"You don't scare me, you—you fascinate me." Her voice was like soft butter, and her whispered words did something to him that he hadn't known he could experience here... with her. She pulled back slightly, making it easier for her to stare up at him with her head angled gently to the side. 

His lips parted as he searched her expression for any trace of fear. Were these her true feelings? She should be anything but calm in this situation. Her words reflected in his own feelings, this human also fascinated him. How did she do that?

She tilted her head the other way and smiled, her hand gently tapping his shoulder. "I think I can stand now."

Blinking down at her, he had been so lost in her eyes he hadn't realised the position they were still in. "Oh! R-right." Helping her to her feet. He was hesitant to let her go, was she truly-

"How do you feel?" Zeph suddenly appeared from the treeline cutting off his thoughts. 

It had been as though he had waited for their moment to end before interrupting. Waiting and watching. Eros glared at the alarian, he both saw the reasoning behind the man's actions and the betrayal of privacy. But thankfully he had a level head now, mostly. More than that, he felt amazing, rejuvenated, the nagging itch at the back of his throat was simply gone. "Fine." He responded dryly.

"Good. Then we need to clean up and move out as soon as possible. Our work will allow young Elaina here to also rest and regain some strength for our travels to come."

"Our travels?" He questioned. This man was just injecting himself into this situation and pulling the human girl with them.

"You expect me to leave you without aid after I forced your hand with human blood. Unlikely." Zeph shook his head and tusked. "You're my responsibility whether you like it or not. That is until I can trust that you won't kill anyone else."

"Surely that's against the rules! I'll fail-"

"You would rather me allow you to fall? Failure is better than the alternative. Besides you need not worry about that. Simply don't mention me or the events that have transpired." He sighed. "I would much prefer it that way."

"Who... exactly are you?"

"For right now, I am simply your alley, nothing more, nothing less."

His alley huh? But for how long? For what purpose? Pushing the nagging insecurities aside the only thing that mattered was that he had to finish what he started. That meant taking Eliana to her brother's grave. He couldn't say that he trusted Zeph yet, but that didn't mean he couldn't use him for his own benefit. He'd keep him close and learn what he could from him in the meantime. Samual's words came to mind, knowledge is power.

Zeph had turned toward the trees again, his gaze looking back over his shoulder at the two. "Elaina wait here while-"

"Like hell I will!" She cut in surprising both the Alarians. "With my handler dead someone needs to tell the girls where to go, what to do. His clients need to know he's out of business. There's more to killing someone than just disposing of the body." She pointed. "I know the girls, they'll trust me. His clients also know me, you need me to help clean this up as well."

Eros was utterly speechless. The woman in his hold was headstrong and had one hell of a backbone. However, something was still bothering him about her current condition. Only a moment prior to her appearing before him calm and utterly fearless he recalled her being a shaking scared mess within the room. What happened between her and Zeph?

"She does have a point," Zeph concluded.

"Fine." Eros half groaned. Given that Zeph had so easily compelled him, had he done the same to Elaina? If so, couldn't he just touch the minds of the humans involved and make them forget? There must be a reason why he didn't want to, he'd have to ask later when they weren't in a rush to dispose of the evidence before daybreak.

The three headed back to the building that Eros learned was a tavern before Daniel set up shop running his night brothel through it, all by blackmailing the owners no less. Elaina was surprisingly chatty given the circumstances, only adding more evidence that her mind had been altered in some way. Regardless it was virtual information. They should be able to hand everything over to the original owners, Elaina even suggested that if the girls were willing to stay on and make money themselves they could if the owners allowed it, but she'd go see them while the boys sorted out the mess in the back. Zeph had thankfully closed up the room after sending him abruptly away.

"When you're done meet me inside, I'll go fill the girls in then go talk to the owners." Elaina took one final glance at the door and turned away, heading for the main building while the two men grew rather stiff standing at the door.

"Quite a brave one," Zeph noted as he placed a hand on the door. "Ready?"

"Can one ever truly be ready for the madness he spawned?"

Zeph chuckled finding his comment amusing, but he'd been dead serious. He was terrified of what was behind that door. "We all have monsters inside of us, it's how we choose to use them that matters." Zeph pushed the door open for only a moment and darted inside rather than leaving it open for the outside world to see.

Eros followed suit. But when he entered the room he hadn't been prepared for what he saw. He froze, his eyes widening as the sweet metallic scent invaded his very being. His mouth instinctively started to water and he felt repulsed by the reaction. The mangled body lay sprawled on the bed. The sheets beneath shocked through with a crimson liquid. The blood slowly dripped from the edges of the sheets onto the floor where the sheets could no longer hold any fluid. Each drip echoed louder and louder as he fixated on the grotesque scene before him. Covering his nose he tried to block out the sickly sweet smell, His stomach twisted and knotted. This had been him, he did this.

"Bit different now isn't it." Zeph raised a brow at his reaction.

This made no sense, why wasn't he finding the small enticing anymore? His body still reacted by salivating but the thought of consuming it twisted his insides. It repulsed him.

"The curse is rooted in anger, hate and jealousy. It feeds off the fear of others. This man is dead, your body doesn't want to feed from anything that can't pump adrenaline through the bloodstream, it's like a drug to us, we crave it." Zeph smirked. "You'll notice that you're still attracted to the smell of it but repulsed at the same time. If you're wondering that why."

He watched as Zeph took a few short steps to the bed, before taking hold of a limp arm. The body hadn't reached the point of rigor mortis yet. Which made their job far easier, or so he thought. The Alarian then placed another hand on the dead man's shoulder and, to Eros's utter shock, proceeded to tear the limp clean off. "What are you doing!?" Distroaut and utterly confused Eros reached forward in an attempt to stop him.

"You expect up to dispose of the body whole?" Zeph responded dryly.

"I-I don't know what I'm expecting, but it's certainly not this."

"The assholes already dead, and might I add you tore his head off, remember. What's a few more pieces?"

A few more pieces!? Was he hearing this correctly? "Surely it would be easier to bury him whole?" He questioned in protest.

"So the animals can dig him up and then the guild is requested to find the culprit which is clearly not human. Anyone would think that a demon did this. We don't need that panic and exposure. You're meant to keep a low profile, or so the trial says."

Probably best not to mention that he was a member of the guild then... With no other reputable that he could comprehend he agreed. "O-Okay, so how are we getting rid of it then?"

"Burn it."  Zeph tossed the arm to the ground, his eyes flashing a bright amber for a mere second as the room filled with an alarming warmth. The detached limb burst into a furious flame.

He stumbled back in shock, Zeph was a fire user. And a powerful one, most he had met and trained with needed to use a type of medium to spark the start of a flame and then could control it, but Zeph had practically willed it out of thin air, incredible.

"Leave the body to me, you're a water user yes?"

Eros nodded slowly, how did he know that? Was his mind that unguarded that the alarian had extracted that from him in the brief moments he had been in contact with him? Wait... another thought struck him in that moment. Zeph hadn't touched him when he had compelled him, that type of power was unheard of.

"You focus on the blood, it's only just started to dry, should be easy enough to clean it off the walls and get out of the furniture."

He frowned. "So I have to go get water?"

In the midst of tearing off another limp Zeph stopped to look at him with a scowl. "Do they teach you nothing!" 

Taken aback he didn't have a response, what was he missing exactly? Opening his opening he quickly closed it as he grimaced.

Zeph sighed, tearing away the remaining strained tensions on the half-detached limp before tossing it into the flame he had produced. "Blood is primarily water you idiot. Pull what you need from it and dispose of the rest, use the flames."

It sounded easy in theory, but in practice he'd never done anything like that, or even heard of it using his abilities in such a manner. He couldn't see the harm in trying. Disconnecting himself from what he was seeing in the room, which was harder than he thought given the two lifeless eyes that were staring up at him from the severed head by his feet, he set his focus on the largest of the puddles. Much to his surprise it felt no different to harnessing regular water. It was actually akin to murky or dirty water, other partials and elements clung to the water, and all he needed to do was call the water out.

"That's it, you've got it. I almost thought I'd have to school you too."

With a stretched-out hand, he opened his eyes to glare at Zeph and his condescending words. "One does not normally connect blood and water."

"Well start, it could save your life."

By the gods was he always this bossy!? Ignoring him to the best of his capabilities he wanted to get this over as quickly as possible. The smell of burning flesh was starting to do more than irritate his nose and he wanted nothing more than fresh air and freedom from the horror he had created. He pushed through knowing that this was his responsibility and that Zeph, though having no reason to, remained to help clean his mess. "Thank you." He offered as he finished cleaning the wall that had blood smeared and splattered all over it, an outline of a sitting person clearly present in the chaos.

Zeph looked up while holding the served head, about to drop it into the well-contained fire that was producing no smoke or smog. "There's nothing like making friends over dead bodies and barbecue." Then smiled wide as he dropped the head into the flames.

Eros rolled his eyes, yet somehow the inappropriate banter helped to lighten the mood. The two finished up by burning the bed sheets and mattress which were unsaveable given the blood had soaked through and soiled them beyond repair. he had attempted to remove what he could but large circles with a light crimson outline remained. Now that the work was done there was no avoiding the outcome of his travesty.

They both left the room and headed for the largest of the clustered buildings. Elaina had been already waiting for them. She had down her part and most of the residents that made a living here were sitting around her with sullen expressions.

"Is it true, is Daniel's dead?" A woman asked as she sprung to her feet at their entrance.

He looked to Elaina unsure how he should answer, when she gave him a subtle nod he spoke. "It's true. A series of events resulted in the death of the human trafficker Daniel. You need not fear any repercussions from him or his business again."

The woman's shoulders relaxed and a smile spread across her face, her demeanour changed completely. "Then everything Elaina proposed is entirely possible!" She turned to a rather battered and bruised-looking man beside her, one of his eyes was swollen and it appeared as though he couldn't open it.

The man nodded but soon winced as the action caused immeasurable pain. "I'll need a hand to get this place back up to some suitable standards, and you ladies could certainly help with that." He expressed with a heavy lisp. "Of course those of you that wish to leave can, I have no want to keep any of you here against your will."

"Elaina." Eros injected quietly so as to not interrupt the group that was now emersed in conversation. She stepped away from the girls who now looked gleeful. "We should get moving." He told her. He really didn't want to remain any longer than he had to. Already he felt uncomfortable without his cloak and hood up.