Serum

-Seventeen-

The next few days we spent working on the church. We rarely left except to hunt if necessary. By the end of the week we had finished stripping all the paint from around the windows in the church and had started repainting them. I discovered my old clothes also made very nice aprons, and gave Conner the giggles when I came out from behind my curtain with one of my old shirts ripped down the back and tied into place. I pirouetted for him, and gave a little curtsy so he could catch the full extent of my “adjustments” to the garments.

“You know I really should go back over there to get some more of my things. There’s not much I can use, but I could still grab a few things like shampoo, brushes, blankets, towels, you know, necessities.” I told him as we painted one of the freshly stripped window sills.

“Back wh… Oh, your house… You should probably check on your mom as well. I would say it was quite a shock for her when you just walked out like that.” Conner suggested softly.

“Don’t even get me started.” I snapped. I was still holding onto anger from the last argument we’d had. It hadn’t been the first time she’d told me to leave, it was just the first time I’d actually done it. Conner merely shrugged, I could tell he had different ideas on the matter, and was on the verge of saying so. However, he kept whatever he would have said to himself. His silence weighed on me like a judgement, eating away at my resolve until I gave in with a snarl.

“You’re probably right, as usual.” I grumbled, slapping my brush much too hard against the side of the paint can, and then heaving a sigh as the paint splattered all over me. Conner snorted, trying to cover the laugh with a cough, but I rolled my eyes up to glare at him and he broke, laughing so loud it echoed. The sound teased a smile out of me and I relaxed slightly, trying to shake out the anger. When we got back to painting, we began to talk over a tentative schedule for visiting “dear old mum” and taking a nice long hunt since we’d done so much over the week.

“We kinda deserve it, I mean, we’ve nearly finished with all of these windows in less than a week’s time. And if I do say so myself, my aren’t they looking pretty?” Conner teased with pride. I grinned, bumping him with my hip.

“Ok, humble-brag. But hunting first,” I replied “I can’t face my mother without it.” The smile slid off my face and I frowned down at my paintbrush. Hopefully we could get through a visit without arguing.

When the sun began to set we slipped out of the church and began walking towards my old home. We made it nearly there with no prey in sight before finally stumbling upon a group of arguing men.

“Ooh, the best kind.” Conner joked “Too busy arguing to notice. You take the left, I’ll take the right.” With that he slipped off into the dark without a noise. I looked after him for a moment, admiring his skill and the way the shadows seemed to welcome him as one of their own. I may have had a moment or two of watching the way his clothing was forced to conform to his shape, but I would probably not admit that out loud. 

Following Conner’s example I slid into the shadows to the left. With that strange sense of calm calculation, I moved into a position opposite Conner. Training my hearing on Conner and the men’s hearts, I tried to steady myself. Conner’s blood flow was smooth and slow in his veins, the men’s quick and fast, flurried with their anger. From the sounds, I guessed there to be about four men, from the smell of them, at least two were related. Conner’s heartbeat increased a slight amount as he rushed at the men. Taking this as my cue, I ran in from the other side. Everything seemed to fade out around me. Confusion followed, as Conner quickly incapacitated two of the men, while I fought one to the ground. Everything blurred as I shot back up onto my feet. Until I saw something that neither Conner nor I had taken into consideration. There was a gun, and it was pointed straight at me. Suddenly it was the only thing I could see. Remembering Lana’s training, I quickly bolted to the left to get out of the way, but not quickly enough. A sudden explosion felt like it split my eardrums, and a blast of bright light blinded me. All at once, I crumpled to the ground.

Fragments of memory snapped and crackled through my mind, gone too quickly for me to hold onto. Situations around me winked in and out of focus as my vampiric side took over. Instinct prevailed, my body automatically began to shut down, leaving only my vital organs functioning. My brain slid into a comatose-like state, as I curled in on myself in self preservation. My breathing and heart-rate slowed, and my limbs became numb. Conner’s face floated across my field of vision, gone in an instant, and then I heard the loud sound of a body smacking pavement. Images jerked across my eyes, then suddenly my world began to tilt. I heard and felt a low growl, that I could tell was coming from Conner’s chest as he lifted me. Sickeningly, the landscape began to slide by me, making me desperate for the unconsciousness I felt creeping in. Finally, the world began to fade from view. My last thought was that I could tell I was back inside the church.

I slept fitfully with a complete lack of dreams in my vampiric state, broken only by the images and information I gathered in the few brief instances of having a semblance of consciousness. At one point, the human part of me rebelled and tried to regain control of my body, and I could feel myself dying. A whisper came across from the vampiric side, a soft murmuring: “Listen to me, let me have control and I can save you”. It taunted me with the knowledge that it could save my body and my mind. A war ensued, and my human mind was torn in two. Finally, I was forced into dim acknowledgment, as the human in me had to relent, realizing the truth. Without the vampiric blood and healing abilities, I would die. Nearly insane and feverish, I wrenched myself away from the struggle, and the vampire once again smoothly resumed control of my body and mind, this time with an iron grip. I wasn’t sure I would ever be able to get out of the vampire side’s control as it began to try to heal my body and fractured mind. The two halves of me writhed like snakes, twining and twisting around each other until I could no longer tell which was vampire and which was human.

At one point I felt a hot liquid being forced at my mouth, and tasted blood. I greedily began to drink, unable to stop myself. Instinct took over, riding me like a demon, and I continued to drink past the allotted three heartbeats. Until the flow was quickly, but gently, taken from me. I wanted to fight to get it back, but I didn’t have the strength for it. Fueled with new blood, my body began to heal double-time, but I was soon starving again. I once again lapsed into a semi-conscious condition and the fitful fever continued. Then the senseless nightmare began of trying to regain consciousness as all my body wished me to do was sleep forever. I struggled with my eyes, trying to get them to remain open. They felt like they were weighed down with bricks. Soft sunlight filtered in and out of the church for what felt like ages, sunrises to sunsets. I knew I should get up, but my body was so tired, I could barely move it. The soft mumblings of background noises flitted across my consciousness, and then one single voice, cut through the rest with a quiet demand over and over again.

“Wake up Adrian. Wake up.”