Once Bitten *On Hiatus*

𝕾𝖎𝖝𝖙𝖞 𝕱𝖔𝖚𝖗

• 𝓜𝓪𝓮 •

Seraph pulled me into his room, motioning for the other three to follow as well. When everyone was inside, he shut the door and turned the lock, staring at me like I grew three heads. They had to have been told I was turned, didn't they? So why in the world did they look like I just came back from the dead like some sort of zombie?

I looked around Seraph's room, taking in the mess. The sheets on his bed were messed up, there were papers scattered all around his room - some ripped, others crushed into small balls - and there was an empty blood bag near the door. I could tell by the scent that it had been opened recently.

My lips curled down into a grimace. The heightened senses were definitely something that I needed to get used to. There were too many smells, and I could see everything so clearly that it made me question whether I should have had glasses when I was a human. Colors were brighter, smells were stronger, I could almost feel the fibers against my feet from the carpet.

"Mae," Luca asked, his voice quiet.

I glanced at him.

Seraph grabbed me and pulled me towards his bathroom silently, waving a hand in dismissal when the other three started arguing.

He shut the bathroom door and locked it. When he turned on the light, I squinted, and he dimmed it, watching me carefully.

He grabbed a towel and washrag from a small closet near the door.

I watched as he moved around his bathroom, turning the shower on. He placed the towel and washrag right outside the tub, then closed the black curtain to let the water heat up. When he turned back to me, he simply stared, like he wasn't sure I was actually there or not.

I slowly started taking off my blood-stained clothes, assuming that was why Seraph started the shower.

"You look like you've seen a ghost," I said, my throat sore.

He blinked. "I feel like I have."

So none of them actually attempted to change me. That was comforting to know, at least. That, and the fact that I doubted any of them asked for Titus to change me. Not with those reactions. They all seemed too stunned, like they fully expected me to be dead.

I slid off my shirt and discarded it on the floor.

It looked like Seraph had to physically force himself to look away from me as I took the rest of my clothes off.

I walked past him and stepped into the shower. I was too tired and too weak to care about my nudity and what I looked like. I wanted to get cleaned off and go lay down.

Did I even get the respite of sleep anymore?

I closed the curtain, flinching when the hot water touched my back. It hurt. It was too hot, and there were too many water droplets pounding against my skin at one time. Something that I used to take comfort in felt like sandpaper against my back and I wanted to cry.

I sat on the floor of the tub, cringing through the pain of the water.

'It hurts,' Seraph's voice said in my mind. 'But it doesn't hurt forever.'

'What,' I replied. 'The water? Or the fact that I have to choose whether to accept what I am now or let myself waste away and die?'

His thoughts were quiet for a moment. 'Both. Can I come in and help you?'

I pulled my knees to my chest and lowered my head before pushing the curtain out of the way, allowing him to come in.

I didn't look up when I felt him step in and close the curtain. I didn't reach out to him like I wanted to. I sat under the spray of water, breathing through the pain. He touched my shoulders, and a cool kind of magic washed over me, making the pain disappear. He slid his hands down my arms, then back up.

This gentleness was so at odds with what I was used to with Seraph.

I finally looked up into his eyes. He sat in front of me in the tub, his hands on my arms, keeping the pain and weakness at bay as the blood was washed from my skin and hair. He didn't smile. Didn't offer more comfort than just his presence and his touch. But that was enough.

He didn't speak, only saying things though a mind link when needed. He must have noticed how every little sound made me flinch. It was too much. The feelings. The smells. The sounds. It was all too much.

When I finished, he helped me into a towel and motioned for me to wait while he went back out into his room. After a few minutes, he re-entered with black sweatpants and a black t-shirt, folded neatly in his hands. I could tell they were his by the smell.

I dried off, trying not to think about how the normally soft towel on my skin felt like razor blades, and changed into his clothes.

I followed him back out into his room, noting that the papers and blood bag were gone, and his bed was made.

Kite glanced up. "When did you wake up?"

I closed my eyes at the sound of his voice. Everything was too loud again.

I shook my head, clearing my throat and forcing my eyes back open. "I woke up about ten minutes before I got upstairs."

Noah and Luca's eyes widened and they glanced at each other.

There was a knock at the door and Seraph walked over, opened it, and grabbed ten bags of blood from the person on the other side. He didn't thank them. He just took them silently and closed the door in their face.

That was more like the Seraph I knew.

He placed all ten bags on his bed. "Drink all of these. It will stop the pain."

I stared down at the bags of dark crimson liquid. My stomach churned at the thought of having to drink them, but it also twisted in hunger. My throat was dry. I still wanted nothing more than to just lay down and close my eyes, even if I couldn't sleep.

I wanted to cry again.

Noah stepped up to my side and grabbed my hand, forcing me to tear my eyes away from the blood in front of me.

"We'll help you," he said, voice quiet. "But you need to drink these. Please."

I looked back down at the bags, my eyes burning with unshed tears.

This wasn't what I wanted.

"Would you rather drink them alone," Luca asked.

I nodded slowly.

"Okay." Noah squeezed my hand one more time before he left, all four of them going out into the hallway to give me privacy.

I sat down on the bed and picked a bag up, opening it. The smell hit me almost immediately, and the nausea at the idea of drinking it vanished, replaced by hunger. So I put it to my lips and drank, my tears finally falling free.