I’m drifting in nothingness. Something warm and comforting is tugging at me, leading me along an invisible path. I don’t know where I am, or how I got here – I just know that it’s warm, and I’m so cold.

I’m dimly aware of sounds and sensations around me, but my brain is too muddled to distinguish them. I hear a girl’s voice, and I feel my body being probed by rough hands. Every time I’m touched, there’s a wrenching at my body. I firmly cling on to the warm presence leading me away.

Damnit… just leave me be…

It feels like I’m underwater – this sensation of drifting, of sounds not quite reaching my ears. It’s like I’m sinking further and further into the ocean.

“Let’s hope this works. You look like you can handle it.”

For some reason, I hear those words clearly. Before I can register what this means, I feel my nostrils being pinched and my mouth being opened.

Leave me alone!

I’m caught between a tug-of-war between what lies outside the realm and what lies inside. Whatever this voice is doing to my body is preventing the presence from whisking me away.

Then, something warm, sticky and… FoUL tips dOwWN my THROatttt-

BURninGG… BURniNng… FiRe in MY thrOAT- PAIN PAIN-

BLIND BliNDinG CAN’T feeEEL HuRTTTT

EverRYTHInG HuRRRTTTTS HURTSS HuRTS hurTS SO mUCH

Pai N my Mi ND Ca NT SE E Fe EE Ls s o PAI Nfu l

CHo KiNG bu RN ING Dro WNINg si Nk INgggg

S IN kIN gg.. . Sin KIN g… sInk I Ng. .. si nnking…

In to.. DaRk.ness..

DarKNess…

***

I wake up.

I’m in a dark room – someone’s bedroom by the looks of it. It’s simply decorated without much furniture – just a desk, a shelf and a bed. I don’t see any possessions or anything of interest which might indicate whose room it is. The books are mostly classical books, ones which I wouldn’t be seen anywhere near.

Wait a second… how am I able to see the titles of those books in the pitch darkness?

The moment I think this, I realize there’s a dull throbbing in my head. My lips are also parched, and my throat is burning.

Water. I need water.

I roll out of bed and try to stand up, but collapse. My naked torso is exposed to the cool room. I realize that my body is burning, and slick with sweat. Thick bandages are wrapped around my abdomen, and I can see a large patch of dried blood which has leaked through.

Need… water…

Just as this thought hits my mind, the door opens and dazzling light fills the room. I cry out in pain, closing my eyes. I can already see black spots dancing around my vision.

“You made it.”

I feel a hand lift me to my feet. Slowly and steadily, I open my eyes – first a tiny squint, and then gradually more and more until my eyes have adjusted to the light.

It’s the girl. Wait, what girl?

Then, the events from that night pass through my head.

“Where am I?” I almost shriek. “What happened? What did you do to me?”

She wordlessly shakes me off and offers her hand which is holding a massive two litre bottle of water. All these questions slip my mind as I yank it from her, guzzling it down in a matter of seconds. Before I know it, half the bottle’s gone and my stomach is bloated. I feel the liquid sloshing around as I hand it back to her.

The parched feeling in my throat is still there. Why? Why am I still thirsty?

“Looks like it worked,” she says. “You’re one of us now.”

My mind must have been incredibly slow, because the signs were painfully obvious. The increased sensitivity to light, the sharp night vision, the unquenchable thirst…

“You… turned me… into a vampire,” I whisper. My knees give way beneath me and I sink to the floor.

It’s over. I’m a demon now, one of them. There’s no way ANGEL will maintain ties with me. How am I going to tell Mum and Judith? How am I going to live with them without thirsting for their blood?

“You bitch,” I say. “You did this… this was your plan all along wasn’t it!?”

I’m on my feet before I know it. I’ve grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her against the wall, pinning her. She doesn’t respond, or try to resist.

“I didn’t plan for any of this. It was just bad luck,” she replies coolly.

I’m trembling. She looks at me with her deep red eyes, eyes which mine are probably now the same colour as.

Shit. What am I doing? This isn’t like me…

I release her and step back, panting. There are dark bruises on her shoulders where my hands were, but right before my eyes they begin to lighten and fade away.

“Drink this,” she says, holding out another, smaller bottle of red liquid. “You’ll feel better.”

I hesitantly take the bottle. “What type of blood is this?”

“It’s not human blood, rest assured.”

I’m still doubtful, but my thirst gets the better of me. I grab the bottle and down it without taking a breath.

“Is this water?” I ask. It tastes exactly the same as the bottle she’d given me earlier.

No… but this time, my thirst is gone.

“It’s animal blood. I haven’t experienced this first hand, but from what I hear, it’s like a nicotine patch for a chain smoker. It fulfils our needs, but not our wants – and will never be as satisfying as the real thing.”

I stare at the empty bottles in my hand. I’ve calmed down a lot, and can now think clearly. The throbbing in my head is gone. The first thing that comes to my mind is how I’m going to hide my recently attained status.

“That feral vampire pierced right through us both,” she now says, beginning to answer my questions. “I survived because of our accelerated recovery at night – but you were fatally wounded. The only way was to turn you into one of us, by feeding you my blood.”

So that was what the sensation was. She’d bled herself and turned me into one of them. I still shudder at the memory of the pain I was subjected to back then.

“What about the feral vampire?” I ask. “Did you kill him?”

She shook her head. “The moment I drew my Divine Edge, it fled. It must have realized it would die if it continued to face me.”

Divine Edge. Would mine still work?

“You will still be able to use yours,” she says, as if reading my mind. “Your soul is still the same. It is merely your body that has changed.”

I slump down onto the side of the bed. I just feel tired now.

“So what do I need to know now that I’m a vampire?” I ask. “There’re probably a few secrets you hold that aren’t in ANGEL’s monster manual. Am I going to be vulnerable to garlic? Running water? The holy cross?”

The girl gives a small smile. “No, nothing like that. Firstly, you are only a half-vampire – as such, your strengths and weaknesses will be diminished compared to true vampires. You will be stronger in the day than a full blooded vampire, but weaker in the night. Your pupils will be more sensitive to light and will take longer to adjust to changes in brightness. You will need to feed at least once a week or risk going mad with craving. In exchange for this, you will gain heightened senses, strength and speed. Your body’s self-healing speed will improve phenomenally at night, and you will be resistant to cold. Other than that, everything else will remain the same – you need sleep, food and water, just like an ordinary human.”

“What about my physical appearance?” I ask. “Do I get fangs? Can I turn into a bat or a wolf?”

Her eyes narrow. “No. When Bram Stoker wrote Dracula, he glorified many aspects of our race. The only physical differences are our red eyes, which we can cover with contact lenses. Rest assured your friends and family will not be able to tell the difference.”

She steps out into the corridor, gesturing for me to come after her. I tentatively do so, covering my eyes as they adjust to a new level of lighting.

“You need to get some food inside you,” she says. “You haven’t eaten for almost two days.”

I almost stop dead in my tracks. “Hold on… two days?”

The girl nods. “The transition from human to half-vampire takes a while. It took longer than most for you probably because you are a Divine Edge wielder and thus your soul is bonded more strongly to your body, which is why it reacted more harshly to the change and tried to reject it.”

Ugh… Mum and Judith are going to be worried sick if I don’t tell them anything…

“I told your mother you got drunk at a party and were crashing at my place,” she mentions.

“Wh-What? How did you get my number?”

“Your wallet.”

…Of course. I keep my home phone number in there just in case anything happens. Guess it was the right call this time - though I’m not sure how my family would react to me staying over at a girl’s place.

“Eat up.”

We’ve arrived at the kitchen. There are three boxes of pizza stacked on the benchtop. It’s only after the heavenly scent reaches my nostrils that I realize just how hungry I am.

“It’s on the house,” she says in response to my look. “I put you through this so I have to take some form of responsibility.”

That was all I needed. Without restraint, I open the lid of the first box.

It’s a vegetarian pizza.

Putting that aside for now, I open the next one… and the one after that.

They’re all the same.

“Why…?” I ask. “Where’s the meat?”

“I’m not sure you’d like it,” she says. “Vampires don’t eat meat.”

I stare hungrily at the pizza. I hate vegetables, but right now I’m so hungry I could eat anything. I grab three pieces at once and begin stuffing my face in a very un-gentlemanlike manner.

“Why’s that?” I ask, not even bothering to empty my mouth before I speak. Screw manners, I’m too hungry for that.

“To a vampire, a piece of meat devoid of blood is the most tasteless thing you can imagine,” the girl says, slightly wincing as a crumb of pizza nearly hits her. “If I were to describe it… it tastes like a packet of chips without the chips.”

I’m still a bit dubious, but I suppose there’ll be plenty of time to experiment when I get home. It’s barely been a few minutes, and I’ve already finished two of the pizzas. I’m not sure if it’s because of my hunger or my status as a half-vampire, but I feel like there’s no end to my stomach.

“Bran Lietmann.”

At the sound of my name being called, I stop. “Hm?”

“You have a younger sister, right?”

I carefully nod. “How did you know?”

I didn’t think I’d left any hints about her in my wallet.

“Just a guess. You look like a responsible elder brother.”

“Uh… thanks.”

That reminds me. I still don’t know this girl’s name.

“What do I call you by the way?”

She replies as if she’s been waiting for me to ask all this time. “Alice. Alice Vancratt.”

Alice is about to extend a hand, but thinks better of it when she sees how greasy mine are.

“How old are you? One hundred? Two hundred?”

Her face twitches, but other than that she reveals nothing else of her annoyance. “That’s a rude question to ask, Bran. I’ll have you know vampires age normally like humans, despite having a natural immunity to disease. I am seventeen years and six months old, a few months younger than you.”

I feel my face flushing as she berates me. I guess I deserved that.

It doesn’t take much longer before I finish my meal. I look longingly at the empty boxes, but my body is already telling me it’s full.

“So now what?” I ask. “I should probably head home before Mum gets worried. It’s still Sunday morning, right?”

“There’s one thing we have to do before that,” Alice replies. “We’d best get this over and done with. After this we can work out the other details, like how to catch the feral vampire.”

“And what might this thing be?” I ask. I’m feeling extremely content after satisfying all of my body’s urges. At this point, I’m up for anything.

“I have to introduce you to my father.”

…almost anything.