Sorry for the later update than usual. Blame it on my computer.
If you don't understand what this chapter is about then ask in a review. It's been rewritten almost completely, so you guys know I tried. It's the least you all deserve for making this story have over a hundred reviews! That made my month. Thank you all very very much.
For a moment I felt everything melt away, the world had never seemed so right. Then I came to my senses and pulled away. This couldn't be real. Maddie would never kiss me, especially after she had learned that I was a vampire. It had to be a trick, and if it wasn't than I had just stopped kissing the woman who I had been after for years. Either way, it wasn't good.
"What's wrong Vlad?" she said softly. "I know you've been in love with me since college. How can you resist?" I forced myself not to answer, because I wasn't exactly positive as to why I was resisting at all. This was everything I had wanted right? Maddie's love…
But was it really her love? The last time she had hugged me I ended up getting shot in the stomach. Now she had kissed me. I hadn't even hypnotized her! What was even worse was that in the back of my mind I could feel my conscience weakening, and if I lost it completely and became a… monster again, I wasn't sure I would be able to regain control.
Maddie was making it extremely hard for me to think. She was so close that I could feel her breath on my skin, and hear every beat of her heart. "You and I both know that you love me. Give in to your vampire instincts Vlad." My eyes widened and I looked at her closely. What was wrong with her?
She had a strange smile on her face, almost like she was being forced to, but her teeth looked normal enough and I let out a small sigh of relief. She wasn't a vampire, even though I had drank some of her blood. My eyes caught sight of the two identical wounds on her neck. I was responsible for Maddie becoming the way she was. She was acting strange… because of my bite.
And is it really all that bad?
"Yes it is." I said out loud. Maddie looked confused. I turned my attention back to her, trying to distract myself from my thoughts. "Why are you doing this? I killed your daughter and drank some of your blood, and you're acting like you love me." If only Maddie would be angry with me. Anger I could deal with, but this strange seductiveness was too much.
"You didn't kill Jazz." She said, and I managed not to shudder at the tone of her voice. "You just… brought her over to our side. The powerful side." She reached over my shoulder with one hand and absently began messing with my hair. "And as for me, well, I really have no choice."
I took her hands in mine as guilt flowed through me. Much less guilt than there should have been though. "What do you mean?" Of course I knew what she meant. I had stolen some of her life to satisfy my hunger. But I had no choice! So I gave Maddie none either. I closed my eyes, trying desperately to fight back the dark thoughts taking control of my mind.
"You crave blood and company, Vlad. Someone to share in your pain and be with you for all eternity. You chose me for that purpose and drank my blood. Now we share the same life force. My blood flows through you, it keeps you sustained. Nothing could keep me away from my own blood. We are becoming one mind, one soul."
"What do you mean?" I said, my eyes snapping open.
She frowned. "Don't deny it Vlad. You can feel it. I know you can. There is a connection between us, an unbreakable one. By biting my neck you sentenced me to a life as a vampire, whether you realized it or not. It can not be broken. If I die, I will become a vampire. Even if I die of old age."
"No!" I gasped. This shouldn't have happened. I had stopped myself, I didn't drink all of her blood; she was still alive. After all of the remorse I had felt, after all of the guilt, she still was turning into a monster. And all because of me…
"Yes!" She said, and laughed insanely. "You torment all of my thoughts, I can't escape you're influence. Even though you think you are doing nothing to harm me, you do by just existing."
Maddie smiled and continued. "Besides, would you rather have me live forever as I am now or as an old lady? You must choose, Vlad. Finish me off, absorb my soul, and I will be yours forever, the woman you fell in love with. Wait until I die of natural causes, perhaps feed on some less innocent victims while you wait, and then you will have to deal with me as a senior citizen until time ends."
I said nothing. I was too shocked. How was this possible? Finally I spoke. "Maddie, I don't understand what's going on. Why are you like this? What did I do to make you act this way?"
"To put it very simply, by drinking my blood and still leaving me alive, you have given me the opportunity to become a full vampire like you. Jazz is simply a minion, a mindless creature. But now I will become one of the greatest beings on earth. Nothing you do can stop me now, but you can speed up the process and finish me off." For a moment her eyes softened just a bit. "I want to see my daughter again."
"Oh Maddie," I said, "If all you wanted was to see Jasmine, I promise I can arrange it. There must be a way to turn her back into a human-" She cut me off.
"You don't realize what you are, do you? You're a monster who craves the blood of living humans, a demon who can't stand the sunlight and is burned by the cross, and you are dead. Jazz is dead too. Nothing can bring her back, except for your death. Even then she might still live on as a vampire. I need to be a vampire too."
"What about Jack and Daniel?" I asked, relieved that she was starting to sound a little bit normal, but still unnerved by what she had said. "Are you going to leave them to suffer?"
She looked at me, her purple eyes meeting mine, and said, "You have a deep hatred for the both of them. Now that you and I are connected through vampirism, I feel your hatred too. They are nothing to me now. All that matters is you and Jazz." This couldn't be true. Maddie couldn't hate Jack, could she?
"What have I done?" I said. I looked at her, noticing how pale her skin was, and the way her eyes were cold and hard. "Maddie, snap out of it! Stop acting crazy. You can't be serious. The last time you hugged me I ended up with a hole through my stomach. Why are you doing this?"
Her voice suddenly became dark and menacing. "You want to know the real reason I'm doing this?" she said. "For revenge." She smiled strangely. "How much longer can you go without having to drink someone's blood to keep that immortality?" Forget acting, she was crazy. I began to back away from her, but she walked forward, keeping the distance between me and her equal.
"When you are gripped by the overwhelming hunger, the unquenchable thirst for blood, I will be here, waiting to serve you, waiting for the moment when you sink your fangs into my neck and finish me once and for all, ending my human existence and taking me with you into the world of eternal night, the world for all dark creatures who plague humanity. Then I will be able to torment you forever."
She was right; I couldn't stop myself from being a murderer. Maddie would live forever, and she would hate me forever. The only way out of this would be death, my death, and both Jasmine and Maddie would be free. Daniel had been close-terrifyingly close in fact- to succeeding in killing me. I found myself backed up against a wall, and Maddie still came closer. And I was starting to get hungry again…
Then I realized that something was wrong, very wrong. Daniel had been serious about killing me, and when he turned away for a moment Maddie had removed the garlic from the doorway, letting me narrowly escape death. Shouldn't he have realized that I had escaped by now? There would have been no where else for me to go besides the lab, so he should have already come down to try and finish me off.
Dread filled me as I had the terrible feeling I was trapped. I turned into fog and moved away from Maddie. She watched me with a smirk on her face, and I reformed and almost ran towards the stairs. Before I was even half way up them I knew that Maddie had planned ahead. The garlic had been replaced on the door, giving Daniel the illusion that I had died and my body burned up into nothing… and trapping me in here.
"It's too late Vlad." I heard Maddie say. "For both of us. You can't escape this place, just as you can not escape your hunger. I can't escape the power you have over me. I am under your spell for all eternity, whether you want me to be or not. All choices have consequences. I am a consequence of your bad decision."
I turned around and found her standing right behind me, grinning just as insanely as ever. "We are both doomed to be vampires. You can try to let me live and starve yourself to death, but remember what happened last time? Jasmine was the one who ended up dying. She fed you because you couldn't resist, and she fought. I will not fight. I will try and force you to drink the rest of my blood. How long do you think you can fight your vampire side?"
Not much longer.
Why me? Why was this happening to me? I walked back down the stairs, away from the smell of garlic. I would be able to live for a few days, but I could already feel that small twinge of hunger growing. Maddie stayed close to me. I looked at her, feeling my will to resist draining away. She was so lovely, and she could be my queen of the night forever. But she wanted revenge on me too. She wanted to get revenge on me for ruining her family, her life.
A question popped into my head, and I asked, "Maddie, you keep saying that I love you, but do you love me?" I made sure that I hadn't been looking into her eyes. If I had been hypnotizing her, then I wouldn't anymore. I had to know the truth
"You love me Vlad. Isn't that enough?" she came forward and tried to hug me, but I held her back.
"No." It wasn't enough. I had always thought it would be, but it wasn't. All that she wanted was to be able to live for all eternity and torture me like I had tortured her.
"But Vlad, how can you resist? There is no other choice for you." Her voice sounded so sweet, but I could tell that something wasn't right. She was manipulating me through the connection that had formed between us. Making herself sound like nothing in the world would please her more than me biting her neck.
I heard footsteps above us and froze. Someone was coming. Instinct turned me into a bat, and I flew up to hide among the wires that were on the ceiling of the lab. Maddie watched me enviously. Daniel walked down the stairs into the lab.
"Mom? What are you doing down here?" he said. I noticed that he looked very tired and depressed. Was he actually feeling guilty about my death? What would he do if he knew I was alive?
"Oh Danny, I'm so glad to see you. I was worried that Vlad had killed you too, and got lost looking for him. I ended up here. How did you find me?" My eyes widened. For a moment I wondered if she had been hypnotized after all, but then she turned and winked at me. I nearly let go of the wire I was hanging onto. She was tricking Daniel, and very well too.
He sighed and looked down. "Vlad… won't be coming back He's… dead. I found his body this morning." He couldn't bring himself to admit that he had killed me.
"Oh Danny!" Maddie said, hugging him. "I'm so sorry you had to go through that! How did he die?"
Daniel said nothing for a moment. Then he said, "He committed suicide." So many lies, all of them about me. I could almost feel his guilt about lying so much to his mother, even if she was lying back to him.
They began to walk towards the stairs, and Maddie threw me a look that said, 'I'll be back for you later.' I glided over and watched them walk up the stairs. Daniel looked at the garlic for a moment and then began tearing it down.
"No!" Maddie yelled, but it was too late. As soon as the first strand was down I turned into mist and left the lab, flying away as fast as I could. The sun was just starting to set, and even though it burned me it wasn't as strong as it had been. I didn't care. I had to escape Maddie before it was too late.