It was raining. Eryll hated the rain.

His hand was on the door knob, after just slinging his brown pea coat over his shoulder, when he heard someone clear their throat behind him.

“Going out again tonight, young master Donovan?” a man just a hair shorter than Eryll wearing butlery attire and a silver mustache that could have been packaged in tandem said with his arms behind his back. Their black eyes met as Eryll took his hand off the door knob.

“I just have a feeling I’m better off out there than in here, Trevor,” Eryll said with a grin, wiping his forehead before running his hand through well maintained hair, a black that consumed his white fingers. He turned back to the door and opened it. “I can sense my brothers are on the prowl tonight.”

“Very good, young master,” Trevor said through closed eyes.

Eryll took a step into the foyer before stopping. “And you’re younger than I am, Trevor. Watch your tone,” Eryll said atop a laugh.

“Shall I prepare dinner or will you be eating out tonight?” Trevor asked.

“It would be nice to come home to something,” Eryll said before stepping out of the doorway and closing the door behind him. He opened the second door of the foyer and out into the night, opening an umbrella he had grabbed on the way out. The patter of rain drops upon the canvas material kept his focus and drowned out the city sounds as he made his way down the street.

New York melted into the background as his target came into view. The man was half a block away, walking with hands in a leather jacket and a ball cap on his head that he kept from the rain beneath the merchant overhangs. Eryll kept his distance as they walked street after street, forty blocks from the Upper East Side to the lower.

His target stunk of the sweat of the craving, a smell only noses like his could catch. It made following the man easy.

There was no one save for her walking down the street when the man snatched her. One moment she was walking, and if the other people around were paying attention they would have taken a second glance as she disappeared.

A hand around her mouth kept the young woman from screaming. She was pinned to the rooftop with the other and a knee in her groin. Her eyes were wild and the muffled screams did not carry over the rain storm. She struggled but as she struck the man, knocking his sunglasses off to reveal blood red pupils, her defiance only seemed to make his grip stronger.

She slammed her fist into his face. He took her head into his palm and slammed the back of her head into the shale of the roof. With a wheeze she was slammed again and again until blood began to pool, bleeding into her auburn hair. There was no more struggle.

“Beautiful,” the man hissed through his teeth. His lips curled back before he plunged his pointed hand into the woman’s abdomen. Her screaming returned but that was met with a slam to the back of the head. She whimpered as blood began pooling to the surface of her wound. “Beautiful!” he shrieked before he assailed the wound with his face, lapping up the bubbling life.

The man removed his hand from the woman’s mouth, who was going into shock. She coughed and a spatter of blood burst forth onto the grey stone.

The man cupped her blood in his hands and drank from it.

A moment later he was thrown across the rooftop, tumbling to a stop as his ball cap flew aside.

The woman managed to crane her neck and look over to see the man who had attacked her develop an animalistic stance, an aggressive hunched posture with a seething hiss directed towards a new man. She faded in and out in flashes as her wound continued to pour blood.

“Demon. How dare you hunt with such disregard,” Eryll uttered to the man. His umbrella was closed, by his side, and the rain was beginning to drag down his clothes.

“I need her blood! It burns!” the animal man roared out, rushing at Eryll.

In the flashes of vision, between bleeding out and droplets of rain pelting her eyes, she watched as her attacker tackled the new man. Eryll was pushed back a few feet before he took the man’s arm and pulled it out of its socket.

Erill hated the rain. It made things difficult.

The man screamed but it was cut short as the umbrella revealed a blade that was stuck into his chin and sliced open his throat. With a gurgle the man clutched at his wound, stumbling back before doubling over and falling to the roof dying.

Eryll was at the woman’s side before she could muster a word. As she was passing out, through the flashes of consciousness, she saw him make an incision across his palm with his blade.

The woman woke up with a gasp, clutching her stomach, in a bed that wasn’t her own. She quickly scanned the large room but found no one else. She threw the golden comforter off, to see what kind of mess she had been left in. To her surprise she found herself out of her blood soaked clothing. She was now wearing an aquamarine dress that extended down to her ankles as she got to her feet. The taste of iron was on her lips, which caused her to pause for a moment but when she heard a click of a lock she snapped back to attention.

The door to the room slowly opened and the woman grabbed the lamp from the bed’s night stand. Trevor stood in the open doorway. He opened up a wallet and peered down at it through his half-open eyelids. “Miss Eva Emerson,” he let roll off his tongue. “Please put down the lamp. I can assure you that you’re in no danger here.”

“Where am I?” Eva asked, holding the lamp like it were a sword meant to keep the old man at a distance. “Who are you?”

“My name is Trevor,” he said, walking up to Eva and holding the wallet out to her. She hesitated and then snatched the wallet out of his hand, which ended up behind his back. “Quite,” Trevor said while he brushed the air with his mustache. “You’re safe here at the Donovan residence.”

“Donovan? How did I end up here?” The lamp was shaking in Eva’s hands as she kept Trevor at a distance. “What happened to my clothes?” She demanded.

“You were quite a mess when you got here, as your undergarments will attest,” Trevor said. “When Master Eryll brought you here it was clear you had been assaulted.”

“Master Eryll?” Eva asked, concern on her breath that she had been unconscious for far too long. The attack was just coming back to her in flickers as her mind tried to play catchup to everything that was taking place.

“Yes, Miss Emerson. He saved you from your attacker. In fact he’d like to see you now that you’re awake,” Trevor said as he turned his back to Eva and held the door open.

Eva took a moment before she put the lamp back. Trevor made a sweeping motion out towards the exit with his hand and Eva followed in suit, walking out the door before he shut the thick wood behind them.

She was stunned as they emerged into a dining room with a tall ceiling and a glass chandelier hanging from it. There were oil paintings on the wall, one of a sunset and the other a portrait of a man wearing a ruff from a time long since passed.

They passed through the dining room, with Trevor leading the way, into a hallway with more portraits of very similar looking Victorian men. She kept her hands tucked neatly on her abdomen, away from the accoutrements of fine things on stands and tables on either side of the hallway.

They found their way to a staircase and as they began to climb a young buxom blonde woman wearing furs stepped out from the shadows. As she made her way down Eva pressed herself to the wall to let the woman pass. A trail of cigarette smoke followed in her wake. Eva coughed it out and found herself thrown a grin from the woman at the base of the stairs before she disappeared into the rest of the apartment.

“Follow me, please, Miss Emerson,” Trevor said at the top of the stairs, making a left turn around a walled corner. Eva hurried up the stairs and nearly tripped at the top before catching herself on the bannister railing.

When she rounded the corner she walked past a closed door and met Trevor in front of an open room. She looked inside and two people were fencing. Metal slapped against metal, the foil’s swooshing slicing the air around them into bits as they defended from one another’s attacks. The taller figure, their face obscured by the silver mask they wore, lunged and the shorter parried into a quick repost which was dodged artfully by the taller.

“Ahem, masters Eryll and Talhan,” Trevor said, freezing the two figures in place. “Miss Emerson has awoken.”

They both stood up before the shorter figure stabbed the taller in the chest with his foil. The short figure removed his mask to reveal crop top hair and a thin face adorned with a stapled smile. “Pretty. Slight. Not too frail,” he said, looking Eva up and down. She brought her hand up to her lips in shock at his words. The other man removed his mask and let it fall to the floor. It made Eva jump a bit. She looked over at the man from before, the one who had saved her, with black hair that stood on end with a charge from his helmet and fell into his eyes. “She’ll do fine, Eryll,” Talhan said. He walked up to Eva, who took a step back on her heel from him. A slap on her shoulder from his heavy gloved hand knocked her off balance as he walked past her and opened the door she had passed.

Eryll slowly made his way up to Eva, lacking the smile his partner had displayed. “How are you feeling?” he asked her. Her hand fell from her lips and as it did Eryll caught it, his glove slipping off to the wooden floor below.

“I-“ Eva began through a cough. “I’m fine. I think,” she said as her breath escaped her.

“That’s good,” Eryll said. “We’ve all been worried about you these past few days.”

“Days?” Eva squeaked out.

Eryll let go of her hand and moved past her, to confront Trevor. “What have you told her? Eryll asked the butler.

“Only what was necessary, Master Eryll. That you saved her life,” Trevor responded.

Eryll huffed and turned to Eva. “I’m glad you’re feeling better. When you were attacked you were in a very bad position,” Eryll said.

“I-I-“ Eva stammered before stomping her foot. “What happened to me?”

Eryll drew in a deep breath and turned to Trevor. “Please fetch Miss Emerson her clothes while I explain the situation,” Eryll commanded.

Trevor nodded and walked out of the room.

“Sit with me,” Eryll said with a hush, dropping his blade to the ground and propping himself up against the glass mirror wall. He patted the ground next to him. Eva was bashful at first, staring at the spot next to the glass. She sighed and then sat down next to the strange man who saved her life.

Eva squirmed a little with her back against the glass. “Please tell me what happened?” she asked him.

“You were attacked by a man who had lost his humanity. What I’m about to tell you might sound ridiculous but it will make sense if you think about it,” Eryll said.

Eva took a moment to think. “What do you mean, ‘lost his humanity’?” she asked.

Eryll huffed a heavy sigh before he stuck out his gloved hand. He noticed the glove and then flung it away, returning it between them. “I’m Eryll Donovan.”

Eva was shy to take his hand at first but took it. “I’m Eva Emerson.”

“That’s a beautiful name. Thank you for staying calm in this strange situation,” Eryll said.

Eva clasped her hands together and wrapped her arms around her knees, staring at the floor. “I remember being on the street, then a roof and a man- He was eating me,” Eva said through a breathless whisper.

A cough drew the attention of both Eva and Eryll to the door, to see Trevor standing with clothes in his outstretched arms. He walked into the room and placed the garments down next to Eva. “Thank you, Trevor,” Eryll said, nodding to the older man before he left the room. Eva picked up her shirt from the pile and turned to Eryll, showing him the hole the man made with his hand.

“He-He stabbed me, Eryll. With-With his hand,” Eva stammered out.

Eryll took a moment to let that settle with a deep breath. “He was very sick. I was tracking him because of that sickness and I was able to stop him from killing you.”

“You were tracking him?” Eva asked in disbelief. “What do you mean?”

“Do you believe in the paranormal?”

“Like ghosts and vampires and stuff?”

“Stuff like that, yes.”

“No, that silly. Why would you ask me that?”

“That man was very sick because he had bad blood. He was turning into a demon and needed human life energy to avoid becoming an uncurable monster.”

“I- What? That makes no sense-“ Eva sputtered as she got to her feet, clutching to her clothes.

“He stabbed you with his hand and drank your insides,” Eryll uttered, looking up at her. Fear had washed her face a pale white. “He was going to bleed you dry but I stopped him-“ Eryll said as he got to his feet. “I stopped him, killed him and healed you before you could be just another victim.”

“You healed me?” Eva asked as she took a few cautious steps away.

“You had a fist sized hole in your stomach. No hospital would save you. I did what I could with what I had. I gave you some of my blood,” Eryll said, taking a step towards her.

“You gave me your blood? But I have no wound-“ Eva began.

Eryll took another step towards her. She took a step back, then another until she was in the door frame. Eryll put up his hands.

“Let me show you,” Eryll said.

A blink gave way to two white wings, like those of a crane, springing forth from his shoulder blades.

Eva screamed, turned and ran down the stairs. She ran right into the blonde woman from before, who she bounced off of, watching Eva run out the front door while biting into an apple. Eva screamed all the way for two blocks before doubling over panting into a taxi cab.