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."