Snippet #2789926

Phoenix could feel Jaiden’s gaze on him, and it wasn’t exactly happy. He’d probably get an earful from her about this at some stage. But right now, he just couldn’t stay there. He wouldn’t, couldn’t be of any help. If he stayed there any longer he felt like he was going to crumble in to pieces. And Cas needed help, as much as he was going to insist otherwise. Cas tried to insist that Phoenix stayed with his friends but Phoenix just numbly shook his head and practically dragged the man out of the alley with him, back towards his apartment.

And then suddenly Cas stopped, and wouldn’t meet Phoenix’s eyes. The words he was saying didn’t make any sense. Phoenix could feel the frustration building in his chest and could feel the tears burning behind his eyes. But he refused to abandon Cas here. There was something wrong. Cas was hurt, clearly emotionally and physically, and what he was saying didn’t match with his actions.

“Cas. Just... just stop, okay? I don’t claim to know you that well, I don’t know what you did before you got here. But everything you’ve done since you got here? Cas, you just freaking put your life in danger for some reckless idiot that ran headlong into danger for no good reason.” He said with a small grin at himself. “I’m pretty damn sure you saved all of our lives tonight. You definitely saved mine. I don’t know what put it into your head that you don’t deserve this. But for god’s sake, Cas, I just want to make sure you’re not bleeding out on me and maybe even make you tea. And also I really don’t think I’d be able to patch up my shoulder by myself,” he said with a smirk. “So just... just let me do this for you, okay?”

Phoenix found himself wondering where Cas had come from. Who he was. Why somebody so cool and composed the rest of the time somehow fell apart at the thought of someone looking after him. Was that it? Or was there something more to it?

Evelyn felt so entirely useless. The hunter was still completely out cold, so it wasn’t even like she could deal with him. One of the girls from earlier- the one in the steampunk gear- she spotted Evelyn hovering on the periphery and told her to go home, that somebody would check up on her. Evelyn wanted to help. She did. But the smell of blood was just unhinging her control and she refused to let her hunger win. So she nodded, but grabbed the hunter and started dragging him by his coat.

It wasn’t easy, he weighed significantly more than her, and his dead weight made him hard to manage. She abandoned his unconscious form in the woods. If he survived, he survived. If something found him... well, good riddance. She panted a little and straightened up, looking around her. The forest was quiet, but not the peaceful quiet that she usually loved. Nothing in town was peaceful any more. And then there was that smell again, blood. But it was... faint. Evelyn found herself stalking towards the smell, mostly to check that it wasn’t somebody who was hurt. Instead, she found herself emerging on to a lake... and finding a familiar form. She knew the smell of blood wasn’t coming from Markus, but instead from the water.

“Did somebody fall in to the lake?” She asked Markus, frowning. But a look at the water and at the clouds of red made Evelyn think of something more sinister. But Evelyn held back, watching the surface of the water with a frown. She didn’t know of anything that tended to live in lakes, but she doubted it was anything good, anything that she wanted to cross. So for once, she stayed quiet, and just watched the surface of the water. Watching. Waiting. Curious to see what or if anything would come from it.