“So, what? The vampire king of Philadelphia is going to come knocking at my door if I spill my secret to my best friend? Fear monger much? I highly doubt someone with an entire city to worry about cares what I do. I’m just one person,” I say, pushing down the fear that’s starting to rise in my chest, and make my heart pound. Being a vampire is one thing; adhering to the rules of some supernatural secret society, I don’t seem to have a choice in joining is another.
“You’re wrong on both counts, actually,” he says, a coy smile pulls at the corner of his mouth. “The “vampire king of Philadelphia” as you call him, won’t come to your door if you endanger our secret. He’ll have you brought to him, and then he’ll tear your heart out of your chest.”
The room is uncomfortably quiet. When I swallow the lump in my throat, it feels painfully loud to my newly sensitive ears.
“And the second?” I ask shakily. My body is filled with too many emotions for me to process at once, and I feel sure that the moment he leaves, I’m going to have some kind of break down.
“You’re a vampire now. You are no longer just one person. We are a family; our survival depends on each and every one of us making the safest choices for our kind and humankind. There is no way around this.”
“Thanks, but Kit is the only family I need, so you can take yours and shove,”
The floor beneath my feet feels like it’s slipping away, a second later my back slams against the wall and my fingers instinctively reach for the hand poised at the base of my neck, pinning me to the pale yellow paint I spent hours picking out myself the weekend I moved in. I look up into Bane’s eyes and realize that I’ve misjudged him completely. The charming, seductive man with a hint of darkness and an edge of danger is gone. Replaced in an instant by a cold, angry monster. Even his eyes are different in this state. No longer floating in between crisp ocean waves and chilled metal. Now they’re dark, ominous. Like storm clouds warning of an approaching hurricane. My heart is racing, and my nails claw at the huge hand crushing against my sternum, but he doesn’t budge. If he were to shift a mere two inches, he could cut off my oxygen supply with little effort. With his grip firmly in place, he closes the distance between us, our bodies brushing against one another, my erratic heart takes notice and stalls temporarily, skipping a single beat. Time comes to a standstill. My breath hitches in my chest, lungs screaming out for air as if they’ve forgotten how to breathe entirely. My pulse slows as he stares into my eyes, searching them for something before he leans to the side, and I feel his cool breath pass my cheek and neck, lingering against my ear.
“Let me make myself perfectly clear. You are one of us. From the moment vampire venom slipped into your veins and brought you back to life until you take your last breath on this earth, you will be a vampire, a member of the Underworld. If you can’t accept that, you will die, and if you share our secret, your friend will die. Do you understand?” he asks. His voice is rough and grated, but the honey and spice that had me melting earlier are still underneath, buried deep.
I don’t doubt his words or the dedication of the vampires that call this city their home. Bane is right, there’s a reason people don’t believe they exist, If killing me and maybe Kit too keeps their secret, I can’t imagine they’d lose any sleep over it. A low growl tickles my ear, pulls me out of my wandering thoughts, and sends a shiver down my spine. I realize he’s waiting for me to acknowledge his threat. I nod my head quickly, and almost instantly, the pressure from his hand lessens until it’s barely grazing my skin, and I’m held against the wall by fear and the memory of his inhuman speed and strength.
The room is silent, aside from our mingled breaths and heartbeats, a question that’s been tugging at the edge of my mind all night falls from my lips before I can stop myself.
“How do I still feel so alive?” I whisper, resting my head against the wall. “If I died and came back a vampire, why am I still breathing, how is my heart still beating?”
I hear his deep inhale and then a chilly breath against my neck as he pulls away. He straightens his back, leaning one hand on the wall behind me. When his eyes meet mine again, they’ve lost the bitter, dark edge, and I feel my muscles relax slightly. He’s made his point clear, and I understand the risks. We both know I won’t cross the line, putting myself and Kit in danger. I know how dangerous he is now. How quickly he can go flip the switch from charming to threatening. I was stupid for underestimating the monster who killed me and turned me in the first place, but this side of him is so different. Approachable, warm even.
Bane lowers his hand and steps away. As soon as he does, I have to fight the urge to reach out and pull him back into my orbit. What the hell is wrong with me? This guy just turned my life upside down in an irrevocable way, and I’m into him? Absolutely not. I may be into dark, damaged guys, but I definitely draw the line at murderers. Right?
“Vampires have venom in our fangs,” he begins, tilting his head slightly, baring his canines and running his tongue along each sharp point. “When we feed, it calms our prey, fills them with a feeling of warmth and relaxation.”
“It makes them feel drunk,” I interrupt, recalling my sudden wave of intoxication the night before.
“Exactly. In a normal feeding, the human walks away a little bit tipsy, but the venom heals the bite, and no one is the wiser, it’s completely safe and essentially harmless. Sometimes a feeding goes too far, the vampire loses control or makes the conscious choice to turn someone. In that case, they drain the human almost entirely of blood and flood their veins with venom.”
“That still doesn’t answer my question.”
“The myth that you die a human and come back a vampire is another legend. When we turn, we don’t actually die, our bodies cease to run on blood and become fueled by venom. The venom fills our veins and organs the way blood once did, it changes them, makes them stronger, and stops them from degrading the way they do in humans. It’s not age that leads to death, it’s the degradation of the body systems, the tissues, and organs. That will never happen to us.”
I nod my head as his words sink in. I have roughly one million questions but now is not the time. I need more blood, and I need to sleep, I can feel my mind and body slowing down, and I know I’ll crash soon.
“For now, all you need to know is that the more blood you consume, the more human you will feel. Your body was drained before you transitioned. You’re running mostly on venom now, but after a few more feedings, you’ll feel almost normal. The sensitivity to light will pass, you’ll learn to control the enhanced hearing and everything else, but blood is the key to that,” Bane explains as if he knew what was weighing on my mind. He walks back to my tiny kitchen, finishes his beer in one long sip, and drops it in the bin tucked under my counter. Then he heads for the door.
“Wait a sec,” I say as the knob begins to turn. He looks back at me with raised, curious brows. “What the hell am I supposed to do now?”
“Stay here until the cravings pass. Get some sleep, and let me know when you’re ready to meet the family,” he says with a crooked smile. “Oh, and lock your damn windows.”
The second he’s gone I lock the door, and then I check my windows, he wasn’t kidding, almost all of them are unlocked. Then I take another bag of B-positive from the fridge, down it, and climb into bed. An hour later, I’m still tossing and turning, still completely unsure how I’m going to avoid Kit for weeks without killing our friendship, or worse, killing him.