Chereads / Dystrophy of the Heart / Chapter 20 - Chapter Eighteen

Chapter 20 - Chapter Eighteen

I felt numb. Two days had passed since the incident and I was left in semi darkness, only candlelight allowed in the room with the streak of sunlight. I was on a hunger strike, refusing to touch any food. The only thing that passed into my stomach was whatever blood Isa managed to shove down my throat. I was going onto my third day, with no water or food. I was determined to control something in my life, and if that was wasting away to death I was going to do it. Ziva was staring down next to me, her dark eyes filled with worry. In front of me I had a wooden tray with bloody soup and a steel cup for water. I was just staring at it, my throat dry and my mouth salivating. I dug my fingers into my skin and bit my tongue, feeling weakened and fatigued at my antics. Without vampire blood I was weakened, and now I was dehydrated and famished as well. The little bit of blood they managed to get down me was the only think keeping me alive at this point. My eyes were fixated on the water and my stomach tightened before letting out a rebellious growl.

"You're stomach is trying to speak to you." Her voice was light in manner but I screwed my mouth shut. I did not speak, only kept staring at the glowing ruby soup and the crystalline water staring into my very soul and trying to seduce me.

"Can you drink something for me?" Ziva sat down next to me and placed her hand over mine. I immediately ripped my hand away and with what remained of my strength pushed the wooden platter to the floor opposite to Ziva. It was almost like slow motion, the platter falling onto the ground. The soup spilled partially onto the sheets before crashing and spilling over the floor like a murder scene. The cup went flying and the water splattered against the wall, and glass littered the floor. I was angry, but weakened and only managed to fall onto the headboard while wheezing while Ziva jumped up and ran around the bed. I knew I was being a brat and expected a lashing, but instead she was mumbling to herself about the plate breaking and the noise.

"What happened?" A angry voice called out from the hallway. I thought it was the monster himself, but Luca stepped inside the room. I still refused to look at him, looking towards the ceiling while Ziva looked at him with wild eyes.

"Close the door!" She hissed and wagged her finger in a maternal way. He quickly obliged and in the blink of an eye was at my side. He peeked over the bed to see the mess I had made, and I instantly felt even more guilt welling up for making their work and lives so much more difficult.

"You weren't hungry, bella?" Luca sat next to me with a kind expression, but I just frowned and flinched as he moved towards me. He noticed instantly and so did Ziva. Her doe eyes were watering and she grabbed the porcelain shards onto the wooden platter and rushed to the door.

"I'm going to get more paper towels." Her voice cracked like she was on the verge of tears. I was too, feeling horribly guilty for my cruel actions but unable to show any emotion on my face.

"You're eyes are too honest for your face." Luca reached out and touched my shin with his strong and cold hands. Every instinct was telling me to run, but I could barely move. I just sunk deeper into the bed and tried to hide under the soaked duvet.

"I apologize for my uncles behavior. Can you forgive him and start eating again?" Again I gave him stony silence, looking at the little cherubs mocking me with their smiles and music. Luca sighed and squeezed my leg.

"You have to understand why he reacted the way he did. He went against everything he believed in to bring you here and when you were running away I think he felt used. Most humans try to use us, and he snapped. He didn't mean any of the things he did." I had already come to this conclusion on my own. I had realized in our past dialogue together that this was most likely the reason for Elijah lashing out, however, it did not excuse the fear and abuse I went through. It did not excuse using me like a hideous experiment only to be thrown away. I remained silent, my stomach still tightening an my throat clenching and dry. Luca's face was etched with worry and concern, but I was aware of my fate and ready to embrace it. He clutched the duvet before ripping it off my frail body and I grabbed at it weakly, not liking the cold air that hit my bare skin after. I was in a new night gown but it was more of a thin silk slip and barely covered my sickly form. Luca paid no mind and crumped the duvet in and ball without looking at my face. His own looked determined and driven.

"I'll get you a clean duvet and something to eat and drink." He walked out the door slow enough so I could see him leave.

I won't eat it, I thought to myself, but too stubborn to speak it out loud. I would die the way I came into this world-- unwanted, unloved, sick, and silent.

Elijah was too distracted to work. For the past three days he had been sitting at his desk, unmoving and silent. He only became active to drain himself, otherwise he sat with his hands laced together and his head resting on them in thought. He felt cold, and a disgustingly thick emotion coated his insides like rotting moss.

Guilt. He felt guilt-- something he hadn't felt since confessing his acts to his deceased wife hundreds of years prior. He remembered what Suri looked like as she lay curled and crying. Her faced red with embarrassment and from crying, her small body shivering with fear and covered in scratched and bruises. He remembered the anxiety he felt when he caught a glimpse of her running down the hill. He remembered the relief he felt when he caught her. Then he exploded. Like an bear that had been poked too many time, he finally unleashed a hellfire of fury upon her. He wasn't even angry at her, rather than the circumstances. Marie's constant calls and nagging stressing him out, and then her face and demeanor. If Marie found Suri-- a identical replica of his Sara-- she would stop at nothing to end her life. She had powerful friends on the Clan Convocation that would cover for her if she decided to go through with an assassination attempt like last time.

The last time.

He shivered and buried his finger through his hair and held back tears, remembering the cold moonlight gazing down at the fowl surrounding Sara's decapitated head. The mangled corpse only feet away, as he screamed into the abyss of pain. The more he thought of it, the more Suri and Sara's faces became more blurred and almost impossible to differentiate in his mind. As disgusting as it was, he felt like he was almost trying to make Suri his Sara replacement, even though no one could replace his loving wife. But the similarities were there. Their faces, their hair, their smile, their laugh, their figure, their skin, even their condition. Sara was a Hebrew slave born from a Hebrew mother and a Greek solider as a father. She was born weak and unstable, so frail she was barely able to do any work. Elijah had first set eyes on her as she was a painter, being beaten by guards as he was being escorted to the reigning pharaoh Hatshepsut. She caught his eye because he could hear her heart wavering and see that her body was breaking and yet she pressed on. She immediately went back to work, Ziva by her side. When her place blue eyes met his, he was transfixed and the spell was cast to him. He was young at the time and never knew what love was, but at that moment he knew all too well.

"Zio," Luca's voice tore him from his memories and he shot up to see the young vampire holding a bloodstained duvet. He could smell that it was his blood mixed with chicken stock. His heart sank and a lump got into his throat. He realized that instead of eating it she had thrown it only the bed. She had refused to eat or drink for the past three days, barely alive by the drops of blood Isa had to funnel down her throat.

"Fuck." He buried his hands in his hair, pulling at the roots in frustration. He then pounded his hand on his desk, causing it to shake and splinted a bit down the middle.

"Fuck!" He yelled and stood up suddenly, causing his desk to easily fall over with little effort. Papers spilled across the floor like fog covering a forest floor and the lamp on his desk was crushed and shattered. Ink splattered across the snowy sheets like blood, but the loss of work because of destruction barely fazed him.

"Maybe you should try to convince her to eat. She still seems scared and upset." Elijah had started pacing like a caged animal as his anxiety spiked.

"She will not want to see me." He stomped on the ground making the room rumble a bit. Luca was used to this behavior, and recalled that he acted in a similar manner when he would snap at his aunt and she would give him the cold shoulder until he apologized enough times to satisfy her. He would pace around stressed and thinking about ways to win her back over or scared she would leave him for good. Now instead of worried that she was going to find a new lover, he was scared of his new love interest dying from her stubbornness.

"Why haven't I heard back from Marguerite and Barnabas about the Wiccans?" Elijah thought aloud, his long fingernails scratching against the marble in a panic. Ziva entered the black doorframe, her lovely features stretched in worry and her hands clutching the black towels tightly. She was also holding onto a steel mug of water, but it was quaking in her hands.

"Elijah!" Ziva pushed past Luca in a rush, with tears pricking her eyes, "Please just do something!"

"What can I do?" He yelled, eyes glowing with anger and fear. He was scared and he would only admit that time himself, but not those around him.

"Something! Anything!" The room fell silent as darkness surrounded the trio. He didn't know what to say nor what to do. There was just a loaded silence filled with anixiety and impending doom.

"Just stand outside the door and watch her. Figure out what to say to her after you see her. Please." Ziva was begging, her voice cracking as if she was about to breakdown at any moment. It was a real possibility.

"Fine." The word was easy to see but his chest coiled in terror as the three walked towards the dreaded room. Towels, water and duvet in hand.

"Wait out here." Luca pushed him back when they reached the door, darkness looming outside. Only the glow of candlelight offered any light. Unless she could see in the dark--which she most certainly could not-- she would be unable to see him as long as he stayed out of the light. They pushed the door open to reveal her and Elijah's breath caught in his throat. She was illuminated by a single candle next to her bed. She looked ethereal and ghostly at the same time, pale and with darkened eyes and a tinge of blue on her skin. Patches of red scratched and brown bruises were still dotting down her skin as the thin silk slip left little to the imagination. He gulped as the duo rushed in and he stayed behind the door, peeking in. He easily hid his presence and blended in with the darkness as the two descended upon her. When his nephew got close to her he felt a growl grow at the back of his throat but he held it back. Ziva placed the mug on the remaining nightstand and got to work cleaning the spill of soup and water from the floor with the obsidian towels while Luca gently tossed the soft purple duvet over her frail form. She looked down at it, still sitting up against the head board, her expression unreadable. Luca began to hum a soft tune and tuck her in, smiling in the process and Elijah wanted to rip him away from her.

"This blanket is one of our best so it should give you a good nights sleep." Luca tried to make small talk but she was having none of it and ignored his words.

"Are you feeling better Miss?" Ziva tried to get her attention but to no avail. She remaiend motionless and silent. She was staring at her hands, gripping them tightly she her eyes shifted to the water.

Please drink it. Please dear god just drink it, Elijah thought to himself. She did not move for it, and instead just bit the bottom of her lip and sighed. Ziva finished wiping up the thick broth with a heavy sigh, her figure obscured by the darkness.

"Miss, I am begging you. Please have some water." She just narrowed her eyes and made a face like she ate a lemon slice. The candlelight shifted and flickered as the trio sat there in uncomfortable silence. Their eyes seemed to be breaking her down and she had started panting a bit as her throat was dry. Finally like a tree that fell from a final hit, she let out a shaky sigh and put her hand out for the mug. Luca and Ziva perked up and she scrambled for the mug. Shooing Luca from her seat Ziva scooched next to her and brought the glittering mug to her lips. She tried to take it from Ziva but the sassy woman slapped her hands away with a hiss and brought it to her lips. Gently but greedily, Suri chugged the clear liquid, clearly dehydrated. She was panting afterwards and water was dripping down her neck.

"Would you like more?" She nodded vigorously and then it happened. Like a dam breaking tears spilled from her face and she began to sob heavily. The change was so sudden and dirastic that Elijah's chest hurt and he gripped it. Luca stood frozen, knowing that if he approached her in this state his uncle would react violently as his spousal instincts were blaring at her crying. Ziva was trying to soothe her but it only made her sob harder.

"I'm sorry for being such a nuisance!" She wailed, tears and snot falling from her face. Ziva was cleaning her up with a handkerchief and wiping her tears away from her rose stained face.

"No sweetie it's okay! We are happy to see you feeling a bit better." She was stroking her unkempt hair to soothe her an eventually the sobs slowed to a crawl before stopping. She looked exhausted, wasting her final bit of energy on the tears. Ziva stood up, whispered sweet and soothing things to her as she tucked the purple duvet over her shaking body.

"Sleep for an hour and then we will bring back some food and water for you. Just have a nap first." Ziva stroked her face like a mother would do to her ill daughter, a sight that was truly loving and inspirational. Luca without another word dashed out of the marble room, feeling his uncles enraged eyes resting on him. When he left the room, Elijah relaxed unknowingly. How much time had passed? An hour? Two? A day? He was so transfixed watching Suri struggle to not sleep while Ziva hummed to her, stroking her hair like she was her child. Luca watched his uncle's body language as it eased the closer Suri go to sleep.

"Are you waiting to give her her nightly dose?" Elijah nodded, concerned that a night without medication could mean that her heart would give out. Ziva stood and blew out the golden light, Suri soundly asleep.

"I think she felt you." Ziva called out, smiling to the tall man. He stalked inside silently, watching as her chest rose and fall softly. He wanted to do this quickly and painlessly. He reached out to her and pushed her disheveled hair out of her face. Her eyelashes fluttered, but she remained unaware of the world. Her lips almost instinctively parted as if she sense his presence. Her oily hair still felt soft to him, and her drying skin felt like silk to his pads.

"Only a little bit." He muttered, biting down on his wrist once more. Instead of ripping his flesh and trying to aim the blood he began to suck. He sucked the sweet liquid until his cheeks resembled a chipmunk. He then leaned over to her and with his left hand pressed his cheeks with his thumb and finger to part her lips more. Slowly he opened his mouth above her, only centimeters away from kissing her. He drizzled the thick blood into her slightly agape mouth. The liquid glowed as it passed into her mouth. Her skin started to clear up a bit and some color returned to him the longer he stayed there. The last drops finally passed through to her and Elijah backed up, Luca and Ziva blushing at the intimacy and gentleness he showed.

"Pass me that chair Luca." He ordered, pointing to the red arm chair in the corner. His nephew obliged and quickly brought it to him.

"What are you doing?" The woman asked, holding the glittering glass in her almond fingers.

"I want to make she she's okay." Elijah slumped onto the chair, eying the two with suspicion who were eying him knowingly. He shooed them away, his anxiety subsiding a bit. He was unable to apologize for his behavior at this moment, but for now he could watch her sleep with a serene face.