A Shade of Vampire 8: A Shade of Novak(43)

Annora, on the other hand, just stood silently, tears streaming down her beautiful face. I’d thought the pain of being a vampire was intolerable—but the anguish on my lover’s face caused me more agony than my transformation.

For the following weeks, I remained living in caves. My parents stopped trying to persuade me to return home. They accepted that I was too much of a danger.

Annora, on the other hand, didn’t stop visiting me. As I begged her to forget about me and move on, she refused.

“I can’t leave you, Caleb,” she’d said, sobs racking her body. “There’s no one else I could ever love.”

I tried to be callous toward her. I tried to scare her with my fangs and claws. But no matter what tactic I used, she insisted on staying with me.

Then one night when she came to my cave, after a particularly aggressive argument, she asked me to turn her into a vampire. I laughed in her face and thought that she was joking. But she was deadly serious.

“You’ve lost your mind,” I shouted, storming out of the cave.

I didn’t return until the morning, hoping she would have been gone by then. But she wasn’t. She’d sat waiting in the cave for me all night.

She approached me as soon as I entered, gripping her hands in mine.

I jolted back. “How many times do I have to tell you? Don’t touch me.”

“Turn me,” she whispered, her voice hoarse, her eyes red from crying.

“Annora, stop it,” I hissed.

She walked closer to me, the smell of her sweet blood invading my nostrils.

“I don’t want a life without you.”

“You’re young and beautiful. You’ll find someone else.”

“No!” She began shaking her head furiously. Then she pulled out a dagger from beneath her cloak and held it to her own throat, its tip denting her skin.

“What are you doing? Put it down!”

She looked up at me with desperate eyes. “Turn me, my love.”

I lunged toward her and wrestled the dagger out of her hands, hurling it out of the cave.

I stood staring at her, unable to believe that she’d just threatened me with her own life. That she’d be willing to give it up so easily.

She broke down sobbing again and ran out of the cave. At first I thought she would retrieve the dagger, but she headed back toward the town.

She didn’t come to visit again the next day, nor the day after. A week passed and when she still hadn’t returned, I thought that she’d finally heeded my request.

But then, on the eighth night, she came to me again.

I was woken from my slumber by the feeling of a warm, smooth body lying against me. Opening my eyes, to my horror, I realized that it was Annora. She’d stripped herself naked and wrapped herself around me.

As soon as she saw I’d woken, she climbed on top of me, her warm hands pressing down against my bare chest, her long black hair grazing my skin as it hung either side of her shoulders. She gazed down at me through her thick dark lashes.

“No,” I gasped.

She lowered herself against me and pressed her lips against mine. She began loosening my pants with one hand, her other hand gripping the base of my neck as she continued to kiss me forcefully. Her scent and the way she touched me sent all my senses into overdrive.

I wanted nothing more than to devour her.

I tried to push her off me, but my resolve was evaporating by the second. Once she’d positioned her neck so that my lips were touching it, I was a lost cause.

I gripped her waist and rolled her off me, slamming her against the ground as I positioned myself on top of her. I sank my fangs deep into her soft neck.

I groaned as her hot, sweet blood flowed into my mouth, lighting my body on fire.

“Caleb,” she moaned as she writhed beneath me. “Turn me, my love.”

Although my conscience was screaming at me to stop, my body was now beyond the point of return. I took three more deep sucks of her exquisite blood and released my venom into her.

I continued drinking from her until her blood began to taste bitter—her transformation now underway. I pulled away from her and watched as she lay writhing on the ground, screaming with pain and coughing up blood.

What have I done?

I stood dumbstruck as the warmth faded away from her, the dark disease consuming every molecule of her body.

Finally she stopped writhing and lay motionless on the floor.

“Annora?”

I rushed over to her and shook her. Her eyelids fluttered a little. I continued shaking her, shouting her name. Finally, her eyelids shot open, her eyes now a steely grey, nothing like the delicate color they were before.

She reached for my neck and gripped me, her claws digging into my flesh. She lifted herself up to me and attempted to dig her fangs into my neck.

I pushed her away, pinning her to the ground.

“I need blood,” she gasped. “I need blood.”

Watching her was like reliving my own turning. The horror of craving another’s blood without remorse. Feeling like I’d stop at nothing until I got it.

“I-I’ll find blood for you,” I stammered.

Grabbing the fisherman’s net I’d found while roaming along the beach, I gripped her arm and pulled her out of the cave. I walked with her until we reached the sea. I pulled her into the waters until we were deep enough to catch a decent load of fish.