Happy New Year's Eve from my part of the world. I thought it fitting if I ended this story on the last day of 2016. So, here it is.

Chapter Nine- The New Vampire

Yami made sure that Yugi went out every night for his blood and was supportive whenever Yugi mentioned feeling strange about sticking his fangs into someone. It took a few nights of trial and error to find out that Yugi preferred criminal victims like Yami did. Yugi happily reported this to the others and Bakura was intrigued. He attacked anyone he wanted because to him all blood tasted the same, save Ryou's. Was it possible that his fellow vampires actually has specific tastes? This was quite the revelation to the tomb robber.

"What about you Joey? Seto?" Bakura asked.

"Well," Joey said. "I find I prefer women victims."

"I am not too picky about my victim as long as I can get blood," Seto replied.

"Why the interest, Bakura?" Yami asked.

"Well, it's just you and Yugi like criminal blood and Joey likes female blood while Seto and I are not picky about where the blood comes from. Besides, this would be something to note in my medical files on vampires."

I wonder if Ryou would be picky if he was a vampire. I don't think I'll ever know since Ryou seems quite content to remain human and I prefer for him to stay human as well.

Ryou sighed as he turned a page in his book. Here he was living with six vampires, one of them an infant hybrid, and yet he still felt lonely. Why was that? He should have been happy that he wasn't living alone, but instead he felt a distant loneliness. He unconsciously rubbed the spot where Bakura had bitten him almost two weeks ago. He had felt pain from the bite, yes but he had also felt a sense of pleasure and a connection to his mate that he hadn't felt before.

I wonder if Joey and Yugi had felt the same way when their mates bit them the first time. Maybe I should ask them since they're home and the others are out right now. Ryou put his book down and left his room to find his friends in the den. Joey was feeding his daughter while Yugi was sorting through his Duel Monsters deck. Both looked up when Ryou entered and Joey gave a cheerful, "Hey, Ryou."

"Hi. I have a few questions that I believe only you two can answer."

"Sure," Yugi said. "Fire away."

"What were your feelings and thoughts when your mates bit you the first time?"

Both vampires exchanged looks before Yugi nodded to Joey that he should answer first. Joey cleared his throat. "Well, technically shock and pain were my feelings. I remember having to rethink my belief that vampires weren't real after the attack."

Yugi nodded. "I felt pain and shock too. However, I knew deep down that vampire did exist so I didn't have to do any rethinking."

"I see."

"Ryou, are you sayin' Bakura bit you? I was under the impression that he never did."

"He did bite me. It was the night we went to the movies for the first time. He hadn't had a drink before we went out. We went to the park after the movies. I think Bakura was hoping to find someone alone to attack, but there was no one there and I wasn't sure if we could find someone in time or if we could make it back to the mansion either. So, I offered him my blood and he accept under the condition that it would be only once." Ryou sighed. "I felt pain, but I also felt pleasure and a connection to Bakura that I had never felt before."

"Wow," Yugi said softly. "Obviously, your experience was different because you knew a vampire was drinking from you and you were already in love."

Ryou nodded. "Yes. There's one other matter. Despite all of you living here, I feel a sense of loneliness and I not sure why."

"Perhaps," Joey said slowly. "the reason is you're the only human in the house."

Ryou blinked as Joey's quick response. I hadn't thought about that. I am the only human here.

"Thanks Joey. I now know why I felt that way."

"Glad I could help."

"Hey, Ryou," Yugi said, shuffling his cards. "You want to duel me?"

"Sure. Let me grab my deck."

Bakura sighed contently as he stepped through the front door. That attack was perfect. My victim never saw me coming or what was happening until it was too late. Of course, his blood was the same as all the others except of course for Ryou's. I said I would never forget the taste and I know I'll remember. He heard footsteps approach and Ryou appeared in the hallway and he seemed to have something on his mind, judging from his expression. He embraced his young mate and said, "Well, enjoying your night off so far?"

"Can we talk in our room?" Ryou asked, ignoring Bakura's question.

Bakura looked quizzically at Ryou before saying, "All right." They went down the hallway and into the bedroom. Once the door was closed and the light was on, Bakura turned to Ryou. "All right. What's this about?"

"I've been feeling lonely. I'm not talking like you're neglecting me or anything," Ryou said quickly when he saw the look of shock and surprise on Bakura's face. "I spoke with Joey and Yugi and Joey pointed out that I'm the only human here."

"Well, he's right and I'm grateful for that. Otherwise, we would have still been searching for a home."

"Yes. Joey's point explained why I felt lonely and I now know how to deal with it." He squared his shoulders and looked straight into Bakura's eyes. "I want you to turn me."

Bakura took a step backwards. "Turn you? You think the only way to deal with your loneliness to by becoming a vampire?"

"Yes, I do."

Bakura turned around to consider the request. He knew how the process worked; he had had it done to himself and he had seen Seto do it to Joey, but he just couldn't picture his sweet Ryou as a vampire…or could he? After all, he had trouble picturing Yugi as one, but once it was done, the vampire look suited him. He glanced over his shoulder at Ryou who seemed anxious about his answer. He turned around fully. "I thought about it. I admit I can't picture you as a vampire, you seem too sweet and innocent. However, I love you and I would prefer that we be together forever."

"Does that mean you'll do it?"

"Yes." Bakura seized Ryou with no warning and bit down in the same spot he had bitten two weeks prior. Again there was a gasp and the sweet taste of blood, but this time Bakura withdrew quickly, pricked his finger, and rubbed the blood over the marks. Ryou gave another pained gasp as he passed out in Bakura's arms. Bakura smiled; soon his mate would awaken as a child of the night.

Ryou slowly opened his eyes and blinked a couple of times. He was staring at his bedroom ceiling and he was lying in bed. Then, he remembered how he came to be in his current position and he sat up- a little too quickly, for the room started to spin a little and he grabbed the sides of his head and moaned softly. Once the spinning stopped, Ryou's eyes darted to where his bedside table was and saw a blood bag. He picked it up and put the tube to his mouth, knowing from what Yugi had told him the night he was turned, that drinking some blood will drive away the throbbing in his head. He started to suck the tube and the first drops of blood entered his mouth. He wasn't surprised that he liked the blood and continued to drink until his headache was gone. He stored the bag before getting up and looking into his mirror.

The image of a boy with brown eyes, white hair, and pale skin looked back at him. He tilted his head slightly. I don't look any different than before considering my skin has always been pale, only not this pale. He opened his mouth to see a pair of fangs, sharp and longer than his human incisors. Then, a sudden thought struck him. If I'm a vampire, how can I have a reflection? Hmm. Apparently the myth of vampires having no reflection is not true. He ran a hand through his hair before leaving the room to find Bakura and the others.

He found Bakura by the front door and it seemed as if he had been waiting for him. He smiled as Ryou approached. "So, do you not feel lonely anymore?"

"To be honest, I have other things on my mind right now. There's no room for feeling lonely."

"Good. I'm ready to take you out and show you how to feed. I don't want what happened to Yugi to happen to you."

"What do you mean?"

"No one told you? Yugi fell prey to the bloodlust frenzy because he did not feed off of humans and during his first time the encounter turned a bit violent and he lost control of himself."

Ryou gulped. "Oh my."

"That's why I feel it best to show you how it's done when you're newly turned. Let's go." Bakura opened the door and gently pushed Ryou out the door before exiting himself.

A piercing scream echoed into the night sky, but no one heard for Bakura has lured his victim to a deserted alley. Ryou had watched his mate sink his fangs into the woman's neck and sucked for a few minutes before pulling back and glancing at him. "Come over and have some. I don't intend to leave her alive, you know."

Ryou nodded and knelt beside Bakura. He leaned down and put his mouth over the bite marks and proceeded to imitate Bakura's sucking. It worked perfectly and Ryou drank contently until his enhanced hearing couldn't detect the woman's heartbeat. He pulled back and Bakura released the corpse. Ryou licked his lips before saying, "Okay, I see how biting and drinking goes. I didn't detect any taste to her blood, though."

"Neither did I. But the taste is not what matters, it's making sure we get blood so we don't suffer from deprivation."

"Because that could kill us, right?"

"Eventually. However, entering a frenzy state when encountering a group of people usually ends the deprivation."

"A frenzy state. I take it that's not the one Yugi went through."

"Correct. Now that we have finished our hunt, let me show you the abilities of vampires."

Bakura's training led the two of them in the direction of the blood bank and it made Ryou think about his job. He was expected to show up before sunset tomorrow and realized that by having Bakura turn him, he couldn't go to work. "Uh, Bakura? I need to go inside the bank and tell my boss I'm quitting."

"Quitting? How come? You can still work."

"Sometimes, my boss wants me to work before sunset, like tomorrow for example. Besides, Dad will send money for food, which we can use for other things."

"I see. All right, you can go in and quit but first let me put a short glamour spell on you so he doesn't see your fangs or your paler skin."

Ryou emerged from the bank fifteen minutes later and used his strength to jump up to the roof. Bakura looked at him expectantly as he removed the spell and Ryou nodded in an assuring way. "He wasn't happy about me quitting. He does expect me to return the uniform within the next week, but that's it."

"Did he ask why or did you give him an explanation?"

"I told him that I couldn't keep the hours and that my Dad wanted me to work in his company."

"All right, then. Let's go home and we can resume your lessons after our hunt tomorrow."

"And maybe head downtown for some shopping or dancing or arcade games?" Ryou suggested.

"Of course. We need to have fun after everything that's been going on."

Four days later, Bakura found himself roaming aimlessly around in search of prey. Ryou wanted to return his uniform after feeding and Yugi offered to go with him. Bakura suspected that the two of them might raid the bank while Ryou turned in his uniform. That was all right. They would need those bags for Yuri as well as for date nights. I didn't think that Ryou would adapt to a vampire's lifestyle so quickly, but he has much to my surprise. I look forward to spending centuries or even a few millennia with my little angel. I wonder what kind of advancements humans will make in the time to come, considering what they've achieved in five thousand years.

The sound of crumbling bricks caught his attention and the tomb robber turned to see that he was passing their old home and the demolition had begun. A small portion of the outside of the second floor was already gone and a gaping hole revealed the inside that he realized with a jolt in his stomach that it was his old bedroom. He stood transfixed as more of the house came down and the inside was revealed before he shook his head and looked away. For no reason he could discern, he felt awful at witnessing this destruction and he quickly sped away to avoid watching anymore. I need to go back to finding a victim tonight and put what I just saw out of my mind.

He wondered to a part of the city he had never been to before and looked around. Where to start? Of course, it doesn't matter who I run across; I'll take the first person I find. A loud raucous sound exploded from nearby and the door of a bar burst open and a large, muscled man stumbled into the doorway and leaned against the door for a moment before falling unconscious on the pavement, the bar door swinging shut behind him. And here's the unlucky human now.

Bakura licked his lips as he grasped the unconscious man's shoulders. My first drunken victim. I suspect his blood will be like all my other victims, save sweet Ryou's. I know I could feed off Ryou since I saw Seto drain Malik. Heh, Seto seems to be showing me a lot of things lately. Oh, well. Bakura shrugged before plunging his fangs into the man's neck. As he drank, he noticed that the blood had a tinge of something he couldn't identify but chose to ignore it and sucked the man dry. As he dropped the body, his head started to throb slightly and the world seemed to spin around him. He took a couple of deep breaths and the spinning stopped, but his head was still throbbing and he felt dizzy now. He shook his head before deciding to head home. He started down the sidewalk, swaying from side to side as he did so.

Seto heard the door open and a slurred, singsong voice called, "I'm hoo-ome!" He headed for the door as it closed and he stopped in astonishment. Bakura was hanging off the doorknob and his eyes were bloodshot. He was grinning in a goofy sort of way that looked ridiculous and wrong on his face.

Bakura licked his lips before looking at Seto with crossed eyes. He uncrossed them and staggered forward. "Hey, priest," he said in loud voice. "You think you could stop making the hall crooked? I like to get to bed."

"Bakura? What is going on here?" Seto demanded.

The tomb robber took another step, swayed, and sat down hard on the floor. He giggled as he hit the floor and continued to lie there and giggle. He pointed at Seto. "You look funny, priest."

Footsteps on the stairs sounded and Yami and Joey appeared. "What is going on?" Yami demanded as he reached the bottom.

Bakura turned bloodshot eyes on Yami and flashed another goofy smile. "You look funny too, Pharaoh."

"Oh, boy," Joey muttered. "Guys, I know this might sound weird, but I think Bakura's drunk."

"What makes you say that?" Yami asked.

"My dad would get drunk and act like this sometimes. My question is, how is it possible for a vampire to be drunk? I thought we could only drink blood."

"It's true. Blood is the only substance we can consume," Yami stated. "I think Bakura must have fed off a drunken person. There was a program on the TV a week ago about the human body and how the food and drink they consume travels into the bloodstream." He saw Joey and Seto looking at him. "I thought it would be educational to know this, seeing as it concerned blood. Anyway, alcohol appears to travel to the stomach and small intestines. The majority of it goes through the small intestines. If a person consumes too much, their system is saturated with alcohol and especially the blood."

Joey nodded. "So, he must have found someone who was drinking excessively enough to cause Bakura to be drunk."

Bakura staggered to his feet, his eyes glaring at the blonde and the pharaoh. "Why are you two being so loud?" he demanded loudly.

"We're not," Joey protested.

"You are," Bakura insisted. He raised an arm and was ready to throw a punch at Joey when he gasped and hit the floor face-down to reveal Seto behind him with a cocked fist.

"I'll put this guy to bed and Ryou can watch over him when he gets in," Seto said as he picked up the drunk vampire and headed down the hall.

Joey shook his head. "Poor Bakura. He's gonna have one heck of a headache once the alcohol's out of his system."

"Let me guess: The same thing happens to your dad."

"Oh, yeah. He also suffered from a sensitivity to light and sound as well as bein' tired and occasionally vomiting."

Yami winced. "I am so glad I'm a vampire. Being drunk doesn't sound like a lot of fun if the after effects are like that."

"After this, I think Bakura will steer clear of people who have been drinking at all.

"By the way, Yami, where is Ryou?"

"He and Yugi both went out to feed and were going to raid the blood bank on the way back. Good thing, too. I don't think Bakura will want to go anywhere tomorrow."

Ryou and Yugi strolled inside one hour later, both holding two bags of blood each. Ryou was shaking his head slightly, hardly able to believe that it had been so easy to break into a vault and take what they wanted without setting off an alarm or getting caught, seeing as the bank was still open. Yugi shared this view too and was also trying to shake off the feelings of guilt over stealing. He knew what he and Ryou had done was necessary to survive, but it was still wrong.

"Ryou. Good, you're back," Seto said, bringing both boys' attention to the priest standing before them.

"Is something wrong?" Ryou asked.

"I'm afraid so. Your mate fed off a drunk and consequently got drunk himself."

"How is that possible?"

"Yami said it has to do with a human drinking too much alcohol and the blood being saturated with the drink."

"Oh, dear."

"And since he's your mate, you can watch over him. Joey says he'll probably have a hangover once the alcohol's out of his system."

Ryou sighed. "Okay, I'm going. Luckily, we got some blood because something tells me that Bakura and I won't be going out to feed tomorrow."

Bakura cracked open an eye and winced at the low level of light that lit the room. Why did the light hurt his eyes? He tried to come up with a reason, but the pounding in his head made it difficult to think. He moaned softly; he felt awful and wanted this feeling to go away. He slowly opened his eyes to bare slits to spare himself the light and saw Ryou lying on his bed looking at him with concern.

"Bakura?" Ryou's voice was just above a whisper and for that Bakura was grateful considering his senses seemed super sensitive right now.

He licked his dry lips. "Angel?" he said in a whisper. "What happened? I remember feeding off a drunk, but after that everything is kind of fuzzy."

"I know. That was last night. According to Seto, Yami, and Joey, you were drunk."

"Drunk? But all we can drink is blood."

"Yes, but Yami said that if a human drinks too much, the alcohol can saturate every system in their body and that includes the blood."

"Ah. Is that why my head hurts, all my senses are sensitive, and I feel dehydrated?"

"Well, too much alcohol can result from what is called a hangover which typically occurs the morning after someone's been out drinking all night. Not everyone experiences hangovers, though." Ryou paused. "Wait. Did you say you feel dehydrated?"

Bakura screwed up his eyes, thinking back on his words. "Yes, I did."

Ryou's eyes widened and he quickly ran to Bakura's table and withdrew the blood bag. "Here. I got some blood from the bank last night. You mostly likely need it if you feeling dehydrated."

Bakura slowly rolled over and accepted the bag. He was soon sucking blood greedily and he felt himself getting better. He removed the tube and carefully stored it before sitting up and smiling at his mate. "I feel a lot better now. So, I was drunk last night? What did I do? As I said before, I can't remember."

Ryou sweatdropped as he recalled being told what Bakura had done and said. "I think it's better if you don't know."

Bakura frowned. "It was something embarrassing, wasn't it?"

"Yes, but trust me. It's better you don't know."

The End

I know this doesn't sound like the end, but believe me it is. It sounds a lot better than some sappy ending. Well, it's finally done and I hope you enjoyed reading it just as I enjoyed writing the last three chapters.