City of Blood

09

Callum and I sit on the living room couch, both of us silent. What started as a beautiful evening and involved a passionate, breathless kiss has now ended in the two of us sitting in a shocked silence after coming across a dead body. Once I called Dad, he ordered Callum and I to get to the house while he and his allies who know about the attacks went to investigate.

I haven't seen a dead body in real life before, and especially not one that has been drained of blood. I can feel Callum shaking beside me; he's been distraught since we got home and I want to take him to my room to comfort him and offer him some kind of safety, but Dad wants to talk to us.

I think he's realizing that when he was attacked, he was very close to looking the same way. Plus, seeing a dead human is terrifying because humans have no way of defending themselves from supernaturals since they don't know that we exist.

Callum's hands are shaking aggressively and I grab them in my own. His eyes find mine and my heart aches when I see the tears that are there but haven't fallen.

"I'm sorry," I whisper, wishing I could make it better.

He looks down at our hands. "I know there's nothing we could have done... it's not fair. He didn't have a chance to defend himself and now he's dead. Whoever's causing those attacks needs to be stopped."

"I agree."

"I'd be pretty concerned if you didn't," he says, cracking a weak smile.

The front door opens and Ramsay walks in, tossing his keys on the counter. He sees myself and Callum and sits down on the couch beside us, looking a bit pained. He's not wearing a suit anymore; he's wearing a sweatshirt and sweatpants instead.

"Dad called me," he says. "Are you guys okay?"

"We found a dead body," Callum deadpans.

Ramsay winces. "Yeah... Dad and Joseph are trying to see if they can find any footprints but whoever did it moved quickly and didn't leave any traces of themselves behind. His friends are burying the body."

"In an unmarked grave," Callum says, standing up. "His family will never have closure and he died because humans don't have any way to protect themselves from people like us. I... I need time."

It upsets me to see him so distraught and hopeless, but I don't follow him as he walks upstairs. I'll check on him in a little bit, but he needs some time to himself to process. We've talked about how we deal with our problems before and Callum shared that he usually needs time to himself before talking things through.

Ramsay squeezes my shoulder to comfort me. "He'll be okay."

"I know," I say, but saying it doesn't offer me much comfort. "It brings back memories for him."

I know that Ramsay knows what I'm referring to because Callum opened up to him when we were at our house last week, but it was one of the newly rare occasions of seeing Ramsay. Ramsay has been going out a lot lately but he doesn't really talk much about what he's doing. Seeing him at the restaurant would've clued me in if I had any clue who that guy was.

"Do you think the attacker who got that human is the same one that attacked Callum?" Ramsay whispers, glancing at the stairs.

"I doubt it," I respond. "That was three years ago and this string of murders is new."

Ramsay shrugs. "Just a thought. Plus, you said that Callum's aunt almost caught the person who turned and almost killed him. They might have gone underground for a while so they wouldn't be caught."

"It's possible, but I doubt it."

Dad and Joseph walk inside, and I assume they helped dig the grave because there's mud all over their pants and hands. They both look tired and Joseph looks a bit sickly. He's got a gentle soul and kind heart so I'm sure seeing a dead body made him extremely uncomfortable and burying it must have hurt him. Plus, it's his weekend off from work and burying a dead body is not a fun way to spend your weekend.