His Stoic Mask, Her Bleeding Heart

I was surprised to find the front door of Elyria's apartment unlocked; I was even more surprised to find Elyria alone inside, sitting quietly on the couch with a book in her hands. She leaned against the far arm, her knees bent to put one foot beneath her and one foot beside her. I thought she looked elegant, peaceful, sort of like a young debutante of the Victorian era who thirsted to escape her repressive lifestyle through the contents of some fictional romance, but I knew I was reading too much into it. She wasn't repressed, and she wasn't a Victorian's idea of elegant. She was just Elyria, dressed in a pair of black panties that barely covered her ass and a tight-fitting cami that showed a good inch of her stomach.

"What are you doing here, Eli?" she asked, her amethyst eyes drifting from the clean white pages of her book to my face, which I was sure sported some evidence of my earlier thoughts. I wiped it clean as best I could and closed the door quietly behind me.

"Should I not be here?" I asked in return, even as I kicked off my black leather shoes in the small space beside the door.

She shrugged, and I noticed that her shoulders looked exceptionally bony beneath the thin straps of her top. "It doesn't matter to me where you go. I just expected you to go home to get some rest."

"I can rest here," I said as I moved to sit beside her on the couch. I leaned against the opposite arm, as far from her as I could get without looking as if I were trying to put space between us. I didn't want her to smell Bethany on me, didn't want her to smell the wolfish blood on my breath when I spoke.

She shrugged again, returning her eyes to the book she held in her slender fingers. "You're more than welcome to try, but you can't blame me for any annoyances that Kyrianna may cause for you."

"Where is Kyrianna, anyway?" I asked, glancing around the dark living room and half expecting to see her asleep in a chair or staring at me from a corner.

"Asleep in the bedroom," Elyria sighed. "She came home, ranted about how mean you were, then stormed off. I wanted to use the bed eventually, but with the way she sleeps..." She sighed again, and I remembered how often I'd walked into the bedroom to find Kyrianna sprawled across the bed like she had to take up every inch of it she could.

"Why don't you just sleep on the couch?" I asked, and she turned a page with the soft swish of paper against skin.

"I'd planned to, but I found this book lying on the coffee table, and I haven't been able to stop reading it since." She appeared to be about three-quarters of the way through it, and I cocked an eyebrow. She couldn't have been reading for more than an hour or so. How the hell had she made it that far? "It's comical, really, but I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be taken seriously."

"What is it?"

She looked at me and said, "Twilight."

"Isn't that the one where the vampires sparkle?" I asked, and I immediately felt ashamed for knowing that.

"Yes; hence, the hilarity." Yet she turned her attention back to it and flipped another page, her eyes trailing along each line with a disturbing quickness. "Would you like me to move to the chair so that you can get some sleep on the couch?"

"How about you put the book down and sleep with me?" I suggested. A wry smile gave my lips the slightest curve when she looked at me with a hint of surprise to her usually passive eyes.

"I don't think there's room for both of us," she said, though she closed the book with a soft thump.

"I'm sure there is," I said, and slid an arm around her shoulders to pull her against my chest. Her head resting on my arm, she gazed quizzically up at me, but I only smiled. "See? I'm sure we can sleep like this."

"Why are you so smiley today?" she asked, trying halfheartedly to push herself away from my chest, though I held her there. I opened my mouth to answer, but her nose suddenly twitched, and I quickly squeezed my lips together. "What is that smell on your breath?"

Oh, shit. Playfulness always led me straight to stupidity. I really needed to stop that. "It's nothing," I assured her, carefully turning my face away as I pretended to scan the room again, my arm slipping away from her shoulders. "I just decided to feed while I was out."

"Who did you feed on?" she asked, her voice filled with suspicion and a barely concealed rage. She took my face in her hand, squeezing my cheeks together as she tried to pry my mouth open. I fought her, but her grip proved to be too strong, she too determined, and she nearly shoved her nose into my mouth when she finally overcame me. "It wasn't a human, so who was it?" she barked once she'd gotten a whiff, though she didn't release my face.

I shoved her away with much more force than I'd intended, and she hit the other arm of the couch with a grunt. Her book slid from her lap to the floor, but she didn't even seem to notice. "You wouldn't be asking like that if you didn't already know," I snapped as I gently rubbed my cheeks where she'd squeezed them.

"You smell like her," she nearly screamed, "and not just your breath!"

"Why are you getting so worked up over this?" I asked in a grumble, crossing my arms over my chest.

"You had sex with her, didn't you?" she asked, and the anger in her face was stunning. "You had sex with that werewolf whore!"

"So?" I asked, my voice barely staying even. I tried to keep myself composed, now, just to spite her. "We're not a couple. You have no say in who I feed from or who I sleep with."

She lurched to her feet, fists clenched, and I was sure that she was going to strike me. "We just had a discussion about our feelings," she said, her voice cracking halfway through. "You know that I...You know..."

"I don't know anything, actually," I said as I calmly rose to my feet. "You refuse to tell me."

"And that makes it okay to fuck a werewolf?" She glowered up at me, her fists curling tighter and tighter, but she didn't strike as I'd expected.

"We're not a couple," I repeated in that annoyingly casual tone. "You have no say in who I feed from or who I sleep with."

She glared up at me for a moment longer, looking like she wanted to speak, like she was going to speak, only to say nothing in the end. She shoved me so hard that I fell onto the couch, then she stormed past me and out of the front door of the apartment.

"Elyria, you're in your underwear," I called after her, but her only reply to my words was a slam of the door. She was gone.

With a sigh, I leaned forward on the couch and put my head in my hands. When had I become such a dick? When had I begun to care so little about others?

Oh, yeah. The second I became a vampire.

I made a soft noise of frustration and flopped on the couch, my head falling to rest upon the arm Elyria had been using. It still smelled of her, I noticed, but I did my best to push any thought of her from my mind. I closed my eyes and tried my damnedest to fall asleep.

-?-

When Bethany answered the door, Elyria didn't know how to react. Did she deck her? Grab her by her hair and start clawing at her face? Punch her in the boob? No, no. She took a much more dignified route. She slapped her – hard.

"What the fuck, you bitch?" the werewolf shouted, reaching for her reddened cheek, but Elyria grabbed her by the front of her T-shirt before she could do anything to ease the sting.

Slamming her back against the open door, Elyria leaned into her face and hissed, "Don't fucking touch him again."

Bethany could only stare at her for a moment, but she soon began to laugh. It started as a chuckle and rapidly worked its way into a cackle. "You...You really..." She paused, trying to catch her breath. "You really think you can tell me what to do?" She grinned, and the mocking edge to it pulled Elyria's lip back in a snarl. "Honey, you're a necromancer. You have no power over me."

"I don't have to have power over you to kick your ass," Elyria growled, then pulled her fist back and punched the werewolf in the mouth. The girl's back slammed against the door again, knocking it against the wall with a loud bang that echoed through the entrance hall. Elyria could hear footsteps starting down a nearby hallway almost immediately, but the noise was in the back of her mind; Bethany was right here in front of her.

She pulled her fist back again, but Bethany shoved her backward before she could let another punch fly. Elyria's back hit the tile floor, and she slid several feet before finally colliding with a bookcase at the opposite side of the hall. The entire thing trembled, teetering dangerously over her; a few books and a vase finally tipped off, falling onto her sprawled form, but the shelf itself blessedly remained upright. A look across the hall told her that that had been the least of her problems, though.

A wolf stood where Bethany had been, twice the size of the average canine and covered in dark fur. It glared at her with amber eyes, its lips pulled back in a snarl. It took a step forward, slow and threatening, and a murmur drifted down to Elyria from the top of the stairs.

"What is she doing?" a young male she'd never met before whispered to the woman beside him. She shook her head, her eyes on Bethany, and said something that Elyria couldn't hear. "I don't know," the man said after a few seconds, his pale eyes drifting to Elyria as she got to her feet. "But I don't see this working out too well for her. Why do you think she's in her underwear, anyway? It's kinda hot."

Bethany broke into a run, then, hurtling at Elyria at full speed. The necromancer faced her squarely, lips pursed and eyes narrowed in determination. She could do this, no problem.

"Bethany, stop!" Hale's voice rang through the hall, footsteps heavy on the stairs. Bethany didn't listen; she continued toward Elyria and tried to pounce on her. The girl dove to one side, however, executing a graceful roll that had her back on her feet within seconds. Bethany hit the shelf, knocking it onto her back, but it barely phased her. She slid out from beneath it and directed her course to Elyria's new position.

"Bethany!" Hale shouted again, and his voice was much closer now. Elyria tried to leap over the wolf, but Bethany spun with a surprising quickness and caught her calf in her sharp teeth. The necromancer cried out, falling from the air, and Bethany slammed her into the floor with a hard jerk of her head.

With the air knocked from her lungs, she wanted nothing more than to lie there and recover, but she knew better than to give a werewolf any kind of opening. Of course, she also knew better than to fight a werewolf at all, but she couldn't be smart all the time, now, could she? The moment her body had hit the ground, she lashed out with her uninjured leg, kicking the wolf's snout with all her might. Bethany was knocked back a step, a small yelp issuing from between her bloodied lips, and Elyria quickly got to her knees, still gasping for air. Before Bethany could attack again, the necromancer tackled her to the floor, pinning her down with what little body weight she had as she repeatedly punched the canine in the side and the neck. Bethany twisted around and caught her wrist in her teeth, a low growl rumbling through her chest, but Elyria switched to her other hand without missing a beat. She punched at the wolf's nose, at her eyes, her mouth, and finally, she released her wrist. The moment her fangs were out of Elyria's wrist, however, Bethany lunged toward her throat.

Elyria fell back, forced down by the wolf's weight, her fingers in Bethany's mouth as she grabbed hold of her jaw and upper snout and held her waiting fangs away from her throat. Her arms shook beneath the strain, the wolf fighting with every ounce of her exceptional strength to reach Elyria's jugular. Blood began to drip down her hands, a mixture of the blood dripping from the wolf's injured mouth and what was oozing from the developing cuts in Elyria's fingers. She grunted, teeth bared in a determined snarl, and Bethany managed to get her teeth just a centimeter closer to their target.

"Bethany," Hale said uncertainly, and Elyria guessed that he was by the bottom of the stairs though she didn't dare to look for him. Her eyes were on those teeth, those bloody, threatening teeth; they reflected her own amethyst light back at her. The light flickered crimson suddenly, and her eyes widened in surprise. Her break in concentration gave Bethany the opening she needed, and an extra burst of strength had her through Elyria's defenses and into her throat.

Elyria cried out, but the noise was lost beneath Hale's bellow of "Bethany!" The wolf's fangs sank into her throat in what should have felt like a familiar way, like a vampire biting her, but what felt nothing like what she was used to. Her scream died away, and Bethany refused to release her throat though blood gushed all around them.

"Bethany, no," Hale said in a soft growl, and Elyria could see him over Bethany's furry shoulder. He reached for the wolf, but before he could grab her, before he could pull her off, Elyria slid her knee between her body and the wolf's furry belly and kicked. Bethany flew backward several feet, her teeth jerking painfully out of Elyria's throat with a gruesome spurt of blood, and the girl let out another wolfish yelp. Her back hit the wall beside the stairwell, and she landed on her feet, panting, as Elyria slowly sat up, a silvery hand clutching her bleeding neck.

Her eyes glowed crimson; she could see it in a bright reflection in her skin. A dark, monstrous feeling snaked its way through her, an animalistic instinct that wasn't her own, and she shuddered.

"You're taking me back to a dark place, werewolf," she said coolly as she got to her feet. Blood still gushed from her throat, but that feeling inside of her led her to disregard it. It was just blood, after all. It was nothing. "Not a good idea," she continued in a sing-song voice. It was so wrong, the red to her eyes, the beastliness inside of her; but somehow, it was just so right.

Bethany was on her feet by now, snarling with bloody teeth in Elyria's direction, but Hale stepped between them before any more aggression could ensue. "Stop it," he said sternly, "both of you." Yet his eyes were only on Elyria, smiling at him wildly even as blood poured from her throat.

A soft grunt came from behind Hale, and Elyria looked around him to see Bethany in her human form, completely naked. She wasn't too bad to look at, Elyria noticed, and for some reason, that made her smile grow. She blamed the monster rising inside of her. "You just took on a werewolf," Bethany breathed, eyes wide in amazement, "and won."

"Did I win?" Elyria asked, her crazy grin turning into a wry smile. "I feel like you tore my throat out and kicked my ass." She was feeling good. Really, really good. The blood gushing from her neck, dripping from her wrist and calf, didn't mean a damn thing. Even the admission of defeat didn't matter.

Bethany and Hale both stared at her for a moment, one awestruck and the other worried, until Hale finally spoke. "Kai," he said, and Elyria looked around for the man. She hadn't noticed him before. He descended the stairs at Hale's call, and she decided that he must have been hiding in the shadows at the top. "Will you...take her somewhere? Help her...calm down?" He didn't seem sure of any of his words, and the weariness with which he regarded her was making her uncomfortable – or, rather, it would have made her uncomfortable if she was capable of caring.

"Where?" Kai asked in his gruff, beastly voice, a voice that matched that delicious feeling that was flooding her body.

"I don't know," Hale answered, unable to tear his eyes from Elyria's smiling face. "Your room, or outside, or...or wherever you see fit."

Kai nodded, turning his attention to Elyria, who only smiled up at him. He reached for her hesitantly, first for her hand and then for her back, but he withdrew his hand without touching her. "Follow me," he said, then started up the stairs. Elyria offered Hale and Bethany one last smile, then followed the man to the second floor.

-?-

I woke up to a slap to the face and a scream of "Where is she, you asshole?" Kyrianna hovered over me, hand pulled back to smack me again, but I caught her wrist before she could hit me again. My face already stung enough as it were.

"Where is who?" I asked, looking around me in confusion. "What's going on?"

"Elyria," she said with a huff of annoyance. "Who else would I be talking about? Where is she? She was supposed to be asleep out here or reading or something."

"I don't know where she went," I admitted as I sat up. "What time is it?"

"Seven o'clock," she answered, and I sighed. I'd only been sleeping for half an hour. "Now, why did she leave? And where would she go?"

"She...uh...She left because she found out that I...uh...I might have..." Oh, why the hell was I beating around the bush? "She found out that I had sex with Bethany."

Her jaw dropped, and I felt that she probably would have gone for another slap if I didn't have a hold of her wrist. "The werewolf? You slept with the werewolf?"

"Why is it such a big deal?" I asked, turning my gaze to the glass-topped table before the couch. Twilight still lay on the floor beside it, sprawled on its pages, and I wanted to kick it across the room. "It's not like Elyria and I were together or anything."

"But you love her!" Kyrianna cried, throwing her hands into the air dramatically and pulling her wrist from my grip in the process. I hoped she didn't slap me again. "And she loves you! Why would you...Why...?" She trailed off, shaking her head. "I just don't get it."

"I'd explain it to you, but I'm sure my reasons don't really matter to you," I told her with a cold smile. "If you want to find her, she's probably at Hale's, taking it out on Bethany." She raised her hand to slap me again, but she lowered it after a moment and stormed out of the room. She stomped down the hall, then stomped back with the thick black comforter from Elyria's bed. "Put this on," she ordered as she threw the blanket over my head. "We're going out."

"What?" I asked, pulling the blanket off of me. "I can't go out there. The sun's out."

"That's what the blanket is for, moron," she snapped, heading to where her white sneakers lay beside the door. "Let's go."

"Why do I have to go?" I asked, taking a step toward her.

"Because she's probably fighting with Bethany, and I'm not strong enough to stop either of them." She slipped her shoes on, then turned to me with a glare. "So, if you want them in one piece, I suggest we go. Now." With that, she walked out the front door, and I had no choice but to throw a blanket over my head and follow.

God, I hoped Elyria wasn't dead by now.