"So when are you going to stop sulking and go back to Bon Temps?" Delilah asked and leaned on the desk. "People have actually been asking about you."
"How nice," I deadpanned and continued clicking away on the keyboard. During the past week, Tetris has become one of my favorite games.
Delilah sighed. "It's been almost a year since you've been there. You can't even drop by Merlotte's and say hello?"
Seven months and three days to be exact. I have made a great effort to steer clear of either town, and even went so far as to refuse jobs that included me traveling to, or anywhere near, Bon Temps or Shreveport. I don't plan on returning there anytime soon.
Going to Fangtasia that night was the biggest mistake of my life. If only I had just stayed here, or at home, that never would have happened. Sure, I probably would have heard somehow that Riggs had returned and was killing off every vampire he came across. But if I wasn't in charge of protecting them, would I really have given a shit? Most likely not.
"Since when are you concerned about me maintaining a relationship with humans?" I grumbled. "I did my job. I'm done there."
"Eric hadn't even released you," she said. I winced at his name. "How have you been holding up?"
"Better than ever," I said sarcastically. "Now will you let me get back to this? I actually managed to make it past the fourth level."
"What an amazing feat," she rolled her eyes. Delilah drummed her fingers on the oak. "Look, I'm setting you up with a job. You can't just sit here anymore all miserable."
"I can damn well do as I please, Delilah, and you know that," I looked up at her for the first time since she's come up to me.
"You say that, but don't come running back to me when your money's run dry and you're out of a job." Micah said as he shuffled through a pile of papers.
The prospect horrified me. I know for a fact that I would never work at a human owned establishment, and there is no way in Hell that I would be returning to, well…Hell. So I sighed, defeated, and asked:
"What job?"
She made a face. "It's actually at Merlotte's.."
"Fuck that. Nope. Not going there," I shook my head like a stubborn child.
"You have to. I'm your boss," she said.
"Oh, don't play that card."
I pushed my chair back and stood up, walked over to the large glass window overlooking the dance floor. Bodies gyrated below me to the music, twisting and thrashing about. They looked like a swarm of ants from up here.
"Adrian, c'mon," she pleaded. "It'd be good for you to go back. Get some kind of closure, you know?"
"I don't know," I pressed my forehead into the glass. "I don't want to go back there."
She pat my shoulder. "I know…but you just walked out on everybody there. And I know it's killing you. Especially Eric."
"Don't bring him up," I said harshly. I've tried to keep him out of my mind, and no matter how hard I did try, I failed. Terribly. He's always there, looming in the back of my mind, something I don't want to think about. And I'm not sure if it's the blood that's keeping him there, the unbroken bond between master and servant, or if he belongs there. Either way, I don't need anymore pain. So I try to think about other things.
"You're going to have to see him eventually," she said. "You're still bonded, whether you deem it broken or not. It's up to him to let you go. And he hasn't."
And it's true. He hasn't. I still have the same pains I did months ago whenever something was wrong, I still feel the same desire to protect, still feel the same….desire I felt when I was in his presence. And not being with him, all I feel is empty. Like a part of me has been ripped away. I didn't even feel that after I had killed Alistair.
"Adrian, I know you want to go back. Just do it. For me? Please?"
I frowned deeply. "Fine. I'll do it."
"Good," she smiled at me.
Delilah took her time going over the details of the job. Wasted time, really, when all she could have said was is "Someone's going to drop dead, be there to take the soul". That's what every job came down to, no?
I grabbed my jacket and promised I'd be back later.