The Blood of the Soul

Stolen Pieces of The Soul

A/N: Sorry for the longer wait on this one, guys! In my defense, this one is like 8k words, so it took me a hot minute. Enjoy!

A/N: Trigger warnings for parental confrontation, grief, and abusive relationships.

Liam

Thump. Thump. Thump.

A heartbeat roared in his ears, louder and faster with each passing second.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

It would be so easy to convince himself that it was Theo's heart. That the vampire's chest was still rising and falling, but after Liam skidded to a sliding stop beside him, it took longer than he was proud of to realize what Mia and Willow were trying to tell him—that Theo wasn't breathing.

Because Theo was dead.

But Theo couldn't be dead.

Obviously, he was dead, but not like dead dead.

Liam couldn't stop himself from stroking along Theo's cheekbones where the skin was raw from where he'd skidded against the asphalt. Droplets of blood bubbled up, but as Liam studied the wounds, he realized that they weren't healing. The vampire's skin was frigid beneath his touch.

A sob built in Liam's throat, but he swallowed it down.

Theo wasn't dead.

He was a vampire, and Liam knew better than anyone that there were exactly four ways to kill a vampire—stake to the heart, decapitation, ripping the heart from the chest, and fire—and that, logically speaking, none of those had happened. Liam pressed his hands to Theo's chest just to reassure himself that it was intact.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

The roaring faded as a small hand covered his own. Tears tracked down Mia's cheeks and gathering beneath her chin.

"C'mon, Li," Willow whispered beside him.

But all Lim could do was shake his head and watch as the setting sun cast deepening shadows across Theo's face. From the first moment he'd set eyes on him, he'd always known that Theo was beautiful—not just handsome, but striking—but he was even more beautiful now that Liam had gotten to know him, to see him up close and personal.

Liam couldn't move a single muscle. After everything today, he felt fragile. The world was off kilter, and he'd lost his sense of true north.

"Li—"

"No," Liam's voice was distant and cold even to his own ears.

"Liam." Spike was gentle but sturdy as he crouched on the other side of Theo. "People are starting to come outside. We need to move him before we draw attention."

A bitter part of Liam hated the fact that the people who'd been inside the void were clearly fine. That they had come out of the darkness unscathed but Theo, who had walked into it just to save them, was the one who'd paid the steepest price.

Theo's last words to him echoed through his mind: Don't worry, Little Wolf. I'll bring Mia and Willow back if it's the last thing I do.

"He's not dead," Liam said, as if speaking the words into existence could force it to be true. "He's not."

Spike's nod sparked Liam's irritation—maybe he was just agreeing to appease him, to get them out of the road. "Willow, think your grandmother could pop over for a visit?" he asked without taking his eyes off Liam. "If there's anything to be done, her grandmother could do it."