Summer sighed. “Mostly I’m angry because for a human that amount of alcohol would have killed you, and /you’re not human/. So I don’t even know if you might have given yourself alcohol poisoning, or anything.” She knelt beside the bath, picking up a washcloth and wetting it before gently rubbing at the blood on his head. “There’s just too much I don’t know about you, and I think that has to change, Victor.”
The shock of the water was starting to sober him up a bit, that and the searing pain in his head. “Well, as far as I know, there are very few things that can kill me and alcohol isn’t one of them. But obviously enough of it can cause some serious damage. I had a problem with alcohol when I was younger though, before I was a vampire. It started after I killed her,” Victor shuddered, “I couldn’t control myself, just one glass after another until I finally kicked it. It came back though apparently.” He looked up at her. “What do you want to know?”
Most of the blood was gone, and she could see now that it was just a little cut that would likely heal on its own with no trouble. Dropping the cloth in the water, she cut the heat with a little cold, and laid her hands to Victor’s temples. Painblocks were easy. “When I take this off, you have to sleep. Start with the person you killed. The memory that started this.”
Victor closed his eyes at the feel of her hands on his temples and sighed. “Her name was Claire and I loved her. We were together in college and she was a major part in my transition to the ‘real world’ from the Institution. It was stupid of me to think that the Institution wouldn’t look for me and apparently I had left a trail a mile wide. They got her; they got her and they tortured her. As soon as I found out they’d taken her I knew things were going to get really bad very fast. I knew their handbook, had it drilled into me from the moment I started training. There were two assassins, guards really, from the Institution waiting for me. Really they were just meant to slow me down and keep me from saving her. When I found Claire she was so close to death, there was no chance she’d make it. I held her, she could barely speak, blood leaked from her abdomen and when I came away from her I was soaked in it. I didn’t want her to suffer anymore, I knew what I had to do but I didn’t want to have to.” Victor paused and a single tear rolled down his cheek. “I shot her, I killed her and finished the job the Institution had started.”
He was quiet for another moment, “I hunted down a few key members of the Institution after Claire’s death and then a few more once I had become a vampire. They know better than to come for me now.”
Summer was silent for a long moment wen he stopped talking. “Ten years ago, yes? More. And as vivid as the day it happened,” she said finally. “Why do you cut yourself on it?” She looked around the room, searching for a candle, but gave up after a moment, turning back to Victor. “Is that the worst of it?”