Bat Country

“Isabel, please leave the clothes and go back to the nest.” Brian said softly, looking at Alexis’s listless body.
Isabel gave Brian a pressing look which he dismissed by turning down the corner of his mouth.
Placing the clothes on the ground, Isabel lingered for a moment, scared to leave. Eventually she overcame her fear and set out on returning to the nest.
After Isabel disappeared, Brian refocused and looked at Alexis. She had bruises everywhere. Across her mouth was a solid one…Matt’s hand. It was so clear. These bruises would heal quickly, but it was a different story for her trust in her nestmates, and her maker.
“What happened?” Brian was very delicate with the words as if they were bombs that could explode at any second.
“I’m a fucking vampire! Like, I kill people! Yet I’ve been fucking starved, made to fight a battle I knew nothing about, almost eaten by werewolves, and then tonight, raped! I’m so over this shit, it’s ridiculous. It’s like I’m one of those weak human beings again, who don’t see us coming, or welcome us, their deaths, with open arms.” By the time she finished she was nearly out of breath.
Brian said nothing, but kept his mouth in such a tight line that his lips nearly disappeared.
“Brian, I’m his mate? I don’t want to be! I don’t even want to sleep in the same place as him any longer! I feel so fucking gross and used, and I’m a vampire, and I kill people! I’m not supposed to feel so weak, so human.” Alexis repeated herself, unable to accept that she could still be humanly fragile. Her head fell forward, and as her hair fell forward, the red gouges that marred her back were visible.
Brian studied those marks with angry eyes. He could tell they’d healed a lot already, but she would have been so torn.
“There’s a room for you. We’ll fix it up so you can stay there instead.” Brian said finally, unable to keep staring at all of Alexis’s healing wounds.
Her eyes turned to him, finding all the sadness in his face. “Brian,” she said. “You don’t have to feel bad for me. You don’t have to help me.”
There was a long silence. Brian stretched his legs out, but brought one back up and propped his elbow on it before he looked over at Alexis and reached out for her damp hair. Letting it slip through his fingers, he began to smile.
“Alexis,” he said gently. “It’s all my fault. If I’d not found you that night, your hair would be that insane blonde, you’d be wearing your skirts, you’d be wearing heels. Yet you look more like me every day. Hatred burning behind your eyes, your clothes dark. You don’t wear skirts or heels. You’re no longer you. If I’d left you alone, if I’d never smelled you, you’d still be the same person. You’d have life in your eyes, your face. Yet you sit here with me, killing campers and draining them of blood before torching them. You’re developing a hardness that we all need to be careful of. I’m scared for you, Alexis. I’m scared of you. But at the same time, I’m fascinated. I can’t stay away from you, even though every bit of damage done to you is because of me.” He paused.
“Brian…” She tried to rebuff him, but was cut off.
“Alexis, I’m not done.” He interjected, pulling hair over Alexis’s bare breasts to cover them. “You’re more like me than Matt cares to enjoy. He won’t be happy we’re friends, Alexis. He won’t be happy we’re close. He made you to teach me a lesson. He teaches me that lesson by being close to you, by being affectionate to you when he never was to me. He has you, and knowing how much I wanted you then, and do now, he never lets me forget that you belong to him. My punishment is that loss, and watching him shower you with what I never had. He knew I’d stay with you. He knew.”
Alexis’s eyes stared deeply into Brian’s as he confessed to her. The large handprint bruise Matt had put over her face faded before Brian’s eyes and for that he was thankful. But he was nervous. Unable to tell what was going on behind Alexis’s eyes. That clear ice blue now seemed like dark pools of tar, dragging in emotion and locking them away forever to be uncovered another time. They were black with pain and hate and frustration, it was obvious. But what Brian hadn’t counted on was that Alexis would lean her strong body over to him and press her lips to his so softly it's like they were barely there at all. That the second her lips touched his flesh, his heart beat for the first time in 20 years.