There were a lot of questions, and the girls, as well as myself when I was needed, answered them to the best of our abilities. Sheila, Terroth, and Marina had wide eyes as they heard about Cici's ass kicking that she gave all of the now dead men in question. Well, that one guy may or may not be dead by now. I wasn't sure, but thinking about it... if he did live, he could be questioned or something. I wasn't curious enough to heal the asshole, as I was pretty determined to visit Farendell in the near future and... lets say, change the power structure. After what they did to Valerie... I would not let it go unpunished. And I'm pretty sure she could bring me right to them.
"I would have had the other guy too, but then my darling here hit the ground, looking so cool, and then ripped the guy's arm off and beat him with it." Cici said, stars in her eyes, and that made me smirk.
Everyone listened to her with wrapped attention, with Clarissa recounting her side of the whole thing after Cici finished. Valerie still chose to remain silent. Goddamn those guys for making her feel like this. Still, she was trying her best and putting up a strong front. I just wanted her to get to a point to where she could truly act as strong as I knew she was.
The whole time, I couldn't help but smile at the way Marina actually had her arms wrapped around Terroth's much larger one. Yeah, it was still kinda weird, but also strangely cute. She really seemed to be softening, and the way she looked at the large bear man was not lost on me. And Sheila... well, she just kept looking at me and licking her lips, and man... I couldn't say I disliked it, or how her soft lips looked. I heard a small giggle in my mind at that thought.
"I'm glad you are finally getting used to the idea." She said in my mind, and I had to hold back a snort.
"Nothing will change how I feel about you, but... I won't lie and say I'm not feeling more attached to them." I said, and she looked at me outwardly and smiled.
"I know, darling. I am too... I honestly never really thought about it that much. They're all so sweet, but also... well, they are very alluring, even to me. I can think of so many things we could all do together." She said, and that put a whole lot of different images in my mind that I had to fight off pretty quickly.
"Kitten, maybe not in public, yeah?" I replied, and her mental giggle was melodic.
"I'll try. I'm sorry, darling. I shouldn't be in heat for too much longer, so my hormones should calm down in the next few days." She said, and that sentence both relieved and saddened me at the same time.
The conversation with everyone else tapered off pretty quickly after that, and there really wasn't any reason to stay around here much longer. It took a bit of convincing, but I assured Marina that Clarissa was safe with me, and that I would stay with them. I was technically done at the guild, at least for now. Thankfully I was able to get most of what I needed to get done finished before I had to come out here.
"Well... if that's the case..." Marina said, turning her green eyes to Terroth, making the man blush slightly. Clarissa laughed.
"Go, we are fine. Enjoy your day, Marina. You've more than earned some time to relax for all you've done for me." Clarissa said, and that made Marina's eyes sparkle as she turned back to Terroth.
"Maybe you can show me around some more? And maybe we can grab Kelsa once she's done with work?" She asked, making the man blush again, but the smile on his face looked good on him.
"Sure... I-I'd be glad to." He said, and that made Marina smile wide as she turned to us, said her goodbyes, and then began to drag Terroth off down the street.
"If I'm alive, I'll see you all later tonight." Terroth said with a small chuckle, and that made everyone laugh as we all waved goodbye to the pair.
"Huh... well, he looks happy at least. That's all I care about. Even if it is strange." Sheila said with a shrug.
"I had no idea Marina could be so... cute." Cici said, and Clarissa began laughing merrily.
"She is so cute, you have no idea." She said, seemingly reminiscing, "She would always talk to me about finding love and romance like in the stories she likes to read. She always has liked... well, particular stories, and most of them involved people like Terroth, or all of you for example." She said, gesturing at the Cici and Sheila, particularly their cute fuzzy appendages.
"She's got good taste." I said, nodding, and that made all the women laugh, even if Valerie's was a light snort. It was also very amusing in particular to see Sheila, the strong and well built wolf woman, blushing.
After the laughter died down, Cici turned to Valerie, and her face was full of concern for the demure Dhampir, who still just stood to the side, her right arm draped across her body and her hand resting on her left forearm.
"Val honey, are you okay?" Cici asked, and that made Valerie blink, before she turned to Cici, and gave her smile that seemed forced.
"I'm... okay." She said, fidgeting nervously, "Just... got a lot going through my mind."
"Do you want to talk about it?" Clarissa asked, equally as concerned, "I know those guys brought back some bad memories."
Valerie smiled, and I was a bit happier to see that it looked more genuine this time. She knew we all cared about her, and it was helping her.
"Maybe later..." She said, and then she brightened a bit, and changed the subject, "Did you all want to start heading over to the tailor I mentioned still? The one I was going to bring you to is probably the best. Are we allowed to leave?"
"Should be fine. I don't really care if it is or not. We should try to get back to enjoying our day." I said.
Cici and Clarissa brightened, eager to help Valerie take her mind off of what was bothering her, and to banishing this shit show from their minds.
"Yes. We probably should do that sooner rather than later. We no doubt have to talk to the Duke about all of this, but after that... we can hopefully have a wonderful night." Clarissa said, blushing as she looked at me, and I just smirked at her, which made her face darken further.
Cici looked very amused as she watched our interaction, before she said, "Yeah... but more importantly than any of that, we need to get you looking cute. Well, cuter." That did not help Clarissa's steaming face.
"She is pretty cute. A very cute and small package." Sheila said with a smirk, and Clarissa made a little squeak of embarrassment.
I smiled at the interaction, and decided to add my own teasing to the mix.
"Clarissa," I said, causing her to turn her reddened face to me, "You are a very beautiful woman. You just also happen to be insanely cute."
She actually had to turn away from me to hide her face, but I figured her face was on fire now. Cici and Sheila both laughed at the scene, and the scene did actually put a tiny smile on Valerie's face for a moment. After a few seconds, Clarissa turned back around, still red in the face, but her smile was genuine.
"Thank you... Eli." She said, affection in her voice.
"Of course." I said, smiling back, before I turned to Valerie, and gestured to her, "Valerie, whenever you are ready, lead the way."
Valerie took the lead a few moments later, and beckoned us to follow her. I walked next to Cici and Clarissa, with Sheila taking up a spot right behind us. Cici's hand was in my right hand, and after a moment, I gently reached down and took Clarissa's hand in my left. She tensed for a moment, and I saw the way her face and ears reddened, but after another moment, her hand slowly tightened around mine, a firm but gentle grip. I smiled, as did Cici, as both women eventually leaned into either of my arms as we kept walking. It was... very nice.
The walk to the clothing store was uneventful, and trust me when I say that I was super grateful for that. No snide comments, no nasty remarks, and no assholes trying to pick a fight. Just a nice and fairly peaceful walk through the city, which actually allowed to me appreciate the city's layout and architecture a bit more.
"Here it is." Valerie said as she came to a stop in front of us, which caused us all to do the same.
The small building she stopped in front definitely screamed clothing store, or at least, the fantasy world equivalent. Large panes of glass were on either side of the front door, with various forms of clothing displayed for both men and women. They showed of everything from common clothing for everyday wear, to various forms of suits and dresses. They were pretty nice, but I honestly preferred all of the clothes I had in my storage space to any of these. The woman back in the village had truly gone above and beyond in terms of outfits and whatnot for Cici and myself.
I would have figured that Clarissa, being who she was, would have already had something to wear for tonight. Then again, maybe she did, but didn't think it was good enough, or something like that. Honestly, she could be wearing torn up rags and she would look stunning to me. Actually, I think I'd actually like that the most. The thought of her showing me acres of her soft and smooth skin had me feeling something I normally only felt with Cici. Cici must have caught my feelings, because she squeezed my arm, and when I looked at her, she was giving me the cutest and most devious smile I'd ever seen from her. I couldn't help but smirk. Yeah, she was winning, and honestly, I was okay with that.
"Oh! Those look so cute!" Clarissa practically gushed as she looked between all of the clothing on display.
"They are very nice." Cici admitted, although like me, I got the feeling that she liked the clothes we had more as well.
If Clarissa was just a bit taller, Cici could have just let her borrow some of her clothes, although they probably would be a tad loose fitting. Cici was slightly taller, if by only an inch or two, but her chest was a bit larger, and the holes for her tail on the clothes would look odd on a woman with no tail. Clarissa herself was a petite woman, but her modest chest and round little ass was not any less distracting.
"Hey, I've been to this place a few times. The woman who owns this place makes some of the best fitting clothes I've bought." Sheila said, and then gestured to her clothes, a tunic with no sleeves and a pair of shorts that stopped at the just above the knees, "She made these."
"These women truly make the simplest clothes look good." I thought, and those thoughts earned a playful little giggle from Cici, before she extracated herself from me, and grabbed Clarissa's hand.
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Cici asked, and proceeded to begin walking towards the shop, Clarissa smiling as she let Cici pull her along.
I was about to follow them, but my eyes caught the way Valerie was standing off to the side outside of the building, a far away and trouble look in her eyes. I wasn't the only one who caught this. Cici had as well, but the feeling I got from the bond told me that she trusted me to take care of Valerie. Clarissa seemed to not notice, but Sheila definitely did.
"Eli, is she going to be okay?" The strong wolf woman asked me, concern clear in her voice.
I look looked over at Sheila, and just gave her a small smile and a nod.
"Sheila, could you go inside with them? I want to talk to her." I asked, and Sheila nodded, a tiny frown on her lips as she walked past me to go inside, her hand gently gliding across my forearm, and her tail slowly rubbing across my back as she went by.
"Let me know if I can ever do anything." Sheila whispered, and I nodded with a small smile, watching her walk inside, which was a nice sight. Her toned and rounded bottom was excellent.
Once everyone was inside, I slowly made my way over to Valerie, and my footsteps alerted her to my presence as she turned to me.
"Valerie?" I asked, walking up to her.
"Y-yes?" She asked, her tone subdued, and I couldn't keep the frown off of my face, which she took the wrong way, "I- I'm sorry, Lor... I mean... Eli, I-"
"Valerie." I said softly, wrapping an arm around her, and pulling her body into mine. She stiffened, "You have done nothing wrong. I'm just worried about you. You know you can talk to me, right?" I asked, and with my words, her body relaxed, only to begin shaking moments later.
"I-" She said, her words catching as her emotions tired to overwhelm her. I gently ran a hand through her hair as I spoke softly to her.
"I know it's hard, Valerie. What you went through... it should have never happened. I can't even imagine... and those guys earlier didn't help..." I said, then decided to try to boost her confidence, "You know how strong you are Valerie?"
She froze.
"St-strong? Me?" She asked, and I nodded as I kept running my hand through her soft hair.
"Yes, Valerie. But not just your physical and magical strength... so many people would have given up in your position. They would have just stopped trying, stopped caring, stopped wanting to live." I said, before I backed away, which caused her to look up at me with red rimmed eyes, "You are a fighter. A survivor. And a wonderful woman. And now, you have no one making you do anything. No one ordering you around. You have time, Valerie, and I won't give up on you. You will see your worth, and I won't accept anything less."
Twin sets of tears fell down her face, before she buried her face into my chest.
"I don't deserve your kindness... not after what I've done..." She said, her words coming out choked, and full of thick emotion.
"Nonsense, Valerie." I said, rubbing her back as I held her close, "You were forced into doing things you didn't want to do. No one holds that against you. No one except for you. I can't tell you not to feel anything about that, but I'm just telling you... it wasn't your fault."
She let out a small sob as she clung tighter to me. A few people stopped to look for a moment, but my sharp glare made them turn tail and walk away real quick. It didn't matter where we were. If someone I cared about needed my comfort, they would have it regardless of where we were.
"You..." She said, sounding congested as she sniffed, "And everyone else...you all make me feel like a person... and like I mean something. So much of my life was pain, darkness, fear, regret, sadness... but the worst for me was being alone. I had people around me all of the time, yet I was so alone. Even after Delvin took me as a slave, he'd always keep me locked away in a dark cage until he dragged me out..."
I had to fight to control my anger at once again hearing how this poor, sweet woman had been treated her whole life. She didn't need that right now. What she needed was this right here.
"And then you come along." She said, looking up at me with watery eyes, "The moment our eyes first met, I knew there was something special about you. I won't lie... my vampiric instincts told me to run. You are like an Apex predator to my senses, but once you began to talk to me, and help me... that all changed. You gave me autonomy.... a choice to do the things I wanted to do, and then you freed me... without even a second thought." She actually smiled a fanged smile that had my heart leaping out of my chest. This was the emotion that I felt looked perfect on her, and I'd do my best to see that it stayed there, "I... finally don't feel alone anymore."
I tangled a hand into her hair as I pulled her closer, and whispered to her.
"You aren't alone, Valerie. Not anymore, and you never will be again." I said, and she let out a small sob as I continued, "As long as you let me, I will always be here to help you, as will Cici, Clarissa, and everyone else. We won't let anything bad happen to you ever again."
The grip around my torso intensified, and I could only smile as moisture gathered in my eyes as well. I really was growing closer to everyone around me as the days went by, and this woman right here... well, I'd be lying if I said she wasn't already finding a spot in my heart. Still, I wanted to be careful, and to be respectful of her. I would not take advantage of her like everyone before me.
"Thank you..." She said, looking up at me again, "Thank you so much, Eli." She said through her tears, and my smile softened. She didn't even hesitate to call me by my name this time.
"Of course, Val. I'm here for you." I said softly, using my thumb to wipe the tears away from her eyes. A dark blush dusted her cheeks, but her smile was genuine.
As I held this kind, gorgeous woman close to me, I vowed to make every single person that hurt her pay dearly. For their sake, they better fucking hope they're already dead.