LaFontaine looked at her over the rim of their coffee mug. "Just tell me one thing. Was it Carmilla?"

Laura shook her head and looked down at her hands. They had started studying together, both wanting company more than anything else. Since the Science Building burned down, a lot of the classes had been moved or temporarily cancelled, meaning that LaFontaine had an easier workload than before. The Cauldron was mostly empty of people even though it was the early evening, only a low murmur of voices audible in the wide space. A lot of the students hadn't returned. Danny and a most of the Zetas were away as well, attending Kirsch's funeral.

"Then who?"

"I'm not ready to talk about that yet, LaFontaine." She paused, then asked the question on her own mind. "Why didn't you go with Perry when she left?"

It was LaFontaine's turn to look uncomfortable. They were silent for a moment, but then they said, blue eyes troubled, "I should give her some space."

Laura looked at her friend. "Space? I thought you two.. I mean…"

"Not really. Perry… she doesn't feel the same, you know? We've been best friends since kindergarden, but... she just doesn't lo… like me the same way I like her. I'm just a really good friend, I guess." They grimaced. "She asked me to come with her, but I can't. Not while I feel like this."

Laura reached out and took LaFontaine's hand. "Are you sure you're not just misreading things? I do that all the time."

LaFontaine's smile was sad. "I'm sure. I don't blame her, either. I mean, look at me." Laura looked, but she couldn't find anything wrong with the white T shirt or the denim vest. LaFontaine looked nice, as always.

"You know what? She doesn't deserve you. You should find someone better." LaFontaine just smiled that same sad smile in reply, and Laura looked down after a moment. She bit her lip.

"LaFontaine?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think it made me gay?"

"What, me?" LaFontaine lifted their eyebrows and looked down at their joined hands.

Laura narrowed her eyes. "No, it! You know… the change?"

LaFontaine leaned forward and rested her elbows on the pages of the forgotten book in front of her. "Oh, so now we're admitting that there was a change!"

"Could you just answer the question, please?"

"Do you think it made you gay?" LaFontaine suddenly looked like Christmas had arrived.

Yes.

"I don't know… maybe? I'm feeling gay feelings. I think."

"For me?" Their eyes were glittering now. Laura pulled her hand back with a huff and turned her chair slightly so that she could face something other than her infuriating friend.

"No! Carmilla, if you must know."

LaFontaine's grin was annoyingly contagious. "Yeah, totally. That happens all the time, I hear. You turn into a vampire, and then you catch the gay."

"Really." Laura was proud of the flat tone she managed in that one word.

"No."

Laura took a deep breath. "I don't think they meant to turn me."

Carmilla stilled. Dawn was approaching again, and the bed really wasn't made for two, but they were both small enough to ignore that fact. Carmilla had actually accepted the permanency of Laura's presence in her bed with minimal whining, but now she felt stiff as a board against Laura. "They?"

"There was so much blood when I woke up. I guess it wasn't all mine..." Laura's voice was barely a whisper and further muffled by Carmilla's shoulder, but she knew it was audible to the vampire. "I just thought I'd take a walk, and I was kinda drunk so I forgot I shouldn't go alone…"

She burrowed further into Carmilla's warmth as she continued, her breathing uneven.

At first, they'd let her think she'd get away. The fear had struck her squarely in the chest when she'd heard their approach between the trees, and she'd known from their smiles alone that this wouldn't end well. Running was no use. Someone had hit her in the head fairly early on, making her dizzy and disoriented. Laura mostly remembered pain after that, and the blood, and her own broken screaming. Tearing skin. Bones breaking. Chewing.

"Turns out Krav Maga only works when you're fully conscious. Funny, huh?"

Carmilla didn't seem to think it was very funny, so Laura continued, eyes tightly shut, "There was blood in my eyes, at the end, but the sky was really beautiful. It spun. I couldn't really breathe anymore at that point… I think maybe my lungs were punctured."

She couldn't really breathe now either, but she had to tell someone, sometime.

"When I woke up… I didn't know people could bleed that much. Couldn't see at first, for the leaves. Guess they didn't even bother to bury me."

She took an uneven breath. "Remember Henry, the History TA? They said a bear got him."

Carmilla's voice was strangled. "We thought it was the Ó Dálaighs. Not… you."

The sound of voices could be heard outside the window. The campus was awake.

"They're all dead, right? The other clan? They're gone, aren't they?"

"Yeah, Laura. They're gone."