• 𝓜𝓪𝓮 •

When Kite sighed, I felt my body go rigid. It did hurt. It hurt like a bitch. A brush of fingers over the marks made a shockwave of pain shoot through my throat and down my spinal cord.

"Would you like me to heal you," Kite asked, finally looking down at me.

I stared at him incredulously.

He motioned towards his neck, like I didn't understand what part of me he was talking about. Zero didn't hurt me anywhere else. Well, besides my wrist, but that didn't leave a mark, and the pain that was there before was nothing but a dull ache.

"Let him heal you," Noah said. "Whether it's a surface wound or if it runs deeper, you need to have it healed."

I felt my lips pull back into a grimace before I could stop it. I didn't want Kite touching me. Not after what Zero did. Most vampires had the ability to heal, though I never saw any of them use it. So I was clueless as to how he'd go about it.

Kite's lips pinched together and he looked away again.

"If I disgust you that much," I said, "then why offer to begin with? Don't feel like you're obligated to heal me just because you own me."

Kite's head whipped back to face me, eyes slightly widened as his mouth opened, then closed. He glanced at Luca, then Noah, and then his jaw tensed before he spun on his heel and left the diner.

Luca sighed. "Idiot."

Noah hummed in agreement.

I stood, holding myself back from touching the ache in my throat. I didn't know what it looked like, but I could feel it all the same. It was like he seared me with fire, and I was trying to heal from second degree burns.

Zero had never come after me directly. He never physically harmed me, and because of that, I figured my emotional torment was enough for him. When I lashed out and attacked him in the past, he merely took it, a smile twisting his lips. I guess I never stabbed his eye with a fork before, but I think the fact that he did act out scared me more than him having no reaction at all.

I hugged my arms around myself, pressing my fingers into my skin to keep from shaking again.

"You need to let him heal you," Noah said. "He isn't disgusted by you. He just...processes things differently."

He processed things differently? Was that a roundabout way of saying he was just an asshole and I had to figure out a way to cope with it?

Every time I met with Kite before I ran away, he gave me the same blank stare. I could never tell if he didn't remember who I was, or if he truly just didn't care that I was there strictly for him. While other humans were shared, I was saved for Kite. No one else touched me. Not being passed around like a communal blood bag was nice, even if the guy I was saving my blood for didn't seem to care who it was giving him blood.

That's why it was so confusing for me when he tracked me down to bring me back to this hell hole. He never made any move to show he even knew who I was.

I puffed out a frustrated breath and looked at the door Kite just stormed out of.

"I don't think the marketplace would be a good idea for today," Luca said. "Not with Zero on a rampage."

I didn't want to go to the marketplace anyway. Honestly, I'd rather stay locked up in my room for the rest of my life, regardless of Zero's mental status.

I started towards the door, knowing Luca and Noah would follow. I remembered the way back to Kite's office, and it took me no time to find the door. I opened it without knocking, then stared blankly at Kite.

He looked up, his eyebrow cocking in challenge. "What can I do for you, Mae?"

I pointed at my neck. Why else would I go to his office? To say hi? I'd rather rip my own arm off than be anywhere near him, and by the look of it, the feeling was mutual.

"That was a one-time offer." He gave me a tight smile. "I'm sure you'll do just fine healing on your own."

"You came down there all fucking macho man and expected me to what?" I threw my hands up in exasperation, ignoring the twinge of pain it caused. "Openly welcome another vampire touching me? I'd just been attacked, Kite."

The door closed behind me and I didn't have to look to know Luca and Noah had followed me inside. I could feel them there.

"One would think you'd be used to that," he said.

Repercussions of my actions be damned. Vampire or not, he had no right to talk to me like that. To speak to me like I was nothing but livestock to be used and mistreated until I died.

"I hope one day someone mistreats you," I said. "I hope one day someone hurts you so badly that it ruins any chance you have in trusting again. Only then will you understand a molecule of what humans have gone through. You sit up here on your high horse overlooking a slaughtering ground and all you have to say is 'one would think you'd be used to that.'? You're pathetic. You have no idea what happens out there, do you? Holed up in your pretty little castle with walking food banks being hand delivered to you. You don't know the fear we live in. The pain we go through."

He raised his chin, and I thought he would argue. But he merely stared at me, unflinching. Because of course. Why would my words hurt him?

"That's quite frankly a new low, even for you, dude," Luca finally said.

Kite's golden brown eyes narrowed as they moved from me to Luca. He stared at him for a while, and I could only guess what was going on through their minds.

A hand brushed against my arm and I flinched. The movement brought Kite's eyes back to me, and for a moment I wondered if I saw concern there, but I didn't expect that from Kite. I didn't expect anything from Kite.

"Just me," Noah said, voice quiet. "Let's go back to your room."

I didn't want to be around Kite any longer anyway. I couldn't stand to look at him. At the way his eyes tracked me, how his lips seemed to curl down into a frown whenever he looked at me. I hated him.

They said he processed things differently? That was bullshit. He was just a fucking asshole with his head so far up his own ass he can't see what's in front of him.

I turned and followed Noah out, silently walking back to my room. My throat still burned, but damned if I would request healing from another fucking vampire.

Noah came into my room, then shut my door when I walked in behind him.

"I can heal you," he said. "It isn't as in depth as Kite's healing ability is, but I can take a bit of the ache away."

I just stared at him, and when I didn't decline, he stepped closer. He watched me like he worried I'd bolt at any moment. Any wrong move. And maybe I would have, if I wasn't having a mental pep talk to remind myself who it was in front of me.

He tricked me out in the woods. He didn't warn me of Kite's presence. He didn't tell me what he was. I shouldn't trust him.

But he was also one of my closest friends before he disappeared all those months ago. Someone I trusted and loved.

I blew out a breath as he stepped in closer, then raised my eyes to meet with his.

And when he leaned in, I didn't push him away.