Sorry for the late update, blame Uni.
This was it: his last sunrise. The light came first to the tops of the French windows, a paling behind the lace curtains, and then a gleam growing brighter and brighter in patches among the leaves of the tall trees. Finally the glowing sun came through the windows and the lace lay in shadows on the floor.
He took a deep breath and said farewell to sunrise. He knew that, as a vampire, he would not be able to see the sun again. He would have to stay in the shadows.
"Do you miss it?" Freddie asks.
"Not really. The memory of this last sunrise is enough. It's funny because I remember that one so vividly but can't seem to recall any other sunrise before it."
"And did you regret accepting Hannibal's offer?"
Will looks out the window. The vampire's face barely ever show any sign of emotion, but Freddie has learned how to read people long ago. It's obvious that the vampire is torn, not quite sure how to answer. There is pain there, but also gratitude.
"It's complicated," he says in the end. "I can't just tell you yes or no. Hannibal changed my life completely and in more ways than one, I can tell you that much with absolute certainty. And now let me tell you how things happened."
This must be the most difficult part of his change, he knew. Wishing to die and watching as someone else died were two very different things. But Hannibal insisted that it was necessary: he had to witness and approve the taking of a human life as proof of his commitment. Only after that could he be ready for what was to come.
They found the man in a dark and deserted street. He tried to throw Hannibal away, but he failed. He struggled inside Hannibal's grasp, but it was of no use. Hannibal's fangs broke the skin of his neck, and Will gasped. He wasn't sure whether he was watching in horror. He felt mostly numb at the time.
Drained of blood, the man went limp and died. Hannibal let go of him and he fell on the ground like a rag doll. The vampire looked at Will, smiling, blood coating his lips. There was something savage but beautiful at that sight, and as Hannibal licked the blood off his lips Will was overwhelmed by the sudden desire to lick him clean himself.
He pushed these impulses away as they took care of the body. They tore his coat, stole his money and stained his lips with liquor. Will had never been particularly social, so he didn't know who this man was and whether he had a family; however, he was certain that people would mourn him and would never even know what had truly happened to him.
Those thoughts were chased away as they carried on with their proceedings. As the beat the body, bruising the face and the shoulders, Will became more and more excited. He wanted his new life to begin. His new life with Hannibal. The vampire was such an extraordinary being. He was like an angel.
Will felt that he should wish to die. To die and not live again as something greater than human. He was guilty of murder.
And yet, he did not leave. He was excited. His new life was so close that he could almost taste it. He let Hannibal take him to the carriage and said nothing until they reached home. Everything paled before Hannibal's presence, before Will's enchantment with him.
Will got out of the carriage and walked to the brick stairs where his brother had fallen. He sat down on the lower steps and Hannibal lay down beside him, his movement so graceful and so personal that it made Will think of a lover. He wanted to look away, ashamed by his own thoughts, but Hannibal put his right arm around him and pulled him close to his chest. He had never been this close to Hannibal and he simply could not look away: in the dim light there was a magnificent radiance in his maroon eyes.
Will tried to move, but Hannibal pressed his cold fingers against his lips and held him firmly. "Be still, William. I am going to drain you to the point of death now. I want you to be so quiet that you can almost hear the flow of blood through your veins and the flow of that same blood through mine. Don't let go, don't slip. Your consciousness must keep you alive."
Will looked into those maroon eyes. This being, this beautiful and extraordinary being, was going to give him a rare gift. At that moment he wondered why. Why had he been chosen?
Then he felt Hannibal's teeth into his neck.
He gasped. Every light coming from the house coalesced and began to shimmer and blur. "Keep your eyes open," Hannibal whispered to him, his lips moving against Will's neck, as if he knew that Will was just going to close his eyes.
The movement of Hannibal's lips raised the hair all over his body and sent a sensation through all of him that was just like the pleasure of passion. Having difficulty in communicating with other people and not feeling comfortable inside his own skin, Will had deprived himself of that pleasure almost entirely. And yet, there he was now, feeling it more intensely than ever.
Within minutes he was weak to paralysis. It felt like he was dying. Hannibal was still holding him, and his arm was like the weight of an iron bar. Will was trapped.
Hannibal's teeth withdrew softly, barely causing any pain to Will. Hannibal bent over his head, took his right hand off him, and bit his own wrist. He held it up, over Will's lips. When a drop fell on Will's tongue, he reached out for the bleeding hand almost like a blind man. His mouth closed over Hannibal's self-inflicted wound and he started drinking.
"Steady," the vampire whispered.
Will followed his instructions. He sucked the blood out of the holes, experiencing for the first time since infancy the special pleasure of sucking nourishment. The taste of the blood was intoxicating and addictive. He thought he heard Hannibal groan once, but it might have actually been him. It didn't matter. What did matter was the blood.
And then there was this sound. A dull roar at first and then a pounding like the pounding of a drum. And then there came the pounding of another drum, giving no notice to the rhythm of the first. The sound grew louder and louder until it overwhelmed him, until it took over all his senses. It was throbbing in his lips and fingers, in the flesh of his temples. But, above all, in his veins.
"What were they - the drums?"
"The first one was my heart," Will replies, "the second was Hannibal's. We exchanged blood. He took my life and gave me a new one. The sound of our heartbeats was overwhelming, but it was the beginning of everything. The hearing of a vampire is much stronger than that of human."
"Can you hear my heartbeat?"
"Yes," Will says with a wolfish grin.
Freddie knows that her heart has begun to beat faster at the sound of his words. She hates it. She doesn't want him to think that she's weak, that she's afraid of him.
"I won't hurt you," he says soothingly and the expression on his face is almost affectionate. "I want this opportunity."
Freddie clears her throat. "The tape is almost gone. I have to turn it over." The vampire watches patiently as she changes it. "Go on. What happened then?"
"I saw as a vampire. Hannibal had changed: filled with life and blood he was radiant...Everything had changed. It was as if I had not been able to see colours and shapes before. Everything looked beautiful, magical. Fortunately I had with Hannibal with me, or I would have fallen so madly in love with the night that I would have lost my way."
"And...that was it? You had transformed?"
"Not entirely. My body was not yet totally converted, and as soon as I became accustomed to the sounds and sights, it began to ache. All my human fluids were being forced out of me."
"You were dying as a human."
Will nods and looks almost pleased that Freddie understands. She didn't believe in the supernatural before now, but she's actually quite clever. "Exactly," he says. "However, I was completely alive as a vampire. With my awakened senses, I felt everything to the maximum. I had to preside over the death of my body with discomfort and, finally, fear."
It was almost cathartic to know that this perfectly collected creature of the night was scared of its own change. It almost brought a sadistic smile on Freddie's face, but she realised that the vampire would not like it. "What happened then?" she asked.
"Hannibal tried to comfort me. Told me that it happened to everyone, advised me to see it as yet another great experience. It was not easy, but I supposed I kinda managed...Until he showed me the coffin."
Freddie raises an eyebrow. "Coffin?" she asks, trying not to sound disbelieving but not fully managing.
"Yes, that is true. I panicked. I have never been claustrophobic, but sleeping in a coffin is not something that I found very pleasant at the time. What made things even worse was the fact that Hannibal hadn't purchased a coffin for me, so we had to...share his."
Homosexual vampires? This sounds very interesting, Freddie thinks. "I see..."
Will looks at her threateningly. She manages not to cower before him, although he must be able to hear her heart racing again. The expression slowly changes until there is no emotion on his handsome face again. "It wasn't like that. Quite soon I found out that vampires can't...Vampires are dead, so we..."
The vampire's awkwardness actually amuses her, but she decides to help out in the end. "I see...And did you sleep in the coffin?"
"Yes. It felt crowded and I panicked, but then Hannibal held me and I relaxed. That close to me I could see his face so clearly...He held me and whispered things to a language I didn't know until my eyes closed and I surrendered myself to sleep."
Ha, I made it! Didn't expect to be done with this so soon. Sadly I don't know when the next update will be (yes, blame Uni again) but don't lose hope. Thank you all for your support so far, I hope I won't disappoint you :)
