Vulnerable: Book 1 of the Magic Mutations Series | ✓

22: Pain Passes

And that did it. That made everything click. Ben knew how I felt for him. But he felt nothing for me. And playing to the fact that I liked him allowed him to build my trust and lure me in so that I would give him my blood to kill his friend's twisted uncle.

Standing on the other side of that door, listening to the two boys debate about me, I felt glad that Lukas was defending me. While I should have been involved in the conversation from the get go, knowing Lukas's background and his desire to speak for me when I wasn't able to speak for myself made me like the guy more. Having seen the physical scars made me hurt for him, and having heard the stories about this Rüdiger made me also want him removed from his power. But I couldn't sit around and wait any more, looking at Ben play with my feelings just so that he could get my blood.

So I opened the door, the two vampires turning to look at me in shock.

"When did you get there?" Ben asked, like he didn't hear me, playing dumb. I knew they could hear everything.

Jade was in the room as well, slightly less surprised at the sight of me. Ignoring the looks on their faces, I walked into the room, sat on the chair, and rolled my sleeve up.

"Take what you need," I said.

"Ollie—" Lukas started, but Ben cut him off.

"Thank you, Olivia," Ben said. He walked to my side and began tying off my arm, readying a needle and a blood bag. I watched him set everything up, eyes burning with determination. Not once did he look at me. Everything he had done up until this point, every caress, held hand, and sweet word had been to get closer to a fairy. And then to my blood once he found out I could be one.

My eyes stung, but I refused to show him how much he hurt me, turning my head away. As I avoided looking at him, Lukas's face caught my gaze. His eyes burned into mine, a knowing sadness and apologetic expression in them.

Is this what he was trying to warn me about when I came in? That Ben never did like me...

When he had finally gotten enough blood to fill the bag, he taped me back up. "You have to stay seated for the next half an hour and also eat something," he instructed.

With a nod, I climbed out of the chair. "I'll be in the kitchen."

Jade was by my side at once, helping me get to my next destination.

But I refraineed from tuning in to Lukas and Ben's conversation as I numbly shuffled out of the room and away from them. 

Once in the kitchen, Jade quickly whipped me up a cheese toastie, barely lifting a finger as she stared at me from the kitchen, elbows on the island, head on her hands. Her magic pulled the bread, cheese, and butter from the fridge, assembled itself into the pan, flipped at appropriate moments, and sliced itself before coming over to me. 

As I took a bite of the best cheese toastie, I mumbled my thanks and pulled my phone out. Eagerly keeping an eye on the time.

When half an hour finally passed, I grabbed my bag and began heading out the door.

"Where are you going?" Jade asked me, standing between me and the foyer.

"Home," I said. "I'm tired and I want to be alone."

Jade gave a small nod and stepped out of my way, letting me walk out of the house.

With his keen senses and ability to hear, Ben would have heard me leave. He would have heard me approach and overhear that conversation. Nonetheless, he didn't care that he hurt me or that I caught him. Because he got what he wanted.

Ben didn't come chasing after me when I left the house. He didn't even text me at all that day. He of course never came to see me. 

In fact, the rest of the week passed without anything from him or any of his friends. Because why would they care now that I was useless to them?

The first few days were rough. I spent most of it moping around my room, watching romance movies and crying about their happiness and my lack thereof. And if not that, I was laying on my bed, staring at the ceiling with a variety of Taylor Swift songs stuck on repeat. 

But eventually, after all that, I found the will within me to delete his number and the messages. While it removed a sense of the painful pass, there were still echoes of agony in the days taht went on.

Then the next week was the one before university. So I busied myself, collecting my textbooks, setting up my organisation and calendars, wrapping my head around assessment, and starting my readings. 

And that week passed just the same, hurting a little less once more with each day that put distance between us.

· · ───── ∘☽༓☾∘ ───── · ·

"How are you, honey?" mum asked me over the phone on the first weekend before uni started.

"I'm finally getting better," I said.

"Nearly over him?"

I gave a small shrug, but realised she couldn't see that. "It gets easier with each day. I just don't understand why everyone thinks I'm so weak they can just walk all over me."

"I think you're the strongest person I know, honey."

I obviously hadn't told mum anything about the fairy thing... or the vampire thing for that matter. That was one way to get her on the first plane over and take me to a doctor for a mental stability test. 

Not telling her was for the best, because with no one but me knowing, I could put all the fairy tale behind me. Not knowing anything more about what I am was for the best, because the less I knew, the lesser the chance anyone else could find out and take advantage of me. 

As far as she knew, we had a disagreement and I found out he had just been using me to impress a mate.

"Thank you mum," I whispered back. "But now tell me about your day. I want to hear what you have been up to."

· · ───── ∘☽༓☾∘ ───── · ·

And so things got easier. 

With uni just about to start up, I relinquished my Thursday and Friday afternoon shifts, only working weekends now, my life becoming full of study and work that I only had narrow slivers of time to remember when he filled the gaps in my life. 

However... there were still some gaps.

After my phone call with mum, talking about Ben even for a moment roused a little bit of sadness in me again. 

So on Sunday it was hard to not feel a twang of pain at the sight of a pair of blue eyes, or a copy of Twilight being picked up by a customer, and even a beverage from Costa in a customer's hand. 

Nonetheless, I swallowed it away and told myself even these reminders would pass. Because all pain eventually passes. 

Ultimately, I had concluded from my experiences that Ben had taught me a valuable lesson: do not let people in. And I was desperate to stick to it from now on.