"I'm a vampire."
Those words rang in her head over and over, but she couldn't quite process it.
"I'm sorry, what?"
"I'm a vampire, Regina,"
"But vampires aren't...real?"
Emma let out a small chuckle. She shook her head, then scoffed.
Without warning, she jumped onto the roof from the ground then walked down the side of the house. After passing Regina in a blur, she ran into the woods at her top speed.
She jumped to the top of a tree, then leaped into the air. She jumped just far enough to where she knew Regina saw her.
Then, in the middle of the air, she transformed into a bat. After flying around in a quick circle, she flew to her roof.
Once she transformed back into her other form, she jumped down from her roof and landed perfectly on her feet.
"So you're a vampire," Regina said, her mouth hanging wide open.
"Yeah," Emma replied, letting out a deep breath.
Regina thought everything she knew about vampires from fiction. She looked at Emma as her eyes grew wider. She took a few steps back, trying to get far enough away from her.
"Do you... drink blood?" She stepped back even farther. "Are you going to eat me now or something?"
"No," Emma reassured her, then added. "Well yes, I drink blood. But I'm not gonna hurt you,"
Regina let out the quietest chortle,
"So that's how you saved me then,"
Emma smiled sheepishly in response, then shrugged.
Part of Regina wanted to run. Her girlfriend was a vampire for fuck's sake. She crossed her arms, thinking about what to do.
On one hand, she had no idea if Emma was even telling the truth. This could all be on big scheme to trick Regina and then end up drinking her blood.
But on the other hand, she just saw what Emma could do; if she wanted to kill her and then drink her blood, she would've done it already.
"I have a lot of questions, but can we please go inside? It's freezing out here,"
Emma nodded, then ran to the door and held it open for her girlfriend. It felt nice not to have to hold back her speed.
Regina still wasn't sure how to feel, but she decided that it was about time she got her answers. So she walked inside and sat down on the couch.
Emma followed closely behind, then jumped onto the ceiling. She walked until she stood directly above her.
"Can you maybe not do that?"
Emma sighed, then jumped down so she sat across from Regina on the couch.
"Ask me anything,"
"You said that you drink blood, so do you kill people?"
"No," Emma replied immediately. "When a vampire bites a human, it either kills them from drinking too much blood, or it turns them. But animals can't be turned into vampires, so my family and I hunt animals, but make sure not to kill them,"
"Have you ever turned anyone?"
"In which way?" Emma had a smirk on her face, and looked satisfied with herself.
"You know which way I meant!" Regina replied, clearly annoyed.
"No, I've never turned anyone into a vampire," Emma said with a sigh. "I've never even tasted human blood,"
"Who turned you?"
"Mary Margaret, my adoptive mother,"
"Emma, how old are you?"
"Biologically, I'm 18. But I've been 18 for over a century. I was born in 1894, so chronologically, I'm 126,"
Regina looked slightly horrified at that statement. She scooted back, farther away from Emma. She couldn't quite fathom how she had been dating someone that old.
"Relax, Mills," Emma said with a grin. "I know that's a lot to take in, but I don't age physically or mentally. So I'm not actually an old woman,"
"Do you burn up in the sun? Because I'm pretty sure I've seen you outside before and the sun was out,"
"No. Of course, we are really pale so we do get sunburns easily, but I can stand outside and not die like the vampires do in movies,"
"So is everyone in your family a vampire?"
"My close family here is just my adoptive parents. They're vampires. But Ruby's basically part of the family too, though, and she's not a vampire,"
"Does she know about you?"
"Yeah," Emma replied. "She's a werewolf,"
She knew that Ruby probably wouldn't be too happy with Emma revealing her secret too. But then again, she didn't care. The only other solution that she offered to her was to break up, and Emma didn't want that. So Ruby could deal with Regina knowing about her too.
"So they're real too? God, what else is real?"
Emma laughed,
"A lot more than you might think. Would you like me to give a short lesson?"
Regina wasn't sure how to answer, but curiosity got the best of her, so she nodded yes.
"Alright," Emma began. "There's three main branches; what's born, what's made, and both. Vampires are made. As soon as you've turned, you cannot reproduce. There's no way someone can be born a vampire. Werewolves are both. They can be turned from a bite, but they don't lose their ability to reproduce after turned. Ruby was born a werewolf. Just like vampires, werewolves stop aging at whenever they've been turned. At least until their body decides it's done and they're stuck being human forever. But when you're born a werewolf, you stop aging at 21, then stay that age until your body decides to stop."
"How old is Ruby then?"
"55," Emma replied, knowing that Regina would let out another gasp. "We've known each other for 30 years, though,"
"So two of my students are a lot older than me? Got it,"
Emma laughed again, then continued explaining things to her.
"And now for what's born; witches. I fucking hate those guys. Witches can't turn anyone else into a witch, and they reproduce. They stop aging at 18, but they can make themselves look older or younger with magic. And they're all assholes. Well, except for one. But she's the exception 'cause she wasn't raised by witches."
Regina looked at her, then thought about several things over the last few months. It all made sense now.
"That day that Kathryn almost walked in on us," she started. "And then a bat flew out of my desk, was that you?"
"Guilty as charged," Emma replied with a grin.
"What about right after we first kissed, and a bat was outside of my house? Was that you too? Because it scared the hell out of Robin,"
"No, that wasn't me. It was probably a real bat,"
"Oh... so why did Mary Margaret turn you into a vampire?"
Emma inhaled deeply, that was a touchy subject for her. But then again, she told Regina she could ask her anything. And quite frankly, her girlfriend did deserve to have some answers.
"It's a bit of a long story," she began. Regina nodded for her to continue.
Letting out a sigh, Emma began to tell the story of the night she became a vampire.
~1912~
"Lily," Emma said lovingly. "What are you doing?"
Sitting on the other side of the bed, Lily began gathering her clothes. She looked at Emma, but didn't answer her.
"What?" Emma asked. "Did you not like it or something?"
"No, it's not that. I just need to be somewhere right now."
"Oh..." Emma replied, disappointed. "You know that was my first time, right?"
"I told you, Emma. It's not that. I'm sorry, but I really need to go,"
"I love you!" Emma called after her as she left her bedroom.
Lily heard her, but said nothing. A teardrop fell down her cheek as she exited the Nolan's house. She knew what she was going to do would be unforgivable, but she had to do it.
The Nolan's were vampires, and she knew that vampires were bad. No matter how good they tried to be, they would always be bad. And now they had taken Emma in, completely tainting her as well.
So, the witches wanted an end to it. Lily wanted an end to it.
The Nolan's had been a target for a long time, but it became easier to track them once they had a human with them. It was especially easy when Lily got the human to fall in love with her. She soon learned that Emma had no idea what her parents were, and that almost made her want to remove Emma from their plan. But alas, Emma had still been ruined by vampires.
So tonight was the night. Lily was standing at the front of the Nolan's house, waiting for the others to appear.
"You have done well, Lilith," someone said to her. "Now, it is time."
She nodded in response.
Together, the witches gathered. They held hands in one large circle, then started the incantations.
Pretty soon, screams erupted from inside the house as glass started to break. Their spell of destruction had worked.
The witches all ran inside the house, searching for their targets. All three of them ended up being in the same room.
Emma had assumed that she was alone that night, which was why she decided it would be the night she did it with Lily. However, her parents came in through the back as soon as they heard the glass break.
Emma ran to them, wanting to know what was going on. As soon as the doors had opened, they both knew.
"Emma," David said to her. "Go to the crawl space in the spare room!"
"No! What about you guys?"
"Don't worry about us. Just go!" Mary Margaret said.
Emma then thought about the night she lost Ingrid. She didn't want to lose her parents all over again.
"No," she said firmly. "I'm not a little girl anymore. Wherever you guys go, I'm going too,"
"Don't argue with us right now, you need to hide!" David ordered.
Just as Emma opened her mouth to protest, the witches broke down the door.
"Lily?" Emma asked, confused.
"Hello, Emma," she replied.
"Kill the vampires," one of the witches said in a whisper.
"Vampires? What's going on?" Emma asked, looking between everyone.
"No," one witch said. "Get rid of the human first. Lilith, you may have the honors,"
Emma was just as confused as she was before, but now she was terrified as well.
"I really am sorry, Emma," Lily said to her.
Just then, she waved her hand through the air as cuts appeared all over Emma's body.
"No!" David and Mary Margaret screamed at the same time.
She instantly fell down, but her mother ran and caught her first. Meanwhile David decided to try and fight the witches.
"Emma, no, no, no," she started. "Stay with me, Emma,"
Emma could feel the life being drained out of her as she looked at the scene in front of her.
"I love you," she said to her, then added. "Mom,"
"You're not dying, Emma," it sounded more like an order than a reassurance.
As Mary Margaret watched her husband fight the witches, and watched her daughter dying in her arms, she knew she had a decision to make.
She had been alive for nearly 200 years, and with Emma, she finally got to be a mother. She loved Emma so dearly, and she didn't want to let her go. She wasn't going to let her go.
For the first time ever, Mary Margaret revealed her fangs in front of her daughter. Just as Emma started to drift away, she sunk her fangs into her neck.
"And then a day or so later, I woke up in the middle of the woods. My parents managed to escape in time, bringing me with them. They explained everything to me after that, and that's about it,"
As Emma finished telling the story, she felt all of her emotions coming up. She tried to hide them, but Regina saw right through her.
She instantly moved closer to her and sat right next to her girlfriend so she could hug her.
As Emma let out a small sniffle, she leaned back so she could look Regina in the eye.
"Y'know," she began. "I haven't loved anyone like that since Lily. Until I met you,"
Regina gave a soft smile,
"So what does this mean for us?"
"That's up to you," Emma replied. "Obviously I still want to be with you, or else I wouldn't have told you what I am."
"Of course I still want to be with you," Regina said. "I love you,"
She leaned in, then brought their lips together.
"So my girlfriend is a vampire,"
"Indeed she is."