Orion had just woken up. He lay in the dark for a moment, letting his senses come back to him. Sleep was a breath away from death for him. Though the cliché was true: the closer you came to death, the more alive you felt. His hearing flared out past the human breadth and he realized that there was something wrong with the usual sounds of the city. There was desperation and violence coming from below his 12th story flat. He went to his balcony with a reluctant swiftness, knowing that it was better not to get involved, but indulging himself with "just a look." By now he should have known himself better than that.
Below him a young woman in a ridiculous karate uniform was being herded into the alley as two thugs advanced on her. Once she realized that she was plunging further into darkness and making it convenient for her assailants Alexandra let the adrenaline steel over her as she stopped and held her ground with hopeless bravery. Taking stance, she prepared herself to fight, trying to ignore the anxiety clenching at her insides.
"Get away from me." She yelled, choking on the last word. The smaller one, holding a metal pipe, grinned at her as he laughed with dull eyes.
"What'chya going to do little girl?" the bigger one mocked her. She swallowed hard as he reached for her and kicked him in the gut, he doubled over spitting out "Bitch!" as he tried to regain his breath. The little one came at her and she backed away from him but tripped over some unseen thing in the alley; knocking herself to the ground. Orion cursed lightly under his breath. He had been hoping that she would, by some miracle, be able to manage on her own. Without giving himself a moment to rethink his decision with any kind of logical responsibility, he threw himself off the side of his building, hitting the smaller thug on impact. The pipe flew out of his hand; landing somewhere in the shadows. Alexandra hadn't seen where the stranger had come from but she was too scared to care, the moment she regained her legs she booked it. Before she got very far, the guy she had kicked had not only gotten up but had gotten a hold of the pipe, he was concealed in the darkness, and as she ran passed him he clobbered her in the back of the head. It shattered her consciousness instantly and her body crumbled in response. Orion wheeled around, cringing at the sound the pipe had made when it hit the girls skull. The thug that had hit her thought he was going to knock Orion out next.
"Your going to pay for that," Orion growled low at the man. He swung the pipe at Orion's head in response but Orion caught it with ease and used it to pull the wretch of a man towards himself. There was a moment of fear in the mans eyes as Orion flashed his fangs before sinking them into his neck, stealing away what pathetic life the man had had. When Orion released the dead man he slumped against the brick wall sadly. Orion tried to regain his humanity as he turned to the other man, now whimpering in cowardice from what he had witnessed of his friend.
"I will hunt you don't like an animal if you ever touch another living soul," Orion snarled as he shrugged off the predator that had come over him. Without waiting for a response Orion picked the girl up from the ground. Once Orion had saved her life the old laws of his time dictated that he was responsible for that life.
Alexandra awoke in a foreign bed. She was still dressed in her sweaty Kung-fu uniform which relieved her immensely, though her jacket had been removed and now hung on a chair near the bed. The last thing that she could remember was being hit over the head with a metal pipe and everything going black, from there she could only make out a foggy memory of being in the arms of the mysterious stranger who had somehow saved her life. She suspected that it was his bed that she slept in. Her head was still pounding and as she tried to get up a wave of dizziness sabotaged her and she was forced to sit back down. Steadying her head with her hand for a moment, she tried again only this time much, much, slower. Reaching the door she opened it, fearing the worst for a moment in that it might be locked, but it creaked open. She walked on the heated parquet into a well lit room with incredibly high ceilings, to her left was a kitchen and to her right a platform raised on a couple of steps that looked like it served as the living room. She turned and shut the door behind her and as it "clicked" he must have noticed her though in reality his hearing was good enough to mark the moment that her breathing had changed from the pattern of sleeping to that of waking, even behind the closed door, but he had long ago mastered the mimicry of human limitations. He got up off the black leather couch he was sitting on, placing the book he had been reading on the glass coffee table. Alexandra hadn't noticed him sitting there because the bookshelf against her rooms wall had obstructed her view. The unexpected movement startled her and she took a step back, colliding with the door. This sent her head spinning again and she slumped against the door for support. He hurried towards her fearing she might pass out again but the fear he saw in her eyes stopped him a few steps before he could catch her in his arms, knowing that it would make things much worse if he scared her. Alexandra was grateful for this courtesy, not really understanding why she had reacted this way considering that if he had wanted to hurt her there had been ample opportunity when she had been passed out and completely helpless. Though she did not demand such rational thinking from herself after the ordeal she had gone through.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." he said as he took a step back respectfully. Alexandra gave him a half hearted smile which she regretted immediately since it shot electricity into her temples, she cringed under the pain.
"Are you alright?" He asked, holding out his hand to help her get up. She took it after a moments hesitation. He led her to a velvet green arm chair and took up his place on the couch again.
"That was quit the hit to the head you took. I'm surprised your up so soon. My name is Orion by the way, Orion Sward." He said holding out his hand. Alexandra shook it and than added " Alexandra Vanguard." The pain had dissipated and she was sure that as long as she just sat there relatively unmoving she could keep it at bay. "How long have I been out?" she asked trying to re-piece things.
"Around four hours now." He answered.
"It's all a blur, what happened?" She asked incredulously.
"We'll I was taking a walk when I heard yelling coming from the alley. That's when I found you surrounded by those thugs. When they saw me, they ran." He lied.