Chapter 1

 

 

People say that college is the time and place for everything. I’m here to tell you that the people who say that have no idea. For me, college has been the time and place for absolutely everything, whether I liked it or not.

 

My name is Vincent.

 

And by sunrise I intend to be dead.

 

Better that than to live forever the way I live now. Michelle got lucky, but I can’t stand seeing people I care about put on the spot like that just because they know me. Simply being what I am has already proved too costly for me.

 

Wait… You don’t even know what I’m talking about, do you? I guess I am starting off on the wrong foot. Let’s see…

 

I guess the trouble really started with me sitting in that assembly room, listening to Patrick declaring his goals for the SVA to expand their reach to the rest of the campus. I was just about cringing, and I could tell our leader was being more than a little bit influenced in his decision making.

 

No, wait, that’s not the right place to start either. I need to go back farther, to when my whole life changed.

 

Okay, I’ve got it. My story would really more accurately begin in my psychology class. I sat listening to the lecture with half an ear in my typical lecture-hall position; that is to say eyes half closed, elbow resting on the desk and face resting on my knuckles. Professor Quentin knew very well what he was talking about, but he seemed to be the only one who did. It was only a fifty-minute class, but he was that kind of professor who had complete control over time itself and was able to stretch fifty minutes into hours without adding any time to the clock.

 

At last, the class was dismissed, and I was all too eager to remove myself from the room. Nonetheless, I ended up staying a little longer. Alicia happened to be there to hold me up. Alicia had dirty blonde hair which, as usual, was tied back in a ponytail, and a pair of lively blue eyes. She wore one of her typical outfits, which consisted of an open denim vest over her magenta tank top and tight black pants.

 

“Hey Vincent!” she said as she approached from her seat on the other side of the aisle. I greeted her with a smile, as always. Alicia and I were what you might call an item waiting to happen. Or maybe an item that could have been. It all depended on whether the glass was half full or half empty. We’d been making eyes at each other since the day we met on campus, but I never really got around to asking her out before some drummer in a local band named Bobby asked her first. Alicia’s not the kind of girl who has an easy time saying no. At the very least, we were on close, friendly terms by that point.

 

“What’s up, Alicia?”

 

“I just thought we could meet some time to study up for next week’s test?”

 

“You want to arrange a study date with me?”

 

Alicia quickly looked around her. “Careful using the ‘D’ word.”

 

“Alicia, you know as well as I do that you don’t have to worry about Bobby overhearing you, because he doesn’t take this class, which is the only reason you’re asking me and not him.”

 

She scoffed at me. “Oh, don’t be so cynical!”

 

I just shrugged. Who was I to say no? “Okay, sure.”

 

She said something then. I have no idea what it was. Well okay, I have some idea, since she ended up repeating it a moment later, but at that particular moment Alicia suddenly became the last thing on my mind. As the other students were filing out of the lecture hall, one girl looked at me as she passed. Unable to help myself, I looked back. The world instantly reduced its pace. The first thing I really saw was a pair of eyes locked with mine. Those eyes… My God! Those eyes! I think they would technically be defined as hazel, but they looked to me more like gold. I don’t know what it was about her eyes, but the spell they cast was so overwhelming there was simply no denying it. I couldn’t look away.

 

When I managed to take in the girl I was looking at beyond just the eyes, I realized the girl herself was pretty fabulous too. She had long, silky black hair that was parted on the right side, coming very close to covering her left eye, and luscious red lips. She wore a light jacket made of black leather, a red tube top that seemed specifically positioned to add a little push to her chest, a black leather miniskirt and a pair of sandals to show off her black toenails. She gave me a tempting smile as she walked by. I remained fixated on her, until suddenly a pair of fingers snapped in front of my face, and I looked back to a rather peeved Alicia.

 

“Uh, I’m sorry, what were you saying?”

 

She gave me a pretty nasty look. “I asked if I could meet you in the library at six o’clock on Saturday?”

 

I shrugged. “Works for me. Bobby’s not taking you anywhere this Saturday?”

 

“Bobby has a gig on Saturday. Kind of out of town. I told him I’d need that night to study, so I’m not going with him.”

 

“Okay, cool.”

 

“Was she pretty?”

 

I looked at her. “Who?”

 

“You know who.”

 

I grimaced, realizing I was being interrogated. “Yes, she was pretty.” She was dating somebody else, yet I still succeeded in making her jealous by checking out another girl. She and I really should have been together, although that particular thought was still failing to come to me at that moment. My mind had already started drifting again. My eyes scanned about the area of the door, even though I knew she was gone by now.

 

“Anyway,” I said hurriedly, “I gotta run. I got another class to get to.” I didn’t even wait for her to say bye. Looking back on it, that moment was probably one of the biggest mistakes I ever made.

 

I emerged from the classroom into the hall and began wildly looking about. She couldn’t have gotten far. She had to be somewhere… nothing. My shoulders slumped as I observed no trace of the mystery beauty I’d seen a moment ago—

 

A hand touched my shoulder.

 

I turned my head cautiously to the side. There, once more, were those eyes. And that smile. I had been looking frantically for this girl when she had simply been lying in wait for me. Under ordinary circumstances that would have been embarrassing. Right now, though, all that mattered was that I’d found her; or more accurately, she’d found me. She drew her mouth close to my ear and whispered:

 

“My name’s Elizabeth.”

 

That said, she walked around behind me and began proceeding on her way. “I’m Vincent!” I hurriedly said before she was out of earshot. As she strode away, she responded by looking back and shooting me another of her irresistible smiles. She turned to face forward again as she continued on, but just before she disappeared from view, she turned fully back to me, and I’m certain I read her lips saying “I’ll see you again.” The moving crowd of people around me might as well have disappeared. Hell, the college campus itself might as well have not been there at all. All I was standing on were clouds.

 

I went through my remaining classes as normal, with the possible exception of listening with less of half an ear than usual. Every time I blinked, Elizabeth’s shimmering golden eyes and beautiful, tempting smile returned to me. I couldn’t get the girl out of my head. How had this girl I’d barely met cast such a spell on me?

 

I finally returned to my dorm room in something of a stupor. I don’t actually remember walking in through the door, but I came out of it fairly quickly, because I definitely remember seeing my roommate, Larry, lying on his bed with one of his Penthouse magazines. I recall seeing him turning to a page depicting two blonde girls slobbering over an engorged rod. Same old Larry.

 

Larry was… well, I wouldn’t exactly call him fat, but large. Bulky. The kind of guy you probably wouldn’t want to wrestle with. He had a head of bushy brown hair and a little tuft beard. His hobbies: lounging around with porn magazines, going to frat parties from which he usually came back roaring drunk at about 4 a.m.… You get the picture. He specifically scheduled his classes to start late, allowing him to make time to sleep—rather loudly I might add—after all his partying. He had a tendency of ending up late anyway, though, considering the hangovers he frequently woke up with. You know, the kind of guy whose picture you’d find in the dictionary if you were to look up the word “lout.”

 

“Hey, Vince, what up man?” he said without looking up from his magazine.

 

I threw my backpack down and crashed out on my own bed. “Not much. Met a new girl today.”

 

“She hot?”

 

I spared Larry a glance. He still wasn’t even looking at me. “Yeah, she’s hot.”

 

“How far’d you get?”

 

“Not very, but she did suggest she planned on seeing me again.”

 

“Chick thought you were something, huh? Cool.” Not once had he bothered to ask me her name.

 

“How’s it going with your girlfriend, Larry?”

 

“Girl’s kinda uptight, but I can work through her sooner or later. Gotta sweet ass on her, and these tits like you wouldn’t believe.” Larry’s priorities. No mention of what she looked like above the neck. I decided against asking her name, as it didn’t seem beneath Larry to not even know.

 

Instead I asked him, “Going to another frat party tonight?”

 

“Hell yeah!” he declared. “I’m going to go hook up with the boys, and we’re gonna show everybody whole new ways to get nasty!”

 

“Hope you enjoy yourself,” I said bluntly.

 

Larry closed his magazine, sat up and finally looked at me. “Hey, Vince, why don’t you ever join me at these parties?”

 

Eeeewwww! “Are you kidding me?”

 

“No, really! I mean, what else do you do at night, just study? You gotta unwind some, man! Why don’t you just put the books down for one night and learn from the professionals how to have some fun?”

 

I wanted to say “Because being in the same room with one lout is enough for me,” but decided against it. If you ask me now, I couldn’t tell you why I said what I did say. “Okay.” The second the word left my mouth I began questioning my own sanity.

 

“Cool!”

 

My stomach turned.

 

***

 

What the hell am I doing here?

 

That was all I could think from the moment I walked in the door of the frat house and was instantly surrounded by dirtballs who struck me as worse than Larry, if that was possible. Almost every person in the room, the guys especially, had plastic beer cups in their hands, and several of them were screaming things I won’t even try to repeat, denoting that most of them had completely boozed themselves beyond all comprehension of reality. The girls weren’t much better, either. Most of them were prancing about, flaunting themselves, allowing themselves to be exploited. It was disgusting.

 

“Look around here and tell me you’d rather be studying now,” Larry beamed.

 

“Okay,” I said, glaring at him, “I’d rather be studying now.”

 

Larry gave me a perplexed look, then scoffed. “Aww, you’ll like it better once you’ve had a couple o’ drinks. You just mingle or something, I’m gonna go get my freak on, man!”

 

I watched with disgust as Larry wandered off into the crowd. Who was I kidding? I simply did not belong here. A room full of drunks and pot heads was not my kind of scene. I was more than ready to turn around and walk out the door, when all of a sudden something radically changed my mind.

 

“Hello, Vincent.”

 

The voice came from behind me. Considering I had only heard her voice in a whisper before, I really shouldn’t have known it was her. But I did. I turned around and found… no one. What the hell?

 

“I told you I’d see you again.”

 

To my right this time. I turned again. Still no one except the crowd of sleaze, who weren’t the least bit interested in me.

 

A hand touched my shoulder.

 

I turned just my head this time. There was Elizabeth, showering me with her golden gaze. The absence of her jacket aside, her outfit hadn’t really changed. That stood fine with me. Just her mere presence was enough to turn this despicable scene into a healthier light. She took a step back, still beaming me with that smile of hers, and crooked a finger for me to follow her. As if I even needed to be told. A part of me knew I should be a little more cautious; I didn’t even really know this girl. Yet something about her was just too irresistible to refuse.

 

She led me up the stairs, and towards a particular room. Clearly uninhabited. A smirk cracked its way into my lips, as I understood now that she wanted us to be alone. In a room upstairs. As she ushered me in, I found it was also a room with a bed. She slowly shut the door behind her, and locked it. She slipped her feet out of her sandals, and turned ever so gracefully to me and began slowly striding forward.

 

“I knew,” she said softly. “I knew from the moment I saw you, you’d be perfect.”

 

“Perfect for what?”

 

“You’ll see,” she smiled. In a quick, clean motion, she slid off her red tube top, under which she wore no bra. She stepped up to me, threw her arms around my neck and tenderly engulfed my mouth. As surprised as I was at how fast she was going with me, I was in no position to protest, and eagerly returned the favor. I felt her hands leave my neck and travel down to my waist, and in the next moment the rim of my shirt was rising up my body. She briefly disengaged from my mouth long enough to pull the article off of me, then immediately resumed. The warm cushion of her breasts pressed firmly against my chest.

 

After a few minutes of this, her lips wetly slid down off of mine, and traveled down to my collarbone. She continued to lower herself, her lips never leaving my body for more than a split second. Her mouth gradually crawled its way down me, leaving a wet trail in its wake, until she finally reached the rim of my pants. She did not intend to allow that to stop her for long, though. Her hands were already hard at work to circumvent this new obstacle, and within moments, my drawers were dropped and my shaft released from its squalid prison. She voraciously engulfed me in her gaping mouth, and began bobbing and twisting her head around on it, humming softly with hunger. I sighed loudly and ran my fingers through her shimmering black mane. She slowly opened her golden eyes and looked up at me joyfully. Her mouth opened wider, and her tongue ran teasing strokes along the end of my shaft.

 

“You taste good,” she said sensuously.

 

She gracefully strode past me over to the bed. I didn’t actually notice what her hands were doing until I heard a zip and saw her miniskirt drop, which she also had no panties beneath, leaving her totally naked now. She turned and dropped herself down to a sitting position on the bed. “I’ll bet I taste pretty good too.” I didn’t need to be told for an instant what she wanted.

 

She lay flat on the bed as I eagerly walked up to her and placed my hands on her hips, gazing at her glistening, hairless pussy. I wasted no time before moving my face in to devour the tempting snatch before me. Her hips churned with excitement beneath me as my tongue exercised a level of skill I didn’t even know it had. I felt her fingernails clawing their way through my hair, and her soft moans filled the dimly lit room. “Oh, yes,” she moaned, “you are perfect.”

 

I curiously looked up at her. I still didn’t understand what she meant by that, but at this point the question of its meaning seemed less of an issue. Suddenly she grabbed me by the shoulders and pulled me up onto the bed with her, and rolled us over, positioning herself on her hands and knees above me. She looked down at me passionately for a moment, and then ever so slowly lowered herself onto me.

 

Once again, her hips began to churn, this time on top of me. Her breathing sounded hard and loud, as her eyes fluttered shut and she threw her head back. My hands gripped tight onto her hips, attempting to increase the motion they were creating. An audible cry finally escaped from her open mouth, and her head dropped forward, draping her silky hair across my chest. More cries began coming in faster succession, and as she ultimately whipped her hair back again and looked down at me, I took the moment to seize control.

 

I instantly lunged up at her, draping my arms around her and rolling us over again. I now lay prone on top of her, and the active motion was now mine to make. I proceeded hammering at her, and she pulled my face down to her and locked lips feverishly with me. When I disengaged from her mouth, she pulled my face down further, and we lay coupled cheek-to-cheek as I continued plunging. Her cries were now coming out right next to my ear, and I utterly loved it.

 

All at once, the cries coming from her took a sharp increase in volume, and the wet vice that held my cock began squeezing tighter. In the throes of her orgasm, she began applying her lips to the side of my face; first my cheek, then ever so slowly down towards my neck. In the process, I began to feel my own burst brewing. I was beginning to pull out before unleashing my load, but the hand she placed firmly on my rump quickly dispelled any intention of doing that. At last, it happened; I exploded inside of her. As this was happening, and she was fervently necking me, I wasn’t sure, but for a moment I thought I felt a pair of tiny pinpricks on my throat. It didn’t follow with any real pain, though, so I quickly forgot about it.

 

At last, it was over. Attempting to catch my breath, I slowly rolled off of her onto my back. Needless to say, I was exhausted. I wasn’t even sure I had the energy to get up and put my clothes on. I simply lay there, staring at the ceiling, and breathing. I felt… drained. I saw Elizabeth’s form crawl up above me and give me an open-mouthed smile. “You were delicious,” she mused.

 

I couldn’t help but smile back at her. “And I suppose I was perfect, too?”

 

She smiled wider. “You still are perfect.”

 

My vision was a little blurred, but I thought I began to notice a slight abnormality in her mouth. Two of her teeth seemed… different. Longer. Pointy. Like a pair of fangs. Before I could lean in for a closer inspection, though, she rolled off of me with a giggle.

 

I couldn’t see what she was doing after that, but it mostly sounded like the rustle of clothes being put on. At last I heard her say, “You should probably at least put something on before whoever owns this room comes back and finds you like this.”

 

I laughed despite myself, and slowly, groggily, arose to a sitting position. I turned around and saw her standing there, fully dressed, and again shooting me that sideways smile. “I’ll see you again,” she said as she walked out the door and closed it behind her.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 2

 

Shakily, I arose to my feet and began gathering my clothes. Something about this encounter had been strange. I felt unusually weak. Everything I moved seemed heavy. All I really knew was that I wanted to get back to my dorm room and get into bed. A daunting task to say the least.

 

For the second time in one day, I returned to my dorm room in something of a stupor, although a different kind this time. I don’t know how I actually got there; I came close to losing consciousness several times. But I remember I did get in through the door, shut it behind me, threw off a few clothes and crashed hard into my bed. I think it must have taken me all of two seconds to pass out.

 

The world became enshrouded in mists. I had to extend a hand out forward, unable to make out anything that wasn’t right in front of my nose. Moreover, an oppressive heat surrounded me. A stuffy, humid breeze wrapped itself around my body, barely allowing me to breathe.

 

Something I couldn’t see gave way beneath my feet. In the next instant, I was falling. I fell. I fell further.

 

Splash!

 

I had landed in a river of some kind. Not a large one, not too deep or wide; shallow enough to stand in. Additionally, I could see it. The blinding mists had dissipated, and the cool water was available to ease the heavy heat. I scooped up a handful of the cool liquid and splashed it across my face. But I quickly found my throat was in more urgent need. I scooped another handful and poured it into my mouth, cooling my dry throat. I bent down and scooped yet another handful into my mouth, and another. And another. Just as I was preparing for another, I began to realize that what I was scooping into my mouth wasn’t water. It was warm. And thick. And it tasted much better than water. I looked down at the river in which I stood, at the deep red liquid I was wading in.

 

Blood.

 

I began to scream, the handful of red liquid dropping from my cupped hands, yet leaving them deeply stained. As my panic began to rise, so too did the current. The blood level of the river was rising, and pushing me harder and harder. My feet slipped away from whatever was beneath them. I was being carried along helplessly in a morbid river, to God only knew where. I didn’t want to know. I curled myself up helplessly and placed my hands over my eyes, awaiting whatever was to come.

 

Suddenly the speeding liquid rose me up, then abruptly came crashing down hard on me, as I landed… where was I? I rolled over, my eyes wide open. I was lying comfortably in a warm bed, the sheet up to my chest, my clothes gone, and perfectly clean. A mirror was attached to the ceiling, allowing me to look up at myself. As I looked, I suddenly realized I wasn’t alone. In the reflection, I could see Elizabeth’s shining golden gaze and beautiful smile looking back at me. I turned my head to the side, and there she was, smiling back at me. She began rolling over to me, placing her naked body on top of mine. She reached a hand down, and took hold of my hardening shaft, and gracefully impaled herself. She began moving rhythmically on top of me, her face against the side of mine, her breathing loud in my ear. I embraced her with fervor, gracious to be in contact with her again.

 

Casually, I spared another glance at the mirror above me. I didn’t really notice anything for a moment; then I did a double take. The hair I saw on the reflection of the girl humping me wasn’t black. It was dirty blonde. And in a ponytail. As she turned her head to the side briefly, I was able to make out her features and saw that it was not Elizabeth at all. It was Alicia.

 

Suddenly my own reflection began smiling at me. An open-mouthed, toothy smile. Toothy as in with fangs. “You know what you want,” my doppelganger said to me. With that, he turned to the girl on him and sunk those fangs into her neck.

 

“NO!” I screamed.

 

The girl who was on top of me raised her head up to look at me with a fanged smile. This one was actually Elizabeth. “’No,’ what?” she asked me. “After all, you’re perfect for it!”

 

“No! Get away!” I sat up hard, pushing her away from me—

 

Rrrriiiiiinnnnggg!

 

I sat up in bed, panting deeply. I slowly turned my head towards the ringing phone by my bedside that had woken me up. With a sigh, I collapsed back onto my pillow, holding one hand on my head and extending the other to pick up the receiver. “Hello?” I groaned.

 

“Vincent!”

 

“Alicia?”

 

“Where the hell have you been?” she demanded.

 

“Alicia, what time is…” I started to say, before turning to look at the clock and becoming utterly dumbfounded. 4:49 p.m. “Oh.”

 

“Don’t tell me you’ve been in bed all day!”

 

“Apparently I have, as a matter of fact. I guess I’m just kind of not feeling well.” That actually wasn’t really a lie. I did feel kind of funky. “I don’t know how, but my roommate talked me into going to a frat party with him. I guess I’m suffering the consequences now.”

 

“You drink too much?”

 

The prospect of telling her what really did happened didn’t sit well in my stomach. In fact, there were a few things that didn’t seem to be sitting well in my stomach. “I don’t really remember a lot of what I did.”

 

“Well, I guess you know what to say the next time you get invited.”

 

“Boy do I.”

 

“We still on for Saturday? Which is tomorrow, by the way?”

 

I grinned in spite of my discomfort. “Absolutely.”

 

“All right! Hope you feel better!”

 

“Me too. Thanks! Bye.”

 

“Bye.”

 

Slowly, I hung up my phone and stood up. I reasoned that a little bit of natural light might do me good, so I opened the blinds. Instantly I regretted it. My arm flew up to my face in a frantic effort to block out the intense light. I waited a moment for my eyes to adjust to the light, but they weren’t doing so. In fact, I suddenly realized it wasn’t just my eyes. My whole body felt like it was burning. I immediately closed the blinds again and dropped to the ground, huddling up against my bed, breathing as if I had just escaped from a snake pit.

 

Every part of me hurt. I didn’t know how to describe what the inside of me felt like, but I knew I felt burnt on the outside. All I could really do was crawl back into my bed. I lay there for a while, my mind completely blank of anything except discomfort. My breathing came slow and heavy.

 

Finally the door to the dorm room opened, and in walked Larry. “Hey, Vince, you’re finally awake man!”

 

I nodded slowly. “Yeah, hi Larry.”

 

“Damn, man, you must have gotten into some pretty serious shit last night! You were so out cold I had to check your pulse to make sure you weren’t dead! Where were you last night, anyway?”

 

A smirk found its way to my mouth. Telling this to Alicia would have been one thing. Telling it to Larry was something else entirely. “As a matter of fact, I was upstairs last night. Getting laid.”

 

The look on Larry’s face was absolutely priceless. “You’re shitting me, right?”

 

“I’m a hundred percent serious! That girl I mentioned yesterday? I met her again at the party, she took me upstairs, and I boned her brains out!”

 

“Fuck, man! That’s great! I take back anything I ever said about you. You’re a real man after all!”

 

“And she was a real woman, let me tell you,” I said, opting to give the kind of details Larry would care about. “I mean, hell, that had to be the sweetest pussy on God’s green earth! And if I didn’t know better, I’d have said she had a pair of watermelons on her chest!” Those weren’t my priorities, of course. That was just me talking to Larry.

 

He flopped down on his bed, propping his hands behind his head. “Now you’re talking my language, man!” I chuckled inwardly to myself.

 

I must have dozed off, because the next time I looked around the room, it was dark. Larry was gone. The clock read 10:23 p.m. Also, I felt better. I felt strong. I wouldn’t exactly say I felt fit as a fiddle—not that I’ve ever really understood that phrase—but the peculiar sickness was gone. I got up and walked around, not bothering to turn on the light. It didn’t seem necessary. I didn’t need it to see that Larry had left a porn magazine sitting open on his bed, opened to a page with some big-breasted bimbo down on her knees with her mouth open and lots of guys all around stabbing their big weapons at her. I turned my gaze away from that, shaking my head. I took a peek through the blinds at the nighttime grounds outside. I was feeling the need for some fresh air, so I made up my mind to take little walk around off campus.

 

I emerged from the dorm building onto the grass and into the cool night air. It felt magnificent. I casually wandered about, savoring the delightful feeling all around me. Okay, I didn’t feel completely at ease. There was one other thing I felt a need for. The problem was that I had no idea what. This was an utterly alien longing to me. No, not a longing. A craving. Something inside me wanted something badly, and I had no idea how to calm it.

 

As I wandered, I noticed a young woman out walking her little dog approaching. Some part of me seemed eager for a little companionship, as I found myself approaching her. “Hi!” I called to her as I drew nearer. “Nice night to be out in, isn’t it?”

 

She looked up at me with an awkward smile. “Um, yes, it is, I guess.” As I came closer, the little dog began yapping at me. “Jasper!” she snapped at the dog. “Don’t be obnoxious!”

 

I hardly even noticed, but I was still coming closer to her. She continued talking to me. “So, are you a student here, or…”

 

“Yes, I am. It’s a good school.”

 

I didn’t know why at the time, but as she looked at me, all of a sudden she began looking rather uncomfortable. “Yes, well I’m sure it is…” The dog continued its yapping as my feet carried me ever closer to her. “I, uh, it was… very nice talking to you…” Her face was steadily crossing the line between looking uncomfortable and looking scared. “…but I’ve really got to get my dog home… and myself home too, of course, you know…” By now I was nearly within arms reach of her. She was beginning to back away. “…so if you could just… not come… any… closer, please…”

 

The next few minutes were something of a blur. I seem to recall having that young woman in my arms. I remember hearing more yapping from that dog for a moment. And I remember something warm and delicious running down my throat.

 

The moment passed. I stood straight and sighed loudly with satisfaction. Whatever the strange craving plaguing me had been, I had satiated it.

 

Then I looked down.

 

There she lay, lifelessly sprawled on the ground. Her head rested sideways, pointing the two bloody little wounds on her neck upward. The little dog had quickly gotten the hell away from me. Horrified, I fell backwards into a sitting position on the grass and put a hand to my mouth. My jaw was wet. I slowly drew my hand away to observe the deep crimson on my fingers.

 

In a flash, I leapt to my feet and bolted for the dorm building. I crashed in through the door, ran up to my level and barged into the bathroom. I screeched to a halt in front of the sink and turned the water on full blast. I ran my hands under the flow, first to wash the blood off, then to get a handful to splash my face. For more than one reason, too. When I looked up in the mirror, I saw a trickle of blood running down from both corners of my mouth. That as well as the oppressive heat of what I’d just done needed to be washed away. I threw the water over myself and leaned forward, resting my weight with my hands on the sides of the sink. Everything would have been quiet were it not for my breathing.

 

Then I realized something. The reflection of myself I’d seen had been… different, shall we say. A certain feature about me had changed. For a moment I wasn’t entirely sure I’d seen it. Slowly I raised my head, dreading that I might be right about what I’d seen. I leaned in closer to the mirror and pulled my lips back. I still saw them. I had to reach up and touch them to confirm that they were actually real, that I wasn’t just imagining this. But it was true. I had fangs.

 

I could barely maintain my balance on the floor. I turned out the light, held my hands to the sides of my head, staggered out of the bathroom and collapsed onto my bed. Over and over, the questions played in my head. What’s happened to me? I had a terrible feeling in my gut I knew the answer to that. The more pressing question, however, was: What now?

 

All at once, the bed shifted, as if from the weight of another person moving on it. I rolled over in a snap to find out who was here with me. The only light in the room came from the moonlight streaming in through the partially opened blinds, but that was all I needed to make out Elizabeth’s golden eyes. Not to mention her smooth, gleaming body, completely unclothed. And the sharp fangs in her mouth, which for once wasn’t smiling. She just looked at me passionately. “Elizabeth…” I started to exclaim, but she quickly put a finger to my lips.

 

“I knew I was right when I chose you, Vincent. I knew you’d be perfect.”

 

“Perfect for what?”

 

“For me.”

 

That said, she brought her lips down and tenderly kissed me. I had more questions I needed to ask her, and I wanted them answered now, but right then, against Elizabeth’s irresistible charm, all protests were futile. And it didn’t take her long to make me forget those questions anyway. All I could do right then was kiss her back.

 

She violently yanked my shirt up and moved her head down, before her tongue started making swirls about my chest. Further and further down her tongue danced, while her hands worked to undo my pants and ultimately jerked them down. She took hold of my stiff member in one hand and ran her lively, dancing tongue up along it, stopping for a moment to dance about some when she reached the top. Then she lowered down to the bottom and repeated the motion. I shut my eyes and rolled my head back, my questions all but forgotten for the moment, as she continued to service me.

 

I looked up at her again as the tongue play ceased, and I saw now that she was changing positions. She brought her leg up over me and sat vertically straddling me as she lowered herself once again onto me. Her hips began thrusting back and forth. Both of us were breathing heavily now. Unable to restrain myself, I reached my hands up and clasped her by the breasts, to which she responded by placing her own hands on the backs of mine and intertwining our fingers.

 

She leaned forward after a few minutes, placing her hands above my shoulders, and looked at me, eye to golden eye. “You know,” she said between breaths and mild cries, “being chosen… is a rare thing… I know you’re scared now… I was scared too… but you’ll make peace with it… I know you will.”

 

I wanted to ask her what she meant. I didn’t. Questions could wait. Right now, it was starting to brew. She placed her hands on my chest and began straightening up again, moaning more loudly now. As my buildup reached a crescendo, I stiffened out as did she. I felt her snatch contract on my at about the same time as I shot off into her. As we both subsided, she collapsed onto me. This time, I felt no strange after effects. I felt like I figured I should have after such an act: somewhat exhausted, but not horribly drained and weak. And now I was beginning to understand why.

 

I quickly remembered the questions I had. It was time for answers. I decided to forgo the long inquiry and just ask her straight up: “What did you do to me?”

 

She raised her head and flashed me her incredible smile. “I think you know what I did.” I had a heart-wrenching feeling that she was right. “I made you like me. We’re the same now.” Then she said it. The exact thing I knew she would, but hoped she wouldn’t, say. “I made you a vampire.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 3

 

Experts say that when somebody experiences something traumatic, there is a series of psychological phases that the individual goes through. For instance, after the initial shock comes the denial. Believe me, finding out you’re a vampire definitely qualifies as something traumatic. And that was definitely the psychological phase I moved into after the initial shock.

 

I woke up late the next morning as was usual for a Saturday. I had kindly asked Elizabeth to leave during the night, and she had gracefully accepted—though not without another cunning, crooked smile at me, and another promise to see me again—so I was alone except for the snoring Larry. I made up my mind to give Elizabeth and the events that occurred last night as little thought as possible. As much as I had expected what Elizabeth had told me, the whole vampire concept did have a few holes, didn’t it? I certainly didn’t feel like the undead; I still breathed, and my heart was still beating, and I didn’t feel compelled to find a coffin to sleep in while I waited for the sun to go down. When I looked in the mirror, I still saw my reflection, and when I touched Larry’s crucifix or stuck my hand in water, nothing particularly nasty happened to me, so I couldn’t have really been a vampire, right?

 

Still, I couldn’t deny the fact that I felt… different. I don’t think it’s something I could really explain in words. It seemed as if my senses were heightened somewhat, like I was feeling the world like I never had before. Like I could feel the world breathing around me. I know, your head’s probably spinning to understand that. I didn’t really understand it either. But at the time, I made a stance and declared to myself that it didn’t mean anything.

 

It was about half-past ten, and I felt interested in a little human contact. Aside from Larry, of course, who as far as I was concerned was more garden slug than human. I picked up the phone and dialed Alicia’s room.

 

Someone picked up after the third ring. “Hello?” It wasn’t Alicia. It was her roommate, Julie.

 

“Uh, hi, is Alicia there?”

 

“I think she’s over at the library right now, but if you want I can… oh wait, here she is!”

 

Some shuffling ensued, and Alicia’s voice began flowing. “Hello?”

 

“Alicia! It’s Vincent.”

 

“Vincent, what is it?”

 

I stopped for a minute. “Now that you mention it, I don’t really know. I just felt like talking to you.”

 

“Well, maybe that’s a good thing, because I actually have something to tell you.”

 

“What’s that?”

 

Her answer was utterly laced with innuendo. “I broke up with Bobby.”

 

I said nothing for a moment. That didn’t mean, however, that she and I weren’t communicating. I could practically hear her thinking “Come and take me” over the silence. “So what do you want to do about it?” I finally asked.

 

“I don’t know yet. For right now, we’ll just stick to the study date plan… unless you want to go do something now?”

 

I almost said yes. Then I stopped myself, and looked over to the closed blinds. I could see the daylight through them very clearly, and it definitely scared me. “Well, maybe some other time. I’ve got some stuff to take care of, but I’ll definitely see you at six.”

 

“Okay, I’ll see you then! Bye!”

 

“Bye.” I hung up, feeling rather uncomfortable. I looked towards that window again. We already established that the whole vampire bit is crap, right? Why was I so scared of the sun? Was it just because I had a bad experience with it yesterday? Yeah, that had to be it. Not once did I ask myself why I’d had that bad experience in the first place. All I knew was that the sun was shining and I had no intention of going out in it.

 

Following a quick cup of coffee—which, if I may say, tasted a little differently than usual; not necessarily better or worse, just different—and a shower, I decided to kill some time by sitting down with some video games for a few hours. A little bit of Grand Theft Auto proved all I needed to get my mind off of the issue of what I was now. After keeping this up for about an hour or so—I’m not entirely sure how long it really was, since I’d gotten rather absorbed in it which was really the general intent in the first place—Larry finally woke up.

 

“Morning, Larry,” I said bluntly, not bothering to spare a look at the arising lummox. I didn’t need to see him to know he was awake; I just needed to be aware that the snoring had stopped.

 

“Hey, mornin’ Vince,” he groaned. “Up bright and early to steal a few virtual cars, huh? Gotta get up for somethin’, might as well be that.”

 

I managed to pass most of the day comfortably, but ultimately, six o’ clock began approaching. I prepared to leave with my books when I happened to spare another glance at the window. It wouldn’t be out much longer, but for the time being going outside still meant stepping into the sun. I couldn’t exactly tell Alicia I was late on account of that, now could I? If I was to go see her, steps had to be taken.

 

At last, I bit my lip (metaphorically, I mean) and took that hesitant step outside. It was a little uncomfortable, and I stayed in the shade as much as possible, but when I didn’t start frying up, I concluded that the sun block and sun glasses I was wearing were doing their job nicely. No, wait a minute, the reason I’m not burning up is because I’m not a goddamn vampire! I had to remind myself of that. I breathed a little easier now, and continued on to the library.

 

Not surprisingly, Alicia was there first. She looked up at me as I approached and smiled. “I wasn’t entirely sure you’d make it,” she beamed.

 

“Neither was I,” I said on a whim. She gave me an odd look, which left me wishing I hadn’t said that.

 

I sat down with her, and we broke out the books. As the time went on, I began to get the feeling neither of us was really paying much attention to the books. We went through notes out loud, which I couldn’t repeat here if I tried. Hell, I couldn’t have repeated them two seconds after we read them. Her lips spoke the words we had written; all I saw was her lips moving. After having kept this up for about an hour or so and accomplishing very close to nothing, I suppose Alicia began looking for something to blame on our apparent lack of progress. Well anyway, that’s one possible reason for what she ultimately said: “Do you want to take this into my dorm room?”

 

I looked at her a moment, then shrugged. “Sure,” I said, “why not.”

 

We packed the stuff up and proceeded to relocate. Every step of the way, we walked side-by-side, our hands each floating around the vicinity of touching, which happened through the occasional accidental bump. We did our best to keep our eyes ahead of us, but every now and then we would turn our gazes momentarily to each other.

 

When we reached her dorm room, she informed me that Julie was going out to a movie, so we had the room to ourselves. We spread the books out on her bed and attempted to continue our studying. If anything, it was going worse than before. Neither of us could stop looking at each other. The tension in the room was such that I could almost bite into it. At one point, we were both staring at each other for what must have been at least a full minute. We snapped out of it at about the same time, and tried to get back to the studying, using a book that we both reached for at the same time. Our fingers practically interlocked.

 

The powder keg finally blew.

 

We lunged for each other simultaneously, one mouth vigorously attacking the other, hands going wild for anything and everything they could grab onto. We both began hurriedly pushing the books and papers off the bed and proceeded with attacking each other’s clothes. Within moments I had tossed her blouse to the floor and was reaching behind her to unfasten her bra. It dropped off to the side, and in the next moment I had my face buried in her supple tits. I ran my lips and tongue in lazy circles around her stiffening nipples. I felt her hands on the back of my head, and a long, slow breath exuded from her mouth.

 

She reached her hands down my back and began lifting my shirt up off of me. I reluctantly separated my face from her chest as she lifted it from my body, then began working to slide off her pants. Once her last article of clothing had been discarded, I grabbed hold of her hips and hoisted her lower section up, propping her legs on my shoulders, and poising my face to comfortably get at her tasty, juicy snatch, which I proceeded to devour with fervor. I heard her mewling softly as her hips began alternately moving up and down.

 

When I was ready to move on to something else, I lowered her back down. As soon as she was able to, she leapt over to me and began hurriedly undoing my pants. She worked it just enough so that she could pull my throbbing rod free, and eagerly wrapped her lips and tongue around it, moaning hungrily as she bobbed her head about. She kept her eyes tight shut, focusing solely on my stiff member, jerking her head up and down and from side to side, periodically disengaging her lips and switching to the tongue which danced merrily about.

 

When she finally popped off of it and raised herself up to look at me, I leaned in and began feverishly kissing her again. I slid my pants the rest of the way off, then took hold of her and threw her down on her back. I knelt over her and slowly slid my way into her. There was a sharp intake of breath as she threw her head back and closed her eyes. Sharp cries of delight began pouring from her mouth as I pounded away at her. My hands held onto her sides, which she responded to by placing her hands on top of mine, and continued keeping them there as I ran my hands up her body to ultimately cupping them over her breasts. She raised her head up and looked me straight in the eyes. I saw her lips mouth my name, then her eyes fluttered shut again and she dropped her head back, moaning “Oh yesssssssss…”

 

All at once she bounded up from her lying position, threw her arms around my neck and locked lips with me, still moaning on every exhale of breath. We sat up entwined with each other, bobbing our bodies up and down. After keeping her tongue held inside my mouth for at least a minute, her mouth slid smoothly off to the side onto my cheek. She continued kissing the side of my face, running her mouth further and further along, ultimately taking my earlobe in her teeth. I began doing similarly with her, applying my lips to the side of her face, bringing my kisses further and further down her, coming down to her neck. Within a few more seconds we both came almost together, and—I don’t really need to tell you what I did next, do I?

 

Didn’t think so.

 

With her orgasm coursing through her, Alicia’s hot, tasty blood pumped heavily into my mouth for a few seconds or so before my eyes snapped open as I realized what I was doing. I instantly released her, and she collapsed onto the bed, seemingly oblivious to the two little wounds in her neck. I hurriedly began gathering up my clothes. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” began pouring from me. She gave me a look that seemed to say “For what?” but for some reason she didn’t bother asking me out loud. As I hurriedly dressed myself I continued “I’m sorry, I… I have to go.”

 

“V-Vincent, what… what’s wrong?” She still lay crashed out on the bed. She looked like she was trying to raise herself up when she said that but couldn’t. Her voice sounded rather weak, too.

 

“I’m sorry, I just gotta go,” I said again and hurried out the door, not bothering to pick up the notes that were mine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 4

 

I ran out, down the stairs and out the door into the early evening air and started running back to my own dorm building. In mid-stride, I realized the place I wanted to be wasn’t my dorm room. I didn’t know where Larry was or when he would be returning if he was out, but in any case he was the last person I wanted to be with one way or another. I quickly chose a different location, one that didn’t require me to change directions at all. Also one that no human could get to without a ladder. As I ran closer to the dorm building, I suddenly leapt into the air. I think I made it three stories up before grabbing onto the sill of a window, and I proceeded using the windows to quickly climb up the building to the roof. I don’t doubt a few people happened to look out their windows and for a brief flash saw someone climbing up the building, but at the time I couldn’t have cared less. The charade was over. Trying to pretend I was still human had almost cost Alicia her life. I needed a few minutes alone to deal with that, and where better to be alone than the roof of the dorm building. I didn’t stop to wonder if anyone was watching me, but as nobody started crowding around the building with cops carrying megaphones trying to get me down, I’m assuming anyone who happened to witness this little stunt just regarded it as the result of having smoked one too many joints.

 

I sat there, in a spot that was never meant for anybody to sit, as thoughts whirled through my head. I suddenly remembered the woman from last night. You know, the one I killed. I could see her empty, lifeless face staring into nothingness, because of me. Because I was thirsty, and she happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. What scared me the most was how I felt about it. I felt sorry for the poor lady, but I didn’t feel plagued by guilt. I needed to feed, and she was the first source of sustenance I came across, so what happened just happened. What did that mean? Was I just a monster now? Was I just going to kill whoever happened to cross my path when I felt thirsty?

 

“Oh, don’t be that way, it’s really not so bad.”

 

I didn’t even need to turn around. “Hi, Elizabeth.”

 

She took a seat next to me. I didn’t bother looking at her. “I told you last night, it’s okay to be scared at first. You’ll learn to like it, trust me.”

 

“Why, Elizabeth? Why did you do this to me? And please, don’t tell me it was because I was perfect.”

 

“I saw a spark in you, Vincent. I saw the person you were, and the kind of vampire you’d make. I knew I wanted to have you with me.”

 

Now I turned my head to look at her. “Well I have people in my life too, you know! Or I should say I did, because I just made a snack of one of them!”

 

She looked at me solemnly, then broke eye contact as she began thinking of her next words. “I was twelve years old. My big brother was away on a camping trip with his friends, and he’d been gone a few days longer than he should have been. My parents kept trying to call him; they got no answer. Then finally he came home, saying something had happened to him to change him forever. He invited me into his room later that night, told me he wanted to share this experience with his little sister. Then he made me what I am today. He turned our parents, too. We were a newly-made family of vampires.”

 

She paused a moment in her story, as if trying to summon the courage to continue. “I was a kid, Vincent, a twelve-year-old girl with a newfound need for blood. Within a week, I’d killed three of my friends. I isolated myself from the rest of them in order to protect them from me. So don’t think I don’t know what you’re going through.”

 

“Thanks, but that doesn’t really help me right now.” I let my head hang. “I feel so alone…”

 

Elizabeth put a hand on my shoulder. I looked up at her again, into her luminous golden eyes and luscious smile. She began to stand up as she said, “Come with me. There’s something I need to show you.”

 

My curiosity piqued, I humored her and stood up, following her to the edge of the roof. Without a second thought, we both dropped off the edge and landed squarely on our feet and continued on. She led me inside the dorm building, and on the bottom floor into an alcove where a soda vending machine stood out of view from any of the dorm rooms. Taking a quick look around her, she pushed a few of the selection buttons in a specific order, and the machine slid forward and to the left, uncovering a secret door. She turned to me with a sly, scheming smile. “Come on,” she ushered as she proceeded in through the hidden passage.

 

I followed her inside as the machine slid back into place behind me, and went on down a staircase into a place I never knew existed. When we reached the bottom, Elizabeth led me through a long, winding hall, and ultimately stepped up to a steel door at the end and banged the knocker on it. After a few minutes, a slot in the door opened and a voice on the other side said, “The moon shines high…”

 

“…And the blood is sweet,” she replied.

 

That said, the slot closed and the door opened. “Hey, Elizabeth!” The sharp-looking black guy on the other side brightened as he saw her face. “Was wondering when you’d come down!” His eyes drifted a moment, as he now noticed me. “New recruit, huh?”