I know what you are. (Noah Sebastian fanfic)

8- Burning up beneath the sun

Title: lyrics from "Dethrone"- Bad Omens

Malina had never seen such a vast library before, floor to ceiling bookshelves lined the walls so high they required a sliding ladder to reach them all. She was sat atop the desk in the centre of the room, Nick inspecting her burn intently, there was a large bay window behind them, covered by a thick black curtain, avoid any further incidents.

Noah stood in the corner, leaning against the wall, arms folded across his chest, Nick probably wanted him there to feel safer, she assumed, after all Malina looked like she'd ripped apart an army. Not to mention she was probably feeling all sorts of emotions due to her, aliment.

Nick grimaced at the wound, "Well, I'm not gonna lie, it looks pretty bad."

Malina seemed elsewhere, absentmindedly nodding at the statement whilst staring into space, Nick remorsefully patted her good shoulder, "But its nothing I can't treat" he spoke with a sympathetic smile.

Reaching for a drawer and pulling it open, Nick takes out what looked like dried herbs and plants along with with a stone pestle and mortar. He began to crush the mix of dried fauna in the stone bowl, until it became a fine powder.

He peers into the drawer once more and rummages around for a moment before letting out a frustrated groan, turning back to Noah he sighs, "Could you go grab the Aloe from the storage room?"

Noah didn't move at first, scanning Nick's face, on it laid a smile that said 'I'll be okay', as Noah came off the wall and began to exit , Nick turned back to the injured, throwing a quick "thanks man" as he did so.

Nick sprinkled the power he created into a glass of water on the table, after a quick stir he hands it to Malina, "Here, this should help move your healing along."

Malina calmly takes the glass and sighs before taking a sip, "What am I?", Nick was organising his things back into the drawer, "Your a vampire sweetheart."

Malina let out a slow shakey breath as her suspicions were conformed, "I killed that man didn't I?" she whispered.

Nick had not gotten the full story from Noah quite yet, but looking at the shaken up and blood covered girl he could only assume, Nick lets out a heavy sigh and looks her in the eye, "you know I've spent almost a decade with these guys."

Malina looks back at the man before her, Nick continued, "Which to them, in the grand scheme of things is almost nothing, but to me it's a large majority of my life." He said with a meaningful look in his brown eyes.

"And I've come to learn that their not evil, or monsters, at the end of the day, their my friends, they still have dreams and human emotions, our only difference is that my heart beats and theirs don't"

He swallows looking at Malina, "And maybe the eyes" he lets out with a dry laugh, going back to his drawers to search for something.

Although this had made Malina feel a bit better about her situation, one question plagued her mind, "Do they.... Kill ?", Pulling out some gauze and bandages from the bottom most drawer, Nick straightens out.

"Yeah.... Yeah they do." He started measuring and snipping at the bandages, "At the end of the day, none of them wanted this, from what I know at least." Nick swallowed.

"Vampirism was never supposed to exist." he continued, "No one is supposed to live after their hearts stop beating, Bloodlust is a punishment for the crime against nature."

Malina took another sip of her drink, listening intently, "When humans are your only food source, what more can you do?"

From the entrance of the library came a voice, "Believe me if I didn't have to, I wouldn't hurt a single soul.", Noah entered the room with a a long leaf from an Aloe plant, making his way towards the two in the centre of the room.

He handed the spiked leaf to Nick, who immediately started working on it, cutting it apart and scoping the insides, Noah looked to Malina, "You learn to not let it go to your head such much, after a while."

For the first time, Malina began to view him in a different light, this is the most human he has seemed since they met. Nick applied the Aloe to the burn, earning a wince from Malina, "I'm sorry, I'll be quick" he states quickly, beginning to wrap the arm in bandages and gauze.

Nick finished up the dressing and began packing up his things once more, "Try not to touch it and keep pressure off, come back tomorrow and I'll re-dress it." He offers a quick smile, exiting the room when everything was put where it belonged.

Now It was just the two of them once again, Noah quickly offered his hand to help Malina from the desk, but as she placed her hand in his, the smile that had fallen on her lips quickly dropped, seeing the bloody reminder of her despicable actions.

Noah noticed as she spaced out after looking at her hand, taking initiative, he helped her down and lead her out the room, "Why don't we get you cleaned up?" he spoke softly, offering a sweet smile. He led her down the seemingly never ending hallway, covered in candle light, every so often passing a window, that had been boarded up and covered.

Malina looked up at Noah who stood straight as he walked, something suddenly hit her, "How come you didn't burn?", Noah peered down at Malina to his right, "Oh, thanks to this little thing" Showing his free hand, a beautiful thick silver band with a red gem in the middle atop his index finger, "Nick made one for all of us so we could enjoy the sunlight, I'll get him to look into making you one too."

"I'd like that." Malina replied with a stupid grin on her face.

They stopped when Noah pointed to a door, "That's the bathroom, I'll let you get cleaned up in there." Without another word she took hold of the handle and entered the bathroom.

For the first time since this all started Malina got to see what she looked like, and no matter how many comforting words were spoken to her, there was no denying the abomination against nature looking back at her in the mirror.

Her eye's would have been enough to terrify her, but the dried flakey blood that covered her mouth and chin horrified her more, how there was flesh that was not her own crusted under her finger nails.

It pained her to see herself like this, but even more so that this would not be the last time she would be covered in someone else's blood.

Malina turned the faucet on the sink, and began to scrub at her hands trying to rid the reminder of death that stained them. She rubbed at her palms, unbeknownst to her , tears began streaming down her face.

She tried not to look at the mirror before her that was tauntingly large as she worked at washing away her sins, she cupped a handful of water to slash on her face, scrubbing around her mouth and chin.

It seemed that no matter how hard she washed under the faucet the stain of her crimes on her hands wouldn't go away, "Come on." she let out through gritted teeth, scrubbing harder to the point of pain.

She was now aware of the tears streaming down her face, it all amounted back to anger, a frustrated noise escaped her as she shut off the faucet, finally facing her reflection.