Not Quite What Was Planned [DragonSong]

[Juno]

He just blinked at them, shaking his head in disbelief. It was starting to feel like a trap, but there was no way such an impossible day had been arranged.

With a short, nervous sigh and a bit of anxious plucking at the collar of his shirt Dominik stepped closer to the brothers ready to follow wherever it was Cara wanted them to take him.

[DragonSong]

Aiden, still looking thoroughly annoyed by having a stranger in their midsts, grunted under his breath and jerked his head toward the workroom, looping one arm around Liam’s waist to help his brother hobble along.

There was anothe door out of the workroom, tucked against the left wall, that led into the cottage proper. Aiden cast a sharp glance at Dominik as he held it open. “Go on then.”

[Juno]

He'd followed after them silently, wincing at the limp to Liam's gait as they stepped through to the workroom and then even further to Cara's cottage. Looking up when he felt Aiden's eyes on him he stepped through to the space, his body slightly tense for the unfamiliarity of it all.

Exhaling a shuddering sigh he went to take a seat at her table, leaning forward to rest his cheek over his forearms and his back to the nearest wall. There was a small voice in the back of his head warning him that he was blocked in, that he was in a house with strangers he might not necessarily be able to trust, that he was defenseless with all his weapons staying in Cara's shop. Dominik pushed it back, though, trying to remain calm so he could at least hear out whatever it was they had to say to one another. If it was all crazy talk he would just leave anyway, but if it was real...if it could change his life he wanted to know.

[DragonSong]

Aiden and Liam followed him into the cozy main room of the cottage, and for a moment both of them relaxed, the familiarity of home surrounding them.

Aiden snapped out of it first. "You sit," he urged his brother, nudging him toward a threadbare armchair. Liam sank into it with a groan and wince. "And you." Aiden turned to the hunter, expression blank, but the chill the radiated from him seemed to grow slightly more intense. "Alright. How much does he know, exactly?"

Though he was still looking at Dominik, his question seemed to be directed to Liam. The werewolf huffed and shrugged. "He knows I'm a shifter-- werewolf. And that Cara's a witch."

[Juno]

Dominik flinched at the chill rolling off Aiden, unsuccessful as he tried to stifle a harsh shiver. There was something really unsettling about the man he just couldn't pinpoint.

He shrugged in agreement with Liam, figuring there were other things he should have been privy to but slightly comforted by the fact that at least two of the siblings seemed to have something a bit...unusual about them. "That's all I know," he agreed quietly, turning his head to rest his cheek on his arms and eye Aiden curiously. "What else should I know?"

[DragonSong]

Aiden snorted and Liam sighed. "You, ah...might wanna sit down," the werewolf muttered after a moment, hobbling further into the room to collapse into a chair beside the hearth himself. "It's-- well it's kind of a long story..."

"We don't have time for the full version." Aiden glanced at his little brother with a frown. Little brother. Gods, Liam looked...almost older than him now. His chest tightened painfully, but it put it from his mind. "I wouldn't have come back if it wasn't serious. Cara's in danger here, and so are you, if you've come back. I wanted to get us all out of the area, but with your hip like that..."

His eyes flicked to Dominik, scowling.

[Juno]

Dominik grimaced for the pointed look. Aiden really liked rubbing it in, didn't he? The hunter turned his eyes on Liam instead, trying not to look at his brother any more than he needed to.

"Someone have a grudge against your family?" he guessed, having no idea how a witch and a werewolf could possibly share an enemy if not by blood. What did he have to do with all of this, though? And how had Aiden found out about it at all?

His imagination told him their brother might have had a hand in orchestrating it, but he kept quiet about that. It served no purpose to goad him any more than he already had.

[DragonSong]

"You might say that," Aiden sighed, at the same time Liam huffed and chuckled wryly, "Who doesn't have a grudge against our family."

"Well, that's rather ominous." Cara appeared in the doorway, glancing from her brothers to their guest.

Both Aiden and Liam straightened up, looking for all the world like little boys about to receive a scolding. For a moment Cara seemed entirely prepared to fulfill that expectation, then she sighed and dropped her eyes, moving across the room toward the hearth, snapping her fingers to light the fire.

"I'll make some tea..."

[Juno]

Dominik grew tense at their answers. How could they be so calm talking like that? Perhaps they'd already known for a long time, but he was starting to get the feeling he'd stumbled into the worst possible family to tangle himself up with...whatever mess they were in.

Feeling a little anxious and jittery he sat up in his chair, loosely folding his arms across his chest instead. Watching Cara by the fire he bounced his leg beneath the table, his heel tapping lightly at the floor. Nobody seemed in any sort of rush despite the circumstances that were being laid out to him piece by piece.

"What else, then?" he promptly quietly, eyes lingering on each of them in turn.

[DragonSong]

A three way glance was exchanged between the siblings. Then Aiden sighed and leaned back on his heels, rubbing at his temples. "Remember that bit about it being a long story? We weren't exaggerating." He glanced at the window. "And I'm not sure how much of it we have time to tell."

"Oh gods, don't be so dramatic." Cara rolled her eyes and leaned against the hearth. "If the danger was immediate, you two would already be long gone, wouldn't you?"

Both her brothers winced and dropped their eyes.

[Juno]

He eyed them all skeptically, shaking his head at the hurt puppy reactions of the brothers. "Long story is fine," Dominik cut in with a sigh. "Whatever you have time to tell me, just- I'd like to know something."

[DragonSong]

Another three way look.

Then, slowly, Liam started to talk. He began at the beginning-- which made sense, Cara supposed, though Aiden kept shifting nervously and glancing toward the window as dusk faded to evening.

The werewolf explained as concisely as he could, how first Aiden had been attacked and turned into a vampire-- which explained the unnatural chill-- and he himself had been bitten by a feral werewolf while searching for some sort of cure.

And both brothers decided that what they were, and what had turned them, made it too dangerous to stay with their sister.

Cara snorted and moved to take the kettle off the hearth, pouring two cups and handing one to Dominik. "Here."

[Juno]

Dominik furrowed his brow thoughtfully at Liam's explanation, a little nervous to realize there was a parallel between their past and his own. Perhaps leaving his mother alone in her house had been a poor decision, perhaps she had as much pent up grief as he'd witnessed from Cara previously that day. He grimaced at the thought, hoping she might have found closure in the years of his absence. There really wasn't a way to ever return to his home without revealing what he was, risking death or becoming truly exiled instead of the self-made sort that had still given him a somewhat comfortable life.

He was drawn from his thoughts by Cara entering his vision, the cup she held out for him steaming and warm as he took it into his hands. Sipping at the tea he realized he wasn't feeling so tense now that they'd shared a bit of their secrets with him, the whole day still so surreal with the unlikely events that had led them to Cara's table.

"And now you're here," the hunter mused quietly, glancing between the two men across from him. "Because you trust yourselves more around her now? Or... only because there is more danger than yourselves?"

[DragonSong]

Aiden grunted and the chill that pulsed from him grew stronger for a moment. Liam sighed and dropped his eyes, cowering under the glare Cara shot in their direction.

"More the latter," the werewolf muttered. "I thought-- we thought, if we just stayed away, the people hunting us would leave Cara alone."

Aiden gritted his teeth and glanced toward the window again. "It seems we were wrong."

[Juno]

Instinctively he leaned away from the harsh cold rolling off Aiden. He couldn't really escape it, though, the sensation stretching to fill the air all around him.

"Why...do they hunt her?" he found himself asking, swallowing nervously as he glanced towards the window the vampire kept looking towards. He couldn't really make anything out in the darkness with the way the fire reflected in the glass.

"What does this have to do with me?" he pressed with an involuntary shudder. "You said something about my scent and Liam- Liam's blood."

[DragonSong]

"They hunt her because she means something to us," Aiden replied bluntly, though his expression softened a bit when he looked at his sister. "It's why we left. We wanted to protect her--"

Cara didn't bother to even look at him. She'd heard this all before.

"I'm not sure, but I'm guessing the ferals are tracking Liam, since his sire is one of them, so he technically belongs to their pack, right?" she said instead of answering her brother, looking from Liam to Dominik. "Which means you now smell like Liam. So they'll be after you too. Blood is strong, especially for weres and vampires."

She sighed and gave him a regretful look as she sipped at her own tea. "I'm sorry you got dragged into this."

He seemed...oddly fine with it though, all things considered. He hadn't even freaked out when Aiden was revealed to be a vampire, not just a mage with a penchant for cold spells.

[Juno]

A small voice in the back of his mind told him it was all wrong, that he shouldn't be there. What they explained felt like one giant trap, but it was one he was probably already stuck in if he had any faith in the truth of their words.

He thought he could easily fly away without a trace, leaving no clear trail behind him on the wind. Uprooting was no longer difficult, it was only a matter of deciding in his travels but...perhaps he would eventually be found again. And then he would be alone with nobody to warn him.

"So what? Will they kill me if they find me? If I want to live am I stuck with you now?" he blurted out with a disbelieving chuckle, shaking his head and dropping his elbows to the table to rest his face in his hands. They were a strange trio to be sure, but...he got the feeling they weren't exactly a danger to him on their own if they were bothering to explain their plight.

[DragonSong]

"I wouldn't say stuck with us--" Liam stared.

"Yeah, probably," Aiden cut across him, and Cara rolled her eyes.

"Most creatures like my brothers have an incredibly good sense of smell," the witch murmured, sipping her tea again. "It'll take weeks for the scent of Liam's blood to fade properly. What Aiden means is, until then, you're probably better off with a bit of...protection."

[Juno]

Weeks?

Dominik felt his stomach sink. For some reason he hadn't expected it to actually be the case when he'd asked. What in the world was he going to do?

"But...I can't stay here," he mumbled automatically, dread clenching at his heart. Sure he'd wanted to help with Liam for a bit to assuage his guilt, but he'd planned on spending his nights outside in the open where he might be able to sneak off without anyone noticing. Needing protection...that plan was dead and his wings only ached and itched desperately for the reminder.

That the brothers were something other than human hadn't bothered him until he'd begun to realize he would be living with it. Old demons reared their heads in his mind as he looked between the trio warily. Sooner or later they would see him for what he was if they didn't already and he had no idea what would happen in weeks with them.

He was pretty sure Aiden already wanted to him dead, and while Liam was weak...he had no idea what the man was still capable of or might become capable of once he started to regain his strength. Cara...he was entirely stumped by her.

He hung his head, nodding distractedly in acceptance. "You...wouldn't just hand me over if they came here?" he asked warily, having no idea why he posed a question of trust when he wasn't even sure he could take their word as truth.

[DragonSong]

"What?!" Aiden looked enraged by the very thought, while Liam exclaimed, "Of course we wouldn't!"

For once, Cara seemed to be the calm one, eyes fixed on Dominik's face. "No," she murmured. "You'd be safe here. I'd keep you safe, I promise."

"Well..."

She closed her eyes, took a breath, then turned to glare at her brothers. "What?"

Liam swallowed and Aiden dropped his eyes. "It's...not exactly...safe...here."

Cara continued to stare, saying nothing. Liam huffed and picked up where his brother had left off, "That's why we came back Wy-- Cara. We need to take you somewhere safe?"

Aiden snorted and added with a nod toward the hunter, "And him too, it seems."