Once Bitten *On Hiatus*

𝕾𝖎𝖝𝖙𝖞 𝕿𝖍𝖗𝖊𝖊

• 𝓜𝓪𝓮 •

Everything hurt. So badly. Every single muscle in my body felt as though I had little knives slicing through me at all times. My mouth hurt. I tasted blood on my tongue. People kept talking and their hushed voices were like shouts. They spoke of how long it was taking me to wake up. How I should have woken up ages ago. That the person they had picked out for me killed themselves because it would have been better to die by their own hands than by a newly turned...

I cracked my eyes open, the light damn near blinding me. I clenched my eyes shut and curled into myself, whimpering at the pain that small movement caused.

"Maeve Armani?"

I didn't respond, breathing through the shockwaves.

There was a creaking sound that sent a shot of white hot pain through my head and I grabbed two handfulls of my hair, crying out.

"Turn the lights out," the person called, and I clenched my teeth.

The lights shut off and a hand rested gently on my head. The pain vanished almost immediately, and I was able to open my eyes.

A girl knelt by the bed, her bright blue eyes watching me carefully as she slid her hand along my body, easing the pain. She didn't speak. She just continued to work, glancing up at me occasionally like I was going to strike out at her at any second. When she was finished, she reached beside her and brought up a bag of some sort of dark liquid.

I blinked at it, then back at her.

"Who," I croaked.

She tilted her head. "I'm not sure who this blood belongs to, Maeve. I can find out, if that makes you feel better?"

I cringed, and she immediately reached out and tried to soothe me again. But I wasn't in pain. The fact that I needed blood at all told me exactly what had happened.

"Which one turned me," I asked, my fangs nicking at my lip as I spoke.

She raised her eyebrows. "Can you please drink the blood? The longer you go without it, the worse the pain will get. You've already been out for a month."

She held out the bag again and I slapped it away, disgusted. I wasn't going to drink blood. I wanted to fucking die. Why the hell would one of them change me? They knew how I felt. All four of them knew I wouldn't have wanted this. So which one of them would have done this to me?

The girl sighed and stood, going back and grabbing the spilled bag of blood.

I sat up, my body shaking from the simple act. The pain was no longer there, but the muscle weakness was bad. I could barely push myself up into a seated position, let alone stay there. My body shook from the exertion, along with the sudden bone-deep chill I felt. I guess that's what happened when you didn't have blood pumping through your body anymore.

She handed me the bag again. "Drink it or I'll bring a human in here."

"Super scary," I said, rolling my eyes. "Good threat, but I'm not drinking shit."

She stared at me like I was crazy, then turned and looked behind her, through the closed cell door. Another vampire sat there, watching the whole ordeal with an interested gleam in her eyes. The other vampire shrugged and stood, leaving us. Minutes later, there was sounds of scuffling, someone asking for another chance.

The moment the human was in eyesight, my hunger skyrocketed. I could hear his heartbeat racing in his chest, the sound of blood rushing through his body. I could smell his fear. And when he saw me, he started fighting harder. His eyes wide, terrified.

I was standing. Walking to the cell doors, which the girl in the cell with me unlocked.

Opened.

The vampire holding the man held him out to me, and I stared at him through the open door.

I reached out, grabbed the vampire next to me by the throat, and turned to her. "Send him the fuck away right now."

She held up the bag. The fucking bag.

I took it from her and drank it, and felt absolutely disgusted with myself every step of the way. Because it tasted good. It didn't taste like how it did when I was human. It was sweet, like honey. And warm. And that ache slowly started disappearing with every swallow I took of it.

I threw the empty bag on the floor. "Who fucking changed me?"

The other vampire was gone, and my cell door was closed again. Hopefully she went to take the human back to where he'd been previously. The door was still open. I could just leave. But I wanted to know who changed me. Who betrayed me. Which one of them went against what I wanted.

The vampire grabbed another bag and held it out to me. I grabbed it and squeezed, the bag popping from the force and causing blood to splatter all over the two of us. I didn't want to drink the fucking blood. I wanted to know who the fuck changed me.

She glanced down at herself and sighed. "I will tell you once you drink two more bags."

Fuck her and her ultimatum.

I drank two more bags, hating myself more and more each time I finished one off.

"Who," I asked.

She unlocked the door again so that she could leave. As she opened it, she finally answered.

"Titus," she said. "Titus turned you."

I acted without thinking. I grabbed the door as she was shutting it, completely overpowering her and throwing it open. It slammed against the wall, cracking the cement with the force. And then I felt her fear as I stepped out of my cell. I hated that I made someone feel that way, but I had other business to attend to that wasn't sitting in a cell for another fucking month training myself how to be a good little vampire.

She held her hands up. "You can't leave, Maeve! You have to-"

I glared at her. "I don't have to do anything. Sit the fuck down and shut the fuck up. If I want to be trained, I'm going to be trained by people I trust. Not someone who puts a human in front of a newly turned vampire who has no idea what kind of damage they can do."

She opened her mouth to respond, but she wisely closed it. My emotions were going haywire, and I couldn't control myself if I tried. I was so angry. So fucking angry.

I followed the scent of the man from earlier through dark corridors and up stairs that led to a familiar hallway. The light when I opened the door made me squint, but I pushed through and walked forward.

I kept my head down, watching my bare feet move forward, like if I took my eyes off of them, I'd stumble. I still felt weak, but I figured a month of being in a vampire-induced coma would do that to a person. The blood helped immensely, though I didn't ever want to admit that out loud.

"Oh, fuck," a familiar voice whispered.

I continued walking.

"M-Mae?" Noah's voice made me look up, meet his eyes. See how bad he looked.

See how bad all of them looked.

I continued to walk towards them, taking in their confusion and horror at the idea that I did in fact live, in a way. And even if I hadn't been told who changed me, the moment I saw their faces, I would have known none of them did it. They all looked too shocked to see me alive.

When I reached them, I stopped. Looked at all of them closely.

"Where is Zero," I asked. "And where the fuck is Titus?"

*****
A/N: Listen, I told you guys to trust me 😂

Now we will take a break until Friday because I have written too much this weekend 🫡
Have a good week and I shall see you guys Friday!