Once Bitten
Part One
Part One
It was about one in the morning when the sound of the door opening woke me up. I was only half surprised to realize it was Donovan, who to this day is still adjusting to sleeping at night rather than the day.
While I wasn't all that surprised by his presence there was something that struck me as odd. I sat up in my bed as he simply stood in the now closed doorway.
"Donovan what's wrong?" I asked.
"Huh? Oh I'm fine," he lied in response.
He lied. I knew he was lying from the tone of his voice. He sounded tired and Donovan Niccals never sounded tired, not even at 3:00 am after talking until I was barely able to keep my eyes open.
"Right," I said. "I don't believe you. Seriously, tell me what's wrong."
"I uh..." he stammered.
I patted the blanket next to me and scooted over, signaling for him to sit. He accepted the invitation gratefully and through the darkness I could just barely see him. He looked completely lifeless.
"Oh my God Donovan," I gasped. "What happened to you? I've never seen you like this."
"It's been too long since I..." He sighed, obviously not wanting to continue but knowing he had to. "Since I fed. I went out tonight but it's so hit or miss which is why I never try to wait this long."
My eyes widened. Donovan rarely talked about his "vampire habits" as he called them, and preferred to keep me in the dark about such things. I can't say I minded, but I knew this was a desperate occasion.
"I couldn't find anyone suitable, everyone I saw was either drunk, high or would be the type to talk about it. I couldn't risk that."
I didn't need to ask what would happen if he wasn't able to feed, I could already tell. The Donovan I knew, the one who was all smiles and silliness was already fading.
"How can I help?" I asked instead.
Donovan bit his lip and eyed me in the dark. I knew he could see me far better than I could see him. We sat in silence for several minutes before I finally spoke up.
"Will it hurt? Will I die?"
He shook his head, looking ashamed for asking me to do something like this.
"It may hurt a little but not much, and no you won't die. I would never take your life Key."
I smiled.
"It's going to be okay," I assured him.
Nervously I unbuttoned my night shirt enough that I could slip the fabric off one shoulder. I heard Donovan inhale sharply and somewhere in the back of my mind I wondered if it was hunger that caused his reaction or something else. He inched closer to me and ran his thin pale fingers over my exposed shoulder. I have no idea if he noticed but it caused chills to run down my spine. Before I knew it his lips were inches from my ear.
"I'm sorry," he whispered almost inaudibly.
I smiled again and in turn rested my hand on his free arm.
"It's okay," I repeated.
Without another word he bent down and I felt a stabbing pain as his fangs entered my neck. It may not hurt much my a**! After the initial pain faded however it felt almost nice, and it could have simply been my imagination but I swear I could feel Donovan's cold skin warming beneath my hand.
I don't know how much of my blood he drank but it felt like eternity before he withdrew his fangs from my flesh. He sat back and already I could tell he was returning to his old self. There was one definite difference however.
"Your eyes," I mumbled.
He looked up as if to somehow see his own eyes, which had turned a bright red. Was I not suddenly more tired than I had ever been in my life I would have found it incredibly cute. In retrospect it definitely was.
"It's a vampire thing," he said casually a few seconds later. "Though I'd hoped you would never have to see that for yourself."
I assume Donovan then noticed how tired I had become because he repositioned himself so that he was holding me to his chest. It's a bizarre sensation leaning against someone's chest and hearing no heartbeat, but the feel of being in his arms was nice just the same. He stared down at me and pushed the hair from in front of my eyes.
"Thank you," he said. "You have no idea what this means to me."
I wanted to reply and tell him that I did know but I was growing too tired too quickly. The last thing I remember before passing out was the feel of his lips lightly touching my forehead.
---
The next morning I woke up with a pounding headache. I didn't feel nearly as groggy as I had before however, and for that I was very thankful. Slowly I crawled out of bed and made my way downstairs in search of pain killers.
"Late night?"
I turned to see Leo on the couch with a book in his lap. He sounded almost amused, and instantly I had no doubt that he knew what had happened.
"Sorta," I mumbled.
He stood and walked over to me, the look on his face now matching the tone in his voice. Without asking he pulled back the collar of my nightshirt.
"You belong to him now you know," he said.
"Huh?"
I must have been making a face when I delivered my response because Leo was sent into a fit of laughter that it took him quite a while to recover from.
"The look on your face was priceless!" he informed me.
I glared at him.
"Thanks a lot, you're a pal."
"Oh don't be a baby," he said. "Don't worry it's not some weird vampire mating ritual or anything, it's just a figure of speech. Besides, we all knew you belonged to him anyway."
I declined to respond at first but eventually gave in.
"He needed my help, that's all," I said as I fought with the aspirin bottle.
Leo grinned.
"Of course he did."
He grabbed the bottle from me and opened it, removing two pills and putting them in my hand.
"I don't doubt you," he added. "Donovan took to being a vampire quickly but over the years he's gotten tired of the bloodier aspects of it. He'll put off feeding for as long as he can which sometimes leaves him desperate as you now know."
Desperate? Leo sure knew how to make a guy feel good about himself.
"Can we just not talk about it?" I asked.
Leo looked disappointed.
"Fine," he said. "But I meant what I said."
"About?"
"You two belong to each other now."
He turned and headed back towards the couch, pausing his speech for dramatic effect.
"You saved his life," he finally continued. "Now he owes you one."
