Song Remains the Same

Chapter 55: Fanged Up

"It doesn't matter what you are. It only matters what you do."
- Sam Winchester

Alex became aware slowly as she came out of the darkness of unconsciousness.

Momentarily disoriented and not remembering what had happened, she could feel how she sat in a wooden chair with her hands behind her. Ropes bound her waist and arms tightly—the hell? She strained at them instinctively even before her eyes had opened fully. And then she remembered attacking Sam, feeding on him—and him getting the crowbar away from her. Ah. He must have knocked her out. Coming to quickly, feeling a new sort of calm and strength as she woke, Alex realized that she felt... good. Sam's blood, although she hadn't gotten a lot, made her feel totally different. Alive again, but in a new way. A better way. That's what her first thought was, but then quickly after it, she recoiled internally, horrified at her own thought process. Alive in a better way? She'd been turned into a vampire and just fed on her own brother! Distinctly, her two mindsets warred against the other: her familiar humanity which was slipping away as her newfound vampiric state of being fought for dominance.

The constant barrage of noises hadn't stopped—she heard heartbeats and traffic and lightbulbs and electricity—but the sounds weren't as completely jarring and deafening as before; she felt like she could almost separate them from her senses, somehow—she wasn't sure how to process it at all. And then Alex realized... there were two human heartbeats in the room with her now, not just one. She raised her lolling chin off her chest and saw that a pair of black booted feet was in front of her. She frowned. That wasn't Sam. She looked up slowly.

A tall, imposing man with a shining bald head and thick eyebrows was looking down at her with his arms folded. "There you are," he greeted leisurely, smiling just barely—he looked distinctly calm and in control, self-assured. She didn't like it. "Morning, sunshine."

Alex stared at the man guardedly. She'd met him just the once, and he hadn't left the best impression then, either. "Samuel..." she greeted cautiously. His heartbeat was steady, loud, strong. Samuel Campbell: her maternal grandfather—her mother's father. She didn't know much about him except he was a hunter and had died in the seventies... yet was somehow inexplicably alive again since about a year ago, just like Sam was.

"'Grandpa' would be fine too," he suggested. And even though his tone was friendly and pleasant enough, there was an unpleasant glint of calculating and superiority behind his eyes. Alex felt another twinge of dislike.

She pulled a little against the ropes that held her down again, realizing that she almost felt strong enough to snap the ropes completely. But instead of testing that theory, she decided to bide her time. She raised her chin and narrowed her eyes then adopted a guarded and snide tone. "So what is this? Family reunion?"

Samuel's little smile never left his face, resulting in an expression that seemed to imply Alex was stupid. "Your brother didn't tell you I was on my way?" He glanced to the side and Alex followed his gaze. She'd already known he was there—Sam's heartbeat and scent was familiar, locked inside of her somehow—but it wasn't until she laid eyes on him that she reacted with genuine care. Saw what she had done. Sort of sullen and in a new shirt, Sam had his arms crossed. On one of those arms, a large bandage. The place where she'd bitten him. He stared at her from near the window.

"I'm here to help," Samuel explained.

Yeah, whatever. He was a little too late—Alex—the real Alex, not the corrupted vampire-version of Alex, saw her brother and was deeply horrified at herself, realizing all over again that she was a monster. She saw how the faintest bit of blood had seeped through his bandage. Her mouth watered a little—and then her eyes teared up as she realized how she truly couldn't fight this, that it was suddenly who she was, and she was powerless to change it. She wasn't human anymore. "Sorry," Alex muttered to her twin, then bowed her head down, kept her voice gruff, and shoved her tears away angrily. "You, uh, you okay?"