Love & Loss

Chapter 80

Xander's POV:

I had been restless all night.

I stayed with Khloe and my parents until she fell asleep, and intended on checking in with Doe before heading back down to Nico.

But my parents insisted that I waited till morning after a shower to return to him and then for this process to repeat day by day until Khloe's transformation was complete.

Wake up, go check up on Nico, return up here whenever Khloe needed blood, then sleep in my room.

They didn't want a single sign of her on me.

Which I understood, but I couldn't help but worry.

About both of them.

About the small chance that Khloe wouldn't make it, and about Nico's entire situation.

I just hoped he was at least doing enough to sustain himself.

The fact that he hadn't consumed blood during the entire time I was with him was already worrying.

I let out a long sigh, setting my nose in her hair as I pulled her closer to me.

I couldn't help but put us in their shoes, and ultimately being unable to figure out how we would have handled that.

It made me sick just to think about it.

It already made me sick how this entire process was going.

I opened my eyes to my dark room, figuring that sleep wasn't going to take me at any immediate time, and focused in on my hearing.

Marcus had long since fallen asleep on one of the couches I had in here, and his breaths concluded it.

He hadn't said much all day and went to bed relatively early.

Doe's on the other hand showed the opposite.

I thought back to when I returned a few hours ago.

To that look of relief on her face when I stepped through the door.

I guess her mind went wild given what she thought had happened to Khloe, and the fact that I didn't return for a few hours did a great job in spiking her panic.

I felt awful about knowing what I did and not being able to tell her.

She was still grieving on top of this new agitation.

Plus the fact that I wasn't with her as much as I wanted to be while I made sure both Nico and Khloe were okay.

Even when I was here, I feel like she didn't talk about it as much as she wanted to.

I'd only guess that it was because of Marcus' presence.

It took a lot just to get her to agree to sleep in the same bed as me tonight.

I presume she wanted to make sure our relationship stayed a secret even more so than before.

Even though I knew at this point that it probably didn't matter.

But until this was over... until Khloe's transformation was completed successfully, I wasn't going to say a word.

There was nothing worse than false hope after a tragedy, just to be hurt again.

That was the only reason I agreed not to say a word to Nico.

Otherwise, I wouldn't have hesitated for a second to get the news to him.

I moved the hand that was around her under the blanket, touching her directly.

"You know I've got you, right?" I whispered, making sure that even if Marcus was awake, he wouldn't have heard it.