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“Come in, Melanie.” Jon said as he heard the knock at the door. He took a moment to consider how he knew it was her and realized he’d recognized Melanie by smell. He’d, um, he’d put that thought away for now. Deal with it later.
As soon as Melanie walked in he could tell something was wrong. She opened the door a little too hesitantly, avoided eye contact a little too much. It immediately had him worried, but he waited for her to speak first.
“I’m done with Elias.” Her voice was steady but he could hear that she’d been crying hard. He saw it in her eyes too, red and puffy. She looked away from him quickly, looked up, tilted her head back. “Do what you need to do.”
“I’m not refusing, but… is there… I wonder if there’s any particular reason.” His words were as cautious as his movements towards her. He tried to be as non-threatening as an apex predator could be while approaching its prey.
“You’ll find out, won’t you? Isn’t that how it works?” Now her voice was shaking. Whether from anger or sadness or both Jon couldn’t tell.
“I thought you might like the option of telling me.” Jon took another step and ended up right in front of her. “But I’m ready whenever you are.”
“Let’s just get it over with, before… before I change my mind.” Tears were falling down Melanie’s face again now.
“Melanie…” Jon said, concerned. “What ha—”
“Just fucking do it, Jon!” She practically yelled, looking him straight in the eye with her usual challenging gaze. But Jon could tell that this time it was a facade, she was barely holding it together.
Now was not the time for questions.
“Okay.” Jon said. He bit into his wrist and held it out to Melanie. She grabbed it, pulled it to her mouth, and drank forcefully.
As she did, Jon felt his mind flow into hers and start to push out Elias’. He tried to respect her privacy and keep his Sight to himself as much as he could (not much) during this process, but there was no way around Seeing the knowledge that was burning its way through her mind again and again, knowledge that seemed impossible for her to move her mind away from. Jon gasped and tried to pull away but Melanie held his wrist tightly to her mouth until all traces of Elias were forced out of her mind. She was so relieved when this was done that she didn’t take the time to guard against the feelings created by Jon’s thrall and for a moment she was happy, so happy, to be his.
Then Jon used his vampiric strength to pull his wrist away from her and she blinked in confusion before sobbs found their way back to her throat and she sunk down to the floor.
Jon crouched down next to her. He moved to put a hand on her shoulder but decided against it. “Melanie…” what is there to say about something like this? He could tell that Melanie wanted to throw herself into his arms and cry into his shoulder but she was holding herself back. That was the thrall talking, not her, and no matter how comforting she knew it would be she would not give in. Jon Saw all of this in her mind and understood it, but he still ached to provide some sort of comfort. Melanie was his now and the thought of Elias breaking her like this made part of him blindingly angry. Another part knew that his anger wouldn’t help Melanie. And another part of him refused to be angry at Elias for anything. “I’m so sorry.” He ended up saying.
Melanie laughed through her slowing sobbs. “For what? What happened to Ivy Meadows, that Elias put that information into my head, or the fact that the reason you know any of this is because now you’re in my head?”
“Um, all of it?” Jon ventured. Melanie laughed without any joy. Jon wished it was concern for her that led him to say what he said next, but he knew it was the hunger, the Beast, that spoke when he asked, “Do you want me to, uh, take your mind off of it?”
She knew what he meant. He saw her look thoughtful for awhile, then she nodded to herself and started to pick herself up off the ground. Jon also stood and resisted the urge to help her. She sighed. “Yeah, actually, that’d… yeah.”
Jon didn’t make a move towards her until she tilted her own neck back and to the side. And, while he did put one hand on her shoulder and the other in her hair, his grip was loose, unlike Elias, he wasn’t going to hold her in that position. The message was clear, this was her choice. Intellectually she appreciated that, but there wasn’t room in her for the actual feeling. Besides, it’s not like she really had a choice. If she did she would walk out of the Institute right now and never come back. Any illusion of free will she had while trapped in this den of monsters was just that. An illusion. So she kept her head tilted back and closed her eyes. She was glad that she was out of tears for the moment, because if not she was sure she’d start crying again.
Then Jon bit into Melanie’s neck and all the sadness and pain was gone. For a few precious moments there was only the bliss and the sheer rightness of what was happening, she didn’t even have to hate it as much as she had when she was with Elias. Jon moved his arms to hold her against him in a tight hug and sent thoughts of comfort through their new bond. Melanie let herself be comforted almost to the point of feeling safe.
Almost.