Chapter 25: Chapter 25

As soon as they they were out, Callum relaxed heavily on Oliver.

“I will...I will most probably need help not only undressing. “

Oliver took his arm and draped it over his shoulders.

“What happened? Lean on me. “ The Lord did and Oliver felt his body sag against his.

The next thing that he felt was the strong copper smell and he clenched his jaw.

He had been right, then.

“Do you think you can take the stairs. “

Oliver looked at him and from that close he saw Callum’s hair was wet in the roots. His pale lips were pressed hard together, but he said.

“Yes, I think I can. “

“We need to call the doctor, Cal. “

He felt the Lord suddenly stiffen and it looked like he’d gathered all his strength left when he growled.

“Don’t you dare. “

“We have to. ”

“No. “

Callum cut short and clenched his hand around Oliver.

“I don’t know how bad it is.”

“It’s not. No one must know, Oliver. I won’t be able to explain this. Especially to Liam.“

Oliver wanted to protest, but he couldn’t argue and nodded.

“Okay. “

“Okay. Now let’s try and do this. “

They were soon upstairs and by the time they made it, Callum had paled even more.

Oliver took him to the dressing room directly and helped the Lord into a chair. Callum relaxed heavily against the backrest and tried to take his coat off.

“No, no. Don’t move too much. “

He pushed the coat off the Lord’s shoulders carefully.

“Try to stay like this before I come back. “

“I can’t move much anyway. “

Oliver went to the other room as quickly as possible. He searched the drawers, and soon found what he needed.

He was lucky he didn’t meet anyone on the way back, or it would’ve been really difficult to explain what he was doing with all that in his hands, at that time of the night.

Although if he’d just said Callum had gotten sick with whisky, the maids would have believed it.

Another matter was that depending on who he had stumbled upon, they’d have probably told literally everyone in the manor and that was something couldn’t happen, at all cost.

Oliver came back to the dressing room and put the water basin on the floor and the whisky next to it.

The Lord hadn’t moved, but he had propped his head against the backrest, his eyes closed.

“It’s only cold water. “

Oliver said, just to say something to keep the Lord listening.

“Try to stay awake, all right. I know it’s hard, but you have to.“

“Of course I’m awake, I’m just…“

“Resting your eyes, I know. “

Oliver joked and the Lord smiled weakly.

He knelt in front of Cal and he saw the man open his eyes.

“Oh, well…” he shook his head, trying to sit up. “if we were doing this, you should’ve chosen a moment when I was better predisposed. “

“We’ll leave it for next time, shall we?”

“I will not forget that, Oliver.”

Oliver smiled and only shook his head. He unbuttoned the black vest the Lord was wearing. The cloth had already gotten dark at places.

He took it off, trying to be as careful as possible.

He was still trying to keep talking, or in fact he was trying to distract himself from his own thoughts, since Callum didn’t seem to be panicked. Or he was and was hiding it, the way he never let what he actually felt or thought show.

Oliver assumed voicing every little thing he did could keep him from asking things like

What the hell happened,

Who did this

I will find them and kill them.

The blood had already soaked the white shirt underneath and Oliver looked up.

“I’ll cut the shirt, all right?”

Callum said after a long pause. “Cut my shirt?”

“Yes.”

“But it was my favorite one. “

“You don’t have favorite ones. “

Oliver said lightly and sliced the thin cloth.

He did it fast and skillfully. Oliver had done this so many times before, yet this was the first time he found himself holding his breath, hoping the wound underneath wouldn’t be as bad as his imagination was tricking him into believing it was.

The cloth had stuck in the cut and he tried to remove it as carefully as possible.

“This might hurt a bit. “

“No, it’s…just take it off. “

Oliver peeled the cloth and threw it away.

The cut was above the abdomen. It wasn’t that deep, although it was still bleeding.

Thank god, he thought, almost speaking the words aloud.

“It’s not that bad.”

Callum nodded briefly, “I know, it just keeps bleeding. “

Oliver took the cloth and the bottle.

“I will have to clean it, it’s not that deep from what I see, but it will sting a lot. “

He poured some of the whisky on the towel

“I thought we were drinking this…”

Oliver passed him the bottle “That too. “ Callum took a long swing of the whisky and offered it back to Oliver.

He refused it and said.

“Okay, relax. “

Callum took another long swig and said “I have. “

He touched the cloth to the wound and Callum hissed once Oliver began wiping it clean.

“Does it hurt?”

“No, go on. “

Callum had tightened his hand around the armrest, but besides the first hiss he’d let himself escape, he endured everything quietly. Oliver knew it must have started to really hurt especially once he began pressing harder, but Callum never complained and in stead began responding to Oliver’s words of disctraction.

He finished as quickly as he could and wrapped a clean cloth around Callum’s waist.

“This should do for now. “

Oliver sat back on his heels and looked up.

Callum was watching him. He seemed better now, even though he was still slightly paler that usual.

“Thank you. I already knew you were skillful with this. “

“I won’t ask if you fell from something again. “

“You could say I fell on someone this time. “

Oliver clenched his jaw so hard, he was afraid he might have snapped it, or he had done it so hard, the movement had been audible to the Lord as well.

“It wasn’t my gambling buddies, I promise.“

“I’m not the person you should offer an explanation to. “

Callum said.

“I thought you might wonder. “

“So that you could lie to me again?”

“I am not lying about anything now, you just don’t ask. “

Oliver put his hands on his own tights.

“Perhaps…maybe try and explain it to the people who are worried about your evening strolls and the friends you have. “

“And you aren’t?”

“You obviously allow me to do that much.”

Their eyes met and the Lord’s face clouded. He looked down at Oliver’s hands, still covered with his blood.

“Maybe you should clean yourself. “

He said it flatly and Oliver looked down at his stained trousers.

“Right. Yes. “

He got up, trying not to imagine finding the people who had done this.

He wiped his hands and helped Callum change into a clean shirt, which he’d brought from the Lord’s room earlier.

“I will throw those away, so that the maids won’t find them “

“Thank you. “

“Change it in the morning, because it will most likely…”

“I will.”

“Do you think you can do it by yourself?”

Callum’s look was flat and Oliver nodded.

“ I will be near if you need me. “

“As I said, thank you. “

Oliver had seen much worse injuries, cleaned much deeper ones, but none of them had made him wish it hadn’t happened, or drive him to go out and catch the people behind it. To cut them open, maim them in any possible way and watch them die.

The thought caught him unprepared and he began wiping his hands in one of the towels he was still holding.

“Do you need help going back to bed?”

“No. “ Callum said short.

“If it hurts…”

“I think I have enough ways of dulling my senses, you should know that by now. “

Callum took the whisky.

Oliver suddenly felt alienated.

Because Callum was shutting him off the way he always did when the conversation was concerning something about him, or about the way he felt.

Oliver knew he was dismissed, once Callum began responding with one or two words only.

The Lord looked tired, although it was understandable. His hair was still disheveled and scattered all over, but he looked better.

Oliver nodded again and wished his master good night.

****

He went to the washroom and dipped his hands in the basin. The dried blood began dissolving in the crystal clear cold water, turning it...

Red.

In a twisted way this was a small part of Callum. Those had been droplets of blood that once had been flowing through and inside the Lord’s body and Oliver was watching them slowly disappearing, washed away from his skin.

Oliver kept staring at the marred water until his fingers began prickling because if the cold and he took his hands out.

That night was another of those where he spent hours staring at the ceiling. This time, Oliver’s mind was flooded with not only images of Callum, but also numerous ones from his past.

Memories he had so hard tried to erase, or at least put in a different corner of his mind. For one thing, he hadn’t really imagined killing someone so vividly in a very long time.

Oliver had almost succeeded in not doing so, but all the events from the evening and Callum’s constant unjustified recklessness had brought those thoughts back up.

Oliver felt powerless to do anything to understand the man.

And he thought he almost had.

Almost.