He kissed her!

Immediately her eyes went wide in shock from his actions. Her pale frosty cheeks took on a bright crimson hue which rivaled the splendid color of her hair. As his lips lingered on her, she began to melt into the sweet kiss. Vivid eyes closing, she gave into his embrace and lingered on his lips, savoring their sweet taste.

By this time she was completely lost in him and the moment. Her head spun, and the snowy world around them simply melted away leaving only the couple. So much she wanted to say, needed to say, yet she chose to express herself best with her actions.

Slender arms lightly draped over his shoulders, and a small hand moved timidly to the back of his head. Long slender fingers mingled with his hair, toying with the light strands as if they were some new-found treasure. Heart body and spirit swam with a flood of emotions, till her heart felt like it would explode from the pressure.

Their kiss was sweet and pure, filled with years of unstated love. How could she have been so foolish? So blind? She was a master of emotions and yet something as beautifully simple as love slipped right through her fingertips. Now that she had it, now that she realized, she would never let it go.

Finally pulling back from his soft lips she began to whisper in a breathy tone. Slowly she brought her cheek to rest against his with her lips lingering inches away from his ear.

“Keovari... my darling.... my love...”

Stefan was very taken aback at being pushed aside by Faye. She looked more different than she did when he had first seen her at the inn. He still found her beautiful, as he had before, although her beauty was different. Before, she had seemed dull, like something pretty that had been tarnished. Now, she was more fresh; her beauty was cold, noble, and brilliant. Stefan could now see that, yes, before him was a Vampire.

A creature of the night. Something that he and his brother were supposed to hunt until none existed. But how could he attack something of such splendor? Gabriel, too, had struck him as unnaturally handsome at first, but he hadn't really thought on it until now. Both of the Vampires ignored him for each other. He looked from Gabriel to Faye and noticed that Gabriel had taken one of his cooking knives and now held it to her.

She looked slightly stricken at seeing the knife. Stefan was suddenly very sorry. It was he who told Gabriel to wield a weapon. Of course, he understood that there was no way of him knowing that it would be her... but he felt awful all the same. He wanted to apologize to her, but it would be pretty useless; she wouldn't understand what for.

He then noticed that Gabriel then put the knife down. Was it because he no longer felt threatened anymore? "What a stupid question!" he thought. Of course he's not threatened anymore; she's a friend.

Stefan didn't know why Rosiel had been lying to Gabriel about "Josephine", since his brother hadn't truly explained to him the situation with the two. But he didn't need Rosiel's explanations. Gabriel spoke to her first; Stefan stood frozen in the corner where he was shoved aside, not knowing what to do.

After his brief monologue, the Vampire slowly made his way to Faye. It seemed to Stefan that Gabriel had actually touched Faye, but he wasn't sure. And, in a few moments, it didn't really matter. The Vampire gave a short howl before his body stiffened. Concerned, Stefan steadily made his way toward toward Gabriel. He stood almost directly behind Faye, not sure if he should even interfere at all.

Before he even had time to react, the Vampire dropped to his knees, clutching his head, as if it were going to explode. Getting rather frightened, he moved past Faye and was reaching for Gabriel when the Vampire suddenly called, "ENOUGH!" and Stefan, in turn, stiffened.

Then Faye spoke.

"Gabriel."

Her voice was begging, praying. It almost brought the Angel to tears. The tears came because he was an Angel, and he could feel Faye's grief, as his brother had before, though he did not know, and because he just now realized how terribly lonely he was. This was a love shared by them.

He didn't know how he knew, but he knew it was. And it wasn't his. He had nothing to do with this. He was just a stranger... and probably would be, forever. He withdrew; he was not needed here... and the others. What happened to the others? Where was Rosiel? Keovari? The Lady Mystical?

---

Samael looked back on Leonard and Edeline, who both stared blankly at him. The Angel was looking over his shoulder in the direction of the forest.

"There's someone else there," he mumbled.

Leonard had backed away from the door, after being pushed aside by the Vampiress. Edeline had drawn hear longsword; A loud yell emitted from inside the bar. A fight perhaps?

"What the Hell just happened?"

"I don't know," Samael replied. "I can feel something holy in there, so that must be one of the owners. There might be trouble, though, so let's wait here until it's sorted out. No sense getting mixed up in things that aren't our business."

"But he said there was someone else there," Leonard said quietly, pointing at the Angel.

"You, there!" Samael called out to where the Angel was staring intently. "We mean no harm. Please, come out with your weapons sheathed, if you are a friend."

---

Rosiel had reached out for Faye when she ran toward and hissed as the hem of her dress slipped through his fingers. He had stood to go after her, but didn't know what was going on. He didn't know who the intruders were, and furthermore, he didn't know what was happening inside. The Angel swore that he had heard a yell come from the inside, but wasn't sure. He knew Stefan would have ran out instead of attempting to fight in such close quarters if it came down to that, so it calmed him a little.

But now, the intruders were calling out to him. He was pretty sure that they weren't going to hurt him; they probably just wanted rooms. Slowly, the Angel emerged from his hiding place and walked toward the inn, brushing past his beloved Blue Tree. He was greeted by two Demons, a human woman, and...

"Katan! Where have you been? What are you doing here?" Rosiel called as he recognized his lover and broke into a run.

The woman and one of the Demons exchanged glances. However, the other older-looking Demon seemed to freeze once he saw Rosiel. He turned to the woman slowly, and said in a soft voice, "Edeline, put the sword away..."

She did as he asked, looking extremely confused, as did the other Demon. Katan, however, didn't seem to react. He didn't seem to notice Rosiel. "Perhaps he's just shocked to see me," Rosiel thought.

"I wouldn't count on it, boss." the voice said, sounding amused again.

"Angel Lord Rosiel," said the older Demon, bowing in the cold snow. Rosiel felt his face go red.

"You don't have to... stop, really. It's ok... at ease."

"Sir, we've found an injured Angel and we heard that the owners of this Seven Roses were also Angels - we thought we could take him here and also get some rest."

"Katan is injured...? But... oh... did you see a woman run by here, too? Faye?"

"Yes, sir... she's inside. We didn't want to go in..."

"I'm sure everything's ok..." mumbled Rosiel. "But Katan... he's hurt...? I don't see anything wrong with him."

Rosiel thought he heard the woman named Edeline say, "Oh, no..." The older Demon and the other said nothing to him. Neither did Katan. He was still staring at Rosiel curiously. Which was completely unlike the Angel.

"Katan...?" Rosiel said, as he stepped close to the other Angel, wanting to hug and kiss him as they hadn't seen each other in such a long time...

The Angel wrapped his arms around Katan and leaned forward to kiss on the lips, but Katan backed away from him and gently pushed him away. Rosiel let his arms drop to his sides, confused. He noticed that the two Demons and Edeline looked very uncomfortable; they kept shifting about where they stood.

Katan looked surprised that Rosiel had touched him, and even more surprised when Rosiel tried to kiss him.

"Who are you?" he asked loudly, a slight hint of annoyance in his voice.

"Oh, my," mused the voice. "This was unexpected."

Gabriel was taken aback by this woman, this Josephine, bursting in and crying to him. They had been introduced only briefly before Gabriel had retired for the night, and yet she did have a certain familiarity to him. Was he about to do something he would regret? Was this Fate's warning, a message from the ether?

Or was there more to it? As he gazed into her eyes, there was more in this woman's heart than he first realised. A loneliness...an age as old as time...the knowledge of years, the emptiness of death... Gabriel's eyes widened and he took a step back as realisation hit him. She's a vampire too! Mister Rosiel had deceived him. He left the knife on the bar, not taking his eyes from the small woman in front of him. The realisation that she was like himself seemed to make so much more of her apparent; the power that seemed to exude from her like flame from a wick, the sheer weight of the centuries she'd lived almost crushing down upon everything she looked at, everything she touched. The ageless beauty of a face caught somewhere in time, a body that would never wither.

Gabriel slowly advanced upon Josephine. "I see...you're like me, aren't you? You're a vampire too." He stood almost face-to-face with her, almost wincing in the glow of the bubbling turmoil which spilled over from within her, scorching all it touched. Blinking in empathy, he asked softly, "You're in pain, aren't you? I can feel it...you're at war with yourself..." The aura of the small woman in front of him seemed to flare up around him, trapping him in a wall of psychic struggle. Fighting the temptation to break free with his own force, Gabriel allowed Josephine to envelop him. "You're very powerful..." he whispered, stepping closer to her and reaching out a hand very gingerly to touch her. Gabriel's fingers brushed Josephine's, and all at once he felt as if an icepick had been driven between his eyes. Letting out a short yell, he froze and trembled as something seemed to shoot through his brain, creating an entire life as it went.

Flashes of a past unknown ran screaming past Gabriel's eyes like one remembers a drunken night; the woman whose hand he held was present in all of them. Lying on a bed reciting poetry, walking through enchanted forests and watching the full moon call the wolves out to howl from the tops of trees; catching fireflies at dusk and setting them free as the sun disappeared, running through endless halls in a never-ending game of tag.

Gabriel fell to his knees, withdrawing his hand and clutching it to his head as the visions continued. She was still there, still with him. What horrible false images was she creating? Why would this woman...this vampire taunt and torture him so? The worst was yet to come; visions of battle, of a woman he loved screaming in grief, of his death...of the most horrendous enemy one could imagine, exacting the worst revenge on the world. "ENOUGH!" Gabriel screamed, his eyes welling with tears, his body shaking. Still, the images flashed on, and Gabriel struggled to his feet, stooped over with the effort of keeping his mind from imploding.

In a blaze of light the images stopped, and a word filled his mind. Like a bell rung in his head, louder than the voice of God in his ear, terrible and painful as it was beautiful and final; everything was explained, everything apparent. The images made sense. They were not false; they were memories, long-forgotten occurences. Shuffling to straighten up, the word drifted out of Gabriel's head, melting away as smoke dissipates into nothingness. As the world became so much more bright, the infinite dreams of his memory falling into place in his head, he seized the word before it left his mind altogether and forced it from between his lips:

"...Faye."

Faye ignored Rosiel completely. She did not respond as he tried to pull her behind the tree with him. She stood steady, staring at the now visible inn. She felt the other presences, but ignored them. Unimportant. They were all unimportant. If Alyria came free, they would all be completely unimportant. That is... if they could even 'be' any longer.
She closed her eyes for a moment, pleading desperately with some unknown forces. Begging.
Please, let this work. Let me not cause pain. Let me enjoy the company of Gabriel again, without worry, without strain. Let me not lose my sanity in Alyria's anger.
When she opened them again, her blue eyes were shining with tears. Her view of the Seven Roses was obscured, twisting dreamily. A seconds pause, "I am sorry for anything regrettable I may do, Rosiel."
She ran.

Dashing for the front of the building, her quickest way to what she was praying was safety, she fell into a sort of gentle dreamy rhythm. Her footsteps crunched the frozen ground and snow in a beat, beat, beat. She swiftly lifted her skirts and her pace quickened.
She stopped as she reached the front. Staring at the group at the door, quite the scene in her wet clothes, flying hair and burning eyes. She looked steadily at each, returning every look with daggers from her own. She stepped slowly up to the door and placed her hand on the door, sensing the warmth of life leaning to it's other side. She closed her eyes and began to push slowly, focusing all the strength of the vampire into her arm.
"Whoever is there, please move away. I will not stop for you, if I do I believe you will regret the greater pain doing so would cause."
She pressed slowly, preferring not to damage the door or cause harm to anyone inside by using too much force, but steadily used more pressure. Rosiel and the group behind her were now outside her realm of consciousness. As the door began to give way easily behind her strength, she stepped in, making her way through at the first chance. The warmth hit her first, enjoying the slight tingling behind her eyes, wishing only that she could feel that sweet sensation as humans would. She neglected the door behind her, stepping further in.
"Gabriel." She said softly, before examining the state of the room, the name slipping of her lips in a rush of the fear, joy, and the simple pangs of love.
Finally her eyes found him, taking him in as she had not allowed them to when she first saw him those fleeting moments. It all came back in torrents, the strange ache in her chest, the bitter tears, the anger and loneliness. Alyria flitted at the edges of Faye's consciousness. In Faye's ears, Alyria's soft laughter. In her mind, the vague grin of lips like Faye's but somehow emanating evil.
More fearful, feeling her sanity being strained away, she took a step forward. Her eyes still fixed on his face.

"Gabriel," her voice now pleading as she had pleaded with the gods moments ago. She wanted to run to him that moment. To enjoy again the safety and comfort he had always given. But her fear of his reaction, as well as her growing fear of what would happen with Alyria, kept her still. The knife he held reminding her that things were not right, that even if Alyria was held back and they were reunited, things may not be well.
But she could not turn back now.
She would not.

Gabriel nodded silently, setting his stool back down and leaping over the bar, crouching along it's length to examine the knives. Pulling a few out and running them over his hand lightly, he stood up holding a slim, light fillet knife. Flipping it and holding it by the point, he gestured at Stefan to move aside to give him a clear shot at the door; if whatever came through was unwelcome, it'd sure know about it.

As he stood ready to throw his knife, Gabriel thought briefly - as he did before any battle - of the strange series of events that had led him to this inn. He hadn't forseen this just a year ago; not by a long way. He'd come so far away from his past life, he'd almost forgotten what he'd set out for. Something about a woman...promises...vengeance...never mind. His quest for fire would have to wait.