Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ A Matter Of Choice ❯ The Cold Dark Light Of The Moon ( Chapter 44 )

In The Cold Dark Light of the Moon

 

When Tegan woke she was alone. She felt like she was waking from some awful nightmare. The problem was the nightmare was real. The sheets were bloodstained from her struggle with the virus that had been killing her, and her skin unnaturally smooth and pale. As much as she wanted to, she couldn't forget last night. The memory spun round and round in her head, circling, reminding her that in the end she had chosen this. She got up out of bed finding a bag of clothes in the chair by the bedside. Torin had obviously been back to the apartment for her so that she had some belongings of her own.

 

Tegan stripped off the bloodstained clothes hurriedly, putting on clean ones in their place before throwing the soiled ones in the bin. She was aware of the heaviness of the cast as she dressed, an irritation, a hindrance. She looked down at it; sure now that she had become… now that she was not longer human it would no longer be needed. Gritting her teeth suddenly angry she brought her arm down hard on the bedside table, the plaster of paris cast shattering under the force of the blow. She pulled off the last remaining shards and brushed the dust off her arm. She swallowed hard as she inspected her arm, trembling slightly as her eyes took it in. There was no sign of the former injury, the limb once more fully functional. She looked around the room once more, trying to take her mind off that fact. This place was going to be her home now, this place where she had never thought she would be. There would be no more hunting, no more killing; well not of vampires.

 

She sighed and decided she had best face the world outside, being in here on her own she was slowly going mad, tearing herself apart over this. She opened the bedroom door carefully, not sure she wanted company just yet. The hallway was dark, but moonlight poured in from an open window, giving the space an eerie glow. She crossed the hallway to look out onto a changed world. The world around her was a riot of colours and activity she had never seen before and it took her breath away. Her human eyes simply could not take all of this in, that much was obvious, and with these fresh eyes. The world seemed to be painted in a whole new palette of colours, but instead of feeling wonderment she felt regret. She was not sure she had made the right choice. Then again, her fear had not really allowed her a choice had it?

 

The moonlight made her skin glow with a faint luminescence that was both beautiful and terrible to her. She remembered the shame she had felt when Demetriov had seen her changed for the first time. She started down the hallway slowly, her arms folded around her body for some small comfort, feeling cold inside. She paused where a shaft of moonlight hit a mirror, bathing it in a dazzling faint blue glow. She turned to see herself for the first time as a vampire.

 

What she saw amazed her. Her face was so pale like that of a china doll, pale and fragile. Her unruly curls now sat on her shoulders, now settled into perfect silky and tight ringlets. She hardly recognised the face in the mirror. Her eyes shone, the colour having changed, and seeing it for the first time was shocking. Gone was the deep blue she knew, replaced by shimmering aqua. Still there was the dark ring round the iris softening the eyes that dazzled even in the darkness. The rest of her appearance might pass for human, but not her eyes. She parted her lips, the tips of the sharp, elongated canines becoming visible. Anger filled her. Death had been inevitable, why couldn't she have accepted it when the time had come? Why did she have to be so damn afraid? Why had she been such a coward? WHY?

 

Her fist smashed into the mirror, the glass practically exploding under the blow. She watched the shards spray everywhere, almost in slow motion as her enhanced senses took in every last nuance of what was happening. The light splintered off the spinning shards, splintering and scattering light around her. She watched open mouthed as shards buried themselves in her skin, cutting and slashing. She raised her hands to protect her face, a mortal gesture, glass scoring her exposed palms.

 

“Tegan!”

 

Everything suddenly snapped back into focus, the voice cutting through her shocked haze. She looked at the glass on the floor then at her hands almost in disbelief. She was bleeding from every cut, but before her eyes the wounds began to heal, the skin becoming once again flawlessly smooth. Tegan shook her head, tears coming to her eyes. This was not what she had wanted; it had all gone so terribly wrong. Tegan fell to her knees, hot blood tears beginning to fall down her face. Torin knelt by her side and wrapped his arms around her. She fell into his chest sobbing.

 

“Hush Tegan.”

 

“Why? Why wasn't I stronger?”

 

“The human spirit has a thirst for life, not for death.”

 

“Why did it have to be this way?”

 

“You may never find an answer Tegan. Come on.”

 

He led her out of the hall and into his room. He sat her in the chair by his desk. He knelt in front of her as he wiped away her tears.

 

“You are going to be okay you know. I'm here for you.”

 

“You weren't there when I woke.”

 

“I had to see to the others. If I hadn't they would have been circling around you like a pack of vultures.”

 

She nodded. She appreciated the gesture. She was not sure she was up to the others yet either.

 

“They are waiting for me.”

 

“Of course. They are all curious, but now is not the time I think. You will need to be strong. The nerves are too raw and the injury too fresh.”

 

“How right you are.”

 

“I want to take care of you my love. You'll see things differently in time. I'm not saying that it will be easy, but in time you will come to accept it. It will become easier.”

 

“I suppose.”

 

“All you need is time, and a little love.”

 

“Both things that are not in short supply anymore.” Her tone was bitter, but there was hope in there too.

 

They smiled at each other, Torin taking her hands in his.

 

“Look, I had planned to show you some information I have. I told you before, I had my blood tested, found out what vampirism is. I think you will understand it better than I will, and perhaps… perhaps it might make you realise that you are not a monster, none of us are.” He said softly, stroking her hair.

 

Tegan sighed, but looked up at him in hope. He made her stay where she was, bringing out her laptop which he hadn't yet gotten round to placing in her room. He handed it to her as well as taking a disk out of the drawer.

 

“Can I be on my own for a while? I need some time to think, look at this.”

 

“Sure.”

 

He got up and looked down on her sitting there. He shook his head and stepped up to her. He gently raised her chin kissing her tenderly.

 

“You know I'll be there when you need me.”

 

“Of course.” She squeezed his hand gently.

 

With that he left her to look at what he had left her.

 

Tegan took her time running through the data, what she discovered leaving her with mixed feelings. As she looked at the DNA string before her, a third strand of what could only be termed `vampire' RNA winding round it, irrevocably embedded in the human DNA. Further analysis showed the RNA to be a retrovirus, one that swiftly invades the host cells at an alarming rate, its RNA string invading the nucleus and merging with human DNA. It was this merging that led to the change appearance, the sudden increase in strength and the astonishing metabolic rate that made them heal so quickly. It was this that meant that instead of the usual signs of aging, cells only normally able to go through a set number of cell divisions before the process slows and degrades, basically this is the process of normal aging, though due to the merger with the virus the cells were able to replicate an infinite number of times. But the virus needed iron to survive, and by default, after the merger, the host to the virus needed iron in great quantities, and hence vampirism was born.

 

She sat back sighing. She wasn't sure if the information was a comfort or not. Tegan eventually removed the disc from the laptop, opening the drawer she'd seen Torin take the disc from. As she placed it back in the drawer something caught her eye, a second disc lying at the back. Suddenly curious she took it out, turning it over, almost dropping it when she saw what was written on it. She held the discs side by side in trembling hands, the one Torin had given her was marked `vampire analysis' and the other `hybrid analysis'. Hybrid… she knew of only two in existence, Adam and herself. She couldn't imagine that Adam had willingly every given any kind of sample for this… Then it hit her, the hospital, as she had lain unconscious, him at her bedside…

 

The anger hit her hard and she exploded to her feet tearing her way through the mansion until she found Torin, talking with Demetriov.

 

“How dare you!” She screamed at him, Torin looking at her shocked, completely unaware of what had vexed her. “How could you, just take it like that, use it in some… experiment”

 

Even Demetriov was confused, looking to Torin in slight alarm, wondering just what was going on. Torin on the other hand had put two and two together and was cursing his own poor judgement. At the time he had never considered that he had Tegan would become a couple, that having taken a blood sample to compare against his own DNA would ever hurt her. He was now regretting ever having taken this course of action now faced with a blazing Tegan. She moved so fast he never saw it coming, as with an almighty crack, she bitch-slapped him so hard he was left dizzy.

 

“You bastard!” She hissed at him. “You fucking bastard.”

 

“Tegan… I never meant…”

 

“To what?” She snapped. “Go behind my back because you were curious? Oh don't you start that shit!” She snarled at him.

 

Torin grimaced, knowing that emotionally she had been strung out before this revelation and now... now she was unpredictable. Just what did he say and do now? But he never got the chance to say anything else.

 

“Don't fucking come anywhere near me!” She hissed before storming out and upstairs to her room, slamming the door behind her.

 

Torin groaned.

 

“Dare I ask?” Demetriov put in from behind him.

 

“Don't!” Torin snapped. “Just shut it!”

 

With that Torin too stormed off to his room, the sound of a second door slamming reaching Demetriov's ears. The elder vampire raised an eyebrow, wondering what could sow such discord between them. Not that he minded of course, they were playing into his hands right now. But still, it was too soon for her, she needed him. He was going to have to do something help this situation somehow.

 

* * * * *

 

Nights passed and Torin worried increasingly. Ever since she had slapped him she had barricaded herself in her room. No matter how much he begged, pleaded and apologised, she would not let him in. She kept saying she needed time, but he still had a small, niggling doubt at the back of his mind. If she had been in her room, all alone, for all this time, had she been feeding? He couldn't help worrying, he loved her and not only that, the time after the change is the most important for feeding. It is the time the body needs blood the most. Changes would still be happening throughout her body and she would need blood to fuel that change. With each passing night he grew more and more concerned.

 

* * * * *

 

The storm raged. It circled around and around inside Tegan's skull. Conflicting thoughts and desires fought for attention, lightning bolts in the tumult. It filled every waking hour, leaving her scared and frightened of what she had become. She had barricaded the door and with each passing night she grew weaker and weaker. By the fifth night the storm invaded her sleep. So she lay, curled in a ball under the sheet, too weak and scared to move. It wasn't until her body started to hurt that she thought of the others, but when she tried to move, she found she could not. Her muscles had shrunk into hard knotted ropes of flesh, dry and unresponsive. She tried to call out for help, but all that came out was a dry, cracked whisper.

 

“Torin.”

 

It went unheard.

 

* * * * *

 

On the sixth night Torin and Demetriov sat together in the smallest lounge, either side of the fire. Neither spoke to the other, Torin barely tolerating Demetriov's presence in his agitation. His mind was consumed with Tegan, and unconsciously he was gripping the chair arm so hard he was bruising his own hand. Six nights since he had changed her and still there was no sign of her having even left her room. Torin stood suddenly.

 

“I've had enough.” He stated as he made to leave the room. He stopped as Demetriov grabbed his arm.

 

“You cannot help her when you are angry like this.” He said sternly.

 

“I'm not angry.” Torin retorted.

 

“Yes you are, angry at yourself for having pissed her off, angry for not helping her; angry at her for not letting you help. You're angry because she has shut you out, and you are angry at me and you for starting this mess.”

 

Torin sagged a little.

 

“You're right. It's an infuriating habit that you have. But I just can't leave her. This has gone on too long.”

 

“I agree, we'll go together.”

 

“No Demetriov. This is something that I have to do alone. If I need your help I will ask.”

 

Demetriov looked long and hard at Torin. He had offered to go with him for his own motives, wanting to know what was going on, but Torin was right, Tegan was unlikely to respond well to his presence, though Torin was likely to have an issue in that regard too.

 

“Be sure that you do.”

 

Torin made his way slowly up the stairs, his heart in his throat. No matter what Demetriov said he couldn't stop the anxiety or his heart from pounding. He ached to see her, to hold her in his arms. He missed her terribly, and despite the safety of the mansion, he could not shake the feeling that something awful had happened to her. As he reached her room he knocked on the door tentatively. Here was no reply. He knocked again, a little louder.

 

“Tegan, it's me. I need to see you. I need to know everything is okay.” He pleaded softly.

 

Still he heard nothing, or did he? He pressed his ear to the door straining to hear what he thought was there. A tiny sound could be heard, a tiny, dry whisper.

 

“Help.”

 

Torin didn't need anything else. He stepped back into the corridor and ran at the door, hitting it with all his might. The lock gave Torin almost falling through the door. He was immediately at her side. The darkness was so complete that even with his vampire eyes all he had to go on was touch. He could feel the soft movement of air as she breathed. He had to see her! He went to the shutters.

 

“Don't” Came the soft plea just too late.

 

Stark moonlight filled the room, illuminating the shrunken figure of Tegan in her bed. As Torin looked at her she tried and failed to move into shadow.

 

“Oh Tegan!”

 

The virus had ravaged her. Having no fuel to continue the process of change it had eaten away at her tissue and muscles, leaving her too weak to move and close to death. Her form was skeletal, pitiful. He was beside her in an instant, scooping her fragile form into his arms.

 

“Why didn't you let me help you? Oh my love.”

 

“Just help me now.” Her reply barely audible.

 

“Yes, yes of course. I will bring you someone I…”

 

“Don't leave me!” Came the tiny cry of despair.

 

“Will you let Demetriov?”

 

Tegan nodded. The idea was distasteful, but as it had before, her will to survive over death drove her actions. She had no choice if she wanted to survive.

 

“Demetriov!” Torin shouted. Footsteps approached.

 

“I don't want him to see me.”

 

Torin nodded and went to the door.

 

“What is it?” Demetriov asked.

 

Torin took him to one side and whispered in hushed tones.

 

“I need your help. Tegan hasn't fed since the change.”

 

Demetriov's eyes widened.

 

“She needs to feed but she's incapable of moving. We are going to have to do it for her. The thing is she doesn't want me to leave her, or anyone else to see. She didn't want me to see.”

 

“I don't think her victim should be able to see her either. We'll have them screaming and fighting to get out. I can't imagine how she looks, but I can imagine it is terrible.”

 

“It's true and it pains me to see her like this.”

 

“I was afraid this might happen. The dichotomy of the situation must be awful for her. I was hoping if things had gone to plan that we might have been able to avoid this by moving things on quickly enough that it wouldn't hit her so hard. She's had far too much time to dwell on her unique moral problems with feeding.”

 

Torin sighed.

 

“We all worry about taking life at first, but we get past it.” He mused.

 

“But none of our hunters has ever become a vampire before. It poses an unusual moral dilemma for her. This was my only worry. The longer I left her hunting us the more difficult this was going to be. I left it too late it seems.”

 

“There is no time for that now.” Torin snapped, not wanting to hear about Demetriov's plans in regards to Tegan. “Can you help us?” That was what mattered to her.

 

“Yes. Just make the room as dark as you can, and try and make her ready.”

 

“What will you do?”

 

“Try and seduce a lowlife of some kind into coming here. I shall think of something. Someone no one will miss. I only hope the process doesn't cause more damage.”

 

“We can only try.”

 

With a nod Demetriov was gone. Torin went back into the room, and did his best to disguise the broken lock. He closed the shutters and went back to his lover. He scooped her up into his arms once more.

 

“It's going to be alright love. You can have a nice big feed and then things will be better. I promise.”

 

He held her for a long time, not saying anything, just being there for her as he should have been these past few days. Her body weakened as it was even this simple kindness hurt, but she was glad of his company. All too soon it seemed she heard voices, and one of them was Demetriov. Suddenly she could smell the mortal he had brought with him, hear his heart pounding and yet he was downstairs! In her weakened state every sense was targeted at food, at survival. Presently they heard them start up the stairs.

 

Demetriov opened the door, pushed the victim through and slammed the door shut.

 

“HEY!”

 

At that moment everything went hazy. There was the thirst and nothing else. She was vaguely aware of Torin restraining the victim, but he didn't have to bring him to her. Somehow in her weakened state she had risen from the bed and crawled across. She could smell his sweat and fear and it guided her to him blindly. She had no idea that the growl she barely registered on the edge of her hearing had come from her own throat, as sound of hunger and need. Before she knew it her fingers were clawing into yielding flesh as she pressed herself to her frightened victim and she had bitten into his throat and the world fell away.

 

It was bliss, she swallowed him down greedily, oblivious to all else but this. Her whole body alive with sensation as her body put the blood to work repairing her ravaged body. She became aware of her victim's struggling heartbeat, slowing more and more. She knew she would have to stop as he died in her arms, and it was with great difficulty that she let him go, collapsing to the bed, exhausted even after her feed, her body trying desperately to heal.

 

She lay there panting as Torin removed the body. Her body felt strange, she could feel it changing, repairing the damage she had wrought on it, her belly feeling blissfully full, but she knew that in a few short minutes the blood would be consumed into her desperate system. As the sensation faded Torin sat beside her.

 

“How do you feel?” he asked.

 

“Better.” She breathed. “Thirsty.”

 

He took a good look at her. She had filled out considerably, but she was still painfully weak and pale. She opened her eyes and looked at him.

 

“I'm sorry.” She breathed.

 

“Don't be, it can be fixed. Now wait here a moment.”

 

He left her and met Demetriov downstairs.

 

“How is she?”

 

“Better, but she needs more. She is no state to hunt but I don't want her doing that again. This time she might be aware of it.”

 

“She's not ready yet is she?”

 

“No. Her first aware experience should not be tinged with bad memories. You should have seen her, the way she fed. I doubt she will even remember it, it was so instinctive.”

 

“I've seen it happen. She is too young to be missing feeds. So what do you plan to do?”

 

“I've fed well; I will let her drink from me. It will help her heal faster.”

 

“True, but you take care, in this state she might try and take more than you can give. It would be dangerous for you to let her.”

 

“Just enough to get her through tonight, then tomorrow…”

 

“Tomorrow you will have to teach her to hunt.”

 

“Yes.”

 

This thought saddened Torin. He had hoped he would never have to do this.

 

“I'd best do this.”

 

With that he left Demetriov and went back upstairs. Tegan lay where he had left her, weak and unmoving. She stirred at his approach.

 

“Torin?”

 

“I'm here.” He took her hand and kissed it. He lay down beside her and took her frail frame into her arms. “You need more blood my darling.”

 

She looked up at him, her eyes beginning to shine once again.

 

“I'm too weak I couldn't.”

 

“Shh.” He soothed. “You don't need to be.” He pulled his t-shirt off and pulled her in close. “You will drink from me, and no arguments. I am strong enough and have fed well my love. So come now, I promise you will feel so much better afterwards.”

 

She looked at him, unsure and scared. She could barely remember the last feed, it was such a blur. Torin smiled at her reassuringly. With that she nuzzled into his neck, his skin soft against her lips. It felt so good, so natural. She bit down gently, the blood spurting into her mouth. She moaned as she swallowed, had anything ever tasted so good, had anything ever felt so good? The feeling she experienced of her body healing was magnified tenfold compared to her human victim, and with it came such bliss that it filled her.

 

Torin shuddered, holding her tight. He too felt pleasure as she drank from him, and she was so gentle, not greedy. As he held her he could feel her filling out beneath his hands as her body repaired itself. He moaned as a particularly strong wave of pleasure ran through him. At this she pulled away from the wound she had made pushing him onto his back. She bent to his throat once more, drawing another draught of life giving blood from him, as he moaned loudly beneath her.

 

“Enough.” He panted. “If you take much more you are going to hurt me.”

 

She drew away slowly running her fingers through his hair. She kissed the wound gently making him shiver, and then pressed her bloody lips to his. He kissed her hard, enjoying the feel of her revitalised body on top of him.

 

Tegan smiled and ended the kiss. Her body felt full of warmth and everything tingled with pleasure. Torin rolled her off him to lie beside him and examined her. She looked fully healed, as if nothing had ever happened.

 

“That's better.”

 

“It tastes so different.” She stated dreamily.

 

“What?”

 

“Your blood.”

 

He smiled “It is true, mortal and vampire blood are completely different.”

 

She lay staring at the ceiling hardly aware of anything else.

 

“Is it supposed to feel this good?”

 

“It can do, especially when lovers share each other's blood.”

 

Tegan smiled contentedly.

 

“We shall have to try that sometime.” She murmured.

 

Torin smiled, she was floating off to sleep. His blood had worked wonders but she was also still weak. Sleep and a couple of hunts would deal with that, but for now, she was back and his again.