𝕸𝖘. 𝕴𝖓𝖋𝖆𝖒𝖔𝖚𝖘 (𝕻𝖆𝖑𝖆𝖞𝖊 𝕽𝖔𝖞𝖆𝖑𝖊 - 𝕭𝖔𝖔𝖐 1)

𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝕰𝖑𝖊𝖛𝖊𝖓 (11) - Revised

I rinse off the washcloth for the fifth time with lukewarm water, walking back into my room with the semi-wet rag. Tears gather in my eyes once more as Remington comes into view again. He looks so heartbroken, so devastated, that it physically pains me. My love sits on my bed with Emerson asleep on the couch next to Andy, whose gaze follows me wherever I go. "You could've gotten hurt." He states with no intention of hiding his discontentment.

"But I didn't." I murmur, glancing over at him briefly before returning my heterochromatic gaze to Remington.

"He could've hurt you, or worse. Their dark sides are not to be trifled with."

"You could hurt me at any time if you so wished it, and yet here we are. Both of you are seen as monsters, that doesn't make you one. Neither of you would ever hurt me, I have complete faith in the both of you."

Sitting down next to the conscious but silent Remington, I continue wiping at the blood on his body. He remains still, gaze distant and downcast with white-knuckled hands that tremble in his lap. Finishing cleaning his arms and hands, I move onto his slender neck, the red liquid having trailed down in thick rivulets over his tanned skin. A brief glance at Emerson shows that he is in a deep sleep, and one would think that being a vampire, he would wake up easily, but he's the heaviest sleeper I've ever seen. He is pale and before he'd fallen asleep, his movement were very stiff. He nearly couldn't move properly. Sebastian and Remington weren't in that bad of a state, but Emerson had used his magic more recently.

"C-can you take- take Emerson back to his roo-room please?" I direct my request at Andy, not turning back to look at him, continuing what I'm doing.

I hear him sigh and within the millisecond, the shuffling of feet. It pauses for a moment before heading towards the door. "Thank you." I state softly, getting a light hum in response.

I feel terrible for just sending Andy out of the room so suddenly, but Remington isn't entirely comfortable in his presence yet, shown in the way Rem's tense form relaxes just slightly once Andy is gone. I think being this vulnerable around someone he was unsure of for so long is difficult. I wipe the last bit of blood off of my lovers neck before moving to his face. The scarlet liquid is mostly on his cheeks and around his mouth but there is slight splatter above his eyebrow that I get off first, gently scrubbing at the soft skin. "I'm so sorry my sweetness. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry." He murmurs for the tenth time since I found him, misery making it's home in his heart, his soul, and his voice.

"It's okay Rem, I've told you, it's o-okay. I know you couldn't control yourself."

The intense self-loathing and despair emanating from my promised makes me want to cry, to comfort him in any way possible, to rid him of those thoughts and feelings. But I don't know how. Physical affection is something I'd seen at a young age, the only good memories of my parents when I was a child of was them together, kissing or cuddling. I've been on the streets and witnessed acts of affection; of couples gently caressing the nape of their significant others neck, of happy teenagers gazing into each others eyes with such love. I've seen affection when both people are happy. I... I don't know how to comfort a lover in pain, how to console the ones I love the most when his actions are tearing him apart. I don't know how to help him and it's breaking my heart.

"But I should have been able to control myself better! I've been alive for nearly six hundred years, I should have learned self-control by now! Every time we run low on blood it always ends like this. People always die because of what we are!" He exclaims, rubbing at his makeup-free eyelids as tears threaten to fall once more.

I struggle to find some way to reply as I clean the blood off of his lips, softly rubbing at the skin at the corner of his mouth. Placing the rag down on the nearby nightstand, I move my hand to his cheek before trailing it down to rest on his back.