Just one Bite

Once Lucy was in the shadows with the vampire she settled down onto her knees. He sat up, shaking, and reached for her again. She ordered herself to remain still and composed even though she was suddenly terrified. In theory, nothing about this scared her: the idea of the blood draining from her body, the razor-sharp fangs, nothing. But there was something about the look in his eyes at this close range that made her want to turn and run. 

He brushed her raven hair off her neck and leaned forward, gripping her shoulders. Suddenly he paused. 

“Look away.” He grunted, forcing her head to turn sharply to the left. 

Lucy could see across the street through the gap she had originally seen the monster through. There was a house with two dogs on the front porch, sitting and watching cars as they passed. Lucy watched them as his teeth pierced her neck and he drew her blood down his throat. She watched the bigger one stretch, and she watched the smaller one scratch his ear. She watched until the pain was too much and her eyes snapped shut. Moments passed, Lucy could feel the blood draining from all her extremities and she grew more certain that he was going to suck her dry with every passing second. They would find her pale, withered corpse in the bushes, Sister Margaret would be heartbroken, they would hold a candlelight vigil for her, the newspapers and the six o’clock news would would run stories, featuring photos of her when she was eight and everyone would wonder who―or what―could do such an awful thing to a helpless young girl. 

Suddenly Lucy felt his teeth tearing loose from her neck, she gasped, opening her eyes again. He let go of her and she toppled over, falling to the ground with a less than poetic thud. She couldn’t move. She looked up at him, marvelously restored he looked younger, firmer. 

He looked down at her, the bloodlust had gone from his eyes. “The venom paralyzes temporarily. You should be able to move again in a few minutes.” He peered out at the sky. “It should be cloudy again soon, we’ll be able to make a break for it.”

Lucy only half-listened to what he was saying. She tested her fingers, toes, arms, nothing responded. Suddenly she felt pressure on either side of her spine. Pressure quickly became pain and she groaned. 

He looked at her, empathy rising behind his gamboge eyes. “The alterations. Try to relax, the wings are the worst part, after that everything else is easy.”

The pain rapidly worsened and was joined by sharp pains in her jaw, a white hot burning sensation on the tops of her ears, and a burning and itching in her eyes. As the paralysis melted away Lucy began to writhe and flinch, just when she thought it was finally subsiding another wave would hit, worse, and she would double over once again.

When the pain finally receded Lucy hesitated, tensing for another attack. When she was sure it was finally over she relaxed and sat up again. 

“I can’t see.” She said, blinking at his fuzzy outline. 

“Take your glasses off.” He said. 

She did as she was told and marveled at the new clarity of the world around her. She brought a hand close to her face and looked at every crease and line up close. “It’s a miracle.”

He chuckled, “Something like that. There’s more where that came from.” He reached behind her and tugged something. It hurt, she was still sore from the change.

Lucy looked back and was confronted by leathery black wings, full of red and purple veins. They had burst the back of her t-shirt and she had been too focused on the pain to notice it. 

“I can’t go back to the orphanage with those.” She said, awestruck. 

“You can’t go back to the orphanage at all.”

“At all?” She repeated dumbly. 

He nodded, “You’re not the person you were before. She no longer exists.”

Lucy’s brain refused to absorb any of this information. “But if I’m not back by five Sister Josephine will notice that I’m not in the mess hall.”

He looked at his watch. “Then we’d better work fast.”