Chapter 11: Rash Decisions

That night I couldn't sleep.

Fran's confession, along with my returning memories made sleep downright elusive. Nightmares ran rampant through my head, and after several attempts at resting, I finally gave up and decided to go for a walk. I pulled on my typically clothes, belted the rapier to my waist, and unlatched my window. I checked to make sure the yard was clear and jumped down. I landed lightly on my feet with nary a noise.

A deep, perturbed, male voice called out from behind me. "Normal people use doors."

I whipped around, rapier drawn, to discover Van Helsing sitting under my balcony. I scowled at him and put the blade away.

"What are you doing out here?" My voice had an edge on it that was unfamiliar to me.

Van's eyes narrowed at the open hostility and his voice cut through the night. "Your behavior has been inconsistent since we returned from the mission yesterday."

I wasn't in the mood to talk to him and the conversation was quickly getting on my nerves.

Van registered open aggression in Sierra's tone and body language.

"That's observant of you."

Her voice was dangerously hostile. Van mulled over what he should do or say as he watched her walked away from him. Eventually, Van decided he should just follow her. Van tailed her silently out of the gates and into the empty streets of London.

Where is she going? He wondered, as she stopped at several intersections seemingly at random. Van's last straw of patience left when she started tailing some Twilight soldiers down into an dark alley. Irately he resolved to not assist her, since she went looking for trouble on her own accord.

I silently pursued my prey, with continuing discomfort that I was being followed as well. Since it had not attacked me yet, I assumed that it was not hostile. I tried to shove the thought away from my mind. If they wanted to tail me and wait for an opportunity, they would be waiting a while. The pair I had been following meet up with another two at the edge of the alley. I scowled and banished my rapier trying to think about what my next move would be. Technically, I only needed one. Four, seemed like a better fight. I sighed internally, I should have just shoved my pride and asked Van to spar. Fran would be really upset with me if I got hurt anymore...before I could figure out my options, my quarry started to move towards me, making up my mind before I even had a direction.

Van's instincts were screaming something wasn't right as he watched Sierra from his vantage point on the roof. The group had got larger, and he expected Sierra to retreat, only she never did.

"Is she going to engage them?" He muttered under his breath as he watched her leap towards the incoming Twilight figures.

"Stupid…" The hunter muttered annoyed. Van pulled one of his shotguns out to provide backup should she need it.

Sierra, however, didn't require Van's assistance. It was a disappointingly easy fight for her.

I looked down at the prone cloaked figures, trying to discern which one was the most conscious. I gave up fairly quickly and just selected the loudest one.

I picked up the goon by their shirt collar with a single hand and slammed him into the nearest wall, growling. "I have a message for Finis, and your going to take it to him." The Twilight thug in front of me thrashed trying to free himself from my grasp. "If you don't shut up and be careful, I will decide I only need one person to carry back the message."

I slammed him into the wall once more, this time with more force. The guy fell silent seeing the deep blue eyes take on a red hue."That's better."

I pulled off his mask with a subtle twist of my rapier to reveal a soldier not much older than me. "You are going to tell him, his father shouldn't have let the angel live." I felt something snap in my mind and I roared. "I won't let him take any more from me!"

The wind echoed eerily down the corridor, chilling everyone who was touched by it to the bone. I dropped him to the ground.

"Get going." I brandish my sword, swiping it across his face. Fresh, red, blood leaked down his cheeks as his eyes grew large as I brandishing the point merge inches away from his eye. He stumbled away from me and manged to get to his feet seconds after. The Twilight guard took off running without a backwards glance.

I turned around to address the other three, which appeared to be unconscious. "Now what can I do…"

A shot rang down from the nearby building, and I narrowly avoided the spray of rock salt that crashed into the wall in front of me. I looked up at Van Helsing and sneered at him. "I thought I was being followed. Been up there long, Van Helsing?"

Van's face told me he was really angrily.

"What do you think your doing?" His voice hissed into the wind.

"Letting off steam?" My nonchalant answer did not seem to quell his anger. I watched as his fingers tightened their grip around the triggers of both guns.

"Think you can do a better job then these?" I gestured to the other Twilight figures on the ground. I didn't think I would need much to provoke him, but my estimate was wrong. Van sheathed his guns and jumped down.

There was a very distinctive thud as Van dropped down onto the cobblestones.

"We are going back to the mansion." His voice was dangerously calm as he prowled towards me. Van tone told me he wasn't going to take 'no' for an answer. My blood was pounding, stuck between my fight or flight response. Van's anger was no joke. At the same time, I was seriously frustrated and angry, myself and I didn't understand why I should back down.

My emotions got the better of me and I attacked him.

Van was not in the mood to waste time, not with Twilight prowling the area. He assessed Sierra's movements with an ultimately calm demeanor. He resolved to get this over quickly.

The fight was extremely one sided as Van assessed Sierra's speed and took advantage of her open fighting style to target her pressure points. His first swing had Sierra dropping her rapier into her second hand. What Van did not realize was that her second hand was Sierra's dominate hand.

Van was forced to recalculate his method as Sierra's fighting style changed drastically and the blows took on more force and were faster. Van felt the blade bite into his cheek as he got behind her and hit the pressure point on the base of her neck. Van wiped the wetness from his cheek as Sierra dropped to the ground unconscious.

"Tkk." Van's voice sounded on the path irately. "You are such a pain."

Van heard the whistles of the watch going off on the next road over, and was forced to gather Sierra into his arms. Thus burdened, the hunter proceeded to make his way back to Saint's mansion.

An hour later I bolted up in bed and looked around.

My arm and neck were killing me and instantly my eyes snapped open to look around in horror. I brought my good hand up to my face and moaned softly. "Ugghh..."

My horror subsided a bit as I realized were I was.

There was a faint light coming from the other side of my room. I peeked out between the curtains on my four poster bed to see Van sitting at my table. He had a seriously angry look on his face as he cleaned his equipment..and mine. There was dried blood on his cheek and on a handkerchief that rested on the table. Apparently, the equipment had a higher priority then his wound.

I sat there watching him for a minute, while I tried to figure out my emotions. In the end, I knew I needed to apologize, even if he was angry or hated me. I pushed the curtains back. Van's eyes deadpanned to me. He is probably pretty tired, I observed. I knew I was. I approached the table cautiously.

"Van Helsing?"

The anger he expressed did not lift as I approached him.

"Are you going to attack me again?" He inquired coolly and I shook my head.

"No…"

Van sighed and forced out the words. "Then what do you want?"

I furrowed my brows together and tried to check my temperament. "Well, this is my room?" Van did not respond as I got closer, my eyes narrowed in on the cut.

"Does it hurt?" I asked him gesturing to his cheek.

It had started to bled again as he shrugged and put the bloody handkerchief back on the wound. His response was a cold. "No."

I felt pretty bad about losing my temperament before and I thought of something that might make it up to him, but it was really risky. I stopped in front of him.

We were only separated by an arm's length. "I am sorry." I said from the depths of my heart.

"Don't let it happen again." His voice was quite low at this point. Whether it was exhaustion or something else, I couldn't tell.

"I would like to look at it." The statement had Van narrowing his eyes in suspicion, but he slowly pulled the handkerchief away from the wound.

"Why?"

I stepped forward, my hands trembling, and brushed Van's hair away from the wound. It didn't look deep, rather just a scratch. A testament of his combat prowess. My mouth went dry at the thought that ran through my head. With a gulp, I leaned over and planted my lips on the wound. I was able to drag my tongue over it before Van reacted to what I was doing.

Van sensed she was going to do something, but he had not expected her to reach over and kiss him. Van's eyes grew wide as the feeling of her hot tongue on his cheek. The sensation sent shivers down his spine. He reacted violently, pushing her way.

I let Van push me away, licking Van's blood from my lips as I took a couple of steps back.

"What the hell do you think your doing?" He was on full guard now, but I couldn't regret what I had done.

I stood there apologetically, wincing at his harsh words. "I couldn't help myself..." My eyes were down cast in the face of his anger.

Van stumbled for words to express his anger, grinding his teeth. "You….could...not…" Van reached up and touched his cheek. The tiny stinging sensation that been there a few minutes prior was gone.

"What did you do?" He asked taking his hand away from his cheek.

I felt my face growing hot. "Umm ...well…" I pointed to a mirror and Van's distrust had him looking in the mirror with one eye on me.

Sierra watched as Van examined his wound in the mirror. They both could see the wound closing rapidly, before disappearing completely. Van turned around to Sierra completely unsure of what to say at this point.

"I...couldn't...leave it...like that…" I gulped, visibly ill-at-ease. Van's eyes watched me with some kind of annoyed, angry, surprised look all at once. We stood there in an awkward silence for sometime.

I desperately wanted to go hide, be anywhere in the world but in that room with the man I had attacked, twice, in one night.

Van, at that same instance, was completely dumbfounded by this woman before him. He wasn't sure how to react. His second shotgun still needed to be cleaned. It was looking like it was going to be a really long night. The weapon in question was still sitting on the table, in several pieces. Van was also pretty sure he had hit Sierra hard enough for her to be out for the next several hours. The hunter confirmed this when Sierra reached up to rub her neck. In general, he was unsure of what his next course of action should be.

I reached up to rub my neck, and tried to make sure my arm still worked properly. Both limbs responded, by protesting their movements loudly.

"Are..you going to be here a while?" I asked, eyeing the disassembled weapon on my table. Several of my books had been moved to make room for the operation.

Van nodded to confirm that he was. "...I wasn't planning on you waking up for a while."

A weird thought bubbled into my head. "Van...Were you guarding me?"

Van slid back into the chair perturbed. "I struck you fairly hard. You should have been out for several more hours. It is probably due to your abnormal healing capacities that you recovered so quickly."

I nodded, unable to think of anything to say about his observation. I looked around and went to pick up my nightgown from my dresser. "...I am going to get ready for bed then."

I watched Van's expression change to one of unknown surprise as I walked into the bathroom and shut the door.

I examined my neck and arm in the mirror as I shed my clothes. Above my heart, a distinctive cross was beginning to show permanently on the skin. I traced the pattern with a light finger before I turned to look at my back. Small, but deep bruises asserted themselves against my pale white skin.

"Seen that one coming." I muttered as I tugged the nightgown over my head and adjusted the ties. Finished, I washed my face and opened the door. Van was still sitting at the table, diligently working away. I pulled my head back inside and smacked my cheeks a few times.

"What am I going to do…" I whispered to myself. "It is not proper for a man to be in a women's room at this hour." I repeated words Saint had told me after the fiasco with them walking in on me mostly naked when I had first arrived at the mansion.

Van's voice sounded closer to my ear then I expected, causing me to jump away.

He looked at me with a strange expression as he stood by the doorway. "I am done. I left your sword hanging on your bedpost."

With that statement he walked out towards my door. I stepped out into my room. My books had been put back in perfect order, and the candlelight sat by my bed. Van opened my door to the hallway.

"Good night Van Helsing..." I said softly as Van exited my room without a comment. He shut the door silently behind him.

I crawled into my bed really confused. I had a hunch that I wasn't the only one confused by my actions tonight. I rolled onto my back and hugged a pillow to my face in complete embarrassment.

"What did I just do?!" I sat right up in bed. "OH MY GOD!"

My mind started to catch up with my emotions and my actions. "How is he going to react to me in the morning? What if he tells everyone else?" These were the types of mortifying scenarios that ran through my head.

"What the hell have I done..."

The rest of my night was spent in restless sleep, as I woke up every few hours expecting some kind of holy retribution for my poor decisions.