Hey. I'm sorry for taking so long but I found this chapter extremely difficult to write, and I don't know what you'll think about it. Feedback please!

Thanks to those of you who read, reviewed, put on alert and -wow!- faved. Also a HUGE "Thank you!" to Dr. Numa Numa, who proof-read this chapter and corrected all my silly mistakes. Thank you so much:D

And thanks to Fall Out Boy, for making the CD "Infinity on High" which I listened to while writing this. It helped me concentrate.

And now, to the fill- err, chapter. (What a silly title. :3)

2: Toast and chocolate-sauce

I

She did not wake up abruptly like last time. What had happened was no nightmare. It was reality at its most cruel point. And therefore, she did not wake up from it like it was a simple nightmare. She slowly regained what you would technically call consciousness, but kept lying on the floor without moving as if she was completely lifeless.

Raven was in unbelievably clear contact with her emotions and soul. A lot of people thought or, in Beast Boy's case, accused her of having no feelings, much to Raven's annoyance. The truth was that she was so well familiarized with her emotions that she had the power strong enough to simply block them out of her mind. But they were still inside her, and she knew perfectly well they were inside her, how every little detail of her mind worked.

Raven screwed her eyes shut, only to find that they were already as closed as they could be.

The mage meditated every day and was not exactly unfamiliar with the idea of transmigration of the soul. And as she lay there on the floor, the right side of her face glued to the floor in a mess of blood, the normally silken violet mane of hair matted together by said ruby-red fluid. That small presence of mind she was able to gather assumed that right now, in that very moment, a part of her soul was outside her body, and possibly very far away...

What else could be the reason all pain felt so strangely dull? Instead of a hard floor, it felt as is she was lying on a quilt. The silence of the room was ringing through the small space like a church bell. The sound was oddly indistinct, like everything was completely wrapped in wadding.

The mage gave a small groan and moved slightly, the helmet of blood-stained hair moving faintly around her head as she did so.

"Where... where am I?" she whispered hoarsely to no one in particular, her eyes still lightly closed. In the back of her mind Raven knew fully well that she was lying on the floor in her room, but it still seemed unreal. All of her was not present in that room. She closed her eyes harder. Maybe, if she closed them hard enough all this would turn out to be a dream. Or a nightmare.

"He bit me, didn't he?"

Through all the wadding and numbness, Raven felt her head throbbing, like someone was pounding on it with a sledgehammer. Absentmindedly, the mage registered a stinging pain in her hand, but was too tired to move or even bother with it.

For a long while she just laid there, not moving, breathing slowly. She sighed somewhat peacefully, taking a deep breath. The air was thick with the stench of blood, but that did not really alarm Raven – even when she could feel the entire right side of her face being completely smeared with her own blood, she could not really find the energy to get freaked out. The only thing she noted herself, and "noted herself" was not worth much in her current state, was a faint smell of burned flesh...

The pain in her hand instantly became much more distinct and Raven grimaced. Her hand felt as if someone was stepping on it, pressing down on the back of it, and then grinding against it with the sole of their shoe, careless if they accidentally tore of some skin in the process.

Raven felt the sun caress her hair and skin as if it was comforting her and relaxed a bit. The sunlight felt warm against her skin. Once again the throbbing pain in her head seemed to drown in the wadding around her, although the sound of someone wailing could still be heard clearly. She tried to cling on to the speculations about who could be wailing but it was impossible to hold her mind in place. She only felt the sun's heat.

Which got warmer.

And warmer.

And it wasn't until later (entire ten seconds to be exact) when Raven heard an odd sizzling sound that she realized exactly where that pulsating pain in her hand andthe smell of burned flesh came from…

The wailing turned into a scream, which Raven realized came from her throat as she shot up from the floor and away from the burning sunlight.

"There is no way to kill a vampire. Only by a stake through the heart or sunlight…"

Pressed up against a wall, in the darkest corner of her room, safely out of the sunlight's reach, Raven looked at her hand. She uttered something between a sharp gasp and a hoarse cough in surprise. Her nails were a dark shade of brown, almost black, and smelled like burned popcorn. The skin on the back of her hand was white and dead, and big blisters were starting to form, covering her knuckles. On the back of her hand, closest to her wrist, the upper layer of skin was burned away, revealing a new layer of pink skin, which the sunbeams already had started to devour greedily as well.

Panting heavily Raven quickly whispered her mantra and after being surrounded in a blue-black glow for a few minutes, the pain in her hand and head was gone, and the burned-off skin and blisters were replaced with a new layer of grey, fair skin. She sighed peacefully, if that was possible in her current condition, and leaned the back of her head against the wall.

She looked around her room. Her bed sheets were wrinkled and stiff with dried-up blood, and on the floor a pair of scissors laid, also covered in rust-red flakes. Raven gave a long and slow groan and covered her eyes with one hand.

"Yeah he did."

With a low mutter of her mantra, she pulled the curtains together to shut out daylight and remain alive. Again she looked at her hand, just to be perfectly sure it was okay and without burns. She did not smile, but her frown neutralized when she saw the fair, smooth skin and the beautiful white nails on her right hand. Raven normally did not care for how she or others looked, but an odd kind of happiness filled her at the sight of her – dare she think the word – perfect hand. Abruptly Raven shook her head and hid her hand under her cloak. Still shuddering slightly, she got up from the floor. She had not just thought that she was "perfect" had she? Complacency surely was not her. Something was wrong.

She looked at herself in a small mirror that was hanging on her wall. The mage didn't smile, nor did she frown – because that was simply not in her nature – but she actually felt her heart sinking when she discovered that her reflection was nothing but a blurry silhouette, instead of the usual clear image of herself. The purple-haired girl gently lifted her hand up to touch the mirror lightly. So did a shadow from inside the mirror, but it was not her reflection. This, this ghost without a face on the other side of the glassy surface, was not her.

She looked up and a bit to the side, so that her neck was revealed, and the shadow inside the mirror did the same. A little under her chin was two small spots. In the mirror they looked almost like ink blots. But when Raven ran her fingers over them she felt a thin crust of a wound, the same went for her shoulder and further down her neck where his teeth had also been. Again Raven stroked her shoulder to feel the fragile scab, but this time she made the stroking slower, bewitched by the softness of her skin. In the back of her mind, Raven knew how absolutely wrong this was. She was not one to stand and admire herself in a mirror for hours on end, or think to herself how beautiful she thought she was. And right now, covered in blood, was an odd time to think high thoughts about oneself. But it was as if she herself in an entirely new way...

She was brought out of her vanity by a loud knocking on her door. "Raaaven? It's almost over breakfast! Aren't you gonna come?"

Beast Boy.

Panicking Raven looked at the door and then around her room. Blood everywhere. Her bed, the floor, the pair of scissors...

Blocking out Beast Boy's chatter, she closed her eyes and a few moments later, black waves had cleaned her room (including herself) of all blood.

Beast Boy knocked again.

"Raaaaaven?"

She winced at him calling her name. But she did not want to alarm him, so she quickly went and opened the door.

"What?" she asked coldly, her disapproval radiating of her like waves. It wasn't so much disapproval of him, but the time he had chosen to visit her.

"Aren't you gonna have some breakfast? I've made you herbal tea..." smiling, he ignored the daggers she was glaring at him and held up a steaming kettle, dangling it front of her like a pendulum...

Or a pair of scissors...

Raven shuddered and looked away at the memory of last night. Beast Boy's eyes widened with worry.

"What's the matter? You don't want herbal tea? I can throw it out if..." quickly he hid the kettle behind his back, trying to ignore its existence.

"No, no Beast Boy I'm fine," she assured him weakly, "Thank you for making tea, I'll be there in a minute."

Beast Boy raised an eyebrow. Raven normally didn't talk like that. It was as if her voice had become softer, more emotional. And Raven didn't say "Thank you". Not without the usual cold only-fitting-for-a-statue attitude, that is. But what really alarmed Beast Boy was that before closing her door, Raven sent him a weak smile, meant to calm him down.

It did quite the opposite.

Except for the small cup of tea in the kitchen, Raven barely left her room all day. Swathed in darkness (she had magically blocked out all sun), she sat on her bed and meditated, trying to get her mind under control.

Vanity, hypersensitivity to light...

And throughout the day, Raven felt herself... getting hungry. She did not eat less than usual, and she even helped herself to two extra slices of pizza that dinner, much to her team-mates' surprise. But still, when she went to bed that night, she almost could not find peace because of her growling stomach.

II

It all resulted in her waking up on the second day, feeling extremely moody. She did not even bother saying 'no' to joining Starfire in a 'journey to the mall of shopping' before slamming the door in the Tamaranian princess' face, leaving the alien to walk away confused, and also a bit hurt.

Still with the curtains preventing the daylight from killing her, Raven went back to meditating, hoping that she would be able to somehow block out her hunger and hopefully her team-mates wouldn't disturb her. She felt extremely sensitive at the time being.

"Raven! You have to come see this! It's momentous! The Tin Can finally lost!!"

Beast Boy's voice cut through her mind like a lit blowtorch cuts through iron. He always managed to show up when she least wanted him to. The blue-clad mage clenched her hands hard.

That little... She was the daughter of evil itself. He was merely a little green whatever-he-was. He wasn't even worthy of looking at her.

A sudden powerful anger welled up in her and for a minute the thought of putting her hands around the little grass stain's neck and twisting it until it snapped, actually seemed pleasing.

The sorceress clenched her hands even harder – and with a hiss of pain unclenched them again. She stared at her palms. From newly made wounds small droplets of blood trickled down her hand, to land on the clean mattress. – Or, it had been clean until recently. She bent her fingers softly, so nut to cut herself again. Since she had healed her burned hand yesterday, her nails had apparently started growing. They were now almost twice as long as they had been the day before, very strong and most importantly: razor-sharp.

Just like the day before Beast Boy's knock brought her back to the real world.

"Raven! Come on, Cyborg finally lost! We're having vegan toast for breakfast! Aren't you gonna come and celebrate?!"

Raven shook her head. She hadn't just thought of... killing Beast Boy, had she? Sure, he was annoying at times but...

Raven gulped and answered meekly: "Just a minute Beast Boy."

On the other side of the closed door, the changeling raised an eyebrow. Again that soft, emotional voice... like she was embarrassed or maybe even apologizing. Normally the mage would open the door when he was least expecting it, her hood up and covering her face, the only sign of life beneath that hood, being a pair of stone-hard amethyst orbs.

"What?" she would demand snappily, before turning him down in a monotone voice and then close the door in his face before he even got to protest. She wouldn't say "just a minute Beast Boy" and then rush around like she was hiding something...

He shook it off and decided with himself that it was probably nothing, before he went out to make the momentous toast. That was, after all the reason he had disturbed Raven in the first place.

A few moments later, completely covered by her blue cloak and a black scarf, Raven entered the living room. Starfire had already had breakfast and set off to the mall which left Raven alone in the living room with the three male Titans.

"Hey Raven. Good to see ya out of your room," Cyborg noted grumpily with his attention turned towards Beast Boy who was messing around in the kitchen, preparing for the anti-meat breakfast.

"'Morning Cyborg, Robin," Raven quickly acknowledged, her voice muffled by the black scarf.

"'Morning Rae..." Robin mumbled absentminded from behind a newspaper. None of them even noticed the scarf.

Raven walked over to the kitchen counter, past Beast Boy who was now cutting bread into thin slices. A cup of herbal tea should do the trick with her – to put it mildly – odd feelings. And maybe it would even, along with a slice of Beast Boy's 'vegan toast', cure her hunger. After pouring boiled water into a cup with tea leaves, Raven held the steaming cup up to her face. She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply. The hot steams made it a little harder to breathe, but not so much that it was unpleasant. Like holding a small rabbit close to her chest, putting a light pressure on it, but not enough to suffocate her or make her feel uncomfortable. She sighed peacefully. For a moment all that had happened since two nights ago seemed so far away and without importance. The sorceress smiled, enjoying these few minutes of tranquillity...

"WAAAAHHH!"

The cup in her hands splintered, hot water spilling out everywhere. Black smoke sizzled from the sad remains at her feet while she stared angrily at Beast Boy, for it was him who had screamed, ruining her one silent moment. Beast Boy completely ignored the iron stare and jumped up in front of her, holding his hand up in front of her face.

"Raven, please quick, heal me!" he looked away and shielded his eyes with his other hand. "I cut myself on the knife. Am I bleeding?"

There was silence between them for a minute. Then Beast Boy removed his hand from his eyes. "What?"

"Beast Boy, you're wearing a glove..."

"Oh." he smiled sheepishly and pulled of his grey glove, which had a hole in it after the knife. Then he went back to wailing and complaining about his 'injury'. In the meantime Raven stared at his hand. Beast Boy had cut himself - Nothing big, just a little scratch. But as Raven took his hand in hers she noticed the small drops that were rolling down the palm of his hand. Inside Raven's mind something clicked. The thin ruby-red liquid awakened a strong desire within her.

A desire to eat.

A desire to kill.

Forgetting the world around her, Raven trailed her slender fingers over his wound. She drew a little blood from his hand, staring at her blood-stained fingers as if they were jewels. Without noticing it, she gripped tighter around Beast Boy's wrist, making sure he -and his arteries - stayed where they were... her lips parted in a childish smile. Who needed herbal tea when you could have blood instead...?

Beast Boy winced when the sorceress tightened her grip on him. Slowly he removed his free hand from his eyes and looked puzzled at her. Raven however, was not looking at him. The only thing she seemed to be focusing on at the moment was his wound, or rather what was coming from it.

A thin, thin string of blood connected his palm and Raven's finger. The mage was staring hungrily at his green hand as if she might bite down on it any moment and try to...

Eat him or something...

"Raven?" he asked confused, as if trying to wake her up.

And wake her up he did. With a gasp she looked at him, her eyes full of fear as if he was a ghost coming to haunt her. She immediately let go of his hand, breaking the small crimson string, and pulled away from him. Small blue sparks danced across his palm, leaving his skin new and fresh as Raven rushed out of the living room, also earning glances from both Cyborg and Robin who had watched the little escapade.

Beast Boy blinked and stared at the door where a quick flash of her blue cape was seen as the door slammed shut behind her.

"Umm... thanks." He said out into the air and resumed making toast, ignoring the two floored boys on the couch behind him.

Emotional, barely leaving her room, now this and…

"Hold on..." he thought to himself, not voicing his concern out loud, "wasn't her nails longer than usual?"

Raven sat heavily down on her usual spot in the darkest corner of her room and buried her face in her hands.

"What's happening to me?!" she thought frantic with terror, "I'm turning into a monster!"

She took a few deep breaths, insisting on not to start crying, but a lonely tear still rolled down her cheek. The mage shook her head violently, utterly confused. If it wasn't for that cursed famine gnawing away at her insides, she could probably gather enough presence of mind to figure something out...

Raven froze when a small scent reached her nostrils. There was still a little of Beast Boy's blood on her hands...

"Oh no," she warned herself silently, "Don't you even think about..."

Almost mechanically she looked at her hand. Yes, there, at the tip of her index finger, was a small, microscopic actually, stain of blood. Raven swallowed the spit that had been gathered in her mouth. This metallic scent did not seem so disgusting once you got used to it. And since everything else seemed to have no effect on her hunger...

The mage's stomach growled again as to emphasize her forbidden thoughts. She forced herself to look away from the tempting red liquid on her finger. Drinking blood was bad enough. Drinking human blood was even worse. Drinking Beast Boy's blood was downright unforgivable.

Raven squeezed her eyes shut, clenched her jaw to the point where her head began to ache, flexed in her entire body...

'I won't do it; I won't do it, I-simply-won't-do-it!'

...and took her finger into her mouth.

Instantly, a heavenly warmth spread throughout her body. Raven closed her eyes in silent bliss. What little she could taste of the blood on her fingers, did not taste like blood. More like …

Chocolate sauce?

Raven abruptly pulled the finger out of her mouth.

Chocolate-sauce… That damn thing tasted like chocolate-sauce.

A lamp nearby exploded in a black glimpse and Raven covered her head.

"I'm drinking blood," she sobbed frantically, her eyes wide open and filled with tears. She had never felt so heartbroken before. Surely she was going insane. Who would drink blood and then think it tasted like some delicious treat to put on your sundae-ice cream? Not even vampires could be getting that mental image!

Frustrated, sad and all in all just overwhelmed by her miserable situation, the mage weakly dragged herself over to the bed. She lay on her side, the tears wetting her pillow but she didn't really care. Her gaze full of sorrow she looked at the window where a screen of black magic was shielding her from the daylight. For a minute the sorceress found herself hoping that he, the vampire that had done all this to her, would come tonight. To take her away, to protect her, to comfort her, to help her, to beat the life out of her again.

Or maybe show himself "from a nicer side" and simply just kill her. Anything to end this madness…

She rested in the quietness of the room, the only audible sound being her sobbing, until merciful sleep overtook her exhausted mind.

An OOC-soon-to-be-vampire Raven... poor her.

Please, tell me what you thought of this and if you think something needs to be redone, or maybe just reconsidered.

By the way happy new year, and (late) merry christmas. I hope you all had a great time!

I'm outtie!