Redwingblackbird: Alright, you know the drill

Redwingblackbird: Alright, you know the drill. My charries, my story. INFRINGE AND PERISH!

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"KIERA!"

My cry was one of agony. She lay in my arms, pale as death and still as stone. Love came to vampires once, and only if they had so charmed the gods that it came at all. Kelsey, Kiera, my only warmth, was gone. Shot from the sky by a woman who thought she was better.

There was still one chance. I extended my fangs and bit viciously into my tongue. Black blood flowed and I thought a rapid, silent prayer.

I pressed my lips to hers, letting my infectious blood run down her throat. Forgive me, Kiera, I begged, if her spirit lingered. I cannot go on living without you...

The cuts in my mouth healed quickly and I pulled away, letting her breathe, if breathe she would. A long moment passed and my heart, which beat so softly, stopped. My vision blurred and I wondered why, since vampires cannot cry.

Then, a miracle. The dragon arched her back and coughed, sputtering for air. I praised the gods I knew for letting her return and for a moment forgot the full implications. I scooped milady up and ran home, resting her on our bed.

I quickly removed all eight bullets and noticed how much blood was spilling. It had started red, but now was deepening to black. All Kelsey's wounds healed in moments after the bullets were gone, much to my relief, and after I had removed all traces of blood from the room, I propped her up on a few pillows and smiled into her sleeping face.

The change would not be easy, or pleasant, I knew. I felt horrible for forcing this on her- she never asked for eternity, much less an eternity of night and blood. She would need at least a week of rest while my blood altered her body, and gods knew how long before she was alright around people again, not trying to bite them. Newborns tend to drink often and fatally.

I was tired. I laid my head on her lap. We cannot sleep naturally, but we can rest so still that it might be called sleep for all the good it does us. Curling up on my side, I wondered what would happen when my lover woke.

She wove her fingers through my thick black hair absently.

"Xak..." she murmured weakly. "What... happened... love?"

I turned my head to rest my face on her thigh. This would not be easy.

"Xak..." her voice was more urgent now, frightened.

"I saved you, Kiera. The only way I could." I rolled over onto my back and looked up into her face. It was pale now, and would be forever, I knew. But even now, with her once-violet eyes almost black, she was beautiful. "I bit myself so you could drink my blood."

Horror washed over that beauty, and I felt myself fill with guilt. "I'm..."

"Going to be a vampire," I finished for her. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it to be this way. I didn't mean to doom you." I reached up to hug her around the waist and buried my face in her stomach. "I'm so sorry, Kiera, my darling..."

Kelsey's long, clawed fingers began working through my hair again. "I always... intended this..." she struggled to speak. "To be yours... forever. I just thought... the change would be on my terms..."

"I know." We lay there in silence for a long while, but she didn't lull back to sleep. "You need to rest," I murmured.

"I can't."

"Yes, you can. It will be a couple of days before the change is finished. In the meantime, you can still sleep." Slowly, I felt her consciousness slip away, and I rested myself, weary of worry.

I needn't have been concerned. I hadn't been aware she was awake until she tried to get up. Her strength was still no match to mine, and I held her in place without moving.

"You need to rest."

"I can't. I have too much energy." She made a proper push to get up.

"Listen to me!" I growled, losing my patience. I sat up and pushed her back on the pillows, a little too hard, maybe. "If you get up and go out, you're going to do something you'll regret. You'll bite someone without thinking and drain them dry without a flinch." I was angry, and I didn't know why, but seeing the shock and fear in Kelsey's eyes was all I wanted just then. She was getting it. That's all that mattered. "Control comes with time. You need a couple of more days and you'll be in full control of your body. But you need a few more days. It's that or the first person you see will be dead as a doornail and have never seen it coming from you."

"Xak," the dragon whispered, hurt. The guilt hit me then and I dropped my hands from her shoulders.

"I'm sorry," I said. "How do you feel, other than restless?"

"Weak." I nodded. She was thirsty.

"Smile for me?" She bared her teeth and I scrutinized them. Her fangs weren't fully in yet. "Can I trust you to stay here while I get you something to drink?" When she hesitated, I went on. "It will stop the weakness and quiet you down so you can rest." She nodded halfheartedly, and I lifted her chin to look at me. "Promise?"

"I promise."

I was out of the room in an instant and found just the person I was looking for reading at the kitchen table.

"What is it, Xak?"

"Can I ask you a favor for Kelsey?" She nodded. "Now don't panic. She needs a little blood." A few blinks.

"You're turning her, aren't you?"

"She would have died if I hadn't."

"Then take as much as you need... within reason." The next ten minutes were spent drawing a syringe of the red stuff from her arm and mixing it in a mug of warm wine.

When I got back upstairs, she was pacing in her demi form. The scales on her wings and tail had darkened somewhat, but retained their amethyst luster.

"Be a good girl and come back to bed," I sighed, wondering if children were this troublesome. She sat on the edge and I handed her the mix, watching her sip it cautiously.

"Where did you get blood?" she asked.

"You have a willing donor." She drank the remainder and curled up with the look on her face of a kitten that has just been nearly drowned in cream. I snuggled close. Even when she was driving me crazy, she was making me fall further in love. She was fast asleep in an instant, and I drank in the scent of her dirty-blonde hair, content.

When I was sure she slept, I rose. My lover wouldn't be contented for long. I needed more blood for her, and she shouldn't be drinking from me for awile yet.

I returned an hour later with two more syringes, which is all I could ask of my three potential donors, and all I would hopefully need. I mixed up another mug and, as if on cue, she stirred.

"How do you feel?" I asked, my back to her as I stirred.

"Powerful," she growled back. "Why can't I go outside?"

"One more day," I sighed patiently, turning. "Just one more for me to make sure you're in full control of yourself."

"No," she complained, standing. "I've been cooped up here long enough."

"Alright, retract your fangs, then." I watched for a minute as she struggled to comply before throwing herself facedown on the bed in frustration. "Soon," I promised, sitting down beside her and handing her the concoction. "Just as soon as you can learn the ropes of this new life from me, okay?"

The blonde head nodded weakly and took the mug from me and took a sip. A confused look crossed her eyes and she sniffed warily.

"Where'd you get dragon's blood?"

"Another donor," I supplied. "Drink."

She did, hesitantly, and put it down before sitting up. "Alright. Teach me these 'ropes' sensei." I had to chuckle. She was so serious to get out that she had actually accepted me as a teacher.

We sat there a long while and I gave her everything she would need to know to survive, from retracting and releasing her fangs to controlling her hunger for blood. Everything, except how to use her new vampiric powers. The only way I could justify this to myself was the fear of what would happen if she were given these extra tools- gods knew I had already stacked the deck in her favor.

Finally she yawned, stretched, and lay down to rest. My arms were around her in an instant and I joined her, happy that the transition had been so smooth for her.

The next morning, close to noon, I used the final measure of blood.

"Kiera," I murmured, "this donor is different from the other two. Trust me when I say that I wouldn't be giving this to you if I didn't trust you could handle it." I handed the mug to her carefully and watched her drink. There was a pause, a silence that hung heavy.

"Human blood." Her eyes burned bright violet. "Who...?"

"Someone who fears for their employer." I stood and held out my hand. "Come," I commanded softly. She took my hand and followed silently, and we walked into the world she had once known.

My new dark-loving eyes blinked frantically in the pale sunlight as it sparkled off my white skin. They adjusted quickly, however, and I walked slowly down the stairs of the house I shared with Kathalita.

"Sissy?" I called hesitantly into the kitchen.

"Kels-Kels?" she asked back, coming into view from the living room. I smiled sadly at my old childish nickname and noticed the green bruise on the inside of my friend's elbow. She was one of the blood donors? "Come on," she called, crooked smile gleaming full power. "Movie's on." I followed and sat with Xak on one of the sofas as she joined her own better half, Shadow.

The movie was Romeo and Juliet. I couldn't pay attention and kept looking over to Shadow and Kathy, who were cuddled close. He murmured Romeo's lines in her ear and she blushed happily.

How? How did he manage? How did he protect her and keep her happy when it was so clear their relationship was doomed?

Their personalities fit together like pieces of a puzzle, locking them in love- except for one thing. Their work ethics were so different they could hardly see each other, she working as hard as she could to be the best, him slacking off and simply not caring about much of anything. They fought about it occasionally, and I knew it hurt them both. It would be worse when they went their separate ways- I knew they would. There was no other way for each to find perfect happiness.

But right now they were tangled in each other's arms during the balcony scene and they were happy. How did he do it? How could he make his angel so happy when my own beloved suffered constantly from my place in her life? Look where it had landed her: a hybrid vampire-dragon-elf. Trapped in a world of eternal night where she needed the blood of others just to exist.

I envied him. It was so easy for him. The jealousy burned deep in my chest even as Kiera rested her head against it and asked in a whisper what was wrong. I denied being disturbed and she sat up, beckoning me to follow her out of the room.

Back in the kitchen, she asked if going into the sunlight would kill her. I said no, but she would be nearly blind from the light and weakened by its strength.

"We shall wait for nightfall, then."

Back upstairs in our bedroom, she hugged me tightly and I returned the embrace.

"I'm scared, love." The admittance startled me- Kiera didn't let anything frighten her. "But I know I'll get through it. Quite literally now, I'm built to survive."

"I'm sorry," I murmured into her hair, feeling it with all my soul as I drank in her scent.

"It's not your fault," she responded. "It's hers."