Enlightenment

Part 28

              I was shocked awake by his scream. For the past couple of days I had been sitting by David’s bedside waiting for him to wake up, leaving only for a couple of minutes to get some blood to keep me going.

              He screamed again jolting me into action. I lunged to his side, quickly grabbing each of his arms and pushing him back down to stop him hurting himself further as he writhed in agony.

              Drawn by the noise Julia and Chris ran into the room. Immediately taking in the situation they both went to restrain his legs.

              It took a few minutes for him to come into full consciousness but suddenly his fevered eyes locked with mine. It seemed to take him a great effort to form words;

“What’s…happen...ing…to...me?”

My voice came out harsher than I intended, “you are becoming a vampire.”

“Why?”

“You were going to die.” I had no choice…

It took him a moment, “I… remember.”

              He gasped as another wave of convulsions shook him, his body twisting into unnatural positions. We held him down silently. I heard Jamie and Anna enter the room behind me and stop by the door.

Eventually David managed to speak again, “why does… it hurt?”

I sighed, “Every cell in your body is changing. It’s not going to be easy.” He clenched his teeth in an effort to prevent another scream from escaping.

              His skin felt icy under my fingers. His heart had restarted a couple of hours after we had brought him in, now it pounded in his chest, sweat coated his body.

              He remained mostly conscious for the next few hours; he was unable to stop himself from shouting out in agony frequently. His heart rate continued to increase the whole time, racing faster and faster as if it knew that its time was running out. Suddenly it stopped.

              I stood up quickly, ordering Jamie and Anna to leave and go to a sitting room on the other side of the house. Chris followed to guard them. I didn’t want them anywhere near David when he awoke.

              The minutes crawled by agonizingly slowly; Julia was tensed in front of the door, blocking any escape that way. I stood a couple of feet away from the bed, carefully watching his stationary form.

              The only warning I had was a small twitch of his fingers before he suddenly leapt into the air, without hesitation I tackled him to the ground.

              Although it was to be expected shock still ran through me as I stared into his eyes, currently a vivid silver as opposed to his normal green. He tried to snap at my neck with long deadly looking fangs, no trace of recognition in his eyes.

              I struggled with him for a minute, but I was easily able to subdue him. Being much older still meant I was much stronger than him. It made sense really, the older vampires had to be able to control the ones they turned or the world would descend into chaos.

I called his name, “David!”

He blinked and I saw recognition dawn his features, “Jade? I feel so… so…”

“Hungry?”

“Yes.” Behind me I heard Julia swiftly disappear and reappear, she passed me one of the blood bags she way now holding. I carefully let David sit up, holding it out to him. His expression turned to revolution as he backed away.  “No. No way!” he was rapidly shaking his head.