Chapter 52 - Guilt

The next day was quiet. There was no news from Damon and around noon I became worried. I found myself asking questions like: could there have been more vampires than they had anticipated? Could he have gotten hurt? After all, he was the one who killed the vampire girl, the members of her clan would be after him as well.

Maria was anxious as well, she burst into the garden where I was swinging," I can't stop pacing," she revealed.

"I can't stop thinking either," I revealed," my head might explode."

"We need just one more day until the potion is done, and we can save everyone in Akbur Hills."
Oh. She was referring to the potion.

I hadn't realized that my thoughts were completely occupied with Damon's safety, even more so after I've been reassured that he would spare my father, and knowing that Evan and Maria's children were safe.
Of course that left Maria. I was determined to get some blood for her but it was a matter of time.
There was guilt that came with the realization that I was worried about the wrong thing.
You're concerned with the well being of a man who is about to murder thousands of humans.
All of humans.

"I don't think he will gas it today. He's busy dealing with another vampire attack," I cleared my throat to conceal my guilt.

Maria sat next to me," I think we might actually be able to do this, save mankind."

"If the council listens."

"We've got proof for them. You can show them now that you've got werewolf DNA in you, you're the live experiment."

I suppose she was right. The plan was going smoothly, Damon was too busy to gas Akbur Hills today, if he drinks the potion tomorrow, he will die and the council will have to hear me out.
We could build a partnership as opposed to being their prisoners and all vampires will slowly die off eventually. All could be right in the world and it would only cost the death of one very important man, Damon.
The man who's off protecting you right now while you plot his murder.
Once again, I reminded; do not fall for his rare moments of vulnerability.
But what if they were not so rare after all? What if his little acts of kindness were sparse but often and hidden, kept a shameful secret by himself in order to conceal his true genuineness?

"Are you listening?"
I was brought back to reality by Maria's insisting tone.

"Yes," I lied.

"You'll join him for breakfast tomorrow. I'll pour the potion into his coffee, once he drinks it, it should take a few minutes for it to work."

I swallowed the lump in my throat. My bones suddenly felt heavy.

"And then what? Will he die right away?"
Maria peered at the camera hanging just a few meters away on the corner of the white brick wall then back at me.

"He will cough a lot, slowly he'll feel like he cannot move."
I recalled the symptoms from the night in Somber Forest. He had reacted the same way to the silver.

"He'll lose all his power, and eventually, he will pass out."

"And die," I gazed out into the bright sun although everything felt murkey.

Damon came back later that night. His shirt and face was dirty with blood. I watched as he tossed it onto the ground and marched into the shower, I acted asleep.
I got up quickly and hid the shirt in hopes that tomorrow I'll be able to collect at least a little bit of blood for Maria. I paused by the bathroom door and debated going inside to offer help with his bandages. I decided against it. I wanted to limit my interactions with him, I could not truly face him with the plan that I had in mind.
He came out of the shower and the scent of earth and smoke followed. I felt him in the bed beside me and I could not help opening my eyes to meet his.

"Hi," I whispered, noticing a new long scar that ran sideways from the top of his forehead to the side of his chin.

"Hi."

"How did it go?"
"It wasn't as easy as we thought it was going to be. The man, Laurent, was sent alone to distract the hybrids. In reality, there were three more of them that snuck past the barriers and almost made it here."

I felt my stomach drop.
"Did you catch them?"

"Yes. Luke has patrols that guard the house 24/7. They caught them on camera in time and killed them all."

I let out a sigh of relief but then quickly realized that all this meant was that now Damon could revert his focus into gasing Akbur Hills.
I traced the scar on his face. I felt him tense up, his arm went around my waist and pulled me in closer. Damon rested his face into the nape of my neck and breathed in.

"Tell me more, about the alternative to killing all the mortals," he suddenly said, in a mere whisper I almost could not hear.

I pulled back just a little bit," what?"

"You're idea, that you had-"

"Yes, I remember."
His eyes were still closed and he was still buried in between my shoulders and chin.

"It's simple, really. Vampires cannot feed off werewolves, your blood is toxic for them."

"It won't kill them-"

"No, but it wont work as food."

"This is true."

"It also only takes a drop of werewolf blood to infect a human's entire blood volume."

"Making it inedible for vampires."

"Exactly. And it wouldn't do anything to the human either, it's completely safe.

The idea is, every human becomes infected with the werewolf DNA and the vampires no longer have sources to feed."

"They can drink animal blood-"

"Yes, but in my reading, I learned that it could only hold them off for a few days, maybe a week. Eventually, they will need human blood."

"So they are bound to die eventually."

"Exactly."

"But how do we administer werewolf blood to every human living?"

"I don't know. Maybe we can have a blood bank, the wolves could donate blood and distribute it to the villages, just like the Emantors but with werewolf DNA instead."

Damon was silent for a moment and then he said," you learned all of this from reading? In the library?"

"Yes."

He did not respond. I asked," will you do it?"

"I will consider."

"Before you gas Akbur Hills?"

Damon did not respond. His arms had tightened around my waist and he drifted to sleep.
I was confused and feeling sick to my stomach. My head raced with thoughts of Evan and my father, Maria and all her children and Tiffany and her remaining family. Damon hadn't revealed if he would truly be giving the idea a thought. And there was no more time left.

There was no way around it, Damon had to die.