Vampire Heart
Disclaimer: I do not own TLK.
Note: This is my first fanfic! :D English is not my first language; if some things were rather difficult to understand from chs. 1-7, it's most likely because of that. However, I've made adjustments to those chapters (which hadn't been checked by a beta-reader when I first uploaded them) and, additionally, had them 'beta-read' (thank you, Arbarano! :D ). Old readers might want might want to check out the improved chapters (although you don't necessarily have to). If you're a new reader, I hope you enjoy this story; I promise to do my best to always keep you hooked! :)
Oh! One other thing: please review! I'd like to know what you think of the improved chapters :)
Storyline: For the purposes of this story, I kinda messed with the conventional storyline: Kopa was born AFTER the events in TLK 2 (that would make him Kiara's younger brother).
Until now, only chs. 1-4 have been adjusted; the improvements to chs. 5-7 will be added eventually (when I find the time to upload them :/). Anyway, I'm really sorry about that.
...we lay under the emptiness and drifted slowly outward, and somewhere in the wilderness we found salvation scratched into the earth like a message. (...But Home Is Nowhere, AFI)
Chapter 1
"Your kiss," he moaned, "it's killing me."
He felt her fangs sink deeper into his neck. Each time he breathed, less air flowed into his lungs. Oxygen seemed to deliberately evade his gaping mouth. It didn't take long for him to begin panting. As his attacker's strong jaws shut around his flesh, alternating shivers of hot and cold shot through his weary spine.
After a while, he managed to break free. Blood gushed from the fresh wound like water from an open faucet, and he could sense his skin and muscles had been severely shredded. Stumbling backwards, he realized the girl in front of him was not the one he was expecting.
"Who are you? Where's Alice?" he asked nervously.
"She was right, you know," she said, completely ignoring his questions.
Her fiery blue eyes met his and blazed hungrily under the sick pallor of the streaking moonlight. Her astonishing beauty, though, could not extinguish his bright fear. Upon glancing at her bloodstained grin, he recoiled, disgusted beyond words.
"You do taste delicious," she continued, licking her fangs clean.
"Wait, I know you," he muttered, a vivid slideshow of fresh memories flashing through his mind. "You're her friend; she introduced us at the party."
"Good," slurred the girl, sounding terrifyingly seductive. "That means I wasn't worth forgetting. I usually have that effect on people."
Subsequently, she cast an absent gaze around the bleak streets. The many windows which stippled the skyscrapers glowed with those modern artificial lights she loathed so much. Through the years that had ticked before her, the world itself had become precisely that: something artificial. And she was doomed to dwell in it for eternity.
The recollection of her miseries summoned an ill frown to her alluring visage, obliterating her attractive features. Her wretched soul sparkled through her lifeless eyes, and the boy got a clear view of its supernatural essence.
A grossly morbid and yet disturbingly sweet laugh issued through her crimson lips as she looked back at him.
"So many people surround you now," she stated, quite amused by her own remark, "but none will lift a finger to help you."
The boy eyed her warily while struggling to maintain his footing. He set his hand on his pierced neck and quickly withdrew it to see the blood.
"Can you recall my name?" inquired the vicious girl.
"Alyra," he mumbled, a faint hint of indecision lingering in his dry voice. "Why did you attack me?"
"She's falling for you," she replied tersely. "I'm sorry, but we can't have that."
"We?" he repeated, bewildered. "I don't understand."
"You don't have to; it's better that way."
"What are you going to do to me?"
Alyra chuckled. "I won't kill you, if that's what's worrying you. At least I'll try to restrain myself. After all, you're too tasty to waste in one night."
Suddenly, she approached him with a swift forward movement, as if sliding along the pavement, and bit him again in the same spot. He tried to push her away with his hands, but could not move a muscle. With all his strength drained, he collapsed on the street's cold, smooth surface as soon as he was released. His exhausted eyes, which had remained open, scanned the surroundings, but picked up no trace of the fiend. The thunderous racket of car engines and horns travelled through the air from far away and reached his ears while city lights flickered and danced above him, blurring steadily into burning smudges glued to the screen of his vision. Once the dissonant sound subsided, he closed his tired eyes and finally dropped off to sleep. The life in him appeared to be fizzling out.
Alice… Alice… Alice… Alice… The name reverberated in his mind.
"Who's Alice?"
"What's he talking about?"
"He's so weird!"
"What's he doing?"
"He's waking up!"
Kev heard the voices echoing feebly about him. Something pushed his head gently several times; it felt like a muzzle.
Was it a dog? Don't own one, he thought. Was he in the street? No. The ground was cold and much too muddy. Only one place he knew fit that particular description; he wondered how on earth he had wound up sleeping in the backyard.
Hold on! What was wrong? His whole body had suffered a drastic change. He could not explain to himself how, though. Definitely, something about his arms and legs felt different; he didn't have as much mobility as he used to. A rather thin yet warming cloth of what he assumed was fur enwrapped him. Additionally, a weird, freaky thing protruded from his butt; a body part with nerves he could control voluntarily. Or so he thought.
His closed eyes prevented him from knowing what had occurred. A big part of him wanted to find out, but his weak side didn't. Unfortunately, the latter got the better of him, saturating his head with sundry fears. What if he had inexplicably turned into a huge insect, like Gregor Samsa, in that book he'd read?
What was its name again? Oh yeah! "The Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka.
When he finally mustered enough courage, he compelled his eyelids to split apart. At first, everything was dark and blurry. Eventually, the distorted, talking figures regained their original shapes.
"Gah!" screamed Kev, hopping off the hard surface that supported him and staggering back a little. Out of fright, he scratched a lioness that'd had the misfortune of being close to him at that moment in the face. It was the one who had nuzzled him.
"Ouch!" she cried shrilly, stepping away. "What is wrong with you?"
"Stay away from me!" he yelled desperately, having noticed that he was in a dim cave of a considerable size, and that he was surrounded by not one, but a dozen lionesses.
"Okay, just calm down," replied the one which might just have been the eldest, with a mild, soothing voice. "Nobody means to harm you."
"This isn't happening! This isn't happening!" he bellowed, as if straining to shove a nightmare from his thoughts. However, his loud cries didn't make the situation any less real.
"What the heck is going on here?" he demanded, as warm, salty trickles streaked down his heavy cheeks.
The group stared at him not so much with pity as in confusion. Almost instantaneously, a huge, male lion entered the cave, followed by his light-furred, blue-eyed mate and an odd white lioness cub.
"What is the meaning of all this noise?" he asked in a rather severe tone.
"He's up," muttered the hurt lioness.
The tan lioness's sapphire eyes clung tenaciously to the sight of the replier. "Kiara, dear, what happened to your face?"
"Nothing, Mom," she rejoined sweetly. "It's just the dummy over there; he scratched me."
The mother smiled and licked her daughter in the face. Kiara reciprocated the gesture and sat back along with the rest of the lionesses, watching intently as the male walked closer to Kev. The white cub kept her yellow eyes directed to the scene with the same determination.
The 'alpha male', as Kev had labeled him upon glancing at his robust physique, bore reddish-amber eyes and a sleek, healthy red mane which contrasted with his neat, golden pelt. His gaze depicted harmless curiosity and disorientation. But the boy would not see that. All he could see was a huge, scary lion nearing him.
"Please, don't eat me! I'll do whatever you want!" he pleaded, distressed, as his mutated body huddled up into a tight ball.
"What? I wasn't gonna…" croaked the male, retreating a bit. Kev looked in all directions with eyes wide open, panting and terrified to death. "I'm not going to hurt you," he murmured softly, stepping forward again.
"Sir, wait!" interrupted the she-cub, putting herself between them and subsequently turning towards him. "Kev?"
He stared at her perplexed. How…how could she possibly know his name? Immediately, an image hit him hard in the back of the head. His glower of horror wrinkled progressively into a strangely hopeful expression of utter bafflement.
"Jill?" he asked tremulously, a question to which the white cub replied with a nod. "What happened to you? You look…"
"Shh!" she whispered abruptly. "I'll explain more later, but for now just play along and try not to mess it up."
"You know him? Why did you say you didn't when we found you in the savannah?" inquired the King.
"I was in shock," she explained, facing the lion. "I guess that's why I couldn't recognize him then."
She stopped for a second to get some air, her soul praying for him to buy the excuse.
"But I do know him," she added. "He's my brother."
Kev stood frozen behind his sister, ignoring the entire discussion; he was too busy wondering what kind of trouble he had gotten in this time.
By the time the conversation reached a favorable end, unbeknownst to the brooding brother, Jill had trotted to the mouth of the cave, through which daylight entered and weakly illuminated the den. Seeing as he wasn't following, she veered back slightly and beckoned him over to speak to her outside with her left paw. Her shrill call shook him from his mind.
Sprinting clumsily (walking on four legs would require some getting used to), he caught up with her.
Meanwhile, the adult lions remained inside, chatting about the rare newcomers.