Page 13 of Blood Lust

Of course, he isn’t lying. It makes sense. I am fully healed and feel amazing. Somehow, I know it hasn’t been that long since the accident. Maybe a day?

The truth of everything swirls around me and my disbelief fades. As extraordinary as it sounds, I know he’s not lying to me.

“Why?” I am so confused. “Why change me?”

“I couldn’t let you die. You-” he trails off for a second and takes a breath. “You tried so hard to survive. You called for help, and you almost made it out of the lake on your own. I didn’t get to ask you what you wanted, but I decided to err on the side of you waking up again.”

My eyes can’t settle in one place for too long. Thick drapes over the windows, a door where he came from, a door to my left, presumably to a bathroom. He had pulled me from the water, made me a vampire, and brought me to his home for no reason other than I was dying. I shake my head, rubbing that spot on my temple like it will return my memories.

“It’s just so much to process.” I know he’s being honest. I know I am a vampire, and I know I just drank blood.

My mind is reeling; this is too much to take in, and I can’t remember what was before. It seems important. Like there’s information buried there that I desperately need. I have to focus on that if I expect to recover those memories. I am suddenly very aware of the fact that my heart isn’t beating. I am dead.

Am I un-dead? I’m not human anymore.

What.

The.

Fuck.

Oz sits on the edge of the bed beside me, looking down at the floor like he is riddled with guilt. “I had to save you. I couldn’t just… I couldn’t watch you die.” It’s like he’s afraid I am mad at him or something. Like, I wish he’d just let me go. I am confused. I am shocked. But I’m not angry or resentful. He had the power to do the impossible, and he did it.

“What does all of this mean for me?”

I look at Oz and see the corners of his mouth turn up in a smile. He looks smug. “Now, you live happily ever after.”

“Ha, ha.” I roll my eyes.

Dropping the smirk, I see he is deep in thought and his brows knit together in worry. Something tells me my memory loss has more to do with my accident than it has to do with the whole vampire thing, and that bothers him.

“Now… Now we try to trigger your memory to return.” He looks at me, a pained expression on his face. “I don’t know why it happened. I can only guess it’s because of head trauma during the accident. But the turning should have fixed that….”

Fixed?

Ah yes, like my arm and other wounds, why wouldn’t it heal my mind?

I feel something stirring within me.

Familiar.

And terrifying.

Almost like me, but not me. She feels more raw. Primal. And she is still hungry.

Ice creeps through me as the image of the cruel woman in my nightmares comes to my mind.

“Oz,” I say, struggling to describe this exactly, feeling like my grasp on reality is fading. “I think I’m still thirsty. I feel… I feel like there’s someone else in here, and she wants more to eat.”

His eyes widen for a second, but he tries to hide it. “You didn’t merge with her?”

Merge? Well, that sounds terrifying.

Is that what she had meant by ‘become?’

“When a vampire is born, we gain another sense of self,” he explains. “It merges with our existing selves and helps us govern our new instincts and abilities. This is most unusual.” The sound of warning in his voice sits heavy on my mind. Shame washes over me as I realize I fought her. She is the epitome of my every fear.

“I don’t know why it didn’t happen with you, but one thing at a time. I will go get you some more blood.”

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