Kindred

Chapter 1

Despite the fact that his eyes were closed, it felt as if he was staring straight at the sun. He shut his eyes tighter as he attempted to bring his hand up to shield them. As his fingers made contact with his face he shuddered at how ice-cold they were.

Slowly, he willed himself to open his eyes. It took a few seconds for his vision to readjust so he could properly determine his location.

White. The room he was in was white. Of course, this wasn't his room, so he concluded that he was at the hospital. 'The hospital? But… why?' Allowing himself to rest his brain for a moment, the events of the previous night slowly began to sink back into his memories.

He slowly reached up to his left shoulder, where he met padded cloth. 'What the heck was that thing? It definitely wasn't human… but it wasn't an animal either…'

"Conan-kun!"

Snapping out of his trance, he turned to the familiar voice. "Ahh… Ran-neecha-!?"

He was abruptly cut off as she enclosed him in a bear hug, delicately avoiding any sensitive areas. He winced as the sudden movement sent a sharp pain through his neck. Ran felt his body tighten and quickly released her grip.

"Ahh! I'm sorry Conan-kun! Did I hurt you?" her eyes were glistening with concern.

"N-no… I'm just a little sore is all. But I'm feeling better." He forced a smile to cover up the stabbing pain in his neck. She didn't look very convinced but she accepted it.

"Well, just don't push yourself too hard if it starts to hurt, kay?" She put her hands on her hips and wagged a finger at him in a motherly manner; a relieved smile crept on her face.

"Yes yes, mom." Conan joked back, a bit of sarcasm in his tone.

"Ah! I'll go get the doctor so he can give you your check-up. I'll be right back!" Ran pivoted and made her way back through the open door, which she had neglected to shut in her hasty entrance.

It was a few minutes before the doctor and Ran came in through the door. He wasn't very willing to go through all the tests but the sooner he got through it, the sooner he could get out of the blinding bright room. All the while, Ran watched, waiting patiently in the corner.

--

The moment he entered the door to the detective agency, he groggily made his way to his hole-of-a-room. Mouri had been nice enough to clear out their storage room enough so they could stick a bed in it. It was kind of small but he wasn't complaining. Anything was better than that little futon on the floor of Mouri's room.

He was practically running on pure muscle memory by now, the sudden wave of drowsiness catching up with him. The moment his head hit the pillow, he was out.

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"Conan-kun! Dinner's ready!" Ran poked her head out of the kitchen. She hadn't bothered to see how he was doing since they got home. She figured he needed his space and would just go to sleep anyways. She continued preparing dinner and patiently waited for a response from him. Five minutes passed and her maternal instincts began to kick in.

Turning off the stove and hanging up her cooking apron, she walked into the hall up to Conan's door.

"Conan-kun?" she said softly in her usual, concerned tone. Still no reply. Cautiously, she turned the handle and pushed the door in. It was hard to tell at first, but after squinting into the darkened room she made out his huddled form, pulling into a messy ball within the bed sheets.

"Conan-kun? Are you all right?" Not waiting for an answer, even if he was awake, she navigated her way to the side of the bed and rested her hand on his shoulder. She gasped as she felt his entire body shivering uncontrollably.

Delicately, she rolled him over so he was now on his back facing her. She pulled the curtains open a bit more to let the bluish hue of the full moon's light flood the room and Conan. Now she had observed that he was wearing the same clothes he had come home in, with the exception of his bowtie, socks, jacket, and suspenders. His eyes were shut tight and there was a twist of agony sketched into the features of his face. His arms were folded into a position to where he was hugging himself and his legs were slightly bent towards his chest. She would have passed it off as having a really, really bad dream if she hadn't put her hand to his forehead. He was completely burning up, which would explain the sweat covering his body.

For a split second her whole mind began to scream rather annoying things at her before she shook them off. Now wasn't the time to panic: Conan-kun was top priority.

"Conan-kun. Conan-kun!" She continued to shake him in a vain attempt to wake him up. He seemed to stir a little before one of his eyes barely opened. He mumbled something that she figured must have been her name and heaved a sigh of partial relief.

"Conan-kun you're burning up. Try to stay awake while I go get some medicine ok?" she brushed back his sweat-soaked bangs and went to retrieve said medicine.

He, on the other hand, didn't think he could even keep his eyes open any longer. His whole body was aching all over. The wound on his shoulder felt like smoldering coals were being pressed to it, sending constant waves of pain throughout his entire body.

But that wasn't the worst of it. His mouth felt like someone had taken a jackhammer to it. No matter what he did to keep the pain from surging through his mouth, he was unfortunately at a loss. On the bright side, if there even was one, the pain from whatever this was couldn't compare to when he used the Apotoxin4869 antidote.

"I'm back, Conan-kun." Ran called from the doorway, closing the door behind her, a bottle of a deep reddish liquid in one of her hands. Strangely, there was something quite pleasing about its looks, perhaps the fact he felt ill and it was medicine.

Ran delicately helped him lay down properly with his head resting on the pillow before she made him open his mouth and put a spoonful of medicine in. The rush of the strange liquid in his already-aching mouth just aided in the pain as well as making him sick to his stomach. He used the little will power left in him to suppress the liquid from rising back up his throat. At least the shaking had stopped.

As if on cue, his entire body began shaking again, not from the cold, for it very much felt like he had been dropped into a volcano, but from the pain. Such unbearable pain. He took back what he had thought earlier about the Apotoxion being more painful. While that felt like he was melting, this felt like he was being burnt alive.

He had to keep himself from making any kind of noise that would be taken as a whimper. However, he couldn't stop himself from clutching the sheets with his hands and clenching his teeth tightly together.

Ran obviously saw this sudden change in behavior and started petting the top of his head, unsure of what else she could possibly do to help him. She watched as he lay trembling, his teeth clamped shut.

What she saw next nearly sent her into a fury of shaking her head violently. His two incisors began to elongate and sharpen until they were nearly at least ¾ of an inch long. Surely her mind was playing tricks on her?

At that point his whole body relaxed and went limp, his closed eyes now shadowed in his bangs.

"C-Conan... kun? What's wrong?" Now she felt very repetitive from all the times she had said his name this evening. But she was very worried about him, and this new turn of events had sent her far over the edge of calm.

She edged her hand under his head and pulled him into a sitting position. His breathing was coming out in steady, slow breaths: a great improvement from earlier. She didn't know what to do at this point. One part of her mind was telling her to try and wake him up to assure her that he was all right and that nothing funky was going on. But the other part was screaming at her to run away. But… Why would she think something like that?

Her answers were abruptly answered when Conan slowly lifted his head and looked straight ahead without seeing, his eyes just barely opened.

"Conan-kun…" He didn't respond at first but after a few seconds his head slowly lifted and his eyes locked onto hers. She felt her heart leap to her throat as her eyes were met not by the deep sapphire orbs she loved, but by striking icy blue eyes with narrow-slit pupils. This was not happening. The back of her mind was screaming at her to run away or to get out of the room and lock the door but the mix of fear, astonishment, and disbelief cause her body to stiffen.

As if she thought it couldn't get any worse, she watched wide-eyed as a devilish smirk spread across his face, revealing the two fangs she had wished were only a part of her late night imagination. What happened next was so fast that the only thing she saw a bright burst of white, before her vision cleared up to reveal the scene before her.

She was now standing up, just a couple feet from the edge of the bed, her left arm extended out in front of her in a shielding type manner. And Conan was now dangling from it, teeth buried deep into her forearm. It didn't hurt so much, seeing as the moment he had clamped on to her she immediately felt her whole body go numb as if she were paralyzed.

What felt like minutes was only seconds and her mind began to tell her things she most likely wouldn't have thought of on her own. For one, Conan appeared to be in some amount of pain again and his eyes were shut tight. Another odd thing, if Conan were really… well, er, a vampire now, why wasn't he sucking her blood? Did her blood taste bad or something? As if on cue, Conan had begun to release his vise grip hold on her arm. The moment his teeth slipped out, he dropped to the ground, collapsing into a mangled mess.

Ran, still in a daze, dropped to her knees and stared back and forth from her arm and then to Conan. Truly… this was a dream… right?

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Okies, so I know I told a couple people I'd have it out by last weekend but I've had writer's block ^^' Some of you said I left the last one in a suspenseful manner so I thought I might attempt the same XD

Also, I wrote this from 12am-3am last night so sorry if you think it sucks TwT

A special thanks to Hela Kaede for always editing my stories before they go out! Go check out her own stories at .net/u/1471713/ 8D I love you Hela! Thankies!!!

V Click that to give me a good review! (Be original XD Don't just say 'please put up next chapter' cause I know! I'm working on 'em!)