It was well past midnight when Claire did return from the cold and rejoin Eliot inside the small cabin. Perhaps it was the lateness of the hour, but he seemed much quieter once she was back at his side. Though, despite him not even asking her to explain herself, which she was sure he would have, he still did not say much. At least not outwardly. But there were a few hundred questions in his eyes, none of which he managed to voice, though.

Just as Claire was about to try and break the silence in some way, Eliot finally did speak up as the hour neared one. “Well, my day was a bit exhausting, even if I only spent the whole of it in a tiny train car” he couldn’t help adding more quietly, “so I think I may try to get some sleep myself.”

“Oh... all right” Claire responded as she looked away and stood up from the seat she had returned to at the edge of the bed.

Even if he hadn’t asked her about her strange urge to be alone outside in that weather earlier that night, she thought that perhaps he would at least attempt to continue the conversation Lemuel had so rudely interrupted, even if Eliot himself had had no awareness of the fact of that interruption.

“I don’t suppose you’re tired yet” he added, though his tone was still barely loud enough for most ears to hear.

Upon hearing him voice a desire to retire for the night, Claire had moved from the bed to the table he had been previously seated at. She then looked back his way at that quiet inquiry, “I’ll probably come to bed soon too. Maybe I will eat something first, though” she attempted as she made herself gesture to the few vegetables that remained on the table.

“Yes, you probably should” Eliot agreed with yet another skeptical look toward her before making himself look away as he shook some dust from the blankets and prepared to go to bed for the night, even while he didn’t honestly think he’d be able to relax enough to sleep at all right then.

After waiting nearly another hour for him to have hopefully drifted off, Claire sighed inaudibly as she glanced down at the vegetables upon the table once more. She was definitely getting even hungrier at this point. After all, she hadn’t eaten once since leaving the ship and meeting Eliot, now nearly three days ago.

Casting another glance back at where he was now wrapped in covers, eyes closed for the night, she allowed herself to move as quietly as she could back to the window and scan the area for any small animals or anything else that could satisfy her growing hunger.

As the snow was still falling heavily in the night, she knew she’d have to use those special skills of hers to find any possible prey, and that in turn, would make her even hungrier. After all, it was all her abilities that ran on her own blood, as that was truly the only fuel she had.

She glanced back at Eliot once more with another sigh, wondering exactly how long she honestly believed she could let this friendship continue. She had no desire to break her promise to help him discover the truth he needed to find out about himself. But she also knew that every moment she stayed, she risked him finding out some very shattering truths about her.

How long to stay there in his presence was now an even bigger question after her conversation with Lemuel. It seemed that there had been some consequences to her delay in getting herself to Lemuel’s haven to meet with Nicolas and help him confront those demons of his past. The more time Nicolas had to ponder the idea, the less sure of it he became. The plans had now changed and Nicolas would now apparently feel better about returning home at all if he didn’t have to make the trip across the water from England alone. Or more specifically, if he could make that trip with Claire at his side. Therefore, she no longer had to be at Lemuel’s haven before Nicolas’ arrival. Now she simply had to find and board a ship to get her from France to England, ‘whenever she had a free moment’ Lemuel had told her, though with a seeming impatience to his tone when he did.

Another glance out the window, another hunger pang, another look back at Eliot resting there on the bed. She knew that if she let herself go too long without feeding, she did risk frenzy. Though she honestly didn’t know how long was too long. And that was a bit of a problem. Yes, she could try to find some animal, but to take a chance on anyone else coming upon her as she fed, that would lead to a whole new problem that she also couldn’t let herself create.

She then looked back toward the bed with another shaky sigh. She didn’t want to have to use him in that way, but letting herself get so hungry she risked his very life? That was not even an option for her. On that thought, she moved even more quietly back to the bed, and laid down next to him as gently as she could.

Taking another moment to tell herself that this was honestly her best option, she moved closer still, until she was laying against him, her breasts pressed to his back as she reached up to ever so softly move a black curl from his neck.

She took another moment, mentally repeating that this was what she had to do to keep them both safe, ultimately. She then leaned over him and just as she was about to move her mouth to his neck, Eliot opened his eyes and turned his face to hers, where their mouths were now less than inches apart once again.

“You’re still aw---” she whispered, only to have his voice cut hers off.

“So are you...” he whispered back. Feeling her pressed so closely against him, and seeing her mouth only inches from his as he lay there next to her, he said nothing more as he turned to face her. In the same moment, he moved closer still, as he pushed her back against the pillows, covering her mouth with his for the second time that night. Though this kiss was filled not so much with hesitance right then as it was with actual desire.

Claire found her voice once that second kiss ended, though neither moved away from each other just yet. In a shaky whisper, she spoke, “do you trust me, Eliot?”

He allowed the tiniest smile then, their faces still practically touching, “I’d think the kiss would have answered that.”

“I need something from you. And I know you’ll think it’s really, really strange, to say the least. But I need it nonetheless” she told him in the same whisper, though now tinged with worry.

“Well, I still owe you, don’t I?” he returned, his voice hoarse as well then.

“Owe me?” she asked.

“Saving me from that marriage pretty much gave me back my life. I’d say that’s a pretty big favor.”

She smiled up at him before then moving to push herself up onto her elbows next to where he continued letting his hand rest upon her neck, still lying close. She then smiled once more as she gently pushed him onto his back as he offered her a nervous smile of his own and moved his other hand up to brush a few curls from his face, but allowed her to re-position him nevertheless.

She then took another moment to gather her own courage before leaning over him and moving to even more gently kiss his neck. “Dare I ask what favor you actually have in mind?” he teased to cover the nervousness that had just increased tenfold at the feel of her lips against his much warmer flesh.

Knowing words would not really answer that question for him, Claire took only another moment before she allowed herself to open her mouth against where his pulse now raced beneath his skin, and finally allowed her fangs to pierce his flesh, his blood filling her mouth as that wave of indescribable pleasure washed over them both.

Claire was never usually one to let herself take enough to cause that loss of consciousness that proceeded inevitable death. However, she knew that letting him remain aware after the intense pleasure of that Kiss ended would only lead to more questions. So she drank until the blood loss caused him to pass out. She then quickly ended her Kiss and licked the two tiny bloody holes in his neck shut once more, before letting herself take a long moment to regain her own composure after such pleasure.

She then moved to whisper against his ear, “you fell asleep only minutess after going to bed, and you merely dreamt these last few moments” and with that, she shut her eyes sadly, and curled against him as he slept, wondering truly how long this really could go on at all.

Eliot slept longer than usual the next morning, though he was still awake by ten. However, upon waking, it took him even longer to orient himself before finally turning his head to look over at where Claire was in the grips of that deep, deep sleep next to him once again.

He took a deep breath as he watched her a long moment, his mind easily wandering back to the previous day. Though he curbed his urge to try to wake her, fearing that it would prove just as hopeless as it had the day before and cause him to once again question his own sanity.

He forced his eyes away and pushed himself to sit up next to her, feeling immediately light headed and needing to take another moment before even trying to get to his feet. Upon that feeling of dizziness, he couldn’t help recalling what was probably the most lucid dream he had ever had. And also one of the most passionate, he realized as well, once he felt what seemed to be a layer of now dried semen inside his clothing. He swallowed a lump in his throat, not able to help quickly looking down at the bed to assure himself that no further evidence of that passionate dream of his remained. Fortunately he had gone to bed still dressed, so the sheets were saved, if not his own clothing.

As a boy of nineteen, he was no stranger to dreams that resulted in the current state of his clothing. Though, it may have been the first of such dreams he had had about a female, let alone one who was currently in the very bed next to him. And that fact did nothing to lessen any of the confusion he had been suffering since Claire came into his life.

But even more oddly than that, in trying to pull the details of the dream back to his mind, he realized that, in it the two of them were not even making love. Hell, they weren’t even undressed. But for it to cause such a reaction in his body nonetheless? That only furthered his confusion. Recalling more details of the dream, he subconsciously reached up to the very spot on his neck where she had been kissing him in the dream, before that kiss turned to something very different, and somehow more erotic than painful. On that thought, he couldn’t help looking back down at her once more as she slept there next to him... while the sun was high in the sky...

It was just a very, very strange dream, he kept telling himself as he moved from the bed at last and began to search his bags for a change of clothing. Though there was that other voice that couldn’t help asking how a dream could make him dizzy and light-headed, not to mention all the other oddities about his companion that had been plaguing him since the previous day.

When Claire awoke that evening, she was a bit startled to find Eliot right beside her. He was lying upon his stomach next to her, his head propped on his arms, simply watching her. “Um, good morning?” she greeted him warily.

“Not quite” he stated, though there wasn’t as much sarcasm in the tone as just pure curiosity.

“Did I sleep til evening again?” she attempted an innocent tone.

“You slept, like the dead, til evening again. Imagine that” he replied, the sarcasm only a little clearer then, though his voice was still gentle.

“I’m sure you’ve noticed by now, that I have a bit of a strange sleeping pattern” Claire stated, her voice tiny as she slowly pushed herself into a seat against the headboard as he rolled to his side then, propping his head on his hand, continuing to stare up at her, those hundreds of questions painted across his face still.

“That’s a mild way of putting it” he stated, though his voice was still soft as he continued to look up at her.

“So, were you really just so bored you couldn’t find a thing to do but watch me sleep?” she attempted a small smile.

“Oh I did some today, like going to the village market for food and supplies, if that sort of thing even matters to you” he stated in an odd tone.

“Matters to me?” she swallowed, trying once again to peer into his head, despite having never honed that skill she was so angry about Sean learning, at first. But as the decades went by, she was beginning to feel it may indeed be something she should eventually cave into learning as well. Though she then quickly worried that maybe any desire to learn how to invade another living creature’s mind so completely was a sign of her slowly losing her humanity after all, after nearly three centuries of life now. And with that terrifying suspicion, she quickly forced the thought away.

“Mostly, I was just trying to...” Eliot began, as though searching for the words, “figure you out.”

“Figure me out?”

“Well I’ve figured out one thing so far” he replied.

“One thing?” she repeated worriedly.

“I’ve figured out that any time I ask you something you don’t know how to answer, or don’t want to answer, you often just repeat my own question to me. See, one thing” he smirked as Claire quickly looked down.

After an awkward silence, she made herself speak again, “so what else are you trying to figure out?”

“Oh, so much” he shook his head.

“That wasn’t much of an answer either” she returned, though in a near whisper.

“I guess, one other thing, among many, that I’d really like to understand is what it even is that you want to help me with, exactly. And why do you even care to? I mean, really, why?”

“I guess it was just apparent that you were unhappy, and I hoped that by helping you understand more about yourself, that maybe that would make you... more happy” she offered.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m touched that you want to help me to ‘be happy,’ but why does my happiness even matter to you at all? You barely even know me, honestly.”

Claire was almost relieved that his questions were not the ones she feared he’d be asking, though she was sure those were there as well. But right now, after withholding so many answers from him already, she had to allow herself to give him this one.

After thinking on it for another long moment, she finally spoke, “I’ve spent all my life trying to make myself truly happy, and it’s never honestly worked, not for very long. So maybe, because of that I keep trying to do that for other tortured souls, hoping that maybe, eventually, helping them will at least make me feel that I’m still living this life for a reason at all... that maybe helping them will somehow be that reason; that it will somehow make me happy too... someday.”