Chapter Text
Charles was suddenly woken up by noises coming from downstairs. It was unusual because the house was normally very quiet during the nights. He thought that he might have imagined it, but then the noises continued. Someone was in the kitchen downstairs. Charles was a little bit afraid, after all a child had little chance to stand up to a burglar, but his immense curiosity overruled his fear and he decided to go down and investigate. He went to the kitchen, holding a baseball bat just in case, but lowered it down seeing his mother standing in front of the open fridge.
“Mother, what are you...” He stopped, for it would be impolite to question what she had been doing. “I thought you were a burglar.” He said instead, to explain the bat in his hand.
She closed the fridge while he was talking and stood straight looking at him. “I didn't mean to scare you darling, I was just getting a snack. Go back to bed.” Charles was too astonished to move so he just stared at her. His mother in the kitchen? Getting a snack? She must have noticed his hesitation. “What's the matter? Go on, back to bed.” Then she leaned down to his level. “I'll make you a hot chocolate.” She offered smiling at him.
Charles slowly shook his head. This person in front of him was not his mother. True, they looked like her, but when Charles tried to sense their thoughts, he felt a totally different mind. “Who are you?” He asked glancing at a picture of him with his mother where they were standing painfully far away from each other despite the relative physical proximity. The smile on his mother's clone's face fell. “And what have you done with my mother?” He asked in a sterner tone. He continued with his mind. My mother has never set a foot in this kitchen in her life. He could see that the person in front of him was shocked to hear his voice inside their head. They even raised their hands to try to cover their ears, but gave up on this attempt when they realised it wasn't helping. And she certainly never made me a hot chocolate. Unless you count ordering the maid to do it.
Realising that their deception was uncovered, the intruder started to transform. Charles watched in awe as their eyes changed colour from his mother's blue into bright yellow. Their hair changed from blond to auburn. But the greatest change was to their complexion. From head to toes their skin became blue and covered with scales. Before Charles' eyes the figure shrank and finally in front of him stood a little, naked, blue girl. He was so amazed that he couldn't utter a word, but sensing her worry and fear, he smiled kindly at her.
“You're not s-scared of me?” She asked, her voice uncertain.
“I always believed I couldn't be the only one in the world.” Charles admitted. “The only person who was... different.” He paused looking straight into her yellow eyes, so that she would know that he was sincere. There was a faint, still frightened smile on her lips. “And here you are.” He extended his hand. “Charles Xavier.”
Slowly, so slowly the girl took the extended hand in her own, shaking it lightly. “Raven.”
Charles suddenly realised what he had caught her doing. “You're hungry.” The girl nodded frantically. “And alone.” Charles gestured towards the kitchen. “Take whatever you want. We've got lots of food, you don't have to steal.” The smile on her face was more eager this time. Charles looked at her, into those childish eyes that knew hunger that they never should have known, and quickly made up his mind. “In fact, you never have to steal again.” The smile she gave him then was the truest he had ever seen and made her face light up.
Some time later they were sitting at the kitchen's table, Raven wrapped in Charles' bathrobe, so that she wouldn't be cold in the chill of the kitchen, and Charles' was wondering how someone so small could eat four sandwiches and still have enough space left in their stomach to eat cake. He asked Raven about it.
“It's because my body uses a lot of energy for transformations.” She explained between bites. “Also it needs more of it when I'm pretending to be someone bigger than my normal size. My mother always said...” She broke there, her expression saddening. Charles knew that something horrible had to have happened to her parents, but he didn't want to pressure her, so he waited for her to continue on her own. “She said it was a metabolism thing. Although I don't really know what that means.” She managed in the end. “My parents were shape-shifters like me. Some of our kind use their abilities for bad purposes, but my parents never did that. They were good. They wouldn't be proud that I tried to steal from you. I'm sorry.” She lowered her head in shame.
Charles reached out to her, gently touching her shoulder. “It's alright. In the end you didn't steal anything.”
“My parents were killed by hunters who said that they were monsters and that they deserved to die. They wanted to kill me too, but my mother shielded me and helped me escape.” Her face was contorted with pain, she was reliving the moments in her head. “I've lived in the streets since then.”
“I'm sorry it happened to you. I know what it means to loose your parents. Not in such a horrible way, but I know it too.”
“But your mother is still alive.” Raven remarked.
Charles smiled at her sadly. “My mother had always been a distant person, but since my father's death she's even more closed of. She barely leaves her room.” He tried to smile and change the topic. “That's what gave you away. Can you impersonate anyone?”
Raven didn't answer. Instead she changed quickly. “Can you impersonate anyone?” Asked him his perfect clone.
“That's amazing!”
***
When Raven came to his room that day, Charles nearly jumped up from where he had been sitting at his desk. She was pale, almost trembling, and he hadn't seen her in such a state in a long time. He was at her side in an instant.
“Are you hurt?” He looked her over, but she didn't carry any signs of violence, so he calmed down a little. He hugged her closely, trying to reassure her. “What happened, Raven?”
She clung to him, refusing to let go, as if the proximity could sooth her ragged nerves. Charles could feel the fear and worry washing off her in waves, but it had been long time since he promised that he wouldn't read her thoughts, so he waited for her to calm down. “There were hunters following me.” She said in a quiet, deadly serious voice. Charles didn't have to have the ability to read thoughts to know that she was telling the truth. Hunters were no topic for jokes.
“Did they follow you here? Where have you seen them?” He didn't ask weather she was sure, she wouldn't be in such a state over nothing.
“They had been following me since I left high school today. I thought nothing of it at first, but then I saw the same men following me to a coffee shop, where I went with my friends, and later too when I went to the train station. I managed to loose them then, but I'm sure they'll be back tomorrow.”
Charles was worried, but his mind was already working on a plan. “Don't worry. You won't go back there tomorrow.” Raven looked at him with a questioning look in her yellow eyes. “I'll go, I'll find those men and I'll make them forget that they had ever seen you.” His voice was strong for he was prepared to do anything to protect his beloved sister.
Raven's expression turned into one of complete shock. “You're not serious. You never use your powers like that.”
“For you I will.”
“I can't let you fight my battles on your own.” Charles wanted to curse her stubbornness, but he knew there was no point in arguing with her.
“Fine. You'll go to school as normally and then you'll go shopping with your friends. I'll follow you from a distance and when I spot the people following you, I'll convince them to talk to me. Then we'll see what happens. Maybe we'll finally be able to sort through some of this mess.” He glanced towards a wall of his room that was covered with bits of information on many supernatural creatures. It was an obsession he and Raven shared, though she wasn't quite as enthusiastic as he was. The problem was that, apart from what Raven knew about her own kind and what they had figured out about her abilities on their own, it was hard to discern the truth from myths and legends. That's why there was everything on the wall. From old lore to Bella and Edward, who were put there by Raven as a joke, but it wasn't far from the reality. They had no idea.
“Do you want to see what they look like?” She gestured towards her head.
Charles hesitated for a moment. It was a rare thing that she asked him to do that and he respected her privacy. “Are you sure? I could just see who will follow you when you get out of the school.”
“I wouldn't ask you to, if I wasn't sure.” Raven seemed to be confident about her decision. “I also want you to keep a link between us tomorrow. I need to be able to see if you're alright when you're alone with them. They are dangerous people.”
The next day, when Raven finished her lessons, Charles still had some of his own, but he skipped them. Raven's safety was more important than maths could ever be. He didn't walk very closely behind her, the link between their minds wouldn't allow him to loose her, but instead he kept his distance trying to spot the hunters. Sure enough he quickly noticed the two men who were following her. They were so arrogant that they didn't even try to hide. Charles wondered how could Raven's friends be so oblivious to the presence of the stalkers. He had to congratulate Raven on playing perfectly unaware, despite her worry that he could feel through their link.
When Raven's group entered the shopping centre, they went to the dining area to grab something to eat. The hunters sat at a table in some distance from them and Charles decided that it was time to act. He sat at their table on the other side from them.
“Why are you following my sister?” He asked them point-blank, before they had time to react.
“Your sister?” The taller of the hunters asked slowly, drawing the syllables like he was tasting the word. However, Charles could sense their thoughts racing down similar paths. They thought that if he had been a shifter, then he wouldn't have confronted them, knowing that they might be hunters. So the men both quickly came to the conclusion that his sister had to be adopted and they wrongly assumed that he had no idea about her true identity. He saw the spark of understanding passing between the two men and then one of them 'accidentally' dropped a spoon to the floor, so that it fell next to Charles' seat. It was so obvious that Charles had to fight an urge to laugh. It was a test. The spoon was silver and shape-shifters were vulnerable to touching silver, to a point where it burned their skin, if they touched it.
Raven hadn't known it when they met. Her parents just never had anything silver in their house. She and Charles discovered it the painful way, but after Charles figured out that silver hurt her, he disposed of everything silver in the house, exchanging the cutlery to stainless steel.
Charles leaned down, he could see that the men held their breaths, and quickly picked the spoon up handing it to the hunter who had dropped it. “Yes. My sister. Or any of her friends. That's not the point. It's why there are two suspiciously looking grown ups following a bunch of teenagers.”
He knew that the man wouldn't trust him straight off, so he delicately persuaded their minds. He did nothing drastic, he didn't want them to realise what he could do, but enough for them to talk to him. One of the hunters leant towards him across the table.
“You seem to be an intelligent boy, why don't you come with us to our car, so that we can explain things to you privately?” Which didn't seem at all creepy. Had Charles not seen their thoughts and if he wasn't the one who pushed them towards it, he would never have gone with them.
In the parking lot the hunters walked towards an old, Charles was amazed that it still worked, black car. When they got in, the older hunter begun speaking.
“Listen kid, your sister, she's not really your sister, is she?” He asked though he already assumed he knew the answer.
“She's adopted. What of it?” Charles replied, playing his role perfectly.
“She's not who she says she is. Or rather what.” When the hunter saw the confused look on Charles' face, he continued. “I know that it might come as a bit of a shock to you, but monsters are real and your so called sister is one of them.”
“You don't expect me to believe that, do you?” He asked, but then looked at them. “You really believe in what you say.” He kept the astonished look on his face. “Does your psychiatrist know?”
“It's not stuff for jokes, boy. Look.” The younger hunter handed him a smart phone with a video. “It's a recording from surveillance around your school. Look at its eyes.” The fragment showed Raven walking with some of her friends. When she looked in the direction of the camera, her eyes glowed strangely.
“It's a reflex of light, nothing more.” But the hunter shook his head.
“Look.” The fragment ended, but the video showed another one. Raven's eyes were glowing in that one too. And then in another one. Charles controlled his expression and changed it into one of worry.
“So if she's not human, then what is she?”
“It's a shape-shifter. They are dangerous creatures that kill people to steal their identities. We are hunters. We make sure that monsters, like her and many others, don't hurt humans.”
“But I've known her since we were kids. She's never hurt anyone.” Charles knew that it would seem suspicious, if he accepted their point of view right away.
“Do you know what happens when kids get tigers as pets? As long as the tiger is small, it's cute and fluffy, but when it grows up, it won't have any reservations against biting off the hand that fed it.”
The hunter replied and Charles shuddered inside. Not because he was afraid of Raven. He was almost too angry to restrain himself. Those men knew nothing of Raven, and of tigers apparently, but they would accuse her of being a monster. Conceal, don't feel Charles. He heard Raven's voice in his head. You can let it go later.
“You say that she could be a danger to me and my family?” He asked, trying not to show his real feelings.
“We know that it is.” The hunter replied, proud of himself because he thought that they had managed to convince him.
“Could you be wrong though? What if those were really light reflexes?”
“There is a simple way to find out.” Said the younger hunter and then he explained the test with the spoon.
Charles pretended to be amazed. “How do you know all that? Could you tell me more about those monsters you hunt?”
The men discussed it quickly and invited him to their hotel room where they had their things. One of them showed him a binder full of sketches of different creatures with their characteristics written beside. “This is a hunter's journal. This one belonged to our father, his father before and many others. Our family had been in business of hunting monsters for generations.”
Charles was genuinely fascinated by the journal and other books they had. They also showed him their weapons. He spent a long time with them, reading through the most interesting things and talking to the hunters. The work they did was an important one and he could see it, but he couldn't agree with their methods. They believed that all monsters were guilty, but Charles knew better. When he had to leave they gave him their phone number and he agreed to perform the test with the silver spoon. When he had closed the door, he could hear them congratulating themselves on recruitment well done.
Three days later Charles called the hunters. “You were right.” He begun, not even caring to introduce himself. He didn't have to. “I gave her the spoon you gave me and it bunt her, she said it was from cooking, but thanks to you I know the truth. That ungrateful, little liar.”
“Don't do anything on your own. It's dangerous.” Said the voice on the phone.
“So you guys come and get that lying monster. I'll leave you the door open. The rest of the family is gone for the weekend, so it's just me and it at the house.” Charles emphasised the pronoun to show his contempt. He then gave them the address.
“We'll be there in the evening.”
However, when evening came, it wasn't the filled with hatred teenager that let them into the house. Charles was furious and he was done with the pretence.
“Stay where you are.” He ordered them, not even bothering to hide his abilities. “You think you were so clever? That you've convinced a brother to betray his sister?”
“It's not your...” One of the hunters tried arguing, but Charles would have none of it.
“Silence! How dare you? Raven will always be my sister. You think she hasn't told me?” He asked, letting it show in his voice how little he thought of them. “She showed me when we first met. I adopted her as my sister, knowing full well who she was. And guess what? It doesn't matter. Raven is more human than the both of you put together. You would kill an innocent girl, because that's exactly who she is, saying that it's to protect humans? Then who's the monster in this equation?”
“You're psychic. You're as bad as the rest of the monsters.” The older hunter said. Charles could feel their disdain towards him and their fury at the inability to do anything.
“Silence! I wanted to kill the two of you for what you have done. Raven didn't remember it, but it was you who had killed her innocent parents. I've seen it in your minds. I told her about it and do you want to know what she said? She said that you're not worth it. That I shouldn't become a killer because of you. She told me to spare your lives, even though you wouldn't have done the same for her. You should remember that, but you won't. You won't remember nor Raven, nor me, nor this place. You will forget that you were hunters because you're not worthy of that name. In ten minutes the police will catch the both of you running away from the house with my mother's jewellery and when you're in the station you'll confess to the crimes you've committed. I hope I'll never see the both of you again. Now go!”
When the police officers left, having returned the 'stolen' jewellery, the siblings spent a lot of time just sitting together. Charles was crying because he had never done such a terrible thing to another person's mind. He knew that it was for Raven's safety. He knew that those men would have come after them again, if he hadn't done that, but it did little to soothe him. He didn't regret having done that, but he regretted being forced to do it in the first place.
A week later Charles went to the hotel where the hunters had lived. When they got arrested and didn't pay the bill in the hotel, the management wanted to get rid of their stuff and Charles talked his way into helping them with the problem. That way he came into possession of many weapons and books on the supernatural which included the precious hunter's journal.
The true knowledge of supernatural became a new obsession for the siblings, but later just knowledge wasn't enough anymore. Knowing there were monsters around, that most people knew nothing of, was difficult for Charles and Raven. If they had the knowledge, they felt obligated to use it. They trained and both became hunters, promising each other to only ever hunt those who hurt others and not those who were innocent, no matter their species.
***
Going there after the sunset was probably the most insane idea he could have come up with. Who would try to fight their enemies when they were at their strongest? But Charles didn't have a choice in that matter. As far as his stepfamily was aware, he was at the moment fast asleep in his bed at home. He wasn't concerned that they would check on him, but nights were the only time he could afford to spend on his secret vocation, if it was to remain secret.
The building he was observing looked like a normal house. Not that he expected it to look like a lair of evil, but still some small, childish part of him was slightly disappointed to have his teenage fantasies confronted with reality. The two-story building, with white walls and a roof covered with dark tiles, didn't give away the monstrosities hidden inside and though vampires rarely preyed on people so close to their nests, Charles was slightly amazed that there were no warning signs.
Usually the siblings worked cases together, but Raven was visiting her friends in another state for summer holidays and Charles couldn't just ignore the series of violent kills and kidnappings, that no one suspected to be linked, in the city. This was why he was observing the vampires' nest. He had done his research and then managed to find a trace that led him to this building. There was no doubt that this was the right place. Charles could hear the lazy thoughts of the inhabitants slowly waking from all-day slumber. The nest consisted of ten vampires. He had to strike fast before they managed to shake the sleepiness of them.
However, before he decided to act, something else caught his attention. Someone else was approaching the house. It was a human and though Charles strangely couldn't hear his thoughts, he had to be a hunter. Charles hesitated. He rarely worked with others for fear of leading them to Raven. The man seemed confident too, so Charles decided to wait, but watched closely with his mind's eye, not directly of course, but through the eyes of the vampires inside. The hunter was astonishingly good at his work. Charles had never seen anyone, apart from Raven, move with such cat-like grace. Three of the vampires fell down beheaded even before anyone noticed the intruder, but then the leader of the nest got into the fight with the hunter. They were practically a match, both incredibly agile and extremely fast. But the other vampires weren't going to watch the duel. Charles could feel their intentions and knew that the man, however good he was, had no chance against all of them. Their strength was in numbers and they were going to to use the advantage.
Charles had no plan to watch the man get slaughtered, so he rushed in, his machetes swishing in the air. He cut off the head of the first vampire that attacked him, not even having enough time to notice what it looked like. Next was a girl, maybe his age, she was beautiful and looked innocent. But Charles had seen her victims. Bodies sucked dry of blood. He had seen the minds of those humans that the vampires kept as slaves. He swung his weapon at her and seconds later her head fell to the ground, decorating him and the walls with the girl's blood on its way down. Next was a big dark-skinned vampire that tried to grab him, but Charles moved to the side and his opponent was thrown off balance. It was almost too easy to finish him off with one clean cut. The other hunter was still fighting with the leader, but it wasn't a duel anymore. Three more vampires attacked him. The man managed to kill them, but they distracted him from the leader, who took the opportunity to bite his opponent's neck. Charles saw the man fall to the floor, blood gushing from his wound. The vampire was at the moment concentrated on his victim, so he didn't notice a knife that Charles threw at him until it reached him, immersing up to the hilt in his arm.
“You stupid human!” The monster snarled. “Don't you know it can't hurt me? You can't save your hunter friend!” But then the vampire wavered. “What...”
“Check again asshole!” The blade of the knife had been laced with dead man's blood.
Charles finished the vampire off easily after that. He then knelt next to the wounded hunter. Although, it looked terrifyingly, the wound wasn't profound. The vampire's fangs barely grazed the man's throat from the side, but the blood was coming out in concerning amounts.
“Do you have a first-aid kit?” Charles asked concerned for the man.
“In my... In my car. It's... it's parked on the other street.” He clearly had trouble with speaking, the pain preventing him from moving his neck.
“Don't speak. Come, I'll help you bandage it.” Charles helped him up.
“The prisoners?” The hunter asked.
“They'll be fine. I'll come back for them in a moment. You can't help anybody, if you bleed to death.”
“Fine.”
They walked to the man's car and Charles helped him clean and dress the wound. It was a nasty sight, but it wasn't really life threatening, so Charles focused on doing his job quickly.
“Press it for some time.” Charles said when he finished. “I'll go help the prisoners.”
“Thank you.” The man said when Charles was already leaving and Charles thought that the man didn't only mean the bandaging he'd just performed.
“Don't mention it.” He just replied and walked off.
Back at the house Charles headed straight for the cellar where he could sense the minds of the victims. They were terrified of what would happen. The prisoners had heard the fight, but they had no idea about the outcome of it. When he was close enough he said loudly, so that they could hear him through the thick wooden door.
“Don't be afraid. I'm here to help you and the vampires who kidnapped you are no longer a threat.” The massive wave of relief that hit his senses was overwhelming. “You're safe.”
Charles quickly picked the lock using his tools. When he opened the door his sense of smell was flooded by the scent of unwashed bodies and urine. The inside of the room was small, too small for seven people that were inside. The vampires didn't care at all for their prisoners. To them those people were just food. It wasn't the first time Charles had seen people in similar situations, but he was still deeply moved by their state.
“It's all right.” He tried to reassure them again and maybe he needed to believe it too. “Can all of you walk?” They answered with quiet words and nods. “Then let's get the hell out of this place.”
The victims were weak. Some of them were wobbling, but apart from overall exhaustion, malnutrition and of course teeth marks, they seemed to be alright. Charles was surprised to see the other hunter waiting for them in front of the house.
It was the first time he could have a good look at the man, Charles' mind had previously been too caught in the battle and worry to care about looks. He was suddenly aware of the man's handsomeness. The hunter was tall and lean, yet muscular. His light brown hair was a sweaty mess at the moment, but it did nothing to put Charles off, if possible even made him more interested, his mind already imagining other situations that could lead the man to such a state. His intelligent, steel-blue eyes looked straight at Charles, as if he knew what he had been thinking. No, it was impossible. Charles would have felt, if there had been someone in his mind. He had to concentrate. The whole picture was suddenly crushed when Charles' eyes stopped at the man's neck and the white line of the bandage that was already starting to soak through.
“You're wounded. You shouldn't be here.” Charles' words were accusatory. He was suddenly annoyed with the man for endangering himself.
“So I should let you claim all the glory for yourself? And in front of the lovely ladies?” He winked at one female victim. His voice was playful and totally inappropriate for Charles' taste. He didn't seem like someone who had been injured not so long ago.
“Damn you! You think it's funny? It's not a game! It's not a competition!”
“Relax. You can't be so serious all the time. Do you have a car?” When Charles shook his head the man continued. “So I have thought. That's why I haven't left. Let's get all of you far away from here.” He raised a can of gasoline. “Oh and let's burn this shithole to the ground.”
“But the evidence...” Started one of the victims, but the hunter interrupted.
“You really think someone will care about evidence here? I have seen the Feds cleaning some of such cases and taking care of the witnesses. You want to spend your life in a mental institution?” The hunter's voice wasn't angry, he understood. When the woman shook her head he continued. “I didn't think so. Trust me, it's for the better.”
Charles and the other hunter made a quick job of spilling the gasoline inside and around the house. It wouldn't be a problem, if they missed some places. Most of the furniture in the house was wooden, so it would catch fire easily. They only took special care of the bodies and the cellar where the prisoners were kept. They went out of the building and Charles threw a lit match at the gasoline trail.
Both hunters and the people they rescued crowded into the hunter's car. The man had been thoughtful enough to have protective covers for the seats. Fortunately the car was quite big, with five normal seats and two additional in the back of the car, so they all managed to fit in, though two people had to sit in other people's laps. Charles sat it the passenger's front seat. They quickly established a route that covered all the victims' houses and the other hunter drove off. Five minutes later Charles called the emergency line to report the fire. Then he explained a few things to the people, he could hear their minds screaming with uncertainty about what had happened, so he helped them, easing their way into the knowledge of the supernatural, however badly it might have started.
After all the victims were safely at homes, a strange silence fell in the car. Charles was still wondering why he couldn't hear the other man's thoughts. It was as if the other man wasn't even there or had some sort of wall shielding his mind. Charles was used to hearing people's thoughts, to sensing their emotions. He didn't abuse his powers. He didn't go deep into the minds he could sense, but some thoughts were just loud and it would be a struggle for him to keep them all out. With this man Charles felt really strange. It was probably a similar feeling to suddenly going blind when someone was used to seeing their whole life. However, years of hearing people's thoughts hadn't made him lose his observation skills. The other hunter clearly came from money, as evidenced by his car, a posh Land Rover, and the manner in which he wore his perfectly fitting designer's clothes. The man was young, maybe two or three years older than Charles himself, and he was so damnably handsome despite the bandage on his neck and the blood staining his shirt. Charles was pretty much sure that such handsomeness shouldn't be possible.
“Where can I drop you off?” The man asked, breaking Charles away from his musings. Charles gave him an address that was near the train station. They might have worked together, but Charles hadn't kept Raven safe for such a long time, so that he could lead a hunter straight to her. Even if said hunter was so deliciously beautiful.
“We haven't had time to properly introduce ourselves in that mess.” The man smiled at him, and Charles had to admit that the hunter was even more handsome when he smiled. “I'm Erik. Erik Lehnsherr.” The man extended his hand while they were waiting at the red light.
“I'm Charles.” He shook the man's – Erik's, he reminded himself – hand. The hunter was waiting for some time, like he thought Charles would give him his last name, but then he shrugged.
“It's really nice to meet you.” Charles rolled his eyes at this. They've just fought at each other's side and Erik was trying the small talk? “Hey. I'm not joking. You've just saved my life. It's not a small thing. If you weren't there, I'd be vampires' pray now. So when I said, that it was nice to meet you, I meant it, Charles.”
“Listen, Erik, what I did there, anyone would do in these circumstances.” Charles looked at the other hunter. “You might think that it was something special, but actually it was you who was amazing. I saw the way you fought. I've never seen a human move like you did there.” He thought about Raven. She could do that, but no one else could.
“Doesn't change the fact that it was you, not anyone else that saved my life there.” Erik looked Charles in the eyes and they stayed like that for a moment, until Charles told the man off.
“Hey! You're driving. Eyes on the road.” The man chuckled slightly, but did as he was told.
“I've never had an accident in my life. I can't explain it, but if something was coming, I would have known.” Now, that was really interesting, Charles mused, added to the fact that the man's mind was impenetrable for Charles' abilities, it created an interesting complex, that could hardly be a coincidence.
“In any case, I'd appreciate, if you didn't test your luck when I'm here.” Charles answered.
Erik didn't reply, just nodded, his eyes now glued to the road, which was - Charles had to admit in spite of his previous statements - quite disappointing. Erik had really interesting, steel-blue eyes. “I know you don't think that what you did for me was something special, but for me it was. It's not a debt I could ever repay, but I'd hate for it to be the last time we see each other.” He looked at Charles again when they stopped at another red light and Charles had a strange urge to scream that he wanted to see the hunter again too. He remained silent instead, letting Erik continue. “At least let me invite you for a drink. I owe you that.”
“I've told you already.” Charles replied catching an annoying note. “You don't owe me anything.”
“If you say so.” Erik said, though it was clear that he thought otherwise. “I'd like to invite you for a drink anyway.”
“I can't right now. I have a busy day tomorrow.” Damn him. Charles wanted to go with Erik anywhere, preferably some place private, still he knew it was dangerous. He knew nothing about the man and he had to think about Raven. He didn't want to endanger her because of his recklessness and inappropriate desires. Fuck. He didn't even know if Erik would be interested, but he wanted to kiss the other man all over and if he could, he would definitely not stop there.
Fortunately, they had arrived at the address Charles gave the man earlier because Charles could feel his cheeks growing red. When Charles got out of the posh car, Erik handed him a card. “When you find some time in your busy schedule, you can call me.”
Charles walked slowly towards the house in front of him, until he saw the car turn and he lost sight of it. Then he started in the direction of the train station. He glanced at the card he still held in his hand and stopped to take a deep breath. He knew he had heard the name before, but his mind, that was tired and still somewhat high after the fight, had failed to make the connection. What the hell, was the heir to Genosha company doing, hunting vampires?
Genosha was one of the biggest companies in the world. Charles wasn't really interested in the market, but it was a name everybody knew. It's owner, Jakob Lehnsherr, was considered to be amongst the wealthiest and the most influential people on the planet. So why was Erik hunting monsters?
Charles was still thinking about Erik when he was back at home ready to go to sleep. Was the other man really interested in seeing him again? And if so, was Charles ready to let someone in, especially someone he couldn't reach with his mind? The questions bothered him until he finally fell asleep. He dreamt of steel-blue eyes gazing straight into his soul and though he didn't remember it in the morning, he felt really good despite few hours of sleep.