Down and Out (Lily)

Down and Out

Getting on to the bed was a nightmare, and he'd had to stop the nurses from helping him because they were only hurting him more, their hands digging into the wounds and making him cry out. Kit hated showing weakness, and this was one of the worst situations he had ever been in for that, he had no choice but to let half the hospital know how much pain he was in as they tried to support him up and into the bed. He'd eventually told them to let go, held his breath and launched himself into the bed on his own, collapsing onto his back and squeezing his eyes shut, trying to breathe away the pain as he was told a healer would be with him in a moment. He didn't even respond or thank the nurses for getting him to his bed in one piece, he couldn't think straight, and he felt like he might pass out if the bleeding didn't stop soon. Why the hell wasn't he healing by himself!? The wounds must have ran deep for his vampire healing to have not kicked in yet, and it made him feel sick with worry. His dad would be furious at the people who had done this to Kit if he found out who they were, and there was no chance Kit would be able to hide it from him, he was supposed to be visiting his dad tomorrow and he would smell the blood on Kit if he drank some tonight. Yep, by tomorrow evening there would be one angry vampire on the streets.

A voice tore him from his thoughts and for a second Kit was confused as to why his dad's voice sounded so different before he realised that it wasn't his father, Max Devereaux wasn't in the room with him, but a healer was. Bright red hair gave Kit something to focus on as she looked over his file, and he was sure he recognised that face from somewhere, though his fuzzy mind couldn't place her right then. Her hands, though gentle, elicited a loud hiss from Kit as she prodded his wounds, aiming to examine him but only managing to cause him more agony. He gritted his teeth as fresh pain seared through his torso. "Auror," he managed to grunt out, hands clenched in fists at his sides. "I need... Can't heal..." His head flopped to the side as he struggled to talk, feeling like he might throw up on the pretty red head any second now. "I'm sorry. Lost a lot of," Kit swallowed, he really didn't want to throw up, "blood." He watched the healer's face, eyes heavy, forcing himself not to pass out.



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tag: Lily Joanne Potter
notes: <3

Down and Out

Chris? Was there someone called Chris in the room, too? As far as Kit was aware, it was just himself and the familiar looking healer in the cubicle, but he figured there might be someone hovering in the doorway or something, though why this Chris person would need to do some deep breathing was beyond him. Was she treating multiple patients at once? Oh, Merlin, Kit was going to die, she was spreading herself too thin and he needed blood, all the blood he could get and fast. "Do you have any medical conditions we should know about?" her voice drew his focus again, and eyes that were more green tonight in the glaring hospital light watched her as she walked across the room. Well, yes, actually, he had a really serious infliction that was imperative for her to know about if he wanted to survive the night, but Kit wasn't comfortable telling just anyone about it. He didn't trust easily, and he definitely didn't like talking about personal things with people he didn't even know. He cleared his throat, trying to find a way to ask her for blood without telling her why, but the action only made his stomach tense, and the throat clearing turned into another grunt of pain.

Head flopping on to the pillow as inner turmoil washed over him with the agony in his torso, he was aware that he was frowning, and he was also aware that she had a small vial of something red. Red. Had he told her already? He didn't remember... "Ahh, please!" he gasped as her wand touched his raw and ragged flesh with some sort of healing spell or other. He felt fresh burning and tingling in the wound, but tried to shake his head, knowing it was useless. "It won't work," he breathed, gritting his teeth again. He was going to have to just tell her, there was no avoiding it, and then she would either be horrified and refuse to treat him and he'd die anyway, or she'd go and run around the hospital telling everyone that she passed that she needed blood for a vampire, and he'd have an audience as he lay there dying on a bed. Every single terrible scenario flashed through his exhausted mind as he lay there, wondering if he could force himself up and make a run for it, go and find the place they stored blood bags or whatever they were called, and just help himself. That seemed like a much more appealing prospect than outing his whole family as vampires to this girl.

His family... Ollie's face flashed before Kit's eyes, followed by Sera and Roma, and finally his parents. Kit's mother had such a gentle smile as visions of her swam through his head. Would his dad and siblings really want to lose another family member because Kit was stubbornly trying to protect their secret. He knew the answer. He knew they would all throw themselves under the bus to save him, just like he would do for them. Swallowing hard, Kit opened his mouth, voice coming out in a croak, and more than a little bit shaky. "Vampire," he croaked. "I need blood." No sooner had the word blood left his lips, did Kit's body lurch as he vomited, managing to turn his head at the last second so it went over the edge of the bed and splattered to the floor.



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tag: Lily Joanne Potter
notes: <3

Down and Out

She poured some of the liquid from the little vial onto his raw, bleeding flesh, and he nearly snapped his teeth off, he gritted them so hard against the pain. Sting a little? Sting a little!? It felt like she'd poured lava onto his stomach! The vomiting hadn't done anything to relieve his nausea or the floaty feeling in his head, and he could feel himself slipping away as his head lolled to one side on the pillow. Having no idea if she'd even heard him muttering the word vampire - and would she know what to do if she had? Would she know that he actually had to drink the blood? - he had no energy left in him to speak, no energy left to even worry about it at all, in fact. He saw the movement of her ducking to avoid a glass jar flying through the air, but it wasn't enough to hold his attention, and Kit's green eyes fluttered closed, his body falling limp in the bed as the pain finally took him.

He fell into dreams of his mother. She was wearing a long dress, like the ones she would wear around the garden in the summer time, bright flowers dotted all over the material. Kit looked at her from across the room. She was with a man, not his father, but still a vampire. The man smirked at Kit, and Liliana leaned her head in towards the strange man, Kit only now realising that she was sitting on his knee. Why was she...? He took a step closer, glancing down at his feet to see he had no shoes on, and his feet were tiny. Kit turned to look at his reflection in the window, it was dark outside, and so his seven year old body was reflected back at him perfectly. Large golden eyes turning back to his mother, Kit gasped, letting out a cry of horror. The vampire had his teeth sunk into Liliana's neck, and she was smiling, enjoying every second of it, though her skin was paling, her arms falling softly to her sides as the life drained out of her. "Mummy!" Kit cried, running to her and trying to grab the man off of her, only to be smacked in the face so hard he flew across the room, landing on something soft and whimpering in the corner of the room. Kit's eyes widened again to see Oliver curled in a terrified ball. Kit's hand reached out to touch his brother's head. "It's okay, Ollie," he whispered. "I'm here, it's okay." Torn between comforting his baby brother and running to try and help their mum, Kit froze, heart pounding fast in his little chest as panic threatened to take over.


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tag: Lily Joanne Potter
notes: <3

Down and Out

The scent of her blood hit his nose, and Kit, still seven years old, slowly let go of Ollie's hand. He stood, eyes drifting to the wound on his mother's neck as blood trickled down her collar. The vampire that had been feeding on her was gone now, but Liliana Devereaux lay there on the couch in a daze, her heart just about ready to stop she had lost so much blood. Blood. The scent of it grew stronger, and Kit took a step towards his mother, as though some force stronger than him was pulling him across the room. Before he knew it, he was right in front of her, and he licked his lips, pulling his tongue back quickly when something sharp scratched along it. Two somethings, in fact. Fangs. He had barely registered their existence when he was on her, teeth sinking into the ragged flesh at her neck. Her body convulsed as the last of her blood - the last of her life - was drained out of her by her ravenous child. Kit couldn't stop. He knew what he was doing, he knew she was dying, but he couldn't stop. The blood tasted so good, and his grip on her was impossibly strong.

Kit coughed in the hospital bed, choking on his mother's blood. No. Not his mother's blood... His eyes flew open. The container of blood that had been poured down his throat was in the healer's hand, and without warning he snatched it from her, guzzling the thick red liquid down as if he had been starved for a century. It poured down his neck as he drank sloppily, emptying the entire glass and throwing it down on the bed, wild eyes searching for more. "More," he croaked, spotting the larger container of blood across the room. Before she could move to fetch it for him, Kit was on his feet, vampiric speed carrying him in a blur, and he was downing the rest of the blood before the healer could probably even follow him with her own eyes. The rush from drinking blood was always strong. As half vampires, Kit and his siblings didn't need it unless they were severely ill or injured, so when they did drink it, it was one mighty power boost. It usually wore off after half a day, but it certainly enhanced everything about them, including hunger. Kit wasn't a fan of drinking the stuff, but he couldn't deny it's effects, nor it's necessity in his life sometimes.

The pitcher now also empty, he set it down on the cabinet next to him, his hands resting either side of it as he caught his breath, face hidden from the healer's view. Merlin, he was a mess. Slowly reaching one hand up, he used the back of it to try and wipe some of the blood from his mouth, but only succeeded in smearing it across his cheek. It was in his hair, down his neck, in his shirt which was already soaked from the wounds on his abdomen. The wounds. Pulling his shirt back, he watched in amazement as they began to seal already, the bleeding having stopped and the flesh knitting before his eyes. He forced himself to look across at the healer. "I'm sorry, I..." he didn't know what to say. He was thoroughly embarrassed, and wished that he could just erase her memory of this day and pretend like it had never happened. He wished it even more now because with a slightly clearer mind he recognised her. The redhead from Order meetings. James Potter's fiance. They had never officially met, nor spoke a word at meetings, but Kit had known who she was for a few months at least, and though she probably didn't know of him in the same way, he was still mortified that she was seeing him like this. It wasn't the best first impression to make on somebody you had to sort of see regularly in order to save the world. Kit could already imagine how awkward the next order meeting would be for him, and as he stared across the hospital room at her, he could only imagine the horrified thoughts that must have been running through her mind.


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tag: Lily Joanne Potter
notes: <3

Down and Out

He knew she was right, and that he'd done nothing wrong, nothing to apologise for, but he couldn't shake the feeling. As comfortable as he was in his own skin, as comfortable as he was with what he was, a small part of him still felt like others would view him as a monster if they got to see the sides of him that were on display today. It was a shame because it stopped him from excelling as much as he could have in his job. Having to withhold his strengths so he could stay under the radar and go unnoticed, pass for a human, it meant that he sometimes felt guilty if bad things happened on the battle field. If only he'd moved faster, at his true top speed, if only he'd been able to let go and save someone in a public place. But he couldn't. He had to hold back, because once everybody knew what he was, they'd know what his siblings were, too, and that wasn't something he was willing to reveal. He wouldn't expose them, it was a non-negotiable part of his life. Except for instances like this one.

Lily immediately set about trying to clean him up, and though he doubted the blood would ever come out of his shirt, he held still while she did her best to make him feel like less of a monster. It was a kind gesture, one Kit appreciated very much, since she could have very well sent him on his way home, leaving him to terrify people with his messy appearance on his way through the hospital. "Thank you," he said quietly, watching as the blood vanished from his skin, his wounds already healed to thin lines that would scar across his torso. He would be adding more tattoos to his already extensive collection, it seemed, and he wondered if there'd come a day when his whole body was covered, with barely any unmarked skin. He liked to hope not, getting that many injuries and not dying would be quite the feat, and one he wasn't keen on being able to brag about. He tugged his shirt down to cover himself up a bit once the blood was gone, pulling a little bit too hard thanks to his new boosted strength and hearing a tear. Trying to pretend he hadn't just ripped the already damned item of clothing somewhere, he cleared his throat. "I don't suppose you get many, uh... vampires in here," he said, trying to make conversation to fill the silence, but not sure what to say. "I don't go around telling people, so if you could keep it to yourself," his eyes found hers, half demanding, half pleading, "I'd appreciate it."


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tag: Lily Joanne Potter
notes: <3

Down and Out

She was kind enough to offer him some clean clothes from downstairs, and Kit glanced down to assess the damage. He did look pretty grim, and it wouldn't be a pretty sight for the people out in the hospital as he was walking through. "That's probably a good idea," he said with a nod and a grimace as he tugged gently at his tattered and bloody shirt. "Though just a jacket would do. Something to cover this mess up, that would be fine," he added, not wanting her to spend her precious time looking for an entire new outfit for him. She could be helping other patients in that time, his appearance was hardly important compared and he would hate to think he was the reason somebody else was left suffering in a bed, waiting for a healer. He perched on the edge of his own bed and sighed. If he didn't feel like the work he did as an Auror was doing some good in the world, he would change jobs. It was dangerous and taxing and even mentally exhausting going through this kind of thing so often, not to mention the strain it put on his family, and the likes of healers who must have been fed up getting the same old Aurors in regularly, needing serious injuries treated. He had always, always wanted to be an Auror, but the dream was filled with gritty, gory reality, and times like this made that truth hit him like a train.

"I'm sorry, I don't mean to imply you'd be unprofessional, it's just... sensitive," he said, voice tired as he realised a little bit too late that he might have offended Lily by asking her to keep his secret. Of course there was patient/healer confidentiality, and she had to honour that to a certain extent, he had the same obligation in his own job, he wasn't allowed to talk about cases outside of work. Of course he could give vague rundowns of things to his friends and family, but he couldn't give specifics, and some cases he couldn't even be vague about, they were that protected. It was just part of the job. He knew that if she wanted to, Lily could tell her family about Kit's nature. There was nothing stopping her, especially if it was people Kit would never meet, nobody would find out, it was a small risk, but he got the feeling she was an honourable person. He liked that.


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tag: Lily Joanne Potter
notes: <3