Paying For Sins

Max had fought against the sun fighting the blood that trickled down from his ears using a heavily bloodied tissue to wipe away the blood. He had watched the sun take Kiara into her slumber whilst he remained sat at the piano in the foyer. Fearing of falling into a slumber in which he would not rise again. Max let his fingers skim across the keys letting his soul flow through the soft tune that calmed his tortured soul. 



It all made sense now, his anxiety and his sour mood when he had returned to the suite that he and Kiara were staying in. But never did he expect to be infected with this...disease that would in the end separate him from Kiara.

Closing his eyes he could feel himself become unsteady in the chair as the music became out of tune. His head was dizzy and his eyes blurry as he attempted to keep focus, he glanced to his arm where he had first spotted the first black vein. But no longer was it a single black vein but now several on his left arm and smaller veins on his right. Wearing only a pair of black pants and his chest exposed feeling his skin a little warmer than it was supposed to be. Max had let himself down and he knew that he would die, leaving Kiara behind.

Alone.

Max was paying for his sins and he knew that, for killing his brother. This was William's revenge for what he had done to save Kiara....But yet, Max would not change a thing.

She awoke late, the sun having robbed her from exploring what the hell was wrong with Max. When she woke however she found him by the piano, weakened.

She gasped. The black veins looked horrible like he had the plague or something. Something in the back of her mind gnawed at this, like she should know what this was.

“Umm….ok ok…lets not panic” she said, more to herself than anything. She got up and walked to the laptop that Max had procured for them to use for a bit.

“I know this….I know this” she told herself, again unable to remember why she knew what those veins were but something deep inside her told her she KNEW.

She typed furiously on the keyboard, having to get into her private server remotely. Thank goodness it was still online. She searched her emails, her work files, anything to tell her what this was until she stumbled upon some articles she had bookmarked. They spoke of the true blood bombings, then the death of the Louisiana governor, then some notes she had made herself.

It had been just rumors back then but she recalled how when true blood was coming back to the shelves it was not to be drunk. She remembered she had made more money because smart vampires knew not to drink it but why…..?

She checked some of her journal entries. She ignored most of the stuff she wrote about Bill, there was no need to go down that road until she reached the one entry that caught her eye.



She kept on reading, finding another entry from weeks later.

She shook her head, ignoring the rest of the entry as everything came rushing back. Hep V. That was it. But how in the hell did it spread all the way to Washington? And how did one cure this?

She went back to Max.

“Max…I think you have Hep V. The governor of Louisiana made this to kill all vampires. You must have drained an infected human” she said as she touched his hand. He felt colder than before and paler as well.

“You need to rest ok? I’ll be checking all donors from now on”

Max continued to play the piano letting the song take him away to lands of light. The music that he was playing helped him block out everything else on his mind. He could hear Kiara dashing around talking to herself hearing her trying to figure things out, but Max already knew what it was. He had spent the night figuring it out and after putting in some calls to those whom he had trusted he was able to find out what it was. Hep V. There was no cure and only one outcome, the true death.

"....It does not matter Kiara. I am infected. What's done is done. There is nothing that can be done" he whispered before letting out a groan.

She growled and resisted the urge to slap him.

"Don't give me the speech on not giving up when you lay down and want to die later you asshole" she said angrily.

"You kept me from seeking the true death when I was at my lowest. Like hell I'm going to let some podunk governor from the backwater state kill you because his wife ran away with a vampire"

She stopped him from playing. "Now lay down, I can smell from here that you haven't rested one bit"

Max knew that there was no cure and no chance of him surviving this. He had done enough research to know what the outcome of this disease would be.

"There is no point Kiara. We both know the outcome of this and what will happen" he turned to her after she had stopped him playing "And do not speak to me as though I am a child. I am a lot older and stronger than you are" he spoke hoarsely.

She rolled her eyes "I'm speaking to you as if you were an asshole because you are" she said as she closed the lid on the piano.

"you give me all that bullshit about goals and what not only to give up? God at this point Compton has more stones than you" she said in an angry tone.

"Hasn't it ever occurred in your supposedly wiser brain that if humans can contract this that the idiot governor hadn't made himself an antidote just in case everything went south?"

The keys rattled as Kiara slammed the lid down and Max was only able to move his hands in time to stop them being trapped.

"Kiara! Hep V is harmless to humans. They are just the carries of the disease meant to kill vampires. I highly doubt that the governor made a cure for something that would end the very existence of vampires. Don't you?" he sighed.

Feeling something rumble in his chest he began a fit of coughing.

She shook her head.

"You've long stopped thinking like a human so you don't know how paranoid they can be" she said before she stopped and saw him coughing.

Forgetting her anger for a bit she helped him off the piano bench and back to the bed.

"You need to rest.... and you need to feed, you're withering away"

Max was helped from the piano bench into bed and wrapped up in thick blankets still suffering from his coughing fit.

"Feeding is what got me into this mess in the first place....I am not hungry Kiara" he groaned again.

Max's head felt dizzy, his body weak and lifeless as though he had been drained of every ounce of blood.

She sighed as she dimmed the lights, trying to make him somewhat comfortable.

"Then bite me instead. There must be some life clinging to my blood if I can shift. Maybe me being still part wolf makes me immune to this illness"

Max smiled softly at her generous offer but he still did not know enough about this disease to take any risks with spreading it.

"That is...not a...risk I am...willing to take...Kiara" he spoke breathlessly "Your....still a vampire....and can catch this...Wolf or no....wolf" he ended again.

She sighed "Dammit Max.... you're really just going to give up? After all you went through to gain your freedom from your brother you're going to let THIS beat you?"

She got up to pace. There had to be someway of curing or slowing this. Maybe fae blood since it was quite potent on vampires.

"Kiara...You have been a vampire barely a few months now. You think you know what is best for me?" he sighed.

Shifting in the bed pulling back the blankets he felt warm, far warmer than he should feel and especially for a vampire.

"...It was not a few hours ago that you wanted to leave me and go out....on your own. I will not burden you with" he indicated to his arm with the thick black vein "....this" he sighed.

She growled and walked over to him. She had half a mind to slap him but she thought otherwise. He looked to be in so much pain.

She looked around and found the remote for the room. After pressing a few buttons there was a fan on the ceiling that began to blow cool air over Max. She brought over a bowl of ice water and began to tend to his fevered brow.

"Max... don't leave me..." she whispered, looking at him. "We just....we just barely started this journey. I just barely started being a vampire...don't leave me alone"

But even as she spoke she could see the black veins slowly crawling up to his chest. Why were they moving so fast? what had he bitten that made this so bad?

Max felt the cool air wash over him, sending shivers through his warm flesh. He had never felt like this before, it was both alarming and serene. But hearing the plea in Kiara's voice made him regain his focus;

"I-I never want to leave you...Kiara" he whispered hoarsely "...Bu-But it's found me....Death"

She leaned down until she rested her head near his shoulder.

"Then...let it take us both... I don't want to be left alone in this world anymore" she whispered, her voice sounding truly sad.

Max tilted his head to rest next to Kiara's as he simply shook his head, every movement causing his body pain; "No....You will not die like this Kiara. I forbid it" he whispered.

Max would not allow Kiara to end her own life like this and not because of his own stupidity, clearing his throat he shifted her head so that she could look at him; "There may be a cure, but I shall not live long enough to see it Kiara. But you will" he assured her.

She closed her eyes, her hand balling into a fist against the sheet over his chest.

"Max....please... don't force me to live alone..." she begged. She needed him, she needed him to teach her how to be a vampire, how to gain control, how to walk this stupid immortality. But now he was going to leave her and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

Max felt numb, a tingling sensation spread throughout his chest. Max knew it would only be a matter of time before the true death took him. "...Kiara I am not leaving you alone, I will always be here" he ended coughing.

His hand slowly reached up and cupped her cheek, "I need to rest now" he smirked softly.

She nodded and was just quiet. She knew he would die, sooner rather than later and right now all she wanted to do was savor the last moments they would have together.