The Crown's Obsession

Calhoun continued to clean the two wounds on her back with careful movements of his hand without trying to irk the skin that had turned red. She continued to lay down quietly on the bed, clutching the bed with her good hand when she felt a slight pain on her back.

"It would be best you don't dip yourself in the bath and have your body cleansed with only a wet cloth until the wound has healed," said Calhoun. He had brought fresh water in the vessel to remove the last traces of blood.

It wasn't the time to feel embarrassed, but to clean herself with only a wet cloth, that would mean she would need Calhoun's assistance as she didn't want any maid or any of her family members to see her back. Not just her back, but anywhere else. She heard him speak,

"Maybe you can dip your lower half in the water unless it's too painful while I can take care of your back," offered Calhoun. He heard the little hitch in her heart, and he didn't have to look at her face to know it. "It would also do both of us good if you practiced in my presence next time. This is the second time, and it seems like every time when you try to tap into your ability, you have experienced the pain. This time it was too much."

If Madeline lost the same amount of blood every day, it would weaken her body, and she was still a human, thought Calhoun to himself. It would kill her.

"I didn't know it would happen," came the response from Madeline. If she knew that her attempting to fix the broken glass would harm her, she wouldn't have tried it, "But…" she paused, gaining his attention, "I fixed the glass."

Calhoun took note of the hint of excitement in her voice.

Madeline looked young for her age because of her time that had frozen during the time she was put in the coffin, and even though she was older than how she looked, she still had a young heart, who was trying to discover things around her.

"What is the point of fixing something when it might break you?" questioned Calhoun without increasing his voice.

"Are we still speaking about the glass?" asked Madeline whose eyebrows drew in together, and she earned a chuckle from Calhoun.

"Do you know what your ability can do? You can break things, but you can also fix it. The question is to know how much you can handle and how much you can fix which is broken," stated Calhoun, "Right now, you are still harnessing your powers which is why your body is trying to adapt and keep the power. Your body is learning to contain it, but when you cannot contain and control it, it leads to destruction."

Madeline placed her good hand below her chin, and she looked at Calhoun's face that was calm while his hands tended to her, "How do I do that?"

"Do what you are doing, but in my presence," replied Calhoun. He didn't want to see her lying on the ground as if she was dead. He gritted his teeth at that thought.

Calhoun was carefully cleaning the inside of the wound to take out any possible fabric that was stuck when he noticed something. Bringing the candle close to her back, he saw the wound was trying to heal itself from inside. And apart from it, he saw there were two bones on either side of her back that were bloody, yet the structure of the bones were different. It looked like a tree's branches that were going to grow out from the bone to form the basic structure on which the wings might one day come to grow.

Now that he was done with tending to her wounds, Calhoun noticed Madeline's back that was bare.

Raising his hand, he let his finger trail down from below her nape down to the curve of her back to see her shiver, "There is something I want to try," he said.

Madeline wondered what it was, and the next second, she felt Calhoun's lips touch the wound. She gasped, her hands clutching onto the pillow that was beneath her, "W-what are you trying?" she asked, feeling his breath on her back.

"I want to see if it works," she heard Calhoun murmur. If it was about raising goosebumps on her body and having her heart flip, then it was working, thought Madeline to herself. She felt the kisses drop on her wound.

"You are using the opportunity," Madeline's words came muffled. She felt slight pain when his lips touched her wound, but at the same time because of the gentleness it carried, she tried not to sigh.

"It wouldn't be me if I didn't take an opportunity in the situation now, would it?" asked Calhoun, his eyes trailing on the wounds and he saw the open wounds starting to close. It was usually vampires who healed quickly from their injuries and then it was the demons before the rest of the creatures. It was an element in the vampire's body that increased the rate of healing, and he wanted to see if it would help Madeline.

Pulling away from her back, Calhoun saw the wounds had not disappeared, but they did get better. Madeline looked nothing less to a cute little animal that was waiting for his next move, "Time to change your clothes," announced Calhoun and Madeline got up.

The entire time, when Calhouns was helping Madeline change her dress, she wondered why he hadn't used his ability to turn her dress to feathers. Instead, he took his time to remove her clothes one after another, making her lift her arms to remove her dress and helped her into a dress that wasn't too tight around her waist or back. Her eyes fell on the ealier dress that she wore to notice one part of it covered in blood.

"How did it go in the village?" asked Madeline, knowing Calhoun had gone to check with the recent murder of Lady Catherine. It was still hard to digest that the vampiress had been killed and she was no more in this world.

People whom she knew were dying or changing quickly.

"It went well. Mr. Barnes will be executed for his involvement in killing his daughter, though there is a slight complication," mentioned Calhoun, "James might not be safe if he doesn't turn back to his whole human self which is possible only if he gets the antidote."

Madeline sat down on the bed in deep thought. She knew Calhoun was busy with other things, one of them that included her in his top priority, and she didn't know if they would be able to find a cure for James. With hours and days that were passing by, James was shifting to the side of the werewolf, and if it was too late, it would be hard to return to his normal life or self.

"Helena came to visit the prison." Hearing Calhoun's words, her eyes snapped back to look at him.

"Why is she here?" Madeline had met Helena during Markus' trial, and the woman carried a hostile atmosphere around her.

"Someone blamed me for Catherine's murder. She just came to check and ended up finding James' fur in his house," and Madeline felt her heart sink. Was James a lost cause now because he hadn't returned to the castle? How was one supposed to find werewolves?