Idon’t know what I was to expect—she’s a fucking Vampire, for Gods sakes. Delusion kept me from thinking anything other than her being a fling. I’m Mundane. Nothing more, nothing less. What could I offer her other than feeding and amazing sex?
The high their venom gives has a strange effect on me; sure, it’s like a drug, but it helps me concentrate. It’s what originally drew me to want to be with a Vampire. It could kill me with the amount she’s fed from me, but Beyond, I didn’t care the moment she would sink her teeth into me.
So it’s not crazy of me to think that it would be my own addiction that would keep her tethered to my side. I was so, so wrong.
We’ve been seeing each other on and off for about a year now, and I’m ready to call it quits. Elizabeth just isn’t who I foresee myself being with for the rest of my Mundane life. I’m freshly thirty-two, no kids, not married—and as much as I’d like to say I can see those being a possibility with her, that would be a lie.
We can’t have kids, and my parents wouldn’t approve of me marrying a Vampire. They aren’t prejudiced, per se, but they know that in a few years when I begin to wrinkle and she stays youthful, she’ll find herself out with another. Even if Elizabeth swears up and down she loves me and would never, I’m no fool.
“Liz, please.” We’ve been at this argument for hours, maybe days… I can’t be sure. The sun had been up when she arrived at my place, and now the alley cats are rummaging through the trash just outside my window, looking for their moonlit dinner. “Let me be cliché here. It’s nothing you did. It’s nothing I did. It’s about my future. I’m Mundane, what do you?—”
“We can fix that! I can! Kairhyse, I can’t see myself living without you.”
Shaking my head, I put my hands up. “We have had this discussion; I don’t want to be a Vampire. I enjoy my Mundane life and want to live it outto its fullest. You, more than anyone, know I can’t do that with you… no matter how much it pains me.”
Her crimson eyes soften, a plea in them for me not to do this.When she raises her hand to her arm and squeezes, small divots press into her alabaster skin.
Maybe I’m a terrible person, but from the beginning I was very clear I never had intentions of being turned. It wasn’t like I led her to believe anything else.
Smiling gently, I cross the room to her. She doesn’t back away, and I embrace her in a hug.
I never saw her obsession with me as anything more than her falling in love, or that she was just addicted to feeding from me as I was a willing free host. Maybe if I had paid more attention to the subtle signs, I’d have seen it coming.
“I’m sorry, Kairhyse.” Her voice is a mere whisper against my chest.
“Don’t be sorry, Liz, it isn’t anything you did. We can’t help what we are.” I stroke through her dark brown hair, giving her one last squeeze before I inevitably let her go for the last time.
Or, at least that was the plan.
The sharp pierce of her fangs into my neck is brief, because moments after, I hear a popping sound, and then… darkness. I don’t think I registered any pain, but I truthfully can’t remember. It isn’t until I’ve groggily woken that I even feel I’m on the floor.
When I blink, it takes a moment to take in the world around me. Everything is blurry, and only when I rub my eyes, shifting my contacts off my irises, does the world come into focus.
“What…” I move to my knees and pinch out both of my contacts before lifting my gaze. The room is crystal clear, and it’s like I’ve regained my perfect vision from when I was a teen. As if the attack that stole the sight in my left eye never happened. I swear I can see the dust in the air, and immediately, fear sets in.
I can hear a soft thumping sound, like that of a beating drum, but subtle. When I look over my shoulder in its direction, I see Elizabeth standing there with her hands over her mouth, tears streaming down her face.
“You’ll come to love it,” she says through a choked sob. “Love me…”
My movements are quick and purposeful. I’m up on my feet and rushing toward my bathroom.
“Wait, Kairhyse, please don’t freak out.”
I flip the light switch on, purely on instinct, because I could see perfectly fine in the dark room as I entered.
Though, it isn’t like I need to see my reflection to understand what is going on.
I don’t need to see the light shade of red slowly darkening as I stare at my eyes. The scar on my right brow is completely gone, and the slight discoloration on my top lip is also absent. Any imperfections on my skin is no longer there. I imagineit’s the same across my body, but I’m not in the headspace to check.
She turned me…
“Kairhyse… baby, say something.”
My mouth falls open, and I can clearly see the tips of my fangs hanging from my top set of teeth.
“You…” I release a breath, unsure of what to do, or say. She just took my life from me. “Crazy… fucking… bitch.” My gaze shifts in the mirror to look at her standing in the doorway.
“You’ll come to see you were making the wrong choice.”
