Bloodlust | lrh

9. Eat much?

Ashton is summoned to the house in the middle of all of the chaos. Luke continues to relentlessly torture the guy as he's only giving sporadic pieces of information. When he arrives he's greeted by screams and a girl throwing her guts up. He rushes over to Soka, mostly happy that there was food in her stomach to throw up in the first place.

"Are you okay?" He asks, bending down and putting a hand on her shoulder. He winces at the sight of vomit, so he takes the towel Luke had thrown and covers what he can.

"He likes doing it." The girl feels tears clouding her eyes. She blinks them away.

"I don't understand it either." Ashton tries his best to comfort her. He never likes to be involved with this part of the job, and now the screams were starting to make him nauseous too.

He runs off to grab a glass of water for her. Ashton will be doing his best to convince Luke to let her eat again after this. When he gets back he forces her to drink it, not taking no for an answer.

They can hear multiple sets of footsteps climbing the stairs. Mike and Calum walk right by the two, only sparing quick glances to see what's going on. They want nothing to do with the sick girl on the floor. Luke appears after them, stopping in front of Ashton.

"Let's go." He motions for Ashton to follow him.

"Let me clean her up first." Ashton says, looking down to Soka as she tries to pick herself up off the floor.

Luke looks between the two of them, not liking what he sees. She can't form connections to anyone else, he's the only person she can interact with like this. He convinces himself it's not jealousy, just a way of messing with the girl's mind. He's incapable of having compassion the way Ashton does for her. At least that's what he thinks.

"I'll do it. Go to my office." Luke waves off the boy, moving to take his spot. Ashton doesn't know what to think, the only thought that pops into his head is if Luke is actually going to take care of her. He doesn't buy it.

"You're going to help her?" He asked in disbelief.

"Yes. Get out of my way." Luke nudges him out of the way.

He sees the girl has given up on trying to stand, she's way more comfortable on the floor. Ashton finally listens and walks away, glancing back just in time to see his heartless boss take the limp girl in his arms. He's left with more questions than answers.

Luke carries her through the house, she only glances up at him a few times. He never looks down at her, even though she hopes he would. When he walks past the living room, she starts to panic. He can feel her tense up, especially when she starts to squirm as they approach the empty room.

"You're not going back in there, don't worry." He tries to sound nice, but it comes off as more of a dig than anything.

Regardless, Soka relaxes. He brings her upstairs to a spare bedroom, a look of confusion and surprise written across her face as he drops her on the bed. The boy leaves without saying anything, only to come back with another glass of water and a box of crackers.

"Thank you." Her timid voice drives him half way to crazy. He never thought she'd ever thank him for anything, and neither did she.

"Don't." He says plainly, shutting it down and turning on his heels.

***

"Something's going on with them." Ashton is now standing in Luke's office where Mike and Calum occupy the only two chairs. He closes the door behind him, knowing he's not going to have much time to speak before Luke comes. "He's helping her."

"Wait, what?" Calum's attention is finally focused on Ashton. He never really liked the guy that much, too much of a coward for his taste. He wasn't paying attention to his words until talk of Luke helping someone came up.