Sanguine Tides - Book 3

Chapter 16

TW in the description
Thank you to lambdraws for the art!

Mattias POV

Mattias was beside himself. What Luca did - what he tried to do. It made him feel queazy inside. Despite maintaining a distance, Luca and Alberto had become younger brothers to him. And the idea of losing either one of them made his insides scream in defiance.

Watching Luca that way almost unseated him. If not for his experience on the battlefield, tending to wounded soldiers, he feared he was too closely attached to Luca to care for him properly.

And if he was feeling this way, Mattias could only imagine what Giulia felt.

He looked over at the chair she pulled up beside Luca's bed, her hand gripping his. Luca's wrist was bandaged and taped, the bleeding finally stopped. Mattias had injected Luca with drugs to slow his heart, only letting it beat the bare minimum to keep oxygen to the brain. But it wouldn't last. Luca needed blood. He paced the room, looking at his watch impatiently.

Then he heard a sniffle as Giulia's shoulders shook. He walked over, placing a steady hand on her shoulder and squeezed.

"The important thing is that he is alive. He isn't gone from us," Mattias said, forcing his voice to be steady.

She nodded but didn't speak.

Mattias pressed two fingers to Luca's neck, checking and double-checking his pulse. His cheeks were tear-stained. And he was pale. So so pale.

"I can't believe that Alberto doesn't remember him," Giulia whispered as though not to wake Luca from his sleep.

Mattias moved a strand of hair from Luca's eyes.

"Luca remembered him," He said.

"Yes. But why? If their Bond broke, why didn't both of their memories get erased?"

Mattias bit his lip, running his hand through his unshaven face.

"When the Bond broke, I don't think it affected their memory. Just their connection."

"Then why-?"

"Alberto's mind chose to forget Luca on its own."

Giulia turned her head to him, eyes squinted and puffy.

"What?"

"If Luca remembers everything, that means he felt the full impact of their Life Bond breaking. He felt every bit of that torment inside himself. But Alberto... didn't feel anything. Because he chose to forget."

"Alberto would never do that," Giulia said defensively.

"I don't think he did it on purpose."

Mattias pulled up a chair and sat beside Giulia. He felt like years had passed in just hours.

"Since Alberto was abandoned as a child, he developed a mental defense. A sort of protection for his mind, to keep himself sane. He has already exhibited this behavior before. Rather than dealing with the trauma of a father abandoning him, young Alberto chose to create a reality in which his father simply was 'away' a lot. That's what he told Luca when they first met anyway."

Giulia nodded.

"That's what he told us at first," She confirmed.

"He made up a reality that he could cope with to avoid the pain of it all. And he did it again when his body couldn't perform the change. His mind blocked out the reality that Alberto was remaining in his human form when wet. He took showers for months and had no idea. His mind was protecting him from the pain."