Black Blood

Some foul scent found its way to my nose, intensifying the pounding in my head. I groaned and curled into a ball, squeezing my eyes shut tighter, and wrapping my arms tightly around my knees.

Everywhere was hurting. It felt like my bones had been stretched, snapped, pushed back in through each other, and then stretched again. The colours had been intense too. The colours...

The colours!

I forced my eyes open. They were met with the dim light of a rather purple-looking moon, but even that light was too much for me. I blinked several times before my eyes adjusted.

I was still outside, but this world had a different feel to it. I was no longer cold, for one. The grass and trees had an odd, purple hue to them as well.

The pounding in my head grew worse as I sat up, and I had to squeeze my eyes shut against the pain momentarily. Bile rose up in my throat again, but didn't move any further. Once it was settled I looked around.

Where was Claude?

"C-Claude?" I called out. Even something so simple as looking around and saying his name made my head hurt worse, and now my throat ached as well.

I laid back down and held my head a while, my arms sore from the effort. There was no response from him and I was in too much pain to move so I waited.

The pain had almost completely subsided when I heard footsteps moving through the grass. I sat up immediately once again and looked for the source and ignored the aching in my bones.

There were two people approaching, and neither of them was Claude. I scooted back in the grass and then shakily got to my feet.

"My, my," one of them said. "She's a pretty one. What's a pretty little human like you doing in a place like this?"

Not people. Vampires. It made sense; I was in another realm now.

I took a few steps back as they approached. I looked around again, but there was no sign of Claude. I was alone with a couple of unknown vampires. Fear traveled down my spine and I swallowed hard. They were getting closer and closer, and no doubt had nothing but ill intentions for me.

"I-I'm just passing through with a friend," I said.

"Friend?" the one that had spoken before said. He looked around, and then shrugged. "I don't see any friend. And..."

I blinked and suddenly he was standing in front of me, the comfortable distance between us closed. I would have jumped back, but he had caught me around the waist. His free hand wound its way through my hair and he pulled my head back, exposing my neck to him.

"P-Please don't," I said, knowing what he was about to do. I pushed at him, but it was like pushing against a brick wall. There was no way I'd be able to get him off me. I was really starting to hate that about vampires.

"She's not claimed, this little one," he cooed. I looked at him from my awkward new angle, out of the corners of my eyes, and watched him bare his teeth. His fangs were already out. "Free meal, so it would seem."

"Will you save some for me this time, darling?" the other vampire asked. I looked at him too and saw that he was pouting.

"Of course, my dear. I will share with you right now, even," the vampire holding me said. He glanced at his partner briefly. "Take her wrist. I want first taste of this lovely, virgin neck of hers."

I cringed inwardly at the description of my neck. The other vampire took my wrist, though I tried and failed to wrench it from his grasp, and brought it to his lips with a smile. All the while he kept his eyes on his partner.

The vampire who held me to him returned his attention to me. He ran his fingers down my cheek and over my throat before returning them to my hair. He pulled my head back even further, and the angle added to how sore and stiff I already felt.

They both bit down at the same time. The pain was agonizing; I had never been bitten by anything in my life, let alone bitten in a fashion that would pierce the skin. The ache from the jaw strength, the deep burning of the punctured skin. It was too much. I screamed loud, but that cause more pain to pulse through my neck.

I struggled hard against them. And fell limp when I felt the first pull.

It burned more than the wounds themselves, and made my stomach twist in knots. I almost threw up on them at the realization that they were really sucking on my skin, drinking my blood. They pulled from the wounds a couple more times, and then stopped.

There was a pulsing in my head and a deep burning in my chest. My breath came in heaving gasps. I got pulled with them as the vampires fell to their knees.

"W-What's up with you guys?" I panted. "You got some sort of- dysfunction?"

They released me and I collapsed back, only just then noticing the gurgling sounds coming from them and the reddened foam coming from their mouths. I furrowed my eyebrows. They grasped at their throats, their eyes bulging as they struggled to breathe. Did vampires need to breathe?

I grasped at my bleeding neck and sat up, leaning heavily on my arm. While they were like this I could use it as a chance to run. If I could find the strength to.

The one that had originally grabbed me reached for me, but his grasp fell short. He ended up collapsing on me and looking over to his partner, making more of the strangled gargling sounds. His partner sank completely to the ground, his dead eyes staring back at us. Not too long after the other vampire ceased moving and making sound.

It took a great effort to shove his corpse off of me. The world spun as I got to my feet. That deep burning in my chest began to spread throughout my veins. It became increasingly more difficult to breathe, and I stumbled around the vampires before collapsing again next to them.

An agonized cry ripped its way out of my throat, and I grasped frantically at the front of my shirt, clawing at my chest. Blood speared over my shirt from my wrist.

And then the agonizing pain stopped, replaced by a deep and confusing hunger. Or was it a thirst? Saliva built up rapidly in my mouth, and the hunger deepened. I turned to look over at the dead vampires.

It felt like something had clicked inside my head, like a door being unlocked. I moved closer to the vampire that had bitten my neck, and leaned over him, parting my lips. His own parted in response, though he was dead, and green wisps began to flow through them and up to mine.

Intense waves of energy rolled through me. All colour steadily drained from the vampire- from the slight flush of pink on his skin, to even the dark brown of his hair. The green wisps stopped once he looked like a shriveled up old man, and I fell back on my bottom and hands, gasping and panting.

I looked over to my wrist; the punctures had healed, and all that was left was dried blood. I felt my neck to find the same result there. I looked to my hands again and began to tremble.

"What WAS that?" I thought out loud.