Bound

Blood | EVA

I don't know why I apologized, or at least I didn't at first. Maybe it was because I knew I was being an absolute ass over my nightmare. Hale wasn't Marques. He wasn't Blackwell. And though he wasn't the best person in the world, he didn't entirely deserve my unprovoked annoyance.

I lowered my head and repeated my words.

"I'm sorry," I said softly.

"You don't need to be sorry, Eva. Just keep in mind..."

I heard approaching footsteps and before I could look up, he move in a blur, already standing over me. His palm was extended before him, and I hesitated before I gently placed mine in his.

"I'm not them," He said.

His voice was weak. Even more concerning, a calloused, warm hand was what I felt. It was a temperature so high that I probably felt cold to him. Never had I been more terrified for a vampire.

"Your hand..." I said.

His tired eyes widen a little before he drew away.

I grasped it, feeling a strange sense of deja vu as I drew him closer.

I stood and he took a step back, never taking his hand away as he lower his head. Dark hair fell over his eyes, but I took a step closer.

"Hale... Look at me."

He lifted his head slowly but surely. His were a vibrant shade of red as our eyes met. It made me uneasy, dizzy even to stare into them. My limbs began to feel weak, like they were made of lead ready to sink to the floor at any moment.

I felt his pain....until he drew away.

He yanked his hand from mine.

"Get out," he said staring to the floor again.

He didn't want to look at me even as I tried to meet his eyes again.

The weakness, the heavy feeling, the sluggishness that made me want to fall to the floor, that was what he felt because of me.

"I said, get out," he repeated.

"Why?" I asked. "Hale...just-."

"No!"

I flinched away at his yell.

I took a few steps back, but I refused to leave. He wouldn't push me away so easily, but why did he want me to go?

His red eyes flashed in my mind again.

"Blood," I said.

His head rose and his eyes met mine once more.

"That's what's wrong with you."

"Evamarie, that isn't-."

"It is. And no matter how much you deny it, you know what's making you sick. And you know how to fix it."

I didn't want this. I swore I'd never let a vampire take blood from me again, but this could determine both of our survival. Without him, I'd be out of service. I'd be killed. So if for nothing else could I allow this, I'd do for the sake of Hale in my own self preservation.

He shook his head.

"I'm not going to-."

"Why?!"

He remained silent, his stern glare threatening to never back down. My mind grew desperate for convincing words, but in the confusion of why a sick vampire would so harshly turn down a willing meal, I turned to an instinctive nug in the corners of my mind.

"Dante... Alessandro... Hale," I said, unsure where his middle name came to mind from.

His eyes grew wider.

"Please. Bite me."

His lips parted, revealing the peaks of his fangs.

He gave up on his restraint.

Soon, his warm body pressed against mine. His arm held me to him tightly, as his hand found it's way to the side of my neck. He move a strand behind my ear, burying his fingers into my hair as he tilted my head aside. Lowering his mouth to my neck, the last thing I felt was the breath of his whisper on my skin.

"I'm sorry."

My heart dropped in my chest with a mixture of his guilt and my own fear. Terror struck my entire body that went stiff in anticipation of gut wrenching pain. I closed my eyes as tightly as I could, struggling against memories of being horribly bitten before.

Sharp pain struck my neck, forcing my eyes open as every nerve ending in my body caught fire. My fears scattered at the unfamiliar sensation, my knees going weak as he sunk his teeth deep into my neck.

With his arm supporting me, I didn't fall.

The fire faded from a dull flame to later a comfortable warmth and with it, came a euphoria that I never thought possible as every inch of my body began to tingle. My eyes closed again as mind drew a blank, and it wasn't long before I lost awareness of everything except Hale's body and his arm steadying mine, which felt like it could shatter at any moment.

I never felt his fangs leave my neck, but when I peeked my eyes open once more, his hazel eyes stared back his hand stroking my hair gently. With that final touch the room went dark and consciousness left me.