Belle Morte Bites (Belle Morte 4.3)

Facing Demons: Part One

Ludovic

Even before he opened his eyes, Ludovic knew that the other side of the bed was empty. He hadn't heard Roux get up, but the bed felt colder and emptier without her.

Ludovic had slept alone for so many decades that the thought of sharing his bed with anyone had become almost unthinkable. Then Roux had blazed into his life, a bright streak of colour and life and laughter, and now not sharing a bed with her seemed unthinkable.

He pushed back the covers and climbed out of bed. He already knew where Roux would be. The bathroom door swung silently open when he pushed it, revealing Roux sitting quietly on the closed toilet, hugging her knees to her chest. Her short hair stood up in messy tufts – a sure sign that she'd been raking her fingers through it.

She looked up as Ludovic came in, and gave him a watery smile.

"Having trouble sleeping again?" Ludovic said, approaching her and kissing the top of her head.

Roux shrugged. Her hands were wrapped around her bare feet, her blue-painted toes peeping out behind her fingers.

Ludovic crouched in front of her, running his hands up and down her arms.

Three months had passed since Roux had been turned into a vampire, and she was still dealing with the reality of that. It wasn't how much her life had changed that bothered her – she'd adapted remarkably well to becoming a vampire, although sometimes she still mourned the loss of cocktails. It was the circumstances that had led to her becoming a vampire that kept her up at night.

When Edmond had turned Renie into a vampire, it had been to save her. Edmond had asked Renie first, and she had agreed.

Roux hadn't been given that choice.

After Roux and Ludovic had thwarted a vampire paedophile, and stopped him from hurting any more kids, he'd targeted Roux in revenge. He'd kidnapped her and turned her into a vampire against her will, and even though Roux had eventually retaliated by killing her killer, what he'd done to her had left her with emotional wounds that hadn't yet healed.

The fact that she had come back to life as a vampire didn't change the fact that a monster had killed her. It didn't erase the terror she must have felt when he kidnapped her, or when she realised that he was killing her. She hadn't known he would bring her back.

"You should go back to bed. There's no point both of us staying up," Roux said.

"Are you going to stay in here?" Ludovic asked.

Roux shrugged again. Ludovic took that as a yes.

He shifted position, sitting on the floor at her feet. "I'm not going anywhere. If you're staying in here all night, then so am I."

She gave him another smile, slightly stronger this time.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Ludovic said.

Sometimes Roux did, but other times she couldn't find the words, and Ludovic had learned not to push her on those occasions.

Roux considered this, resting her cheek on her knees.

She was one of the strongest women Ludovic had ever known, fierce to the core, but she looked so vulnerable now, her face pale and her eyes dark with the memories of the night she'd been killed.

"Sometimes I wake up thinking that I'm still in the boot of DeSanti's car, and it's like I can't breathe. I know that makes no sense, because I don't need to breathe, but it still scares me when it feels like I can't," Roux said.