The Vampire & the Rebel (Completed)

Part 3: Chapter 25

My chest felt heavy and deathly still, as Drak and I watched Jamie devour blood like a ravenous beast. I had been told all the injured turned had been like this to greater or lesser degrees, confused and angry, and above all, starving to the point of near madness.

It was likely a combination of the energy it took to heal their injuries and pure shock at waking up without their humanity.

The idea made me sick. It was like Drak and I had become our sires, turning humans for our own purposes. I had pushed away my dislike of the process for the sake of necessity, but apparently still the inconvenient sentimentality lingered.

And under my dismay I was so thankful that Drak had saved him for me, even if he hated me again. The words he had thrown at me hurt, all the more for the fact that some of them were true. Perhaps I could no longer find it amusing as I had in the past, but I surprisingly even more enjoyed its absence. Still, I could deal with his hate if I could have nothing else...

Jamie had nearly drunk all the bags present, and showed no signs of stopping anytime soon. "Drak, go and get the guards to get more," I instructed.

"No. You go."

I scowled. Drak was being irritatingly assertive lately, and as much as I wanted to argue I would take the escape while I could. I cared for Jamie, but I was conflicted in my pain. I did not know what to do with him now.

I fled from the room. Drak was his sire, that made him his responsibility.

Instructing the guards to fetch more blood, I walked out to my favoured balcony. The sky had long since grown dark, and the stars were in the sky as they ever were, but it was like the world had shifted and taken me with it.

The feeling that I was unaffected by the flow of time no longer clung to me. I had brought myself to this strange state where I was at the pinnacle of change, and everything was crumbling all around me.

But, it was not like me to question myself, and it was time to move forward. At least Jamie was not completely dead, and perhaps a part of the human I adored remained. More urgently, I still had Ivan and the other councillors to deal with before I was done. The vampiric world needed to be destroyed before it could be remade anew. After that I could deal with whatever problems arose from a newly vampiric Jamie.

For now, I could set aside the details and simply revel in the coming chaos.

I went to the kitchen and indulged in my second favourite drink, mixed with my first favourite, although not consumed through my favoured delivery system. Like my fledglings and the other vampires who had joined my cause, I was being forced to rely on bagged blood more and more. It was necessary, with higher demand, to adhere to the blood donating schedule more closely, although this main base was being supplemented by blood from other locations due to the unprecedented concentration of vampires. I did not want any of my essential humans to be too drained, and almost all were essential at this time, either as fighters or support.

My favourite essential human...

I shook my head, as if I could clear out the intrusive confusion with such a simple movement. I did not know what to do with him now, and my thoughts ever worried about how he was reacting. The change had clearly gone far better when it was healthy humans who accepted what they were getting into, not people yanked back from the edge between life and death.

No wonder he had taken it so badly. I could not blame him for his rage. When I had finally understood what my sire had done to me, I had been full of fury myself, although it had quickly died as I had accepted my circumstances. I had not bore all of Jamie's preconceived ideas about the vampiric state.