Devil You Know

Thinking.

Cassius didn’t need to watch, he’d seen it many times before. It was easier if they were drugged and quiet but Elliot didn’t like it that way, he liked them fighting and this woman was going to be a fighter. Perfect for his first meal in days. As the woman’s screams filled the corridor, Cassius quickened his pace, pulling his mobile phone from his pocket. His job was about to get infinitely more interesting.

                                                                           *********

Elsa lay with her head in Sebastian’s lap on the roof of the warehouse in which he lived, neither of them feeling the cold. She was twirling the memory stick with her mothers police file on it in her fingers.

“What do you think you are going to get from reading that Elsa, other than hurt?” Sebastian was concerned, she could tell by the tension in his shoulders, his furrowed brow and the tight tone of his voice.

“I don’t know,” she sighed, “Some clue as to what the hell Vincent and Florence were talking about maybe?”

Sebastian snorted, “Vincent was trying to save his own skin and Florence just sounds like a bored vampire with nothing better to do with her eternal existence than stir things up for other people and watch the fallout.”

“I’m sure that’s exactly what Florence is doing,” Elsa admitted, “But I do believe that there was more to my mother’s death than my dad is aware of. I got a strong sense that Florence was telling me the truth.”

“Do you think your mother is still alive?”

The question caught Elsa off guard, the thought had crossed her mind and she’d done her best to dismiss it but hearing it from someone else...

“Dad found her,” she said finally, “He was sure she was dead, he said she’d gone past the point of being turned.”

“But we know there are other ways of becoming a vampire,” Sebastian said softly.

Elsa’s mind flashed back to that night; coming round in the wreck of Grant’s car, upside down in a field with Kate’s blood dripping onto her face and into her mouth. That taste of human blood had triggered Elsa’s vampirisim, the darkness inside her that had lain dormant since it had been passed to her through the vampire attack on her mother when she was still in the womb. It had then proceeded to spread through her like a disease, slowly consuming her until she had become a fully fledged vampire and her father had found her just in time to save what was left of her humanity and bring her back. The logical part of her brain understood the facts, that in order to become a vampire a human had to die. It was most likely that she had died in that crash and that Kate’s blood had revived her, another aspect of her new existence that both she and her father brushed under the carpet, she knew the beat of her heart and the rise and fall of her breath were just habits, she didn’t need to do either anymore. 

Elsa shook the memories from her head; sometimes she wished she couldn’t recall things with such clarity. Sebastian brushed a lock of her hair behind her ear and smoothed a rough thumb down her cheek, “Maybe you need to be looking further back in your mother’s past than that police file?” he suggested.

“Maybe,” Elsa agreed, pushing the memory stick into her jeans pocket and looking up at him. She reached up and stroked the stubble on his jaw line, “You look tired today,” she observed, “Hungry?” She wasn’t asking him if he wanted to get a takeaway, she was talking about the other, more unique kind of hunger that Sebastian experienced.

He sighed, “I’m getting there,” he said, “It takes a bit longer every time though. I’ll speak to Hesper tomorrow.” Hesper had been monitoring Sebastian closely since his first serum dose on their return from Morocco. There had been no way of testing it’s effectiveness or any potential risks before giving it to him as there was no other being in the world like him as far as they knew. Sebastian was the test subject and results so far were promising. When the hunger became too much, a couple of days hunting with Hesper were enough to satisfy his urges, no human’s needed to be involved anymore.

Elsa jumped up and swiftly positioned herself behind Sebastian, massaging his shoulders and nuzzling into his neck, “Do you want me to stay at my dad’s tonight?” She asked, knowing that when the hunger came, Sebastian became weaker and more tired until he could satisfy it.

She felt the small movement in the muscles of his neck and cheek that told her he was smiling. He stood and turned to face her, “I don’t think we’re at that stage yet,” he said and she returned his smile.

He gave a stretch and a yawn, reaching his arms up above his head and revealing his hard, muscled stomach as his t-shirt lifted. Watching him move always took Elsa’s breath away, she could see the slightest movement of every single muscle and he did move them so well. Her eyes settled on a mark just above the waistband of his jeans, which, as always, hung low on his lean hips. She frowned and reached her fingers out to touch it. Sebastian jumped slightly.

“Cold fingers,” he grinned, reaching out to take her in his arms. Elsa stopped him and he looked confused, “What’s wrong?”

“You’re bruised,” she said, “Here.”

He looked down and shrugged, “Tough training session,” he said, “I’ve had worse Elsa, it’s just a little bruise.”

“Training was ages ago though,” Elsa pointed out, “It should be long gone by now.”

Sebastian pulled her towards him, “You know I’m weaker when I get hungry,” he said, “Or maybe I’ve bumped myself since, I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure I’ll survive, I’m big strong boy.” He gave her a squeeze as if to make his point and Elsa could feel the heat in his body rising and the firm pound of his heart. She looked up into his face and straight into his eyes, they had a familiar amber glow which quickly began to distract her from any concern she was feeling about Sebastian’s well being. His low breathing had almost become a growl; Elsa reached her hands around his waist and up, tracing her fingers along the raised scars that ran down each shoulder blade.

“I think you’re about to lose another t-shirt,” she whispered and sure enough, less than second later, Sebastian’s impressive black-feathered wings sprung from his back, tearing his shirt and enveloping the two of them in their own little world.

“So you’re staying tonight?”

He really didn’t need to ask.