Ch. 43: 'Real or Fake' (2)

Rosy fell to her knees, white as a sheet. All her spirit, her will to fight, vanished like the wind.

"Rosy, what's wrong?" Adrian shook her shoulder. She'd never suddenly lose the will to fight on her own.

"Just let him kill me, Adrian." She barely whispered.

"Not happening." Adrian immediately retorted, "You're insane if you think that's gonna happen."

"You have no idea! I can't do it anymore! Everything I do ends with someone dying at my hand! Every freaking thing, Adrian!" She half screamed, her voice breaking.

"And how is that enough to justify giving up?" Adrian asked her. When she didn't answer, he answered for her, "You killed... a lot. You might even be a monster... but if you just give up, then everything that you did... everyone you hurt or killed, was just a wasted life. It's your duty to move forward toward your own goal."

She still didn't respond. She just curled up into a ball right then and there, broken.

"WHAT DID YOU DO?!" Adrian shouted at the man responsible, drawing his sword. 

The man simply laughed, deeming Adrian a non-threat. "It's a real nice toy... Blocks blood bonds for a whole thirty seconds. After that, it takes hours for the bonds to recover." The giant explained.

"It only blocks blood bonds?" Adrian asked warily. Rosy's personality had totally changed. She'd broken. Adrian couldn't believe that it was just the result of losing her vampire side.

"You've got a good eye, kid. It's got one other... little thing it does. At least in Wulfics and Vampires. You see, not only does it block their powers, but it also reverses the boons that they get from 'em. Wulfics shed most of their hair, lose a little muscle, and become total wimps. Meanwhile, Vampires..."

"They break?!" Adrian asked.

"Nah! I wish this was enough to break most of those disgusting beasts! Vampires have three personality traits that their vampirism gives 'em. Bloodlust, pride, and a bit of resistance. They usually aren't bothered as much as a human would be when they hurt or kill another living person. Bastards find a bit of joy in it, even." The giant told Adrian, waving around the catalyst he'd used the spell on. As soon as he was finished explaining, the catalyst exploded in his hand, his time limit up.  "Aw, well. She ain't getting up for a while, anyway. Nothing personal, kid, but you've both gotta die now!"

"Shut up!" Adrian shouted. He'd run up to the giant idiot and kill him in an instant, but he wasn't willing to take his eyes off Rosy while she was in such a vulnerable state. He understood why now, though. Rosy had always been pretty soft, at least for a Royal Vampire, with their huge amounts of bloodlust. She'd taken beatings, and gone through a lot just to give validation to the people she'd hurt. Now, her pride and her mental resistance to all of her dark deeds were shattered into pieces. It wasn't surprising that she couldn't handle it.

"How long until she's back to normal?!" He asked.

"Who cares? She's gonna be long dead before then. If she wasn't so stupid dangerous, I'd have a little fun with her before she croaked, as thanks for the little present she gave me. Oh well..." The giant hadn't taken the knife out of his stomach yet, but it didn't seem to be deep enough to do much damage.

"Shut your face." Adrian warned. The giant smirked, stepping closer and closer. Finally, Adrian was within reach of his blade.

"Die."

He was beheaded in an instant. The blade in his hands clattered to the ground as his body realized that it wasn't attached to its head anymore. It fell backwards with a thud, then everything was silent.

"I told you... to shut up." Adrian reminded the headless corpse, wiping the blood off of his sword's white-steel blade. When the magic had sealed Rosy's vampire abilities, it'd also sealed the boons that Adrian got from them, namely, about twenty percent of his strength. But even without the vampire abilities, Adrian was more than capable of using the few martial arts techniques that Rosy had taught him to quickly and easily end a life.

"Rosy..." Adrian didn't know what to do. He intuitively knew that nothing that he could do would make Rosy respond. She was in an incredible self-hate spiral, and it got even worse when Adrian had to kill the man who cast the spell on her. Another death to add to the pile...

"Hey. Rosy, come on."

"No... Just leave me here. They'll kill me, and I'll deserve it."

"Alright. Come on. The entire point of life is to live. Not letting you kill yourself in a dingy alley, just because you've been hit by some stupid spell." 

"Noo!" Interestingly enough, Adrian only got a few funny looks, carrying a sobbing girl on his shoulder all the way across town, and into his room at the inn. 

...

"Thank you, Adrian." 

Adrian woke up to Rosy shaking him awake while she dressed. Memories of what happened last night ran through his head. After dropping her off on the bed, Adrian had stayed up pretty much all night, to deal with assassins. The broken Rosy wasn't capable of fighting off a fly, after all.

After an hour or so of quiet, Adrian'd started hearing quiet scratching coming from the bed. He immediately asked Rosy what she was doing. He knew from the sobbing that she hadn't been sleeping, after all. 

As it turned out, she'd been clawing at her own neck. She'd been actively trying to kill herself, but she'd only managed to draw a little bit of blood before Adrian realized what she was doing and pinned her to the bed, panicking. 

When Rosy got serious, she could escape anything. They both knew it, and Rosy wasn't as panicked with just Adrian there. 

"No!" She half screamed, before kneeing him in the nether region. She used the mind-numbing pain that it caused to push him off of her and onto the bed beside her, before she went back to trying to claw her throat out.

"Rosy, stop it!" Realizing what she was doing snapped Adrian out of his pain induced stupor. Realizing that he couldn't restrain her, he did the first thing that he could think of. 

He kissed her.

"Live. Alright?" He whispered once their lips separated. He could feel their bond (which had been in the back of his mind, there but less, since the blocking spell hit her) flare back to life with fervor the moment that their lips touched. Somehow, he could suddenly tell that their lives were linked. If she died, he would die too.

After that, she'd become totally passive. Unfortunately, blood flowed fairly freely from the cuts along her neck. She wasn't in danger of dying or anything, and they'd heal when she got her vampirism back, but the blood was staining her shirt pretty badly, so he helped her take it off, along with her leather harness. 

Since there was a bleeding, shirtless girl in the bed, Adrian sat on the floor, leaning against the door all night, watching for assassins. He'd finally felt Rosy's vampirism come back some time in the early morning, but he still hadn't gotten much sleep.