Page 117 of Love Bleeds

Chapter Forty

Two days after blowing up the vampire-base, I knocked on the door to the spare bedroom that my siblings had assigned to 'the rescue bird' after Aldrich had brought him and me back here.

"Come in." That was Jared's voice.

I glanced back at Crimson, who'd accompanied me, and then I entered the room.

Ifound Jared sitting in a chair some distance away from the bed. The bed itself was taken up by my savior, not in his bird-form this time, but as a young light-blond man with pale skin. Vampire-pale. He was sitting up, but didn't turn to me when I came in, choosing instead to stare off into the middle distance. I took a few steps toward the bed. No change.

"Hi," I said. "You're Silas, right?"

"Don't bother," Jared said. "He's not talking."

Collin had mentioned as much, but still, I needed to try, didn't I?

"He hasn't said anything?" I asked.

"Not much. Not while awake."

"But he can hear us?"

"Sometimes," Jared said. He had his arms crossed in front of his chest, his whole posture kind of stiff. I'd known him for long enough to know that he was worried, but I couldn't tell exactly why.

"What does he say when he's asleep?" I asked.

Jared shook his head. So either it was gibberish, or he didn't want to share. Fine. I sat on the edge of the bed, studying Silas.

"I wanted to thank you," I said. "I don't know why you helped me, but thank you."

At that, the vampire's gaze finally snapped to me. "Crimson needed to leave." His voice was soft, but surprisingly steady. Crimson and I exchanged glances.

"Crimson's here now," I said, gesturing to the door, where my boyfriend waited. "Do you want to talk to him?"

Silas shook his head.

"I'm sorry about leaving you behind," Crimson said from his position by the door. "I can't thank you enough for helping Luke."

Silas's gaze found Crimson. "I only wanted you to leave." Once the words left his mouth, he buried his face in his hands as if contemplating something terrible. Part of me wanted to reach out and rub his back, but touching him didn't feel right. He looked too fragile with his silvery-blond hair spilling over his fingers and his skin the color of moonlight. "I didn't think..." he started, then broke off. "I didn't want this." His hands lowered and his blue eyes stared right into mine. "It's not my fault."

"I know," I said, even though I wasn't entirely sure what Silas was talking about.

"I didn't want this!" Silas insisted again. "I'm not a traitor! I can't be!" His eyes bore into me as if he needed me to agree with him, but faced with his pain, I didn't know what to say.

Not aside from, "No one's blaming you."

Silas shook his head, then hid his face again.

I glanced at my brother, feeling helpless. Jared had vacated his chair and stood beside the bed now. He rested one hand on my back. "You should go back to your room," he said.

I looked to Crimson, who nodded. Somewhat reluctantly, I made myself rise from the bed and leave Silas behind. Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw my brother sit down in the spot I'd vacated. I hoped that he would do a better job of calming Silas down than I had done.

"He seems pretty bad," I said to Crimson, once we were out in the hall again.

"I think he needs some time to process," Crimson said. "Nicolai had a pretty tight hold on him. Probably for years."

"Do you think he'll be okay?"

"Eventually, yes." He took my hand in his own, intertwining our fingers. "There's a lot of amazing people in this house who will help him."