Chapter 11:

Thanks to you amazing people who reviewed... you others who are reading, remember this: I AM WATCHING YOU!

I have a story called, The Fight To Be The Eldest, and the events in that will have something to do with this story, later down the line. So check it out please!


Claire's POV (yes, she's back!):

"Blood, Claire," Amelie prods me gently and I nod, sitting upright. I slide off the bed and wobble, not at all used to this way of being alive or being this hungry... Well, I guess it is thirsty, isn't it?

Sam races out the room and I hear him head down the stairs; it's weird, being able to hear a vampire, much less track their process downstairs and his actions in the kitchen.

I turn to look at Michael and feel a stab of pain at my immobile heart at seeing him like this; I'm awake, even though I tried to kill myself, so why isn't he waking up when I am?

"Amelie, why is he still unconscious?" I ask her, a note of definite panic in my voice. He's definitely going to be important to me, especially if he was the one who turned me: I guess that in most cases there is some sort of bond formed... But I think that since he saved my life in such a way, there's been an even stronger bond formed. I need to know he's alright...

"Hush, child, he is merely sleeping," she soothes me, her voice tender and calm. She carefully places an arm around my shoulder and pulls me across the room, setting me down in one of the chairs... Wasn't that chair downstairs before? "Now... Do you care to tell me why you acted the way you did now, or would you rather wait until after you have had some blood?" she changes the subject to something I would rather not talk about... I have a feeling that she will not let me go without explaining.

"After," I mutter, looking over at the sleeping body (on my bed) of Michael.

"Very well," she says, the tenderness abruptly gone from her voice. She stands to the side of me, hovering almost, as Sam begins to make his way up the stairs. The smell of the blood suddenly hits me and it is all I can do to not run for it.

"Ow," I murmur, falling to the floor with my hands on my throat to try and dull the burning. It simply makes it worse with the movement and I whimper, trying to hold my breath so that the deliciously perfect intoxicating scent of the blood Sam is carrying. He's coming closer and closer and I can tell that the blood is only 10m from me... 9m... It's getting closer and as it does, I feel the monster rising in me. It wants the blood, that is all it wants...

"Here you go," Sam says gently but I ignore him. My body moves of its own accord, my arm shooting out to grab the warmed bottle of blood, my focus entirely on it. It's all I want... My fangs pierce through my gums for the first time but the pain is masked by the sudden addition of the blood to my body. The thick liquid crawls down my throat as I attempt to savour it, but I fail miserably as it just goes crashing down my throat; it is too nice, too perfect, to be drank slowly.

I feel a sudden surge of energy as the life saving addition surges through my veins, feeding every major organ in my body so I can function. I smile as the blood covered fangs retract into their gums and the crimson tinge to my eyes fades back to normal: I feel absolutely fricking amazing! I never thought I'd be able to say this but it feels better to be a vampire than a human!

Michael suddenly sits upright and gazes blankly in our direction before he focuses on me. Through my peripheral vision, I see Amelie looking at us in confusion and I know what she's thinking: they must be more linked than I thought...

"Claire, are you alright?" Michael asks me in a hurry. Even with vampire vision, I barely see him shooting across the room to be holding me in his arms, pulling me into him. I wrap my arms around him and just breathe in his familiar scent, heightened now of my vampire senses. It seems strange to be calling myself a vampire since I had been hoping to die not even half an hour ago; I wanted to end my life... And the worst thing is, I don't really know why.

"I'm fine... How are you?" I ask him and he snorts slightly before pulling away. His expression turns serious and he looks me right in the eye, his gaze reaching right into my soul. I shiver but hold his attention, not looking away from him: he will not win!

"Care to explain why all this had to happen?" he says, slightly irritated with me. He throws an arm out and gestures around the room, causing my face to turn cold. I know I must be paler and colder anyway, since I've been a vampire for all of the past fifteen minutes max, but for me to feel it, it must be a pretty big temperature change.

He seems to realise that I suddenly cannot move, frozen by the fear of having to discuss what happened to me. That's why he softens his facial expression to merely disapproving and stops staring quite so intently at me, instead having his eyes flicker about the room, not settling on one place for more than a few seconds.

"Erm," I stall and Amelie clicks her tongue, exasperated.

"For heaven's sake Claire, I haven't all day!" she snaps and I turn robotically to look at her. Seeing her delicate frame wracked with anger causes tears to suddenly flow down my cheeks; why is she so angry with me? When I cry, however, she doesn't soften a smidgen so Sam steps in.

"We'll come back later, won't we Amelie?" he says, his hands on her shoulders. She relaxes at his touch and nods, knowing that she can come back later; I am unable to stop her doing as she wishes. It is miraculous enough that she is allowing me to simply talk to Michael and probably allowing Michael to tell her, rather than me telling her myself... I don't know if I'd be able to go through it two times.

"One hour," she says to Michael, to me, and they both walk out of the room. They leave me alone with Michael… something I both want and don't want at the same time. I don't think that I can cope with relaying the terrible events to him… especially not in this room. Preferably not in this house but it is probably sunlight hours so I don't think it would be the best idea for a brand new vampire to step out into the sunlight, would it? It is slightly better for Michael, since he is over a year old now, but when you have literally just been made, it probably shouldn't happen for a bit!

"Claire?" Michael prods me gently, looking at me with a small smile. I shake into normality again and shrug with a sense of being myself again… but I need Shane. Even if only just to talk to him to ask him why he did it, I need to talk to him. However, bringing this up to Michael now hardly seems the best idea, since Shane is partially what caused me to do this… actually, he's probably the reason I did.

"Where d'you wanna talk?" I ask him, turning my gaze to the back wall. I cannot look at my bed, where I have spent the last who knows how long lying in my own blood. "Actually, d'you mind if I get changed first? Since, even though it is my own blood, it is sort of driving my head insane," I say, noting for the first time how it is troubling my head and throat. Seriously, why am I so disgusting that I would want to drink my own blood?

His expression softens and he nods, his hand reaching out to stroke my cheek softly… it feels nice yet alien at the same time… but who cares, right?

"Sure, I'll be in the secret room if you want?" he asks and I nod. That seems the best place; Shane and I may have gone up there together but it was infrequent and the only room in the goddamn house that his scent won't be as strong there. It is already doing my head in… it seems like that is all I can smell, imagine his warm body on the bed… NO! Stop thinking about it, otherwise you will go insane!

Michael walks towards the door and I marvel how I am able to see his every movement in so much clarity – it seems slower as well; it seems more lifelike and natural… probably because I can move at almost the same speed now. However, I presume that if I saw Amelie or Oliver moving I'd be barely able to see them… well, Amelie at least. Oliver is goddamn old but he is only about a quarter of Amelie's age, I think. Myrnin and probably Pennywell are older than him – but they didn't register on the Elder's Council, did they?

He turns back suddenly, moving quicker than I thought; maybe only seconds ago he was moving at my speed, so I wasn't too freaked out… or maybe I can move at this speed as well.

"Claire, you'll get used to the bloodlust, honestly," he says to me, emotion in his voice. "I know; I went through it as well. It feels like it is going to destroy you at times and at others it is pretty much non-existent. So just relax and I'll see you in a few minutes – don't use the how long it took me to get ready excuse anymore, since you can move faster!" he ends on a slight joke before disappearing to give me my privacy.

I begin to remove the disgusting clothing of the past however long, holding my breath as the dried blood suddenly hits my throat; my own blood didn't bother me before but since I drank the blood Sam brought up it seems to be annoying me and inflicting pain on my own body! Sheesh, body, get a grip and a sense of normality!

So I change and then pull a brush through my hair, for some reason wanting to make myself appear pretty to Michael. I shrug to myself as I ask the question to myself that I know he is going to ask:

Why did you do it?


What do you think?

Decided to have the conversation next chapter as (hopefully) it could be pretty long and stuff…

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Vicky xx