Eliana stared at Damien, not sure she understood him correctly. How he said he wasn't a vampire sounded like he was also not a human but something else. She stared at him for a long while. His tanned skin, long curly hair, and wild charisma could hint toward him being a werewolf.
"If I comprehend you correctly, you are putting yourself in great danger. Don't you think having someone who knows this region well assisting you would be helpful?"
"Trust me, my brother and I are more than capable of handling the situation. But as I said, I need you to leave first." His pleading voice puzzled her further. It almost appeared as if he cared for her well-being. She looked back and forth between him and his brother and realized that she too was distressed for his sake but decided to ignore her gut feeling and leave to protect Georgina.
"Alright, we will leave right away. Thank you for helping them." She consoled herself by thinking he looked capable enough and at least the werewolves would be freed.
Smiling at her odd appreciation, he thought he should be the one to be thankful for her concern. Usually, werewolves were unpopular in Paxos, and humans didn't care for them here. She turned on her heels and ran back to Georgina's side, who hadn't noticed her quick disappearance. The fight was too exciting that she couldn't tear her eyes away.
The minute Eliana reached her, she pulled her arm and told her they had to leave instantly. Georgina initially hesitated, but Eliana's serious expression worried her, and she followed her friend out of the tent.
"What is going on, Eli? Why are you so persistent on us leaving?"
"Let us go to that side street there, and I will tell you what happened, but first, we should leave the immediate premises of the tent." When they entered the side street, screams and panic set off within the tent.
After watching Eliana's retreating form, Damien didn't waste any more time and returned beside his brother, giving him the sign to attack. It only took them seconds to change. Suddenly two giant werewolves, one pitch black and another with dark brown fur, both with forest green eyes, were standing amidst the crowd growling dangerously.
Realizing what was happening, the spectators around them fled the scene. It didn't matter if they were vampires or humans; both species were scared for their lives. The joyous atmosphere was replaced by disarray and fear. Within the chaos, people trampled the fallen ones on the floor. Ignoring the disorder surrounding him, Damien slowly approached the cage. Once close enough, he jumped up and pulled the string connected to the cage door, opening it. The two beasts inside took the opportunity and immediately ran out.
In their deranged state, they couldn't differentiate friend from foe and attacked Damien and Simon. Unfortunately for them, the brothers came from a royal werewolf line and were the Alpha and Beta of the pack. Being the strongest Lycans in these lands, it didn't take the brothers long to overpower the beasts. They had pinned both down and tried to communicate with their brain-to-brain communication. Unfortunately, the two were too far gone and could not grasp the situation. If Damien and Simon were to leave them behind like this, they would only create unnecessary bloodshed. Therefore, they gave each other a look confirming what they had to do, and bit their opponent's necks, killing them almost instantly.
Meanwhile, most people had run out of the tent except for the show owners, who had watched the two powerful werewolves kill their pets and saw it as a chance to catch these two as a replacement. Although they were half-vampires and had more strength than humans, they were no match for the royal brothers. Their showing no remorse fueled Damien and Simon's already overflowing anger further, making it a quick defeat, and the half-vampire's body parts were lying around the floor.
Once there were no more threats and no witnesses, the two wolves turned back into their human form and left the site. Outside the tent, the brothers moved quickly toward the nearby forest, but Damien kept looking around, searching for Eliana. He wanted to make sure she was okay and see her one last time before he returned home. To his dismay, she was nowhere to be found, and they didn't have the luxury to keep roaming around.
Simon watched his brother closely and was worried that his initial impression of a fling might have been wrong. "What are you looking for?"
Taken aback by his brother's abrupt question, Damien lied. "Nothing; I was just scanning the area for potential witnesses."
"You are a bad liar, Damien. Aren't you worried that thinking of a woman you only met twice for a few minutes could mean something more? I can tell you I would be. This usually only happens if she is your-"
"Stop talking nonsense! I was intrigued by a mere human being kind to werewolves here in Paxos. Don't try to interpret more into it."
"Wait a second, you told her about us? And she is human?" Simon almost screamed his questions, but Damien was in no mood to give him answers as he was baffled by his current feelings and had to organize his thoughts. So, he gave Simon the death glare, signaling him that he was pushing his luck. Entering the dark forest and having nothing more to say, Damien stole one last glance at the village, thinking of a brave black-haired girl before disappearing into the darkness.
The two girls were still standing in the side street, shaken by what they had witnessed. The people who had run out of the tent trampled each other in panic. Many bodies were lying around, some dead, others severely injured. Despite wanting to help, they had to return to the orphanage before getting into trouble.
Eliana didn't know what to feel. She blamed the stranger for initiating such chaos and so many innocent people getting killed in the process, but at the same time, she was worried about him. Moreover, there was lingering guilt because she had triggered the plan to free the beasts - it all escalated so quickly.
She was in deep thought when Georgina couldn't take the quiet anymore. "I need to know what happened, Eli. I feel like you know who is responsible for what happened tonight." She said in a soft tone which was almost a whisper.
After a couple of minutes collecting her story, Eliana answered, "I couldn't take the torture, so I was planning on releasing the beasts by loosening the string to the cage and opening it - when the rude stranger we had bumped into before stopped me. He said he would take care of it and that we should leave the tent." Eliana couldn't look at Georgina because she felt responsible for what happened and let some silent tears fall down her cheeks.
"Oh god, Eli, why would you even try to do something like that? You could have gotten us into serious trouble. You know that, right? Who are you to meddle with such things?"
Eliana couldn't believe Georgina's reaction and looked at her in disbelief. "Who am I, you ask? It doesn't matter who I am. What matters is that we don't just stand by these kinds of things. What they did back there was wrong. What the stranger did was wrong too, but at least he freed them. You should be the first to understand me since you never took any b******* from others and are extremely mischievous!"
"How can you compare pulling a prank to this? I never put your life in danger, have I? You drive me crazy! This righteous side of you will end up being the death of both of us one day. We are nobodies here, Eli. No one would care if something happened to us. It is not worth dying for."
They stopped speaking for the rest of the way and went to bed without saying goodnight. It wasn't their first time fighting, but their first time disagreeing about something essential.
--
The next few days passed in a blur because Georgina and Eliana barely spoke to each other. Eliana's mind was scrambled with mixed feelings and insecurities. She replayed the evening and tried to determine if she could have changed the outcome. Additional to her regrets, her conversation with Georgina from that night promoted her doubts about her values and dissolved her confidence in her righteousness. The worse thing was that she kept seeing those forest green eyes in her dreams and, without understanding what was happening, felt a slight pain, knowing she would never see him again.
Furthermore, it didn't help that everyone kept gossiping about the town fair and how werewolves had attacked and killed 30 humans. Since such an incident was so dire that it could mean war, the royal family had sent The Ambassador, their top investigator, and a ruthless pureblooded vampire, to do the investigations. If Georgina and Eliana's presence at the town fair were mentioned in any way, they would get into a real predicament.
Finally, a week after the werewolf attack, Eliana's nightmare became a reality. The Ambassador was announced to visit the orphanage in the afternoon and interrogate some of the children. Eliana lost all color at the news - she hadn't even made peace with Georgina yet. At that thought, Georgina appeared before her. "We need to talk, Eli.", she said in a severe tone and pulled her into a corner.
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Come and check out what the werewolf brothers look like on my Instagram account daz_elda :)