Long Live. // Luke Hemmings 5SOS (Vampire)

Chapter 41 - Her Heart

Fear flooded Luke's mind. Rosemary wasn't breathing, her heart wasn't beating, and her face - scratched, bloody, and soaked in tears - was almost unrecognisable in that state. Streams of red painted her skin from her nose down to her neck, but no new blood flowed.

"Rosemary?" The urgency grew in his voice as he quickly sat back and took hold of her lifeless face, trying to coax a response out of her. "Rosemary, wake up, princess, please wake up. You have to wake up." He begged, feeling his tired eyes fill with tears once again as he tried to shake a response out of her. "Baby, please- no, no, no, I can't lose you, not you too..." He choked out, shaking his head as he felt the hot tears run down his cheeks. After realising that his attempts to shake her awake were futile, he took a deep breath and resorted to other methods, briefly trying to regain his composure so as not to feel hopeless just yet. "I'm not losing you."

Quickly, he pulled his wrist to his mouth and sunk his teeth in. He practically ripped into his own veins with how intensely and rapidly he took the bite but he didn't care about that; he just pressed the gruesome wound to her silent lips, hoping that the blood which slipped past and into her mouth would make it all better.

"Come on, come on... Please, please just open your eyes." He whimpered, and by now, Michael was finding his bearings and realising what was happening in the backseat. Rosemary was unresponsive; the vampire blood on her increasingly pale lips wasn't yet bringing the result Luke was hoping for.

"Luke...?" Michael's raspy voice came from the front seat along with the sound of crunching glass as he sat upright and turned towards the backseats; Luke refused to look up at him. If he did, he would've seen the look of wide-eyed realisation that crossed his friends face when he saw Rosemary. When he listened and failed to hear her beating heart or her breathing. Luke would've seen the look of knowing distress in Michael's eyes before he spoke again. "Is... Is she-"

"She's not waking up. Her heart stopped, and she's not waking up, she's- this- this can't be happening." Luke choked out, struggling to know what to do next. Perhaps Michael's face would have given him some hint... His words eventually did.

"She's- she's gonna wake up, Luke." Michael murmured, hearing his friend struggle to steady his shaky breathing.

"She has to." Luke responded achingly, rubbing his thumb across her face, across her bloodied lip, wishing he would feel her breath on his hand again. "She can't be dead."

"I gave her my blood." Michael blurted, and Luke finally turned to face him, his face twisting in disbelief as a plethora of thoughts and feelings rushed over him like a tidal wave.

"You-" Luke's breath caught in his throat. "You did what?" Michael looked nauseous as he tried to find his response.

"I thought- I thought she was hurt, outside of The Vault. I wanted to help her, Luke, I- I didn't know this would happen." Despite the clear nerves in Michael's voice, Luke found himself letting out a shaky breath of relief. His eyes closed, some tension releasing from his face.

"She- she's gonna wake up, then." Luke whispered with a gulp, earning a nod from Michael before he closed his eyes and sighed. "...She's gonna turn." He breathed out, reaching up and pinching the bridge of his nose. He shook his head, trying to calm his own breathing. There was a pause as Michael watched Luke, a lump in his throat at the sight of Rosemary's lifeless body beside him. He tried not to look. "We- we need to get out of here." Luke was suddenly moving, opening the car door and beginning to climb out. Without question, Michael was quick to follow, stepping through and shaking off broken glass on his way out.

He watched Luke scoop Rosemary into his arms, one arm behind her knees and the other around her shoulders, cradling her limp body to his chest. Michael could see how hard it was for Luke to look at his girl like that. His eyes wandered anywhere but her as they made their way, quietly and quickly as possibly, down the road to Helena's.