Master of Vampirism (Part #2) ✔️

Chapter 24: Batwoman rises, again

In the chaotic craze of the longest five minutes of my life, I've managed to leap for the fridge and get a blood bag. I bit off the lid, momentarily forgetting how to behave like a human. My senses worked on hyper mode, listening to any signs of life from Ian.

I jumped on the couch and leaned the blood bag against his lips, dirtying both his shirt and the couch. Blood spilled over his pale lips, some reaching the inside of his mouth. My heart hammered against my ribcage and I didn't even dare think about what I'd do if he just didn't wake up.

A wave of relief flooded me once I heard the quiet, but steady beat in his chest.

"Ian?" I called for him and gave him more blood. "Come on, wake up."

He swallowed the blood.

"Please, please, please wake up." I murmured, ready to get another blood bag. "I'll kill you if you die on me."

His eyelids fluttered, "Chloe?"

"Yes, yes, yes!" I shook his shoulders and he winced, so I stopped. "Sorry. Wake up, please. William is on his way, I don't know what's going on."

He opened his eyes. His irises lacked colour and blue gathered in the corners. He fixated on me and an involuntary shudder spread through me. Something about his gaze was off. Certain hungered lingered in the corners and I felt like prey.

"Ian?"

He lifted his hand and brushed a strand of hair behind my ear. His gaze darted to my lips and back to my eyes. The blue tendrils climbed up his neck. He grabbed the nape of my neck and pulled me closer. I stared into his eyes, no fucking clue what was going on.

"I can't really die, can I?" He said. "Not without kissing you at least once."

Using his vampire strength, he grabbed both my wrists and threw me on the couch. Adrenaline burst through my veins and the fight or flight instincts kicked in. He pinned me down, his body looming over me. But something was off. His grin was too wide, his teeth were a strange shade of blue.

And then he was gone. He leaped off me and ran for the door, which opened in the last second, and William burst through, pushing Ian away from the entrance. Ian stumbled on the glass coffee-table, which exploded in a million little pieces.

"Fuck you." Ian hissed.

"Good doggy." William lifted his finger.

Greta walked in immediately after him, "Good, we're on time." She locked the door.

"What the fuck's going on?" I shouted. Ian tried to pull himself off the floor, but William held him down.

"The stakes were dipped in something called salvia divinorum. It's a plant poisonous to vampires." Greta said. "But it cannot kill us."

"Then, what does it do?" I asked, staring at the enraged Ian on the floor. His eyes seemed far away and detached.

"Well," William got off the floor, "when humans use it, it makes them, as you youngsters call it," he made quotation signs with his fingers, "trip balls."

"It's a hallucinogenic plant." Greta said.

"What happens when a vampire uses it?" I shuddered when Ian smiled at me. Something in his stare proved he wasn't quite there.

"Makes them visit the cuckoo-land." William said, again with the quotation signs.

I frowned, "I don't think you know what that means."

"He's insane, alright?" William threw his hands in the air. "No place for literary freedom in this day and age. Everything is offensive."

"He's crazy?" I glanced at Ian, finally giving a name to his off stare.