Bite Shift

12

A smell filled the hallway and I followed it into the kitchen. It was like pennies in the sunlight, like hot copper. I loved the smell and my mouth was watering. Whatever it was, I needed it.

Turns out, that wonderful smell was blood in the crockpot. Yep, vampires use slow cookers. Rhys had dumped a bag of O neg into the slow cooker while I scrubbed myself. I couldn't smell it over the soap but I smelled it now. I didn't have enough energy to ponder the reality of me salivating over hemoglobin. I was too hungry to think hard.

"I thought about buying a warmer for the blood like we have at the hospital but these crock pots are so convenient and its always at the perfect temperature when it's done. Usually, I put it on low for an hour or so, but I did it on high tonight. I know you must be starving. You will have to be a little more discreet in your home with your children around."

He pulled out two large glasses and used a ladle to scoop blood from the slow cooker into the drinking glass. He looks like he is serving punch, I thought and laughed. He seemed confused for a second and started to laugh himself. "I guess it does look silly", he said. "You can figure out your own way of feeding. It's really up to you."

Just as he was reaching the kitchen table with the glasses of blood, pain seared through my face. It shot through my entire jaw and up into my head. I thought I had been punched in the mouth. The pain forced me to open my mouth and let out a huge breath. Then, the pain was gone.

"Shit." Rhys looked upset. I know I had never heard him use a curse word before now. "Another thing I should have warned you about, Kate. I am truly terrible at this. Your fangs have come in. It is triggered by your first feeding and, if I recall correctly, painful. It will not hurt every time, just the first few. And, I will teach you to control them. For now, you are at the mercy of your instincts. Think of it like hormones during puberty."

My right hand slowly raised to my upper lip and my tongue slid over my teeth. Sure enough, two sharp fangs were the result of my exploration. I dropped to the kitchen chair and attempted to close my mouth with my new extended canines. To my relief they settled in front of my bottom teeth and rested comfortably. I looked up at Rhys and tried a sentence.

"How long until they go away?" There was a slight lisp but it didn't sound as bad as I thought it would. It was not as hard to speak around the fangs as I expected. I can handle this, I told myself.

He sat next to me, glasses still in his hands. "They will leave when you have fed. And, the lisp will disappear before you know it." He held the glass in his right hand up, offering it to me. I took it and instinctually smelled.

How do I describe how a vampire smells and tastes blood to humans? It smelled like baking bread and warm chocolate chip cookies and the best pizza that you have ever eaten would smell to someone who has not had food in days. It took me half a second to know I had to drink it immediately, and I did. The first swallow resulted in a full body shutter.

Remember the first time you tasted your favorite dessert? You thought to yourself, my life has just changed. Why wasn't I introduced to this dish sooner?? For me, at age 18, it was tiramisu. But, after that moment, it was blood. Warm, thick, red, human blood.

It took somewhere around a minute for me to drink the entire glass. I looked sheepishly at Rhys, his eyes wide and eyebrows elevated, and he gestured to the crockpot. The ladle was filling up my second glass when he started to sip on his and talk.

"What have you noticed so far?"

"You mean, besides the fangs?" I asked and returned to my seat. This time I did sip instead of gulp.