Daybreak

V

He was surprisingly gentle as he attended to the wound, peeling back my fingers from the cut and dabbing it with the wet cloth. I winced as the fabric came in contact with my skin and he was quick to apologize for the discomfort, his careful fingers somehow becoming even more tentative as he worked.

I didn't really mind it though.

I found my eyes kept wandering back up to his face.

Being this close to him, more details about his features seemed to drift into focus, especially around his face-

Apart from the pointed ears there were also an odd collection of feathers that seemed to grow from his skin just past the base of his ears, some smaller feathers even sprouting along the hollow of his cheeks and even further along his cheekbones, converting to a smattering of freckles that dotted over his nose.

The small collection of plumage didn't stop at his face though, they seemed to grow in numbers further down his neck, tracing just below the base of his hairline before- I assume- converging together along his spine.

But those odd grey/brown hued feathers weren't the only thing I hadn't noticed when I first saw him.

Moving on from dabbing up all the excess blood from the cut, he seemed to be in great concentration at he focused on the next task of carefully wrapping my hand with the bandage, clawed fingers still as careful as ever, biting his lip a little as he did so-

The canines of his teeth seemed a tad too long compared to a regular person's.

Now, obviously, the feathers I was drawn a blank on, pulling out my dusty memories of mythical creatures from my childhood, I couldn't think of anything that had feathers growing on them, especially in such specific spots.

Fur? Yes. Scales? Absolutely.

If he'd had either of those I would've been able to point at just what I was looking at, a bit of an expert with werewolves and mermaids- but the feathers had me more than a little stumped.

And the teeth-

"And done-"

"So what are you? A vampire?" I cut him off, pulling my now wrapped hand back to my lap and fixing him with a confused stare.

I watched as he sat back carefully on his ankles, looking up at me from his place on the floor with a very calculated gaze.

I on the other hand was still dealing with my thoughts jumping about a mile a minute- Vampires didn't exactly have feathers growing out of their face but as far as I knew no fantasycreatures that came to mind did.

But the sharper canines certainly seemed to at least loosely match.

Also the fact most vampires did look- er- handsome-

Noah shook his head, lips upturned ever so slightly in what I thought was amusement for my attempt at identifying him, "We get confused for vampires a lot, but there's one big difference between my kind and theirs."

"What?"

"They don't exist."

Well damn then.

"Then what are you? What happened back there? Why were you following me after you left? Who the hell was that guy? And-"

He cut me off, raising a hand, the rest of my questions falling slack in my mouth. "Let's start with the easiest question. That man who attacked you is Thalias, he's ah-" he paused, face scrunching up for a moment to find the right words, "let's just say he's a rogue."

"So he's your kind?"

"Yes."

"Can all of you turn into animals?" I spouted off, quickly recalling the moment that dark figure flew off in the shape of a crow.

"Some, yes," he chuckled-

That sound was starting to get on my nerves again.

"Okay, well, why did you follow me to my apartment?"

I watched his face grew stiff at the question, "Thalias has been problematic for the better half of the decade. He's been attempting to corner me at every turn I make with the attempt to kill, so naturally he would go for any and everyone I come in contact with in an effort to get to me." Apparently comfortable with his spot on the floor, he shifted into sitting cross-legged, wrists hanging loosely off his knees. "He hasn't succeeded yet but I've been tasked with the order to hunt him down before he hurts anyone else."

"So what, this guy just wanted to kill me to get to you?"

"Essentially, yes."

I swallowed, the last bit of his sentence catching my ears, "How many other people has he hurt?" I asked tentatively. If that dude had been travelling for so long I was almost scared to know the answer. Noah had said back at the gallery- (it was odd to think that had only been a few hours ago-) he travelled, that would make sense if he was hunting this Thalias guy-

It still made me uneasy with the thought that if he hadn't been there I most likely would've died-

Heck, if it wasn't for the fact Noah had offered to walk me home I might as well have been.

I watched him take a breath, one hand going over his mouth as he released a deep breath between his pale fingers, eyes going a bit distant, "Too many."

I swallowed hard, nervous, "What has he done to make him a rouge in the first place? He didn't just decide to be a killer, did he?" I was out of my element here, staring down at this strange man with pointy ears, apparently tasked with the order to hunt a killer in one of the biggest cities in the states-

Noah put his hand back down, "That doesn't really make any difference for what is happening here. Thalias is dangerous and the fact he came after you and failed just means he'll come back again later to finish the job, he doesn't like to keep loose ends." His stare sent an involuntary shiver down my spine, and I found myself sitting a tad straighter in my seat.

What he was saying made sense I guess. If the rogue was as dangerous as Noah said he was, it was clear he wasn't going to just leave me alone after a failed assassination attempt-

And I wasn't going to lie, yes, this was a lot to take in and all, vampires didn't exist (this struck me more than it should have. Some twilight/supernatural bull-). Apparently there was this insane shape-shifting rouge just wandering around and killing people in order to throw a tantrum at being hunted, and I just happened to run into some weird, clearly non-human person who just saved my life from said rogue, but- "You still didn't answer my question."

He raised a brow in surprise, "Which is?"

"What are you?"

His eyes went wide in surprise for a moment, apparently completely forgetting the first question I had asked him before breaking into a wide grin. "Well, I should go with my name first, because it isn't Noah-"

Well that's definitely an interesting turn-

"My name is Sylvian and- I am the crowned prince to the elven throne."