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“Do you seriously have nothing better to do?” MG asked, an eyebrow raised.
Kaleb blinked, stunned. He didn’t expect a thank you, or really any display of gratitude at all. He knew better. Still, he didn’t quite expect that.
“No,” he replied earnestly. “I don’t.”
Sure, he could’ve been back at school. He could’ve been surrounded by friends who would be sympathetic to his heartbreak, but, ultimately, they still wanted him to move on with his life. They never would support him crawling to the ends of the earth to chase a lost cause. They all thought he deserved better than that. They would all be wrong.
Because what would be better than MG? Even though his expression had turned blank. He was colder, crueler, with an appetite for violence surpassed only by his thirst for blood. But that was okay. Kaleb could accept him like this.
MG laughed. It wasn’t his old laugh. It wasn’t joyful. MG couldn’t feel joy. He couldn’t feel anything. It was a pointed, malicious laugh. MG didn’t used to be like that. But this new laugh could be enough. It was just enough for Kaleb to almost hear what he missed if he searched for it underneath. And he did every time. But only in his mind. He would never try to get the old MG back. That would be wrong. At least the numbness protected MG. It shielded him from the guilt.
The bodies were in the hundreds. If the old MG knew that, he would take off his ring and walk into the sun or simply stop fleeing from those who were after him. But this MG didn’t care enough to count. Kaleb did, though. Even in his exhaustion, he maintained a mental tally, keeping the exact number his own little secret.
Of course it also meant he was no longer capable of returning Kaleb’s affection, but that was okay. That was a form of protection, too, because Kaleb was a monster in his own way. While Kaleb wasn’t the one doing the killing (or even feeding live — he’d sworn that off, as the brutality of MG’s kills was enough to even make a vampire’s stomach turn), he was enabling. He had started by burying bodies, but even with supernatural speed, he just couldn’t seem to dig fast enough to keep up with MG’s insatiable bloodlust. He could bury one body only to be greeted with more. He gave up on burials. Burning proved to be more efficient.
If he had any semblance of a moral compass, he’d let the hunters catch MG or at least stop helping him. He would do that for the sake of humanity. He would never burn another body.
But humanity be damned. Kaleb would burn the whole world if he had to. If it meant keeping MG safe.
Kaleb glanced at the match his hand, the flame growing closer and closer to his finger tips. He had done this so many times, and yet he never stopped hesitating.
“You know, it would be a lot easier if you just flipped your switch, too,” MG remarked. It wasn’t the first time MG had suggested it, but Kaleb dismissed the idea each time.
“Careful,” Kaleb warned. “It almost sounds like you care about me.”
And there it was again. That callous laugh that reminded Kaleb just how pathetic he’d become. A small, even sicker part of him wished he had doused them both in gasoline along with the decapitated bodies that littered the floor around them. He wanted to be engulfed in the flames. At least they would still be together.
“We need to keep moving,” MG said.
Kaleb let go of his dark fantasy and dropped the match so they could continue running. They’d do the same tomorrow. He’d do the same for eternity.