The Black Raven

The Change

I feel his fangs pierce the skin on my neck and extend towards the blood vessel. I scream as he breaks it open. The pain is unbearable. I feel my blood being drained away leaving my body. I feel his venom replacing it. Blood no longer pumps through my veins but Jessie's venom does. I keep my eyes closed not wanting to see Jessie's face as he changes me. I try and pull at the handcuffs but they wont loosen. The pain intensifies as I feel Jessie withdraw his fangs and wait for the job to be done. I scream again and again the pain seemingly never ending. It just keeps getting worse and worse before I can't handle it and I pass out.

*

Every part of my body throbs as the venom pulses through but slowly it begins to fade away leaving me. Soon the pain is gone entirely. Then I hear things I can hear Jessie's usually silent breathing. I can hear the turning of car wheels on the high way. I feel Jessie undo the handcuffs on my hands but not my legs. No. I... I can't be. I think. My eyes snap open and my hand jumps to my neck. It feels sticky; I pull my fingers away and look at them. They're coated in blood. NO! I scream inside of my head. I take a quick intake of breath at the horror of what I have become, what Jessie has done to me. I look at the wall behind Jessie and I feel as if I am looking through binoculars. I can see every single tiny crack in the walls concrete. Every little flaw in the wall stands out. I sense Jessie towering over me, waiting for my reaction. I look at the black shirt that he is wearing. I can see every strand of cotton used to make his shirt, how each strand is fuzzy and worn but still holding together. I look up at him and see things about him I haven't seen before. I can see every tiny little detail on his face. Even though I had never looked at his face properly when I was human the difference still shocks me. But the beauty doesn't make me forget the monster he was inside. I pull back my lips and growl at him. I throw my arms up and try to grab his neck but he jumps backwards, smirking. I narrow my eyes at him then look down at the cuffs holding my legs to the chair. They're simple police cuffs to weak to hold a vampire. I pull at them with my legs before realizing that I wont be able to break them. I'm still a newfang still. I try and remember the transformation order I learnt in training.

"It usually takes at least a month for a newfang to get their full powers." Josh told me during a training session. "Their transformation will start with their heart dying as the venom takes hold of their body then once they wake up they will start to develop heightened senses. Hearing, sight, and smell." He looks at me to see my reaction and when I don't react he keeps going. "That stage of development usually takes between 3-4 days with each day them gaining a stronger sense. By the fifth day in their vampiric life their skin starts to get colder and harder. This is when they start to look like a vampire and before this stage they look just like us." He pauses again before restarting. "This process usually lasts around one week before other changes start. Their eyes will gradually turn black and they will gain strength until they are as strong as any other vampire. By now it is around their second week in vampiric life. After they gain their strength they then start to grow faster obtaining vampire speed both physically and mentally. After the third week of their vampire life newfangs are loyal to their creators and if they are of an opposite gender as they often are, it is not unlikely for the two to create strong bonds that are the closest things they have to love. By this point in time they have also gained the normal vampiric thirst for blood and are lethal to anyone unless they are trained to kill vampires."

Am I going to love Jessie? I think as I remember Josh's speech. The thought terrifies me.

"Jessie?" I say almost whimpering, it sounds like I want him.

He moves forward.

"Raven." He says politely. Too politely.

I want to scream at him, yell insults at him, cry and ask him a million questions. I go with the latter.

"Am... Am I..." I can't say it. Saying it would make it all to real.

"Yes," He replies, emotionless.

I think a hundred things at once but one thing stands out.

"And..?" I start to ask but he cuts me off.

"Your still a Wicca. But the magic in you is fighting the vampire venom so your vampiric development is..." He hesitates. "Different."

I want to hate him, to want to kill him, to hurt him in anyway but I can't. At the same time I want to hug him, to hold him, to... to kiss him. I feel repulsed at the idea. I see him bend down and undo the cuffs. He stands back up and I throw myself at him. I push my lips against his. I feel the fire burn between our lips as he leans into it. I wrap my arms around his neck and he grabs me by the waist. He runs his hands up my waist then over my shoulders and down my back as shivers roll up my spine. I tangle my fingers in his hair as I push my lips harder against his desperate for more. Like he is the air that I used to need. He moves his head to the side of mine and kisses me down the side of my neck and then on my shoulder. And then he stops.

"I need you to do something." He murmurs against my skin.

"Anything." I say trying to kiss him again but he moves away.

Hurt pulses through me at my rejection. He glances at my eyes and sees the hurt in them.

"It's not that I don't want you. Just you need to do this first." He explains stepping toward me again.

He puts a hand around my waist and whispers inmy ear what he wants me to do.