Birth of the Dragon

Desire

"Tell me."

The words hit her like a punch to her mind. Her eyes snapped open and a million sensations flooded her at once as though she had awakened during a cyclone. It was a whirring, jumbled mess of senses she struggled to understand for a long and confusing moment. She was in a small, dark room filled with messily stacked boxes and no windows. Creatures were somewhere below her, talking about this and that; she found she could pinpoint each of their locations with ease.

They smelled good.

Or most did, anyway. There was a dog amongst them, its odour almost overbearing the other, sweeter scents. She let loose a sharp hiss in reaction, her face crunched up in disgust. There was something else down below which did not smell like food, but she could not tell exactly what it was. Still, there was a feast below she craved.

The vampire leaped forward but something pulled her wrists back. She looked back to see chains bound her to the room's wall. She hissed again and gave a sharp tug to loose them, but they held firm and remained strong as she struggled to wrench them free. Furious and confused, she shrieked. It was a high sound few would miss, but for whatever reason the creatures in the house she was trapped in did not run. That was good; she was afraid she had scared them away.

Through her struggles she could hear them arguing over was to be done about someone named Dakota. It made no matter; they would be dead once she freed herself from the room.

She did not care enough to keep track of time, but there was no way to properly tell how long she fought the accursed chains anyway. Nothing mattered except getting to her food. The more time passed the more desperate for the creatures' blood she became, her desire drowning out any rational thought.

Excitement filled her when one of the creature's footsteps came close. Its blood called for her and the vampire's body shook at the prospect of the feed. The door leading outside the room swung open and in stepped a delicious little morsel who walked ever so slowly towards her. Its fear was palpable and only served to make it smell all the more irresistable. It moved closer, so close she would be able to grab her if not for the chains. "Dakota? Don't you recognise me? It's Alana, it's me."

Its eyes were beginning to water, but the vampire paid that no mind. When the dog's stench began to come closer, she knew the opportunity to feed was now or never. She stepped back, preparing to take one last shot at ripping the chains from the wall. However, the stupid thing stepped right into the spider's web, placing herself well within the vampire's grasp. Triumphantly, she leaped and pinned the wriggling thing to the floor before plunging her fangs deep into its neck.

Blood flowed freely, filling her mouth with a metallic yet oh-so-sweet taste the vampire wanted more and more of. The creature fought only for a second before it went still, though its heart still beat strongly. It was as if the girl was within a trance, as not even a sound of pain escaped her lips. The vampire was curious, but kept most of its focus on the feeding. Perhaps that was why the dog was able to get so close. The dog-smelling human grabbed her shoulders and did his best to pull her away. Her prey forgotten, she crawled back against the wall at a speed faster than the wolf expected.

But then memories came back to her, and Dakota's absolute desperation for blood dimmed. Her eyes widened as she realized with horror what she had done. Instead of rising to her feet, she moved to her knees and stretched her hand out towards Alana and Sam. "I'm a..." she gulped, "A vampire. How?" The others quickly ran into the attic, and Dakota was ashamed of herself.

Alex and Bash nodded to each other and the girl began to drag Alana away. Ryan stepped forward. "I'll help with Alana as well."

"No! Is she okay? Is she..?" Dakota started, but found herself unable to finish her question.

Bash stepped in front of her vision of Alana. "Hey, hey. Don't worry. Alex will look after her. You're going to be alright." He said whilst smiling kindly and removed his jumper. He handed it to her, still keeping some distance. "Use this to wipe your face."

Dakota was confused, but wiped around her face with a jumper sleeve. When she pulled it away it was sticky with blood. Dakota covered her mouth, her head dizzy. The blood made it all so much more real. Worse, she wanted to lick it right off the fabric "Oh, God. I... I..." she was shaking, and one of her new fangs was biting into her bottom lip.

"Alana will be alright, don't worry, and you will be too. We've all got crazy stuff happening to us so you're not alone." Bash continued, his tone soothing and gentle.

"Vampire," Mel breathed behind them, eyes wide. A groan escaped Selina beside her.

"I have to go," the latter girl muttered before darting away. Dakota didn't blame her; she probably would too if their situations were reversed.

Dakota looked at each and every one of them, then to the chains around her wrists. They were tight, and should have damaged her skin with all the fighting she did, but there wasn't so much as a red mark. "But I hurt my best friend. I could have killed her." Dakota wanted to cry, but the tears would not come.

"But you didn't," Bash responded, "Anyway, you're not the first to attack a friend," he said with a chuckle, "We had Sam try and one u-" Bash cut off abruptly and yelled. "Oh thank God, when did you guys get back?" Everyone turned to Sam and Mel.

Mel shrugged, arms crossed. "Bigger things to deal with. Like that." She glared at Dakota.

"I... How did I get here, anyway?" Dakota questioned, the thought coming to her suddenly. Everything was becoming too overwhelming, and she wasn't sure why she hadn't thrown up yet.

"We all rescued you from a vampire lair," Bash responded. Dakota's skin crawled, and she was somewhat able to recall being taken.

"You all rescued me?" she asked, surprised. "But you could have been hurt, or worse, been made like me." It was touching, knowing all these people went into dangerous waters for her, a girl most of them barely knew. Still, she didn't want any of them to do something like that for her again, especially not if she was just going to pay them back by nearly killing one of them. Her stomach twisted into knots.

"Of course we did," Bash said with a smile.

Something was missing. It didn't take long for Dakota to realize what. "The... dragon. Is it okay?"

"She's doing well yeah. She's eating all of our sausages as we speak."

Dakota managed a slight smile. "May I go to her?" she asked hopefully, showing him her chains.

His smile fell for a moment but he quickly regained his composure. "We'll bring her here." Dakota knew what that meant; she was not going to be leaving the attic for a while. Her smile faded.

"Yeah, that would be good," she lied. Still, at least she would be able to see the dragon again.

When the other carried the small dragon into the attic, Dakota wondered if it had anticipated her becoming a vampire. She reached her hand out to it and it trotted over before placing its head against her palm for a second as if in greeting. The motion reminded her of a cat, causing her to crack a smile despite her emotional pain. It was a beautiful creature Dakota still couldn't believe was actually real. It rested one of its front feet on her knee and spread out its wings, showing off the gorgeous gradient of blues and greens in the membrane stretched between its wing-bones. She stroked its head and found comfort in the way the dragon leaned into it. Dakota was able to ignore the wary looks of her new friends and focus entirely on the little creature. It seemed to know she was in pain, its starry eyes filled with a human intelligence.

"Have we named her yet?" Dakota asked as she scratched it under its chin.

"Uh, no not yet." Bash's voice still quiet and soothing. "What do you think we should name her?"

Dakota thought a moment, but she had an idea when she took note of the dragon's wings again. "How about Emerald?"

Bash looked around and almost everyone nodded before he turned back to Dakota with his usual kind smile. "Emerald it is then." Bash grinned awkwardly at the others. "Why don't you guys take Emerald," he gave the dragon an affectionate smile, "downstairs and check on Alana?" Mel shrugged and left, not needing any more encouragement, the others followed suit.

Sam opened his mouth to speak, closed it again and then took a deep breath before saying. "Are you sure?" He looked at Dakota out of the corner of his eye. "We don't need to leave." Dakota's heart dropped again and the feelings of being a monster bubbled back to the surface. She wondered why Bash wanted to stay behind with her.

Bash waved them away. "No, I'm alright. Go on guys, there's food downstairs." When Sam hesitated, Mel walked back in with no expression and dragged him back out by the arm.

"They're never going to trust me," Dakota stated sadly.

Once the two had left Bash let out a long sigh. He walked over to a box near Dakota, not concerned that it was within her range with the chains and pulled out a dust covered bottle and two wine glasses. He sat down again, just within her range, and poured himself a glass. "You're over eighteen, aren't you?"

Dakota shrugged, doing her best not to take too much notice of how much stronger the smell of his blood was. "Not sure it really matters anymore, does it?"

Bash chuckled to himself and poured some of the red liquid into the second glass. "I guess that's fair enough." Dakota lifted her glass to her nose and took a sniff. The smell was almost overwhelming and did not seem all that pleasant, but she didn't want Bash to know so she took a sip anyway. She felt queasy almost instantly and wished she had something else to drink, like his blood.

She did her best to not leap at him and hoped he didn't notice how she had leaned closer to him. "I'm not sure this is for me," Dakota said apologetically.

Bash chuckled and took a gulp from his own, the red staining the inside of his lips. "It's Shedeh, an old Egyptian way of making wine. It takes a bit of getting used to."

Dakota nodded. "Why do you have this... Shedeh?" she asked, finding it strange he would just have a bottle of it.

Bash's smile fell and he kept his eyes on the spinning red liquid in his hands. "Mum taught me how to make it." He let out a long sigh and smiled again as he lifted his eyes to hers. "It's good for taking the edge of at least, are you feeling alright?" Truthfully, Dakota was trying her best to keep the wine down. It wasn't that she hated the taste of it; it was more like her body was rejecting the liquid. She needed something better to soothe her upset stomach, but she couldn't attack him, she wouldn't let herself.

"I'm... fine. Anyway, have you ever tried selling some of this? Surely you could get some money from these bottles."

"I'd need to get an ABN and a liquor licence and all that. Alex and I prefer to avoid the government as much as possible." Dakota wondered if she would be pushing her boundaries if she asked why. It seemed shady to be actively avoiding the government like that, as though they were hiding. She didn't want to push away the only friend she probably had left.

Dakota decided to ask anyway. "Oh? Why is that?"

Bash waved her question away. "No particular reason, just preference. You know," he paused and took another drink from his glass. "You seem incredibly in control for someone who's just become a vampire."

"I'm doing my best. It's hard, really, really hard," Dakota admitted, hoping she didn't just scare him away.

Bash nodded slowly. "Do you want me to leave?" Dakota was torn; she wanted him to stay, but she was afraid she couldn't control herself for much longer. His blood was calling to her, and it smelled so damn good.

Reluctantly, Dakota nodded. "It's probably for the best."

Bash slowly reached forward and touched her cheek, raising her eyes to his deep blue ones. "I'll be back with a mattress, some pillows and a blanket. You'll get through this." She stiffened under his touch as his blood was so close to her. All Dakota had to do was turn her head and bite; it was so easy, so tempting, so wrong.

Dakota nodded, unable to speak due to her entire focus being on surpressing the monster inside her that longed for his blood. She wasn't sure how she could get through this, or if it would ever get easier. Maybe she should just stay chained up forever.