Bite Shift

9

"When dawn comes, I will be in my bedroom. I cannot stop the sleep. You will be left alone. Enjoy your last sunrise without discomfort. Try to lock the images in your mind. Think of your daughters. Hold onto their laughter, the days you first saw them, their smells, their love for you and your love for them. Once the sun has broken through and morning has begun, you will die. You will feel yourself dying in a way I cannot describe to you. Each turning is different. All of them are torturous. Your body must die for the vampire to rise inside you and truly take over. You will wish for true death but it will not come. Once the process begins, it is too late."

The pause was filled with a thumping energy in the air around us. I took a deep shuddering breath. It seemed to knock him out of the thought he was lost in.

"I would take this from you if I could. I would hold you through it if I could. But, Kate, this is for you to experience alone."

I just stared at him. Anyone who knows me, knows I am rarely speechless. Tonight, I have been without words time and time again. The ticking of the clock drew my attention and I looked up. 6:32am. I had thirty minutes to decide what to do. How fair is that?! Biggest decision of my life and I am not even sure if this is really happening! I could be passed out in the back seat of his car because he slipped something into my drink and none of this ever actually happened!

"Kate?"

I looked at him. Another red tear streaked down his cheek. This time, it was the left side. Katie, girl, he is crying blood. No way are you coming up with this on your own. This is for real and you need to make a choice.

"Tell me what else I can do, Rhys. I won't leave them to be raised without a mother."

He reached out both of his hands and I placed mine in his. A quiet squeeze was all I needed. Everything crashed down around me and the sobbing began. Every muscle shook while I wailed. His arms came around me, at some point in the breakdown, and he felt so strong. As the cries fell silent, I realized he had been humming and rocking me. I didn't know the song but it sounded old and faintly Celtic. Calm finally washed over me and I found my resolve again. I sat back and wiped at my face, expecting red on my hands but only seeing plain, old, clear tears.

"The blood tears come after the turning." He answered my unspoken thoughts again. Maybe he can read my thoughts and he doesn't want to tell me. But that seemed stupid. With everything he's laid on me tonight, why would he lie about mind reading?

"I do not want to seem callous, but we have lost ten more minutes and the sun will not wait for your tears."

I jumped up and checked the clock. He was right. It was coming so fast. I looked into his eyes and saw the question there.....Are you sure?

"What now?"

"Please follow me." He led be back into his bedroom and I half expected him to lie down in his bed. Instead, he went to the closet. Hung in the neatest row I have ever seen, was a line of tee shirts. I knew without looking they were all concert tees and chuckled. I don't think I had ever seen anyone hang up t-shirts. He pushed the clothes to the right and exposed a stark white wall. Before I could ask what the hell he was doing, he pressed his hand against the top left corner of the wall, just behind the bar the hangers were resting on moments ago. The wall swung inwards and a stairwell invited me down into a basement. Dark stairs into a dark basement.

Nope. I have seen enough horror movies to know that this ends with me handcuffed to the wall on a dirty mattress.

He must have sensed my hesitancy because he turned to me. "Please trust me. I would not go through all this just to lock you in a basement."