Damien Vladermer's Arc

Chapter 14 of 13

The crimson spot on the black silk had gone dark and dry by the time Skylar stirred. Damien had not moved for hours. He sat at the edge of the bed, waiting to learn what she had become. Her chest rose. Her eyes opened. They were still sky blue, but sharper now, cutting through the low light. She turned her head slow and found him. She said nothing. Minutes passed. Damien watched her hands open and close on the sheet, testing. He knew this silence. He had lived it his own first night. But he could not read her face, and that frightened him more than any hunger. He had removed every obstacle for her. He could not remove her regret. "Skylar," he said. "Talk to me." She pressed two fingers to her own throat. No pulse answered. Her mouth tightened. Damien braced for the words he feared most, that she wished it undone, that she had traded her life and now wanted it back. "It's quiet," she said at last. "In here." She touched her chest. "My heart. It stopped." "Yes." "I keep waiting for it." She looked at him. "It won't come back." "No." She sat up. The sheet fell away. She swallowed, and her throat worked around something dry. Her tongue passed over her teeth and stopped. Damien saw her feel the new points there, the fangs, small and sharp against her lip. "There's a burn," she said. "Behind my teeth. In my throat." Her voice stayed plain, but her hands had begun to shake. "It's getting worse." "That's the thirst," Damien said. "It comes first, before anything else. I'm sorry. I should have warned you it would be this fast." She looked at him then, and he saw the fear break through. Not fear of him. Fear of herself. "I want to bite something," she said. "I don't know how to want that." Damien crossed to her and took her shaking hands. He held them still. "Then I'll teach you," he said. "You won't do this alone. I've fed for a hundred years without help. You have me." Skylar breathed in. She did not need to, and the strangeness of it showed on her face. Then she pressed her forehead to his. "I don't regret it," she said. "I keep waiting to. It won't come either." Her fingers gripped his. "But I'm scared of the burn. Help me." "I will." Relief moved through him, cold and complete. She had not turned from the life they chose. She had chosen it again, awake this time. He drew her to her feet. Below the wide black windows the city waited, the tall tower dark against the night sky. Somewhere out there ran the blood that would answer her thirst. He would show her how to hunt without losing herself. He would show her tonight. "Come," Damien said. "We're both hungry."