Tainted | Finn Mikaelson

Chapter 11

Finn hadn't left her side.

"You really don't need to do all of this," she said when he brought her some tea, after already having made her a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

"You were almost killed, Katya. You need to replenish. You're still in no condition to be doing all this alone. Besides, you might need company in these twenty-four hours you'll be staying in your apartment to let the vampire blood exit your system."

Katya managed a smile. "Ah, you remembered. Yeah... definitely will be staying inside. My boss at work must be so confused about why my hours are all over the place."

"Camille can likely get you some leniency."

"She could, but it won't make the dude forget how I keep calling in sick for one random excuse or another." She pulled out her phone. "Listen, I need to shower to wash off the rest of the blood, so I'm going to call Hayley to help me. You're welcome to watch TV in the meantime... I tend to take a long time even when I'm not injured."

He nodded, choosing to sit down on her couch and wait patiently for two hours just reading the books she had stacked beneath the table. In the bathroom, he could hear giggling and sometimes yelps of pain, but otherwise, it seemed everything was going fine.

"There she is, all squeaky clean," said Hayley once she led Katya out in pajamas. "And she's going to be a good girl and rest. I'll get you guys some takeout."

"You two were having fun in there," mentioned Finn once Katya sat down with him.

"And you were clearly bored to death here," she replied, seeing he'd started to read the first few pages of every single book, but hadn't finished the third chapter of any. "Hayley told me Elijah has a little girlfriend."

"Oh, yes, that vampire girl," he recalled. "He mentioned she plays the violin well."

"Yeah, Hayley said her name is Gia, she's tied as Marcel's second-in-command with Josh." She started to get up. "Listen, I could get you—"

"Don't get me anything," he said, helping her sit back down. "At this rate, I know your apartment like the back of my hand."

"It's easy to memorize," she said, laying back into the pillows as he went to get her some water. "There aren't any walls. It's all open. I like it that way."

"It makes sense," he responded, flickering to the different parts of the studio. "Kitchen in one corner, living room in another, bed in another, last corner has one huge closet and then a small bathroom off to the side."

"My bathroom's the best part," said Katya. "They'd just remodeled it when I moved in, so I got everything brand spanking new."

He chuckled, handing her a glass to drink from. She did so readily, before looking off at a far wall. "I came to this city to help my friend because I thought she lost her baby. And now, I'm walking on a dangerous thread, on the path to becoming a vampire. What if something happens? What if I do become a vampire?"

"You won't," he said, "because you're not going anywhere."

"But what if the entire building collapses and I'm crushed and I die? Or what if— what if an atomic bomb goes off—"

"Katya," said Finn, taking her hand. "You're nervous. And that's alright. You're going to have a million scenarios running through your head. All you need to know is that I'm going to be here to keep you safe from anything that could happen to you. I won't let you become a vampire. I know you don't want that. I didn't want it. A lot of people don't. We're aware of the blood, we're aware of the danger, and we're going to take advantage of that awareness to prevent anything from happening. Got it?"