Bound

Stay | EVA

When those words left Ms. Lovett, she only confirmed a fear I was holding deep with me. I was hurting him because I didn't feel the same way he did, and more importantly, I wasn't trying to.

But I didn't know how he felt.

At times I questioned whether he felt anything. He was a creature so simple on the surface, but if you were unlucky, or crazy, enough to dig deeper, you hit a layer too complex to ever understand.

I didn't know how he felt, and part of me didn't care to know. It wanted him to suffer the emotion and pain in a way me and many more humans did. But then there was a part of me that knew I was being a bitter bitch to a potentially innocent vampire. I was hurting him, because of Marques and Blackwell, both my previous Lord's and all vampires who didn't care about humans. And if I let this continue, I'd become exactly what I never wanted to be.

One of them.

Though Hale didn't give a damn about humans, I don't think he gave a damn about anyone else much more.

I creaked the door open.

I knew she hesitated not to throw me back in my room, but Ms. Lovett let me into the room where Hale was. There was nowhere to go but up from the situation we were in, but there was still more to be uncovered about Hale. About what it meant for him to be bound to me.

I peeked in the door, taking a glimpse inside. I hesitated, but when I saw Hale fast asleep I threw it open.

"Discretion isn't your specialty is it?"

My heart went to my throat as I leapt at the voice of Hale who should've been unconscious.

"What do you want?" He asked his eyes still closed as he lied under a thin sheet.

There was a discarded ice pack next time him on his pillow.

"I- umm..." Words wouldn't come as I tried for some excuse that wouldn't give notion of concern. "I wanted to ask Ms. Lovett what's for dinner."

His eyes opened, revealing irises now black in color. Noticing them, I couldn't control how my heart dropped into my stomach.

"You know she's not in here, because you required her permission to even come in. So try again."

I clenched my jaw and held my words towards his smart remark. He wasn't wrong, but I was with how I tried to pretend I didn't care.

"Hale I-...I came to see you. And if you're ok."

He looked over at me and rose a brow.

"That's a first," he said with a faint sarcastic laughed. He went to sit up, struggling at first but managing to get himself upright in the bed.

"I thought you'd be writing my eulogy by now."

"Pretty sure no one would trust me with that since I'd probably slip and call you something like asshole."

I took a few steps inside and shut the door behind me.

He shrugged.

"I've been called worse."

I stood not far from the door, but quite a distance from the bed still in my PJs that I never bothered to remove. I took a few step closer, approaching his bedside slowly.

I didn't quite know what to do or what to think.

He's bound to me, but he acts the same. The way Lovett put it, it almost seemed like he'd be some desperate man on his knees for me, but he was still the same person.

His eyes watched me as I moved, my bare feet padding against the hard cold floors. I arrived at his bedside and sat at his feet.

"Well, you see I'm still alive. Don't you have other things to do? Like...eat dinner."

I shook my head.

"I don't have to leave yet."

He shook his head lightly and released a sigh.

"So you'd rather stay and bother me?" He asked his voice filled with a hint of dread.

I thought about my next words carefully. I could say yes, but would I be bothering him? I might never get a time like this with him again, alone, undistracted, vulnerable. This was the only time if ever that I had even the chance to get him to admit what he kept denying. Maybe that would help him. Just maybe.

"The question is, do you want me to stay, Dante?"