Eternal Night

(III) Chapter 5: Ripples

By some miracle, her heart was still beating, but it had already begun to slow. He couldn't seem to move his feet fast enough. His arms were like lead as he carried her through the back streets of Budapest – to safety, to home – but he couldn't help but wonder if she'd make it in time.

Danny was soaked in Camilla's blood, a warm and sticky sweetness that normally would have tempted him to the point of ravenous hunger, but after today, he wasn't sure he'd ever have a taste for blood again.

Not after this.

His back was still screaming and his legs were ready to give out at any moment, but still, Danny pushed onward, even as the sun slipped behind the horizon.

"We're almost there," he panted between steps, the pounding in his head mirroring the declining rhythm of her heart. "We're almost there, just hold on."

Camilla whimpered against his broad chest, arms still loosely wrapped around his neck.

"I want to see my baby," she whispered, her voice so weak, he had to strain to hear her – but given the way she had screamed and fought her way to freedom, he couldn't blame her.

He had never witnessed a more ferocious human in all his decades of living.

It was as if she had had a lifetime of rage inside of her and for the first time in her long and miserable existence, it had finally been given permission to be unleashed. She had taken a shot to the stomach by that sneering whore who had outed them, but the villain hadn't lasted once Camilla had gotten on top of her. He'd never forget it – the sight of those bony hands circled around the nameless female's neck, crushing her throat with an inhuman strength before she then started to ram the back of her skull against the pavement over and over and over.

Danny had practically had to peel the woman off of her after he had dispatched the roused guard, acquiring a gun in the process, should anyone else try to sneak up on them. He would have insisted on getting Camilla's wounds tended to, but she would not brook any argument from him.

They wouldn't be stopping anywhere unless it was at Carmen's.

End of discussion.

She had attempted to walk beside him, but once the adrenaline had worn off, the pain and wooziness of blood loss caught up with her.

Danny did his best to put pressure on the wound, having wrapped it up with what cloth he could conjure from the loading dock. But the damage had been done, and not even the most skilled of healers could save her now – not with the way she was bleeding out.

He would have offered to turn her, but he was already starving, so afraid that if he bit her, he wouldn't be able to stop himself from bleeding her dry.

And so he had chosen to carry her instead.

She had liberated him and would undoubtedly die for her sacrifice.

The least he could do was get her to Carmen's so she could see her daughter... just once.

And so Danny continued to push himself to the brink of exhaustion, past the hunger and the pain that echoed in his bones, the grief that threatened to drown him. He just had to hold on a little longer. Just a few more blocks, and then he could shatter.

"We're almost there," he said again. "Just stay with me, Camilla... just stay with me a little longer."

"I want my baby..."

"I know... we're almost there. Just stay awake. Five more minutes and you can see her, I promise..."

The human woman mumbled something against his skin, her hold around his neck weakening. Her heart had slowed another fraction of a beat.