A Fragile Life

AN: Thank you all so much! 13 reviews.. I\'m completely floored! I was expecting maybe one, maybe two reviews at most. You\'re all amazing and I hope that this answers some of your questions. Also, I\'m sorry that this took me so long, this chapter was HELL for me to get out. But it was sort of a setting up chapter... laying the pathway for all the good stuff to come! Once again thanks so much all of you who took the time to review, and please please please do it again :]

















“Hey you’re the guy from the... thanks for that.”



“That’s quite alright, it appeared that you required some assistance.”



Elle smiled gratefully up at the mysterious man who had by now dropped his arm from around her shoulder and was signalling for the pretty young woman working behind the bar. Elle turned with him, leaning once more against it and marvelling at how quickly the girl sped over to serve him. She was the kind of woman who made every other girl in the room’s self esteem drop ten points with just a flick of her artfully messy blonde hair or a flutter of her big brown eyes.



Unlike Elle whom she’d virtually ignored for ten minutes before sauntering over as if she should be grateful for the service, as soon as the bartender noticed the man’s subtle signal, he’d done nothing more than raise a single finger in her direction and she was dropping the drink she was halfway through making in order to serve him. Elle was pretty sure that if she was given the choice, the bartender would’ve jumped clear across the bar and dragged him into a coatroom for the rest of the night so that she could have her wicked way with him. She stared flirtatiously at him the entire time she was pouring his drink, smiling and batting her eyelashes.



It’s girls like you who give girls like me eating disorders



Elle thought, just a little bitterly as she watched the situation play out in front of her. Surely any moment now, the man would be walking away from her into the arms of some beautiful blonde stick girl who made starving Ugandan orphans look overweight. She was pulled from her thoughts when, glass of whiskey in hand, the bartender practically crawled across the bar to hand it to him, smiling seductively and simpering that it was on the house. A quick nod of thanks and he turned back to Elle, who throughout this encounter had just stood there silently, unsure if she should stay or go, wait for him or disappear back into the crowd into anonymity.



The bartender’s face dropped at his dismissal of her, and she gave Elle a once over, her face saying what she didn’t. ‘What the hell is he doing with you?’ Elle made a childish little face to the bartenders back as she moved on to serve the rest of the drunken orgy that patronised the bar. Truth be told, she didn’t know why the man was staying with her, except for maybe he felt obligated to now that he’d saved her. It wasn’t exactly like he could just walk off now could he?



They both turned so that their backs were leaning against the bar and stared out in front of them, watching the throbbing crowd of dancers. The man sipped his drink quietly, apparently happy to stay silent for now, not bothering to make any of the small talk that she’d come to expect from boys in clubs. After a little while, Elle sneaked a glance out of the corner of her eye to the gorgeous man beside her. She blushed when she realised that he was just openly staring at her, like a boy who’d pinned a worm to the ground and was poking at i to see what it did. He was hardly a boy though, and he stared at her with those ice eyes of his that seemed to see right through her, as clichéd as it might sound.



Draining the last watery dregs of her drink from the tall glass, Elle looked back at him sheepishly, her smile growing less sure of itself and a little more awkward as she grew more and more nervous under his scrutiny. It wasn’t even that she felt like he was staring at her, it was more as if he was staring into her, trying to read her thoughts. But at the same time it was cold, completely detached and emotionless. As if... he was looking inside her but he didn’t much care about what he found. Like a scientist, if he found a cancer it didn’t really matter to him, and if he saw something inside Elle he didn’t like, well he could always move on to the next girl that was probably ten times prettier, thinner and better at flirting than her. Desperate for him no to lose interest, she blurted out the first thing that came into her mind.



“Uhm, I’m sorry I didn’t catch your name before?”



Okay that was good, she congratulated herself. It came out sounding reasonably coherent, not completely idiotic. If she kept it up like this he might not even realise that her blood was congealing within her body and that her legs were slowly going numb from nervousness.



“I did not tell you my name before. But you may call me Lucian.”



“Lucian? That’s a weird name”



Oh great, insult the man-god. This is why you’re single Elle!



The voice in her head berated herself as she heard the words spilling from her lips. Telling him he had a weird name? Oh now there’s a sure fire way to make a boy like you. Maybe she should kick his shins and poke her tongue out while she was at it. So she was more than a little bit shocked when he chuckled, a low sound that resonated through her body even over the persistent thumping of music that had caused them to lean into each other so close that they were almost touching. It was almost hypnotic, his laughter, and Elle found herself joining in without even really realising she was doing it.



“It is foreign, I am not from around here, I am here on business.”



That explained his unusual, formal way of speaking. And also the strange accent he spoke with. It was almost Italian, or possibly Greek... but with a hint of something she couldn’t quite place.



“Where are you from?”



In response to this, the man smiled a mysterious little smile and pointed downwards towards the ground with one finger.



“You’re from... down south?”



He chuckled once more, and nodded.



“Yes, you... could say I am from down south. You know Elle, I would very much like to dance with you.”



She nodded her head, eyes traitorously wide, betraying her nerves. Elle was under no illusions that she was some sort of amazing dancer. She was fine out there with Casey, but it wasn’t like she was a professional like some of the other girls out there.



“That’d be grill. I mean great! That’d be great. I tried to say great but then I started to say chill as well and it got kind of mixed up. I never babble like this normally.”



Yes, there was definitely something about him that threw her off her guard.



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They’d been dancing for hours, but it seemed like it had barely been minutes. Lucian had stayed glued to her side throughout the night, whether it was holding her body against his as they danced, or his hand pressed against her back as he walked her to get another drink from the bar. It was about four am by this point and the crowd in the club had thinned out enough that they weren’t crushed up against each other so hard anymore. Casey had long ago gone up to the DJ booth to hang with her man, and had been blowing kisses and making smooching faces down to Elle all night when Lucian wasn’t looking. She was obviously pleased that her little outfit had worked.



Finally Elle had grown tired of dancing and had suggested to Lucian that they go outside for a little air. It was one of the first things she’d said to him since he asked her to dance; mostly they’d just been silently giving themselves to the music as they rubbed up against each other, performing an age old dance. He’d been a gentleman though, never getting too close, never trying to touch her anywhere too far above or below the waist. He’d never even tried to kiss her, although there were so many couples surrounding them who seemed to be having a contest to see who could go the furthest without getting thrown out. Elle had decided, early on in the night, that he was just being nice to her, giving the dumpy little girl a thrill before he went back to wherever he was from.



They walked outside, walked a little way away from the club and the thumping bass that seemed to be emanating from the very building itself. There were very few people around at this time of night except a group of drunk girls stumbling home in their shiny, obscenely tight dresses and impossibly high heels. They were loud, screeching creatures, and Elle was embarrassed to be a part of their sex.



“Are you going to be in town for long?”



She asked as she gulped in the fresh air and fanned herself with her hand. As was so often the case, Elle hadn’t realised how hot it had been in the club, and how sweaty she’d gotten until she’d come out into the crisp night air.



“No I believe I will be leaving tonight in fact.”



“Oh that’s too bad. What business are you in town for?”



She tried to mask her disappointment at the fact that he was leaving so soon, but she was sure it showed in her eyes. They were walking as they made small talk, in no particular direction down the dark street. They’d fallen into step together, his long legs slowly to accommodate her much shorter ones. Elle wasn’t paying much attention to where they were walking so it was a shock to her when she realised they’d come to a stop at the end of a long, dark alleyway. She was a New Yorker so she immediately assumed the worst.



The fact that he was smiling a wolfish smile down at her, the smile that predators had been smiling at their victims for years didn’t help. It was the smile a wolf gave to the animal it was about to rip to pieces. The triumphant grin that a rapist gave his twelve year old victim. It was the victors smile, the one that says ‘you’re screwed. Flashes of charming mass murderers flashing through her head, Elle tried to remember everything she’d been taught at school. Don’t make a big deal, just try and walk the other way, get into a crowd, that’s what the man who’d come in specially to teach them had taught the group of snotty nosed teenagers who’d sat bored, quietly sniggering every time he said the word ‘sex’.



Sometime during their walk he’d taken hold of her hand and this became an iron grip now as his large hand slid up to manacle her wrists within them. With a move so lightening fast that she didn’t even see it, he gripped her other wrist within his free hand so that both of her arms were captured. Panicking now, she tried to pull away, using all of the strength in her body to try and pull those wrists free. But it was to no avail. He simply stood stock still while she struggled, smiling that goddamned smile down at her. Her knight in shining armour who’d saved her from the jerk at the bar had suddenly turned into a nightmare, the wolf instead of the woodsman.



She continued to try and struggle, shouting out for help. But no one came. She should’ve known better. This was New York, where people walked right past a mugging without stopping to help. Kicking at his shin as hard as she could, Elle thought she’d finally managed to get free when his hand dropped from around her wrist. One more hand and she was free! She was concentrating so hard on this almost freedom, she never even saw the fist that knocked her out coming.



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Lucian caught the limp body in his hands as Elle fell unconscious. He picked her up bridal style, sorry he’d had to knock her out, already imagining the lovely bruise that was going to bloom across her cheek. She’d be mad when she awoke, but she’d forgive him eventually. He was sure of that, sure that eventually she would come to accept him, if not love him. She would have no choice really. He took a few seconds to admire her, it wasn’t as if she’d be waking up anytime soon anyway. She was beautiful, like something straight out of a Matisse painting. Long strands of deep, glossy, chestnut hair brushed against his arms, framing the kind of curvy body that men used to fight for the right to touch. Though her eyes were shut right now, he knew if she opened them they would be a startling almost black colour, so rich a chocolate brown they were. Doe eyes, he decided.



Had she been awake she probably would have complained that she was too heavy to be carried. Low self-esteem, it was the curse of girls of this day and age. What he would give to go back to the girls of the 16th century, who smiled coyly at him from behind their fans and met him for dark rendezvous in the ill-used hallways of gilded hallways. Yes, Lucian had been alive in the 16th century. Although alive was probably a rather loose description of what he was. No, he was no vampire, no demon, no shadow wraith from the dark. No, he was known as The Guardian, the guardian of souls who had lost their way as he liked to think about it. Of course his common name these days was Satan.



He oversaw the punishment of the lost souls, and reigned over what was known to those in the middle as the underworld. Of course they had no idea that to those up top, the human realm was known as the underworld. The human realm had a lot if interesting ideas about ‘heaven’ and ‘hell’ as they called it. They viewed them as separate entities, the good versus the evil, the white versus the dark. But up top or down below, the lines weren’t so clear cut. Lucian was no fallen angel, as one of the newer religions, Christianity he believed it was called, would have you believe. He was what he had always been. Since the days of The Beginning, Lucian had existed in some form as The Guardian, preparing for all those would come his way to atone for their wrongs. Created? No. He simply was.



He hadn’t exactly been lying when he had told Elle that he was from the south. She just probably hadn’t realised how far south he was from exactly. An old man stumbled into the alleyway, looking for a place to piss. Lucian barely noticed him, but still his life flashed through Lucians mind, as they always did with humans. Scott Milland, 537, homeless, cocaine addict and an alcoholic, three children who think he’s dead, an ex-wife who still secretly missed him at night and regretted kicking him out. Lucian sighed, he’d no doubt be seeing the man soon. As so many other, this Scott was generally a good man who had made mistakes, and didn’t realise the price he would be paying for it for.... another 7.23 years when he would come out the loser of a fight with his drug dealer and he would come to Lucians realm to make good on all the times he had cursed the heavens.



Nestled within his arms, Lucian gave Elle a quick kiss on the forehead, ignoring the homeless man making his way towards them.



A flash of light and Lucian and the girl in his arms were gone.



The homeless man rubbed his eyes and swore to himself that tomorrow he’d cut down on the drink, it couldn\'t be a good sign if he was seeing things again.