Bree lay on the settee, her head over Zane’s lap.He was holding her up, his arm beneath her back, so that he could reach her neck with his mouth.Darius sat on the floor next to her.Bree was afraid, shaking only a little, but her breathing came in fast gasps. “Will it hurt?”
“Honestly, I am not sure or how bad it will if it does.” Zane looked down at her, concerned.“I know it hurts some while the change happens, but I had left those people alone in the room until the process was complete.So I can’t say exactly what it will be like, especially since I was born a vampire.”
Darius was deep in thought, he looked like he was far, far away.He was trying to remember his change.All he could dig up in his memory was how he had woken up a vampire - alone. He remembered the pain in his body, how every joint ached, how his veins felt like they were constricting upon themselves.They had ached excruciatingly inside of his body. But, he could not remember much else.Maybe because the experience of waking alone so overshadowed the experience of the turning in his memory that it blocked all else out.
“Darius?” Zane was looking at him. “Do you remember?”Darius regained his focus and looked at Zane, then Bree.Bree’s eyes looked huge as she looked up at him from her place on Zane’s lap. He turned fully around, his clothes rustling and creaking, and looked back at Mitzi, Europa and Giselle, who all stood in near the far wall, waiting to see what would happen, wondering what to expect.
“No.” Darius looked disappointed in himself.“I don’t.I just remember waking up hungry as hell.I can say that I understand why no vampire should ever allow themselves to get as hungry as they did the first time they were turned.That hunger hurt.It was very painful.And that damnable Hugo never left me a sacrifice to eat.He should have at least bound a meal for me before he took off.”
“Who is Hugo?” Mitzi was looking at her husband. “Was he your sire?The one whose name you never mention?” Mitzi walked over and sat next to Darius, putting her hand on his.
“He was.” Darius rubbed Mitzi’s hand in his. “Don’t let this frighten you.We will make sure that you all have a human waiting to feed you when you wake.”
“Will you please make sure that we don’t drain him or her?Or hurt them?Will we even know who we are or what is going on?Will we remember anything human at first?” Mitzi was unknowingly squeezing Darius’s hand so tight her knuckles were beginning to grow white.“Can you tell us anything more?”
“I remembered Hugo, as I said.” Darius brought her hand to his mouth to kiss it. She loosened her grip. “I wasn’t sure of the fact that I was a vampire at first.I did realize it though after I made my first kill.But it did take getting used to.”
“Your first kill?” Mitzi was uncertain if she should be asking this. “Were you like a savage?How was it?How did you come to know what you were?”
“I figured it out eventually.” Darius shifted his attention to Bree.“But you have nothing to worry about.We will be here to guide you through the first days of your vampire life.” Darius then spoke more quietly, so the others in the room could not overhear him. “My first kill was not pleasant.But, we don’t have to discuss that now.”
“Tell me!” Mitzi tried to remain speaking in a whisper, but the urgency in her voice made her hiss. “Who was it?”Darius rolled his eyes and looked at Zane, who only looked back at him with a look stating that Darius was on his own, it was entirely his choice if he should tell his wife about his first meal. “Please, I need to know.”
Darius spoke flatly, reluctantly. “If you must know, she was a little girl lost in the woods. I came upon her and she was the one that convinced my suspicions that I was a vampire.Her reaction when she saw me, that said it all.Then, the smell of her blood was the strongest smell I could get as I stood there.I could hear her heart pounding rapidly and the rush of blood as it flowed through her.And I ached for what produced that scent, what made that noise that caused me to thirst so much more.” Darius was not taking Mitzi’s gasp or horrified fact into consideration as he told his story.“It is like when you so thirsty that you are parched, your tongue stuck to the roof of your mouth… you are so hot that the sweat is dripping off of you.Then, think of how you feel when you hear crystal clear and cold water being poured into a glass.That sound, that sight, what it does, it’s like that.Except for the vampire, it is the sound and the scent.But the agony is worse for the vampire.Where a human yearns to quench the thirst, the vampire is drawn to the thing that will get rid of his pain and restore his strength.Hungry vampires are ornery because hunger to a vampire is physically painful. Imagine having the flu in addition to all of the things I described before, and a terrible headache.”
