Birth of a vampire

'Who set fire to my house?' the vampire hissed. Surprisingly, I heard my voice and I looked down to my hands which were bunching up Christian's shirt and lifting him up by the lapel. In consternation, I looked at the mirror again and it sent back the same image, but this time I was the one wearing Claudia's shirt. Fragments of memories started coming back and I recalled how Claudia had taken care of me the previous night, giving me her clothes to wear as mine were covered in soot and smelled of smoke. I was still wearing her shirt with the sequins sown on the sleeves.

Taken aback, I released the shirt and Christian scrambled away from me trying to hide from me. He had fear written on his face, but I also saw disgust.

'Guy had told me about you, you vampire,' he spat out. 'You are a danger to society. You must be destroyed.'

Aghast, I slid on the floor. I was a vampire and I had lost control of myself. For a moment, I had felt so strong. I could smell Christian's stinking sweat, even Dave's aftershave from yesterday. I had seen the eyes of the fly buzzing near the ceiling lamp, as if it were under a microscope. How did this happen? Were vampires not supposed to go through the initiation? In despair and in an attempt to get the answers I was seeking, I turned to Dave who was sitting on the sofa. He leaned forward and stapled his fingers under his chin.

'We'll talk about that later, Ash. More pressing issues first.' He then turned his attention to Christian who was still huddling behind a large armchair. Dave sprang from the sofa and landed on the floor next to him. He grabbed his phone from the latters' hands. I had been so taken in by my own misery and confusion that I hadn't noticed that. I looked at my own palms and wondered at what I could have done with them.

Toying with the phone, Dave asked, 'Who were you trying to call? Guy?'

'What if I was? Guy had told me everything about you guys. It's a good thing that this nice man has agreed to take in Nadia and the kids.'

My blood froze at his words. 'You sent them to him,' I asked with growing horror.

'Yes,' he barked, raising his head in pride. 'They're safe from you lots.'

'Sending them to werewolves would definitely make them safe,' Dave quipped. I watched how the mask slowly slipped from Christian's face.'

'Werewolves?' You're just bluffing now that I know your reality.' But even I could hear the doubt in his voice. I couldn't help but feel anxious at what would happen to the kids and Nadia.

'How did you meet Guy?' Dave asked Christian then.

'I won't tell you anything.'

Dave's face hardened and his eyes reddened. The next time he opened his mouth to talk, I saw that his fangs were out. He had never looked so imposing and awe-inspiring before. 'I won't ask you again. Answer,' he hissed in such a cold tone that even I trembled. He was not someone I would like to have as an enemy. Christian must have felt the same, because he started stammering.

'Guy came to meet me. He told me that you were vampires and that you were dangerous. I had to spy on you and give him the information. That's all.'

Dave pressed his face closer and I saw Christian break out in sweat. 'He said he would pay me handsomely, ' he added, pale as a sheet.

'You fool, he strung you along and now your family will pay the price,' Dave stated, standing up and turning to me. He gave me his hand for me to hold to stand up as well. I held it and the warmth of his hand gave me the courage to look at my reflection in the mirror again. I was back to normal, I used my tongue to touch my canines, my fangs had retracted.

'What will happen to Nadia?'

'Probably the next meal of the werewolves,' was the cold reply. Both Christian and I blanched. We had to save them, but how? I turned to Christian and in a beseeching tone asked him, 'Where are they?'

For a few seconds, I thought that he would refuse to tell me anything, but he must have noticed the concern in my voice. 'The Khoon Academy has a guesthouse. Guy told me he would call me with directions to tell me where to find it tomorrow. I had to send him more information first. About you.'

'We'll have to move in tonight.'

'What do we do about Christian?' I asked Dave in a low tone. If he was free to go, he would surely try to find Nadia himself and Guy would be aware that we knew his whereabouts. And why the Academy?

'You're right.' He turned to Christian, who was trying to stand, and said, 'We're the only chance your family has got. We can't let you sabotage that.' At these words, Dave caught Christian's hands behind his back, making the latter's face twist in shock. 'Find me a rope or something to tie him up Ash.'

Just on the coffee table in the living room, there was some heavy duty tape, that he probably had been using to pack his belongings. It would do the job. I picked it up and started wrapping it around Christian's hands, like a cuff. He started to struggle, but he was held still by Dave, and before he got the idea to scream, I cut off a bit of tape with my teeth and stuck it on Christian's mouth, effectively silencing him. I had watched such scenes in films, but never dreamed that I would have to do it one day. Dave then forced him to sit on the armchair he had been hiding behind and taped his legs to the two front legs of the chair. But I was still not satisfied and wound the tape around his chest, forcing him to lean back and stop moving. That would ensure that he wouln't move around.

I went to his kitchen, took a bottle of juice and put a straw in it after opening the cap. I put the bottle in his lap and after cutting a tiny hole in the tape covering his mouth, I thrust the other end of the straw in Christian's mouth. He had been heartless in the way he betrayed me, but I couldn't be like him.

'You won't die of hunger. We'll meet you tomorrow, hopefully with your family,' I told him with a confidence that I was far from feeling. Before leaving, Dave closed all the curtains and locked all the doors.

'For your safety and our peace of mind.'

And with that, we left the house discreetly and went back to the car. Within a few hours, my life had turned upside down. I had no house, I had attacked and tied a man and now I was going to break in my place of work.

Dave drove silently.

'Where are we going?'

'To Claudia's. I've already called her.'

He still had a stony look on his face and I reached out my hand to touch his cheek. Immediately, his face became softer and he put his own hand over mine.

'You didn't look shocked to see me as a vampire. Why? I finally asked him.

'Why should I? From the beginnning itself, I kept repeating to you that you were one.' That was true, I had been the skeptic one. But there was something I still had not understood.

'I did not have an initiation,' I pointed out. So how could this transformation occur?'

'Are you sure about that?'

By then we had reached in Claudia's driveway. Her car was already parked there, so it meant that she was already home.

'I think that I would know if I had drunk blood.'

Stopping the engine and still holding on to my hand, Dave gently reminded me, 'You remember that time in your kitchen when I cut my finger. What did you do?'

'I put it in my mouth to stop the bleeding,' I said. 'People do it all the time.'

'But not everyone is a vampire. That day you got my blood in your mouth unknowingly. That was your initiation,' he said with a smile.

He knew it, from the beginning itself, he knew what I had done and what would happen but he didn't tell me anything.

'What would you have done if I had told you? It was your decision, Ash, and a good one.'

I pulled my hand away from him and covered my face with both my hands. 'I nearly killed a man today.'

'But you didn't,' Dave said, pulling my hands away from my face. 'The anger you felt merely accelerated the transformation,' he explained.

'I'm a vampire,' I said with a mixture of dread and excitement.

'Yes, you're my vampire,' Dave said with a tug at my hand. He pulled me to his side and covered my lips with his. His tongue licked at the rim of my lips before reaching inside the recess of my mouth, looking for my tongue. His lips crushed mine and our breaths mingled in the first real kiss he gave me. I could feel my body relax more into his and heat was pooling at the apex of my thighs. His left hand cupped my cheek, caressing my cheekbones with his thumb. I moaned, deep in my throat, at the pressure of his lips on mine. My hands reached out to pull him closer, but encountered the gearshift instead. Breathless, we both parted and I laughed nervously. His car was definitely not a place for such intimacy.

He grazed my lips with the back of his fngers and smiled. 'Later,' he promised.