Injuries

Who: Mathias, Tensiel, and Dorian
Where: Lockwood Residence
When: Evening

Mathias considered announcing his presence when he arrived at his brother's house, but decided that he'd like, if possible, to have a quiet word with Caleb before he saw Dorian. He hadn't actually talked to his youngest brother alone since they got back, after all. There were things to be discussed. Not seeing Caleb around anywhere, Mathias skirted quietly through the house and knocked at Caleb's door. Trying the handle and finding it open, he slipped inside. "Bro?" he asked as he walked in.

Perhaps unfortunately for both of them, Tensiel woke up again at the sound of Mathias' voice. She was lying flat on the bed again, her stitched belly covered by the blanket tucked up over it, but she turned her head and blinked blearily at the voice. She didn't take painkillers often - whatever Caleb had given her had knocked her out again - and though the hurt of the stitches was dulled it was still very present.

Not that she wanted to let it show if it was Mathias who'd shown up. Tensiel tried to make her eyes focus and look at him. Oddly, there was a very tiny prick of relief. The man who'd died last night had been blonde, it was very odd to think a small part of her hadn't wanted it to be Mathias. She swallowed and cleared her throat a bit. "Caleb's at the store... I think..." she murmured.

Mathias knew nothing about the attack. All he saw was that angel of wrath in his brother's bed. "What the fuck are you doing in Caleb's bed?" he ground out - just about restraining himself from bodily dragging her out of it. Oh no, he wasn't impressed. At all.

Tensiel's eyes narrowed and she managed to pick up a hand (swathed in bandages but who cared if he noticed) to gesture a little. "I can't hear you, come closer," she said, hoping her voice wasn't anything other than normal.

He walked further into the room, his face set. "I said," he repeated, a little louder. "What. The fuck. Are you. Doing. In my brother's bed." He stopped just short of the bed, his eyes fastened on her face, missing the bandaged hand entirely.

Okay, how to do this. Tensiel's somewhat fuzzy eyes still couldn't judge the distance properly and she wasn't sure at all what her reach was. She was finding out that all sorts of little movements were connected to her lower torso, weird things like shrugging and reaching with her arm, and she didn't want to make the pain worse.

Still, might be worth it. She owed him a blacked eye for what he'd done to Caleb. And Mathias didn't sound happy, though she honestly couldn't have said why (of course, she also couldn't honestly have said why he tried to get her killed so maybe it was another of life's mysteries) so maybe she could pull this off. "Lying here, what does it look like?" she muttered back, trying to spot his eyes and definitely not letting herself wince.

"Looks like you're in my brother's bed," Mathias told her. "And you better be out of it before he gets back to this room. I don't know what you're playing at, but if you try anything with Caleb, whatever truce we have is going off - you hear me?"

Damn, he wasn't gonna come close enough. And Tensiel was starting to get flat out confused by what his problem was. "Playing at?" she echoed Mathias, not all that keen on taking her eyes off him, despite wanting to close them. "What... how is this any of your business?" He'd mentioned that truce they had, the last time they'd really talked, and even though she wasn't on top form Tensiel couldn't for the life of her think what being where she was with her guts stitched together put Caleb or Dorian in any danger at all. "I've been here since last night, Caleb said I wasn' s'posed to leave."

"Well you bett..." He noticed the bandages then, stopping mid-sentence. He looked her over properly then - her arms, the way she was lying, the blankets. "Tensiel?" he asked, the malice going from his tone somewhat. "What happened to you?" He didn't sound concerned, not quite. More like... thrown.

The angel actually blinked at him then. It was odd to hear him using her actual name again. She swallowed and fidgeted her hands a little, feeling the edges of the slices in her palms rub painfully. "Got in a fight," she muttered, looking away from his eyes after she said it. It was only because it was Mathias that suddenly she was ashamed of how she'd gotten injured, even if she'd won. Still around her neck, her ægishjálmur prodded slightly against the side of her collarbone as she shifted. "Dorian and Caleb weren't there, they're okay. I promise."

"Good," he said, needing to have heard that before he could deal with the rest. She wasn't allowed to get his family hurt. There would be consequences if she did. That satisfied, he backed up a little, sitting on the floor. "What happened?" he asked her, his voice neutral.

Tensiel still didn't want to look at him, but she forced herself to turn her head and eye him anyway (he was still too far away) and took her time thinking about answering. She didn't know what Dorian and Caleb had worked out for themselves (she had hoped Eli's story would deflect their attention but she'd been so out of it... she couldn't know) and she didn't want to tell them anything that'd get them in trouble. But Mathias knew about demons.

More to the point, Mathias knew about her. Tensiel curled her fingers in, attempting to make little fists without realizing it. "I saw a demon eating somebody on my way home from work. Things uhm... escalated. I had to, y'know." A small sigh and a look that was tired and angry. "Well, you do know." And he hated her for it.

"That ol' demon hatred thing kicked in did it, angel?" he asked her, raising a brow. He was fairly sure she didn't know about his blood - he doubted she would be living with his brothers if she did. He was depending that she didn't - that was his reason behind this whole thing, after all. But then again, she didn't need another reason to hate him, did she? "Did he come off worse than you?" he asked her. "How bad are you?" he added.

It took a second for her to realize she was actually tearing open the cuts on her palms with how tight she was clenching them as he spoke. "That free will thing of yours must be so handy," she snapped weakly at him. "Getting to choose who you make trouble for. You aren't better than me, Mathias Lockwood." Of course it wasn't until she said it that she realized it was what she thought, which didn't help. Her shadowed eyes dropped to the edge of the mattress she was looking over, and she stopped hurting her hands. There was a long pause, very strained and still in the air. "I'll be fine." Eventually. "I don't remember much after he ran away screaming. Wuss."

"It doesn't make me all bad, either - which is what you seem to think. But tell me, angel - should I be concerned? Has anyone pissed you off enough yet?" he asked her. "Let me ask you this - would you warn me? Since you don't want them to know. Would you give me the opportunity of getting my family to minimum safe distance if you had a bad day?" So she was hurt - she was an angel, she'd recover.

Tensiel didn't think Mathias was all bad. She knew the opposite was true, actually. He did have some good in him. She'd seen it, or at least, the evidence that it was there. But ever since that thing in Cuba she hadn't let herself think for a minute she'd ever see it again. Not for her sake, most certainly. And as for the question he was putting to her now, it took even more effort to keep her hands at her side and resist lunging and punching him in the head. "It's not about me having a bad day, if it was there would no longer be a Havana, you jerk."

She glared at him, bloodshot pale eyes fixed very steadily on his. "And if it had to happen, there wouldn't be time." There hadn't been before, she doubted there would be if it began again. Even if she would warn Mathias. And Eli. And Leija. And Amelia. And Mya... and oh gods...

"If I asked you to leave town, would you?" he asked her, quite seriously. "For the sake of people you cared about? You'd kill them, you know - I know you know that. They'd all be dead and it'd be your fault." Yeah, Mathias could be an unforgiving bastard at times, but he knew that he could get people killed - maybe not to the same extent as she could - but there was a reason he lived his life alone.

Maybe what made Tensiel so angry at Mathias was the way she kept proving him right. It didn't help that in the seconds he looked at her after saying that, she was sure her eyes either welled with furious tears or flashed bright, unearthly blue in anger. Or both. But she didn't look away, and she didn't give him or her fragile doubts the satisfaction of saying that yes, she knew. And yes, she'd already tried to leave. And yes, he was right.

Of course, he was right. She bit her lip to keep from snarling at him that these were the reasons she'd left her parents behind, and these were the reasons she hadn't stopped moving. Until now. Until Caleb and his ideas and his reluctant good spirit. Until Eli and until Manson and now Leija. She still needed to go speak to Manson again, so badly, but not until she could hide her injuries or he'd just scream at her again. All this was running through her head as she glared at him, and then shut her eyes to hide them. When she spoke her voice was very small, but very insistent. "It wouldn't matter. Someone else would come." At least I could make it quick.

"Then you move again. And again and you keep on moving," he told her. "Or you sit there one morning as the dawn breaks over the horizon and you watch their blood drying on your hands. Because you're no better than me, either - angel. And if you hurt my family - if you hurt them - you'd better kill me first, or I will rip your fucking wings off and make you wish you'd never been born." His tone was bitter and he rested his head on his forearms, telling himself that this was not the time, nor the place - she was hurt. He could see that. Shouldn't he at least give her a rest because of that? But that actually made things worse - he didn't trust her, she was hurt. Hurt so often equalled anger, a need for vengeance. And he didn't truly understand how she worked. Only that she was dangerous if angered.

Well there was only one reply to that. Tensiel opened her eyes and watched him for a long quiet moment. Her back gave another incredibly painful throb, but there was nothing to do to make the torn out feathers heal. Mathias was watching her in return, so she met his bitter warning gaze and gave the only answer she had. "Fair enough," she murmured tonelessly.

He'd lifted his head to watch her, meeting her eyes as she spoke. He nodded, once. There was that, at least - an understanding. "What was it?" he asked her. "The demon. Do you know where I'd be able to find it?" he asked. As though he would be able to succeed where an angel had failed. That was a joke - but still he asked.

If she could have, Tensiel would have shrugged. As it was, all that happened was her stomach began to hurt, actually inside. She knew now that when Caleb came back or Dorian came in to check on her all she'd feel would be guilt. Again. And she'd been trying to do better, to be better...

It wasn't fair.

"I've never seen one before," she murmured, again without any emotion or life in her voice. "He was red. And he eats people. The guy he'd killed looked like you." She frowned at him, her pale face still sickly, especially around her bruised looking eyes, but her expression was quite set. "And don't call him an 'it', just 'cos he's not human."

"You said 'demon', did you specify a sex?" he asked her, actually stopping and wondering at that. Had she? Possibly, he admitted - if she had, he'd missed it. Too busy playing over-protective big brother, though he thought he had good reason for that. "I didn't do it because he's not human," he added, slightly quieter.

For a moment it was beginning to occur to Tensiel that Mathias probably thought of her as an 'it' too; but at least he tried to talk around it.

"Yes, I did," she said, closing the book on that.

Mathias was good at talking around things. And right now Tensiel was just too tired and too upset to deal with him, in any language. She reached up and put her hand over the blankets on her her cut up stomach, pain still stirring around in her from her injuries - never mind what Mathias came in yelling at her about. She couldn't make him go, so she tried to change the subject. "Did you talk to Dorian? He was upset," she asked, voice getting weaker at the edges the longer she spoke. "...about you guys, he was upset. And Caleb was worried. I can't believe you let him get hurt like that - all these things you say to me and he comes back with even more scars."

She didn't tell him that if she wasn't half-gutted he'd probably be missing teeth by now, it went unsaid.

"Then I apologise," he told her - after all, he was the last person to go thinking of demons as 'it'. No matter what Caleb thought of her, Mathias happened to love his mother. "Yeah, I talked to Dorian." He ignored the subject of Caleb, he wasn't going to justify his actions to her.

She noticed that he was selective about what he answered, but truth be told she wasn't able to do anything about it one way or the other so she just was silent. Her stomach was still hurting inside and out, and her injured wing kept throbbing in whatever nil space it occupied when she hid them, and her head was fuzzy with drugs and pain and bloodloss. Tensiel noticed with an angry twist that he was now close enough for her to hit, but she couldn't summon the strength or the reason to do it. All it'd do was prove him right anyway.

So she bit back her impulses and just finally had to let her eyes close. She was loathe to do that around Mathias, but she really couldn't keep it together much longer. She muttered something slurred in Spanish about passing out, strongly suspecting that was coming next. Now was Mathias's chance if he wanted to smother her or something, and prove how much he hated her and how dangerous she was. It was a dark and ugly thought, but then... Tensiel's mind had been failing to evict such thoughts ever since that nightmare. And anyway, she felt too tired and frayed to care very much.

"I'll leave you to get some sleep," he told her - she looked like she needed it. He didn't say anything else about the bed or about Caleb, instead, he turned and let himself out, quietly - and went in search of Dorian. "Bro? Dor - you around?" he called, heading for the kitchen.

Dorian was indeed in the kitchen, making his own attempt at soup with the stereo quietly on. He'd only left Tensiel long enough to come fix her, and himself, something for dinner, and he didn't expect her to call out in the few minutes he was gone. Standing at the stove, he flipped a grilled cheese, attempting not to burn it as a spoon stirred itself in the soup next to him. He hadn't expected Mathias to be there though; he hadn't even heard him come in. "In here," he called out, leaving the sandwich just for a second.

"Hey there," Mathias said, leaning against the wall. "So - what happened to Tensiel then?" he asked, wondering what story she'd given them, or whether they knew the truth.

Dorian frowned slightly. So, apparently Mathias had not just arrived, but had been there long enough to go see Tensiel without him noticing. Either that, or he'd talked to Caleb. Regardless of which it was, Dorian turned the radio off. "She got attacked by a demon," he said, "We don't know what kind yet, but I'm working on that. Eli brought her back here and Caleb stitched her up. Did you know he could do that?"

"Yeah - he's handy," Mathias told his brother. "I was looking for him, actually. We haven't had a chance to talk since I left, not really. Who's Eli?" he asked, not recognising the name, though it wasn't surprising that Dorian and Caleb knew more people in town than he did, all things considered.

"Well, it was news to me," Dorian said, though he wasn't annoyed. There were lots of things that Caleb could do that he didn't know about. What bothered him here was that Mathias had somehow picked up on it, likely because of their little adventure together. "Though he doesn't seem to think I'm capable of it, so oh well. I'm not sure where Caleb is at the moment. My guess is that he's trying to hunt down a demon that's in a different form than we're looking for. And Eli's a friend of Tensiel's, and also a guy I'm helping hone his tk abilities. Just so happens we know the same guy," Dorian shrugged. It was odd, but it was a small town.

Mathias raised a brow. "And you just let him go to hunt down a demon?" he asked, surprised that his brother could really be that calm about it. "Please tell me you're a 110% sure that he's not gonna find anything..."

"I didn't let him go the night she was hurt, but I can't lock him in the house, can I?" Dorian asked, because that was probably the only thing he could do to keep Caleb from looking. "The description we got from Tensiel was of the demon's demon form. I'm assuming it doesn't run around town like that. If I knew an easy way to track it down, I'd be there myself, but I can't just leave her. We're lucky she didn't bleed to death."

"You could have called me - I would have gone with him," Mathias pointed out, slightly put out that he was finding out like this. Obviously they really didn't take his 'I'll be there if I'm needed' thing seriously - not even when he was actually in the same town. "So - go on, what's the demon's demon form?" he asked, hoping he'd at least get that. Even if it was after the fact.

"Sorry, I didn't even think about it. In fact, I came home to find them already here. I don't think Caleb would have called me if I hadn't shown up when I did," Dorian said. He really hadn't meant to leave Mathias in the dark on this one. He knew his brother needed to know. He just... hadn't gotten around to it. And when it came down to it, he wasn't sure Mathias would be all that concerned about a girl he obviously hated. "Eli said he was skeletal, with thick reddish skin and long, blond hair. Sharp claws, possibly had a tail. Low pain tolerance, which is great when we catch the fucker, and he's apparently fast." And the more Dorian talked about it, the angrier he got. It didn't matter that it wasn't there to kill, Dorian would have been ready in a heartbeat.

"You know, that kid needs to learn to rely on people," he grumbled, any annoyance he may have felt towards Dorian vanishing with the perfectly understandable explanation. Not that Mathias was one to talk about depending on people - the very concept was laughable. But then again, Mathias had always been a 'do as I say, not as I do' type and he'd be the first person to admit that he made a terrible role model. "I'll ask around, see what I can find out about something fitting that description," he added. "If Caleb's looking for this thing, I'd prefer we found it first."

"Well he thought I was unable to complete a set of stitches, so I'm not surprised," Dorian said. It was likely that Caleb thought Dorian had done very little to help. He'd been there though, and he'd kept them calm, so maybe that was all that was necessary. Caleb had stitched Tensiel up with impressive skill and Dorian had pulled all the information from Eli that he could. "Me too," he agreed, taking a deep breath to calm himself down. "If you hear anything, anything let me know. I'll do the same. Caleb seems like he's out for blood, but I don't want to see him get hurt as well."

"I will," Mathias agreed. "And you too, right? You know my cell's gonna always be on, even if it's the middle of the night. Give me a call - just to let me know he's okay," he added.

"Of course," Dorian said, "I promise." He'd do better at it, he told himself. He hadn't meant to leave Mathias out of this last little mess; it had completely skipped his mind until he'd seen him there that evening. "So I'll see you for dinner tomorrow night?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'll be there - promise," he said. "I'll see you then then," he added, before heading out. Tomorrow, he was gonna have to have a word with his youngest brother.

"See ya," Dorian said, waving as Mathias let himself out. He'd have done more to stop Caleb if he could, but short of locking him in his room, there was little he could do to stop him.