The next thing I remember, I was lying face down on some hard surface. I tried to open my eyes, but the light suddenly burned.
"Be careful, il mio amore."
My head shot up, and light be damned, I opened my eyes. There was the guy from my jog, very shirtless, under me. I squirmed to sit up, and that only made things worse, when I realized I was straddling his waist. I mean, come on, I may have been almost fourteen, but still, I can get embarrassed by these things.
"You," I said through my teeth. The sound of my own voice scared me. It was higher in pitch, almost a light, tinkling sound. The memories of the night came back to me, and I looked at him. "What the hell happened to me?" I said, again through my teeth. He sat up, and I was basically sitting in his lap.
"In short," he said, "you died."
"I what?!" He didn't seem effected by the volume of my voice, and even put a hand on my back, pulling me to him. I had no idea who this guy was. He looked older than me, and he was sitting there half naked.
"Well, when that specter threw you out the window, we didn't get to you in time to keep you alive. So…" He trailed off, his hand still on my back, now rubbing in circles. Something felt off. I remembered what I had been wearing the night before, and I mentally cursed myself for not wearing something different, but the material between his hand and my back felt different than the polyester blend. I looked down and almost fell off his lap. I was in a very slinky, very black, very lacy dress. I wanted to go grab the blanket form my room and cover up, that's how embarrassed I was.
"So what?" I asked.
"I turned you."
"Turned me?"
"Into one of us."
"And us would be…?"
"The vampires." My eyes widened, and I struggled more to get off him. He held me tight. "Wait," he said. "Would you rather I let you die?" he asked. He had me on that one. But I was still very uncomfortable.
"No, but still. You've gotta give me a little time to react." I put a hand on his chest and pulled back, finally rolling away from him. That's when I realized we weren't on a table like I had expected, or a platform in an old room, but we were on a bed, in an old room. The windows were wide open, and it was dark outside. "How long has it been?"
"Almost 24 hours. You're the fastest turn I've seen in a while." I felt a little twang of pride in that, but I still felt weird. I got up off the bed and went to goo in the long mirror on the other side of the room. What I saw in my reflection shocked me (yes, I could see myself). My eyes weren't encased by my old red glasses anymore, and the brown in them shone golden like honey. My skin was a lot paler (I used to have really red tones, so that was a given), but my lips, in contrast, were a bright red. My red hair was no longer the dyed auburn, but my natural blonde color that i had hated for years. It was almost to the middle of my back though. Moving down, I saw I had gone up almost two cups in the chest department, and I had grown about five inches. Overall, I looked a whole hell of a lot more mature than I had before.
"Wow," I said under my breath. I fingered the black satin of the dress in my hands, and my senses were more aware than ever before.
"I know," said the guy, getting up off the bed and coming to stand behind me. "Il mio amore, you are beautiful." I realized for the first time that he spoke with an accent. Italian, it sounded.
"What's up with the "my love" stuff? I don't even know you." He chuckled, and rested a hand on my shoulder.
"I should have known you would know our language. Your knowledge surpasses most for our age."
"Our age?"
"You're thirteen, are you not?" I nodded.
"Fourteen in two weeks. Why?" I asked.
"As am I. I am stuck at thirteen for the rest of my being. As are you." I looked up at his face in the reflection. He sure didn't look 13, but then again, neither did I.
"Then why do we look so much older?" I inquired.
"When we turn," he explained, "it brings out the inside qualities more than enhances the outside ones. Because you and I show wisdom and maturity beyond our ages, we look older than we are. The most beautiful person in the world could become an old hag when they turned, because of their personality." I thought for a second.
"Talk about the outside looking in," I muttered. He laughed. "Still, what's up with the "my love" stuff. I know Italian, my grandpa's from Venice."
"I will get to that later," he said, "but for now, you need to come with me. I promised someone that they could talk to you after you were done feeding."
"Feeding?"
"Drinking my blood. You needed your strength to turn." I rolled my eyes. This whole thing was going to be very interesting. He started heading for the door.
"Wait!" I said. "Aren't we going to get dressed?" I asked.
"You are dressed," he said, flashing a bright white grin. I put my hands on my hips.
"I am not going out there in this," I said, raising my eyebrows. He laughed and pointed to the dresser on the side of the room.
"There are more clothes in there. Just meet me in the hall when you are dressed." He turned back as he was walking out the door. "Oh, and by the way, my name is Josh."