The pressure against my jaw grew unbearable, and I screamed again, sounding like a snarling animal. And suddenly, something did burst through my gums, relieving the awful pain. The heat through my veins flickered and died, and I slumped to the hard cement, shuddering with relief. But there was a new pain inside me, a hollow, throbbing ache radiating somewhere from my middle. I pushed myself to my hands and knees, shaking, growling deep in my throat. Hungry. I was hungry! I needed food!
Something pressed against my face, cold and wet. Plastic? I recoiled with a snarl. Wait, the bag smelled of food, it was food! I lunged forward, sinking my teeth into the bag, tearing it from the air. Something flooded my mouth, cold and thick, cloying. Not warm, like it should be, but it was still food! I sucked and tore at the flimsy plastic, freeing the food within, feeling it slide down my throat into my stomach.
And then, as the awful Hunger faded and the ache inside was filled, I realized what I was doing.
“Oh, God.” Dropping the mangled bag, I looked at my hands, covered in blood. The ground I lay on was splattered with it, dark stains against the cement. I could feel it around my mouth, on my lips and chin, the scent of it filling my nose. “Oh, God,” I whispered again, scrambling away on my butt. I hit a wall and stared in horror at the scene before me. “What…what am I doing?”
“You made a choice,” came a deep voice to my right, and I looked up. The vampire loomed over me, tall and solemn. A flickering candle sat behind him on an end table—the light that had blinded me earlier. It was still painfully bright, and I turned away. “You wanted to survive, to become one of us.” He looked to the torn blood bag, lying a few feet away. “You chose this.”
I covered my mouth with a shaking hand, trying to remember, to recall what I’d said. All I could see was blood, and me in an animal rage, tearing at it, ripping it open. My hand dropped to my lips and jaw, probing my teeth where the ache had been. I drew in a quick breath.
There they were. Fangs. Very long and very, very sharp.
I snatched my hand back. It was true, then. I really had done the unthinkable. I’d become that which I hated most in the world. A vampire. A monster.
I slumped against the wall, trembling. Looking down at myself, I blinked in surprise. My old clothes were gone. Instead of my thin, faded patchwork shirt and pants, I wore black jeans and a dark shirt without a single hole or tear. The filthy, torn and probably bloodstained jacket had been replaced with a long black coat that looked almost new.
“What…what happened to my clothes?” I asked, touching the sleeve of the coat, blinking at how thick it was. Frowning suddenly, I looked up at the vampire. “Did you dress me?”
“Your clothes were torn to pieces when the rabids attacked you,” the vampire informed me, still not moving from where he stood. “I found you some new ones. Black is the best color for us—it hides the bloodstains rather well. Do not worry.” His deep, low voice held the faintest hint of amusement. “I did not see anything.”
My mind spun. “I—I have to go,” I said shakily, getting to my feet. “I have to…find my friends, see if they made it back to the hideout. Stick is probably—”
“Your friends are dead,” the vampire said calmly. “And I would abandon all attachments to your life before. You are not part of that world any longer. It is better to simply forget about it.”
Dead. Images flashed through my mind—of rain and blood and pale, screeching things, hands pulling someone over a fence. With a hiss, I shied away from those thoughts, refusing to remember. “No,” I choked out, shuddering. “You’re lying.”
“Let them go,” the vampire insisted quietly. “They’re gone.”
I had the sudden, crazy urge to snarl and bare my fangs at him. I stifled it in horror, keeping a wary eye on the stranger, who watched me impassively. “You can’t keep me here.”
“If you want to leave, you may go.” He didn’t move, except to nod to a door on the other side of the small room. “I will not stop you. Though you will be dead within a day, if it takes that long. You have no idea how to survive as a vampire, how to feed, how to avoid detection, and if the vampires of this city discover you, they will most likely kill you. Alternatively, you could remain here, with me, and have a chance of surviving this life you have chosen.”
I glared at him. “Stay here? With you? Why? What do you care?”
The stranger narrowed his eyes. “Bringing a new vampire into the world is something I do not take lightly,” he said. “Turning a human only to abandon it without the skills it needs to survive would be irresponsible and dangerous. If you stay here, I will teach you what you need to know to live as one of us. Or—” he turned slightly, gesturing to the door “—you can leave and try to survive on your own, but I wash my hands of you and whatever blood comes after.”