Chapter 10

-Dante-

I couldn’t sleep much that night. Even with Chase’s potion, I could hardly close my eyes. The thought of having another needle close to me made me nauseous and the anxiety almost got the best of me. So… When Chase left around midnight, I heard it. I feared he went to see that alchemist on his own, but I couldn’t get a grip on myself for long enough to get out of bed.

It wasn’t any of my business how he spent his time, but I wished he honored his promise to take me with him to that vampire lady. That thought brought my attention back to what seemed to be one of my biggest fears now – needles.

The second I realized Chase needed a blood sample my mind went right back to all those moments when I lay on the cold steel table, tied down and helpless against the scientist who did whatever they pleased without caring how much pain I was in. The insides of my elbows still hurt from the thought of them trying to find a vein in my starved body. It wasn’t even painful compared to the other things they did to me, but… it just made me sick.

Finally, my thoughts were interrupted when I heard the front door being opened at four in the morning, and since I needed a distraction, I got up and walked to the door. Chase was turning on some dim lights when I stepped to the railing, peering down at him. Apparently, he didn’t hear me, because when he turned around and saw me, he jumped back with a loud gasp.

“Fucking hell, you scared the crap out of me,” he breathed out, and let out a nervous chuckle.

“Where were you?” I asked as casually as I could.

“I was running some errands – I found a recipe that might help to keep strong emotions under control, but I was missing some ingredients, so I went to get this…” he explained while putting his long, black cloak away. He then pulled a small vial from his bag and showed it to me. The green liquid inside it was radiating.

“From Chernobyl?”

He snorted in amusement and shook the vial gently. “It’s uh…” he trailed off and looked at me shortly, clearly changing his mind about telling me the truth. “Yeah – Chernobyl.”

I decided I didn’t want to know.

“You couldn’t sleep?” he asked, putting the vial away before he headed to the stairs.

I shook my head, and he gave me a sympathetic look. When he reached me, he slowly placed his hand on my shoulder, leaning against the railing as well.

“I can make you something stronger,” he suggested, but I shook my head again.

“Thanks, but I guess I need to face my issues instead of drowning them in Chernobyl juice…”

He snorted lightly at my joke and rubbed my back lightly. It felt… nice. “If you want to talk, I’m all ears.”

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. I wanted to get better. I wanted to forget that damned place and move on. I wanted to enjoy the fact that I was free.

“How do I move on?” I muttered.

“With lots and lots of therapy,” he said slowly. “I don’t think you can just bounce back after what you’ve been through, but with time, it’s possible.”

“I can’t even think about letting you get my blood without freaking out,” I told him, and my hands started to shake immediately.

Chase leaned closer, moving his hand across my back to hug me. “We have all the time in the world, and I’ll be extra careful, so you don’t have to worry about it.”

“It’s the memories…” I sighed. “I suppose you have a potion for that as well?”

“Only if you like to wipe out your entire life,” he said.

“I don’t think I would mind losing them all if I could get rid of the past six months…” I muttered.

He hugged me tighter, leaning his head on my shoulder without saying a word. I had mixed feelings about it. It was uncomfortable to be so close to him, but at the same time, his comfort was soothing. There was no pain, no fear… just warm arms around me…

“For the record, you weren’t a phase,” I said, wondering where that thought came.

“So, you’re bisexual or something?”

“Bi… Pan… I don’t know… I never had the time to figure it out,” I muttered. “Does it matter?”

“Nope,” he shook his head and pulled back a little to smile at me. “But now I feel even worse for stealing from you.”

“I never noticed,” I shrugged.

“You were rolling in money,” he smirked.

“My dad’s money,” I corrected, and felt a sudden jolt of pain when I thought about my family. I guess he noticed it.

“Have you thought about contacting your parents? I think they were innocent in this whole mess,” Chase spoke carefully.

“I want to – my God, I want to go to them so bad, but…”

“You’re worried they’ll catch you,” he nodded slowly. “But I’m sure this whole thing is over soon, and you get to go back to living a normal life.”

“No… As long as that place is still up and running, they will try to find me – if Lena is still alive, she will stop at nothing to get me back…” I spoke, feeling frustrated.

“Yeah… True, true…” he nodded slowly a couple of times. “Well, we should forget about her and focus on you,” he added with a smile.

“I guess you’re right,” I muttered.

“Which means you’ll have to get some rest,” he said and nodded towards my room. “And once you’re fully rested, we’ll see what we can do about that blood sample.”

I nodded and let him lead me back into my room.

*****

There was nothing I could do to mentally prepare myself for having my blood taken. I tried to stay calm the entire Tuesday while Chase was at work, but it wasn’t easy. And when he got home… it took several hours before I was calm enough to even stay still on my bed when Chase finally came in with a small, brown bag.

“I’ve done this several times already, so you don’t have to worry,” he said when he sat down on a chair right next to my bed, placing the bag on his lap.

“How? I thought you sell tea and potions?” I asked, trying to distract myself – I was getting nauseated and sweaty already since I knew what was in the bag.

“A lot of the things I make require blood as an ingredient,” he explained.

“So, you go around taking people’s blood?”

“I buy it,” he chuckled. “I have a long list of people who are willingly selling me their blood – I only need a vial or two every now and then.”

“Oh…” I muttered, peering at his bag again, before turning to look out the window.

“Let’s try to make you feel a little more comfortable,” Chase spoke, and I felt him move off the chair to sit on the bed. I snapped my head back to see what he was doing and felt relieved to see him put the bag on the seat. “Give me your hand.”

I hesitated for a long while before I moved awkwardly to do what he asked. He took my hand and started massaging my fingers gently. “Where would you like to go if there was no Lena or the secret lab?” he asked casually.

“I know what you’re trying to do,” I muttered, and he raised his eyebrow at me in a questioning manner, so I sighed. “To the mountains,” I answered without really thinking about it. “It’s… nice and quiet up there.”

“You said you were renting a cabin there,” he said, leading the conversation.

“Uh-huh… It was actually pretty nice, even though I was deadly afraid of what was happening to me. In the end, I was… kind of looking forward to going there,” I admitted, remembering the tiny place I had all for myself once every month.

“I bet it was beautiful. What did you do while you were there?”

My story couldn’t have been interesting to listen to since there wasn’t much to tell, but he kept asking questions about the mountains and the cabin. At some point, I noticed my whole arm was resting on his lap, and he was moving his hand up and down between my wrist and shoulder, massaging my non-existent muscles every now and then.

I had to admit, I felt much calmer now. When I told him about it, he smiled.

“We need to keep it that way,” he spoke, before leaning over to pull the chair next to him. I immediately tensed up when he started to open the bag, so he turned his attention back to me. “I’m just going to do some preparations.”

I tried to stay calm while he grabbed a small bottle and some tissues from the bag. He poured some of the liquid on the inside of my arm and carefully scrubbed it off with the tissues.

“It’s not too late to back out, you know?” he then spoke. “I can do this while you’re asleep.”

“No, I need to do this,” I muttered, turning to look at the ceiling. “Just do it.”

“I’m not going to just do it,” he said calmingly. “The first experience dictates how hard this will be in the future, so I’m trying to make this as comfortable as possible for you.”

“I think it’s too late for that. There’s no way you can make me any more traumatized than I already am.”

“That’s true, but I can make the experience a hell of a lot better for you,” he spoke, taking my hand in his, and proceeded to massage my fingers again. “So… Is there someplace you’d like to go to? Somewhere you haven’t been before?”

I learned that he was being dead-serious about making the whole experience as pleasant as possible. We talked a lot while he tirelessly massaged my arm, wiping my skin with wet tissues every now and then. It was a goddamn exercise as I realized. It got to the point where I felt absolutely ridiculous and was about to ask him to just get it over with, but as soon as I thought about the needle, I lost my voice.

But then it was time. After an hour of preparations, he gave me a sympathetic smile and grabbed his bag.

“I think you should look away now,” he said quietly, and I agreed, turning my head away without saying a word.

“Tell me if you want me to stop, and focus on your breathing. It is important that you ignore everything I’m doing and just keep breathing, okay?”

It was easier said than done. He wiped my arm one more time with the cold liquid, and I could hear him put on latex gloves, but after that, I couldn’t tell what he was doing just by listening to him. I forced myself to focus on taking in deep breaths and thinking about the cabin up on the mountains.

But I couldn’t stop myself from flinching when I felt the needle against my skin. The images of the cabin turned into images of the sick laboratory, and I could almost see Bernard leaning over me…

“There – all done.”

I opened my eyes, but I saw him hiding the syringe inside the bag with hasty movements while pressing a tissue against my arm with one hand. Once the bag was out of my view, he turned to give me a cheery smile.

“That was quick,” I muttered, feeling shaky and nauseated.

“I only needed a few drops,” he said, placing his hand on my shoulder. “You did really well. I’m proud of you.”

I suddenly felt really dizzy when I realized it was over. I could hear him asking me to take deep breaths, but his voice was muffled by the ringing in my ears.

“Hey? Dante?”

I felt his hand on my cheek, and I instinctively grabbed it but didn’t push it away. I looked up at him and saw a gentle smile on his lips, but he was clearly worried.

“I’m fine… Just…”

“It’s all right,” he said soothingly, and focusing on him helped me to get a grip. “Deep breaths.”

With each breath I took, the dizziness faded a little, and soon I was feeling well again.

“I’m such a mess…” I muttered.

“No, you’re not, and even if you were, it was their fault,” he said sternly. “I’m here to make things right.”

I nodded and noticed that his hand was still resting on my cheek. His smile turned shy all of a sudden, and he pulled his hand away, leaving a cold spot on my skin.

“You should get some rest now. I’ll wake you up around midnight so we can go see Aaliyah,” he spoke while gathering the rest of his stuff.

I watched him in silence for a while, but when he tried to get up, I grabbed him by his shirt.

“I don’t know how to thank you for everything you’ve done for me,” I spoke quietly.

“Don’t worry about it,” he said. “I wouldn’t turn my back on anyone who needs my help.”

I nodded, trying to think of something else to say since I was suddenly reluctant to let him go. I really enjoyed talking with him, even though it was all just to keep me calm. But the awkward me couldn’t come up with anything, so he stood up and wished me goodnight before leaving the room.

I let out the deepest sigh when he closed the door.

*****

When midnight came around, I was already awake. I heard Chase knocking on my door, so I got out of bed while telling him to come in. He peered through the gap on the door and smiled when he saw me.

“I thought you’d be sleeping,” he said when he stepped in, wearing tight, light-blue jeans and a big, black shawl. I wasn’t surprised to see him wearing heavy makeup – he used to use a lot of makeup back when we were dating.

“You look like you’re going to a party,” I told him. “You look good, though,” I added a bit too awkwardly.

“Thanks – I just threw something together…” he muttered, tousling his white hair. “So, uhm, I went to get you some new clothes – if you don’t mind. Something that should fit you better.”

“Oh? You didn’t need to do that,” I told him.

He measured me from head to toe with his gaze and smirked. “Yeah, about that…”

I looked down at my outfit – the same green shirt and worn-down sweatpants I had been using for days in a row. “Yeah, true…” I muttered.

“Go take a shower – I’ll bring you the clothes here,” he said, and vanished from the room.

I headed to the shower, trying to see a glimpse of Chase, but he was already downstairs, somewhere below me. I realized I hadn’t actually seen much of the first floor, only parts of the kitchen that were visible through the doorway.

Instead of following him down, I headed to the bathroom that was at the end of the corridor, opposite of Chase’s own bedroom. The door of his room was open, so I sneaked a peek, but it was just a regular room with a bed and a desk. Nothing indicated that the apartment belonged to a warlock, which I found odd. Chase was such a colorful person that seeing the gray, clean interior of his room didn’t make any sense.

I showered quickly, and by the time I stepped out, wearing a towel around my waist, Chase was returning upstairs, carrying a few big bags with him.

“You’re gaining weight pretty nicely,” he stated when he stopped to take a better look at me.

“You can tell?” I asked, looking at myself. “I haven’t even noticed…”

“I have,” he said with a wink and stepped into my room, so I followed him.

It turned out that he hadn’t gotten me just some new clothes. The bags were full of them. He had gotten me several sets of everything a man could possibly wear. And when I checked the first price tag, I almost choked.

“Fifty dollars?” I asked, showing him one of the two hoodies he had gotten me. “And forty for a T-shirt!“

“I wanted to get you nice clothes,” he shrugged. “And I thought fifty bucks is like pocket change for you.”

“I still didn’t buy forty-dollar T-shirts for myself, not to mention some stranger who already owes me his life.”

“Come on – let me spoil you,” he smiled. “Try something on. If they’re the wrong size, I may be able to alter them a little to fit you better. Or set them on fire – there’s really no guarantee that my magic works every time.”

“You shouldn’t be wasting so much time and effort on me…” I muttered.

“Sure – I’ll just go waste my time and effort on Brett,” he snorted. “Or someone else who’s a complete dick towards me.”

I let out a sigh and turned to look at a white hoodie that had a dark-gray hood and matching sleeves. “I don’t deserve any of this.”

“You can repay me later if you want, but now we should get going,” he said sternly. “Try the black jeans with that hoodie – then we have almost matching outfits,” he added before leaving the room.

I gave up and did as he asked. The clothes were a bit too big on me, but it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing since I was gaining weight. All thanks to Chase.

Once I was fully clothed, I stepped outside and saw Chase in front of me, leaning against the railing. He turned to look at me when he heard me, and a big smile appeared on his lips.

“You look good,” he said and stepped in front of me, straightening my hood. “You’ll need a haircut soon,” he added.

I pushed my hand through my over-grown hair, trying to secure the long bangs behind my ears, but Chase started laughing.

“Your ears are sticking out now,” he said, conjuring a rubber band out of thin air. “Here.”

I took it, and slowly pushed my hair back. Chase had a small smile on his lips while I tied back my hair. For some reason, I couldn’t look away from his icy eyes.

“Perfect,” he said quietly once I was done. “But I think you look better with short hair,” he added, carefully moving his hand behind my head to touch my ponytail.

“Can you cut my hair with magic?” I asked, feeling my heart beating faster now that he was right in front of me.

“I could, but since I wasn’t kidding about accidentally setting things on fire, I think I should just use scissors,” he smirked, taking a step back.

“Yeah I prefer scissors,” I nodded.

“Thought so,” he chuckled. “Are we ready?”

“Yeah, I guess,” I muttered. “I don’t have any shoes though…”

“Are you sure?” he asked, whipping his hand through the air and a couple of black sneakers appeared in front of us. He grabbed them before they could fall and gave them to me. “I hope they’re the right size.”

“You are doing way too much for me,” I told him, feeling grateful and ashamed at the same time.

“Nonsense! Come, let’s get going,” he said and walked to the stairs.

I sighed and followed him.