Page 90 of Love Bleeds

Aldrich had been careful, though. He kept the portions small. Enough to keep Crimson alive, not enough to overdose him.

At least he hoped that was what he was doing. Truth be told, he'd never had to do this before, so it wasn't like he had any experience.

He eyed his patient a little more closely. Crimson's skin tone resembled the bedsheets--where they weren't stained with blood--and he was sleeping most of the time now, when he wasn't refusing to be fed or mumbling nonsensical words to himself.

What if Aldrichdidn'tfeed him and he'd just fall back asleep and stop breathing while Aldrich wasn't watching?

Crimson reached one hand out to Aldrich. His pale wrist had red markings from where he'd try to get free from the rope confining him to the bed. At least he'd run out of energy to dothateventually. "You have to..." he started speaking again. "You have to tell Luke."

"Sure I will, buddy." Aldrich ruffled Crimson's hair in what he hoped was a reassuring manner. Unsurprisingly, Crimson mentioned Luke's name a lot. Even when he was muttering things to himself that otherwise didn't make sense. Luke was his reason to keep going. Aldrich didn't understand it, but he could respect it.

I died to protect him once and I'd do it again.

Crimson's words bounced around in Aldrich's head. He had no idea why someone would choose to make a sacrifice that huge for someone else, but the actions of mortals often confused him, and Crimson still acted very mortal in many ways. He was so young.Fresh from the grave.A baby vampire.

Maybe with time he would lose those mortal affectations.

Aldrich certainly had. He hardly even remembered his first years as a vampire anymore. He couldn't imagine that he'd ever been as concerned about mortals as Crimson, though. He’d learned early on that it was better to view them as skin-covered juice-boxes with short expiry dates.

"Savannah," Crimson said. "You have to tell Luke."

"I'll write it down," Aldrich assured him, while taking so such action. Maybe Savannah was someone Crimson had had a crush on once? In any case, she didn't matter. What mattered was that Crimson was forming full sentences now. That was a good sign, right? At least it meant that his brain wasn't about to fry. Aldrich picked the syringe up again. "Wanna tell me about this Savannah?" he asked to distract Crimson. "She hot?"

"She's... that girl."

"Uh-huh." Aldrich grabbed Crimson's wrist with his free hand to keep his arm in place as he readied the shot. "I think you should probably go back to sleep."

Crimson looked at him but his gaze lost focus as Aldrich injected him with the small dose of animal blood he'd prepared. "Savannah," he mumbled again, and then his eyes closed.

"I'll tell him," Aldrich promised.

After all, it was hardly going to be the first promise he broke.