CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO #3
“I’ve witnessed you pour Scotch in his drinks with my own eyes.
” Callum glanced at the liquor that rested beside the college mug.
Callum spent afternoons, nights, and early mornings with Elliott whenever James was in Montana with the congressman.
“Elliott can’t fall asleep at night anymore without Scotch in his drink.
He sleepwalks for hours until he passes out.
That is what being close to you has done to him. ”
James felt the muscle in his jaw spasm. “It’s not illegal to smoke or drink.” Even though he earnestly had tried his best to regard Callum seriously, he felt his eyes roll backward towards his skull. “God forbid I take a pill, either?”
“You don’t care about him,” Callum concluded, neither accusatory nor infuriated any longer, instead, he sounded resigned.
He loathed the fact that Elliott could not see it for himself.
“You only care about being with him, no matter what it will do to him, as long as he’s with you.
You want him to idolize the fiction of you.
He is emptied of who he could’ve been in order to be with you.
He is a fragment of himself. You are a vampire. ”
James kept his hand composedly in his pocket.
He spoke placidly, if not a bit bored of him.
He followed Callum’s train of thought. “You don’t care about being with him, Callum.
A friend like you will burn him with light, even if it pains him.
That is because that is all you are to him–a friend.
I will block out the sun if he prefers the dark.
I will sit in the dark, the torment, and the excruciation with him.
As vampiric as that might be, I will be with him.
You will be around him. In the end, he will forget you. ”
Callum had attended the college for statecraft and statesmanship for years, where they were taught to deconstruct their political opponents and decipher everyone as future constituents down to their core–it was a crucial skill set which James had mastered.
However, Callum had taught himself to interpret the peers that might become his future leaders as a skill set of his own.
“The real difference between us is that you don’t want him to get better.
If Elliott is healthy and matured, he’ll see you for who you are.
He will not love you as his friend, he will loathe you as an enemy of humanity.
You turned an axe on two students, prepared to murder us.
You’ve never regretted it. It doesn’t even haunt your eyes.
When he realizes that is who you actually are–an unrepentant, vampiric, hypocritical, politician–he will despise you.
He will shun you. He will reject you. That is why his healing is a threat to your friendship.
That is why you will keep him in the dark. ”
“I am not a politician,” James said mildly, as though little else mattered in his rant. “A politician is elected by the people. I think you meant a public figure, which, in the consideration that we are in a cloistered college separated from the country, I am not that either. I am widely unknown.”
“Elections can be bought, senator. It is a matter of time.”
James noted the judgment in his eyes. He couldn’t help but think to himself, Callum, you voted to put a man to death. That was what you decided with your electoral power. God in Heaven forbid I am the one with the grit to butcher him.
You are not better than me because you lacked the conviction to execute him.
Callum stood his ground. “You are a danger. You lurched an axe towards my head.”
Admit it. You are capable of murder.
“Yes, but did you die?” James’s short patience for him had eclipsed. “You hold more power than any undergraduate student as the senior elector and I will not stand for you to whine in front of me as though you hold no power. You are rather dramatic, it does not suit you well.”
“You are bloodless.”
“Yes, and it suits me well.” James smiled. Callum could tell it was a bit of humor and comradeship, in that moment, James came across endearingly to him. However, beneath it, he could sense that James did, in fact, have his regrets. Perhaps he had begun to regret keeping Callum alive that winter.
James had stabbed a fellow student before in front of everyone. That student was now dead.
His burnt remains were found near James.
Callum refused to believe in the coincidence of that.
“Part of Elliott falls in love with anyone who saves his life. It’s in his nature to love as he’s loved.” With that, Callum moved past him as he departed with the passport hidden in his sleeve. “You aren’t as special to him as you think, Wilde.”
Part of Elliott falls in love with anyone who saves his life. It’s in his nature to love as he’s loved.
“By the way, which country will I and Elliott travel to this fall?” Callum asked near the threshold and he delivered his own response when it was clear that James didn’t know. That Elliott had not told him. “Forgive me if I assumed you two were close.”