A. N: I have finally returned home. Sorry about leaving you guys on such a big cliffhanger like that. Thanks for hanging in there. Oh, by the way, I now have a community. If you want to be staff, just PM me. Hope you enjoy the next chapter.

CHAPTER 15: Transformation

Marco's POV

It had to have been days since the pain started. Was it ever going to stop? Was I going to spend the rest of my life writhing in unimaginable agony? The other Animorphs have always said that I was the one who could, even after a grisly battle where we barely made it out alive, still crack jokes about it. Normally, that would be true, but only a sick, twisted excuse for a living thing could find this funny. A thousand Hork-Bajir blades could not compare to what I was feeling. This living hell was going to last forever and I could do nothing to stop it.

It could have been minutes, it could have been years later but I suddenly felt a gradual decrease in pain. It still felt like I was being burnt in hell but it was like the devil had forgotten to put on extra firewood. Then, suddenly, it just…stopped. I felt, well, normal isn't exactly the right word. Normal had pretty much been thrown out the window since Elfangor hopped down from space and said, "You guys are being invaded by alien slugs. Touch this cube and go knock yourselves out." Okay, so that wasn't exactly what he said, but you get the idea.

Anyway, the pain had finally come to a close and I stopped writhing. The Drode was still present so I decided to act dead, make him thing he won. I took a deep breath, inhaling the musty scent of the bunker or whatever I was in. It was an insane rush! Everything around me suddenly came to life! I could smell the Drode, the rats hiding in the corner, everything! No, wait not everything. It seemed that I could only smell living creatures. I mean, I could still smell the other things but not with this enhanced sense. That was when I smelled it, the best thing to ever come through my nostrils. I suddenly knew what it was, too. Humans. I wanted to burst through the ceiling, knock the pathetic creatures to the ground and sink my teeth into—no! What was I thinking?! What was I becoming? It wasn't just the smells; my sight had been enhanced as well. Through a crack in the ceiling I could see every color of the spectrum! Reds, blues, greens, and even a color I couldn't name.

The Drode came up to my motionless "corpse." All of a sudden I felt hatred like never before. What right do the Drode and Crayak have to use us like they do? Scumbags like them should be violently murdered, ripped in half, and even eaten alive! Wait, what? I had never even had thoughts like this about Visser One, the Yeerk who enslaved my mother. I had certainly never thought of killing the Drode even though I hated him, too.

"Well, well. What do we have here: the fallen hero bravely defeated in combat? No. We have the poor wittle Animorph who was just too righteous to accept Crayak's noble offer. What will Mommy think when she learns that brave wittle Marco died cringing in pain like a pathetic weakling? The mean, mean Yeerk will laugh. Laugh at your death. Then, all your little friends will turned into helpless Yeerk slaves. I bet Mommy won't be able to take it. She'll cry out inside her own head, ‹Marco! Marco!› Then the mean, mean Yeerk will laugh and laugh and—"

I lunged for the Drode's throat, "Shut up about my mother, you lousy, low-down, filthy, sniveling piece of crap!"

The Drode quivered in fear, "H-how is this possible?! The venom is designed to kill! You're dead! This is not what the great Crayak had in mind!" My hand closed tighter around his neck and I lifted him up. The strength! It was like morphing the gorilla and then some! The Drode was basically a feather to my grip!

"It sounds like the only death around here will be yours."

"No! Don't hurt me! Crayak would give you unlimited power! Please spare me!"

"Unlimited power, huh? It seems to me that your venom gave me all the power I need. Crayak can go die in a hole. But first, you have to go." I twisted my fist and with a sickening crack, snapped the Drode's neck. We wouldn't be hearing from him again any time soon.

I began to wonder about my newfound senses and power. I discovered that I could even run insanely fast. Sonic the Hedgehog would have hard time keeping up with me.

I finally put two and two together. The only creatures I had ever seen with this kid of power were the Cullens. The Drode's venom was really vampire venom. I was now a vampire. See? I told you that normal was out of the picture nowadays. I could smell the Drode. The smell reminded me of a full diaper.

That's when it came again, the human smell. I couldn't contain myself this time. I jumped out from the bunker, shattering the wood. The light nearly blinded me. That didn't matter, though. I didn't need sight to find what I was looking for. Then, I saw it, human flesh. It was Jake, tasty Jake. There were others, too, other humans. A feast!

Other vampires were there, too. They wanted to steal my food! No matter, I could take care of them if I had to. I lunged after my meal.

Jake's POV

I had demorphed from cockroach mere seconds after I went in. What I heard was Marco, screaming in pain as someone or something laughed a cold, heartless laugh. That laugh would haunt my dreams for a long time. I couldn't help but think that Marco was dead already the way he was screaming. It was like going down to the Yeerk pool all over again. I was starting to hear the screaming from outside, now. Then, suddenly, it just stopped. The entire place was silent. Everyone was speechless. Marco had just died and we couldn't do anything to stop it.

I couldn't have demorphed inside. It would have left me too vulnerable. Somehow, the Cullens couldn't even break through or open it up. Ax tried slicing it with his tail. Nothing worked.

Then, without warning, the ground in front of us just exploded! Before I had time to react, I was suddenly knocked to the ground. Something was on me, slamming flat against the dirt. I looked up to see that the creature's teeth were aiming right for my neck. I tried to throw it off but nothing worked! The Cullens were trying to pull the monster off of me. Was this the creature that killed Marco? When I looked into its eyes for the first time I saw that this wasn't what had killed Marco. This was Marco.

The Cullens had finally managed to pull…Marco…off of me.

"Your friend, Marco is one of us, now," Carlisle said, "How, I do not know, but we must take him back to our house before he alerts someone in the area. We will explain the details when we get there. We must leave, now!"

Marco was a vampire? That meant that what killed him was also a vampire. Now, along with the Yeerks, we had an unknown vampire to deal with. Things just couldn't get better, could they?

A. N: I hope that was worth the month wait. Also, if you guys go to Natureboy3's gallery on deviantART and find "Two Best Friends" you can see what I look like! I'm on the right. DGM3 is on the left. Then PM me because I love PM's! Don't forget to review and vote on my poll!