Lou-Ellen's POV:
We race towards the coven because the medicine we gave the boy only lasts about four hours, and if the boy somehow manages to wake up while we're still moving, with Cecil carrying him like a sack of potatoes, we're going to have a problem.
We get to the city gates quickly, and were surprised to find that the cave is only about two hours away.
I tell Cecil to head straight to the king to report what we found, since that was our mission in the first place. We we're to track the rogues and report their nearest hideout to find out if their proximity implied an impending attack. Rogues are known to do that time and again, they attack covens try to kill the coven leader and take over. This only works on small covens though, as large groups of rogues are easily accosted, so there usually have small numbers. The king insisted on is, even though the Blood Stone Coven is the most powerful coven in the world, and all rogues know that an attack on us would be suicidal. Cecil and I have agreed that the king is simply being paranoid.
I head over to the human clinic, with the boy over my shoulder. On getting there I find it empty except for the doctor who stands and rushes over to me when he sees what i'm carrying. He collects the boy from me, takes him to the nearest room and lays him down on the bed.
"Is he a bloodslave or a servant?" He asks.
"Neither. We found him captured by rogues and decided to bring him with us." I inform him, both of us staring down at the presently motionless boy.
"Did you find him unconscious?"
"No. He was chained when we found him and was about to scream when we got closer, Cecil knocked him out so he wouldn't attract unnecessary attention."
"He has been unconscious since then?" He asks while cleaning the wounds marring the boy's chest.
"Actually, he was having a nightmare and was screaming. We woke him up then. Cecil let him clean himself, but he wouldn't let us carry him back here even though he obviously couldn't walk by himself, so Cecil gave him the Belladonna elixir."
His head snapped up from his work when he heard my last statement.
"What?!" He got up immediately and began checking the boy's pulse. He checked his eyes with a torch and sighed when he got no reaction.
"Why on earth would he do that? And why did you let him? You should know better."
"I tried to tell him, but he wouldn't listen!"
"He's not waking up anytime soon."
"But he...I thought the elixir wears off after four hours for humans." I watch as he hooks the boy up to an IV and a heart monitor, even though we can hear his heart just fine.
"That only applies for healthy humans, and as you can very well see, he's far from healthy. His body is unable to counter its effects, his immune system is also very weak, not to mention the fact that he's terribly malnourished."
"So, how long will he be out?" He removes the dirty bandages from his neck, but doesn't look surprised at the practically shredded skin.
"It is difficult to determine. In his current state, combined with the Belladonna, It could range from a couple weeks to months. Even after he wakes up, the effects of the elixir will still affect him greatly, so he will still be on bed rest after he awakens.
"He will need stitches. They dealt with the wound well enough to keep him alive, but not enough for the wound to heal as it seems it was reopened constantly."
"Yeah, how are you not surprised at this?"
"They are rogues. I've dealt with this type of damage before."
"Oh. Um... I'm going to join Cecil. He's reporting the results of our mission to the king."
"Of course. And, please do not inform the king of our...guest just yet. He will find out eventually but, now wouldn't be the best time. I understand why you brought him with you, but remember he is not particularly fond of humans."
"I know. I'll be back soon."
"Yes, and bring Cecil with you. I need to speak to that boy about administering possibly deadly concoctions to already dying humans." He huffed.
"Sure." I laughed. Asclepius may be one of the oldest vampires in the coven, but he definitely has an attitude to rival a newborn's.
I leave the clinic quickly, briefly tempted to check the stables for Will, but I brush off the thought remembering I still need to come up with an excuse to give the king for my lateness. I arrive at the main house, where the king's family, His second-in-command, and their bloodslaves live. It's practically midnight and the entire house is as busy as it would be at midday. I arrive at the kings office, knock quietly and enter after hearing a sharp, 'Enter'.
"Ah, Miss.Blackstone, glad you could join us. Why did you not arrive with your partner?"
"I was at the clinic, Sir." respond, as Cecil's eyes widen almost comically. C'mon, I'm not stupid.
"And why were you at the clinic?"
"I got hurt on the way back and it wasn't healing as fast as it should've."
"Did you find out the problem?"
"Of course, Sir, apparently my constant movement kept the wound from healing quickly." I lie, and see the amusement run across Cecil's face. If the king was paying attention, or even cared, he'd remember that there are very few things that prevent a vampire from healing and movement is not one of them.
"I believe it is healed now."
"Yes, Sir."
"Good. You may sit." He says and I move to sit beside Cecil.
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When we were done we leave to search for Will. Cecil said they saw each other for a couple minutes before he met with the king and Will was acting weird.
"How weird?" I ask.
"Well, he was kind of fidgety and seemed distracted, like he was glad to see me but needed to be somewhere else."
"Maybe he was busy with something when you ran into him." I state, and we continue with our search when Cecil agrees.
We decide to go up to his room and try to push open the large double doors, but they're locked. Just as Cecil knocks, a guard walks up to us.
"Master William has requested that he not be disturbed." He tells us just as Will opens the door. He glares at the guard before dragging us inside and locking the door again. I was surprised. Will hardly ever frowns at people let alone glaring. He's always a little overly enthusiastic ball of sunshine. And said ball of sunshine was currently curled up against the headboard of his dramatically large bed. I walk over to his side and Cecil goes to his other. I notice, just as Cecil sits on the edge of his bed, he flinches away slightly.
"Hey, what's wrong?" I ask.
"I-i don't know. I just feel...sick."
"But vampires don't ge-" Cecil starts.
"Don't you think I know that?!" He snaps, then sighs and pulls his knees up to his chest, resting his head on them.
"I'm-I'm sorry.I just don't know what's wrong with me.I was perfectly fine yesterday, then I went riding and found this cave-which smelled like you guys by the way- but it smelled of something else too. It smelled s-so...Ugh"
"Wait, you found a cave with our scent."
"Yes, Lou, I just said that."
"Whatever, what I'm trying to point out is that, We were at a cave like five hours ago. Your dad sent us to scope out some rogues and they had captured this human boy." I see Will visibly tense but I continue anyway.
"We took the boy with us because they were obviously maltreating him. They had him chained and tortured and everything! You should see him, he looks horrible."
"Where is he now?" Will asks without looking up.
"In the clinic, duh. Anyways, he didn't want to come with us because he was so terrified, so Cecil knocked him out. We would have come straight here but we didn't want him waking up while we were running. That, and we needed to hunt so we found the cave and stayed the night. The kid had a nightmare and was thrashing around and his wounds opened up again and he got blood all over. We needed to move but he looked like he was about to scream when we moved closer, so Cecil gave him some of the Belladonna elixir. We brought him here, took him to the clinic, went to see your dad and now we're here. So what's your story?"
"I woke up yesterday morning and went to see my father. It was the usual; you're almost eighteen, find a bloodslave, you're pathetic, you're a disgrace to the coven and all that jazz. Then I went looking for you guys till someone told me my father sent you out. After that, I rode Blackjack out to the lake and caught a hint of Lou-Ellen's s-scent, so I followed it and f-found the cave." He stops because his voice was beginning to break.
"When I got there you scents were all over, but there was another scent mixed in with them which I'm assuming is the boy's. It-it smelled so good. I was tempted. I was dying to taste that blood." He says, his voice filled with shame. His story had me dumbfounded. Will never touches human blood, never even wanted to.
"And you know the worst part? I thought I'd be over it by now, but I've been like this since then."
"You've been how?"Cecil asks and Will finally raises his head showing his fangs. But what made me gasp were his eyes. They were rapidly alternating between his natural sky blue and the ruby red of a vampire drunk on blood.
"I can't control it. My fangs won't retract and my eyes have been doing this weird thing ever since. Well, they stayed red for about an hour after then this started up." He says and the room falls into silence, no one really knowing what to say.
"I need to see him."
"But Will you-"
"I need to see him." He says again.
"You can't. Not in this state. You'll hurt him more than he already is and he'll be terrified when he sees you." Cecil tries to reason with him. I may have forgotten to tell him about the boy's current comatose state. I start to speak but I'm cut off by Will.
"I would never hurt him. And don't fucking tell me what to do." He growls lowly at Cecil and walks out of his room, most likely headed to the clinic.
His eyes were no longer flashing. They remained red.
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Dam, that took forever to write and its currently 4am so pardon any errors because I'm partially sleep deprived, still tell me if you find any though. I know I said I'd update before the week was up, but y'all are dealing with a master procrastinator. But at least I'm only a couple hours late. Its a lot better than being a couple months late. I don't like going against my word, but I did my best.
Enjoy and comment. I wanna know what y'all think.
Bai.