I was shocked awake by his scream. For the past couple of days I had been sitting by David’s bedside waiting for him to wake up, leaving only for a couple of minutes to get some blood to keep me going.
He screamed again jolting me into action. I lunged to his side, quickly grabbing each of his arms and pushing him back down to stop him hurting himself further as he writhed in agony.
Drawn by the noise Julia and Chris ran into the room. Immediately taking in the situation they both went to restrain his legs.
It took a few minutes for him to come into full consciousness but suddenly his fevered eyes locked with mine. It seemed to take him a great effort to form words;
“What’s…happen...ing…to...me?”
My voice came out harsher than I intended, “you are becoming a vampire.”
“Why?”
“You were going to die.” I had no choice…
It took him a moment, “I… remember.”
He gasped as another wave of convulsions shook him, his body twisting into unnatural positions. We held him down silently. I heard Jamie and Anna enter the room behind me and stop by the door.
Eventually David managed to speak again, “why does… it hurt?”
I sighed, “Every cell in your body is changing. It’s not going to be easy.” He clenched his teeth in an effort to prevent another scream from escaping.
His skin felt icy under my fingers. His heart had restarted a couple of hours after we had brought him in, now it pounded in his chest, sweat coated his body.
He remained mostly conscious for the next few hours; he was unable to stop himself from shouting out in agony frequently. His heart rate continued to increase the whole time, racing faster and faster as if it knew that its time was running out. Suddenly it stopped.
I stood up quickly, ordering Jamie and Anna to leave and go to a sitting room on the other side of the house. Chris followed to guard them. I didn’t want them anywhere near David when he awoke.
The minutes crawled by agonizingly slowly; Julia was tensed in front of the door, blocking any escape that way. I stood a couple of feet away from the bed, carefully watching his stationary form.
The only warning I had was a small twitch of his fingers before he suddenly leapt into the air, without hesitation I tackled him to the ground.
Although it was to be expected shock still ran through me as I stared into his eyes, currently a vivid silver as opposed to his normal green. He tried to snap at my neck with long deadly looking fangs, no trace of recognition in his eyes.
I struggled with him for a minute, but I was easily able to subdue him. Being much older still meant I was much stronger than him. It made sense really, the older vampires had to be able to control the ones they turned or the world would descend into chaos.
I called his name, “David!”
He blinked and I saw recognition dawn his features, “Jade? I feel so… so…”
“Hungry?”
“Yes.” Behind me I heard Julia swiftly disappear and reappear, she passed me one of the blood bags she way now holding. I carefully let David sit up, holding it out to him. His expression turned to revolution as he backed away. “No. No way!” he was rapidly shaking his head.
I let my expression soften, “it’s really not as bad as you think.” He was still shaking his head but I could see the hunger growing in his eyes. He wouldn’t be able to hold out much longer.
Using one of my long nails I ripped of the corner of the bag. As soon as the scent hit him he lost it, diving on the bag and biting into it viciously, he didn’t stop until he’d gone through all seven of the bags that Julia had brought up. I watched as the horror crept into his expression.
He stood up, “did I really just-?”
I nodded, “don’t worry, it’s perfectly normal.” He breathed in and his eyes flicked towards the door. “You can smell the humans.” It wasn’t a question; I could smell them so I knew he must be able to.
“How do you stand it? You are always close to us and you’ve never…”
I gently corrected him, “yes I’m always close to them, but you learn to deal with it… after a lot of practice.”
He sighed and I could see him beginning to lose control again. He was unconsciously edging towards the door.
I looked at him, “you need to hunt.”
“I need to do what?”
“You need to hunt. Follow me, we’ll go now.” I wanted to get him out of the house away from Jamie and Anna. Not bothering with the door Julia threw the window open and jumped out. I led him over, “you go next, and I’ll follow.”
He was shaking his head again, “there is no way I am jumping out of the window.” I heard the fear in his voice and observed the way he was deliberately not looking down.
“You don’t like heights?” I guessed. He shook his head and I smiled, “well I’ll tell you a secret,” I leaned in as if I was going to whisper something to him; he didn’t expect me to suddenly shove him out of the window. I shouted over his scream, “They’re really not that bad!”
I watched as he flew backwards out of the window into the air, before instinctively twisting around so that by the time he reached the ground he landed neatly on his feet.
He stood up slowly as I landed more gracefully beside him. He glared at me, “that was not fair! What if I’d have landed on my head?”
“You wouldn’t have, no vampire could be that clumsy… even you!”
“Hey! You- you-“
I ran away towards the fence, making sure that he was following. I was glad that my insults were keeping him distracted from the humans in the house. Julia brought up the rear. I knew she would stop him if he tried to turn around.
Luckily by the time we reached the fence he was so focused on trying to catch up to me he jumped it without a thought. He stopped on the other side in shock, “whoa did you see that? I just jumped all the way over there!”
I grinned, he reminded me forcefully of a small child discovering some perfectly mundane thing and being amazed by it. “Yes I did see that.” Luckily he was too preoccupied to notice the amusement in my tone.
I lead them to the same woods that I hunted in previously. At the time I hadn’t come across any humans so I hoped that it would be safe. It didn’t take me long to cross the warm scent of a herd of deer. A low growl from Julia told me that she had also picked up on it. David inhaled deeply,
“What is that smell?”
Julia answered, “You’ll see soon enough.” He didn’t seem particularly reassured by her statement.
We quickly found the herd and by that time I could tell David had lost control again. I let him run ahead and watched as he lunged at a large doe taking it down quickly and sinking his fangs into its neck. Julia also ran ahead and took down another. I restrained myself, sinking my fingers into the tree next to me in an effort to keep myself stationary. Once of us had to stay alert to monitor the situation.
It was lucky I did. Moments later the wind shifted, blowing my hair across my face. It carried with it the enchanting scent of human. In the distance I heard a car slowing and parking. Two warmly beating hearts were inside.
I looked over in time to see David freeze above the deer. He slowly stood up as a snarl ripped from his throat.
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