Fire Dies Down

Talking with Arzu made Jene feel like a person again.  Just this simple interaction between women was more than she had had in months.  

She nodded her head, feeling tears threaten to spill down her eyes once more.  

"I never thought I could fall in love after Thomas was murdered." She whimpered.  She didn't bother explaining who Thomas was, Arzu would be able to figure out he was a man she had loved, and that's all she needed to know.  

"But B changed everything.  He made me feel emotions I thought I'd lost the ability to feel."

She looked at Arzu right in the eyes and didn't break contact.  

"I never told him I loved him... But I do... I still do."  

Admitting that was possibly the hardest thing she had ever done.

Arzu stared right back, her wild black hair in a mane around her face and shoulder since their tussle had pulled her hair tie out. She stood tall, unmoving, like a pillar supporting a great weight and she listened. And she felt for the vampire who had just tried to kill her... Probably in an unimaginably savage way. But this creature was hurt, her heart was aching hard and Arzu could feel it like pulses in the earth that separated them. 

"Then I'll try to help you find him... If you promise not to kill me," she added, her tone steady and serious. She never once questioned Thomas or the tattered clothing, the blood, none of it. She would help two souls if she had to... Because she wanted to.

"I have no reason to kill you." Jene said shamefully, rubbing her arms up and down and smearing the blood around. The scratches had already healed up but the blood remained.  

"I'm so dirty.  What's happened to me?" Her voice was breathy as she looked down at herself.  

She was having her first lucid moments in what seemed like ages.

At the sound of Jene sounding quite a bit more reasonable, Arzu stepped toward her, still quite cautiously because vampires were not known for their word exactly, and offer her a hand. 

"We have running water inside if you want to shower... We can make up a bed for you, but it will be out in the shed if you'd like to stay," she offered, her hand still reaching out for the vampire's.

With a trembling hand, Jene took Arzu's in her own and steadily got to her feet.  

The dress she was wearing had originally been much more modest, but now it barely covered her skin.  Her right leg was covered in odd looking scars, like it had been burned with acid and somehow managed to heal over.  Discolored pink patches marked up what was once fair porcelain skin.  

"Jenevieve." She whispered.  

"I'm Jenevieve."

"Arzu," the werewolf replied, shaking the vampire's hand slightly after helping her up, "Let's go inside and get you cleaned up."