"Wake uuuup!", Otilia screams while shaking Leon. "Come ooon, you're scaring me!"
The man slowly opens his eyes revealing his beautiful irises, colored like fresh blood, sparkling like two gemstones in the light. His eyelashes flutter almost seductively, but with dried, cracked lips and deep, black circles under his eyes, he looks exhausted still. After a few seconds, he manages to come to his senses and becomes aware of his surroundings. Once this happens, he jumps out of bed, feeling a cold shiver in his bones.
"Did you undress me?", he asks looking down at his naked body. He doesn't try to cover himself, but instead stares in disbelief.
"He's slender, but quite muscular", she thinks without bothering to answer his question. "I wonder how long it's been since he had a woman." She stares at his toned, white chest, covered in black and red bruises, with lust, sadness and pity in her eyes.
"Why are you looking at me like that? I don't want, I don't want, I'm not giving myself to you", he cries desperately jumping to conclusions.
"Are you dumb?", she shouts. "Do I look like that kind of person? Wait, no, don't answer. Listen to me. Listen. I did not do anything to you. I undressed and cleaned you a bit, but I swear I did not take advantage of you. Calm down, don't despair now."
She takes a blanket and wraps it around his body.
"You've been sleeping for three days now. Are you not starving?" She tries to change the subject, hiding the fact that she was offended by what he just said. Otilia is quite impulsive, but she would never force herself on anyone.
"I don't really need to eat", he answers. "Magic flows through me, keeping my body alive."
"Magic flows thorough everyone. What does it have to do with eating?", she says raising an eyebrow like she often does. This man is for her a mysterious book that she can't wait to read from cover to cover. Well, she wouldn't say no to him uncovering her either, but it's pretty obvious he's far away from looking at her that way.
"Most people attract magic, that is true, but it doesn't flow through them. It resides on the surface of their bodies, but it never slides deep inside of them. I have magic in every corner of my body, under my skin, flowing through my veins, in my bones. You are like a wall magic sticks to, I am like a sponge that absorbs it", he explains calmly.
"Suuure", she says. "And how do I know you're not lying?"
Leon sighs and looks at her with a passive face. "Why do you think they were extracting my blood for?"
She can't argue with that, can she? She takes a few steps, opens the drawer and pulls out some clothes and a pair of shoes.
"I bought these for you yesterday. I don't know what color you prefer, so I just went with black. I can go out while you take them on and we chat a bit more after", she tells him.
"Since you've already seen me naked, there's no point in leaving the room. I was only worried you'd try to hurt me, but that's not the case", he replies while taking the clothes from her arms. It's a bit hard for her to read him, once he knew she did not try anything with his unconscious body, he didn't care that much anymore. Funny guy.
He takes a look at the shirt made of cotton and then he touches the trousers, brushing his hand on the soft surface. It's been so long since he had such nice smooth garments on his skin. He hurries to put them on with a big, unintentional, pure smile on his face.
"What else do you want to know?", he asks, hoping she didn't notice his sudden moments of unexpected happiness. There is a shyness in his voice that doesn't bother Otilia too much, since it gives her a feeling of power and control. And she probably is in charge of him, it's not like he has anywhere to go.
"Well, I want to know a few things. I even took some notes this morning before coming to wake you up forcibly. Let's see", she says pulling out a white folded paper from her pocket.
"Question 1: what makes you immortal?"
"I don't know", he answers with no particular feeling in his voice. "Certain parts of my memory have been completely erased. The most vivid memory I have is fighting some bizarre monsters alongside the other five immortals. The rest are a bit blurry, but I remember my year of birth, my parents, and I remember being a soldier. It just stops at some point and the next thing I know is that I woke up inside a dungeon. I heard some things here and there from my torturers, but nothing explicit. I'm sorry."
"Okay... Question 2: do you have any other powers?"
"I also don't know..."
"Yeah, this won't do." Otilia throws the paper away and takes a deep breath. "This won't do. Your friends or whatever they can feel your location, I assume. Therefore, we need to kidnap them, what if they show up here with the Imperial Army? I mean... I need to kidnap them. You stay here and knit or something. Just give me the location."
"It doesn't really work like that, you know. I don't have a map of this place in my mind. I can just point out what way we need to go", he informs her while staring at her face a bit amused.
"Ok, ok, fiiiiine. You can come. But..."
"But?"
"But when I brought you here, I cut myself and wiped my bleeding arm around your legs. Your trousers were so dirty, you didn't even notice, did you? Anyway, this place is dangerous for most people, only someone with my scent is safe coming here. But since you can't die, is my blood needed now?"
"Uhm, care to explain a bit more?"
"Well, from poisonous grass and venomous insects that release toxins to aggressive small creatures that won't hesitate to sink their sharp fangs and nails into your flesh, this place is not really friendly, you know."
"Oh... Well, I don't really want to cover myself in your blood. Isn't there another way?"
"Yes, yes, it is. We can have sex", she says with a sarcastic smirk on her face. Or at least, that's how Leon perceives it.
"No, no, no, your blood? It's perfect. I don't mind. I am totally not scared of blood. I'm fine with it, so fine..."
"Am I really that disgusting?", Otilia thinks while staring at him with a confused expression. "After all, it's a man who hasn't touched a woman in decades. Odd. Really odd. He's traumatized from what happened to him before and yet he'd rather deal with the sight of blood again."
She doesn't need to cut herself on her arm this time, fortunately. She keeps some of her blood around the house so animals don't enter. When she first arrived here, they would often break her windows, run around and chew on the furniture if she was away for too long. When her scent becomes too faint, they always try to take over, those annoying things. So she found the perfect solution. Magical cups. Nothing ever spoils and she can just hide them around the house, keeping those little monsters away.
She takes one of the cups and throws the substance on Leon's chest. After this, she pours two others into some special bottle and they're ready to go. Of course, there is always the risk they might be recognized so they cannot leave without hallucination cloaks. They change a person's appearance, from the shape of their nose to their weight and skin tone. She collected a lot of special objects over the years and made sure to perfect them using her own magical energy.
They slowly move away from the forest and dive into the depths of the city. Leon does not say much, for she advised him to keep quiet. Speaking can sometimes clash with hallucination magic and he also needs to concentrate on the road. He accepted taking her there without giving it a second thought, but he is afraid of what her reaction will be if he doesn't manage to locate the closest immortal.
He finally stops walking and looks up.
"He is here, behind these gates", he affirms.
"The Red Light District?! That should be fun", she tells herself. Her companion seems to hesitate, but she grabs his hand and pulls him in.