Saving Soul

Adair continued to lean against Anja, even though he knew he would never hear the end of it Voltaire later. It seemed to soothe him.

"Fiery? You okay?" asked Ava.

"...Yeah. I'm fine," the Hero answered drowsily. "Just...tired."

"Don't know why. You sure sleep alot." Anja mumbled under her breath.

"It's because of my heart," Adair said sadly. "I get sleepy easily. Sorry."

"Well what's wrong with your heart?" Anja asked

"It got stabbed through by my family, remember?" Adair growled. "It's been broken ever since."

"Oh..." Anja murmured "Sorry"

"It's okay," Adair murmured. "...Well not really, but it's not your fault."

Anja fell silent again. Now she really did feel bad.

Adair was also silent, though not out of spite. He was just so tired.

"...I'm a little surprised he'd tell you about that," Voltaire commented after a while. "Usually he doesn't tell anyone about that."

"We ran out of things to talk about." Anja stated dryly. "About why I hate heros."

Voltaire snickered. "His family's a bunch of assholes, but he defends them anyway."

"Hey," growled Adair, though not bothering to move from Anja's side.

"See?"

"He's a hero. He's been conditioned to do it."

"So why are you giving him flack for it?" Voltaire asked lazily. "I give him flack just to annoy him. It's fun to pick on him. Why do you do it?"

"Habit. I don't mush care for heroes." Anja replied.

(flack?)

(flack = trouble, crap, etc.)

"Yeah, they can be annoying," Voltaire commented absently. "Especially when they think they know what they're doing but they don't."

Adair would have protested, but he had already mostly drifted off to sleep against Anja's shoulder.

"Story of my life."

"Same," replied Voltaire. "I'm a Hunter. Hunters and Heroes tend to butt heads even when we work together."

"Heroes killed off my entire village when I was six or seven" Anja stated.

"...Oh," Voltaire replied, not sure what else to say to that. It explained a lot. He glanced at the snoozing Adair. "Well, try not to break Mr. Hero's heart. It's broken enough as it is."

Anja sighed. "I can't help what he does you know."

"Yeah, but you can help what you do, outside of getting bitten by a Little Death," Voltaire answered. "...Was it you or him that got bit?"

"Him." Anja replied. "And by the time I remembered what they were, I couldn't even do anything more than let him use me."

"There's not a lot you can do even if you've just got bit, aside from bleeding yourself," Voltaire answered. It sounded like rape, which Voltaire kind of suspected in the first place. There wouldn't have been much she could have done to resist in her injured state, especially if she couldn't summon. "You know, they use those things to make Love-Death Potions. It's pretty much a concentrated form of their aphrodisiac venom. If you drink it, or get tricked into drinking it, then you have to have sex or you die. It's a pretty evil form of seduction."

"I'm used to it." Anja shrugged. "Its not like its the first time I've been used"

"Ouch. Adair know that?" Voltaire asked. "I mean, I don't think he'd really care unless you're a total whore."