Paradigm Shift [On-going]

Compromise

Seth tosses the last body aside after he drains it of blood, licking the remnants from his lips as he looks around the room. A dozen bodies lay, limp and torn to shreds. Left to rot where they lay. Blood saturates the concrete floor beneath Seth's feet as he leans up against the nearest wall. He'd drank too much, but he was an addict and blood was his drug. Drinking fresh, warm blood straight from the veins of a helpless human made Seth feel superior. Everything else vanished. He lived for the drug of blood. Without it, he was edgy, almost feral until he could feed again. However, the effort to seek fresh blood and hunt down victims was wearing on his body and sometimes Seth went days without drinking, which resulted in frenzied feeding sessions. The high of the initial feed quickly faded as Seth's newborn body demanded more substance than he could provide. He should have paced himself, spread out the feedings, but he was painfully thirsty and greedy and completely powerless to resist. As a human, Seth was headstrong, confident, and sometimes ruthless. The type of person who never gave up without a fight and always had a back-up plan. So it was only natural that these qualities were heightened after his transformation and it was what made Seth decide he wasn't content with drinking donated blood. He wanted the real thing, directly from its source. He didn't want to admit that he was wrong, but as spent humans surrounded him, his body began to react to the blood in his system. He hadn't bothered to think about the human's he drank from, hadn't spared a thought for their back story or living situation. If he had, he would have noticed they were drug addicts. Seth tries to stand, but he loses his balance and slumps back down again, barely able to lift his head up as he stares straight ahead of him. He can see someone approaching, but his eyes are unfocused. He tries to retreat, but he can't control his limbs.

"Seth?"

Seth recognised Frederick's voice but couldn't respond to him. Frederick looks around and takes in the surrounding scene, noticing a pile of used needles with traces of brown liquid in them. Frederick lifts Seth into his arms and carries him to his car.

"Just relax Seth" Frederick mumbles. "I know someone who can help you"

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Seth wakes several hours later in Dr. Zen's hospital practise and his nose scrunches as the strong smell of antiseptic fills his nostrils. He looks around at his unfamiliar surroundings and attempts to sit up as a young Asian doctor approaches him.

"Seth! I was hoping you'd come around soon"

Seth visually examines the other man. "Do I know you?"

The doctor laughs. "My name is Dr. Nyle. I'm the junior consultant here"

The door to Seth's room opens and Frederick approaches Seth's bed, just behind a nurse who offers Seth a steel tumbler with blood inside. Seth takes it from her and drinks from it but the liquid inside is less than satisfying. It's human blood but it's cold and not nearly as satisfying as Seth is used too

''What the hell happened. Where am i?" Seth asked

"You are at the Zen medical centre. It's a hospital exclusively for vampires" Frederick answered. "The humans you fed from were drug addicts and the narcotics altered their blood. Meaning you experienced the side effects of the drugs in their system"

Seth frowned. "I thought vampires couldn't get ill"

"They can't. Not in the traditional sense anyway," Dr. Nyle explains "but anything that is in the blood they consume can affect them in the same way it would for a human"