Belle Morte Bites (Belle Morte 4.3)

Nicholas: Part Three

Nicholas

He sat back on his heels and watched Gideon die.

Briefly he felt a pang of sadness that he'd never again hear Gideon's heart beating faster when Nicholas pressed their bodies together, or the way he caught his breath when Nicholas kissed his throat.

He hadn't enjoyed killing him.

The terror in Gideon's eyes, the way his heart had tripped into a frantic pounding, the tears he hadn't been able to hold back – Nicholas hated that he was responsible for that. He hated how much he'd had to hurt Gideon.

But there was no other way.

He pulled Gideon's body further up the bed and settled his head on a pillow, so he'd be comfortable when he woke up.

Then he waited.

An hour passed, then two, and still Gideon didn't move. The bite marks on his neck didn't heal.

And Nicholas started to get scared.

He'd been a vampire long enough that he understand how the process worked – and that it sometimes didn't. To become a vampire, a person must first be drained of their blood. Then they had to drink the blood of a vampire so they could awake to a new life as a vampire themselves.

But sometimes it didn't work.

Sometimes a person just stayed dead and no one knew why.

Nicholas had been so confident that that wouldn't happen – confident enough that he'd risked Gideon's life.

What if he'd been wrong?

A fist closed around his heart.

Gideon had reminded him what it meant to be human. He was warm and kind and alive, and he'd chased away the grim weight of the years that hung on Nicholas. For so long he'd been alone, feeling increasingly cut off from humanity, his heart growing cold and hard. Gideon had changed everything, and Nicholas couldn't bear to lose him.

"Come back to me," he whispered, stroking Gideon's face.

A tiny smear of Nicholas's blood still coloured Gideon's lip, and Nicholas kissed it away.

"Please," he whispered. "Please don't leave me."

Still, Gideon didn't move.

Nicholas lay beside him on the bed, one hand on Gideon's chest, over the place where his heart would never again beat, and waited for Gideon to come back.

Half an hour later, Gideon's hand twitched.

Nicholas bolted upright. "Gideon?" he said.

The bite marks on Gideon's neck were gone, healed over, and Nicholas let out a shaky laugh.

"That's it," he whispered as Gideon's eyelids flickered. "Come back."

Gideon opened his eyes. At first he stared at Nicholas like he didn't recognise him, then clarity sharpened his gaze. "What happened?" he murmured.

"You're waking up to a new life," Nicholas told him.

"You . . . what did you do to me?" Anger sparked red in Gideon's eyes. "You tried to kill me."

He tried to sit up and Nicholas held him down. Gideon had a vampire's strength now, but Nicholas was still a lot stronger. A few hundred years would do that to a man.