BLOOD and Revenge

Chapter 9: Transformations

It didn't take me long to catch back up to Adam who was nearly a block from his house. Once by his side, I casually made it seem like I wasn't shaking in my skin.

"Hey, can I borrow your basement or attic? Either will do." The human yelped in surprise and froze to the place he had just taken a step. His blue eyes held surprise for a moment before they softened and narrowed, as if he thought I was just a shadow.

"Janine, I thought you were going to find James's house," he said and he looked me over. Before he could even think that I may have been hurt, I sensed that same fear feeling still heading towards us, just slower and softer, like human steps.

"Lets just say for arguments sake that I didn't make it to far. Now if I were you, I'd get us into that house of yours before they pick up on my trail and end up making a meal of us." I looped my arm through Adam's and hurried us along. I knew for a fact that I would be able to hold my own but Adam was merely a human. The most he could do was distract me.

"Get inside while I grab my bags," I told him and disconnected from him as we approached his house. Using my vampiric speed, I grabbed my bags and ran up to the door as my friend opened it. We both hopped inside, the door slamming shut behind us.

Adam's heavy breathing echoed throughout the living area as my steady breathing helped to focus my thoughts.

Light steps echoed into my ears a moment before Adam's mother rushed in, confused and worried.

"What is wrong dears? Is everything okay?" I looked at my friend who looked at me and I asked the silent question. He nodded.

Dropping my bags, I walked up to Adam's mom and looked strait into her eyes, the waves of compulsion already rolling off of me thanks to master's blood.

"Nothing is wrong. Adam and I just went for a run along the river. I will be needing a place to stay and will be using your attic. You will not tell anyone I am here and you will only remember that I am up there while Adam is home. Now I believe it is time that you go to bed. Get some rest because you still have work in the morning." Her eyes glossed over before nodding. She turned and headed back up stairs to her room. When her door shut, I swiveled to look at my friend who looked a bit irritated.

"You didn't have to be so rude you know? I bet if you said that you didn't have anywhere else to stay that she would let you." I went to my bags and slung them over my shoulders.

"She would expect me to go to school or be up during a normal human's time. I don't have such a ludgury as that. One tiny little ray of sun light and I will be burnt to a crisp. Unless I get turned back to human, that is the way it is. I'm sorry if I was too strait forward but this new me is not the Janine you remember. I am much stronger and I now have strength to back up revenge." I sat on his couch for a moment and put my head in my hands.

The human came and sat next to me, putting a hand on my shoulder.

"What happened to you while you were away? The Janine I remember was kind and would not force her will on anyone. She would have held a grudge against James but not taken action for revenge." I knew the girl he was talking about. She was still somewhere inside of me but she was eaten by the vampire I am today. He wouldn't know me.

"My dark times set in while I was gone my friend. Since I had no one to support me at first and there was barely anywhere to live, I cut and harmed myself to the brink that I was given help. My friends there, they... they were a temporary reprieve from everyday pains. But they couldn't tame the darkness. What kept me alive was remembering James and his kindness; and his betrayal. It filled me with emotion until someone found me and gave me power to amplify and act on those emotions. That is how you know the vampire me today." I put my hands down and connected them over my lap but I did not sit up.

The blonde human removed his hand from my shoulder and seemed to absorb this information. Even looking back on it, I was absorbing the information.

"So you went and looked to become a vampire?" I shook my head and rested against the back of the couch, my face now looking towards the ceiling.

"I had been walking home one night from a friends house and had to walk into an ally a block away from our house. Since it was usually empty, I walked right in not thinking of anything bad. Then I was attacked by a vampire. I figured I was useless and worthless anyways so I let him devour my life. I didn't know that on the brink of death, he would offer me a new, stronger life." I lifted my pale fingers up to my neck where I placed two of them to the nearly transparent fang scars that still remained from that night as a symbol of my existence.

"You have been through so much. How would something like revenge on James keep you going and not something like love or the possibility of it?" Putting my arms along the back of the couch, I closed my eyes and thought on it.

Why was revenge the only thing that kept me going?