The truth

You’re a doctor who what now?!” she asked as she went numb. He had called a doctor… for her?

“I watch over the vampires and humans so no one is hurt or goes overboard when feeding, and sometimes I watch over half-breeds who become familiars so they aren’t hurt either,” she explained again.

“There’s a doctor who does that?” she asked as she searched her memory slowly. She realized someone had been in the room the first time that asshole had fed on her, but they had.... She stopped as her mind went blank. She couldn’t remember. That asshole had fed so much she had almost died. She had been out for a full six days as her body healed from what that asshole had done. She hadn’t even remembered there had been someone there... someone screaming something...

“Are there many of you?” she asked, eyes wide as she shook off the hazy memory.

“Yes, in a group of more than three, a doctor is always called in. Are you new to vampire laws?” the doctor asked.

“Laws?” she asked.

“Oh my, where have you been living under a rock? I’m quite sure you’re a half-breed. You should know these rules. Your parents at least should have....” the doctor stopped as she gasped.

“Are you Mavery’s sister?” she whispered.

She nodded.

“Oh my, she wasn’t kidding. You really don’t know, do you?” the doctor said, the doctor who watched over people as they fed. She felt tears in her eyes as she recalled a memory of her mother who smiled as they waved her off.

“Don’t forget to call the doctor....” her mother’s voice softly faded.

“Jerry... Doctor Jerry,” she whispered as a clear memory now surfaced. She and her sister had been commissioned for one of them to be that assholes familiar. They had gone together and with Doctor Jerry to prevent.... She looked up at the eyes of Doctor Bethany and she felt a sob pull up, then another until she cried like her life was over.

“Doctor Jerry.... he....” She stopped, unable to go on as she cried tears running down her face as she realized it hadn’t been her fault. That asshole had lied. It wasn’t that her blood was irresistible. It was that he had pushed that thought so far into her that she had just believed him. It was her fault. He just couldn’t stop himself because her blood was too addictive.

“Ava?” Beth said, but she was too far gone. All she could hear was that assholes voice as she fought him, then pulled him in in need as he said it, “Your fault. I wouldn’t want you if your blood wasn’t so addicting. You. You make me do this.”

“I’m not.... he....” She crumpled into a ball as pain and anger mixed inside her. Hands over her ears, she tried to filter out the echo of that assholes voice. He had made her believe it was her.... She had thought it was her fault, not just what he had done to her but the reason he tortured Mavery was because she didn’t taste as good as her... and he hated that so he had tortured her. The words wound in her mind over and over as he bit her as he hit her sister. “ Your fault! Your fault! Your fault!”

She let out scream after scream, all of them filled with anger as she slammed her hands on the dark carpet, her face buried in it as she kept screaming.

“Ava!” came a scream from the door.

“No!!” She screamed, letting out another pained scream as someone picked her up by her arms.

“Ava!” Dius screamed into her face.

“He lied, he lied!!!” She screamed as she let out another anger-filled scream, as she scratched her face to stop the pain that was filling her insides.

“Yes, he did,” he said, red eyes directed. She stopped screaming as tears filled her eyes, his calm voice finally reaching past her angered haze.

“He lied,” she whispered as he pulled her into his arms. She curled into him. “He lied,” she kept saying, holding on for dear life to his shirt.

“Yes, he did,” he kept saying back as he held her, making his way to the chair he had abandoned. She curled into his lap like a cat hiding behind his strong arms as she cried at the lost time she had spent believing that monster. She cried until she felt her insides had turned to water and come out into his now-soaked shirt.

Slowly, she finally finished crying, and she peered up at Dius, who smiled down at her.

“Hi there, my little Ava,” he whispered.

Her eyes filled with tears as her lip trembled. “Does…does Mavery… did she...” She stopped as she felt another bout of pain about to come through, so she stopped talking.

“She had told me he had said that to her once as he beat her, that it was your fault, but my brave Mave had fought so hard that day. He had never said it again to her, but I see now he kept saying it to you,” Dius whispered.

She let the tears fall as she stared into his red eyes. “I...” she stopped, unsure she could say a thing after once again falling into that monster’s trap... She wondered how many she had killed by mistake because of his words, because she had been unable to see past that monster’s lies. “I killed...” she finally said as she sobbed into his shirt, unable to stop…

Dius made himself take slow, deep breaths, controlling the need to go where he had dropped that assholes ashes and kick the dirt that lay there. My god. He could still hear the screams in his ears Mavery had cried, but this, this was beyond anything he had ever seen. She had a wound the size of a country inside of her. She had screamed so hard all of his people had ad come running. They were at the door now, peering inside, red eyes concerned. He could hear Bethany’s hushed tones telling them all was well. He wasn’t quite sure that was true. He could literally feel the little one’s pain. He wasn’t sure he could hold so much pain in himself. How did she carry so much inside of her?

“I killed...” she said again, and he understood, so he put his hands on her face, pulling it up until her tear-filled eyes stared into his.

“Anyone who tried to take what was not given freely deserved to die. Do not feel bad about that,” he whispered, leaning down and before he could stop himself, kissing those lips softly.

She blinked rapidly as he pulled back, then her lower lip started to tremble again, and she cried harder, falling into his chest. He held her, unsure what else he could do. How do you undo what had been the worst time in her life? Mavery had been completely different. There had been pain, but for some reason, Mavery had somehow owned it and moved on. It felt like Ava had done the exact opposite. She had bottled it up, and that had made it bigger and deeper. He had never seen something like this before. Yet she had managed to keep living, keep fighting despite the huge chasm of pain in her. Suddenly, he had a need to make her his, just so he could help her carry the huge weight of this pain. He knew she would not see it that way, though. She would only see his need to make her his.

“We should wait to make you my familiar,” he whispered to the top of her head, mouth moving over that soft black hair that she kept tying into a tight bun.

“What?” she whispered, leaning back as those tears kept coming. “Do you not want me... anymore?” she said through a sob.

He stared in surprise; she was doing the exact opposite of what he expected. In fact, she kept doing it, had been doing it from the beginning. When he had expected her to run at her sister’s plea, she had not only stayed; she had pushed out a promise to keep his people alive. When he said, “Stay in your own room,” she had chosen to sleep with her sister. When he had introduced her to his people, the select few that would feed directly from her instead of screaming in fear, she had shaken each hand even with her pulse pounding in fear. When asked what she knew how to do besides dancing, he had thought she would start listing a bunch of things like kill vampires; instead, she had said nothing she could think of yet. He had seen her run like the wind, punch through concrete, and kill five of his vampires, all of which had had a good three to four hundred years under their belt. She was unlike anyone he had ever met.

“I want you; I just don’t want you to think it’s because I can’t...” He stopped as she put her hand over his mouth. It was cold against his lips, and he had a need to breathe on her fingers, so they warmed. Instead, he waited, eyes on hers.

“I want to prove him wrong... I want him to be wrong, please.... help me” she said the last so softly if he didn’t have powerful hearing, he would not have heard it.

“If that’s what you wish, pet” he whispered back.

She smiled a bit through the tears that were somehow still falling.

“I hate that I believed him” she said, voice a bit stronger.

“Someone tells you something over and over, and eventually, without reason, you will start to believe it” he said back.

“Will you do it now... before I...” she stopped as he pulled her neck up to his mouth, kissing the soft skin there. She tensed but nothing more, so he opened his mouth and took a bite.