Things are now different.
The meeting was a time of revelation. I had, in fact, met Viviana before. Once, when I was still a deputy sheriff, I took part in a raid on a local ranch. A number of missing persons cases had been traced to this location. My partner and I were assigned to investigate the barn in the rear of the property. As we entered the building, my partner was jumped by someone.
He fell to the ground and I had my rifle up and ready to fire. I called out to him in the black of the lightless barn, but all I heard was a strange moaning sound. Fumbling with the flashlight at my belt, I swept the floor with its beam until I found him and his attacker.
She had her mouth at his throat until the light found her, when she snapped her eyes up to look at me, her mouth red with his blood. I dropped my flashlight and ran. I ran from danger, I abandoned my partner, and I blocked out the memory. I had forgotten those eyes, those frozen, ice blue eyes staring at, into, and through me.
Forgotten, that is, until I saw them again.
From the moment I got out of my truck at midnight, it was sealed. Her voice led me through that mansion into one of the most grisly scenes I had ever encountered. A grim parody of The Last Supper, with dessicated corpses in place of Christ and his disciples. And those beautiful and terrible eyes.
"Do you remember me?" Her voice, preceded by a giggle, the giggle itself out of place in our surroundings. It simultaneously thrilled my being while sending chills up my spine. I could hear the exultation in her voice as she played with my senses. She mentioned my friends and how much help I would need soon.
And then...
"You left me once. I was going to spare you. Just you. Your friend...he was not worth it. He had a bad taste. A bad heart. You....a strong heart." Her arms wrapped around me as I made my ignorance plain.
Then...a piercing, a sublime, chilling ecstasy.
It felt as though it ended as abruptly as it had begun. I turned, slowly, trying to catch a glimpse of my attacker, my benefactor. She had moved again, behind me again. "Look. And you will remember..."
I turned once more, and those frozen eyes pierced me again. Despite the deprivation, despite the comfort her arms afforded me, I tried to draw a revolver. A revolver I had pre-loaded with those phosphorus rounds that I had already seen drastically affect her kind.
It was a useless gesture.
Before Thunder had cleared its holster, she was pressed against me. I had a few moments of sensation, of her full, lush body pressed against mine. Abruptly, the piercing ecstasy returned for a brief, eternal moment. Then all went dark.
I came to gagging, something clogging my throat. I coughed out the obstruction and blinked. Curiously, I felt only one eyelid brush against anything as it closed and opened. I looked over and Nadya had an eyeball in her hands. My eyeball.
My throat was parched and my hunger was almost overwhelming. I was able to sense panic. Greyson, showing some excellent forethought, handcuffed me. I attempted a struggle but I felt as if I was doomed to fail from the start.
Fear! Fire!
Nadya was on fire and it suddenly dominated my field of vision. I moved as quickly as my handcuffed form would allow, scooting as far away from her as possible. I noticed the mages moved quickly away from me while Greyson kept pace, though I was too hungry to mention it at the time.
They spent time discussing what to do with me. I don't recall most of it. I heard her voice, saying she would come to me when I was next alone, and she would teach me. The next thing I remember, I could feel pumping blood nearby. Greyson released me and my hunger caused me to latch onto the source of the blood. Greyson had procured a young woman who, losing blood though she was, coached those nearby in procedures. Later, I was dropped off at the junkyard.
I have had some time for reflection. The single, undeniable truth has circled in my thoughts like an inexorable march:
I am a vampire.
I am that which I hated, that which I hunted.
I am that which I feared.
In the time since I awoke, I have come to the realization that the old me, the old Gavin, was a creature of fear. It was fear that drove him to hunt. It was fear and weakness that drove him to lose his cell. The strongest thing that he ever did was to go after Taraton, but this was due to prodding by Greyson. His fear and weakness would have prevented him from doing what he needed to do.
I am no longer this weak creature. Gavin Abrams is dead. I will wait for Viviana and will consider my future, my identity.
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