Little “Frightful Encounter” drabble down below
He said he would kill for her, and he had.
There in that room Rowan stood, right where the night’s chilling events transpired, staring down at Vitus’ cold covered body. He himself hadn’t moved since Caesa went to bed. It was up to him now to get rid of this.
It made his mind wander.
Some creatures... They devoured every bit, leaving no trace but bloodstained ground behind. Farkas did with the animals he felled. Raw red meat, innards, bones. Antlers and hooves eventually. All he avoided stomaching was fur. He didn’t like it. Would meticulously pull it all off with his teeth before eating, in fact. All Rowan could take was the blood.
He let the morbid train of thought fade, blinking his eyes gently as if to wake himself back to the moment. Sometimes, he was glad no one could see the way the monster in him curled its finger to bring him closer, and how it caused him to think. It wasn’t evil, but it was abnormal, very hard for non-vampires to understand. He did what he had to in order to survive. Any animal would say the same, if they could speak. But people weren't as forgiving nor understanding of vampires like they were animals. Maybe they’d see evil in him, if they saw beyond the skin.
He sighed and looked around the house, his hip serving as a prop for his hand. Vitus was gone for good. More importantly, Caesa was unharmed.
… Or was she? Perhaps to the naked eye, anyway.
How did she see him now? Was she scared to look at him? To hear his voice? Would she come out of that room speaking to him at all? Or did she see only a monster to reject; one that ravaged the living, spilling blood across the image he'd previously painted for her, cutting loose his ties to the man he wanted to be?
Whether or not she was, he was afraid.
Over the course of the next passing days, Rowan tip-toed around the Imperial like a skittish feline. It wasn't time for him to go home yet, though he began to feel more and more that it would help matters if he did.
He certainly had no need to go and feed high up in the Reachcliffs, with Vitus' blood flowing strong in him. It was one less issue to bring up with Caesa, for which he was thankful. He didn't want to draw attention to the necessity of preying on others, for a vampire, even though he’d just done it. Rowan found, in that time, he didn't want to mention the finer points of his vampirism at all. It wasn't in spite he decided this. If he had sullied her perspective of him... Wrought down the goodness she saw in him...
She hadn't asked him to be human. She had not asked that. But he wanted to try for her, and he would. He would be as human as his nature allowed.
He'd one day find it was his biggest mistake where she was involved.