Bits of Dreams: One Shots, Quotes, and Other Random Writings

Blood Haze

"Tell me what's wrong."

The girl shook her head, her blond ponytail swishing behind her. "You'd never understand, Mark," she said quietly.

"Katelyn, come on. I know you better than you know yourself."

"Not anymore," Katelyn whispered hoarsely, looking down at her hands and trying to forget what they had looked like covered in blood.

Mark pushed his dark hair off his forehead and squinted at her. "What on earth are you talking about?"

"I..." She couldn't tell him. She couldn't lose him.

"You what?" he asked gently, taking her hands and looking into her eyes. "Kate, sweetheart, just tell me. I'll do whatever I can to help you. You know that, right? Just let me help you."

"There isn't anything you can do," she said, her voice shaking.

"Well at least explain it to me, because you've really got me worried."

"I can't tell you. You'll hate me because of it." She looked away. She wanted to tell him, so badly it hurt, but she was terrified of how he would react.

"Kate, I could never hate you. Never. No matter what you said, no matter what you did, I would never, ever be able to hate you."

Katelyn pulled her hands out of his. "Yes, you would." She wrapped her arms around herself and looked at her feet, blinking back tears.

Mark stood completely still for a moment. Then he placed his hand under her chin and gently lifted it up, forcing her to meet his gaze again. "What. The heck. Is going on?" he murmured.

The intensity in his eyes broke down the last of Katelyn's resolve. "I...I was bitten," she whispered.

He stared at her. "What? That's impossible!" He shook his head incredulously, taking her by the shoulders. "No. You're not...one of them. You're nothing like those filthy, murderous blood-suckers!"

Now that she had breached the dam, everything else flooded out in a rush of words and tears. "It's true, Mark. After it happened, I couldn't stand the thirst, I totally lost it, and...and I killed somebody because of it. I felt like my insides were on fire, and I killed somebody to get rid of the pain! I wrestled them to the ground and sucked the life out of them...and the worst part was, I didn't feel anything but relief afterward." Her voice dropped back down to a whisper. "I'm a monster, Mark...because I want to do it again."

To his credit, he didn't flinch or back away. He just stood there grasping her shoulders, his expression a mixture of disbelief and horror. Katelyn pulled her sleeve up, revealing a tender pink scar on the inside of her right forearm, near the elbow. There was a mark for where each individual tooth had pierced her skin.

At the sight of the scar, Mark's expression hardened into resolve. "Turn me," he demanded, releasing her to undo the first two buttons of his shirt. Then he tugged on the collar, fully exposing his neck.

"What?" Katelyn was stunned. She had expected him to reject her, to kill her right then and there. After all, they were vampire hunters. It was their job.

"Turn me. I won't let you go through this alone."

"But...you hate vampires. You don't—I can't do that!"

Mark pulled one of his many daggers out of its sheath. Katelyn instinctively shied away from the titanium blade. She had witnessed many vamps meet their deaths on it.

"Don't make me force my hand, Kate," he said, touching the tip of the blade to his neck. Katelyn's breathing became heavy as she waited for it to prick his skin. She could almost taste the salty stickiness of his blood. "This is happening one way or another."

"What if I can't stop..." she said slowly, her attention flickering between the dangerous dagger and the spot on Mark's neck where his pulse throbbed just under his skin. He didn't have the knife in the right spot, and it was starting to bother her.

"The same way we always interrupt feedings," he said, lowering the knife. He took a vial of distilled water -- 'holy' water -- out of his pocket and unscrewed the cap. "With this."

Katelyn nodded, not really paying attention anymore, and stepped closer. She could feel her already-sharp canines elongating, gently pressing into the inside of her lips like bleached-white thorns. "Hold still," she breathed.

She hesitated for only a fraction of a second before plunging her teeth into the tender skin of Mark's neck, clamping down on the artery and tasting his blood as it pulsed from the wound. Instinctively, she wrapped her arms around his neck and torso, pulling him close and closing her eyes as she drank. If he made any sounds of pain, they were drowned out by the rushing sound in her ears. She was already too far lost in a blood haze to be aware of anything but the fragile body in her grasp and the glorious, irresistible blood that was hers, all hers--

Before she had even swallowed twice, a horrific burning sensation exploded on her skin. She shoved herself away from her prey and withdrew, hissing and baring her teeth. Half a second later, she started to launch herself back towards her meal to finish what she had started, but a silver glint caught her eye, stopping her dead in her tracks.

"Okay, Kate, that's enough," Mark growled, holding the titanium knife between Katelyn and himself.

She hissed again, pulling her burned arm close to her body. This time, though, she took a step away, forcing herself to look away from the blood that was running down his neck, staining his clothes and beckoning her, begging her to have another taste, to drink deeply until there was nothing left, not a single--

"No!" she snarled. Katelyn pressed her hand against her mouth and clenched her teeth. Ever so slowly, she felt her canines retracting, and the blood haze lifted, leaving behind a burning nausea.

Meanwhile, Mark collapsed to the ground, the dagger falling from his grasp as he struggled to breathe. The intensity with which his blood called to her lessened, and then disappeared entirely.

Hesitantly, Katelyn sat next to him and gently placed his head in her lap. "What have we done?" she whispered, running her fingers through his dark locks as he trembled. "Why did you make me do this to you?"

He didn't answer for a long time.