Maybe it was that specific flavor of iron staining the air after hearing the initial stretching break of the car's hurried stop before the quick revving of the engine after another set of breaks scratching to a halt as the worried vampire bolted from her nearly crashed car to run back in the direction she'd been attempting to flee from, maybe it was the too slow heartbeat that blood call belonged to beating faintly against her sensitive hearing that had the terrified vampire pushing her already tired body to move just a little faster as the name comes in a broken cry from her lips.
"Cal?!"
A weakened cough answered her as Juliette neared the spot she was hunting for.
Hit and run like she'd expected given the noise and the aftermath but the question was why would Cal have been running this way, to begin with after making it quite clear she wanted nothing to do with her anymore?
The already crying vampire didn't care one bit about the elder hunter also kneeling beside her gravely wounded daughter. Of course, she'd have followed after Cal had run off. But still what the heck was she running after so fiercely she hadn't seen the car in time to avoid it?
Jules and Cal. That's all that mattered now. Just Jules and Cal.
"I'm sorry." Her hunter coughed as Juliette gingerly moved so Cal's head was cradled against her lap.
"Sshhh." The vampire attempted stupidly to calm down as her bloodied fingers card lightly in Calliope's dark curls. "You have nothing to be sorry for, okay? Nothing."
Cal was already attempting to shake her head in denial at this move, not a very smart one considering the still bleeding extent of her injuries. "You're still a horrible liar."
Juliette attempted a smile at the groaned rebuff but failed miserably at it.
"Turn her."
Juliette's head lifts hesitantly to meet the speaker's hardened gaze. "What?"
Already Cal's breathing was growing even more shallow than it had been before she'd gotten there. "I said turn her." The hunter's mother instructs. "You've already claimed one of my children. What's one more?" she adds holding Jules's eyes before her chin drops to look once more at her dying daughter. "I can't lose my only daughter. I won't."
"Cal?"
Glazed eyes blink up at her as with what seemed to be the last of her fading strength Calliope lifted her hand to cup her vampire's jaw. "I'm down." She agreed in a voice too low for her listening parents to catch.
As soon as the consent had been spoken Juliette's head was bowing her fangs unsheathing heavy as hell in her mouth as her lips parted her tongue licking lightly over the blood and sweat-coated skin of her prey's offered throat.
This had to be quick. Her hunter wouldn't survive if she didn't hurry.
"I love you Cal." The vampire whispered against her lover's throat before her fangs pierced the cooling skin under her lips.
"love you Jules." The last hushed breath of Calliope Burns, monster hunter, vampire lover, human.