Chapter 49: Get a Room

NORI’S POV

Nothing about Milo gives away how vital this run will be to him. He’s calm. He speaks quietly with Maaka before the operations team makes its battle run, then slaps the big vampire on the back for luck. He double checks our weapons, making sure we’ve enough of everything. He goes to visit Buffy and Avis, sweets in hand that he must have found in the city during one of his searching expeditions. I keep hearing his voice say, “I always wanted to be a father.” Part of me wants to castigate myself, berate myself for yet another thing I’ve taken from him. Another part of me, the part that keeps the unpurposed sappiness under control, reminds me that there was no fatherhood in the cards for him. It was be a vampire or be a casualty of war. He made his choice.