Crimson Halo

~RAFAEL POV~

The smell hits me before I even cross the threshold of the bathroom.

It isn't the scent of lavender bath salts. It isn't the vanilla shampoo I bought for her. It is a scent I know better than my own name. It is the scent of iron. Of wet pennies. Of life leaking out into the open air.

Blood.

My heart gives a single, violent kick against my ribs...a feeling I haven't felt in years. It i