Even at night the wind didn’t cease as it whipped wild over the cliffs, dragging the scent of salt and storm through the heather. Remmick stood there, scanning the craggy horizon like he half expected you to vanish again. You could see the tension in the set of his jaw, the way his shoulders stiffened whenever you moved too fast, spoke too soft. He knew something was wrong.

“Gone weeks,” he muttered under his breath, watching you like a hawk might watch a hare. “Come back without a scratch, without a real explanation.. you expect me to believe that?”

You smiled, a little too wide, maybe. If he tried hard enough maybe he could try to convince himself the redness on your lips were from berries rather than blood. You could see it in his eyes how the thoughts raced through his head trying to figure out what could have happened to you.

“You want proof, then?” you said, stepping closer, the earth damp and soft underfoot. “Go on. Look.”

He didn’t move right away. Remmick had always been brave, reckless even, but there was a line even a fool wouldn’t cross if he valued his soul. Finally, he reached out, rough fingers tilting your chin up, parting your lips without resistance, baring what you’d kept hidden. The change in his face was slow, sickening. Wonder twisted into confusion, and confusion soured into a kind of fear he hadn’t worn since you two were children and he had caught you chasing foxes through the fields.

He exhaled a breath he didn’t realize he had been holding, stepping back as if distance could change what he’d seen. “What’ve they made you?”

“It does not matter.. I could make you like me— could you imagine it?” you beamed as you watched his expression carefully.

He shook his head once, twice, like he could scatter the image loose from his mind. But still he looked at you, really looked, and for a heartbeat, you saw it: the war between the person he remembered and the vampire standing before him.

“You should’ve stayed gone,” he said finally, stepping back, voice rough and low. “Would’ve been kinder.” but his eyes couldn’t lie to you, that look proving despite everything, he was glad you hadn’t been lost to him.