Turned

Chapter 7: New Blood

Kate rolled over and moaned. Every bone in her body was alight with a burning pain. She kept her eyes closed, desperately wishing for the numbness of sleep to cloak her excruciating pain, but it never came. She still refuse to open her eyes, and remained still, afraid any movement would make the pain worse.

After several moments of stillness, Kate began to notice how not only was she in agonizing pain, but every fiber of her body seemed to hum with a new power, all awake and aware of her surroundings. She felt more alive than ever. Kate could hear everything around her, the soft breeze through the leaves of trees, the slight rippling of the lake, even a deer several miles away bowing it's head to drink from a stream. Somehow, Kate could tell it was a deer, it smelled like one.

That was another thing, she could smell everything. Suddenly, a certain smell filled her nose and her eyes shot open. Blood. Old, dried blood.

She shifted her head to the side and saw the man. His eyes were still opened in a cross between surprise and anger, and his mouth slightly ajar in pain. The stake laid only a few feet from the man's corpse, also covered in his blood. But there was two different types of blood, and she could separate them with her new, enhanced sense of smell. The one on the stake was the red eyed mans. Their was two on the man though, his blood, and Kate's.

She knew something was different, all her senses were peaked and she felt... different. Kate couldn't explain the feeling, but it was obviously there.

Kate still refused to move and continued to lay there. After several minutes she reluctantly sat up, even though her entire body protested in a burning sensation. Kate let out a grunt as she sat up against a tall pine tree. The simple motion made her head spin.

She lifted up her skirt slightly to examine her wounds. Other than some mild scrapes and large bruises, her legs and arms seemed to be functional. But when she began to feel her ribs, Kate was certain one was broken. Then she went onto her neck, just barely brushing her fingers over the skin Kate could feel two fang marks. When she removed her hand from her neck, it was covered in blood. Kate was slightly surprised it hadn't stopped bleeding yet, but she didn't know what to expect from a vampire bite.

After assessing her damage, she began to take in her surroundings. The sun was starting it's long trek across the horizon, painting the sky a pale pink and blue. There was a thin fog, similar to yesterday morning, covering the lake and hiding trees in the distance.

The corpse was still by her side, and so was the intoxicating smell of blood emanating from it. She was filled with a strange desire to bite down into the bleeding wound of the corpse. She looked away, suppressing her strange feelings.

Instead she glanced over at the reflective surface of the lake. After contemplating the idea, she crawled over to the side of the lake and peered into the water, wanting to see how damaged she appeared. As she stared into the water Kate saw nothing.

Kate squeezed her eyes shut a second then opened them, hoping her eyes were only playing tricks on her. But when she opened her eyes again, she saw no reflection. Nothing. She shuffled back from the shore eyes wide. She was dazed and confused, but slowly the pieces began to come together and her eyes grew impossibly wider.

She looked down at her skin, it was paler than she remembered. Kate then took two fingers and pressed them against her wrist, desperately searching for a pulse, but the attempt was futile. After several unsuccessful minutes, she gave up. Her heart sank, this could not be happening.

Needing one more thing to prove her theory, she glanced at a patch of light. Slowly and tentatively she inched towards the light. This would either prove, or disprove her idea. Slowly she stuck her hand into the warm, golden light. Nearly instantly, her hand began to smoke and Kate's skin was alight with fiery pain. She let out a strangled scream and pulled her hand back with unnatural reflexes. She held her hand and kept it code to her chest.

"No... No no no!" She shouted to herself, "This cannot be happening, this shouldn't be happening!" She trembled slightly, sure what was going on now, but not wanting to believe it.

As the final indicator, she brought her good hand up to her mouth, and felt her teeth. Instinctively, two sharp, deadly, white fangs extended.

Kate was no longer human.

She was now a vampire.