• CHAPTER 125 - I'M TRYING

    Why does he keep trying?

    My heart was racing; he was bleeding that much? Just one touch from his hand sprawled a pool of blood all over my shoulder. Sitting up, I glanced around the room, noticing a trail of blood stretching from the bedroom door to the bathroom door. There were streaks of blood from where Kai's hands touched the doors. But he sounded so calm when he whispered to me; I wasn't able to tell he was hurt.

    The faint sound of the shower running calmed me down just a little bit; at least he was cleaning off the evidence. How injured was he? How injured were Minoru and Kaiba? Or Hisao?

    I scrambled off of the bed and headed to the dresser to get some fresh clothes for Kai. A nice, loose, comfortable shirt with some khakis. I stalked over to the bathroom, hesitant to enter. Either I would walk in on him covered in blood or--God forbid--naked. Either way, I couldn't sit and wait in the bedroom and think of all the ways he could have been hurt.

    Despite the handle to the bathroom was coated in blood, I opened the door anyways, managing to distract my thoughts from the blood all over the floor and bathroom door. Opening the door, the stream of blood continued all the way to a bloody pile of clothes. The steam in the bathroom was almost choking me; he must have had the water on as hot as it could go. I stealthily shut the bathroom door and made my way to the bloody clothes lying on the ground. I scooped them into my arms, feeling the blood soak into my own clothes, and I set the pile of clean clothes on the edge of the bathtub.

    "I thought you were asleep,"

    I froze, glancing at the enclosed shower that Kai was hiding it. I could subtly make out his silhouette; he was merely standing still, "I, um, woke up after you came back," I rubbed the area of blood on my shoulder that was now crusted over.

    "You might as well go back to bed," his voice was apathetic.

    I shook my head, "I can't; not after seeing all of that blood you left behind. What did they do to you?"

    "You don't need to know," he paused. "Let's just say that they tend to take advantage of the fact that a Vampire can't be killed unless their head is infiltrated."

    "So they continuously hurt you everywhere else except for your head?" I winced at the thought.

    "Pretty much," he mumbled, barely audible over the sound of the shower.

    I dropped the bloody clothes to the ground, stalking closer to the shower. I pressed my shaky hand against the frosted shower door and bit my lip, trying to suppress my want to cry. Kai's silhouette behind the glass door moved and his hand pressed against mine on the opposite side of the door. I permitted a few tears to leak out, and a few more, and more...

    "You don't have to do this," I breathed. "You don't have to fight them; there's nothing we can do."

    "I'm not going to give up, Arisa,"

    "There's nothing we can do!" I blustered. "There's nothing we can do to stop it so stop trying to hurt yourself for my sake!"

    Just as I said that, the shower door cracked open a little bit and Kai came in for a kiss. I was angry, but I couldn't pull away from him. He wasn't absorbing the fact that we were already too far into the contract; Minoru and Kaiba were too greedy to wait another two hundred to three hundred years. He was still determined, which I praised him for, but he was thickheaded about the situation.

    "I won't lose you to the likes of them," he growled in my mouth and kissed me again, keeping one hand at the back of my head.

    He pressed his lips firmly against my forehead. I kept my eyes closed, just so I wouldn't end up seeing anything unintended since the shower door was open. He didn't even seem embarrassed about it. My face was burning red from my crying and embarrassment and Kai only continued to keep his lips against my forehead. I fondled with his bloody clothes in my hands and cracked my eyes open to look up at him.

    "I'm sorry," I whispered. "I'm sorry I yelled at you..."

    "You possess every right," he whispered back. "Do whatever you please."

    I had to let out a halfhearted laugh after hearing that. He was telling me to do whatever I pleased and yet he was standing in a shower right in front of me, naked. Of course, I was probably taking it the wrong way--I was currently the one with the dirty mind.

    Kai released a deep-pitched chuckle and smiled with his lips pressed to my forehead, "Join me?"

    "Oh--" I covered my mouth with my fist and was burning a deeper red.

    He pulled back, chuckling, and slid the shower door shut, sealing a barrier in between us once more, "Maybe some other time when I'm not all lacerated,"

    I seriously couldn't tell if he was joking or not. The only thing I did was continue to stand where I originally was and keep my limbs locked. I was confused, embarrassed, and...frustrated. I was frustrated because Kai was making such jokes when he was seriously hurt. His blood was still all over the bathroom floor.

    "I-I'll throw these in the laundry," I mumbled. "I'll be in the bedroom."

    Instead of heading into the laundry room, I went into the kitchen instead. I remembered what Aya had told me to do with blood-stained clothes; soak them in cold water. She always told me that soaking bloody clothes in hot water would bake the blood right into the fabric. She would tell me that constantly whenever she would help mom with my clothes whenever I would trip and fall.

    I plugged the sink and started filling it with water as cold as it could go. I threw his clothes in and watched the sink fill up and the water absorb into his clothes. Nausea overcame me once the blood started slowly seeping out of the fabric and permeating throughout the sink. I shut off the water and made my way back to the bedroom, still a little nauseous. You'd think that since I've been with Kai for almost a year that I'd be used to the blood. Almost a year...

    Slowly, I laid myself down on my stomach on the bed. Despite the lacerations on my stomach, the pressure was helping to numb them a little. I couldn't bend over much, though, because they were still somewhat tender. And the wounds on my neck should be healed by tomorrow or the day after since Vampire bites only take a few days, strangely.

    Once again, Kai subtly and slowly climbed on top of my backside and pressed his lips against my temple. He rubbed his thumb against the back of my shoulder, taking off some of his dried blood. He kissed me from my temple down to my neck bandages and he sighed. I could definitely tell by his touch and his kiss that he was holding back with almost all he had. I knew he wanted to go further, but he actually seemed more desperate this time.

    "Yes," he mumbled, nuzzling my neck a little more. "For a while, now."

    "With how amazing of a guy you are, I can't believe I'm not ready," I locked my fingers of one hand in between his, kissing his hand. "But...I guess you could say I'm getting there."

    "Don't think I'm rushing you," he whispered. "Honestly, I'm now having mixed feelings about it."

    I managed to roll onto my back below Kai, "Why?"

    He stared at me grimly and brushed my bangs around, "Because, if we have to say goodbye, it will hurt so much more,"

    I breathed out a halfhearted laugh, "It hurts enough as it is,"

    "But..." he leaned over and kissed my ear, "...there's a chance that they're going to activate the contract even sooner...soon as in maybe a month..."

    I flinched and bit my bottom lip, looking away from Kai, "Oh..."

    "It's because they have sampled your blood already--and a lot of it," he sighed. "Since they tasted it, they can't wait much longer. I failed to alter their minds; I only made it worse."

    I gripped his shirt tightly, pretty much knowing the answer to my question, "So...then..."

    "I'm going to send you away," he hesitated, "in probably a month or month and a half."