Helping the unknown hunter

Zeke had carried the man to the infirmary and left him briefly to fetch them both something to eat, the man had lost a lot of blood and need something to keep him going.

He'd grabbed them both homemade steak pies which had been left in the mansion's kitchen, stocking up the hunter's plate with vegetables too, he needed the nutrients put back into his body.

Zeke padded his way back into the infirmary, plates in hand and set one down in front of the man.

"Eat up, that will help you get your strength up."
He said the man, slumping down into the chair next to the bed, plunging his fork into the pie.

"Thank you."

He took a forkful of pie, wincing a little as he raised his arm, feeling the stretch of his broken ribs. It was unlike him to be quiet and polite, but he was still a little shaken from earlier. And apart from anything, absolutely exhausted. He wasn't in the mood to pick fights for once now.

"It's weird. One moment I was dying and the next, I'm in some mansion I've never stepped in before and eating pie for dinner with a fellow lycan who hasn't tried to rip my throat out yet."

He gave a slightly crooked smile. If he was stuck here until he healed, he may as well make the best of things.

"I wont rip your throat out, no need to worry about that.
Though I am shocked that the girls let you live, I've been on the receiving end of Alexis' blade before and I came out of it worse than you."

He chuckled softly, spooning more pie into his mouth. Taking that silver sword to the chest was far more dangerous than any amount of broken bones.

"What's your name anyway, I'm Zeke by the way.
This place is a safe haven for any supernatural, we have all manner of people living here.
Elves, lycans, vampires and necromancers, the whole freak show."
He added with a laugh.
"You're welcome to stay here you know, even once your wounds are healed, just try not to get into too much trouble, our Alpha doesn't like cleaning up our messes."

He cocked an eyebrow. Well, Zeke really was nothing like any of the lycans he had met so far. It was starting to making him wonder if it really was a trap. But then, when he had been in such a bad way before, why would they heal him only to kill him again?

"Lifetime of my pack trying to rip me and each other apart, and I'm beaten by a girl." he sighed, spooning another chunk of pie into his mouth, hissing a little a the movement. "A vampire girl, no less."

The man smiled wryly, unsure whether he found it funny, or whether he was disappointed in himself. He remembered begging. That had been humiliating. But he couldn't have just let go of life yet. Not when he had tried so hard to survive before.

"Sure. Probably not in the way to be picking fights for a while, anyway. I'm Evgeni."

"She is vicious, don't let the short skirt and lipstick fool you."
Zeke sighed and lifted his shirt over his head, showing the man the scar that ran across his chest, right next to his heart.

"Alexis gave me that, ran a silver blade right through my chest, barely missed my heart but managed to puncture a lung.

So don't feel bad about losing to her, she's been killing bounty hunters for eight hundred years, no one younger than her stands a chance at beating her one on one."

He muttered and went back to eating, despite the fact that Evgeni had attacked Taylor, he liked the guy and to be quite frank if he were to hold a grudge against everyone that Taylor had disagreements with, he hate most of the coven.

He winced, hissing sympathetically. "Owch."

After having felt silver poisoning, the idea of actually being stabbed with a silver sword was horrifying.

"So what did you do to piss her off?"

He was surprised that Zeke had been able to be in the same room as her - even having a conversation with her - after she had almost killed him. On the other hand, he didn't generally hold grudges himself. He had found that it was more important to try and stay alive at the time, rather than worrying about past conflicts.

"Taylor was trying to take her out and ended up nearly getting herself killed, I stepped in and ended up with that."

He chuckled and pulled his shirt back over his head, that was the past, Alexis was a different person now.

He didn't hold a grudge against her, he had been the one to attack her first, it was only natural that she strike back.

Oh. So that was what happened.

Evgeni couldn't help but feel a little smug that Taylor had required back-up to take Alexis out. There had been two of them against him and he hadn't had any back-up. It made him feel a bit better about losing. It was odd that they had been working together like that, though, after all that.

Strange.

"Why?"

He had always learned to look after himself, and couldn't understand why anybody would put themselves in that position willingly.

Zeke chuckled and lay back in his chair, running his hands through his hair.

"Taylor is like a sister to me, I couldn't let her die."
He admitted, a soft smile gracing his face as he gazed back at Evgeni.


"Well now you know about me, tell me about yourself, why would you get into bounty hunting.
And of all people why would you take up Alexis' bounty?"

And here he was, helping the one who tried to kill her? This definitely seemed too good to be true.

Evgeni narrowed his eyes suspiciously. He would tread carefully around this.

"It was the only thing I could go into. I didn't particularly have any education, or skills, so my only opportunity." he shrugged.

It was a half-truth, at least. He had been skilled and trained in combat since the age of 11, and had had to defend himself against the rest of the pack. It was the most obvious job to go into.

He paused to take another bite of the pie, chewing and swallowing slowly before collapsing back onto the pillow.

"And as for Alexis... I'll be blunt. I was in it for the money. She had a lot of money on her head, and I was on the streets in a foreign country with nowhere to sleep. No particularly interesting tales of revenge or anything there, I'm afraid."

And that was a complete lie.

His brother had escaped the pack before him to go to one of the villages that Alexis had destroyed. It had been his dream to get out of his pack and find him again, but when he had gone looking for him, there was nothing left there. It had been the only hope that he had held onto. And it was gone, just like that.

Zeke chuckled softly and nodded.
"I can relate to that, my first four hundred years were spent in an Elven slavery camp.
The only thing I am any good at is killing, and music I suppose."

After he escaped Zeke had made money by winning boxing matches in bars, coming up against humans meant that he never lost a fight.

"I see, well, that was stupid."
He replied with a chuckle.
"A girl like that doesn't have a bounty on her head that high without good a reason.

I'll admit that I am still shocked that she let you live, count yourself lucky man, I can count the number of people she has show mercy to on one hand."

He smiled at the man and finished off his meal.

"I almost had her." he growled, more at himself than at Zeke.

He was furious at himself for letting that opportunity go. If Alexis had been on her own, he would have undoubtedly been able to kill her. He just hadn't taken into account the fact that she might have had assistance, and definitely didn't take into account that her assistance would be her old hunter.

And it had led to his pride being shattered as well.

But he had survived, and that was all that mattered. Though he had no idea what he would do when he was healed again. Even when he was able to walk, he doubted he would be in a fit state to bounty hunt.

"That may be true.
But you have to remember one thing, while you are here, you can not lay a hand on her.

Each species as their own elder, each one older and stronger than you. Attack her and you'll be put down pretty quickly.

Thankfully, the same thing is offered to you, while you stay here, you're safe, unless you do something utterly stupid.

He
chuckled and lay back, he had a feeling this one had a few more wounds
than just the external, seemed like his ego was a bit bruised.

Evgeni rolled his eyes. "I'm not quite stupid enough to try and attack the girl when I've got several broken ribs, considerable concussion, extreme bloodloss and only one arm intact."

He wasn't sure how long he would stay here, or even if he'd stay here at all after he had finished healing. It seemed like it would be pretty uncomfortable to be in the same building as Taylor and Alexis after they had just tried to kill each other. On the other hand, if he was here, it would stop them from hunting him down once he left the mansion. And he still needed somewhere to stay.

Somewhere to stay that he could afford, with no job.

Zeke shook his head and chuckled.
"Obviously I wasn't referring to right now, more if you chose to stay after you're done healing."

The lycan hummed to himself softly, Evgeni seemed quite suspicious of him, understandable, looking a Zeke he hardly looked like the type to offer help for nothing.

A smile tugged at the corner of his lips, looks could be deceiving, becoming a family man had tamed him a lot.

"Still deciding about that."

He cocked his head at the man in thought. Now he had moved on from suspicion into just... confusion. Zeke didn't seem to show any signs of having another motive, or waiting for an opportunity to attack him, so why was he being so nice when Evgeni had tried to kill a woman he regarded as a sister?

It wasn't something he could sympathise with, having been brought up to protect himself and those important to him and to be suspicious and aggressive to everyone else.

He couldn't understand why anybody would act like this. It made him confused, and a little uncomfortable, and it made him feel quite bad about himself.

He raised an eyebrow at the man, he kept giving his the most perplexed looks.

"Is something wrong?"
He asked, gazing at the man, feeling as if he had confused the man somehow, surely everything he had said so far made sense.

A few months ago when Zeke first got to the coven he would of happily let the man die in a pool of his own blood, his well being would not of concerned Zeke but he had learned some compassion since then.

"No, no, it's nothing." he shrugged it off. "You just... very different from the lycans I've met up until now."

He hadn't known just how hungry he was until he had started eating. It was only now that he realised that his last meal had been three days ago, and that was only a rabbit that he had caught while travelling. While he was tracking Alexis, he hadn't eaten anything should he lose track of her, and while this had weakened him, he wouldn't have been able to catch up with her otherwise.

He stuffed the last few forkfuls into his mouth before lying back on the bed, a contented purr of satisfaction rumbling in his chest.

"Heh, yeah you think I'm tame, you should meet our Alpha."
He chuckled and shook his head.
"I use to be just as violent as malicious as any other lycan out there.

But this place...has calmed me down a lot.
And before you start thinking it, no I am not going to attack you and I don't want anything from you.
I'm just a lycan who is in a good mood that wants to help some poor sod out."

He smiled as the man finished off his food, every lycans weakness. It was good that he was eating, he needed to get his strength up if he wanted to heal quickly.

"The Alpha's "tame"?" he murmured wonderingly.

Now that he definitely didn't understand. In his old pack... and, he bet most other packs, a calm Alpha would be seen as a weak one. They wouldn't have lasted long.
Why hadn't he been overthrown yet? Was he gentle but strong? Were the other wolves weak? Or did the other wolves have no desire or need to have social standing and power within the pack?

It was not a situation that he had ever encountered before.

And Zeke... he was helping him out because he was a "good guy" type? He had never believed that anyone ever did something for nothing, and he kept trying to see how this lycan was trying to trick him or get something out of him, but he couldn't see any way that he...

It was confusing, and in a strange kind of way... scary.

"Um... thanks."

"His name is Aleksandr, he is a calm man, though everyone has there limits.
He is bigger, stronger and older than any lycan you have ever met."

He explained, if this guy thought that Alek was a push over he was dead wrong.

If this guy ever reached Alek's limits he'd be a dead dog, he didn't take shit from anyone and even if he didn't react Coilean and Aodh would quickly jump to their father's defense.

"Got it, no messing with the Alpha."

Not that he had particularly planned to. Hell, he wasn't even sure if he was staying yet, and if he was going to mess with anyone, it would probably be a weaker wolf... or one that could put up an entertaining struggle without being stronger than him. While he was recovering, the Alpha was not someone he would consider provoking.

He tried to lean over to the bedside cabinet, but yelped in pain as he accidentally put pressure on one of his crushed ribs, hastily jerking back. The man grumbled, settling back on his pillow.

"Pass me a cigarette, would you?"

Normally he only smoked about two a day, but he figured having almost died, he may as well make the most of life. Plus he had only had one today, and he was gasping for one.

"Quit moving."
He scolded softly and reached over to grab the guys smokes, handing it to him and lighting it.

"Squirm around like that and you will puncture a lung, and there is no chance of me being able to fix that, Coilean's speciality is internal wounds and he is not as nice as me."

He chuckled softly.

"Ughh. How am I going to spend a whole month like this?" the Bulgarian grumbled, taking a drag of his cigarette.

Though he was thankful to be alive, he truly hated being injured. It made him feel weak and vulnerable, and that made him paranoid. He wasn't sure if he would be able to sleep tonight. Every hour would probably be spent making sure that nobody was going to attack him.

"I can't even reach my smokes by myself."

Zeke laughed softly, most of the lycan reacted the same way when they were injured, none of them liked staying still.

"I'll see if I can get Alek in here to patch you up faster, I can't stand seeing a wolf stuck in bed."

Lycan had to move around, it was in there nature, he knew if this guy was stuck here for a month everyday would be non-stop whining and rolling about.