GFD 12: Blood Ties - 24. Chapter 24

I could almost feel my pulse pounding harder than before, the warm blood racing beneath my skin. What was left of it, anyway. I felt a slight tremble, but looked Trevor in the eye as I stood my ground and swore to stick by my choice no matter what warnings he gave me. Richie needed my help. That's all there was to it. After all the destruction I've caused...all the people I've hurt...this was my chance to use my gifts for something other than trying to destroy my enemies.

It was as if I could still see Xairen, laying helpless in Dash's sanctuary. Or Jarrod, laying mortally wounded in a dark IceZone alley. And now Dylan was hurt beyond repair. All of this magnificent power and it has yet to do anyone any good. Tonight that's going to change. Tonight...I'm going to save someone that I care about, instead of using my abilities to pointlessly conflict with people I don't.

I stood up ready to go back into the house, but Trevor stopped me. "Hold on, hold on, Mr. Cowboy. Not so fast." He took a hold of my wrist and gave me a gentle tug.

"Trevor, I don't have time for this. I need to get in there and do this before it's too late..."

"Riiiight..." He said. "I've got a better idea, Justin. Why don't you sit down and get a few things straightened out with me first before you go back inside and end up botching the job, huh?" I was so anxious to get started, but as Trevor raised his eyebrow, I let out a sigh and sat back down at his side. "Good boy. You know, crossing someone over into darkness isn't as easy as biting into a warm peach. There's an art to this."

"So show me how to do it, already! Trevor! I don't know how much longer Jeremy's gonna be able to keep him alive..." I started to stand up again, but Trevor simply gave me a gentle yank back don to a seated position.

He told me to take a breath, and he was silent for a moment, giving me a smirk as he waited for my overzealous energy to die down a little bit before continuing. "This isn't the movies. Ok? You've gotta go in there with a clear head. Your mental state, your emotions...all of these things come into play when you're turning someone. If you rush into this and don't know what you're doing you're going to make mistakes. Mistakes that CAN'T be taken back." He said. "If you go in there all headstrong and desperate, you could end up killing him on that table."

My eyes watered up as I felt the seconds ticking by, one by one. A countdown to the loss of my best friend's life. "I don't know what to do. Trevor, please...just help me. I need to do this right."

"First things first, Justin...I'm not gonna beat around the bush with you here, so you're not gonna like it." My breath got caught in my throat, and he put his hand on my knee. "You lost a lot of blood tonight. A LOT." His eyes met mine, and I felt myself tremble again. "You know what I'm going to tell you. Don't you?"

No. Please God, no. "I can't." I said, my voice becoming shaky and uneven. "I can't focus on that NOW. No, skip that part..."

"There is no skipping that part, Justin. After bleeding that much, you won't be able to focus on much of anything else soon."

"I can't....I can just...I can control it. Just long enough for me to do what I have to do, and then we can...go out and..."

"Justin, listen to me." He said, his voice attempting to soothe me as the first tear slid from my eye. "If you go in there with an insufficient blood supply and try to turn Richie...there's a very strong chance that you won't be able to stop. Your blood instincts will take over. If you drain too much, you'll kill him. Or at the very least throw the transfer of toxins way out of balance. Even an experienced vampire knows better than to try to turn someone on low supply. This being your first time...you'd better be damned sure you've got all your wits about you."

"What about Jeremy?" I asked. "Can he bite Richie? Or you? YOU could do it!"

"It's not that simple. You have a bond with Richie. An emotional connection. The stronger the bond the more successful the process. You're his best bet, trust me."

"Can't Jeremy just give me some dead blood to keep me full until it's done?"

"No can do. You need fresh. Warm, living, blood. You need to exchange it with Richie's. Not to mention that turning someone can completely wipe you out. You'll need all the strength you can get. Taryn slept for a day and a half after your first bite. So even on a full supply...I'd cancel any 'party plans' that you have for the rest of the evening." I looked back at Trevor with sad eyes, another tear rolling down my cheek as my body shook a little more violently this time. As much as I hated to admit it...he was right. My blood supply was severely low. My body was already beginning to feel like it was devouring itself from the inside. Trevor gave me a pat. "We don't have too much longer before daylight. A couple of hours at the most. You'll have to be quick about this. We'll search the main streets for a donor. Come on. I'll see if Jeremy has a few extra shirts or something for you to wear home." This time, it was Trevor who stood up first, and he offered me his hand. But I didn't take it right away. "Justin?"

I hesitated. Staring down at the ground beneath my feet. I hated this part. I know they said that I'd get used to it...but I just don't see that happening. Not ever. Is this what I have become? What I'm expecting Richie to become?

"Justin...if you want to do this...you've got to do it now. Tomorrow night might be to late." He said. And with a sniffle, I slowly rose to my feet in total surrender.

'Destiny'. That's what Richie told me in the dream. This was the completing parts of his circle. It's already happened. It's already been done. I just have to play out the rest of the act. Right? Just once more. One more hunt...and I'll figure out a way to get rid of this curse once and for all. There's GOT to be a way around it. There's GOT to be a way to live without murder....

"It's time, Justin. Make a choice, dude." Trevor said, still trying to wake me up and get us moving. I nodded sadly and he put an arm around my shoulder, giving me a lighthearted grin to raise my spirits. "It won't be so bad. You've just gotta stop choking yourself up about it so much. I'm coming with you, it's no big deal. I might even grab a little bite to eat myself." He took no burden from this. None at all. "I'll let Jeremy know that you and I are taking a little pre-dawn field trip. Stay put."

I watched Trevor walk away from me, and I began to wonder if I still had enough of that dark creature inside of me to commit this soul destroying crime once again. Even with the beginnings of hunger pains already shooting through me like sharp needle pricks on my skin, stabbing at me randomly from various angles. My mouth dry with thirst. My skin already turning colder than usual. It made me wonder which existence would be more terrifying....the one where I am tortured and haunted by this act for the rest of eternity...

...Or the one where I reach a level of reasoning...and it no longer matters to me at all. My soul either suffers endlessly, or it is lost forever. Discarded like so much insignificant trash...

Trevor returns moments later with a clear plastic bag. Inside are a few tattered rags to clean up with, and two extra t-shirts, black, for us to wear 'after'. "The parks are pretty empty this close to daylight, but the stripper bars don't close until 4, which means some of their clientele is still wandering the streets. I think I've gotta pretty good idea of where we can find ourselves a quick snack."

The very sound of the words leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. I frown, but I follow. Trevor will do what he can to distract me and try to put my mind at ease until the moment of truth, I'm sure of it. But when the moment comes, and I'm forced to bite down...no distraction will be enough. That alone was enough to keep me shaking with every step.

Trevor didn't take me out too far from Jeremy's blood shack. We had to be close enough to make it back in time...just in case. For the first time, I noticed myself being paranoid about the shade of the sky above me. Fearing the murderous threat of sunlight itself. Maybe even more so than the hunt. I tried to keep my thoughts busy.

"I need to know what you know." I told Trevor, who was walking a half step a head of me. "The bite...how do I do it?"

Trevor gave me a sly grin. "It's less of a 'how', and more of a 'why'."

"What does that mean?"

"It's mental. It's all up here now. You've gotta focus on your purpose, and your body will follow suit. But you've also gotta be really careful with that kinda thing when you're just feeding." He told me. "Sometimes, while vampires are draining a donor, they get a few sentimental thoughts involved concerning their victim. If they concentrate on them too strongly, they end up releasing the crossover toxins by mistake. More often than not, it ends up just being a harmless goof, but every once in a while...they end up crossing their donors over into darkness. Which is never a pretty picture. They're usually not too happy about that." Trevor kept talking, but his eyes continued to roam both sides of the street. Roaming from left to right, sizing up the late night populace as though looking for a particular cut of beef in a butcher's window. "You have to make a connection with your host if you want everything to balance itself out just right. Less chances of an accident. Now, Richie is unconscious, which makes things a bit more touchy, but you still might be able to pull it off since you have such a long history together."

"So....if I bite him, and I concentrate on..."

"Your friendship, yes, that's how you get a new vampire instead of a fresh corpse. You've gotta use your mind. It's not like your average bite, there's more to it than that. Think of it like...an ejaculation, but through your teeth. You've gotta feel it. The right mindset, the right connection, at the right moment. Let your instincts become 'aroused' with the idea of it. With the right emotional attachment in mind, held for long enough...your body will know exactly what you're trying to do and it'll do it for you."

"How do I stop from making any mistakes?" I asked nervously.

"Well, unfortunately, sometimes you just have to go with a coin toss and hope for the best. But what's most important is the amount of toxins you consciously release into the bloodstream. That's what you need to worry about." He told me. "Some vampires are natural gushers when it comes to a crossover. And that can throw things waaaay out of balance if you're not careful. You've gotta keep your head clear. Don't get too excited in there. An imbalance can cause a whole list of nasty problems and side effects."

Somehow, I didn't think there would be this much to think about. Taryn made it look so simple. Then again, he had already been in darkness for ten years when he sired me. Maybe, even then, he was nervous too. "Problems like what?" I asked.

"Well, for one, if you release too much into Richie's system, you'll kill him instantly." A cold shiver went through me, and I held my breath for a moment as I tried not to gasp out loud. He said it without even looking at me. As though it was a simple fact that I didn't need to worry about. "The toxin has to work at a much slower pace. There has to be a shared period of attack and defense. It poisons the organs, cleans out the system, lowers the temperature gradually. The body has to die slowly, giving the ingredients time to merge with his bloodstream and leaving the body with enough time to adjust and adapt to what's happening to it. You can't flood the system or he's a goner. Got it?" I nodded slowly, and Trevor slowed down his pace a little to make sure that I was still giving him my undivided attention. "Now, another thing that you want to avoid is giving him too 'little'. Some vampires get scared about doing this at the last minute, and they hold back too much. If that happens, the body doesn't die. Not fully, anyway. He'll wake up, eventually, but the brain and consciousness? Pretty much turns to mush. Like 'Night of the Living Dead'. They'll spend the rest of eternity sleepwalking around town in a perpetual dream state. It's practically a waking coma. Nothing will help them after that. Once they awaken...there's basically nothing left for us to do but put the poor kid out of his misery."

I didn't like this. I didn't like it at all. Too much could go wrong. Too much. The only thing worse than letting Richie die...would be knowing that I'm the one who killed him.

"Hey. You still with me?" Trevor said, snapping his fingers to get my attention. "Now, another big problem we might run into is if you give him to strong a dose of toxin...and he ends up surviving the transfer. That would be bad." Trevor put his hand out to stop me from walking, and there was a pause as he stared at a young lady walking home by herself on a nearly empty street. I could tell that he was considering it. I could practically feel him scanning her blood for defects. I don't know why he changed his mind, but he took his predatory gaze off of her and lightly pulled me forward to get me walking again. She may never know how lucky she is...to make it home tonight. "Anyway...too much toxin in a surviving crossover gives you what we call a Nosferatu. If you ever wanted to know where the bloodthirsty monsters from the books and movies come from, there ya go. It causes mutations and deformations in his appearance. Dark red eyes, jagged teeth, claw like fingers, loss of all body hair...not that Richie has too much to worry about anyway with that last one." Trevor continued. "You get a savage beast when that happens. Insatiable thirst. Has to feed like two or three times a week. The thirst becomes everything. They get so hungry that a majority of them turn cannibal within the first couple of weeks. Humans, vampires, cats, dogs, they really don't care. Once again, there's no saving them after that. They can't control their urges, they're almost in a constant state of bloodlust, and they can't really blend in with the rest of society. So the only thing you can really do is stake them and let them go."

"This....this is a lot to absorb." I said.

"Hey, you're the one that wanted to crash course. Doc doesn't usually teach this stuff until after you've been a vamp for at least a year. It's not exactly something a newblood should get into. Zombies, monsters, and unwanted corpses, don't help to keep our population much of a secret, now does it?"

"But...what if I...?"

"SHHH!" Trevor stopped again, seeing a man in his mid twenties turning off of the main street and into an alley. No doubt to take a shortcut. I tensed up immediately, as Trevor's most heartless instincts flared up within him. Maybe it was a random understanding of his extra, but I was easily able to decode the sensation. His intentions were clear. Even though he had been using his judgement to reject a few others that he had glanced over before...with this one...he saw an unavoidable opportunity. A very dark choice had been made. "Come on..." He said, tugging on my shirt as he started to cross the street. This was it. Dinner was served.

My heart began to beat like a drum. Mostly from the fear of reaching that dreaded moment when more of my humanity was sacrificed for the sake of nourishment. But...another part of me...became excited. The thrill electrified me, and my thirst grew more intense. My soul had never been so divided.

"Shit..." Trevor whispered, and held me back. He stopped moving as we both caught sight of a couple turning the same corner as our target. A man and a woman, dressed normally enough...but I could tell they were like us. Just by the way they moved. Something about it was too natural. Too confident. Humans don't move like that. "Lucky fucks! That should have been our grab." Trevor said softly.

It was then that the lady vampire turned to look in our direction. As though she could hear Trevor's thoughts, even from a distance. But then she stopped her companion dead in his tracks and looked over at me. Her eyes blazed a bright gold and she seemed extremely shaken. So much so that she needed her partner's help to remain standing. His eyes snapped around to stare directly at me, and he apparently shared her surprise.

"Vempir! Imitar!" She gasped, her whole body trembling from head to toe. You would have thought they had seen the devil himself. Then, in a flash...the male vampire moved to wrap his arms around her, as if to protect her...and I saw a large swirl of fog suddenly rise up out of the ground beneath their feet. A spinning cloud to hide them from our view. And in an instant...they were gone.

Trevor had a confused look on his face. "What the hell has got THEM so spooked?" He looked around to see if there was something else surrounding us that they may be reacting to. But I knew. I knew....

"Come on! Looks like we're still lucky!" He said, and pulled me further. I offered some resistance, but not enough to really claim that I wanted to stop. No other choices. No other alternatives. I followed blindly until we entered that alley, and then slowed down our pace to a casual stroll. A deceptive series of movements...sticking to the edges of the alley...where the shadows were darkest. My breath began to get short and my stomach was filled with a turbulent quake as we closed the distance between 'us'...and 'him'.

"Trevor..."

"Don't even think about it." He whispered. "I can feel you wanting to bail on me. That's cool. Feel the fear, but don't let it stop you from doing what you know has to be done. Let it invigorate you. Use it." Trevor's eyes began to turn crimson, and his voice changed slightly as his fangs lowered from their protective sheath. "Clear your head. Let the thirst guide you now."

I attempted to block him out, but as we got closer, I felt my fangs drop down all on their own. My body was on autopilot. My senses on fire with the promise of fresh blood. There was a demon in me. Whether I hated it or embraced it was irrelevant. It knew what it wanted. And it knew how to manipulate me to get it.

"Do you want this one? Or should I start the dance myself?" Trevor smiled.

"I don't....I..." Fight, Justin! FIGHT! "...You do it." I couldn't believe that the words had escaped my lips.

"Still playing the peaceful prophet, are we? Suit yourself." He said, his steps getting faster now. What's strange is...I felt my steps picking up in pace as well. My mind being covered with a disorienting feeling of inevitability. This was going to happen. Nothing could stop it now.

Our steps alerted the man at the end of the alley, and he glanced back over his shoulder to look at us. He didn't say anything, but he must have noticed our quickened pace, because it made him anxious. He turned back around and walked faster to reach the end of the alley. But that could not happen. Trevor and I took larger steps now. Almost accelerating to a partial jog now. The man looked back again. What was going through his mind? Two teenage boys...what did he have to fear from us, even at this late hour? His final mistake.

Trevor suddenly bolted ahead of me. His body moving too fast for the man's eyes to track. And with a single lunge, Trevor pounced on the man's shoulders and swiftly dragged him back into the darkness of the alley before he could reach the street. He didn't even have a chance to scream.

There was a fierce struggle, but Trevor kept the man's mouth covered. When the man pulled away, Trevor had a tight grip on his throat. It was so wickedly precise. An art that Trevor had practiced numerous times during his many years in darkness. The man was slammed back against the wall, and Trevor looked at me with glowing orbs. "Come! Taste!" He said. It frightened me how much I wanted it. But my feet did not move. "DO IT!!! It's now or never!" A panic washed over me. My teeth ACHED for his flavor. "If you don't...then Richie's dead! You know it...and I know it! Make your choice!" My bottom lip quivered in desperation. Oh God...not again. Trevor calmed his voice, still holding the struggling man still. "Justin...he's seen us. He's already dead. Feed."

Hearing that, the man's muffled cries intensified. He fought hard for his life. But despite Trevor's sweet 'teen angel' appearance...he was much stronger than any human could hope to defend against.

It was my promise to save Richie...that caused me to take my first steps forward.

Trevor moved aside, and held the man from behind, tilting his head and exposing the soft, warm, flesh of his neck as an offering to the gods. I looked into his eyes briefly, and whispered a near silent apology...before sinking my teeth into him.

"That's it....sin now....suffer later." Trevor said, and he raised the man's hand up to take a deep bite out of the inside of his wrist.

We drank greedily of his life essence. Sucking it from him as his struggle began to fade and we dragged him further back into the shadows. My body was electrified. Even with all of my conflicts and struggles, my body rewarded my surrender with an exhilarating rush of nearly orgasmic levels of energy. I could feel the ache from the bruises Dion put on me dull and disappear. The cuts and slashes that Alec had given me...stitching themselves back together. I bit down harder, feeling my mind light up like a bonfire. Goosebumps were raised on the surface of my skin, and I reveled in the act of being satisfied once again.

Then...

There was a moment when I opened my eyes...my fangs still lodged deeply in the man's throat...and I made contact with Trevor as he took a much smaller share of the essence from the man's wrist. We held that eye contact for a few extended moments. Intimate moments. Perhaps it was the renewed life flowing through my veins...but for a moment I found a part of myself being truly connected to Trevor's beauty. In a way that I had never experienced before. It was....'wrong'. So wrong.

Trevor's eyes narrowed lustfully as he, no doubt, knew what I was thinking, and even with his teeth still firmly stuck in our donor...I could see the edges of his lips curl up slightly in the corners.

I could feel the warm fluids soaking my shirt. I could droplets of blood as it fell to the pavement. A feeling of spiritual embarrassment washed over me, nearly drowning me with the guilt associated with it. His struggles were over. He was giving himself over to the terror of his final breaths. And as Trevor's stare became more intense, I felt him reach a hand up to lightly rub my side. I didn't push him away. But I felt disgusted with myself nonetheless...

I closed my eyes and felt tears slide freely down my cheeks. I hated myself for loving it so much. I just wanted it to be over. I couldn't stand much more of this.

For the first time in ages...I felt like God was watching. And he was ashamed.

I can't remember exactly when the blood flow turned cold, and the life energy became too dim for us to draw any more strength from it...but as soon as I disconnected from our victim, I began to cough so hard that I had to hold on to my knees to keep from falling forward onto my face.

"Mmmmm...that, my friend, was soooo worth it!" Trevor smirked, wiping his mouth on the back of his hand as he let the now lifeless body drop down to the alley floor. "Was it good for you too?" He said, putting his hands on my hips. I instantly turned my head away from him. He only grinned for a second, and then leaned forward to kiss me lightly on the side of the neck. Then he tossed me one of the rags out of the bag. "Clean up. The sky's getting bright. We need to get you back to your friend with enough time for you to do this thing the right way."

He backed away from me, but I could see a certain wickedness in his smile. Something about me surrendering to my basic instincts always gave him a thrill. It was like his way of bringing me down to his level. Maybe even lower.

As I wiped the blood off of my face and neck, I found myself scrubbing harder and harder by the second. Suddenly in rush to clean this disgusting gore off of me. Blood is thick. After just a couple of seconds...it won't just wipe away easy. I needed another shower. And fast. I took off my shirt and cleaned up even more. Trevor stared shamelessly at my body, and held out the back for my dirty clothes. I was quick to get dressed again, but he wasn't. Instead, he held his extra t-shirt in his hand, up against his chest.

"Annnnnd here comes the cavalry. Right on schedule." He said, and I saw a long black car turn into the alley without its headlights on. "I'm sure they thought they were just gonna go home without any other jobs this close to sunrise. I guess we screwed that up, huh?"

The car came to a stop, and I hid my face as two men in dark suits and sunglasses stepped out of the vehicle and shined their flashlights on us. They didn't look happy.

Trevor gave me a little push and we both walked right past him. Trevor grinned, "He's all yours boys." And I saw him reach out and grab the crotch of one of the agents as he passed him. Frustrated, the man smacked Trevor's hand away and gave us a nasty look. It only made Trevor laugh.

"Jesus, Trevor!" I said.

"What? It's not like he can DO anything to us! We're hands off. It's basically no different than watching the Nature Channel to them." He giggled. "Man...I don't know about you, but I'm horny enough to fuck a COP HORSE, right now! I wonder if Jeremy's feeling frisky tonight? I need a bit of a 'pick me up' to put me to bed with a smile on my face. How about you?"

I frowned. "No thank you. I have a boyfriend."

"So do I. You don't see him around, do you? You snooze, you lose." I didn't respond to Trevor's sudden excitement. He always felt so invincible after a meal. "Oh come on, Justin! Hehehe, lighten up! You just murdered some random stranger in cold blood in a freakin' alley! You mean to tell me that you're suddenly just gonna go back to being Mr. Morality for the next 28 days? Hehehe, stop kidding yourself. You're just as bad as I am. The only difference is you're too stubborn to let yourself enjoy it."

If he was making a point, it fell on deaf ears. I refused to fall any deeper than I already have. Then again...how much further could I really have to go?

When we returned to the lab, Jeremy could easily take one look at Trevor and tell that he was being his usual 'over aroused' self after another feeding. After a few touches on the hip and shoulder, Jeremy looked over at me and asked, "Why is it that Trevor's the only person who gets this way after killing somebody?" They both shared a chuckle...I didn't join them. "Blood is like ecstasy for this boy, I swear. Alright...so are you guys sure about all this? No backing out. No second chances. Either you do it, or you don't. And if you decide against it, I suggest you unhook your friend from these machines. They're not doing anything other than help him die slower at this point."

Aggravated, I stared daggers at the both of them. "DON'T talk about him like that!" They seemed surprised at my reaction? Why? Death isn't a GAME to some of us. Who ever thought they'd have to defend THAT particular point of view?

"Touchy, are we?" Jeremy said, stepping away from Trevor's reaching hands.

I walked over to the table, where Richie looked even more pale and sickly than he did before we left. He really was in bad shape. To see him suffering like that...for some reason it gave me focus. Maybe it was for selfish reasons, but I didn't care. I was ready. So ready. "Ok...so what I do?"

"What do you do?" Jeremy asked. "Trev, didn't you explain any of this to him while you were out galloping in the streets? What is this?"

"Don't stress so much, Jeremy. He'll be fine." Trevor replied. "Justin...the worst thing you can do is think too little, or think too much. Just remember what I told you...place the bite...keep your head clear...hope for the best. Ok? Everything else, we'll worry about that later. Got it?"

Somehow, that wasn't all that comforting to me at all. I wish I had more of a step by step guide on how to do this. This isn't something I can just leave up to chance. God...I've screwed up sooooo many times in my life...how am I supposed to make this work?

Jeremy walked over with a dull marker. He put a small circle on Richie's neck. "Ok...so make your incision 'here', in this area. Make sure you hold it until your fangs have finished doing what they're supposed to do. Feed a LITTLE bit, but not too much. You're 'exchanging' blood, not draining it. Somewhere along the way, you're gonna feel a little dizzy. That's normal. Just make sure you hang in there until your body has stopped producing the transfer chemicals into his system. Don't pull out too early. Got it?" I didn't say anything, and Jeremy turned his to look at me. "Justin?" I looked back him. "You got it?" I nodded slowly, and Jeremy capped his marker and backed away from the table. "Then I wish you the best of luck, man. You get one shot at this. Make it count."

Trevor added, "Just remember to concentrate, Justin. That's the most important part of the process."

Then Jeremy said, "We'll leave you two alone. Take your time, kid. Make sure that you're ready before you make the bite."

"Ok...." I said, trembling inside. But before they left the room, I turned to Jeremy and asked him, "Wait...is it...I mean, is it gonna hurt him?"

Jeremy gave me a strange look. "What? You mean the sinking your razor sharp fangs into the meat of his neck, piercing layers of flesh and muscle and killing him by drinking the very essence that's been keeping him alive since birth? Um...YEAH...I'm assuming that it's gonna hurt." Jackass. But then he said "Hey...consider the alternative, right?"

With that, the two of them went into another room, and there I was...face to face with my best friend. I took a moment to look down at his sleeping face...and I used my hand to gently rub my fingers over the top of his bald head. He was always so beautiful. So full of life. It's not fair that it should be taken from him. If cancer should have taken anybody, it should have been me. Not a free spirit like Richie.

I could feel my body beginning to shut down, the approaching dawn draining me of my ability to stay conscious. I didn't have long. My eyes were getting tired, my limbs were starting to feel heavy. Do it. Do it and be free of the burden.

"Well, 'freak'..." I whispered, tears in my eyes. "...Here goes everything..." And with a deep breath, I aimed myself at the spot Jeremy marked for me...and I leaned in...for my most intimate bite yet....