With only three vampires remaining, Caelan did away with the two closer to him, ripping one nearly in half as he crushed it against the wall, and he gripped the last's skull in his claws. Blood poured out between his fingers as they constricted around its head, and then he was on Neil.

Oh, don't kill the schnauzer...maybe...

Caelan's clawed hand was entirely around Neil's skull at that point, but he paused from her thought. The wailing howl trailed off, and as soon as it did, the most unmanly whimper escaped Neil's mouth, and he slid out of Caelan's grasps to the ground.

Skittering back, Neil tried to make it away but was frozen in the next moment, the wail slipping from Caelan's lips again. Shaking harder than a palm tree in a hurricane, Neil was frozen as Caelan advanced on him. Caelan leaned forward with a promising growl, blood dripping from his mouth from where he'd likely snapped it shut on someone's skull.

When the howl ceased once more, Neil collapsed on the ground, at her side now, and started to cry. It was hard to watch, and it shook her. While she 'd not minded Caelan harassing him, she hadn't meant to terrify Neil that badly.

As soon as Neil fell apart, Damien was there, pulling him to his chest with his scythe in hand to defend him. Damien really cared for him. Despite Neil's crude nature and rough personality, Damien would risk his life to defend him, as he would her.

"Damien, it's okay. He won't hurt you two," Mer said, walking up to her father who was cradling the now sobbing vampire in his arms.

"What the hell is that thing?" Damien asked heatedly, causing her to jump. The howl resumed and Damien froze in place, unable to even close his mouth from where it had been slightly ajar.

"Caelan, stop it!"

The howl tapered off, and Cael sauntered up to her, passing her to go into the infirmary. Following him, she pulled Damien up so that he wouldn't sit in the hallway vulnerable with Neil. Having never seen a Nothing in combat before, she hadn't recognized the sound that Caelan made. It had paralyzed the vampires, which was why they had just stood and accepted their gruesome fate. If Nothings could do that, even to someone like Damien, they were immensely powerful.

They couldn't fight though, which made them weak. But Caelan was a lycanthrope, a beast of massive physical power melded with the paralyzing aspects of a Nothing. Truly, he was something to be feared, and also something that would be hunted if discovered. It looked like Paul was hiding more than himself in that spell-shrouded apartment complex.

When she found Caelan in the infirmary he'd returned to his normal self, though his pants were ragged and he was bare from his thighs down and his waist up. Great more skin to stare at.

"What the hell does 'maybe' mean?" Caelan was quick enough to pick up his normally condescending demeanor. "That was the most halfhearted request not to kill someone I've ever heard." Caelan laughed, though it elicited a growl from Damien. Sitting in the corner with Neil pressed against him, Damien kept his distance. Caelan looked to him and cocked his head.

"Neil was protecting us. It wasn't fair to let you kill him, even if I don't like him," Mer said, feeling really guilty about what she had done to Neil. The poor kid was mortified clutching Damien for security.

"Well, I'm not here for you. You were just on the way," Caelan spat, and she narrowed her eyes.

Would it kill him to admit he was protecting her?

"Yes, it would. I was here looking for Paul, but they took him to another compound, so I'm left with you. If I don't protect you now, Paul will have my ass."

"Well, sorry I'm so inconvenient." Mer wandered over to Damien and Neil, and her father looked up to her with concern.

"That's a Nothing?" Damien managed out in a half growl of repulsion, and Caelan let out another brief whine that stilled the aggressive noise. "And a lycanthrope." Damien managed after Caelan released him. "That's genetically impossible."

"Improbable," Caelan replied, his ice eyes hostile and unsure about how close she was to him.

"Yes, I suppose that's clear now." Damien reached up to touch her, but a low whistle of air from Caelan's lips stopped him in his tracks. When Caelan stopped, Damien pulled his arm back to himself with an annoyed but defeated glare.

"Meredith Aurion, I know you like Remus Shade, but really, now you're consorting with the Arcs? Do you draw a line anywhere on prudence or caution? Who is that guy even?"

My dad.

The thought hadn't meant to slip out, but it was real hard not to think things. Trying to not think about something always had the exact opposite effect. It drove Caelan's eyebrows all the way up to his hair line.

"Your what?" Caelan let out with a tripping in his breath as if she'd grabbed his neck with her hand.

"Meredith, that Nothing is blood bound to you?" Damien followed the words with a growl, though it tapered off when Caelan looked to freeze him again.

From what she understood of it, Damien seemed abnormally upset. Was there something she was missing?

"Paul may not have been completely forthright about all of the Nothing's abilities," Caelan answered her with a guarded gaze.

Someone hiding something from her... How unusual. Hopefully sarcasm could be read from her mind, because she was beaming it at him.

"You're saying Paul had something to do with this?" Damien spoke, though his tone was clear. "That's impossible. Paul would never... Did Remus know about this?"

That was Damien's first question?

While there was about to be a heated conversation, a groan from behind them distracted them all. Meredith quickly went over to her aunt who was rousing and what she saw was amazing. The gashes in her stomach had completely healed, though there were lightly darkened patches of skin. The poor mage who'd healed her aunt had to be helped to a chair by the other two mages. The girl looked barely Mer's age, but she wielded only light magic. It hurt Mer a bit to know that she would never be able to heal anyone. No one but vampires, and them only at two specific times in a day.

"Meredith." Sitting up, her aunt had to use the wall to keep herself up. It didn't do much for her once she noticed Damien, who had left Neil to stand next to her. Letting out a ragged gasp, Lia held her hand out as if to call her staff, but instead, her hand fell away.

"I'm afraid you won't be able to cast magic for some time," Damien said calmly next to her, and when Mer looked at him, he had a kind look on his face. It was nothing her aunt would notice from a vampire.

"What are you doing here?" Lia whipped it at him, but Damien's smile only crawled higher on his face.

"Well, I carried you wounded all the way here. Considering I had to cut through a dozen vampires to get you here, it seemed a poor idea to head back the way I came. A simple 'thank you' would suffice."

Lia's eyes narrowed with rage at him. "I'd sooner pull out my own heart than thank you."

"Well, you've just pulled out mine. That's so cruel." The faked look of hurt on Damien's face drew a curse from her aunt as she relaxed back into the hospital bed. Right now, everyone was too weak to do much of anything, even curse at each other.

It was interesting watching Lia interact with Damien. Was that the way that vampires and mages were supposed to communicate? If so, Rush and she were doing a terrible job.

"What's going on here?" Lia asked, likely able to feel the pressure of dark magic smothering the compound, like Mer could. After all, her aunt had been a skilled mage her entire life.

"Vincent Arc is attempting to eradicate your kind. It is only a matter of minutes really until he himself shows up." Caelan spoke, coming to their small huddle. "It won't take him long to figure out that you're not all dead."

"What are you?" Likely leftover from her acid toward Damien, Lia said it harshly to Caelan.

"Nothing you need be concerned about."

Mer snorted to Caelan's response. It didn't take Caelan long to read the pun from her mind and he smiled at her, shaking his head.

"Mer, you'll be dead before the days end if you don't try and focus on the situation you're in."

"Meredith will not be dying today," Damien said sharply, and Caelan tilted his head slightly.

"Who are you?" Caelan was asking in earnest, which perturbed her.

"We already did this introduction." Mer insisted, but Caelan lowered his eyebrows in aggravation.

"No, we didn't. Who is this vampire?" Caelan bristled at her.

"Haze spell." Damien chuckled next to her.

Oh...

"My actual identity reinforces its effects quite quickly. You and I have a different sort of connection, so it doesn't afflict you unless I'm out of sight. I'm Damien." Damien turned toward Caelan at the end, but Caelan brushed him off.

"Safe?" Caelan asked, looking to her instead.

Very.

"Fine... We need to get out of the infirmary before Vincent arrives. When he does, he'll make a beeline for his son, and it's best we lure him to a place we can fight in. That is not here."

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Word Count: 1619