I wub you guys! No seriously, I love you guys! By the way, when Raven mentions Punk Rocket, she's referring to the story of one of my other fan fics, "It's Only Rock and Roll"
Raven's gaze slowly turned around to meet Beast Boy's, a look of shock and horror in his green eyes. The white mouse at this point had given up the ghost, as she had quickly drained it of it's life blood in a short manner of time.
"What are you doing?" he again demanded.
Very slowly the empath removed the lifeless rodent from her fangs and laid him gently down on her bed, her focus away from Beast Boy and now staring down at her bare feet.
Then the tears started again.
She had cried before since it had happened, but at this point any last hope of retaining her humanity had slipped away, just like the poor mouse's life. Her tears were heavy and bitter, causing Beast Boy's attitude to change. Not wishing to be interrupted, Beast Boy shut their bedroom door and punched in the ID key to lock it.
"Rae, what's wrong?" he asked, his voice soothing. He sat next to her, her head buried in her hands as the tears flowed freely like a dam that had burst open. "Shhh...you can tell me." he added, as he slipped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her close to him. Raven took a deep sigh to control herself and rested her head on his shoulder, still crying softly.
"Beast Boy..." she finally said, her voice hardly above a whisper "...something happened to me when...when I was mugged.." The changeling's eyes narrowed into thin slits and his mind instantly wheeled to the worst case scenario. "Raven...were you raped?" he asked, his voice toneless. She merely shook her head no, with the jade skinned prankster easing out a sigh of relief.
"Then what happened?"
"I...I wasn't mugged...I was attacked...by a vampire."
There was a silence in their bedroom as Beast Boy just stared at the floor, massaging the back of her neck with the only sounds in the bedroom being Raven's gentle sobs.
"Vampires are real?" he finally asked.
In another time Raven would have send him flying with her powers at such a dumb question, but giving her current mood she just didn't have the strength. Instead, she merely nodded, wiping a tear from her eye.
"Yes, they are real. Very real. And one of them, named Dominic, attacked me..."
Beast Boy swallowed his spit, his body getting tense. He knew what he had to ask, if he could only manage to spit it out.
"Did he...?"
Raven nodded silently, confirming her boyfriend's worst fears. "Oh God..." he said softy, not intending to hurt Raven, but his words still feeling like a sharp dagger straight into her heart. "I'm sorry, Rae..." he said, not quite sure what he was apologizing for but feeling the need to say it anyway.
"You have nothing to be sorry for." she said flatly, her eyes finally starting to dry, but the sorrow that caused the tears still ever present.
"So...is that why you had the mouse in your mouth?"
Raven winced as if she had been just punched in the solar plexus, the painful reminder of the desperate lengths she sank to still fresh in her mind. "Yes..." she finally said, not making eye contact with him. "Dominic made it in the Tower...and...and he saw how hungry I was. He humiliated me, Gar."
"Can't you just, like...not drink blood?"
Raven sighed. Beast Boy couldn't help it and she was trying to have patience with him, but his normal behavior wasn't what she needed at this point.
"It's not that easy, Gar. I'm..." she could feel the tears wanting to break through again, so she stopped, closed her eyes and breathed in deeply so as to avoid another breakdown. "...I'm dead." she finally said, her voice back to the normal monotone it always used to carry.
"No way, that can't be. You're like, talking to me and stuff."
Raven held out her wrist to Beast Boy. "See if you can find a pulse." she offered. Beast Boy took her slender wrist into his hand, slightly disturbed at how cold it felt and pressed her finger around trying to find a pulse...a heartbeat...anything.
There was nothing.
He gently let go of her hand, his stomach upset by this. He felt like he was going to puke.
"So...if you don't eat, what happens? I mean, it's not like you can die again."
"Remember when we had to stop Punk Rocket from stealing the xenothium?" she asked. Beast Boy nodded quietly, still in shock that his girlfriend was an undead vampire. "Remember the pain you felt when he knocked you into that electrical field?" she asked again, attempting to drive her point home. The changeling shuddered slightly remembering the horrible sensation of massive amounts of pure electricity cascading through every cell in his body. "How can I forget..." he said quietly.
"That is what I feel like every waking second if I don't feed...and that rat was barely enough to subside the hunger. Even now as we speak, I can feel it creeping up on me. It's letting his presence known...it's a pain I will carry with me forever."
Beast Boy just shook his head. "No! I refuse to believe it! There has to be a way to cure you!" he protested.
"Cure me? Gar, this isn't a cold or a flu or something I can take a Tylenol for! It's...it's..." She never had the chance to finish that sentence as she immediately groaned loudly, falling to her knees. She clutched her stomach in pain, as her body began to shake as if she were having convulsions.
"Raven!"
But she couldn't reply, she fell to her side and rose her legs to her chest, her body a ball on the floor, her face once again slick with tears. "It's that hunger thing, isn't it?" he asked sincerely. Raven merely gave a tiny nod and groaned loudly, the hunger demanding a full meal this time and not just a small cup or an insignificant rodent.
Beast Boy quickly morphed himself into a large gorilla and gently picked up her delicate body and softly laid her down on their bed, pulling the blankets up to her chin, which is how she liked them. "Don't give up, Rae!" he said after morphing back to his human self. "Just hang in there, I'll be right back..." and with that, sped out of their bedroom.
The OPs room was rather busy this day. Starfire, upon learning about Raven's apparent illness, had decided to make her friend a fresh batch of "Wellness Jelly" the contents of which were kept a strict secret. Cyborg was again busy playing his GameStation 720 against Robin.
Breaking up this monotony of the day came Beast Boy charging into the kitchen and hurriedly preparing a pot of fresh herbal tea. His frantic nature caught the attention of Starfire who had just added the moldy bread crumbs to her "Wellness Jelly."
"Beast Boy, I see you have returned. Tell me, is friend Raven any better? Has she recovered from the flu?"
Beast Boy didn't acknowledge her inquiry, just hurriedly sat the pot on the stove and began impatiently tapping his foot waiting for the brew to be near completion. Starfire peaked over the changeling's shoulder, thinking perhaps she did not hear him. "Is friend Raven perhaps feeling better?"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah...Star...sure thing..." he said without thinking, not giving her the slightest bit of attention.
"Forgive me friend, but I merely asked..."
"I don't have time for this!" Beast Boy interrupted. "Raven is really sick and she needs something to drink, ok? So just leave me alone." Starfire merely blinked in response, feeling hurt at her friend lashing out like this. "I am sorry to disturb you." she said quietly. Beast Boy sighed, suddenly feeling like the biggest jerk in the world.
"Star, I'm sorry. Raven is just really...sick right now and she needs me. I didn't mean to hurt you."
Starfire nodded softly, happy to see her friend not mad at her anymore. "Please inform friend Raven that when she is well, I would wish to take her to the Mall of Shopping for the making of overs." Beast Boy smirked slightly at the idea of Raven getting a complete make over, before shaking the thought from his head. Now was not the time for this and then suddenly,almost as if it had been an answered prayer, the tea pot whistled loudly informing Beast Boy that the herbal brew was done.
In a flash Beast Boy grabbed a pot holder and Raven's favorite tea cup before taking off for the bedroom.
The situation was even worse than when he had left. Raven had thrown her blankets off and was thrashing around on the sheets, the pain absolutely unbearable.
"I'm coming Rae!" he said, locking the door behind him. He sat the steaming pot on her nightstand and taking the cup in his hand, poured a hot cup of tea for her. Then, almost like an afterthought he sat the cup down on the table and went to her dresser, rummaging through the top drawer till he found what he was looking for...a pair of scissors.
Making his way back to the tea cup, Beast Boy took a deep breath and using the blade of the scissors, cut a small incision on his index finger, squeezing as much as blood into the cup as he possibly could. Using a spoon, he mixed the blood and tea together and inched the cup closer to her for her todrink from.
"Here Rae...this will make you make you feel better..." he tried to say as comforting as possible. She sat up as much as she could, grunting from the hunger. Beast Boy tipped the cup to her lips slowly poured the beverage down her throat. She coughed slightly, and fell back on the sheets, her entire face wet with tears. "...more..." she whimpered.
Beast Boy examined the pot and his finger with it's tiny, tiny drop of blood. There was only way he could give her the satisfaction she needed...
"Raven...I want you to bite me like Dominic bit you..." he said grimly. Raven just shook her head no, not wanting to subject him to the same fate that had befallen her. "Look Rae...you're in hell right now. There's no way we can find enough blood to quench your thirst unless you do this! There has to be a cure, I refuse to believe there isn't and besides..." he said as he took her slender hand into his "...even if there isn't a cure, we'll still be together...forever." and accentuated his point by kissing his softly on her chakra.
She simply looked at him, her eyes still watering heavy with tears and whispered a barely audible "...I love you..." before motioning for him to come closer. Her teeth grit as she tried to mentally block out the pain for just one moment. She lovingly caressed his neck, feeling incredibly guilty for what she was about to do, even if he volunteered himself for it.
She made it quick, for both of their sakes, as she sank her fangs directly into his green skin. The teeth piercing the flesh like razor sharp steak knifes, his blood beginning to flow from the open wound. Raven thirstily lapped up the crimson wine that came steadily from his neck, feeing the pain die down and quiet to the point where she could feel nothing at all.
Beast Boy's eyes rolled back into his head as he collapsed on the floor, barely clinging to life. Raven wiped the excess blood away from her mouth, some of it having dribbled down on her leotard. She had to act fast or else she'd lose him and there was no way she was going to allow that to happen.
She reached for the pair of scissors on the nightstand that Beast Boy had used to prick himself and in one fast move, slit the vital veins on her wrist. "Gar...if you can hear me, drink this..." she said softly, holding the gushing wound to his mouth. Beast Boy weakly lifted his hand and drank the viscous offering, with Raven offering much more than she should have, in order tomake sure it was a while before he went hungry.
When she felt like she was going to pass out, she retracted her arm as the wound began to instantly seal itself up as it nothing happened. Beast Boy hazily made his way to his feet, slightly unsteady as if he had just walked off a thrilling roller coaster.
"Why...does...it hurt?" he croaked. Raven quietly stroked his hair and kissed him softly on the lips. "It's because your body is dying, Gar." she said as sweetly as someone can say such a sentence.
"It's only 1 PM now...let's sleep and then tonight we'll try to find a cure, ok?" she added. Beast Boy nodded in a daze and kicked off his uniform till he was clad in just his boxers. Raven followed, suit unsnapping her leotard and snaking it off her body, till she was just in her underwear as well.
The two vampire Titans curled their bodies next to each other in a loving embrace as they both fell asleep together.