And if that was his ultimate fate, what did it hurt to expedite the process? What sin would it be for him to end his own suffering and lay there next to her, the way that a man might lay next to his wife? He was so very tired that his arms felt like lead, but he could manage to dig another hole. There would be other fools to take up the mantle of what he had tried to do. There would be others who could be merciless assassin's. God only knew there were other pitiful souls who would be made as half breeds, never knowing the love of one side or another. What did the loss of one half-breed really matter in the grand scheme of thimgs.
Crimson drops flecked over the grave as he leaned over it, looking up at the poor wooden cross that he'd driven into the ground as the sole marker of this place. He wanted to join her in the ground.
Desmond didn't turn as he heard the pair of boots scrape lightly against the earth, for he knew the weight and sound of them too well. The noise that had been made deliberately, as a courtesy.
"What do you want?" Desmond growled in a voice so dark that it did not sound like him.
"I came to apologize..."
Desmond found himself laughing without meaning to, a sharp, high pitched laughter. "Y-you came, to apologize. You came to apologize... to me." He tossed his headback and laughed as the red rivers from his eyes stained their way across his cheeks. "Go away, old man... save your breath."
"I also came to tell you that this was not your fault-"
"This wasn't my fault?" Anger reared up inside of him like a cobra threatening to strike as he spun around and came at the man. Desmond felt the man's hand on him but he batted it away as if it were nothing, his foot hooking behind the other man's heel and with a single fluid motion kicked his leg out from under him and sent him to the ground with his hand at the other man's throat. It was the first time Desmond had ever knocked him to the ground. "Of course it was my fault! She's dead because of me!!!"
"No, this is their fault. We'll make the arrangements and..."
"No! NO! I'm done following your code, old man, I'm done listening to you. When they die, I'm going to make it slow, and painful." Desmond bared his fangs at the man on the ground. "I don't care about the next life... they deserve hell in THIS one. If you try to stop me, I'll kill you first." Desmond could see the fear there in his eyes as he stared down at the man, and then released him, walking away from her, a soft whisper upon his lips.
"I'll never let it happen to another like you, Magdelena..."
When Beth glanced back over her shoulder she would see the pain he had hidden from here there, a pain that had not been on his features at all when he'd spoken to her, but there it was now, as easy to see as his black duster. His eyes closed tight he did not catch her looking at him as a slow crimson tear trailed a path down his right cheek, reiterating that he had not been lying to her about crying blood.
Hands shaking, he turned and walked in the opposite direction that she was headed, cursing his own weakness at not being more forceful when he turned her away.