After hunting in the outskirts, finding the means to sate his hunger in the countryside, the vampire had returned to the quiet hum of the city limits. It was not so often now that he needed to feed, those nights had long since passed in millenia now condemned to history books and stories.
For tonight at least, the act served to colour his complexion and warm the cold marble of his features.
The pain rose in jarring rounds, surrounding her completely as if covered by a heavy shroud and the acrid stench of her burnt flesh hung unpleasantly at his nose. It was an all too familiar scent, and one delivered again and again with the turning of new centuries. He wrinkled his nose against it, regarding her agony from a cautious distance as she stumbled and sobbed her way along the otherwise empty street.
She seemed young to him, but far older for her experience and the ache that seemed to extend beyond her small presence against the buildings which sprawled around her.
He ought to leave her be, he thought to himself, not wishing to meddle should he aid in inviting whatever or whoever had caused her harm to return to their callous work. Yet curiosity and compassion bid him to approach.
Mael reached out, carefully and gently, to probe the edges of her mind to soothe and to warn her of his presence lest his sudden appearance cause her further distress or exacerbate her fear.
‘You have nothing to fear from me, child’ he beseeched silently and as gently as he could muster as he watched her.
‘Why are you out here so alone?’
Nolwenn stopped walking when she felt his mind touch hers. It wasn't an unpleasant sensation so she didn't try to push him out. She didn't sense any hostility from him so she stayed where she was.
Her eyes quickly swept over the area before she spotted him. She saw past his body and into his soul. He had a bright and beautiful soul, which meant he didn't go around savagely slaughtering people or torturing them to death. She felt herself relax a little but didn't move closer to him.
I don't have a place to stay. I ran away from him --- Gwenhael --- but I shouldn't have. Ten years ago, he saved me from a strigoi and let me live with him since my parents are dead and I have no idea where my siblings are. I would've stayed with one of them if I knew. He wanted to change me into a pricolici after ten years of periodically giving me his blood. I got scared and left him. I should go back to him and let him change me.
She would've gone to one of her siblings if she actually knew where they were. The youngest of them was five hundred years old and the oldest was over a thousand. She knew their names and what they looked like thanks to her parents sharing their memories of them but she didn't know how to find them. Her parents had lost track of them over the years, and she had to assume her siblings had lost track of each other too.