“You don’t understand what it is to be truly alone, Ravi. To have no one to share your life with,” says Gabriel. 

“Don’t I?” Asks Ravi.

“I have spent two-hundred years wandering this earth by myself after my maker died. I could not save him from his sorrows. From the pain of eternity. As much as he loved me, existence was too much, and in the end he put himself at the mercy of the sun, leaving me truly without anyone.”

“I-” Ravi hesitates, clearly trying to find the right words, “genuinely, I am so sorry that you went through that. I wonder though why you chose to live, rather than follow your maker?”

“Until recently, I couldn’t have said. But now I realize, I was waiting for someone. I was waiting for you.”

“As I said, your attraction to me is only because of the bacteria that wants my bloo-”

“I know you’ve felt it. In that library, I saw the look in your eyes, heard your heartbeat flutter when you’d come to talk to me. The attraction was real, on both our parts. Night after night, you returned. When the internet had everything you could possibly need for your research, still, you returned. To my library. To me. Tell me I’m lying. I can hear your heartbeat now, Ravi. Tell me I’m lying to you, and I’ll hear the truth.”

“I won’t deny my attraction,” admits Ravi. “But it is also true that your species tends to attract mortals in general. We are drawn to you, mesmerized by you. It’s part of your abilities. Your survival. I cannot honestly know if I was attracted to you, Gabriel, or to the thing that you are. And yes, every night I returned, hoping to catch even a glimpse of you. I fell in love. I wanted to be so near to you, until I learned what you were. What you had concealed from me. And then you forced yourself upon me, and left me at your mercy.”

Not a word of a lie. Gabriel feels the gut punch of Ravi’s confession. Knows that he messed up. 

“All I can think of now is the taste of your blood,” Ravi continues, “day and night, my body screams for it. That is why I had to learn more. I had to go to Transylvania. To try and find the truth. To find a cure, in case you found me again and turned me. I do not want to be what you are.”

Gabriel leans back on the bed, looking at the ground now, deep in thought, “My master gave me no choice. He forced his blood upon me, and over several days, we drank from one another, until one night he drained me to a point just near death, and shared a good amount of his blood with me. The transition was horrifying, and at the same time, sublime. I felt my body die, and come alive. It was such an incredible thing. For over 150 years, we were companions, lovers, brothers, everything to one another. He had lived 700 years before he ever met me. He claimed to be one of the first of them.”

Gabriel looks up at Ravi, who is frowning. 

“I never begrudged him what he did to me, until he ended his life. For that, I never forgave him. For leaving me all alone to suffer. I felt a gnawing emptiness, an ocean of solitude until I met you. I have to be with you, Ravi. There is no other alternative. I’m sorry. I know you’re frightened, but I can assure you that I love you, and I will do everything to protect you.”

“You can protect me by letting me go,” Ravi insists.