Caged Wings

Chapter Fourteen: Refining One's Self

Raven wakes up with a yawn. She looks to see everyone was already awake. She gets up and stretches. She then folds her blanket up and takes it to her empty room. She just throws it to the floor and then closes her door.

She walks the hallways, still half asleep. Pheonix walks by with a big box of stuff. He sees Raven. He says, "Look who finally woke up."

Raven rubs her eyes, "W-what time is it?"

Pheonix then replies, "It's around 1:30 in the afternoon."

Raven nods, "Okay...."

She looks around, "W-what's going on?"

Pheonix then says, "Well, I got up early to get the rest of my stuff from my old house and brought it here. Zero's almost done the livingroom. Heh, heh....of course he had to work around you while you were sleeping."

Raven rubs her eyes and chuckles, "I'm glad things are slowly getting done."

Pheonix nods, "Me too. Why are you so tired?"

Raven smiles, "Just a late night."

Pheonix then says, "I see. I better get this stuff to my room."

Raven nods, "Alright. I'll just get dressed and help someone random."

Pheonix chuckles, "Sounds like a plan."

With that, Pheonix then heads toward his room. Raven then goes back to her room. She russles through her bag and gets out some random clothes. She then changes from her pajamas to another outfit. She wore a small black tank top with a fish net shirt over it. She also wore ripped, skater jean shorts with plain slip on sandals. She then puts on her spiked dog collar along with her black gloves. The last thing she put on was her raven feather in her hair.

She then walks out of the room. She yawns and walks to the livingroom. She sees it was clean and almost complete with furniture and posters. Raven's eyes widened, "Wow."

Zero was seen standing on a step ladder, hanging another poster up. Raven smiles, "Wow, Zero. You did an awesome job!"

Zero climbs down, "Thanks. I'm almost finished. Just need to hang a few more things up and get some new stuff to make the room look better."

Raven looks around, "Yeah. It looks good. It's like we have a livingroom now."

The livingroom now had a couch, a rug, and a few shelves. On one shelf was Zero's television with his PS3. His games were stacked neatly on the lower shelf. Two guitar paddles were leaning up against the shelf. Another shelf was up full of Zero's dvds and a coffee table was set up in front of the couch. Anime posters were hung up everywhere you looked in the room. A side table was seen in another corner of the room with some of Zero's anime figurines.

Zero chuckles at what Raven said, "Yeah. It's coming along."

Raven then says, "I guess you don't need any help?"

Zero then says, "You can if you like......I just have a few things more to do is all."

Raven waves her hand and smiles, "Don't worry. I'll go see what else needs to be done."

Zero nods, "Okay."

Raven then walks into the kitchen. Raven's eyes widened to see it was clean as well. The kitchen had Serenity's table and chairs in it already. Serenity is seen cleaning the counters. She sees Raven and smiles, "Oh, hey! How's it going?"

Raven smiles, "I'm alright. You?"

Serenity keeps scrubbing the counters, "I'm alright. Just cleaning."

Raven chuckles, "Well I can see that."

Serenity chuckles, "Yeah. I just need to clean out the fridge, stove, sink, and the floors. And give this room a new paint job."

Raven nods, "Ah. What colour do you think would go?"

Serenity stops scrubbing, "Well.....I was leaning towards maybe white and then put a nice boarder on the top of the walls."

Raven nods again, "That sounds nice."

Raven then asks, "Care for some help?"

Serenity smiles, "Sure. Go right ahead."

Raven smiles, "Great."

She then grabs a clothe and a random spray for cleaning. Raven then says, "I'll start on the fridge."

Serenity nods, "Okay."

Raven then opens the fridge. It was dirty and smelled a little funny. Raven shakes her head, "Disgusting."

She then sprays it down and begins to scrub the insides. Serenity then says, "Thanks.....this kitchen really needs the work."

Raven keeps scrubbing, "It's no problem."

Pheonix comes in, "Raven! You still have that check?"

Raven pops her head out from the fridge, "Yeah. Why?"

Pheonix then says, "I'm gonna go spend it on supplies for fixing some of the rooms."

Raven nods, "Alright. It's in my pants pocket on my bedroom floor."

Pheonix nods, "Okay, thanks."

With that, he leaves the room. Raven shakes her head and chuckles. Serenity chuckles as well. They both go back to cleaning the kitchen.

After a half an hour or so, the kitchen was finally done. Raven sighs, "Glad that's over."

Serenity nods, "Yeah."

Serenity then goes to the hallway, "I'm gonna go see if Coslotus is doing his share."

Raven nods, "Alright."

With that, Serenity leaves the room. Raven sighs again and then walks to the hallway. She sees Evan. She smiles, "Hey."

Evan nods, "Hey."

Raven says, "Sleep well?"

Evan nods again, "Surprisingly, yes."

Raven nods, "That's good."

Evan then gets a good look at Raven. He then asks, "I take it you didn't sleep very well?"

Raven chuckles, "I ended up waking up in the middle of the night, that's all."

Evan then notices that same scent he smelled a few nights ago when he found the card Raven dropped. Evan's eyes widened a bit. He then steps closer to Raven, "Excuse me..."

He then smells Raven's hair. Raven's eyes widened a little. Evan leans back, "W-what is that smell?"

Raven raises an eyebrow, "What smell?"

Evan sighs, "When you went out a few nights ago....I came across a card you dropped. I smelled an unfamilar scent on it. I smell that same scent on you now."

Raven's eyes widened, almost forgetting werewolves have a keen sense of smell. She then says, "Let's.....let's just say I came across someone I never seen in a while.....well....sort of...."

Evan's eyes widened, "Sort of? Who is he?"

Raven's eyes widened again. He knew it was a him. She then said, "He's just a close friend of mine."

Evan sighs, "From what I smelled.....he's a vampire....a vampire that was really close to you last night. You reek of him."

Raven sighs, "It's....complicated....at least right now."

Evan asks, "How so?"

Raven looks to the floor, "He's......look....I'll introduce him when the time is right."

Evan then asked, "That night.....you were with him. Was it a date?"

Raven's eyes widened, "W-what?"

Evan sighs, "Was it a date?"

Raven sighs, "Well.....I thought of it as getting answers. I guess.....he thought of it as a date."

Evan sighs out of frustration, "Look.....just be careful, alright? I'm not gonna tell you to stay away from him....but....but I am gonna tell you that I never trusted vampires."

With that, Evan walks off. Raven looks at him as he leave. She sighs, feeling guilty. She thinks to herself, "Was he only saying that because of what he is? Vampires and werewolves always hated each other."

It was soon dark. It was a long day of work for the group. The house was almost finished. All that was left was buying new things for the house and cleaning more of the rooms.

Raven was in her room, sorting out her clothes. Everyone else was doing their own thing. Zero and Sith were playing Guitar Hero, Serenity was still finishing up the kitchen, Pheonix was typing on his laptop, Coslotus was laying in his bed, almost asleep, Hikari was mixing more potions in her room, and Evan was sitting in the backyard alone, thinking.

Raven then hears a noise. She looks to see it was Dimus. He smiles, "Hello."

Raven stands, "Hey."

Dimus walks closer to her, "How was your day?"

Raven sighs, "Tiring."

Dimus places a hand on the side of her face, "Aw....my poor baby."

Raven chuckles.

Evan smells the air outside, "Hm?"

He growls as soon as he realized what he was smelling was that same scent he smelled on Raven earlier. He stands up and heads towards the direction of the scent.

Raven then says, "We can't be seeing one another like this."

Dimus smiles, "Why not? It's fun."

Raven sighs, "I just need.....to introduce you to my friends."

Dimus' eyes widened at first at the idea. He then smiles and says calmly, "No problem."

Raven's eyes widened, "R-really?!"

Dimus nods, "Anything for you."

Raven smiles, "Thank you!"

Dimus smiles once more, "Just name a time and place."

Raven smiles, "Night Rave, tomorrow night at 9pm. My friends will be there."

Dimus smiles, "Alright. I'll be there."

With that, he kisses Raven's lips. He parts the kiss and whispers, "I got to go."

Raven's eyes widened, "Why so soon?"

Dimus smells the air, "Let's just say I smell something foul....something unwanted."

Raven raises an eyebrow as he walks away, "I'll see you tomorrow."

Raven nods, "Alright."

With that, he hops out the window. He looks around and smells the scent of a werewolf. He growls. He looks and sees Evan walking. Evan stops dead in his tracks as soon as he sees Dimus. He growls and glares at him. Dimus did the same. He then turns and runs into the shadows.