Alaric's POV
I've given Enzo the time he asked for seven days. Seven goddamn days.
At first, I thought it would be easy. A week is nothing in my centuries of existence. I've outlived empires, endured plagues, watched civilizations collapse under their own hubris. Time, to me, is a dull drumbeat. But this?This silence from him it gnaws at me like rust on steel. Every passing second without his voice, his scent, his warmth it strips me bare. And so, while my little human takes his sweet, stubborn time figuring out if I'm worth the breath in his lungs, I've made use of mine.
I've haunted the streets. I've hunted them.Every hunter I could find. Every coward who dared to raise a hand against my kind. Every fanatic who looked at me like I was a disease to be purged.
Because they are the reason Enzo won't talk to me.They filled his head with fear. They turned his trust into suspicion. They made him flinch when I reached for him.
