this man. Could call him a friend like he did Drake. He didn't feel the need to snap at him, or be snide with him, to attack him. Todd gave a smile and nod.
"I have my moments, we are leaving in a few minutes. It happens when you have two near death experiences." He said and Todd moved back toward the others. Savon watched him, he looked at the group and his eyes found Kayla moving in the group. His gaze stayed on her for a bit watching her move.
"Why do you watch a human? Why are you not disgusted by them like Ahemn was?" Savon snapped back around hearing that voice again. This time however he caught the orange eyes in the trees.
'Ah fuck no.' Was his mental thought. Shit he should have killed the thing when he had the chance. What was it doing, was it following him to get rid of him? Well he had the time now if it tried something. Nothing was going to explode on him now. Savon moved a bit closer to the trees and he noted that it backed up.
"What do you want? I let you live, now leave me alone." He told it.
"I can't, you own me now. You killed my owner, and I ate him to make sure he did not come back. So I belong to you. It's how it works here." Well that was interesting, but what did he really know about the inner workings of hellhounds? Did they make a practice of eating their masters?
"Well, you're free, so be gone." He said. He did not need a hellhound following him around. Bad enough he had his acolyte half whispering dark things to him. He didn't need another. Didn't need a second voice coaxing him to do things. Like the things his inner voice wanted him to do. A good portion had Kayla in the thoughts, it was fixated on her now since the other day. What could he say, blood was a powerful thing.
'Yeah because I need something. Be it pleasure or pain.' He sighed at his inner voice. It sensed the annoyance about his sudden fixation on the woman. It clearly did not give a shit, it would fixate on whatever it damn well pleased. However his attention stayed on the hell-hound who spoke. It was strange. It spoke yet the mouth didn't seem to move. It was like he could understand the growls and also had a bit of speech in his head.
"It doesn't work like that. I was born to have a master. Even if I don't want one." Savon turned toward the others. Kayla was looking at him, a curious expression on her face. But none up there could see the hell-hound concealed in the brush.
"Don't follow me." Savon said under his breath.
"I have to." It responded to him. Well fuck, this didn't sound so good. He really didn't need this right now, and he thought about perhaps killing it again. However every time he thought to do it, it just didn't seem logical to do. Like he'd be severing a part of himself. It had to be some kind of safe guard that the creature had.
"Savon, something wrong?" Kayla called from where she'd come forward. A few others looked but kept at what they were doing.
"No." He said coming up to where she was. He heard the hell-hound moving, but didn't look to see where it was. If the others weren't shouting or screaming, it hadn't come into view. There was a light fog here now, but the night sky was still visible.
"You sure?" Kayla asked quietly as he came up and he looked at her. There was concern there and he didn't know how to take that. He never really saw concern for him, just for the situation. It made him feel oddly accepted. Her and Todd made him think that perhaps he wasn't completely cut off from the others. Which was a stupid thought because no one else would care, and he wondered why she still talked to him after their little exchange. He'd figured her opinion would change after she had time to think about it.
He'd left others alive that he'd drank from. Sometimes they remembered and were completely terrified of him just like they were the demons. Others wanting what he could give them because it felt good. She seemed to just accept it and move on, it made him wonder what she really thought.
"Yes."
"You looked like you were talking to yourself." Kayla observed.
"Don't you talk to yourself?"
"Sometimes." She said, "But you talking to yourself seems different than anyone else." She seemed to regret saying that out loud.
"What do you mean by that?" He asked watching her, he remembered her little talent. Had she been somewhere that he had talked to himself? Some of the things that he said out loud when he didn't think that anyone was listening weren't good. Seeing as he let his other side more vocals.
"Just... I don't know I didn't really mean to say that. It was just with last night, like you had two different voices. I was just curious I guess. I mean your feelings have to come from some where right?" She didn't think she was explaining it well. She'd seen him talking over there, but quietly.
He noted her gaze over in that direction and looked down at her. His eyes their normal shade, but perhaps a slight brighter tone.
"Sometimes people need a moment to themselves. I'd appreciate if you'd give me mine."
Kayla looked at him, she wasn't going to go over there to see what he'd been saying. Though it was clear he thought she might. That made her more curious but what could he have really said that would be some great revelation? She had learned that even with her gift she needed to respect privacy even more.
"Alright. I wasn't going to go over there anyways." He gave a nod turning from her satisfied with her answer. She'd been told that he knew when a person was lying. Especially when talking directly to him. She figured there were ways around that, though it would take practice. There wasn't anything she needed to lie about.
They were moving out now and she climbed into the back of the jeep that was there, she was next to Savon in the back. She figured that her and Todd were really the only ones that didn't have a real problem with him and would be left anyways to ride with him.
Their driver was Kane, a quiet man. He started the car and they drove off following the others. The road that they drove on was half covered with debris and had to be driven around in places but still holding up. Kayla was looking up at the sky at the moment. Stars weren't something you got to see a lot.
Out here away from the cities they got to. She wondered if there was a place on this planet that was left untouched from the evils that now ran through it. She looked down and out at the world. It was dark but there was still a bit of life.
She turned her head to look at Savon next to her. He was turned slightly leaning toward the side. She studied the tattoo that was there, it was displayed to her at the moment. She was sitting on his left so it was closer to her.
Looking at it, it almost looked... well alive. It was hard to explain but there was a depth to it, like it almost appeared raised on his skin. It was skeletal and she looked to where it nearly touched the pants he wore. The very tip of a tail touched his spine before it swept up his back, the thickest part was over his shoulder blade and warped slightly under his arm. She knew that it hooked around the front to cover part of his left bicep.
She stared and the longer she did the more she thought a shape came to her. It looked almost like, like one of the flier demons but not. More like a dragon, that would be closer she thought looking back down near the tip of it on his back.
She could see the head now. Longer with teeth, the black ink or whatever it was formed the skeletal creature over his body. She made out where there would be wings, and the arms of it, she was sure that if he turned around she could make out the tail and lower portion better.
However her gaze came back to the lower part. It didn't seem to sit in the same place completely from the moment that she'd stared looking at it which had been a couple minutes. Like it may have moved, that wasn't possible though. Right? He moved and she snapped out of her trance of staring at it.
"You were born with that?" She asked pointing to the tattoo curious.
"Told you that before." He said.
"I know, it's just so... real looking." She'd also noted that the injury from before was gone. Just a bit of a red mark that was small and fading. He just kind of looked at her, like what she said was rather dumb.
"It looks like it moves." She said.
"Sometimes." Was he serious?
"It does that?" She asked shocked, she'd thought it her imagination. He gave a bit of a frown, like he hadn't wanted to say that. She didn't think that he shared a lot, but wouldn't lie when asked. At least unless it was important.
"Sometimes." He just said again and she figured that was all he was going to say. The jeep didn't have a top and the wind swept by them. She glanced at Todd and Kane but neither seemed to be paying attention to them.
"What does that feel like?" She asked, that was kind of cool. At least she thought so.
"Like you have something under your skin pushing at it." She got a bit of a shiver at that, she didn't know if she'd like that very much. She looked at him for a moment and then reached forward and touched the part over his shoulder. Lightly moving her fingers over it. He looked down at her hand, and she snatched it away.
"Sorry, I was curious." She felt silly for indulging her sudden urge. She hadn't even asked, just reached over and touched him, way to be weird. She fought an embarrassing heat that tried to creep up her neck.
"Curiosity kill the cat." She smiled at that, something she hadn't heard in a while.
"This is true, it just looked raised I wanted to see if it was." She said. It was slightly raised, she hadn't noticed before, because she was more concerned with stitching the wound than touching him.
"Do you normally just touch people when you feel like it? When you want to know something?" He didn't seem upset, just watched her waiting for her answer.
"Sometimes." She said with a smile and a shrug. He looked at her and a bit of a smile played there after a moment.
"I'll remember that." He added. "Just in case there's something I want."
"Such as?" She asked. He just gave a shrug and looked back out the side. She saw the bit of a smile there. She wasn't sure how to take that, she wasn't ever sure how to take the things he said or did. He was a hard man to figure out.