The Ultimate Lifeforms

Shadow's Fangs

(One Week Later)
"Shadow?" Sonic called as he roamed the ARK, looking for his brother. He made his way to the library, where Rouge was. "Rouge, have you seen Shadow?"
Rouge looked up from the book she was reading to the cobalt hedgehog.
"No, I haven't," she replied. She noticed the distressed look on Sonic's face in response to her reply. "What's wrong?"
"That means he hasn't woken up yet! It's almost noon! He never fails to be up by now!" Sonic cried, clearly concerned.
Rouge didn't understand why he was getting his quills all ruffled.
"I'm sure he's fine. He just had a late night," she reassured. But Sonic wasn't convinced. He took off again, resuming his search for Shadow.
He navigated his way to the dorm that the two of them were sharing. Unlike most of the other dorms, this one had two beds instead of one. Sonic had wanted to be close to Shadow and Shadow had wanted to be able to keep a closer eye on Sonic. Sonic slept on the right bed while Shadow slept on the left one.
He perked his ears and sniffed the air to make sure he hadn't missed anything. The ARK was pretty much silent. He could smell Eggman, Scourge, Rouge, and his own scent, but not even a hint of Shadow's.
"Shadow?" Sonic called out again and received silence in return. The ebony hedgehog was a notoriously light sleeper. Something was definitely up.
"Shadow?" Sonic called once more as he reached the door to their shared dorm. A broken groan barely reached his ears. Sonic's breath caught in his throat.
"Shadow!" He moved close enough for the automatic door to open. His eyes snapped down to the prone figure splayed out on the floor. He gasped as he crouched down by his big brother's side. "Wha?! Shadow, what happened?!"
In retrospect, he knew better than to ask because the chance of an actual answer was slim. Shadow was hanging onto a thread of consciousness, eyes faded and glassy when they lethargically met Sonic's gaze. His extremely pale muzzle worked open, but no words left those lips.
At this point, after taking in Shadow's condition, all of Sonic's surprise dissipated. His concern was still through the roof, but he knew exactly what was happening.
"Are you serious, Shadow?!" Sonic fought to keep the growl out of his voice, but it was hard because this could've been avoided. "I never wanted it to get this bad, but you're so stubborn, I swear."
Shadow didn't try to answer this time. His jaw was clenched. Sonic took a deep breath to calm his nerves. Shadow was going to be fine. No one had somehow attacked him; he wasn't dying, and everything was going to be okay.
"C'mere." His voice composed itself, calmer as he gently maneuvered a limp Shadow into his arms. Shadow wasn't light by any means, but Sonic easily carried him over to Shadow's rustled bed.
He sat on the blankets and maneuvered until his back was up against a wall, Shadow still secure in his hold. That was the one good thing to come out of this situation; Shadow was too weak to fight his help.
Sonic then maneuvered the clinical-vampirism-inflicted hedgehog until he was kneeling in front of him, his only support being Sonic's hands anchoring his shoulders. Shadow managed to keep his head upright, eyes muddled and breaths ragged. Despite how out of it he was, there was a hint of defiance, which had Sonic frowning.
"Why, Shads?" Sonic exhaled harshly at the condition of the strongest person he was lucky enough to know and be related to. Lithe yet powerful muscles that could combat the fiercest fighter could barely twitch by themselves, and the gaze that had caused even god-like beings to cower at his feet now wouldn't be able to make a skittish mouse scurry.
Sonic met that stare and gave him a meaningful squeeze; not too hard, but enough to get him to listen. "Why are you doin' this to yourself?"
Again, he was met with silence. Sonic kept his frustration at bay because Shadow didn't need that. He needed blood. A person's blood.
He didn't know why, but Shadow had always sought out wild animals to drink from, along with his usual diet of actual food.
When asked about it, Shadow never revealed the reason why, and Sonic let it go. It seemed like the alternate diet was working for him, until he and Sonic became best friends. It didn't start immediately, or at least, Sonic didn't notice right away. However, as time went on, he saw that Shadow became more winded, his reaction times gradually slowed, and he would go on more hunts. He would get better, but only temporarily.
Sonic figured that the diet wasn't working anymore. He had the idea to offer himself up, but Shadow wasn't having it. Sonic let it go, but brought it back up when the ebony hedgehog's condition was getting worse. Again, Shadow shot it down.
He continuously disregarded the obvious solution until today, because Sonic was going to fix this right now. Sonic weaved his fingers into Shadow's head quills, careful not to prick himself on them.
"I hate seeing you like this, big bro," Sonic whispered, but his words retained their strength.
"You're gonna drink from me," he said with conviction. Those weary, ruby irises narrowed, but he wasn't deterred. "Whether you want to or not."
He didn't wait for a response because he wasn't going to get one. Sonic carefully brought Shadow against his chest in one swift move, wrapping a solid arm around his lower back and pushing Shadow's muzzle in the crook of his neck.
He felt the dark hedgehog's breath stutter against his short, blue fur, and the sudden tremble of his weak frame wasn't lost on Sonic. It was obvious that Shadow was battling against every instinct he had not to bite, and Sonic would've been impressed at the self-control any other day.
"I can sit here all day, Shads." Sonic pressed Shadow closer to his body when the shivers strengthened. "But why don't you do yourself a favor and get a little bite, okay? I promise I won't taste bad."
Sonic's hopes rose when he felt Shadow open his mouth, but instead of sharp fangs, he received a breathy murmur. "Out...side..."
It didn't take a genius to put together the meaning. Sonic shook his head.
"No can do. Hunting ferals isn't enough for you anymore, and-" The rest of his words died in his throat when a sharp pain emitted from his shoulder. He hissed but refrained from instinctively pushing Shadow off, instead holding him tighter.
The back of Sonic's head thudded against the wall as he gritted his teeth because, yeah, the pain was there. But there was also the full-on shivers that traveled up and down his spine, the breathlessness as Shadow shifted against him, and the way his toes curled when those fangs dug in deeper.
This couldn't be normal. No way. Sonic had heard screams of absolute terror and agony when someone was attacked by a vampire, not this. Nowhere close to this.
Shadow pressed harder into him, his recovering arms sliding up Sonic's furless arms and grasping his shoulders. Sonic panted as his older brother huffed against his skin, closing his eyes because he absolutely wasn't expecting this.
Sonic lowered his hand from Shadow's head since it wasn't needed anymore. Instead, relocated to his shoulder blades for comfort and support.
He swallowed hard when he felt blood trickle down from the wound, some escaping Shadow's mouth. Sonic took the deepest breaths he could as the clinical-vampirism-inflicted hedgehog continued to drink, and he let him until his head started to feel dizzy.
"Hey..." Sonic's voice was a bit raspy and guttural, so he cleared his throat. "I know that I taste pretty good, but are you back to a hundred percent yet?"
At first, he believed Shadow was too busy to hear him, or to care, but Sonic winced when the fangs disconnected. A sigh then rushed past his lips when a soft tongue slowly lapped at his shoulder, cleaning up the inevitable mess left behind.
When Shadow sat up after licking the blood off his lips, Sonic smiled at the crisp, ruby irises glaring at him. Shadow's skin had regained its normal color. Sharpened canines were bared, still a bit stained, and Sonic chuckled. "See? Not too bad, right?"
"You're a d*** idiot," Shadow snarled. Sonic blinked in confusion when his chest was roughly punched. "You have no idea what you just-" He was speechless when Shadow not-so-gently pushed away from him, growling. "I'm leaving."
"Wha-?" Sonic tightened his hold on him, unsure about what he did, besides the obvious. "You can't!" Shadow began to resist; he shot him a mischievous grin. "It's my turn next."
The ebony hedgehog paused to process that, and Sonic pounced. He tucked his fingers into Shadow's side under his ribs, tickling him. Two hands planted against Sonic's shoulder and squeezed, but they didn't shove him away. Shadow tried to resist the instinctive urge to laugh at the sensation, but failed when Sonic moved one hand from his flank to his stomach.
Sonic smirked before tickling him all over; his sides, his stomach, his underarms, and his neck. Shadow continued to laugh uncontrollably as he was tickled mercilessly.
Satisfied there, Sonic pulled back and let his big brother catch his breath. He grinned at the glare that never let up, but Shadow wasn't making a move to leave anymore. Mission accomplished.
"Now..." Sonic tilted his head, the high from everything still lingering in his system. "Why was feeding from me a bad idea again?"
Shadow crossed his arms with a prominent frown, clearly not happy.
"Because I won't be able to feed off of anything else," he snapped.
Sonic had to be missing something here. "Okay? I don't care, if that's what you're worried about," he chuckled. "I mean-"
And then Shadow was in his face, hissing with his quills bristled. "I could kill you."
Sonic just stared at him until all of it clicked. "That's what you're worried about?" A placating smile grew. "C'mon, Shads! You know how hard it is to kill me!" The ebony hedgehog wasn't buying it. "I wouldn't just let you drain me, and you even stopped yourself! You have enough self-control to-"
"I don't," Shadow spat, glaring at the adjacent wall. "If you hadn't said anything, I wouldn't have stopped."
"I don't believe that for a sec-"
"I've done it before." Shadow met his gaze again, and Sonic was taken aback by the guilt that was replacing the anger. "You haven't been lost in it. You block out everything while you feed. The struggling, the screams, the begging." He clenched his jaw. "You're lost until it's too late."
It was then that Sonic knew. Shadow hadn't limited his hunting to wild animals on a whim. He had killed someone, someone he regretted to this day. Sonic closed the distance again, nuzzling Shadow's cheek.
"But you heard me," he whispered when his brother leaned into him. He wasn't going to go into Shadow's past right now. That could wait another day. "I can handle it, Shads. Trust me. And plus, I wasn't exactly screaming, was I?"
"Hmph."
"It'll be okay, Shadow," Sonic reassured. "We'll get through this together, as a family. You can get control of yourself during feeding if we work together."
Shadow sighed, knowing Sonic was right.
"See you in a bit," he said, starting to leave.
"Where you going?" Sonic asked.
"Bathroom," Shadow stated simply as he skated off. Sonic gently placed his hand over where he had been bitten. The puncture was still bleeding a little, so he left to go bandage it up. The memory was still clear in his mind. Things would definitely be more interesting from here on out.