(Just a heads up, it gets pretty tense but nothing u guys can't handle)
Marina's POV
"Laf, I'm nervous." I tell my sister, finishing eating the dinner she made me. It was pasta, and it was insanely good.
"Why're you nervous, M? You've got great social skills. You'll be fine." She reassures me, taking my empty plate away and then coming to sit next to me at the dining table.
"I don't know, I just feel.. funny." I admit, she frowns and holds my hand.
"Darling..." she comforts me, I can't help but smile a little
"You don't have to be baby me, you know.."
"You're very baby-able. I don't like seeing you all nervous." She strokes the back on my hand, I watch her thumb move slowly and softly. She really does love me.
"I'll be okay, I just feel strange. I always do before these things, though." I try to reason, she nods
"Exactly, you'll be okay once you're there."
"Yeah, I'll settle into it. Besides, I'll be with Lizzy the whole time."
"Very good. When are you getting ready?" She asks, I look at the clock we have in the kitchen. It's about half past five now and the party is at seven, but Lizzy wants me there early so we can hang out.
"I think I'll start now. I haven't got much else to do." I pause "Thanks for dinner, Laf. You're great."
"I'm great?" She smiles, I smile too
"The greatest. I'll see you before I go."
"Alright, M. See you in a bit."
I go upstairs and put on my favourite black dress, then do some dark ish makeup to match. I figured that if I'm spending the night at a house party full of vampires, I may as well look appropriately gothic. To be honest, I look good.
"How do I look?" I ask Laf
"You look beautiful, darling." She comes close to me and sort of fixes my hair like she always does "Go over there and have fun for me, alright?"
"Alright" I smile, then hug her tightly "I love you Laf. You're great to me."
"I love you too, now go or you'll be late." She hurries me
"Okay okay, I've got my phone and everything but I'm only next door if you need me."
"I know. I'll see you later darling."
"Bye Laf, love you.."
I go out of my front door and close it behind myself. Lizzy sort of appears right in front of me
"God, you scared me.. Don't jump out like that." I scold her.
The idea of giving a vampire a telling off if sort of stupid, because she could literally rip me to shreds. But she wouldn't.
"I'm sorry, baby, I just thought you'd want a sort of debrief before we go in." She runs her cool fingertips down my arms. It feels nice in the warm night air.
"Mmh.. Well, I wouldn't mind.."
"Alright. It's my dads close friends and a couple distant family members. My brother's here but my dad says he's under control and shouldn't do anything to you."
"Shouldn't?" I repeat
"Shouldn't. The chances aren't zero. If you need to defend yourself just kind of take his teeth out of you."
"How the fuck would I do that? I'll be mesmerised."
"He won't know how to do it yet, you'll have time. He should snap right out of it." She tells me, I nod a little.
I think I could hold up pretty well against an amateur vampire. But I really wouldn't like to find out.
"Shall we go in?" She asks, then kisses my forehead gently
"Yeah, okay. I love you."
"I love you too baby, you'll be great in there."
"I hope you're right." I tell her, she just rolls her eyes at me and doesn't bother to argue it, to show me that it's too silly to argue.
I go in expecting a house party but what I walk into is certainly not that. Instead, the atmosphere is smooth and has Rob written all over it. It's just adults drinking red wine to music... at least, I think it's red wine.
I feel slightly calmer. I know that if I drink I'll be able to talk to these adults exceptionally well.
"Do you think we can source some vodka? I don't wanna drink wine."
"I'm not sure that's wine, baby.." she mutters, leading me to the kitchen to get a drink. When we get there, we see that we've ran into her dad, Rob.
"Marina, nice to see you." Rob smiles, warmly. Then he shakes my hand. It all takes me by surprise because I swear he wasn't in front of me a second ago.
"Oh, nice to see you too Rob. Thank you for inviting me." I try to be as polite as possible. Lafina brought me up that way.
"No problem. Just enjoy the night and if you're hungry help yourself to whatever you like, it's not like we're gonna eat it." He jokes, I kind of laugh
"Well.." I'm lost for words. It's kind of daunting knowing that everyone here could eat me.
"Dad you're being too vampirey.." Lizzy tells him, he just smiles
"I think she can handle it. I'm proud of how good she's been about it." He compliments me. It's strange having a father figure be kind to me, my own dad treats me like I'm invisible.
"Thank you" I smile too.
I really do like Rob, and I love how he was there for Lizzy when she needed him. He gave her an eternal second chance at life, it's very admirable.
"Just be careful around Charlie, he shouldn't do anything to you but he only turned a couple weeks ago." He reiterates "Human blood is very irresistible at first."
"I'll um.. try to stay clear of him." I tell him, he nods
"Good idea. Enjoy the party, girls." Rob smiles and then leaves.
"I'm sorry if he scared you baby.. Let's get you a drink."
"Yes let's.." I mumble. She pours me a vodka lemonade. "Thank you.."
"You're welcome." She replies, taking my hand. The party isn't so busy, but enough to bring a busy energy to the often empty house. "Look, that's my brother over there." She points to a blonde boy across the room.
He's definitely heard us talking about him, because his head sort of turns. He's a good looking boy, probably only just 17. Good looks definitely run in the Grant family. He's pale like Lizzy due to his vampirism, and his eyes are dark like hers too.
"So I just.. stay away?" I ask, feeling very much like prey.
"We just stay away." She corrects, letting me know that I'm not going to be alone. I nod a little. "Let's just go up to my room and hang out for a while."
"Yeah okay, that's a good idea."
We go to her room. It's more comfortable than being surrounded by her vampire relatives. I think even she doesn't know who these people are - I think they're Rob's ancient friends who she hasn't met.
"Thank you for the drink" I say, sitting on her bed and taking a sip. It's not too strong and makes me remember that she's very experienced in pouring drinks.
"You're welcome baby. You look extremely good tonight, you know.."
"Well I thought I'd dress dark for a house full of vampires." I explain, she smiles
"It suits you. You're very very pretty.." she tells me, sitting very close to me.
"Stop flirting with me.." I smile, getting shy.
"I'm not, I'm just telling you how pretty you are." She leans in and kisses my neck. She keeps on kissing, and uses her tongue too. It feels nice. "I could never hurt you.." she tells me, then finishes it off with another kiss.
"I know you couldn't. I always have known."
"You're very sweet to me.. I want to spend forever with you."
"You can, you know? If you turn me." I remind her, she nods
"I just can't take your life away from you like that." She tells me, once again. I nod
"I know that by now." I drink more of my drink. "But maybe soon?"
"Maybe soon." She confirms, hesitantly.
——
I have a couple more drinks, which makes me feel confident enough to return to the party. I'm not drunk drunk, just nicely tipsy. I can socialise well.
We've been talking to some very old vampires, two who said they came from Venice in the 1600's, which is crazy to me because I might've potentially met the vampires who started the myth of vampires in Venice.
Everyone we've talked to has asked Lizzy when she's going to turn me. They seem to be very proud of being vampires, and they don't talk about it negatively like Lizzy does.
I actually feel very comfortable in the situation.
"I need another drink.." I tell Lizzy, interrupting our conversation with two of her relatives
"I'll go get you one" she offers, I shake my head
"No need, I know where the kitchen is." I insist "I don't wanna drag you away"
"Okay, don't be long." She tells me, then kisses my lips gently "I love you."
"I love you too, I'll be back in a minute." I say, taking my glass and going to the kitchen.
It's quiet, which contrasts the loud sounds of the party in the other room. Well obviously the kitchen's empty, this party is made up of vampires. No one here uses a kitchen.
They don't eat food. I am the food.
I hear a sort of movement whilst I pour myself a drink. I feel.. very aware of it. It's a feeling I can't explain.
Maybe I'm just being paranoid, but I feel unmistakably hunted. It's like my skin can feel the burning of preying eyes on it.
I look around for what, or who, it could be. I don't see anyone, but the feeling is still with me. I feel like I need to get out of here.
"Marina, you need to go.." I hear a voice I've never heard before. I turn and see Lizzy's blonde brother. The only vampire here that I'm meant to be avoiding.
"Charlie, you scared me, I-" I let out, he just looks at me
"It's the alcohol in your blood. I can't help it." He gets close to me scarily fast "I'm sorry.."
Lizzy's POV
I hear the only heartbeat in the house speed up inexplicably fast. Something's up.
I need to find Marina.
"Dad.. Dad I think something's wrong." I grab my dads arm harshly "I think Marina's in trouble."
My dad immediately uses his light speed travel to bring us both to the kitchen. I can smell blood. Marina's blood.
I see Charlie hunched over her lifeless body on the floor. I feel nothing but dread and panic.
"Charlie get off of her" my dad forces Charlie's fangs out of her wrist. I'm relieved he wasn't smart enough to go for her neck. She'd definitely be dead by now if he had.
One of Rob's vampire friends takes Charlie away from the situation, but I can hear him apologising profusely. I hate him right now, but I know he's ashamed of himself.
"Lizzy she's lost a lot of blood. Her heart's struggling." My dad tells me, putting pressure on Marina's wrist. We're both on the floor with her.
"You think I can't hear that? Her heartbeat's so fucking slow now."
"You're going to have to turn her." He tells me, I gasp a little
"She's going to die?" I ask. If I still had a heartbeat, it would be racing by now.
"If you don't do this then yes, she is."
"Am I able to? You said I'm not ready." I remind him, looking at Marina on the floor. She's barely alive. What the fuck has Charlie done?
"You're gonna have to be ready. She needs to drink your blood. Your blood has the vampire curse in it and you need to pass it on like a blood virus."
"Fuck, okay let me try.." I mumble, taking her wrist off of my dad and licking over her wounds so that they heal. The healing won't be immediate because her body is very weak, but it's a start.
My fangs extend down because of the taste of her blood, but I'm not even tempted to drink it.
I have full control.
I bring my thumb up to my mouth and slit it by dragging it down my fang.
"Good. Make her drink it" my dad instructs, I nod a little, pressing my bleeding thumb between Marina's lips.
I'm bleeding quite a lot, a vampire's fang is unbelievably sharp. It's like a knife's blade. So I'm sure that there's blood in her mouth.
"Come on..." I mumble. I know vampire's can't cry, but I would be right now. In fact, I almost am. I'm almost feeling human.
"Lizzy give her time.." my dad assures me "We're doing all we can."
"Why did he do that? He saw us before and he was fine. He just looked at us, he didn't drain her."
"You have to remember that Charlie was like you, and he's now like you were at first. An addict." My dad pauses "He still has some addiction in him because he's so new to vampirism. He smelled the alcohol in her blood."
"He's ruined everything."
I just watch Marina. So does my dad, he knows there's no excuse for what's happened tonight. There's nothing he can say.
"Is or meant to take this long?" I ask, he sort of shakes his head "No? What the fuck do you mean, 'no'?"
"It's because you're still such a young vampire. This is the hardest thing a vampire can learn to do. Harder than any telekinesis."
"What the fuck are we gonna do?" I ask, he shakes his head
"We're gonna wait."
"Fuck that" I slit my other thumb and push that one into her mouth too, so there's extra chance of her making it. My dad sort of nods to praise me.
Her heartbeat is slow. Extremely slow and extremely weak. But I see that her wrist has healed, leaving behind two little scars from my inexperienced brother's attack. I could kill him.
I look at my thumb in her mouth, and notice that my cut is... healed ?
"Dad.. Her saliva, I think it healed my cut. Does that mean she's..?"
Before he can answer, I hear her heartbeat stop. So does my dad.
She's either dead, or officially undead.
We just watch. We watch for movement and to convince ourselves there's going to be any. I feel terrible.
"Come on, Marina.." I say quietly, taking my healed thumbs out of her mouth. I can see that it's red with blood inside, so it doesn't need any more.
We just watch.
And then, finally, her brown eyes blink open
"Lizzy..?"
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A/N
Hi guys!!! A little bit shorter but that's bc I needed a good cut off in order to write the next lmao. I loved writing that. Loved loved loved it. So much fun fr.
I missed writing so bad, fuck academia for not giving me time to :( there's been family stuff to deal with too but I think everything's smoothing out a bit now so I'm in a better place to write and FINISH OFF THIS STORY <333
I haven't felt passion like this about a story of mine ever I don't think lmao. It's been so much fun and im still as obsessed with it as I was when I started. I mean DUH my twilight phase never ended.
Anyways I will see you guys in the next part. It feels so good to be back and uploading!! I hope u liked the part!! Xoxo stay safe and hydrated as always DMs are open