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That explained his fear of counting, it seemed, but nothing else. He was distant, in a way that Maxia didn’t like, the kind that came with trauma, the kind that came with fear of the other.
“I’m not going to make you count anything,” Maxia promised, “hell, I’m not going to force you to tell me, I’m just asking you to. And laying down the consequences of what will happen if you don’t. I want to make this work.”
“You’re not human,” Ralucad reminded himself, moving his hand to rub at the bridge of his long, narrow nose. “Even though you smell so much like one. You have he same fear as I do, of how humans would react if they knew what you really were.”
That was true. He’d had a girlfriend once, some little pastel goth girl that did some of his piercings. He hadn’t told her for months. Telling her he was trans was less anxiety inducing then telling her he was half demon. She couldn’t even understand it at first, her humanity getting in the way of her seeing things as they really were. When he finally showed her, just a bit of his true form, she’d freaked out so badly that he’d gotten beaten up as badly as a human probably could get with a broom and he was banned from that tattoo parlor. He felt like, for Ralucad, it was worse. He knew it was too, from the small hint of a story he told.
“I’m not here to judge,” Maxia pressed. The noise in his ears was growing louder, something more was coming.
“Am I safe with you?” Ralucad asked. His ears at slight tips to them and they were swerving a bit, trying to catch the sound. It wasn’t just in Maxia’s head then.
He didn’t know what that meant, what all that implied. He also knew that he wouldn’t abandon Ralucad here for whatever it was he was so afraid to admit. Even if Ralucad was the devil himself, Maxia needed him to find Timely. They needed each other.
He nodded, “Yes. You’re safe with me.”
Ralucad licked his tongue again. It was so hot. Maxia didn’t know how Ralucad could stand it, how he could have before he was wearing the amortiguador. He shook his head again but this time, it was with an air of defeat.
“I’m. Well, I am a vampire,” he whispered under his breath.
