Chapter 5

Liz looked into Sam's eyes and didn't quite understand what she was feeling…or seeing for that matter. The world was sharper in more ways than one. That thing that had been blossoming between them seemed deeper than it should after only three weeks.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Sam asked, sitting on the bed next to her.

She nodded slowly, hugging her arms around her stomach. “I don't want to die, but I don't want to be something I don't understand. What choice do I have? The one that sucks the least.”

Zac stood in the doorway, leaning his broad shoulders against the doorframe, arms crossed. He was frowning, eyes cast to the floor. Gabby sat on the opposite side of the bed, looking sick.

“Okay,” Sam said.

“What do I need to do?”

“You need human blood to complete the change.”

“Will it hurt?” she asked, her gaze flickering to Zac as he let out a snort.

“Yes, it will hurt,” Sam replied.

She saw the knife in Gabby's hand and watched as her friend sliced across her palm, opening up a long wound that immediately began to bleed. Holding her hand out, she nodded. “Take it.”

A ravenous hunger overtook her and Liz almost pounced on Gabby in her need for the thing that would save her life. The copper tang hit her tongue and it was enough to cause a reaction in her changing body. She just wasn't expecting it to be as violent as it was. She doubled over with a cry as the blood made its way into her stomach, leaving a burning trail that began to spread through her veins.

Sam slid onto the bed behind her, rubbing her back. “We're not going anywhere.”

As another spasm tore through her heart, her gaze collided with Zac's. She'd never seen anything but smug arrogance from the elder of the brothers, but now she saw pity. Was it, though? Before she could contemplate it any more, her heart began to slice in two and he looked away with a grimace. A split second later, he was gone.

“Don't fight it, Liz,” Sam murmured, holding her close. “Let it take you and it will be over quickly.”

How could she give in? It was her natural impulse to fight.

“Listen to him, Liz,” Gabby was saying from someplace far away.

Collapsing back into Sam, she took a deep breath and let it out slowly. The funny thing was, she didn't need to take another.

There was only one word she could think of to describe turning into a vampire. Agony.

Zac sat in the parlor, a bottle of whisky in his hands, trying not to listen to the pain that Liz was going through. It was a pain he was all too familiar with. He'd gone through it and it was his fault Sam had endured it, too. Watching his little brother turn was enough torture to last a lifetime. Scratch that. It was enough torture to last his immortality.

Liz had been attacked in the forest by werewolves out of the bayou. Someone had come along and fed her vampire blood. Was it an attempt to save her? Then why had they left her alone to die, or worse, turn on her own?

Taking a long draught of alcohol, he felt the slow burn of hunger dissipate in the back of his throat. Sam loved her, he knew it beyond a shadow of a doubt. He was a little jealous, but who knew how these things worked? Sam would take care of her in his spineless absence. He listened as silence descended on the manor. She'd probably passed out from the pain, her human body giving way to the vampirism that was taking over. She wouldn't feel any pain now.

He heard footsteps on the stairs and a moment later Gabby glanced at him as she passed the door to the parlor. She gave him a small smile, so hell had definitely frozen over. He listened to her rustling around in the kitchen as Sam came into the room, looking beaten.

“How is she?” he asked, dropping the asshole facade.

“Scared. In pain.” It was frightening how drawn and worried his little brother looked. Sam was usually the one in complete control.

“She'll be okay. It'll pass.” He offered the bottle of whisky to his little brother, who took it and downed a quarter of the bottle.

“She doesn't remember what happened.”

“None of it?” Zac asked as Sam sat next to him.

“She remembers running, then nothing until she woke up here.”

“Shit. It's no wonder, little brother. The way you said you found her. She's lucky she can't remember.”

Sam scowled at him. “There's nothing lucky about it.”

“It could be worse. I remember everything. Waking up on top of a pile of corpses, choking on my own blood.”

“Zac-”

He held up a hand to stop him from saying anything else. “Don't.”

Turning away, Sam ran a hand over his face. “She smelt like werewolves…”

“She still smells like them,” Zac interrupted. “It's not your fault, Sam.”

“I should've known… The South is full of them…”

“It's not your fault.” If it was something he knew about it was blame and his little brother had nothing to do with this. “Whoever turned her could still be hanging around. I'm going to search the forest, the town, everywhere. Stay here with her. She'll be confused when she wakes. Turning is hard enough without waking up alone.”

Sam nodded. “Do what you have to do.”

Zac didn't have to ask twice what he meant. Venturing out into the lengthening afternoon, he let his senses fly out as far as he could manage.

They'd vetted the town carefully before setting up residence. There were no known supernaturals within a fifty-mile radius. Not even a whiff of wet dog or the stench of other vampires. Their legacy had obviously had a long effect on the area and it kept a lot more than nosey humans away from the manor. Why the hell were they coming back now?

The werewolves he could understand, it was their natural behavior to migrate toward vampires. Yet another enemy along with witches. Had a pack from the bayou found Liz in the forest and attacked her for sport? It didn't explain how vampire blood had gotten into her system. He trusted Sam beyond a shadow of a doubt when he said he didn't try and heal her and there was no way in hell he'd ever turn someone.

That could only mean another vampire had come across the wolves and found her dying. Had they tried to save her or simply turn her? Whatever the reason… it was important that Zac found them before they could do it again. Changing a dying girl in the middle of the forest and leaving her to complete it on her own…fuck. He was callous, but not a complete, utter maniac. Who the hell would do something like that?

Time was running out if he had any hope of picking up a trail…from the wolves or the unknown vampire. A vampire that obviously had no issues with the sun. Setting out across the yard, he focused on the task at hand, because if he focused on what had just happened at the manor? That was a rage no one wanted to be on the receiving end of.

Liz sat on the crumbling stone fence that separated the overgrown garden beside the Degaud manor from the driveway at the front, staring up at the sky with new eyes. The stars seemed more alive than usual. There were more than she could ever hope to count and more than she'd ever seen with human eyes. They sparkled overhead with silver light, planets, galaxies, satellites… She imagined she could see them all.

When she'd woke up, it was just as Sam had said. She didn't feel any more pain. Instead, she was bombarded with new sensations. Sight, smell, sound, strength, speed. Everything was dialed up to a billion. She'd opened the door and almost pulled it off it's hinges and when she'd turned on the faucet in the shower, it almost came off the wall entirely.

She just needed a little quiet, so she'd retreated out into the yard in the darkness, but even here there was a whole new cacophony of sound. When she felt Zac before she saw him coming, she didn't quite understand how, but she wasn't surprised. He approached her through the garden, picking his way through the overgrown plants, prowling like some kind of wildcat.

He jumped up on top of the wall, higher than any human was able, not bothering to hide what he was anymore. He settled next to her without a word and she could smell the bayou on his skin. He'd been out looking for her attackers and her twisted savior.

“Did you find anything?” she asked after a moment.

He sighed, betraying how exhausted he was feeling. “No.”

“You didn't stay.”

He didn't say anything, he just pulled out a flask of some kind of brown spirit and unscrewed the cap.

“Well?” she asked, beginning to get annoyed at his silent treatment.

“No, I didn't stay.”

She wanted to slap him for leaving her, but how could she be angry with him about that? They hardly knew one another, not like her and Sam.

“It's going to be hard, Liz,” he said, turning the bottle over and over in his hands. “I can't lie to you. You'll want to eat everyone for a while.”

She began to pale. “How long?”

He shrugged. “I don't know.”

“How long did it take you?”

Grimacing, Zac said, “It took Sam a few weeks. He was always good with people.”

“I didn't ask about Sam,” she snapped.

“Easy, beautiful.”

“Answer the question, Zac.”

Taking a deep breath, he said, “I've still got issues with it.”

Would she be like that? Always struggling with her desire for blood? She felt it now, burning in her throat, aching through her veins.

“I know I'm an asshole. I get it,” he said, distracting her from her thoughts.

“That it's easier to have people hate you than let them get close?” Liz asked, narrowing her eyes at the flask in his hand.

He stiffened so slightly, that she almost missed it.

“That's why, isn't it?”

“No,” he said through gritted teeth. “It's because I'm a monster.”

Her skin began to prickle. Wasn't she the same now? “Then why are you helping me? Why do you care?”

Zac looked away, biting his bottom lip. ”Because you don't deserve it.”

“Did you?”

“Fuck, Liz.”

“Did you have to threaten Gabby's family? Or was that just to prove how big and bad you are to the world?”

“Well, I can see you're going to love being a vampire,” he said, rolling his eyes.

“What's that meant to mean?”

“Emotion overload, twenty four seven. You're on a bender right now.”

“You need to apologize to Gabby.”

Rolling his eyes yet again, he said, “Fine, I'll apologize.”

“You so aren't.”

“Nope. But I feel sorry, so it counts in my world.”

They sat in the darkness on top of the crumbling brick wall, both of them unsure as to what to say next. Zac would probably always be biting back, getting in the last word.

When he finally said something, she wasn't expecting regret. “If we hadn't of come back…”

“It's not your fault,” she said. Why did he have to take the blame for everything? What was so bad in his past that he kept kicking himself down all the time? Zac cared for her in his own way, she saw it now, but she'd always want Sam. “You don't have to take the blame for everything,” she whispered, knowing that he'd hear.

His fingers tightened around the flask and he took another mouthful before handing it to her.

“Why do you drink so much?” she asked, reading the label. Scotch seemed like it was Zac's drink of choice.

“It helps with the cravings.”

“Cravings?”

“Blood. When you get hungry, your throat burns. Alcohol helps.”

“How much do you have to drink to get drunk?”

“Lots.”

She pressed the bottle to her lips and grimaced as the liquor burned a trail right into her empty stomach.

Zac glanced at her out the corner of his eye, watching her expression. “You'll get used to it.”

“I don't think I'll ever get used to it,” she said, shaking her head.

“You've got the time.”

She snorted at the irony. Time. She guessed she had enough of it now to figure out what she was meant to do with her life. Her very long life.

“We'll be here to help you, Liz. We won't let you deal with this alone.”

“Good. Because I have no idea how to get through another day without you.”

Zac looked her up and down with an expression she didn't understand and she wondered if she'd said the wrong thing.

“It'll be okay,” he said. “It has to be.”

Liz stood on the sidewalk outside the tiny door next to the hardware store that led up to her apartment. Living above a shop didn't sound like the ideal place to be, but it was her own space and it worked for her. Now, it just seemed too noisy. Gabby had called Mrs. Greene the day after she'd, you know, and weaved a story that she was sick. That had bought her a week, but it was time she went home and began facing the inevitable. Life went on, so there was no use hiding from it.

“But, you said I have to be invited in,” she said to Sam, looking at the door with a frown. “I rent it out, surely I need to be invited by the landlord?”

“Loophole,” Sam said.

She gave him a look.

“Hey, I didn't write the rules,” he said with a chuckle. “The mystical part of the universe did. You signed the lease.”

Opening the door, she picked up the wad of mail that had been delivered in her absence. It didn't escape her notice that one was a little larger and thicker than the rest and her heart skipped a beat. Sam's hand slid over the small of her back and she sighed, forgetting that he could hear those kind of things.

Handing her keys to Sam, she nodded up the stairs to her front door at the top. “If you think we can get in, you go first.”

Threading his fingers through hers, he tugged her up the stairs behind him. Unlocking the door, he stepped inside. “See. Told you.”

With a relieved sigh, Liz followed Sam and closed the door behind her. At least she could get into her own apartment. That was a good start. Good things were thinner on the ground in the past week, so that was a win she was taking straight to the bank.

Dumping all the letters but one on the kitchen counter, she held the biggest one in her hands, the emblem of UCLA in the top corner. What was she supposed to do now? Open it probably, but everything was different now.

“Is that?” Sam asked, looking over her shoulder.

Ignoring him, she stared down at the package and ripped it open with shaky fingers. Forgetting that she was stronger now, she almost tore the entire thing in half. Reading the cover letter, she already knew what it said before she read the word 'congratulations'. She'd gotten in. She'd gotten into UCLA.

It seemed like some kind of cruel joke. A vampire going to college.

“Liz?”

She looked up at Sam and handed him the letter. “I can't go now, can I?” She felt tears threatening and wondered if that was just her stupid vampire feelings overloading again.

“You can always put it off for a year,” he said. “Get a handle on things.”

“I've been waiting for this for what seems like forever.”

“You can still go, Liz. You can still live as much of a normal life as anyone.”

“Normal?” She wanted to yell at him to stop being so blind. “I won't age. I can't stay anywhere longer than a few years because people will start noticing. I can't make any human friends because I might eat them. I will always have to control myself in more ways than I can count. I will always have to hide. How is that normal?”

Sam ignored her protests and pulled her against his chest, winding his arms around her.

“What a screwed up love story,” she sighed into the crook of his neck, taking comfort in the whoosh of his blood she hadn't noticed before.

“Love story?” he asked, resting his cheek against the top of her head.

“I don't believe in insta-love.”

“I do.”

“Good for you.” They just stood there, in the middle of her apartment, tangled in each other for what seemed like an hour before she worked up the courage to tell him what Gabby had told her before she'd decided to change. “I know what you said.”

“What did I say?” he asked, uncertainly.

“In the forest.”

“I thought you didn't remember-”

“I don't. Gabby told me. I asked her and she told me.”

“Why didn't you say anything?”

She shrugged, not game enough to look him in the eye.

“It's okay,” he murmured into her hair. “It's been a tough week.”

“You can say that again.”

“You don't have to make a decision about college right now. You've got a little bit of time before you can accept or defer, right?”

A year. A whole year to get a grip and find out who she was all over again. Ironically, she didn't have a choice anymore. She was a vampire and would always have to compensate.

She was a vampire and there was no going back.

“Sam?” she asked, her voice a mere whisper.

“Yeah?”

“I think I could love you.”

“Well, I know I love you. The rest will come in time.” He pushed her back, cupping her face and their eyes met. She didn't have to ask if he meant it, it was all there for her to see. Vampires were weird in an emotionally charged kinda way.

“I'm going to look after you, Liz Evans,” he murmured against her mouth. “Whatever it takes.” Then he kissed her and she wanted to believe him so much. She had to believe him because there was nowhere else to go.

She'd be okay as long as Sam Degaud was by her side.