Predator | 18

Once the fight ended, the audience slowly disappeared behind the hidden door. When April almost forcefully darted her eyes away from Nikolaj's intense one, she saw small groups of woman she failed to notice before.

It wasn't hard to tell that those woman were inhuman. It wasn't only because every one of them was looking very fit and trained. There was just something powerful surrounding them. Something far more superior than a simple human could ever be.

And it seemed that the Lycan's around her also noticed April only now, when their attentions wasn't set on the fight anymore. She received odd looks from the people who were passing by at her. Some were just curious ones, while others were looks of disgust or presumably even pure hatred.

It stunned her deeply. Weren't they in good terms with humans? Or was it simply that they were looking down at the whole human race, April wondered.

"Why is there a human standing here?" April heard a female voice asking. It was the small group of woman she noticed earlier. They were watching her with interest.

It wasn't a look of disgust, but it made her feel like an outsider. An intruder, who stepped into unknown territory where she did not belong.

She frowned. Maybe, it was just a rare thing for a human to be here. Or was it forbidden?

A strong hand was placed on her shoulder. April darted her eyes away from the group and casted Shawn a side glance. He looked down at her and squeezed her right shoulder, reassuringly.

"Don't worry about them, they are just not used to human being down here. It's very ... unusual." Shawn explained. He shot her a quick grin to calm down her unsettling feelings that grew inside the pit of her stomach.

She nodded reluctantly and drew in a long breath. "It's okay, it doesn't bother me," she answered him. As long as if they weren't insulting her, she was fine with their curiosity, since she was also curious about them. "Where did Eric disappear?" She asked then and searched for him in the crowd. She didn't remember seeing him during the fight, either.

"Don't worry about him. Let's clean this mess up," he suggested as he looked over the ground with a deep frown over his forehead.

The ground was covered with sharp, broken glasses and empty beer bottles. They even spilled beer on the ground. April even doubted that there was space which wasn't covered with beer or pieces of sharp and broken glasses.

Judging by the look of it, it rather seemed that the audience was fighting instead of Nikolaj and Lorena.

"It's always the same. Always. I swear, one day I'll lose my shit and smash their skulls with the palm of my hands," he threatened lowly. Oddly enough, it sounded almost amusing instead of threatening.

Now that everyone disappeared, Shawn and April were the only ones. Nikolaj wasn't there anymore and neither was Lorena. April wrapped her arms around herself when a cold shiver run down her body. She stepped closer to the cage.

It sickened her how much blood there was in the cage, most of it was Lorena's blood. Shawn was without any doubt right- she never had a chance against him. He truly was powerful, but so was Lorena. She was a deadly woman.

Turning around, she watched Shawn picking up the bottles and glassed, throwing them into a plastic bag with a look of disgust and annoyance stretched over his face.

April walked over to him, stopping just right next to him where he was picking up glasses. "You said that Nikolaj lost a fight once, against Viktor," she begun and bit her bottom lip. Shawn stopped to move his hands and titled his head to her direction. He waited for her to continue, intense eyes watching her. "Does that mean Viktor is a cage fighter, too?" She asked.

Shawn continued to pick up glasses and sighed heavily. "Instead of troubling your mind with useless things and asking dumb questions, you could make yourself useful to me and help me. But to tell you the answer: no, he isn't. This bar belongs to him, including the cage. The fight was only a one time thing."

She thought about it for long moments. "So why did he decide to participate in a fight if he is the owner? What was it that made him switch places for once?"

Another stretch of silence went by, before Shawn decided to answer. His back was rigid when he cleaned up the cage. April didn't fail to notice that he didn't want to talk about it, but she was simply curious, like she was always.

"It was some sort of punishment, to put it simply. Nikolaj did something that was .. uncalled for and ended up being punished in front of the audience. Worse than the the pain he inflicted on him, was the humiliation of being almost beaten to death by him. It was clear from the beginning that he would never stand a chance against Viktor, no one would. It is told that he is over five-hundred years old. That makes him superior to us- to all of us."

"Wait, what do you mean with he is over five-hundred? You are kidding me, right?"

Her eyes widened at what he said. Five-hundred years? It sounded so ridiculous, so impossible, when he was only looking like a man in his late forties.

"No, I'm truly not. He is a pure blooded Lycan, which means that he ages in a very slow pace. No one truly knows how old he really is. But just look at how filthy rich he is, that money didn't come from nowhere. It's something he earned by working for a couple of hundred years."

April was momentarily stunned. Completely bewildered and utterly stunned, almost as if she was realizing just now how powerful Viktor truly was. Dangerous and indeed very powerful. She could only imagine what Viktor did to Nikolaj and those thoughts weren't nice.

A shaky breath escaped from her parted lips. "So what did he do? What did Nikolaj do that Viktor needed to .. punish him in front of everyone?"

"I don't know," was his quick response, before his attention fell back on the plastic bag in his hands and the dirty ground.

"You don't know?" April arched an eyebrow. She doubted his words. "Or you simply don't want to tell me?" She believed it was the latter.

"I really don't know, April. You shouldn't even bother yourself with it. It's already in the past so there is nothing that can be done now. Nikolaj was punished and hopefully he will not repeat the same mistake again, what kind of mistake it may have been."

"Now stop with all these question's and help me. It's a bother to clean this mess it all alone."

* * * * *

Almost an hour later, they were finished cleaning off the ground. Time went by rather quick, which wasn't surprising since Shawn did most of the work. The ground was now free from glasses and bottles of beer.

With the back of her hand, she wiped off the thin sheet of sweat that formed on her forehead. Although it didn't take much of her time, it surely did exhaust her. Shawn, on the other hand didn't look tired or exhausted, at all. Not in the slightest.

He ushered her to the door, leading her back to the pub. Once in the back room of the pub, he excused himself for short minutes. All alone, April headed to the counters of the bar. She was surprised when she saw Nikolaj sitting there and drinking.

Her eyes widened when she got a closer look at his bare back. It was still smeared with his blood from the fight. It looked horrifying and very painful.

April doubted that he failed to sense her presence as he was choosing not to acknowledge her. He was remaining silent, drinking from his glass.

She hurried to the back room again and took clean towels with her before tuning dipping it into water. April returned to the counters and started to clean Nikolaj's back.

His body tensed under the towel. Without doubt, he clearly didn't expect her to do that. Ver slowly, he put his drink aside and titled his head. His blank expression quickly changed into one of confusion.

Nikolaj narrowed her eyes at her, before he slowly took her wrist in his hands and removed hers from him. April was surprised that despite his rough appearance, his touch could be so tenderly.

"What are you doing?" He asked lowly and very husky. His voice was faintly accented.

April licked her dry lips. Somehow, she felt stupid now. "Cleaning your wounds..," she spoke hesitantly in a whispering tone, like it wasn't obvious enough what she was doing.

Moments crawled by as he was watching her with his green eyes. April was stunned when there wasn't any trace of the golden color in his eyes.

Nikolaj slowly let go of her hand, turning around. She acknowledged this as an answer for her to continue. So she did. She cleaned his wounds very carefully, afraid to hurt him.

Once there wasn't any blood on his back anymore, she threw the towel aside and let out a tired breath. His back was endless with several scars, some were deep while the others were faint. She also noticed that the fresh cuts on his back weren't as worse as she thought they would be.

Were they in the process of healing?

"I thought werewolves heal fast," she wondered silently and took the seat next to him.

Nikolaj casted her a glance from the corner of his eyes. It was bewildering that he didn't look exhausted at all. If he was, he was very good at covering it.

"We can," he answered after long moments. "It doesn't happen as fast as you think it does," was his explanation.

"I see," she answered after seconds. "Does it hurt?"

Nikolaj leaned his strong arms on the counter and titled his head to have a better look at her. "Are you worried about me?" He asked. There was an amused expression all over his usual blank face that surprised her deeply.

She cleared her throat. "Is it be wrong if I do?"

"No, not at all." A slight grin was on his lips. It was barely visible, but at least it was present on his lips.

With the current smile on his lips, it was almost hard to believe that he was usually a very distanced and reserved man. It made her wonder why he was like that. And before she knew it, her lips also quirked up into a small smile.

"Look at you, you have blood in your hair now," he spoke quietly. The tone of his voice was matching the softness in his eyes when he reached his hand to her hair, rubbing the bloody strand of hair between his fingers.

Her breathing ragged when the back of his hand softly grazed the tip of her chin. April's gaze dropped down on his hand an the strand of hair he was playing with between his fingers.

"It doesn't matter," she softly said, her eyes darting back to his.

The slight smile on his lips was still present, but within seconds, it completely vanished from his face when footsteps were heading toward them. Back was the blank expression over his face.

April titled her head and saw Lorena coming from the lavatory. She cracked her neck in a painful manner, looking very annoyed. However, once her eyes fell on Nikolaj, a smirk formed on her lips.

"Ah, you fücked me up pretty good, Rozanov," she spoke and took a seat right next to April. Stretching both of her arms over her head, a tried and almost painful groan fell from her mouth.

Rozanov? April thought. Was this his surname?

"You got some kind of personal maid for your wounds?" She asked as she leaned over and arched both eyebrows at him. "Or who might you be?" She questioned as she gazed down at April.

"April," she shortly introduced herself.

Lorena's eyes widened briefly. "Carter?" She spoke her surname like a question. April nodded in response.

She grinned mischievously, slightly snickering. "So you're that douchebags little sister who got bitten recently," she said and glanced down at April's arms.

Luckily, both of her arms were covered with the material of her shirt. That avoided unwanted questions, without doubt.

Nonetheless, April snorted. "You think my brother is a douchebag?" April asked slightly humored.

"I don't think that, honey. I know it."

"Warned you, that she's a complete bītch," Shawn's voice erupted from behind. She remembered Evan's words from earlier, telling her about her bad attitude.

"That's not a nice thing to say, Shawn."

He rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Ready to go?" He asked, looking at April. She nodded and got off of the seat.

"Wait!" Lorena suddenly stopped them. "Are you two, like, together?" She asked curiously.

April nearly choked on her own saliva, before laughing briefly. "Good god, no," she answered. "He's just taking me home since my brother disappeared and left me here," she explained.

Again, Lorena quirked up her eyebrows. "Ah, right. That douche and Shawn are neighbors. Almost forgot that. Well then, it was nice to meet you." She turned her back to them and silently spoke to Nikolaj as Shawn and April were heading off to his car.

She glanced a last time to Nikolaj, who had still he back turned to them, with Lorena's bruised arm over his shoulders.

"Ignore whatever she said to you," Shawn spoke as they left the pub behind.

April shook her head. "She didn't say anything wrong. She's quite okay, actually. Nothing like you and Evan said she would be."

He laughed at that. "You still need to get to know her better, trust me."

Once seated in the car, April began to relax, noticing only now how tired she actually was, which was quite irritating since she didn't do much except of watching the fight and helping Shawn to clean up the mess.

"Is Lorena Nikolaj's girlfriend?" April found herself asking.

"You think Nikolaj does have something like a girlfriend?" He sounded very amused with her question. "Why do you ask?" Shawn questioned instead as he watched her from the corners of his eyes.

"Just curiosity, I guess," she simply said and shrugged her shoulders, waiting for his answer.

"She's not. I don't even know why you get these thoughts. Lorena is just a friend, somehow. Fight-buddy's, you could say," he answered and smiled proudly at the way he described their relationship.

"You know, there is one thing I still don't understand," she sounded hesitant with her question. "If humans are uncommon in the cage, how does my brother fit in into the werewolf community? How is he linked to all of you?" She asked and eyed him.

Shawn just grinned. He watched the road in front of him. "Don't ask stupid questions, it makes you appear naive and very dumb. You already should have figured it all out by now, right? You may be oblivious to many things that are related to Rosewood and our people, but you certainly aren't stupid, April," he said in a very dry voice.

April closed her mouth, gulping heavily. She drifted her eyes away form him and watched the road in front of them, instead. A shaky and ragged breath fell from her lips as she thought about his words.

It wasn't like she didn't have questions about her brother being related to them. It was too odd to not being questioned.

It was, because she simply chose not to ask herself these questions, because deep down, she knew that whatever the answer to these questions were, wouldn't be good ones.

She refused to even think about it and until now, she never did realize that it was stupid of her to ignore it the whole time.

After seconds of thinking, she finally found her voice again. "He's.. one of you?" She asked, hesitantly. The question sounded strange once she spoke it out loud.

"Yes."

She believed it. Being on of them was the only explanation that sounded logical. Somehow. What else would keep him here in Rosewood?

She surely would talk with Eric about it, later. She wanted him to trust her with all the secrets he had to keep during all these years.

"He was bitten?" She inquired, although she knew the answer would be yes. He couldn't have been born as a werewolf, since her parents as well as herself were pretty much human and him being adopted was very unlikely and a rather stupid thought. That, only left the option of her brother being bitten.

"Yes," he answered again.

She rubbed her face with her hands. This surprised her way more than it actually should. After being in Rosewood, there shouldn't be anything surprising or shocking anymore.

"How?"

He breathed strongly. "I think that's something you should ask him, not me."

He slowly pulled over at the apartment. The drive passed by very quickly, April noticed.

As they were heading to the doors, Shawn spoke again, "And another thing, April. Your interest in Nikolaj isn't very wise."

It sounded like a warning. She frowned, but before she could answer what he meant by that, Shawn already disappeared behind his door.

Left with irritation, she fumbled with the keys, before opening the door and stepping inside, hurrying into her room.

She sank into the mattress, her thoughts swirling around Nikolaj. Today, when they were alone at the bar, he seemed more human and less reserved and distant.

April wondered why he was like that. She wondered, why he chose to wear a mask free of emotions.

It was very strange that he instantly changed the moment Lorena came, as if he was scared of anyone seeing his emotions on his face. As if he was scared to appear vulnerable, when he actually was a very strong and powerful creature.

But why would he be scared? And moreover, what was frightening him so much that he decided to be like that?

Nikolaj certainly wasn't a cold person, like she thought he would be when she met him for the first time.

Maybe, he was just a broken man.

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Hope you all enjoyed this chapter! If you did, please vote, comment and share. :) It was pretty hard to write a small conversation between Nikolaj and April. Funny fact: His name used to be Easton when I first published this story...

Thanks for reading! Goodnight.