Part Three
Lea woke up from dreams that she tried not to remember. She moved her arm gingerly and found that it was stiff, but had mobility. She stood and started her morning workout before she went down stairs. Before she was completely through (She was in the process of one handed push ups on her injured arm) Caryn came in.
"You know, you really should give that a little while to heal. You act just like Sarah, you know?" Lea grinned.
"Oh Caryn, you know that I couldn't possibly just sit here. If I ever get ahold of that vampire again, I'll make sure that it's me who has the leverage, and then I'll kill him."
"Yes… well..." She handed her some clothes that she had left over from the last time she was injured. That seemed to happen a lot... and she didn't even do anything. It was Gwen. "Let's hope that you don't have another run in with him, because he is very dangerous, and if Sarah or Nissa-" She stopped, and Lea looked at her strangely.
"What about them?"
"If they found out, they would be angry. You know that." She quickly changed what she was going to say. She didn't want to reveal the fact that Nikolas was Nissa's brother. "Are you going to let them see the wounds?"
Lea shook her head, pulling the leather jacket deftly over her arms. "I don't plan on it. I assume that it will scar?" She threw an extremely grumpy look in Caryn's direction.
"Yes, I'm afraid so." Lea shrugged.
"It will be a job to cover, but I'll manage." She grinned and picked up her pack. "Don't worry, I'll go straight home. I know that Nissa and Sarah are probably worried." She lived with the two vampires for the moment. She had just gotten out of an abusive relationship with her father. She had actually ran, and had no place to go. Luckily, she had met the two a month before, and when she called them, they took her in. That was the day that she started training. She never wanted to be weak, ever again. She wanted to be strong for her own sake, and the sake of others. Sarah hadn't told her, but she had strength because of her vampire aura to rival any Vida, including herself.
"What are you going to do if one of them walk in on you while you're in the bath?" Caryn looked sharply at her. She didn't want Nissa to know about Nikolas cutting up her friend, but she also didn't see how it was going to be avoided.
"Well, I'll figure it out. If worse comes to worse, I'll get a lovely tattoo over it." She smiled jokingly and then went to the door. "Thanks Caryn, I really don't know what I would do without you." She smiled. Caryn answered simply.
"Die." She didn't know if she was joking or not.
The run home was a long one, at least ten miles, but Lea enjoyed it. She loved running. She had just lately found exactly how good of shape she could get in. She liked being able to beat the crap out of anything that bothered her or her friends... if she had been allowed to fight last night... maybe it would have been different.
She arrived at the door with a light sweat on her forehead, and pulled her key out of her pack. She turned the door and walked in.
"Hey Lea!" Christopher said. He had formerly been known as Kristopher, but he changed his name. Bad vampires gone good, gone bad, gone semi good again were confusing... just thinking of it that way was confusing. She settled with not thinking so that she wouldn't get a migraine.
"Hi Chris." She smiled at him. He was Sarah's fiancé, and they were happily in love. Some long story about him leaving and coming back, and then something to do with his brother. She didn't think she ever really caught his name.
"Well, are you okay?" it seemed like he was waiting for an explanation. Since she felt like she was going to be giving one to Nissa and Sarah as well, and she didn't want her carefully made up story to crumble, she looked at him.
"Where's Nissa and Sarah, and I'll explain." He seemed to accept it. Maybe it was because they came into the room right then.
"Sorry." Nissa grinned at her. "I was just helping my brother settle in. You know, the one you agreed to coming a long time ago?" Yeah, she remembered, since she was going to have to split her room down the middle with him. Christopher was already sleeping on the couch, and Nissa and Sarah shared a room. She was the only one who had any space, which got her vote for sharing.
"Okay, yeah, I just kind of forgot." She grinned. The fact that she couldn't even remember his name told you how much she had forgotten.
"So." Sarah looked at her. "What happened?" Yeah, she was afraid that that was coming. "I know that you only stay the night at Caryn's if you get injured, so spill." She leaned against the wall, keeping herself from wincing as the cuts stung sharply.
"Well, Gwen went to a circuit party, and I went along to keep her from doing anything stupid, and I got into a little bit of a fight with a vampire. But, it's alright, no one got hurt, and the vampire's not going to mess with her anymore. I'm just hoping that Gwen learned her lesson." She highly doubted it. The only thing that Lea had gotten out of her was that she wouldn't go to another party with Nikolas as host, so that Lea wouldn't have to run into him again. She wanted the rest of her skin to remain unscarred, thankyouverymuch.
"Oh, that's awful, what was the vampires name?" A man stepped into the room, and Lea's mouth dropped open. Thankfully, no one saw it, because everyone had turned to the man. Black and white...
"Lea, this is my brother, Nikolas." Uh ho.
"Uhh... Hello." She looked at him vehemently as he came towards her, and took her hand, the injured one, and kissed it. He gave her a challenging look. Was it going to be a game then? See who spilled first. Well, it wasn't like she was going to talk.
"So, you didn't answer, what was his name?" He asked her again.
"Nikolas, don't pry, she probably doesn't want to..." Nissa started, but Lea cut her off.
"Oh no, it's fine. I never really caught his name. It was some loathsome thing though. Really one of the ugly ones that you told me about. He couldn't even really handle himself well." She looked at Sarah, then Nissa, then Christopher, and then smirked at Nikolas with her eyes.
"Well, I suppose so. You took care of it though?" Sarah said. She was all for her taking care of herself, since she was indeed the one training her.
"Yes, I took care of it, the jerk will never," She looked at Nikolas, "Touch me again." He gave a little nod, as if to say, let it begin then.
"Well, as long as you're okay. Can I see what he did to you?" Nissa said. Nikolas smirked back, and Lea nodded, pulling up her pant leg. She had anticipated this question and allowed herself to trip on the way home. The cut was nearly healed already.
"Of course, you can guess that it was a load worse before Caryn took care of it. She's a rather talented witch." She grinned.
"Yeah, you're lucky that she's there to tend to you. Gwen gets you into more trouble then anyone I've ever met before." Christopher said and then walked over to Nikolas.
"This is the one I was telling you about. The first time I met her, she was in the middle of killing some guy." He grinned. Lea had indeed killed a few vampires in her time, but that was only the bad ones, and everyone had been happy once they were dead.
"Yes, I can see the potential in her. She seems to be violence in a delicate little box." He smiled at her again.
"Yeah well, the box isn't that delicate Nikky." She glared at him. He looked at her at the nickname, but shrugged it off. Apparently, he was planning on playing the game very well.
Sarah had snickered. "Nikolas and I never really got along well, so when you realize that I side with you on the fights, you know why." She smiled, and Christopher gave her hand a little tug.
"Come on, you have to at least give him a little sympathy. Lea's evil." He grinned at Lea, and Lea smiled back.
She looked around, and faked a yawn. She wasn't up to being in the same room with that man at the moment.
"Well, I'm just a little tired, so I'm going to go up and lay down for a while." Everyone said his or her goodbyes and Lea left... once she was out of hearing distance, Nikolas turned to his sister.
"I've left something up in the room, I'm going to run up there and get it really quickly, alright?" She nodded, and he grinned, taking after Lea.
He found her laying on her bed, staring up at the ceiling.
"You know this is awfully cozy. I'm going to be here for two weeks, maybe longer, and we're going to share a room." He arched an eyebrow at her, and then nodded to her jacket. "Awfully warms for that, isn't it?" She glared at him.
"Well, unless you want me to spill it to Nissa that you did a lovely slice and dice job on me, you better pray that it gets colder." She glared at him. "And as to you staying in here, just because you do doesn't mean that I won't stay out as late as I possibly can so that I don't have to see you." She glared at him.
"Let me see how well of a job the witch did on your arm, and I'll not bother you for the rest of the night." Lea growled and tore her jacket off, the bandages came away, and she saw that the cuts were already fading to pink. Caryn was a real wonder healer.
"Well, I can say that she did a nice job, but you'll wear those as long as you live. Most people wear my marks with pride and love." He looked at her. She slipped her jacket back over them.
"As soon as I can make my mind up about it, I'm getting a tattoo over it, and then I'll wear that with pride for the rest of my life." She glared at him.
"I'd hate to have to remark you Lea." He said, but the look in his eyes said that he would love it.
"You'll never touch me again Nikolas, unless you plan to kill me." She glared at him
"Oh really." He said, advancing.
"Really." She went for the knife beside her bed and had it in her hands before he moved again.
"Nikolas!" Nissa's voice drifted up the stairs. "Ask Lea if she'll come down later on so that we can talk, alright? I want you two to actually get to know each other. It took her quiet a while to get used to Chris, let alone like him." He smiled at her, and shouted back.
"She says she'll be down in about an hour, she just wants to get a little rest. She had a busy night, after all." He looked at her while he said it. She glared back at him, but knew that she was going to have to go now.
"Great!" She shouted back, and then Lea heard her walk back a piece down the stairs.
"We'll just see who wins the game." Nikolas said, grabbing a jacket and going to the door.
"There is no game Nikolas, leave me alone." She growled it at him, laying back down, knife in hand.
"That's not what you said last night when you let me mark you me." She screamed at him and threw the knife. He dodged it, but then again, she hadn't meant to kill him with it. If she was going to kill him, she'd tell Nissa and Chris first.
"You made me, and I'll never do it again." She hissed.
"We'll see." He grinned and blew a kiss. The gesture looked vaguely obscene coming from him. "See you in an hour, we have bonding to do." He grinned and left.
Lea stared after him for a few minutes. She didn't know what she was going to do, but she knew that she wasn't going to let him win the game. She hated losing...
AN: Tada… yeah. Blah blah. Next chapter.