Sacrifice Helle

Chapter 17

I looked up at him and then I realized that the surroundings had changed. We were no longer at the cathedral, but inside some place. It was almost dark here, with some burning candles and big deep red draperies covering the walls. There were soft pillows laying around, and blankets. It looked like some bums house, only cleaned up a little, it wasn't dirty, only, there was no furniture and no electrical instruments. Just the candles that were almost burned out. Darien still held me, but then suddenly winced with pain and crumbled up together, holding is hand over his chest. "What’s wrong with you?! Is that from Vaan?" He looked at me a little puzzled. "Oh, come on, first off: I'm not naive, second: I know that you fought with Vaan and that he kicked your asses and that Raphael just happened to help you out. I can put two and two together." I then looked at him concerned, "Let me see that.." I tried to pull his hand away, but he gently pushed me back. "No, that’s not why I brought you here. It will heal by itself, as long as I don't strain myself, it will be fine in a few days..." "Is it about Asami?" Darien walked over to a pile of pillows and blankets and sat down, making a tiny grimace from the pain in his chest and back.

"Vaan was after her, I'm sorry, I didn't know. I thought it was you that he wanted. He played us." I sat down beside him. "Maybe we could have Raphael take a look at that...", referring to his wounds. "NO!", he said angry, "Stop concerning about my wounds! And don't talk to me about that angel again! It's enough that I owe him already." I shut up. 'A little sensitive are we?' "Okay, we can talk about other things, there are plenty of issues... But first: where is Asami?" "Vaan has her. He proudly announced it yesterday. Just to rub it in together with telling everyone about how lousy we fight." "That was stupid. Everything I've heard about him says that he's strong, and now look at you.." "I said stop it." "Okay okay.. How do we get Asami back?" Darien gave me a sad look, "I don't know.", he mumbled. Then he sighted and looked me into my eyes, "The only thing left is begging. I can’t go over to him and tell him to give her back, and we already tried to fight him, and that didn't turn out to good...." "What if I try?" "To fight him?" "No, stupid!", I punched him lightly, "To negotiate with him!" He grabbed my fist, "If we go over there, he can kill us both very easily." I ripped my hand out of his, "I'll go alone then! Just tell me where!" He sighted, "Maybe we can think of something better?" I looked onto the floor, helplessness overwhelmed me again. "Don't be sad, we'll think of....ungh!.. something.." "Okay, that's it, that shirt comes off right now!" I grabbed his hand and was going to rip it away and then grab his shirt, but to my surprise he didn't even move slightly. I pulled his hand with all my strength, but couldn’t force him to take it away. He laughed, "You're strong, but you can just forget what you're trying to do! I'm not gonna let you nurse me! Besides, I'm fine.." He then looked at me teasingly, "Or maybe you just want to see me shirtless?" I immediately backed off and placed myself further away from him. "Yeah..", I started, "About being shirtless... Don't do that again." His smile vanished from his face. I didn't want to look at him while at that subject, so I just stared at the wall with its red drapery. There was silence between us for a moment.

"So you remember." "HA! REMEBER?! What’s the point of remembering when you are constantly reminded?!" I pulled up my shirt and flashed off my back. It still had it's deep red scratches that even Raphael couldn't heal. And they still felt soar, every time something made contact with them, like when I sat down on a chair, or just lied on my back. I was actually happy that I had them, it gave me something else to think about besides Asami, and it was a good reminder of something that made me furious, so I could release some of the tension inside of me. Most of all I wanted to hit Darien and make him feel sorry, but... Then again I didn't want to. I just wanted to get it out, whatever it was that was tormenting me from the inside. I pulled my shirt down and looked at him with eyes burning with anger. He faced them and took the death glare head on. Then he lowered his eyes and looked sad. "Let me take a look at them, will you?" Silence again. I pulled my shirt off. He rose up and sat down behind me. I felt his fingertips on my back, he ran them down the scratches, stopped at the bra and continued down. "Can I take it off?", he asked me. I quickly ran my hands behind my back and took it off myself. For a couple of seconds nothing happened, then he rose up, "Wait here." He walked off behind one of the walls, 'must be another room there', and came back with a small bottle in his hands. "This really isn't my field, but Lathien always uses these potions on us after we've had a fight with each other. It helps on humans to..." He sat down behind me again and started putting on the cream-like potion. It felt nice and cool against my irritated skin.

"Where are the others? Do they live here as well?" "They're out feeding. And yes, they live here. Currently. For the advent." "Feeding?" He silenced behind me, sighted, and said, "The fight with Vaan didn't end like we wanted it too, and we used up almost all off our energy, to get healed faster, you eat. Lathien doesn't work quite like us, but he joined Gerha and Cora, they will not be back until tomorrow. By then we should be out of here." "Why aren't you out feeding, or eating, with them?" "I wanted to... talk to you." He was done with the potion and went to put it back. "Don't get dressed yet, it needs to dry first." I held my shirt up, covering my chest, just like I had when I was with Raphael. 'What now? Shall I just try to forget, or what? We are still friends.. right? And.. there are all this questions in my head..' He came back and sat down on his pile of pillows again. "Now, seriously, why is it more important to talk to me then to get healed yourself?" "Just because... I thought you might need me. And.. I kinda felt like I shouldn't just.. leave you like that."

Darien’s POV:
'Okay, this has to be the most humiliating moment of my life! Even more humiliating than to run to an angel for help, and that really is humiliating! Am I actually apologizing to her? When she was the one who came on to me?! And what am I saying?!?! I'm giving her the impression that I will come running like a dog every time she's in trouble! Arhg, if I had just bitten of my tongue before I had a chance to say that! What am I doing anyway, I AM running to her like a dog!

Back to Helle:
Darien looked like he wanted to bang his head into a wall. I didn't know exactly what to say, for the first time in a long time I was speechless. He did look like he was sorry for what he had done. "It's okay.", I said after a long while, "You didn't have to come to see me, but I'm glad you did. I'm glad you took me away from that church, I wasn't comfortable there." "There was a vampire there." "I know. And I felt like there was nothing I could do, but stay inside of that building for a month, and that will not bring Asami back, and that vampire wasn't exactly making things any easier. She said that the best thing I could do was to stay there." "You talked to it?!" I gave him an odd look, "Yeah, I talked to HER, so what?" "Guts. You know who that was, right?" "No... Do you..?" Darien finally laughed again, but in between he was making grimaces of pain. "That was Vaan’s precious Iselin! Directly sired, the most powerful vampire of all his bitches! And you just simply walked over and talked to her?!" "Hell, yeah, I even told her to fuck off!" Darien was rolling on the floor now, ignoring the pain it caused him. I laughed back, but I felt like this was an internal joke.

"So, how long does this thing on my back need to dry?" "Just leave it, I'll tell you when to put your shirt back on." "Can I at least put my bra on?" "What is it with humans and clothes? You always need to have them on. It's not like I haven’t already seen wha..." He stopped himself and I saw a small stream of blood from his mouth. It made me forget how embarrassed he was about to make me. "Are you okay? What happened?", I said as I leaned over towards him. "Ju.. just bit my tongue.." "Oh, just bit your tongue, okay. I thought it might be serious, like you were dying or something..." "I am going to if I don't get anything to eat soon..." "Are you just trying to get sympathy? 'Cus you know you're not gonna get it?" I smiled a little and softened up. He looked so cute with all that blood covering his chest and running down from his mouth ( I have a weird taste, okay?). "You should at least change your clothes, you're soaked.", I told him. He looked away. "Okay, here's the deal: I'll change before we leave. Right now, I think I need some rest and I'll take off these wet clothes. But don't start importuning about my wounds again."

He got up and started to mess around with the pillows and blankets. "Rest?", I asked. "I do need to sleep. And so do you. It's late at night already, and your eyes are red from lack of sleep.", he answered. "Really..?" I was actually tired when I though about it. "Normally,", Darien started, "I sleep without any clothes, but for your sake, I'll change into something else for the night." "Thank you." "And don't worry about Asami, she'll be fine for the next days, no one will dare to hurt the Lords gift. And what concerns Vaan, we'll think of something." He said this as he took off his bloody shirt. I gasped. The whole front of his chest was covered in black blood and his back was so red and blue, like if it had been cracked up, 'which it probably has been'.

He took one of the blankets up and wiped some of the blood away. I wanted to say something, but I knew he would just get pissed if I commented on his wounds. So I shut up. After wiping away most of the blood he threw the blanket away in a corner, then picket up a new one and wrapped it around his waist, turned his back against me, dressed off the rest of his clothes and threw them away in the same corner as his shirt and the bloody blanket. He ripped of some streams from another blanket and made himself a bandage around his chest, covering is wound. Then he laid down, "Come here.", he said to me. "I can just sleep over here.." Darien looked at me like I was nuts. "That's Gerha’s spot, if he finds out you slept there, we, at least I, will be in deep shit." "What about over there then?", I said and pointed at another pile of pillows. "Cora." "But.. what about...", I didn't get the time to finish my sentence when he suddenly grabbed my waist and pulled me over to him. "Don't worry.", he said, "I'm not gonna do such a stupid thing again." Then he rolled over and laid with his back against me. I didn't know if that was comforting or not. But I fell asleep.