~O~
Loran slowly opened his eyes, only to find that Alice was kneeling beside him. Her brown eyes were filled with worry and panic, but the moment she saw that he was waking up, relief flashed through them. "Thank heavens, you're awake," she said and smiled a bit. Loran stared up her for a moment before he finally sat up.
His body was still fatigued from the fight, so he had a bit of difficulty at first. And even though he tried to keep this hidden, Alice picked up on his distress. "Do you need some help?" she asked. Loran shook his head and said with a smile, "No, I've got it." He finally got himself into a sitting position, then moved back a bit so he could sit against the steel wall.
The cool metal hit his back, stinging at first until he adjusted to it, which then it began to provide some relief to his aching muscles. Alice moved a bit and sat beside him. They sat in silence for a moment before Loran finally said, "Go on and ask me what is bothering you."
Alice stared at him, and for a moment, Loran thought she might deny something being on her mind, but she proved him wrong when she said, "I was just wanting to know why you collapsed earlier and…What….What exactly you did to those Vampires." Loran figured that the reasons for his collapse had been prying on her mind; it would have done the same to anyone who didn't know much about him.
The gray-haired Vampire shut his heavy eyes for a moment, resting them so he might be able to stay alert for a little bit long, and then reopened them and said, "As you may or may not know, most all Vampires have some kind of power or special abilities; it's pretty rare if one doesn't. But I am no exception to most Vampires. I have powers that are my birthright as a Noble Vampire alone."
Alice nodded. Perhaps what Loran was telling her was making sense, or maybe it wasn't; it wasn't always easy for the gray-haired Vampire to read humans sometimes. He took in a deep breath, exhaled, and continued. "But to answer one of your questions, my powers were the reason that I collapsed. You see, unlike most Vampires who spend their time honing their skills and trying to get stronger, I never did. Because of this, my body just can't handle the stress put on it whenever I do use them, thus causing me to grow weak and tired..…I didn't ever like using my powers in general, but there were some circumstances with my brother that also made me refuse to use them even more."
A knot formed in Loran's stomach. Here was yet another thing he had sacrificed for his brother's sake, and all Zoran did was throw all the gray-haired Vampire's sacrifices back in his face and show that they were all for naught. With all of the things that Loran was realizing that he did for Zoran meant nothing to his brother, it was getting somewhat difficult to keep himself from harboring ill feelings.
But the gray-haired Vampire kept reminding himself that Zoran was still his brother, still his flesh and blood. Loran snapped back to reality when he heard Alice ask him, "What kind of circumstances with your brother do you mean? Did perhaps he not have any powers and you didn't want him to envy you because you did?"
Loran was surprised by Alice's guess, thinking that it was a very educated guess, but she wasn't right. "No," he said with a shake of his head, "My brother has powers as well, although he never used them all that much either, to my knowledge, at least. I kept from using my own powers because our father was abusive to my brother, and I wanted to show him that the world wasn't as violent as the one we lived in…..I wanted to try and show him that through peaceful means, the world could become perhaps just a little less cruel."
Loran suddenly felt a small surge of anger when he thought about the words he just said. It had been a hopeless cause, especially when it was a cause that Zoran wanted nothing to do with, but he had kept fighting for that cause for his brother, even when it seemed pointless at times.
I gave up so much for him…., he thought bitterly. It angered him that Zoran never spoke up until recently, that his brother never once said that he wanted Loran to stop with his quest. What made it worse was the fact that Zoran, whether or not he wanted Loran's help, didn't even bother to thank the gray-haired Vampire for all that he gave up in the name of helping him out.
"Your brother sounds like he is very fortunate to have somebody that cares so much about him," Alice stated. Loran let out a humorless chuckle. "You'd think that, but recently I found out he didn't give a crap about the things I gave up for him or all of the things I put up with all these years," Loran spat. He was surprised by the venom behind his words. Did he really have such toxic feelings towards his own brother now?
Perhaps if Loran thought of better times he had had with his brother, then the ill feelings wouldn't be as strong. But when the gray-haired Vampire thought about it, there weren't many 'better times' he had had with his brother. In all of their time together, it always seemed that Loran was the one smiling and being a part of whatever was going on, while Zoran had always been the complete opposite.
They were like two sides of the same coin. One side might have been shiny and pleasant to look at, and the other side worn down and faded, undetectable. Loran had always seemed to be the one who was in the light. He had been their father's favorite and spared from the relentless beatings that his brother received almost on a daily basis.
Zoran, on the other hand, seemed to have always been in the dark, trying to be independent but unable to be because Loran had always treated him as though he were helpless. The gray-haired Vampire jumped when he suddenly felt something touch his hand. He looked down and saw that Alice had placed her hand on his in a comforting gesture.
"It doesn't matter whether your brother was grateful or not for all that you did for him. What's important is that you were trying to help him and that all the things you did were in the best intentions, right?" Alice said and smiled warmly.
Loran couldn't understand how a human, one who learned that Vampires weren't myths, and who had faced near-death several times in one night, could still smile. He just couldn't wrap his mind around it. Most humans, if they had made it this far without thinking they were crazy, would have been huddled up in a corner in shock. And yet, here Alice was, still smiling and acting as though everything was normal.
Perhaps she's already gone crazy and just accepted it, Loran thought. But the more he dwelled on it, the less that seemed possible. Alice just didn't seem like the kind of human to do something like that. "I guess you're right," he said, remembering that she had asked him something before he started drabbling on in his mind.
"But it still doesn't make me feel too good in knowing that he didn't even care enough to consider all that I had to give up for him and thank me for it," Loran said bluntly and realized just how selfish that sounded. But he felt that he had a right to be selfish for once in his life; he had been considerate of others for years, never once hardly thinking of himself or his own well-being.
Loran felt that he was entitled to be selfish this one time. Alice looked at him with concerned eyes and asked him, "But do you really want that to be what tears you and your brother apart? Loran, you're obviously still raw about whatever happened between you two, but I assure you that if you give it time, then these hostile feelings you have right now will fade, and when they do and you're ready to speak to your brother again, he might not be there because of it. Do you really want that?"
Loran stared at Alice for a moment, then adverted his gaze down to the floor as he thought. He finally said, "No, I don't want to lose my brother. He's the only real family I have left since we left home." There was a small ache that formed in Loran's chest.
It was true; Zoran was his only true family. The gray-haired Vampire didn't really consider their mother and father as family anymore, not after all that they put the two brothers through. And Sinclair and the Yoru Clan might be family, but they weren't flesh and blood. No, I don't want to lose that. Loran hadn't really thought that the hostile thought he had been harboring against Zoran might result in the loss of the last family he had, and now that he thought about it, the sheer possibility made him sick to his stomach.
And much to his own surprise, Loran found himself smiling. He looked over at Alice and told her, "Thank you for your advice, Alice." She smiled back at him with a warm smile, one that could probably even melt Alucard's heart if he let it, and said, "It's not a problem, Loran. I'm happy to have been of some help, even in the midst of this entire mess."
A thought occurred to Loran when she mentioned the so-called 'mess,' or better known as the fighting between the Clans. "Crap. That slipped my mind," he said and felt his panic rising, "We might fall under another attack like earlier, and if we do, then there's no promise that I'll be able to fight them off again….Not for a while, at least." Alice stared at him in confusion and asked, "Well, what do you suggest we do, then?"
Loran, using the wall as leverage, pushed himself up to his feet. His weakened legs wobbled beneath his weight, threatening to send him falling back to the ground. But he leaned against the wall enough to remain standing.
"We need to relocate. All it will take is another group of Alexander's underlings to follow the scent of the ones that attacked us earlier. Next thing you know, another group will be here and we'll have to do the same thing again. And I have a feeling that if another little search party is sent out that it will be at least double in size," he explained.
Loran tried to take a step forward, but his legs buckled, but Alice caught him before he could complete his fall. She supported him by draping his arm over her shoulder. "Loran, do you really think you should be moving right now?" she asked in a skeptical tone.
In all truths, he probably shouldn't be pushing his fatigued body to limits that it had already reached. But Loran knew for a fact that there would be another search party of Alexander's underlings coming after them, and if they stayed in the warehouse, then they would have to fight again, and Loran was in no shape to handle another bout of his powers. And without using his powers, he knew he knew that he stood no chance against another Vampire.
So, the best thing for them to do was to move and get out of dodge while they still could. "It doesn't matter whether or not I should be moving. We lost precious time while I was unconscious and while we were talking, so we need to get moving," Loran said urgently. He tried to take several steps forward, but Alice held on tight to his arm and kept him from gaining any ground.
"Alright, if you're so dead-set on this, then fine. I understand the urgency for this. But is there anything that can be done to maybe get some of your strength back to you quicker to make this easier?" she asked. Loran shook his head and told her, "No, there's nothing that would help other than if I drank some blood to help myself recover, but there's no-"
He couldn't get the rest of his sentence out before Alice suddenly thrust her wrist in front of his face. "Take my blood then," she said defiantly. Loran stared at Alice as if she had lost her mind.
"No," he told her and tried to push her arm away from his face, "I'm not going to take blood from you. Not only is it against Sinclair's rules and can possibly be detrimental to not only my health but yours too, there's also Shun. He might not take too kindly to me taking blood from you, and I don't want to lose his trust and let him think lowly of me."
Alice narrowed her eyes at him and said stubbornly, "But think of it this way. If taking some of my blood means that you'll regain your strength, then you'll be able to make sure that I stay safe. Do you honestly think Shun will be angry if you drank my blood in order to ensure my safety?" Loran couldn't help but acknowledge that she had made a solid point.
But he shook his head and told her, "It doesn't matter. It is against our Clan's rules to take blood from a human, so even if I wanted to, I could face serious problems later on if it was ever found out. Besides, why is a human even this eager to give blood to a Vampire on their own free-will? Usually people are terrified of it."
Alice's eyes widened a bit in surprise, but lowered as she adverted her gaze away from Loran. He also noticed that she was holding onto the side of her neck again. Loran had seen her do that earlier, but had ignored it. Now, it seemed to raise a red flag. "I'm not scared to have my blood taken because it's already happened. I know what to expect," she admitted. Loran felt his eyes widen in surprise.
"Shun?" Loran asked, even though he had a feeling that he was right. Alice nodded and quickly said, "But it was for an emergency. He didn't want to, but he was falling into Bloodlust at the time. It was either that or possibly hurt our friends or innocent people. It couldn't be helped." Loran ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "God, Shun, what else have you done that Sinclair wouldn't approve of?" the gray-haired Vampire asked to himself under his breath.
But apparently Loran hadn't asked quietly enough because Alice suddenly asked him, "Has Shun done something else that might have gotten him in trouble?" Loran could hear the genuine worry in Alice's voice, but he just didn't think he could bring himself to tell her that Shun was trying to recover from a drug addiction; he didn't want Alice to think badly of the raven-haired teen.
"No, no. It's nothing. He just wasn't supposed to be in this fight tonight. That's all," Loran said. It wasn't exactly a lie, so he didn't feel guilty with saying those words. Alice gave Loran a skeptical look, but finally said, "Alright, if you say so. But you still refuse to take my blood, even though it would help you?"
Loran nodded and said sternly, "I'm not going to take your blood, so you can get that crazy idea out of your mind, right now." He then reached down and took her wrist into his hand and gave it a slight tug. "Now," he told her, "We need to hurry up and get out of here. We've wasted enough time as it is."
Sorry for not uploading yesterday. I had a bit of a busy and early day. But I should be able to upload until Thursday. The reason for the uncertainty on Thursdays because my band camp starts. I might upload later on those days that I'm at camp, but if I don't, I'm sorry in advance. Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter, so read and leave a review on the way out. ~Copperpelt~
