ALVAH'S POV
As much as I had tried to convince Nate what a bad idea this was, he stuck to his ground, we were going to try and rescue Mr William. My suggestion was to end him there and then but Nate's conscience couldn't let him. But his option was going to leave deeper scars. On top of him having been responsible for this, he had hopes too. That somehow we'd be able to restore him. He was draped over my shoulder, even though I was on vampire mode and my heightened strength and speed had kicked in, I could tell more than fifty percent of his blood had been drained. That meant Mr Williams only had hours, maybe a day or two if he's really lucky.
" I still don't get why we had to bring him to my place." Nate brought it up again, his hand freezing right above the door knob to his main house.
"You really want us to chat out here, where anyone could see a vampire carrying a half dead cop? Really Nate." There was that too. He was a cop. He would go reporting to his fellow cops like a goddamn boy scout and then it'd be over for us vampires before it had even began. And the humans now weren't as helpless as the ones before. They could fight back, they could get one of us and rip us open to do their studies then from there we'd probably be caged in zoos.
He pushed open the french door and flicked on the switch on his way in, making the expensively furnished living room come to life. That was about all you could pick from this house. It was spacious, had set of leather sofas and a marble table, a dark brown carpet that looked like it would take my toes to heaven if stepped on it barefoot and basically just hangings on the wall. I would say even though they were quite a number, the way they had been randomly positioned and how they had nothing in common made me think the buyer wasn't a lover of art, more like a person with a spending problem
.His blood stained hand ruffled his curls in his sweaty hair, as the pressure to make the next decision sat on his shoulders. It was going to take a while before he could process this.
" Where do I put him?"It came out more like a sigh than a question.
I wasn't sure if he heard me, but his sharply halted his pacing and walked the opposite direction, leading me to another mahogany door that creaked when he pushed it open. I followed the trail of dirt left by Nate entering the room and dropped him on the silk brown duvet. Most of the bleeding had been stopped by a sleeve that I had torn off my hoodie. Though it was all soaked, it had done its job.
Nate, staring at the hours away to being a corpse creature on his bed, gagged again loudly before his right hand flew to block his mouth. He threw up in his mouth, the twist of disgust in his features made it clear what an unpleasant experience that had to be. He'd thrown up two times before getting here and it'd all been blood and a few bits of flesh. I could see him visibly shake the memory of the sight of his blood dominated vomit off him. He remained paralysed and glued to the door frame while all kinds of negative emotions tore him inch by inch. He did not want to do deep breaths or have water. He let it all happen to him as if he deserved it. Emi was definitely in his head at the moment,making the situation worse than it already was.
I had to walk around the bed, trying to lay the cop in a more comfortable position while keeping his neck where two symmetrical holes had punctured elevated. His body stiffed as I attempted to pull out the chunky boots off Mr William's foot, only a few feet away from Nate. Even though tmlaces of the shoes were a tangled criss crossed mess, Nate managed to hold him breath the whole time. Right by the door, he grew roots, even when the shoes were finally out and a choking stench came out of them.
" You're just gonna stand there?"
"...is there anything I can do?" I don't suppose he intended his voice to come out shaky like that especially since he'd paused just to clear his throat.
His forehead was technically creased into a question mark. His eyes, even though hiding behind the glasses, beared the questions. Those which he hoped he'd get answers to without having to ask. It would have to take a miracle for him to trust me again. Last I checked,vampires and witches haven't reached that kind of familiarity yet. The miracle door slammed shut.
"This is my birth body, Nate.I was born a vampire. I am not in as much contact with my human side as you are. To me all it is is something that allows be to walk out in the day without a daylight ring." I gestured towards his hand, where my daylight ring fit perfectly in his middle finger. " This kind of thing happens to compulsive feeders like you and I. We get reckless, our human side hybernates and we are automatically stuck in the vampire form when the night falls"
He collapsed into a chair, his eyes probably seeing right through me as he was staring at Ruby's dad right before I stood in his line of vision. I knew that feeling. All your principles, morals beliefs when you learn that there's a beast that feeds off blood inside you shutter. Especially if the human and the vampire aren't in complete sync.
It's like two equal sides of you grabbing you on different ends and trying to pull you apart. My vampire and I did not get along day one either. She'd pop up whenever she wanted just to cause trouble, she would feed on anything that has blood rushing beneath his skin and at anytime,and any place too, I also found her to be too feisty.
After the hunt, that's when it all came. My human conscience was stained with the blood of the souls I had taken. I kicked myself and cried my eyes out the whole day and would get back to my murderous acts by the night. I killed people that mattered to me, and those I didn't kill I really hurt, deeply. Every second I was alive was pure pain. I wasn't living anymore. Just hurting. I had to do something. I had to sync with the vampire. I could control her impulses and insticts, and she would be there for me after I had just drained a body to the last drop. I'd be reminded it's part of who I am and I had nothing to be ashamed of. After the syncing, she couldn't turn against me as Emi was doing to Nate and make me feel even worse.
" Why would you do that?"He broke the silence that had settled in the room. " I was miserable. I wanted to end it and now, now it's just worse. He never leaves me alone. And he is really annoying. "
" They all are in the beginning...and you needed it. A break from everyone just walking over you. " I slowly paced towards him, making sure to stop a safe distance away from him. The moment I had started walking his hands gripped the arms of the chair, ready to spring up. Didn't feel amazing to know I tapped into his fight or flight.
" Ending my life was the way to do that and it was going to work." His head dropped into his palms. He slid his fingers behind his glasses and wiped off the tears before they'd start to roll
"What about people that care about you?How did you think they would feel?"I challenged, clearly not having thought that through.
" People like who? Ruby and Max? They don't really care about me! Am sure they'd do just fine without me. if I was dead then Ruby's dad wouldn't be lying unconscious in my guest room. I wouldn't have...all those people, their families, their dogs are going to miss them and it's because of what I did. Because of what YOU DID TO ME!!"
A flash of the hot coal red blinked around his iris. Emilio. His yell startled me a little bit. I was consoled to learn she was still there. The human in me, she could feel things from a distance, so she hadn't completely left me. But Nate, he could really feel it all. That's to me was phenomenal, he could cry, he could form connections and bonds with people, he had empathy. I couldn't ,all I could was survive and do anything I can to bring back Brendan who I believed would retire my human side so I wouldn't feel so dead and empty anymore.
"It's always a bumpy start but it gets better. I will see through it." I promised, not recognizing my own voice. I have a long history of not keeping my word. I probably shouldn't have said that but it seemed like the kind of thing he needed to hear. I didn't notice I was making closer for him till he jumped to his feet and tried to throw a punch at me which I successfully dodged. Boy, he was furious with me. Somehow this had become my fault. " Nate, this gets easier when you sync with the vampire, become one being. Accept that a lust for blood is part of your insticts and you have to feed it. The last thing you want is an imbalance between you two. It's going to cost you I would know. And I'll be here, I assure you" I, being the only expert of how this works, told him.
" The same way you assured to always have my back and then stabbed me?" He gritted his teeth and took time with every single word giving each of them a lethal punch. He was speaking in fluent Emilio now. Emi's memories were really burning into Nate's like they were his very own. That means his feelings too. That must mean he was furious-furious. He was up on his feet, bubbling. I'd known Nate for a while. I can't tell if it was because of his awkward posture and terrible stamina or just general frailness from terrible dieting but I knew he couldn't fight. When he had taken out the bullies that wasn't actually him. Everything he was feeling on our way here was intense , I believe but not enough to get violent, that could only mean one thing; Emi was charging him. Getting into his mind and making a mountain out of a mole hill. Emi always knows where to hit.
" You don't know the full story okay, that's not something I wanted to do. He's not telling you everything..." Word, he attempted to swing a vase towards my head, but he was too slow for my vampiric sense. And too predictable.
" He told me you'd say that!!" He roared aiming the vase towards me, but I dashed side ways and it cluttered loudly towards the wall, and burst into royal blue ceramics pieces. Then it became a thing. He turned to grab the next thing to throw at me but I had was already standing there. His chest jerked in shocked and as he stumbled back in horror. It's not a trick I like to play on people but I had to. I tightly gripped onto his right wrist. His fingers sweaty fingers gently released the photo frame leaving bits of moisture and blood on it. Out of it a wrinkled, couple parted their lips in an attempt to smile. It seemed like the photographer had taken time to capture them but they just kept the photo anyway because the lighting was perfect. The thing that had killed his parents, he had become and he didn't know what to do with that.
He was a few feet taller I had to arch my neck slightly upwards to face him Am sure it took him everything to not spit at my face.
" If I didn't have to do it I wouldn't Nate. And when I turned you I wasn't....I was trying to do something good for someone that was nice to me. Genuinely nice to me. " I could hear his heartbeat slowly start to pace down. " I'd seen your life, heard your thoughts you needed power, change a new life and this could be that for you."
NATE'S POV
Vulnerability. Alvah had that. And she'd shown me part of it on purpose. My wrists downwards to my hand were numb from her cold touch but I didn't stop it. I could focus in the coldness of her hands and not everything that was eating me up inside. I could look into her beastly eyes and completely shut out the voice of a vampire that now lived within me.
Don't underestimate Emi. He was viscous and good with words and new how to say them. They made me sparkle inside out when he wanted that to happen and other times, especially when we weren't on the same page, it felt like I was swallowing a stack of needles. But Alvah, she won, she could win. I knew I should not believe her. My intuition was beeping and very loudly. But I could turn that down. Surely I could for someone who cared about me when she didn't have to. She'd be here for me. She had promised. I didn't believe her, but I told myself I would have to. No one else had ever promised to stay. It didn't matter that it might be a lie, it was the thought that counted.
Looking at her eyes felt like staring into a pothole to another dimension. Full of mystery and darkness. Full of pain and thrill. Full of all things I should fear but I found myself now wanting, because that's Alvah. Logic and common sense don't win with her. She has her way of imprinting on people. And without lifting a finger, she makes you dance to her tune. Just like Emi warned me. She had a way of knowing exactly what one wanted, she'd give it, but would do it in the most hurtful way.
Everything that she was doing, the consolation and the skinships, they all were very familiar. There's a certain sting that came with them. The sting of knowing very well that at any moment it would be taken away from you. Isn't it the scariest thing how you could never tell another person's intentions with you. I was lucky. I had Emi. I knew him, or was atleast getting to know him. And he was honest with me. He warned me about Alvah.
The passion with which he used to describe Alvah made me realize for just a moment. In his story, Alvah was the villain. I could say I got where he was coming from, I had a blood lust and burial just waiting to happen in my room. And in Alvah's story, Emi was the villain. I couldn't tell her reasons yet. That's a level of familiarity we hadn't reached and perhaps it would be best if I kept it that way. And then there was me, right in the middle, with absolutely no ounce of objectivity to process the whole thing. I wasn't going to let them make me pick a side, I wasn't going to be part of their beef. I would fix this situation. Emi would taunt someone else and Alvah would hover behind someone else's back.
Most importantly, I would save Mr Williams I wasn't quite sure what that thought meant, but I would. Alvah noticed it when I broke eye contact with her and focused on Mr Williams. All he he ever did was be a great dad and over feed me whenever i'd visit Ruby. This wasn't my way of repaying him. Almost as if she could sense the exact moment the emotions overwhelmed me again, she took a step forward, closing the gap and snaked her hands around my torso, sending them back to where they'd come from.
Out of courtesy ofcourse, placed my hand on the small of her back. I hated her. I hated her so much. I hated how little control I had over the situation and how okay I was with it. Maybe that's what drew me to her. I could hate someone else more than I hated myself.