I felt her cheek brush up against mine. She was right at my neck and took a deep inhale. I braced for a bite, but she brushed back away. Was she not going to do it?

I opened my eyes, but her face was still close to mine. She slowly moved her hand up and tenderly placed it on my chin. She leaned forward and I closed my eyes again, as I opened my lips to her.

She kissed me softly, and gently put her free hand on mine. She was trying to keep me comfortable… trying to keep me from worrying while still leaving me room to reevaluate without second-guessing my decision.

Her tongue lightly grazed mine and receded. I pressed my weight into her a little more to show her that I was ready. I grabbed onto her hand and kissed her back. She continued to take her proper time but pressed on. We were dancing in amongst each other. As I was pulling my tongue back, I felt a slight prick. She’d extended her razor-sharp teeth just far enough to draw blood, but not hurt me. She rushed to the cut with her tongue and cradled the wound while swallowing down what she needed. True to her word, she was being gentle.

I assumed she didn’t need much because we resumed our previous rhythm. It was, soft and sweet and almost affectionate. Had the situation been different, the moment we were sharing could have been indicative of a loving companionship, but this was after all… a ritual.

She pulled back for a quick moment to quickly but delicately bite her own tongue, like how she had bitten mine.

This was the moment of no return.

Anxious to be over with it I pressed myself into her, taking the blood from her and swallowing it down while I kissed her.

I didn’t know exactly what it would feel like or when I would know. I hadn’t asked her out of fear that I’d change my mind. But I needed this.

At first, I didn’t feel anything different. So, I kissed her harder and faster, but she softly put a hand on my chest to slow me down.

This was uncharted territory for both of us, but she was right. I needed to slow down and follow her lead.

I hadn’t realized I was feeling anything until it was strong enough for me to realize I had. There’d been a buzzing flowing connectedness between us that I’d latched onto. As my senses were heightening, I was entering her level. I could read her better, even though my eyes were still closed. We were beginning to connect in only the way that two beings like us could. My heart started beating fast. It was hitting that point were the beats blurred together so much so that it could have been mistaken for stillness.

I kissed her and took from her the thing I needed and kissed her and felt her and coupled with her until I felt a breaking point. I pulled back and caught my breath.

She looked at me… with worry. I hadn’t seen her do that since she’d changed. Or more accurately, been born. I understood the distinction now. I’d been reborn into something removed. I wasn’t the boy I started the night as, nor was I the girl I’d ended it as…

Then it hit me. I was consumed with a need. It was like I hadn’t eaten, drank, had sex, or been mentally stimulated in days if not weeks. There was a pang of emptiness within me that needed to be filled.

I slowly started to feel it lessen, as I looked down to see the red stain on the sheets migrate towards where my skin made contact with it. Just like Kara had absorbed Trevor’s blood, I was absorbing the blood of the recent dead. And also like Kara, I was taking in the remaining life of those who had been close to me. I took it all in so that the sheet became bleach white, but that wasn’t even close to enough. I was drawn to it so intensely that I stumbled across the room to the bodies that were piled up.

I put my hands on the ground and could finally take a deep breath as the blood came to me. I took it in and in and in and in, as much as I could take. After less than a minute, there was no red left in the room because I had ingested it all.

I let out a sigh of relief that the empty pain had been abated and realized that Kara’s hand was once again on my back. I pulled myself onto the nearby bed and collapsed, naked and completely reborn.

I took a couple of breaths.

In.

Out.

In.

Out.

As air filtered in through my nose, I could tell there was more. I could smell the blood rushing through the couple down the hall as they did what couples do. I could piece apart the intricacies of a group of hammered college kids a block over. I could sense more.

She was right. It did make the pain go away. But I didn’t know if this really was better… not just yet.

“I feel like I can do so much!” I said, staring at the ceiling.

I could hear Kara’s voice catch. A few seconds ago that might not have been something I could notice.

“That’s the problem,” she said back.

“Problem?”

“It’s too tempting… without a mission.”

I turned to face her. “We killed him. Mission over. I thought that’s what you wanted.”

She sat up and turned away from, looking out the window. “I don’t think I could handle not having one. Not like this.”

I looked over at her. It was like looking that picture of a rabbit that could also be a duck depending on how you tell your brain to shift. In one light she was a powerful woman, in another she was a battered soul. I think that the rabbit and duck both exist and are both just as valid, as were the two sides of Kara. I could see that she needed this.

Guilt started to eat away at me. I’d brought her here which had changed both our lives. But I didn’t need what she needed. I needed to move on. I was a victim… and I needed time to figure out what that meant and how I was going to deal with it, even if the way I dealt was by running away.

I stood up and looked at myself in the mirror.

I looked like what he made me. I closed my eyes tight and concentrated. When I opened them I was no longer naked. Instead, I wore a long black romper, a long coat to keep me warm, and boots I could use to kick anyone who gave trouble.

My hands started shaking as I began to think about what I was about to do. I put on in my coat pocket and ran the other through my hair. I wished I had scissors to cut it, but perhaps…

I grabbed my fiery red hair into a ponytail and held it firm, pulling down with my other hand. It was a test of my new strength, and I surprised myself as the hair cleanly parted. I let everything go and my previously near hip length hair settled to a shoulder-length wavy bob.

“We can’t forget him,” Kara said to me, “Not without becoming him.”

“I’ll never forget him,” I replied… “But I’ll make no promises.”

~ One Year Later ~

I stepped out of a downtown apartment building and pulled my outfit back together, so it didn’t look so disheveled. I hadn’t intended to get sidetracked by a cute girl tonight, but I was back on track walking down the busy streets of downtown. There was blood all over my mouth and across the black dress I was wearing. My fangs were extended. Only on Halloween could someone go around a suburban town dressed like a lunatic and not attract any unwanted attention, even if they were grotesquely out of the normal or covered in blood. I guess I took that to heart.

I made my way out of the heavily trafficked areas and back to the animal sciences part of the campus. I could smell the bovine stench for miles but was sure the facility was being left unattended.

I walked around the streetlights. It’d been so long since I’d had a good meal that I’d rather avoid that much light if I could. The hungrier I get the more stereotypical I get. Most stereotypes have a tiny basis in truth, I guess vampiric light sensitivity is no different.

It’d been a while since I’d had a meal, and perhaps a full year since I’d had a good one.

A whiff caught me mid-step. I didn’t have to have steak tonight. I’d rather not have stake tonight.

“I warned you… This life could easily be worse,” said a voice as a familiar dark-haired woman walked out from the shadows.

I rolled my eyes. “It’s hard for you to lecture me when we’re basically the same age.”

“I’m at least a decade older than y—”

“—Ahh! Before turning doesn’t count.”

I finally turned around to face her. She looked… peaceful. I hadn’t known her long, but I’d never known her to be peaceful.

“I thought I’d find you here,” she said.

“I left but… something about tonight, brought me back.”

She walked closer to me and I fell into her arms, giving her a tight hug.

“Here’s a question I never got to ask you… if you turned me, does that mean I had sex with my mom?”

She let out a small snark of laughter, which from her was high praise.

“We both know that’s not quite how works,” she said as she broke the hug to look me up and down. “You look hungry.”

I avoided her gaze. She’d caught me at a low moment.

“I’m glad I caught you when I did or—”

“—You’re not my mom! You can’t lecture me.”

“Relax B. I’m not here to lecture you. I’m here to extend an offer.”

Of course. She wanted me for her crusade.

“I found Charlotte.” I looked back up at her. Was this why she was finally at peace? I didn’t know much about the woman in front of me, but I knew that name was important to her. The most important thing to her.

“There’s more like us… like you.”

“Fine,” I said plainly.

“Just come with me and I’ll—wait, what?”

“A girl can only drink cow blood for so long before she gets stir-crazy. And besides, I can’t be like… him.”

The air darkened. It had only been a year after all. The memory was relatively fresh. We’d both lost a lot of people that night. And I was getting weak. With every day that Martin and Grace’s faces woke me from my nightmares, I got that much closer to losing touch. The line between seeing people as cattle and actual cattle was slowly blurring and on my own… I didn’t know how much longer I had in me before I broke down.

Kara nudged my chin up and looked me dead in the eye. “If you hang with me, I’ll hook you up with something far better than cow blood.”

I took a deep breath and pressed my head against her shoulder. “Whatever you say… Mom.”

“Please B, we are the same age! We’re more like sisters.”

“Since when did you make… jokes?” I nearly fell to the floor with laughter.

If I wasn’t alone then maybe, just maybe… things wouldn’t be so bad.

blue98

Heyo, this is the end. Honestly, way happier of an ending that I initially wanted to write the first time around. So I wrote this as a one-shot to take out some aggression and frustration when I was getting out of a relationship but it's gotten enough traction on here that I am considering a sequel. In my brain, I was going to write another character in the same universe, but the poll at the end of the last chapter has yall wanting something slightly more than that. I don't know if I'll be able to deliver exactly what was leading in the poll, so don't get your hopes up for some epic masterpiece. If you want long-form, check out my other story It's Just Another High School Story. But yeah, go ahead and give me a follow if you liked this story because I definitely want to write something in the same vain fairly soon.