Kai's POV
Meeting Cordelia wasn't just enough. Now, I had to make sure that Elaine was safe, and because I couldn't go back on my own, I had to try to reach out to Damien.
Arriving at his big black gate, his home felt so empty from the outside, which felt a bit strange. I made my way inside, and… there he was, on his couch, lost in thought, with his door wide open.
"Hey, are you okay?" I asked him out of concern. The closer I got to him, the more I realized that he looked so much like shit, and maybe he was really struggling with something big.
"What do you want?"
"Can you pick a better line for a start than that?" I told him, genuinely tired of having to be greeted by the same line day in and day out.
"What do you want, Kai?" he mumbled, clearly not acknowledging my presence and showing zero interest in my nice gesture.
"Nothing," I replied almost immediately.
"Okay…"
"Yeah, I just haven't heard from you in a long time, and it felt as if you just pushed everyone to the side to deal with what is going on in your head. I don't know if you can see it yet, but you've grown so distant."
He didn't reply. Not until I sat close to him, boring holes into his soul with my eyes. He looked eaten from the inside, with extra pale skin, dark circles under his eyes, and a very dull face. Only the heavens knew what he was up to and why they'd let him go through it if it made him look so much like the word, 'death.'
"I've not grown close to anybody, not even you, for you to be so concerned. Besides, isn't time alone with Elaine and nobody to interfere in your business what you've always wanted? Enjoy."
His last line was all I needed to hear to be sure that something was really wrong with him. He wasn't even looking at me… more like he was here physically but somewhere else entirely in his mind and soul.
Was I even sure he'd care so much about knowing where Elaine was or helping me check up on her to be sure that she was fine? If it were somehow true and he didn't recover soon, how would I protect Elaine?
"Yeah, I would, but this is not like you at all. I know that you are as crazy about Elaine as I am, and yet you are just letting me have my way with her. You are not making any attempts to make her yours. What happened all of a sudden?" I almost scolded him.
"I still am, but you're not even sure how this unending loop is going to end, so why not just go ahead and enjoy the time you have with her? The full moon is around the corner, and, my friend, I just have a bad feeling that everything is going to take a different turn. Who knows? You could be dead, so make the most of your time with her now." He finally looked at me for the first time since I started talking to him.
Well, he wasn't far from the truth. Cordelia might have had a bad feeling about the whole thing—that was why she was hard on Elaine—but that doesn't mean anything, at least not yet.
"It's just an assumption and nothing more. Besides, what would you expect to happen if everybody relents like you are relenting now? You have to quit this whole thing, Damien. Really, being weak is not your thing!"
"I'm not, okay? I'm just… I'll be fine," he sighed. "Now tell me what you want, or you can just give me some time to at least breathe in peace."
"Fine then. I'll come around some other time, and you better be lively." I patted his shoulder while standing up to leave. "Good luck."
Seeing that he wasn't ready to tell me anything, I left him, hoping to come back again. I returned to my study only to see everything I'd been researching slowly coming together on my side but having a lot of loopholes—especially with Elaine's bloodline.
Nothing I did seemed to connect all the dots, probably because, even though I'd lived so long, I was consumed by my monster more than I actually lived. I retired to bed, hoping to continue some other time, but something hard struck me from the inside of my chest.
Holding my chest tightly, I tried to steady my breathing somehow, but nothing worked. I held my reading table when my feet started to shake as though they would give up anytime soon. They did. I fell to the ground, whining in pain, with vivid imaginations of Elaine in trouble. I felt totally helpless with no one to call for help. In pain, I dug my nails into my arm until they bled and pushed my focus to the pain coming from my self-inflicted injury until I was too weak and numb to feel anything again.
***
I woke up with a terrible headache and few memories of what happened last night. I guessed I was already looking pale when I saw the amount of blood I spilled on the floor yesterday. The pain in my chest had totally vanished, but the images of Elaine being in danger hadn't left my head yet.
"You never call. I hope all is well with you," Cordelia asked over the phone.
"Have you gotten to hear from her in these past days? Maybe talk to you about work or how she is coping with her life there or something… anything?"
"Not once, and I don't expect her to reach out if she really wants to clear her head and find answers on her own. There would be a lot on her plate to keep her really busy, and she wouldn't have time for that," Cordelia explained.
I quickly explained everything to her, including the images of Elaine in my head. Even though we both wanted to believe that it was only the early effects of the full moon, somewhere in our minds, we knew of our unspoken fear.
"I'll try reaching out to her and see if she returns my call," she told me before hanging up. In the same way, I picked myself up and headed for Damien's place because he was the only one who could get to Elaine for me.
"Jeez, Kai." Damien's face twisted in disgust when he saw me. "What happened to you?"
Of course, the tables had turned so quickly, and now I was the one looking like death while he looked like he was a totally different person from yesterday.
"Please, I need your help with Elaine," I went straight to the point, ignoring his question. Hearing Elaine's name made him grow still, with his eyes darkening as though ready to take down an army trying to hurt her.
"Is she okay?"
"I don't know…" I trailed off, telling him everything that happened yesterday. It intensified the darkness in his eyes more than I thought it would subside it.
"In my opinion, I think that it's way too early to have the full moon start messing with your head. Also, I'd say that for it to be this severe, we can't rely on only assumptions."
"Maybe you could be right about this full moon being different from the rest, and if it should come true, I honestly don't want Elaine to be a part of it," I lowered my voice, checking the possibilities of certain events happening. "Even if the prophecy has made her a source of redemption for me in particular and the supernaturals, she has to be safe and alive to be able to carry out her responsibility."
"I understand what you're saying, Kai, and I want the same. I'll make sure that she's safe wherever she is. If she shows up, that would be because by then I must have confirmed her ready to stand the nightmares of Raven Hollow."
"Getting to her is not just the case now, because if this is only a pre-effect of the full moon, then I can't even imagine what the actual day would be like," I breathed out. "In summary I risk her getting close to me and no matter how much she tries to make it to Raven Hollow, you can't let her," I elaborated as much as I could while he nodded in response.
"I have to find her," he said through gritted teeth, pushing me to the side.
"You don't even know where she is, okay? So wait. Plus, you are not just going there to bring her back—you are going there to make sure that she remains there until everything is over," I told him.
"I know where to find her, and you can worry about yourself alone. She'll be safe."
With that, he left, making me both surprised at his sudden departure and confused because he didn't have to wait this long to go after Elaine if he knew where she had been all along.