Disclaimer: Priest and its characters belong to Scott Stewart.

Claimer: I own Tessa.

MAJOR CHANGES MADE TO THIS CHAPTER.

Chapter #10: Chaos

Tessa woke up to the feeling of his body heat pressed against her back, his arm still wrapped around her securely, and she realized he had stayed with her all night. Carefully, she rolled over to face him and saw he was still in a deep sleep. When he was sleeping, he looked so human to her. He looked like her Julian, if a bit rough around the edges. Her mind traveled back on the previous day. Benny's death had been the icing on the past few days, and although he though she wanted nothing to do with him he had still tried his best to bring her comfort. The guilt in his eyes had been genuine. Lifting her hand, she lightly traced her finger over the cross on his forehead, careful not to wake him. He looked so at peace, unlike the first day she had seen him sleeping in the bed. The frown wasn't tugging at his lips this time, and she guessed it had something to do with her allowing him to hold her last night.

He awoke shortly after she did, and she had pretended to still be asleep as he got up and started to get dressed. Because her eyes had been closed, she hadn't seen the small smile he grew when he had awoken to find her nestled into his front. At one point, he had walked back over to the bedside, and she felt his lips make gentle contact with her temple. Without really thinking about it, she blindly reached out, and her fingers caught his. She felt him pause, and she opened her eyes to be greeted with a golden stare inches from her own.

"I didn't mean to wake you."

"I was already awake." She hesitated a moment. "Can I get out a little today?"

He seemed surprised. "You sure you want to?"

"Will the vampires come upstairs?"

He shook his head. "You'll be safe as long as they aren't disturbed. If they were to leave, for whatever reason, just stand in sunlight. I was referring to the Familiars in my question, though."

"If they do anything after your display earlier, then they're mentally incapacitated."

A smirk made it to his lips. "They won't touch you if I'm around, but if you're going to leave this room you need to stay with me."

"That's fine. I just need some air."

He nodded. "Get dressed. I'll be back with your breakfast. After you eat, I'll take you out on the balcony."

Tessa breathed in deeply through her nose, inhaling the fresh air with a small smile dancing on her lips. It felt good to be outside, stretch her legs, and feel the sun on her skin. In her arms, she held the little bunny he had given her, which she had named Kaiya. She was currently feeding her some lettuce, which she was nibbling on happily, nose twitching as she chewed. Tessa had quickly grown attached to the tiny creature, mostly because of its sheer innocence and purity. Regardless of where she was, and that she was still basically a prisoner, she found herself in a surprisingly good mood. She didn't know whether it was because of the exposure to direct sunlight, the fresh air, or the beginnings of rapprochement between her and Julian. A combination of all, she supposed. Momentarily, her mind rewound to last night, and she looked down at the bunny in her arms. It was still shocking to her he had actually given it to her. She had felt so at peace in his arms. At that moment, he had been the man from the city.

Black Hat stood inside, having been conversing with one of the human scouts that worked under him. He would glance out at the balcony every now and then to make sure Tessa was still there. It pleased him to see she hadn't attempted slipping out behind his back, appearing completely preoccupied with feeding the bunny cradled in her arms. Eventually the scout took his leave, seeming all too eager to get away, and Black Hat turned his full attention to the balcony. She was walking back and forth at a slow, casual pace, the bunny nestled against her chest as she cooed down at it softly. For a moment he just stood there, admiring her from a distance. Her hair wafted gracefully in the wind, the sun hitting her gently tanned skin with a warm glow. At one point she had lifted the bunny to her face and kissed its nose, before a small but genuine smile made its way onto her face. She seemed so carefree it was almost odd. He knew the moment he walked over, her smile would probably disappear. It was with this thought that the miniscule smile that had formed on his own lips faded. Even though they were back on civil terms, he knew she still didn't see him as the same person she knew in the city. If there was a single person on this earth he would ever show that side to again, it would be her, and he was doing his best to make her see that.

"So how long are you going to stand there in the shadows?"

Her voice summoned him from his thoughts, eyes shifting up to hers as she turned to face him calmly. Her fingers were tickling behind the bunny's ears, face soft and composed as she considered him closely.

"You look like you want to say something," she added. "What is it?"

He stepped out onto the balcony with her, a shadow falling over his eyes as the sunlight hit the brim of his hat. Glancing down, he lifted his hand and gently ran his thumb over the bunny's head. "Cute little morsel." Eyes shifting back up, he smirked when he saw she was giving him a flat stare. "And you say I'm too serious."

She rolled her eyes.

"You name it yet?"

"Kaiya."

He grunted softly. "What's it mean?"

Her eyes averted his, biting her lip, and he regarded her inquisitively, curious to notice she almost seemed like she didn't want to answer. "It's Japanese," she answered at last.

He stared at her. "I know you don't want to be here."

She looked at him, eyebrows drawing together slightly. "Where did that come from?"

"I'm not going to deny it. You're being treated like a prisoner, but it's for your own safety. If I let you go… there's no telling where you'd go, and I wouldn't be able to protect you."

"First off, I can protect myself." Turning, she faced him fully. "Second, if prisons normally give their prisoners flowers, baby bunnies, and full breakfasts in bed, I think I might understand why so many people choose to be criminals."

He smirk was renewed at her attempt at light jest, pleasantly surprised at her sudden positive outlook. "What's gotten into you all of a sudden?"

She shrugged. "Making the best out of a situation, I suppose. I know perfectly well that if I tried running, I wouldn't make it ten feet before you caught me, so there's really no point in trying to escape."

"But you want to."

"What?"

"Escape."

She sighed faintly. "Come on, Julian. Does it really surprise you that much that I'm not happy here? I'm being held captive in a building filled with Familiars that want to rape me. I can practically feel their eyes undressing me right at this moment. Not only that, there are vampires in the basement. This isn't my home."

He released a heavy sigh, slightly annoyed. He knew where she was coming from, admittedly, but it made it no less frustrating. If anything, it made it even more irritating that he knew she was right, but he wasn't going to say that to her out loud. He knew the Familiars made her uncomfortable. Truthfully, he would pummel them all for so much as glancing in her direction if it wouldn't mean looking like a rampaging madcap. They feared him, he knew, but even he was aware he couldn't control their eyes. That was when a thought popped into his head, but it was hardly one he wanted to address. Nevertheless, he realized he craved to know the answer, and in the end his curiosity won the battle.

"Do I scare you?"

She looked up at him. "Are you asking me this because you struck me?"

The abruptness of her question threw him off a bit; he hadn't been expecting that as a response. Actually, he hadn't even been thinking of that when he had asked the question, and it only caused his mood to darken as he looked away in soured shame. "I shouldn't have done that. I'm sorry."

"I know you are."

Surprise flashed through his orbs.

"You've hit women before, haven't you?" It wasn't a question.

He kept her stare evenly. "Yes…"

She was quiet. "So what makes me so different from them?"

"Please don't make me talk about this."

"You owe me answers, Julian." Her voice was firm, and her eyes held an immovable authority that he found himself backing down to despite his pride.

"I never really thought about those women after striking them," he answered at last, deciding it was best to just be honest with her. "But when I hit you… it was like I'd slapped myself. The second I did it I regretted it, and knowing I can't take it back only makes it worse. I know that probably sounds phony, but it's the truth." He met her eyes directly. "If slugging me will make it better, I won't stop you."

To his surprise, she released a small scoff and rolled her eyes, but there was a ghost of a smile tugging at her lips. "Maybe later."

Daring to return her smile faintly, he glanced down with a quiet chuckle.

"As for your earlier question, I'm not scared of you. I'm scared of what you're capable of."

"What's the difference?"

"The difference is that I know you can be the gentlest person I know one second, and the next second you're capable of turning into this sadistic, rage-fueled loose cannon."

His eyes fell. "That's how your ex was, wasn't he?"

Her head drew back, and she frowned at him. That was not something she had expected him to say. He was fixing her with a solid, knowing stare, his eyes dead serious.

"Tessa, I know you don't have any reason to believe me… but you have my word. I won't physically harm you ever again."

She was staring at his intently, but her gaze was difficult to decipher. Sometimes it was near impossible for him to tell what she was thinking, and it was at those times he was most cautious of her. Before he had always felt completely accepted and reassured in her presence, but now all he felt when she looked at him was distrust, conflict, and betrayal. Words couldn't describe how much he hated it.

"Julian, I'm going to ask you a question, and I want you to be completely honest with me," she said suddenly. He didn't like the sound of that at all. When all he did was stare at her silently, she continued, "I know you were fighting Priest." She eyed him sturdily, straight-faced. "Why did he choose to leave the city by himself? Why did he choose to go after the vampires, when no others would? Did you plan that somehow?"

No. He didn't like this at all. "Why do you want to know?"

"Just answer the question."

He was frowning at her deeply, eyes hardened and a few shades darker than their usual radiant gold. "I don't want to talk about this."

"What don't you want me to know, Julian?" A hint of suspicion had appeared in her eyes. "You're hiding something. What is it?"

"I don't want to talk about this."

"Too bad."

"I won't talk about this," he said, a bit firmer.

"Why not?" Her own voice took on a harsh edge. Within seconds, they had gone from polite conversation to butting heads.

"Drop it!"

Releasing a scoff of disbelief, she turned her back to him. Too irritated to argue with her, he just flung his arm at her in annoyed dismissal. If she wanted to be like that, then so be it. Within minutes, however, he felt his anger begin to dissipate. He had expected her to grow upset when he refused to answer her questions, but what had him troubled the most was that he knew she would have taken it even worse if he had actually provided her with the information she wanted. She respected Priest, he knew, and he knew she had felt sorry for him after he had told her about his family. If she were to find out what he'd done to both him and his family, she would never forgive him. The delicate stitching in their relationship would once again be severed—probably for good—and he wasn't willing to risk that. Had he thought of that when he'd attacked the outpost? Regrettably, it hadn't even crossed his mind.

"Julian..."

He paused, and when he looked up he saw she had turned back to face him, the previous anger having left her eyes to be replaced by a tamer glint. He knew what was coming, however, but the conversation was still closed to discussion, so he just looked away.

"Julian, look at me."

His shoulders sank a bit with the long, heavy sigh that left him, but he did as she requested.

"I'm giving you a chance to tell me the truth. Tell me what you did."

"No."

"Are you afraid I'll grow angry with you?"

No answer.

She nodded. "I assumed so." Taking a step closer to him, she stroked Kaiya's ears, contemplating her next words as he stared down at her. "I promise I won't yell. However, if you don't tell me, and I find it out from someone else... that won't look good for you."

He looked away from her with a frown, but she merely reached up and turned his face back to her.

"You want me to trust you again, right?" she asked. "Trust goes both ways, Julian. If you want me to trust you, then you have to trust me."

It had become clear to her that he was afraid she would hate him if he told her the truth, and although it was hardly soothing it made her realize how deeply he cared for her. They had shared a moment the other night, one which she knew he had treasured, and he was scared the delicate bond between them would be severed should he tell her the information she wanted to know. In an indirect sense, this showed her that he had some degree of remorse, whether it be towards Priest or towards her.

"You're not going to like the answer," he said at last.

"I've already figured that."

He huffed. "Will you come sit down?"

She nodded, and then followed him back inside, where he lead her over to a couch. She sat down silently, setting Kaiya in her lap, and he took a seat across from her on the coffee table, placing his hat down beside him.

"I don't know any way to put this to make it sound good to you, so I'm just going to tell you..."

She nodded. "Okay. Go on."

Just as he was opening his mouth to speak, fate interrupted them when a Familiar suddenly appeared in the room.

"One from the hideout just arrived, sir. Says she's looking for you."

"She?" Tessa looked at him questioningly, but he merely glanced at her before returning his eyes to the Familiar.

"You're dismissed."

Tessa frowned deeply when he stood up. "Where are you going?" she demanded, voicing her irritation without attempting to hide it.

"I'm sorry. I promise we will continue this conversation when I get back, but right now I need to go."

Her eyes expressed her displeasure at this news. "I'm assuming this means I'm to be locked back up?"

"It's for your own protection, Tessa. They don't have the keys this time, so no one will bother you."

"If you're going to ditch me to go to the queen, at the very least give me my weapons," she snapped.

"How did you-"

"Well, unless you have a secret girlfriend I'm not aware of, the queen is the only 'she' I can think of." Her eyebrows were risen in a blunt fashion.

He sighed. "Fine. Just do me a favor and don't filet all my men while I'm gone."

Tessa smiled as she felt the handles of her katanas in her hands, squeezing them and twirling them in her grip as she walked around the room. It felt good to have them back. They gave her a sense of security at the very least. Black Hat had left a few minutes ago. She hoped whatever it was he was tending to didn't take too long, because she was itching to finish their conversation. Truthfully, she already had a hunch as to what it was he wasn't telling her, but she wouldn't jump to any conclusions until she had heard the full story.

Later that night, the sun had just barely begun to set under the horizon, painting the desert sky in a breathtaking sunset. She was admiring it from the desk, capturing it in her journal, when suddenly a piercing, distant screech echoed over the land outside the window, startling her into dropping her pencil.

"What the hell...?" Standing, she leaned forward to peer outside into the distance, but she didn't see anything. It had been an extremely haunting sound, sounding much like a wounded animal screaming in pain. All of a sudden was abruptly alerted to a dull but reverberating thud that came from below her. At first she just assumed it had been one of the Familiars who had been spooked by the noise and dropped something, but then she heard it again, and this time she felt the floor shake with it. Setting her pencil down, a frown stamped onto her face when she heard shouting from downstairs, and then all of a sudden a shrill, piercing screech rang through the mansion that caused her to jump up from her seat. She knew that sound all too well. She jumped at a deafening crash, and she realized the noise was coming from the basement. It was then that it dawned on her the first screech must have been a call of some sort, which had alerted the clan of vampires being held here.

The shouting grew louder, and the fear bubbling in her stomach became very real when shrill screeches and snarls became mixed in with the frantic Familiars downstairs. If the Familiars were alarmed, then told her something was terribly off. Fear secured its icy grip around her stomach as she realized she was in grave danger, and she snatched her katanas off the bed, when her head sharply shot up as the screeches grew louder. They were on her floor. Tessa whipped around when she heard a grating noise behind her, and her eyes flew wide when she saw a vampire had climbed up the wall of the mansion and was entering through the open window.

"Shit!"

The vampire sent a vicious snarl in her direction, and without even thinking about what might be on the other side she ran to the door and sent a powerful kick against the wood. The door flew off its hinges, and she took off down the hall without pause, the vampire's shrieks echoing after her. She didn't have a single clue as to where she was running to. All she knew was that the vampires were loose, and Julian wasn't there to call them off, which meant she was the one and only snack in the house considering they didn't feed on Familiars.

She was the one possible target in a mansion housing over fifty vampires.

Her feet nearly slipped out from underneath her when she skidded to a stop as three of the slimy leeches leapt up the stairwell she had been headed for, and they let out simultaneous shrieks at detecting her. Pivoting on her heel, she ran in the opposite direction before taking a sharp left turn, only to be cut off by another two. There were too many. She might have been able to handle one or two, but there were too many. Suddenly, a loud whistle redirected the two vampires' attentions, and Tessa saw a Familiar standing at the end of the hall.

"RUN, YOU STUPID GIRL!" he growled at her.

His presence having acted as a momentary distraction, she took the chance and bolted without a second's hesitation. All around her echoed the vampires' vocals to the point she couldn't tell which one was coming from which direction. Where was Julian? It was as she was asking herself this question that a blurred figure slammed into her from the side, and she crashed to the ground with a scream, both her katanas being knocked from her hands with the landing. She barely had time to look up, and the last thing she remembered was the vampire soaring through the air, claws and fangs poised.

"JULIANNNN!"

He didn't return until later that night, but when he arrived he instantly sensed something was wrong. Narrowing his eyes, he entered the mansion, and the sight he was greeted with made him stop dead in his step. All the Familiars were gathered in the main hall, some sporting some rather nasty wounds.

"What happened?" he snapped.

"The group in the basement went berserk," one of them exclaimed.

"They just broke their way out, sir! We couldn't do anything to stop 'em!"

His eyes had widened as they spoke, and before they could say anything else he was charging through them and practically flew up the stairs. When he came to the bedroom door he froze upon seeing it was wide open, the wood splintered where Tessa had kicked it out. His panic rose as he ran into the room, but she wasn't anywhere in sight. He checked the bathroom, just to be sure, but she wasn't in there either. Before he realized it, ice cold dread was settling into his gut, and he ran back downstairs before grabbing the collar of the nearest Familiar.

"WHERE IS SHE?" he roared down at him viciously.

The Familiar trembled in his grasp, frightened at his master's rage. "We don't know, sir!"

He snarled. "FIND HER!" he boomed into his face. He threw him down violently, and the Familiar came to a sliding halt on his back before scrambling to his feet and running as fast as he could from the furious vampire. The others quickly followed, and within minutes the place was in a frenzy once more. Black Hat took off on his own search, unable to gain control over the simmering rage and fear festering in his gut. Why the hell hadn't those idiots grabbed her? His heart was racing, adrenaline feeding the already seething rage bubbling within his core and threatening to burn a hole through his stomach. His innards churned with both fury and panic as a million and one scenarios ran through his head like an old fashioned horror film. She could literally be anywhere. She could be...

No, he couldn't think like that. They would find her. He hadn't lost her again. He wouldn't.

Tessa stirred a little from her faded state, exhausted and in pain. She slowly managed to open her eyes—but everything around her was blurry, her head spinning like a funnel. After narrowly escaping the vampire that had tackled her, she had managed to lock herself in a secluded part of the cellar that she guessed had once served as a bomb shelter, but not before she had sported multiple lacerations to her side and arm, which were still bleeding. Blood trickled down her forearm, the warm droplets tickling the skin as if to taunt her. It wouldn't kill her, but it was painful.

She suddenly became aware of running, booted footsteps, before the iron door gave a penetrating screech as it was unlocked and pushed open. By instinct, she tried to crawl away from the intruder when she heard them rush towards her, thinking it was a Familiar. A pitiful whimper escaped through her lips, but she only made it a few inches before she felt two hands gently take a hold of her. When she opened her eyes, the first thing she registered were the two golden orbs staring back at her. She froze.

"Julian," she whispered, her voice hoarse from screaming. In less than a second, she felt a sense of relief, and then she was shattering into a fit of untamed woe. She heard him shushing her softly, as he tried calming her down, but if anything she just became more frantic, unable to control the delayed panic raging through her system. Her body collapsed in a pitiful heap on the cement ground as she sobbed. She felt very lightheaded, her vision spinning, and the last thing she remembered before blacking out was a fabric being placed over her body, as he gently took her into his arms.

MAJOR CHANGES MADE TO THIS CHAPTER. The rape scene and the scene with Priest have been removed and replaced by a vampire scenario. Don't worry, Priest will be showing up in Chapter #16!

Your reviews continue to be helpful in molding this story. xoxo

Fun fact: "Kaiya" means "forgiveness" in Japanese.