Bastian watched his sister cover her scars with her glamour. He could see the pain in her eyes. He could feel the pity and the sympathy radiating from everyone in the room. It was suffocating. If it felt suffocating to him it must have been downright oppressive to Vi. That’s when she began to rub her arms and muttering to herself. The longer the silence dragged on the worse she got. Soon it was to the point she was scratching herself to the point where she was bleeding.
“Make it stop,” he heard her mutter. “Stop staring at me. It’s getting worse. The needles, they won’t stop. Make it stop!”
The scratching got even worse. She was tearing herself apart. No one was moving to stop her. If someone didn’t stop her, she would end up tearing herself apart. So Bastian did what any brother would do, he got to his feet and went to his sister. He wrapped his arms around her and pinned her arms to her sides. He began to rock her back and forth while mumbling to her in Comanche. He used his body to shield her from the stares.
“You need to stop staring at her!” He snapped over his shoulder when she had calmed down a little.
“What?” He couldn’t tell who asked since he wasn’t looking at them.
“Stop staring at her!” He shouted. “She can feel your emotions! Your pity and sympathy, she can feel it! Stop looking at her and control your emotions!”
He turned his attention back to Vi.
“Hey, hey, look at me,” he whispered to her. “Focus on me, yeah? Just like we practiced. Breathe in little one. Focus on my heartbeat and only my heartbeat. Just like when you were small. Focus on me imōto. That’s it.”
“Does she need a Calming Draught? Or a Dreamless Sleep?” That had to be her head of house and the potions professor asking.
“No we can’t give her anything when she’s like this,” Hotoke answered for him. “This is part of her abilities. She’s an empath so she feels everything 10 times worse than we do. Anger and other negative emotions she can deal with thanks to our uncle but sympathy and pity she can’t deal with. They feel like needles and if it gets really bad knives.”
“What can we do?”
“Seriously?” Hotoke snapped. “Don’t pity or sympathize with her! See her for what she is! A human fucking being!”
“Tatsu,” Vi’s voice was weak and shaky. “It’s ok Tatsu. It’s a natural reaction to seeing someone who has been through hell and come out the other side.”
Iv knew Vi wanted Hotoke to listen to her. It’s why she called him Tatsu. As far as he knew, she was the only person who could call him Tatsu. The bond they shared was unique and Iv suspected it had something to do with their mother. That and the fact that father wouldn’t look at him let alone be in the same room as him. Vi was essentially Hotoke’s mother and it was times like these that it showed.
“I shouldn’t have brought it up,” Draco’s voice had Iv glancing up from his sister.
The boy was shaking in the arms of his dhampir. He looked positively destroyed at the thought that he had caused this. Vi tapped his leg, since he had her arms pinned to her sides. He looked down at her.
“Let me go to him,” she whispered.
Iv didn’t release her. Instead, he picked her up and carried her to where Draco and Hadrian were standing. He set her carefully on her feet before releasing her. Before she turned to her mates, he took her hands and ran his finger down each arm in turn. He dropped her hands when her arms were healed. He pressed a kiss to her forehead then made his way from the room. He had to put some distance between them. When he made it back to the parlour, he sank to his knees and sobbed openly. This was the first time he had allowed himself to completely break down since his mother’s death. He didn’t hear the person enter the room or shut the door. He just felt a hand on his shoulder, offering support.