ORPHEUS

Chapter 13

"Orpheus" he heard her whimper as he carried her into an alleyway, trying to avoid all the stares they were receiving. He knew they wouldn't do anything, the whole town was supernatural, but he knew their staring made her uncomfortable.

In this supernatural town, he knew that there were no demons. But he did not know where that Succubus came from. It had killed Sloane. Poor Sloane, she was the sweetest elf in town, her mate must have been crushed. He needed to look for the portal the demoness used to enter earth. He would find it later.

As of now, he had a shaking whimpering Katherine in his arms. He slowly set her down on her feet, but the closeness between them did not diminish. She still held onto his bloody shirt as if it were her lifeline, her face was burried in the crook of his neck, he could feel her shaky breath on his skin, sending tingles up his spine.

"Orpheus" she whispered again, her voice tired and scratchy. It had been a long day. Consulting his friend about her powers could wait for some other time. "I want to go home"

It warmed his heart, that she thought of his humble little cottage as home. He pressed his lips on her forehead reassuringly. He did not know why she didn't run for the hills after she saw him kill that demon, but he was grateful, she already owned a piece of his heart. He thought she should know about his shadows, about his life, so she wouldn't run away after she stole his heart. If she wanted to leave now, she may with just a part of his soul. But for now, she had seen too much. He felt like flying her to their house as fast as possible, but he didn't want her freaking out more than  she already was. So he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and made her slowly walk to the stables.

They made it there after a few minutes. She was still shaking as he placed his hands on her hips and hoisted her up so she could straddle Deimos, her hand clutched Deimos' mane as she tried to steady herself, despite that his friend was unmoving. After settling in himself, he gave his horse a slight tap with the heel of his boot and Deimos took off gliding through the streets gently. Katherine was leaning back, her head on his chest. Her tears had stopped and her shaking lessened, he noted. He would have her fed and resting as soon as they got home. He feared he would have to leave her alone tonight. He still had work to do.

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The sun was about to set by the time they had gotten back. Katherine was tired, all she could think of was sleeping until dawn. Orpheus got off Deimos gracefully and carried her off the horse into the house. He sat her down on a chair near the little table in the room and went back outside. He came back with his satchel that they had stored on the bag hanging from the saddle. He brought it to the table and took out a loaf of bread and some chunks of cheese. He set them infront of her. Meanwhile Katherine just stared, her face showing no emotion. She kept her eyes in him as he sighed at her, he took her small loaf and sliced it in half, filling it with chunks of cheese.

"Katherine..." he said softly. "Angel, eat something"

She looked down at the sandwich he made, suddenly  feeling queasy. Her head felt lighter and her stomach turned. She couldn't. She recalled the smell of coppery blood and burning flesh. But as she looked at Orpheus again, she saw no signs of the earlier assault on his skin, though his shirt was all but shredded.

"I can't stomach anything right now, Orpheus" she said in a whisper, her throat felt as if it was closed up. Orpheus gazed at her, an expression of empathy on his face, as if he understood what she had been through. His gaze traveled down to her soiled dress.

"Alright, at least wash up, then if you want, you can ask me anything you want to know." He said. Katherine just nodded stiffly. She got off the stool and headed to freshen up. After taking just a few steps she froze, she realized that she had nothing to change into. She turned back, facing him.

"Um_ Orpheus, I have nothing else to wear."she said, her head bowed. She should have gotten an extra dress with her, but in her hurry to get out of the cursed place, she had only taken some bread and some money she had saved, which wasn't nearly enough to buy a dress.

She snapped out of her thoughts when a hand with a white cloth was presented in her line of vision. She followed that slightly tanned arm up to a muscular arm, now covered in a crisp tan shirt, to a gorgeus face with shining black orbs and light blond hair flowing to just under his ears.

"You can wear this on top of your breeches" she almost couldn't hear what he said, as she watched his enticing lips move. "Katherine?"

"Hmm, thank you" she whispered as she took what she assumed was a shirt of his, and walked to the bathroom.

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Orpheus could understand how she felt at the moment. He could imagine having the same expression when had his first kill, he was emotionless for quite some time. Though it wasn't humanoid, it was a bloodhound,  so him and the other trainees wouldn't hesitate to kill it. She was brave and he was proud of her. If it were anybody else, they would have passed out and after passing out twice before, he expected the same from her, clearly he was wrong.

He sat on the chair Katherine abandoned and took a bite of the bread and cheese as he thought of what he would tell her.

He heard the creak of a door and snapped his head up, and when he saw her he lost his breath all over again.

She was in his shirt, he should have given her a thicker matherial because her perfect body would have been in display if not for the thick strapped chemise she wore under the flimsy white material. Her thin white breeches barely reached her knees, she might as well not have worn them because his shirt almost covered all of it.

Her hair was wet, he observed, as it hung across her right shoulder, making his shirt even more translucent as it stuck to her chemise. She was stuggling with the strings on the collor to close the shirt and completely cover up the skin exposed near her collar bone, she had not seen him oggle her yet. For some reason, he walked to where she stood and took hold of her small, soft hands, making her loose her grip on the braided strings, as she looked up at him, eyes wide in surprise. He met her gaze without shame. He rubbed his thumbs against the palm of her hands before letting her hands drop to her sides. He slid both ends of the string in his hands, not taking his eyes off her own shining brown orbs. He started looping the string throught the last hole which reached her stomach. He saw her chest expand and felt her breath hitch with how close to each other they stood, neither made a move to step back. Slowly he continued looping the string throught the holes and pulling, closing the material across her chest, after he tied it up into a neat knot, just above her heaving chest. He placed his hands on her slender neck, caressing her jaw with the lightest of touches. Her eyes were gleaming and her mouth was parted, her cheeks were flooding with color that slowly reached under the shirt, coloring her whole face and neck on its way. He could feel her warm, shallow breaths on his neck, and as she craned her neck to look up at him, he could smell the sweet scent of strawberries they had eaten earlier that day.

Nothing else seemed significant at the moment except the angel that stood before him, his Angel.

"You look beautiful" he said in a hushed, hoarse voice. "Absolutely beautiful"

She sucked in a breath, her thick bottom lip trembled as she let ot a shaky breath. Her hands moved up to his forearms.

"Orpheus..." she breathed out.