Sensitive to the Light Immortal Bloodlines I

Sensitive to the Light (Chapter 13)

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I've been waiting so long for this chapter just so I could put this fabulous song to it ',..,'

Alive by Crashdiet ------------------------------------------------------------------>

"After midnight, out for blood, let's make a big toast, for world domination... I'm alive, when the night falls on the city lights. So alive, I'm out of control, and it feels alright..."

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Non unus est ex vivis
Nec quod mortuorum
In diaboli pactum
Resuscitabo capite

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I made no attempt to stop her as she latched onto his neck, positioned in a feral crouch with her left hand on the young man's temple, forcing his head into the sodden ground with her right hand on his shoulder.  As she snapped and snarled, worrying at his flesh with her teeth she pushed his shoulder further backwards, exposing so much of his scrawny neck that I feared his vertebrae would shatter from the sheer force that Daegan was exerting in her quest to open a vein.

The transition from human to Vampire took place over a bare minimum of twenty four hours as the Human’s cellular structure was, essentially, rebuilt from the inside out.  The time it took was dependant on the lineage of the Vampire performing the ‘change’ - the strength of the blood which flowed through their Vampiric family tree.  As the bloodlines became diluted, the results became... unpredictable.  Transformations took a long time to reach completion which only helped to fuel the Vampire ‘myth’ through the ages, as a coffin was opened weeks after its inhabitants inhumation to reveal a corpse, unnervingly sprightly and healthy in appearance.

These Vampires were the fortunate ones, put to death once more before they had the chance to awaken instead of being haunted by rumours and suspicion.  Suspicion which inevitably lead to hushed meetings on hallowed ground where we allegedly could not tread, meetings which bled into the formation of a hunt - not dissimilar to a Witch Hunt, whereby an unfortunate Vampire would find themselves surrounded by garlic and holy symbols at every turn as seemingly innocent bystanders slyly watched for a reaction.  Reactions lead to angry mobs complete with pitchforks and burning torches - those Vampires were the unlucky ones...

I backtracked within my thoughts, trying to reach what had lead me there in the first place.  

Time, there was simply not enough time.

When I had met Daegan, she had been Human.  The day we both reluctantly danced, she had been Human.  As I became a slave to blood-lust in the mansion’s hallway, she had been unmistakably, unarguably Human.

I pulled my phone from my pocket, clicking at the buttons until the screen flared to life beneath my fingertips and I saw that it was, somewhat ominously, Midnight.  I half expected a pealing of bells to mark the occasion as I was clearly caught up in some kind of dream... or nightmare - I was unable to decide which.  No-one, no-one could become a Vampire in a matter of mere minutes.

A soft purring sound reached my ears as Daegan found the unconscious man's jugular vein and she began to greedily lap up his blood, without hesitation as the thick red liquid gushed from his neck.  She was yet to realise the purpose of having two sets of elongated canine teeth, I would never understand the anatomy of the so-called Vampires of Film and TV with their ridiculous upper fangs.  

I had tried it once, it was messy and unfulfilling, embarrassing for both parties concerned.  Completely and utterly impractical.  A double pair of incisors enabled us to bite into our prey, to hold them immobile without fear of them literally slipping out from under our nose, enabling living blood to funnel with almost impeccable precision into a parched gullet.

I watched as her movements became, jerky, more urgent, frantic as she realised that there was no more blood left in the boy, his heart had given up its feeble struggle over five minutes ago, though Daegan had continued to gnaw at the lifeless skin shielding what little remained of his neck.