His Stoic Mask, Her Bleeding Heart

Chapter 7: Burden

I stepped into Elyria's apartment silently, Kyrianna following along behind me with equal stealth. Elyria glanced at us from her seat upon the couch, letting out a long, slow sigh.

"I take it you heard all of that, then?" she asked as she reclined languidly against the couch's fluffy cushions, her arms folded behind her head. She watched the two of us nod once, then turned her glowing eyes to the ceiling with another slow sigh. "Do either of you know anything about this guy?"

Kyrianna shook her head, frowning as if she'd done something wrong by not knowing, but I spoke up. "Matthias Sampson was a rival of Terrence's. They pretended to be friends, but their alliance was a shaky one, and no one really believed what they said. I don't know much more than that." I shrugged. "I've only met him once, and all Terrence ever did was complain about him just as he complained about everyone else."

Elyria's eyebrows rose high on her forehead, and she turned her gaze back to me. "Did he ever complain about me?" she asked, her curiosity piqued.

"About as much as he complained about me," I answered with another quick shrug of my shoulders.

"So, never?" Elyria sighed, somehow disappointed by the news. "I always thought he bitched about me to everyone."

"Why would he?" I asked, cocking an eyebrow. "You were a handful, but he liked it that way."

"I suppose so," she agreed, though she didn't sound like she meant it. She quickly shifted topics, however, moving from one uncomfortable subject to the next. "Have the two of you sorted out your problem?" she asked with a vague gesture in our direction, her eyes flicking from my empty visage to Kyrianna's blushing cheeks and back again.

"There wasn't much to sort out," I answered when all Kyrianna could do was stammer unintelligible syllables. "She likes me; I don't like her. End of story." Kyrianna looked positively devastated by that remark, but I barely noticed. Elyria, on the other hand, frowned up at me.

"She doesn't seem to think so," the woman said, and I glanced back at Kyrianna. The fragile little thing looked as if she were on the brink of tears already, just because of that one tiny, meaningless statement. How was Elyria not frustrated by this girl's weakness?

"Well, then," I began, just as emotionless as always, "I guess we'll have more to talk about later on. For now, why don't we discuss what you intend to do about this new vampire?"

"What I intend to do?" she asked, her eyebrows raising again. "If you were listening, you heard what I plan to do. I'm going to see how this vampire operates, then I'm going to go from there."

"Do you trust him?" I asked, folding my arms over my chest.

"Not at all. He sounds like he wants to be just like Terrence, no matter how hard he tries to sound like he doesn't. I could never trust a man like that. Now," she sighed, leaning forward on the couch and getting to her feet in one graceful, sweeping motion, "I think we should go have a little chat with Hale. He needs to hear about Mister Matthias Sampson."

-?-

"Oh, hello," Bethany said with a wide smile once she'd opened the front door of Hale's mansion. Of course, she'd only seen me. The second her eyes landed on Elyria, her expression soured, and she asked rather coldly, "What do you want?"

"We need to talk to Hale," Elyria answered in a calm, empty voice, taking a step forward to place her in front of me instead of beside me. Her stance was aggressive, but her expression remained just as relaxed as her voice had been.

Bethany's eyes flicked to me, softening just a bit, as she asked, "And what could you possibly have to talk about with Hale?"

I opened my mouth to explain, but Elyria beat me to it. "Well, now, that's none of your business, is it? We're here to speak with Hale, not you." Her tone remained even, calm, casual, but she crossed her arms to add to the harshness of her stance.