Scabs

Love. Conquers. All.

Vash woke up jaw-deep in Anaka's neck, drinking up her blood like her life depended on it.

It absolutely did, and she knew it. Her body drank hastily even as Vash's mind revolted. The blood wasn't smooth and liquidy like her own would have been. It was old, lacking in oxygen, still. It tasted like half-formed scabs, sliding down her throat like clumps of unchewed oatmeal. 

Dead skin and hunks of flesh went down with it. Unlike the clean puncture marks of fangs, human jaws could only, well, chomp down. Her jaws had hacked into Anaka's neck, attaching to a wide area of her neck and sucking down with all the lackluster ability a half-dead human had.

Anaka forced Vash away from her neck, a gaping hole left in the side of her neck as Vash's instincts kicked in and she held onto the life-saving force with all the might in her jaws. Anaka pulled the flesh from Vash's mouth and tossed it aside, moving her head to Anaka's lap and cradling her broken body. 

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," Anaka whispered, rocking Vash's paralyzed body back and forth. 

It's okay  Vash tried to say, but her mouth refused to move. Everything refused to move. We knew this was inevitable. I knew the risks. It's okay; I'm ready to start forever with you.

"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry," Anaka repeated, brushing Vash's hair out of her face. The hair fell to the floor and separated from Vash's scalp. Anaka looked down at the separated hair, then at the blood-stained mess that lay beneath her. Panic. An animal's panic filled her, and she pushed the girl's head off her lap.

"I can't do this," she whispered, beginning to stand. "I can't raise one! I can't do it. I'm not ready. It was just a kiss. I'm not ready for forever. I'm not... I can't do it. I never thought we'd last. Never. I can't do it. I can't raise one. Oh God, I can't raise one," she grew more frantic as she spoke, wringing her hands and looking down at Vash's decayed body. Vash looked up with pleading eyes. She was scared. So scared. Both of them were.

"I just can't," Anaka said, and effortlessly picked up the new vampire. 

 She led Vash out the attic and through the musty house. She lived in a small shack on an area of 15 acres of her master's land. She had little choice, really. She had seen the death of the girl she had once loved and, without thinking, had saved her. But what now? To raise Vash would be to present her to Anaka's own creator, who would be undoubtedly displeased. Creating vampires wasn't just done; it took forethought and, more importantly, permission. Anaka had neither; Anaka was practically a baby herself. It was better this way. Far better. The alternative, meeting Anaka's master, being raised as one of his bastard children...

No. That would be cruel. This was the kindest option.

She ran through the acres of woods with Vash's limp body in her arms until she found a clearing where the morning sun would wash over whoever stood there. She gently lied Vash there, brushing away the remnants of her hair.

"It will all be over soon," Anaka said. "It is better this way, I promise."

Sunlight killed vampires. It was cruel to kill such new life, but it was necessary. Even so, Anaka leaned over and kissed Vash softly on the lips.

The sensation was far different, far better, than it had been when she was alive. Vash's corpselike demeanor and icy cold lips made Anaka feel something... unfamiliar. When Vash had been alive, it was hunger that caused Anaka to kiss with the intensity she did. It took all her strength to not devour her from the start, to give Vash a bit of what she wanted before Anaka took her.

But that corpse was... enticing. Anaka kissed Vash again, deepening the kiss against Vash's dead lips. The more she kissed, the more excited her body became. It took all of her effort to pull herself off of Vash, and looked down at her with a mix of lust and animosity. She wanted to mate with her just as dearly as she wanted to destroy her. There was nothing human about her feelings.

I'm so sorry Vash, I'm so sorry. This is why you must die, why I can't let you live. I can't let you live like this, like me. I'm evil. I'm evil and an animal and I can't help it. 

Anaka began to cry tears of blood as the reality of her own evil struck her. She couldn't enjoy intimacy like a human, only in a twisted, evil way. She couldn't feel happiness, or sadness, or love, or kindness, or compassion as any human could. It was all warped, all ruined by her own evil nature.

She couldn't even cry real tears, only imitate it through the blood of her victims.

She looked down at her own hands, her claws, stained in dirt and blood. Her heart still beat with longing, though her body had calmed, no longer overtaken with desire.

Vash's last, terrified words rang in her damned ears: "Love conquers all," she had muttered with all the innocent passion of a young girl in love.

"I can't feel love, Vash," she spat out. "And now, neither can you."