To Kiss a Killer | boyxman | (OLD VERSION)

Chapter XVII - The Vampire

"Raeden!" I shouted over the sound of the television in the background. Demiesius and I had been discussing his apology for not listening to me the other night before his rampage, when Nathaniel came in unexpectedly followed by a bloody, beaten, and bruised Raeden. "What happened to you!?"

He moved slowly into the room, a cry hidden beneath his attempts to hide his distress, but from the vibration of his nerves, it was easy to tell he was terrified.

My hand hovered just above his arms, not wanting to touch him in fear of hurting him anymore. "Raeden, talk to me. What happened?"

"They—They..."

He searched blindly for my hands, and I set them in his grasp. His grip was tight, but it bothered me none. "They, what?" I said, leading him gradually to the sofa. Demiesius stood and moved aside to make way.

Raeden was shivering when he sat down, his hands still wrapped around mine as if bringing himself to recognize that I was actually with him. His words were incomprehensible mumbles at first, and I wasn't able to understand anything he was saying. I needed to make him snap out of it.

But how...?

"Raeden," I said, brushing his hair out of his flawed face, a dark heavy amount of blood clotted beneath his right eye. His skin was warm and tainted with grime and soot that smelled of death. "Listen to me, please... You have to tell me who did this to you. I can help."

"R-R-Rogue," he stuttered, trembling. "The Rouge. He found me."

Demiesius came forth, "And you lived? Did he say anything?"

"He—He-said I would never be the b-best. He w-will always be—be the best slayer."

"He taunted you, beat you, and left you to suffer the injuries?"

I fixed Raeden's hair again after it flopped back in his face, and gestured for Demiesius to please be quiet. I didn't want Raeden to have to recall all that he'd apparently gone through. "Raeden, I'm going to ask your permission, okay?"

"No, you can't go after him," he shouted first. "He'll kill you!"

"What? No, I'm not leaving, I want to make you feel better. I don't want you to hurt anymore. Will you give me permission to do that for you? Heal you?"

He took so long I considered he wasn't listening to me anymore, but then he blinked up at me. "What would you do?"

"It'll hurt, but I can make the pain go away."

When he nodded deliberation, I knelt before him like a doctor to a stressful patient. He looked down at me and I could see the unadulterated terror still in his gray eyes. His tension was trembling all through his body, and still his heart had yet to find its correct beat.

"Brace yourself," I said beforehand.

He took in a chest filled with air and closed his eyes. I elongated the sharpest nail on my thumb and carried its razor across the bottom of Raeden's busted eye. He screamed and tried to pull away when it slit open, but it had to be done. The flesh beneath his eye opened up and the clotted blood drained down his cheek to drench my hand. He couldn't open his eye for a moment, but before he could think about trying to blink, I bit down with my fangs in my wrist until my own blood surfaced and smeared what drops would come on his wound.

I could see it hurt him more than I intended it to, but if I didn't get the blood out first and then gave him my blood his eye would've burst.

When I was done and his eyes began to slowly close, the gashes all over his beautiful face sealed, and Raeden opened both of his eyes and shoved me back. "That fucking hurt!" he said.