livia had never been happier, at least not in her vampire existence at all, she was smiling so much more often that everyone in the household was surprised by it. there was no doubt in her mind, carter was her soulmate, who she was meant to love for the rest of her immortal existence. after saying goodbye to carter, livia went to her room to clean up and get into a change of clothes, planning to meet her girlfriend at her house in just a few minutes. it was routine for them, livia spending her nights with carter as she did homework or watched tv or anything really, livia just enjoyed being around her. she had arrived at carter’s house a few minutes ago and knew carter should have been home yet, the ride was not this long at a normal speed and carter always drove like a maniac. with a nervous feeling in her stomach, livia began to retrace the road between carter’s house and her own, trying to tell herself that carter was fine, maybe tonight she decided to go the speed limit. then she smelt the blood. it was familiar blood, it was carter, livia would know that smell anywhere, and her enhanced vision spotted the car wreck a few hundred feet away. “no,” she said under her breath, sprinting towards the car, feeling sick to her stomach when she noticed the license plate belonged to carter. “no, no, no,” she was almost whimpering at this point, running to the driver side and ripping the door from its frame. what she saw was horrible; carter was bleeding and broken, her heartbeat was slow and barely even present, minutes away from death, there were so many injuries livia couldn’t assess them all. so concerned was she for carter that the blood did nothing to her senses, she had no desire to drink from carter, and she reached in to gently pull carter from the car, using her bare hands to push the car out from where it had crushed her legs. “please, no, don’t die on me,” she begged, sitting down on the road with carter in her lap, stroking the girl’s hair quite tenderly as she looked down at her. “we were supposed to have more time, please,” her lip was quivering, her happiness seemed like liquid in her hands, spilling out to be gone forever. carter didn’t want to change, she was supposed to die when she was an old woman, still by livia’s side — - this was cruel and too soon. she gripped the girl’s hand and looked down into her eyes as her girlfriend moved in and out of consciousness, her heartbeat slower and slower. livia had to act fast. “i’m so sorry,” she said quietly before she leaned down and sunk her teeth into carter’s neck, making sure to fill and seal the wound with venom. it was wrong, it was against everything carter wanted and believed, but livia couldn’t let this be how carter died, she deserved better than that, and maybe livia was just being selfish but at this point she didn’t care. “please, i love you, don’t leave me,” she continued to plead, and then stood up, holding carter secure against her chest, and began to race home, screaming out for matthias and francesca.
carter felt the cold embrace of the darkness, it was comforting, she started looking forward to it. she preferred it to the discomfort and pain of being aware. it wasn’t much of an awareness either, all it was, was pain. carter couldn’t tell where she was or that livia had taken her, all she could see was a black cloud in her vision that came in waves of whether or not she was conscious. she hoped she’d just die already. she really had no reason to keep holding on, so it was frustrating for her when the discomfort begin to outweigh the coldness that could only be death. soon carter felt alive, not better, but definitely alive. eventually, she was able to let out the the piercing scream that she’d been holding in. “god when will i die?”