Cleansing the soul

Aliceabella finished looking around then hesitantly seated herself on the edge of the bed.

Evangeline rolled onto her stomach, smirking. "Like it?"

Aliceabella nodded, "It's nice." She whispered.

Evangeline seemed pleased with this. "Good. Because you'll probably be seeing a lot more of it than I originally intended."

Aliceabella blinked, "Hmm?"

Evangeline blinked, then shook her head. "Forget it."

"No, tell me." Aliceabella persisted.

Evangeline rolled her eyes. "I'm glad you like the room, because you'll be seeing more of it than I had expected you to when I first brought you here."

"Oh." Aliceabella nodded, "Right." She wriggled her arms out of the robe, scars shining pink on her pale skin.

Evangeline frowned and reached out to seize her arm. "Where did you get those?"

"Oh, I have lots of those." Aliceabella tried to remember what those specific scars were because of.

Evangeline's frown deepened. "Damian is dead?"

"More or less." Aliceabella shrugged.

Evangeline nodded. "He better be. Wait, more or less?"

Aliceabella ran her fingers across the bite marks on her inner thigh, "He won't stay dead. He possess people, he gets to me mentally, he does anything and everything he can to let me know he'll never really be gone."

Evangeline moved to sit between Aliceabella's legs. "If he comes in here he'll have to take true form. I'll kill him, or have Chachamaru fight him. He won't get to you."

Aliceabella shook her head, "It's a nice thought, but you don't understand. It's not just him being alive at times thats the problem, its him being dead."

Evangeline raised an eyebrow. "I don't follow."

Aliceabella chewed on her lip, "Despite that fact he hurt me, he gave me a home and a better life than I could have ever got living in the small village I'd been born into. If it wasn't for him, I would never have come to Chicago, I wouldn't be here now, I'd probably be working in a farm in Romania. That and I've got to explain to Vlad why he's got no father, I've got another baby on the way and I can't cope!" Tears slid down her face slowly.

Evangeline blinked. "Calm down. Now, what do you want me to do?"

Aliceabella took a deep breath and wiped the tears from her face, "There's nothing you can do." She whispered. "What's done is done."

Evangeline carefully drew Aliceabella into a hug. "Calm down." she repeated. "He won't get to you in here."

Aliceabella nodded, "He said he'd protect me from Damian anyway..." She whispered, remembering something.

Evangeline frowned. "He?"

Aliceabella indicated to her stomach, "The father. He said one of the things he'd do because I was pregnant with his baby was protect me, although I dont know if he actually would..." She sighed.