Greece, 1230BC
A revolting stench filled her nostrils as the men came further into the cave -there were five of them, each as giant as the last and each as animalistic looking as the last one. She swallowed her fear, her blue eyes wide with terror as her brothers darker ones watched each move they made with caution, his body as tense and ridged as a sword blade, ready to lash out and strike at them should they attempt anything with his sister, his world, his everything.
The man who'd entered first barred his yellowish teeth at them both. "I didn't realise these caves were inhabited." He sneered at them and Arcadius swallowed before answering. "We took refuge here when our village was invaded," he murmured and the man snapped his dark eyes over to him. A leering smirk lifted at his chapped lips. "And when would that be?" He hissed.
Arcadius remained stoic. "A while," he answered calmly.
A wide grin tore at the mans face and he glanced at the others, all of them sniggering under their breaths before smirks tore across their faces too. Lysandra was frozen with terror. It was as if her nightmare had came true, and all she could hope, was that, hopefully, the man in the small lake in the furthest depths of the cave would remain hidden and undetected.
Dark eyes fell to her once more. "And who might this, ravishing young beauty be?" He hissed under his breath, the sound akin to a snake, and Arcadius stiffened ever so slightly. He looked down at Lysandra, smoothing a hand gently down her back, subtly so they wouldn't notice. "My younger sister, Lysandra," he responded and the man grinned a foul, yellow grin. "Lysandra," he repeated, rolling her name around his mouth before he gave a bone chilling chuckle. "I distinctly remember a young girl with such a name from a village we ransacked a few summers ago. Not an awfully common name around here, but one I remember distinctly." He turned to a man with shaggy black hair and dark bushy brows that looked vaguely familiar to her. "From the same settlement as your wife, Delphine, wasn't she, Atticus?"
Atticus gave a silent, firm nod with a devilish grin, his eyes alight with sadistic enjoyment, and Lysandra felt her blood run cold. No, her inner voice all but screamed. She knew these men, and she knew what they would do soon, something that horrified her to her very core.
The man turned back around, and in a lightening move, a move to quick for her human eyes to see, his hand clenched into a fist and swung towards Arcadius. It landed squarely in the centre of his chest, on one of his lungs, just mere inches from her face. A horrified scream shrieked from her pale pink lips as her brother collapsed, wheezing violently. A booted foot delivered a swift kick to his ribs, catching his lower mouth too, blood trickling out of his mouth as he groaned loudly, anguish and pain evident in the awful sound. Lysandra screamed in horror once more, sobbing with tears pooling in her blue eyes as she made to rush over to him.
The man who'd struck her brother moved faster- hot, red pain speared her cheek, his hand cracking against it. She cried out, falling to the ground, pain jarring up her bones as she fell to the rocky floor. She heard her brother give another agonised groan, a yellowed toothed grin coming into view as the man crouched beside her, his face swimming through the thick haze of tears that clouded her blue orbs.
A grimy hand gripped her wrist causing her to cry out as she felt her skin bruise. His breath made her recoil. "Maybe I should do to you what Atticus did to Delphine," he mused coldly. His eyes trailed down her trembling form, licking his lips loudly. His brow quirked up as he smirked. "I am looking for a wife I suppose," he murmured, flicking a loose blonde hair off of her shoulder. Lysandra flinched in return, his grin widening.
Her eyes widened with horror as he stood up, his hands going to his belt. Arcadius heard it through his delirium of pain and his eyes snapped open, landing on what was happening. He tried to drag himself across the floor towards her, to shield and protect her, but one glance from the man and the others, including Atticus, seized him, pulling him up to his feet while he sagged in their grasp, the pain that seared through his body causing him to groan. He spat on the ground, the blood evident against the stone patch in the dirt floor.
The man crouched beside Lysandra, her quiet sobs and shakes only widening his smirk. He moved, his pants loose, his mouth near her ear. He was about to move when Arcadius fought with a new burst of strength, grimacing at the pain. "Leave her alone!" He snarled, sounding as every bit of a beast as they were for that split moment. He struggled once more. "She hasn't even had her moons blood yet! Doing that will accomplish nothing if you're hoping for her to bear your offspring!" He snapped.
The man stilled, pulling back and standing while Lysandra wept on the ground, tears trickling down her cheeks silently as she shook, her eyes flickering over to her brother, tears falling faster when she saw his already bruising and very evident injuries.
Arcadius remained silent as the man, his mouth curving into a cruel grin. "Is that so? I suppose I can wait until she does, but you..." The man trailed off, his grin widening. He pressed his hands behind his back. "I'll ask you some questions, and I would watch what you say back," he warned, giving a pointed glance down to the preteen who was shaking violently.
The dark haired man remained silent, the threat loud and clear in his mind. The beast of a man smiled and stepped closer. "Good. Now, my men and I, on the last full moon, hunted a man, a bloodsucker. We hunted him, slashed him, and left him for dead a half an hour north, intending to return in the morning with fire to rid ourselves of his scourge. But, when we returned, he was gone, a boar carcass left behind not far away. Care to explain?"
The dark haired Grecian was silent for a moment before he answered. "I don't venture that way, too many wild animals wanting to kill you. We hunt in this general area. Lysandra picks berries, nuts, and I hunt small animals and catch fish from the nearby ocean with the nets behind you." He motioned to them with a grimacing nod. The man glanced at them once before looking back to them. Arcadius jaw clenched ever so slightly. "I don't go North," he repeated, slowly as though to make his point.
The man was silent for a moment before he hummed under his breath. A grin spread across his face. "I'll leave you be then, and your sister, Lysandra. But I'll be back. I'll come back each and every year until she bleeds, and then, and only then, I'll take her in front of you, boy." He sneered. His hand clenched and it flew forward, upper-cutting him in the ribs and making him groan out and fall to the floor when they released him.
All five of the men laughed before they left the cave, the beast delivering one final kick to his ribs before he too left, a rushing of air sounding before they raced off into the night, howls sounding but a dozen minutes later.
Lysandra wretched out a sob as she dragged herself over to her older brother, pulling him onto her lap and using her only clean cloth to clean the blood off from his face as she sobbed. Blood covered his face, and it devastated her to see him in such a state, having never seen him in such a way before.
It was hours later as she still sat on the ground holding him, her tears long hand dried, her heart numb with pain, when the immortal man staggered into the room, his expression weak but stoned, as though he wouldn't have rather of heard what had taken place a few hours ago. He took in the sight of Lysandra holding her brothers barely conscious form with tear stained cheeks as he slid down the wall, his weak, cold immortal body barely able to hold himself up.
She blinked silently at him before she spoke. "Are you alright?" She whispered, his closed eyes opening to look at her, almost as if he couldn't quite believe what she had just asked considering what she had her brother had just been through. He gave a slow nod of his head before closing his eyes, his chest not moving with breaths, almost as if he was holding his breathe not to breathe in the stench of blood that would cause him to lose control.
Lysandra lowered her eyes to her brother, about to close them to hide the sight of his injuries, when the man spoke, his voice ashen and quiet as he addressed her. "My name is Caius," he stated quietly, her blue eyes moving to his almost black ones in shock, widening ever so slightly as they glassed over with fresh, unshed tears. He looked at her, giving a firm nod. "My name is Caius, and, it would seem, human, I am something I never thought I would say, especially to a creature akin to vermin, and it is something I will never say again -I am indebted to you both."
