They were safely inside an loft in a large industrial building before she had time to sort out in her mind what had happened, and even then she didn’t believe it. Magic, most definitely was not real, he must have had some kind of electronic device with him. She watched from the couch, where he had unceremoniously dumped her, as he went around the entire loft space with a piece of chalk drawing strange symbols on the walls.

“Magic isn’t real, magic can’t be real” she was still muttering it as he finished the last wall behind her and flopped tiredly on the couch beside her.

“Technically, it is not magic, it is just science beyond what we have explanations for yet.”

“What just happened, who.. What were those things?”

“Are you hurt?”

“Stop trying to avoid the question!”

He sighed and leaned back against the cushions

“You know what vampires are, yes?”

“Oh my god, are you telling me those were vampires?”

“No, vampires are harmless, no worse than mosquitoes, with about the same risk of blood borne diseases, these were something else”

“.. Vampires.. Exist?” She could feel her stomach tying up in knots.

He raised an eyebrow at her and sighed, rubbing his face wearily

“If it has been written about it probably exists in some form or other, myths and fairy-tales don’t just turn up from nowhere you know”

Valiant ambled over and rested his head in her lap, she hugged him gratefully, trying to hide how badly she was shaking

“So.. Worse than vampires how?”

“They take memories instead of blood, dementia isn’t a disease, it’s a parasite, and immortals live longer, we have more memories to feed off, and we don’t die.”

“..so..they wanted to..eat my memories?”

“Essentially, yes, they would have returned you, mind blank, and waited until you’d learnt how to be a person again, with hopes and dreams and people you care about, then they come back for a second course.”

She shuddered and swallowed bile.

“They.. They can’t get me now.. Can they?”

She glanced at him, his face was set in a grim frown, his eyes locked on his hands which were clenched so tightly the knuckles were white.

“I won’t let that happen Gretchen.”

“..p..promise?”

He looked up at her then, his dark eyes meeting and holding hers,

“I promise I will do everything within my power to keep you safe.”

She felt a tear slide down her cheek and turned her head away, whispering, “thank you.”

“Hmph” he stood up again, pacing.

“I do not believe they have Charles, something else has happened to him, they would have taunted us or used him as bait if they had him.”

“D..does Charles know you can do magic? Can he do it to?”

“No, I have not used magic in over two centuries, you are one of very few people to know of it.”

“Why? Is is because it hurts? That buzzing whine thing, that was the magic right?”

He stopped his pacing and spun to stare at her, “you felt that?”

“Well duh, it was a bit hard to miss, it felt like it was going to rattle my bones to pieces!”

He sat heavily on the couch next to her and grabbed her hand in his, “close your eyes, and describe to me how this feels.”

She shut her eyes obediently then opened them just as fast snatching her hand away from him, “OW! What the shit ‘Lus, that hurts!”

He was looking at her with a strange expression, “you are a sensitive, Ira wasn’t even sure they existed.” He reached his hand for her face and she flinched backwards.

“Woah, I’m a whatnow, hands off magic boy, I’m done with whatever you’re doing already!”

“It won’t hurt, trust me, please.”

It was the please that stopped her from back peddling right off the couch away from him, instead she braced herself waiting for the unknown at the touch of his hand. At first just his fingertips brushed her cheek, leaving an impression of warmth, then he traced her jawline with a finger and she gasped, shivering at how cold it felt, finally he cupped her cheek with his hand and murmured,

“Look at me”

She reluctantly met his eyes, unable to pull away as they expanded and she was sinking into them, and then swimming up again to see out of his eyes, her own face in front of her. Fear jolted her back into her own body and she gasped a huge lungful of air and leapt backwards away from him.

“What, what did you do, what was that!?”

He hadn’t moved, still sitting watching her with an unfathomable look on his face.

“Angelus! Answer me, what the hell was that!?”

“Magic” he seemed more smug than usual.

“I hate you!” she stormed off towards the other side of the loft space, a fast hopping limp that brought tears to her eyes each time she put any weight on her sore ankle.

“So you keep saying.” He caught up with her in several long strides and lifted her off her feet, carrying her back to the couch while she squirmed and hit his chest with her hand.

“Put me down, damn you!”

He dropped her on the couch, carefully enough it didn’t jar her leg.

“You need to stay off that or it will never heal. I know you are frightened, but acting like a fool will not help.”

He strode across the loft and disappeared through the only visible door, the rest was an open space with a kitchen unit in the middle, a double bed to one side, and the couch and coffee table on the other side where she was sitting. A few steps away was the wire caged industrial lift they had used to get up here. There was no other way down as far as she could tell, and she wondered if Angelus was here because it was easier to defend than the single story house had been.

He came back with a jar of salve and some bandages, and started wrapping her ankle up.

“What does it mean, I’m a sensitive?”

“You can feel magic, most people are unaware of it, including those Fey who were following us, they could see the bubble I had raised, but they could not feel the power building inside it.”

She sighed, disappointed,

“Is that all? I thought it might be some cool superpower or something.. Can you teach me to do what you did, that power bubble thing?”

“No” it was flat and final and she felt like hitting him again.

“Why not?!”

“Because all magic comes at a price Gretchen, and you would destroy yourself with it!”

She flinched away from the heat of his anger, pulling her foot out of his grasp and hugging her knees to her chest. He snatched her foot back and finished wrapping the bandage, glaring at her.

“Stop behaving like a child!”

“Stop treating me like one then!”

They glared at one another for a moment more before Gretchen had to turn away, afraid of being caught in his eyes again. Through all this Val had been lying on his side, snoring beside the couch, but now his head lifted and he growled softly.

Angelus was on his feet instantly, eyes scanning the room.

“Stay there and stay quiet,” he murmured before padding softly over to the lift and checking it was still locked, satisfied he opened a laptop on the kitchen counter and brought up the external video surveillance.

“Nothing… so what upset you Valiant?”

Valiant cocked his ears at hearing his name, but showed no other signs of worry.

“Maybe he just didn’t like us fighting?” Gretchen scratched Val under the chin, glad he’d interrupted them, even if it had given her a moment of terror thinking the things chasing her had found them somehow.

Angelus double checked the video feed and then closed the laptop,

“It has never bothered him before.”

She shrugged and snuggled into the arm of the couch, knees tucked up,

“I think it’s about time you told me what’s going on, I’m sick of all these nasty surprises.. What the hell else is out there waiting to eat me?”

Angelus padded over and took a seat on the other end of the couch, facing her.

“Too many things to list, but nothing you should need to worry about right now.”

She gave him an annoyed look,

“Spill magic boy, you’re not telling me anything, and then you’ll get pissed off with me when I walk into something else I didn’t know existed!”

Angelus pinched the bridge of his nose, as if pained and sighed,

“Can we talk about this tomorrow, right now I need to rest, magic always comes at a cost, and if I don’t rest the cost will be greater still.”

“Hey, I haven’t even had dinner yet, it’s not even late!”

He levered himself up, and padded over to the bed,

“Help yourself to food, there are blankets and pillows in the couch, it folds out.”

Then he flopped face first on the bed and was soon snoring, leaving her to fend for herself.