Re-Forging - 5. Chapter 5

Scott led Billy and me to our room and… ‘Our room’; I still can’t get over that! Anyway, once we were in our room, they took turns explaining that vampires are creatures with two natures and three shapes. The first shape is their, er our, human form. Scott had already explained how vampires are born in this form and spend the first four years of their lives feeding from their parents.

The second form was what I'd witnessed when Scott fed from Donna: an embodiment of the classic vampire tales. Their pale skin, distinctive fangs, eerie eyes, sharp nails, and pointed ears matched the legends.

However, it's the third form, the beast lurking within every vampire, that's truly chilling. These blood-thirsty monsters can, based on their rank, loom as high as nine feet. With much longer fangs, fingers that end in what can only be called claws, and a face that Billy described as similar to a werewolf.

“When puberty hits, our beast starts to wake,” Billy explained. “Just like humans know to expect hair in weird places and other changes to their bodies, we know to expect the beast to start trying to take over.”

Scott blushed. “I felt mine trying to come out the first time I had an orgasm.”

Billy nodded his agreement “Puberty for a vampire is rough. We go through the changes to our human form as well as the struggle to learn to control and merge with our beasts. A vampire that can’t control their beast by age six will be taken away for special training by their Baron. If they can’t learn control by eight, they’re put down.”

I looked back and forth between them, trying to process all this information. Then realized an issue, so I asked, “But I’m almost done with puberty. When, or how, will my beast come out? Or do I even have one since I’m not a born vampire?”

As I was asking this, there was a knock, and James led Tommy into our room. “Sorry to interrupt, but Tommy needed to see your room, Greg.”

When he was done examining the room, Tommy said, “I overheard your last question, Greg. If I may?” I nodded, so he elaborated, “I didn’t help Gwena adjust, but Lenny found that his beast was very much the darker side of his humanity. He had been controlling those darker impulses his entire life, but now that they had a life of their own, he had to learn to control them again.”

“So you’re saying I have a Mr. Hyde inside me now?”

Shaking his head, he clarified, “You’ve had a Mr. Hyde inside you your entire life, Greg. That hasn’t changed. What’s changed is the fact that if you don’t control him, your Mr. Hyde can do real damage, unlike before.”

I bit my lower lip as I considered this. “So I have to re-learn how to control all the urges society says we have to control? Violence, jealousy, greed, anger, all the ugly emotions?”

James interjected, “All of those emotions can be good things, Greg, in moderation and in the proper situation. Would you be a good wrestler without a violent side? Isn’t your drive to succeed partially driven by greed? Your desire to protect Scott is a good thing, but when taken to an extreme, it’s called jealousy. A human deals with these as part of their entire psyche; a vampire has to learn to embrace their darker side and integrate it into their lives. Those who fail to accept their darker side are the ones who never learn to control it.”

I pressed my palms to my eyes, then slid my hands to the sides of my head, massaging my temples as I said, “I’m not understanding this, James. How is it different than what I’m used to? And if it’s supposed to already be inside me, why haven’t I felt it?”

James blew out a loud sigh, then said, “Greg, I think you’re too smart for your own good right now.” Turning to Scott and Billy, he ordered, “Take him out to the rock and do whatever you need to make him change. Until he feels it, he won’t understand it. If he loses control, the two of you should be able to handle him. If not, we’re just a shout away.”

As James led Tommy out of our room, Scott and Billy started to undress. When I asked why, they explained that we were going ‘full beast’ and that meant we would grow taller, thicker, and we would do it naked, or we’d rip any clothing we had on. I just went with it and stripped. Once we were naked, Scott led us out the front door and south towards the tree line. In the field about one hundred yards before the trees started, was a huge boulder. It was about three feet high and a dozen feet across its almost flat top.

When Scott turned to face me, I expected instructions; instead, he grew until he was towering over me by over a foot. His beautiful face was now marked with pronounced angular ridges, and his emerald eyes bore into mine. Not just two, but four fangs jutted from his mouth, and as I stared, I noticed every one of his teeth had become razor-sharp points. I looked down to find that his hands had grown into claw-like appendages, looking as though they could easily rip flesh from bone. I could sense his disappointment when, instead of reacting, I simply let my eyes wander over his body, examining him.

I saw him glance at Billy, who shrugged and said, “Shock didn’t work, try pain.”

Before I could process Billy’s words, I felt Scott grab my hand and shove one of his claws into the palm of my hand. I watched, almost fascinated, as he pressed it deeper and deeper into my flesh. When I saw it exit the back of my hand, my mind finally caught up, and I screamed in pain, yanking my hand away. Scott and Billy gazed at me in shock as I scrambled up onto the rock and snarled at them. I felt an overpowering urge to rip them apart. In my mind, I heard a voice shouting, ‘How dare he hurt us? We’re the ultimate predator! We should destroy them for hurting us.’ There was a brief pause as the beast considered things. ‘But no, this one is our mate. We want our mate!’ Then, turning to Billy, ‘And that one is our companion’

When I thought, mate, I instinctively reached out to caress Scott’s face. Not knowing my level of control, he flinched, and when he did, I heard myself whimper.

‘Our mate is scared of us? But we love him! Must have our mate!’ I heard my beast thinking. I turned to look at Billy and heard, ‘Must always protect our companion.’

I understood what I had to do. ‘He doesn’t know if you’ll allow me to guide you. To help you know when and who to attack.’

Unlike the ‘Mr. Hyde’ analogy, my inner beast was intelligent. ‘Without you, I kill everyone. Without me, you are weak. We are a team, like always.’

His last phrase helped me understand that not as much had changed as I had imagined. My inner beast was the same one I’d always kept in check, except now, he had an actual voice, not to mention a body to do his bidding when I allowed it. We came to an agreement in a matter of seconds. We had a brief but enlightening conversation about where he had lived in my head and the much larger space he now wanted. We talked about when he would be allowed free reign and how much input he would be allowed in my everyday life. I was shocked as he explained how much of a role he had always played. We agreed that in human or vampire form, I was me; in beast form, we were we. I agreed that I would consider his future input; he agreed to leave me in control.

To me, this inner conversation felt like it lasted hours, but it must have taken only seconds. Looking down at Scott and Billy, we felt an overwhelming urge to protect these two creatures with our life. We reached out to each of them, caressing their faces with our claws. The smiles we got back filled us with love, and we sought the connection we had to each of them in our mind.

‘We want to hunt’, we said to both of them, mind-to-mind.

When we jumped down from the rock, we noticed a change in Scott's height. While he typically stood three inches shorter than me, his eyes were now just an inch below mine. Given that Billy, in his human form, was five foot six, it was evident we'd grown to well over seven feet. When Billy shifted into his beast form, he stood shoulder to shoulder with Scott and looked at me with those glowing golden eyes.

Not waiting for the others, we turned and scented the air. In my human form, I had noticed that my senses had improved to levels I could never have imagined, but now, our senses were more than triple that base level. We could smell the rabbits in their burrow under the rock; we could smell the deer just inside the line of trees ahead of me. Not only smell them as a group, but we could discern each individual deer. There were three does, two male fawns, and a buck, hanging back from the group by about ten yards. We turned our head toward the house and could smell each individual inside. James and Donna were in their room and, on smelling the passion, we blushed and moved on. Tommy was above them, and his scent told me he was talking to his mate. When we scented the humans, we wanted to run to them and feed. I immediately told my beast that the humans were friends, and we were not to harm them. Grudgingly, he agreed to let me choose his targets.

When we turned toward the deer, we heard Billy’s mind-to-mind message, ‘There are three deer in the meat locker already. Have you tried rabbit? Or squirrel?’

We glanced at Scott, who said, ‘Squirrel is good.’

We told Billy to gather some rabbit as we headed off to find a squirrel. As we entered the tree line, the deer caught our scent and ran off. We smiled to ourself, knowing that we could easily catch them if we wanted, but our mate wanted a squirrel; we needed a squirrel. Tilting our head to focus the scents, we found a nest about halfway up a huge oak tree. Evaluating the scents, we knew this nest contained an older mated pair. I was surprised when I realized that my beast was not only hunting but managing our food supply by choosing the targets least likely to affect the future population in the area. I was intrigued at how easily our claws gripped the tree trunk as we climbed the tree, almost catlike, digging the claws of our hands and feet into the bark to quickly propel ourself up to the squirrel’s nest. Before they could react, we reached in and grabbed them both. With a quick motion, we snapped their necks, giving them a swift, painless death, and then we leaped to the ground, presenting the prize to our mate.

Scott beamed at me and reached out to caress my face, then followed us as we returned to the rock where Billy sat, holding two rabbits. As he held them up to me, he thought, ‘Two older does, too old to reproduce.’

Scott took the rabbits and placed them, and the squirrels, on the rock. He then shifted to his human form and asked, “I can only assume that you and your beast have worked out how to work together?” When we nodded our head, he added, “Now it’s time for you to find your vampire form. I don’t know how you work with your beast, but for me, I have to ask him to go to his special place in my mind and allow me to take control.”

Considering his words, I asked my beast to go to his part of our mind and let me have our body. ‘But I’ve only had a few minutes of fun,’ he whined.

‘Yes, and I’ll find time to let you out as often as I can. For now, I need to learn about other things.’

After a few more complaints from the beast, I felt myself regaining full control of my mind. As I did, I could tell my body was changing again, returning to the human form I was so familiar with. When I felt I was fully back to my human form, he grumbled, ‘This form is weak.’

I smiled as I considered my beast’s opinion of my human form. Compared to him, this body was indeed weak. Compared to what it was just over twenty-four hours ago, it was incredibly strong. So strong, in fact, that I knew I would need to learn to adjust my actions around humans or risk exposure. I wondered if I would be able to do that well enough to wrestle; I wondered if it would even be fair for me to wrestle again. That was something to consider at another time; tonight, I needed to learn other things.

I turned to look up at Billy, still in his beast form, and observed, “Now I understand why James didn’t want Chris out here. He probably would have run away in terror.” Remembering my reaction to smelling his blood, I added, “Or I might have attacked him when I smelled him. I almost ran to the house when I scented him.”

While Billy shifted back to human form, Scott was saying, “For a second, it seemed like you wanted to attack us.”

Ashamed, I admitted, “For a second, we did, but only for a second. But he recognized you as our mate and Billy as our companion. When we reached out, and you flinched, he was hurt that you were afraid of us.”

Scott smiled as he exclaimed, “That is so cool that you decided to use we and him; I do the same thing. When I’m in beast form, we’re a team; right now, he’s in his place in my mind, separate from my psyche, but still part of me.”

Billy was nodding his agreement with Scott’s statement as I asked, “So, are we done?”

Billy and Scott both laughed and then Scott said, “Far from it, babe. You’ve worked with your beast and seem to have him under control. You got him to quickly surrender your body and shift back to human. Now you have to learn to let just a bit of him out and find your vampire form.”

Before either could explain, I started thinking out loud. “I’m going to guess that the vampire form involves letting part of the beast out while maintaining control. Not letting his true nature surface, but using his strengths and abilities to, I don’t know, augment my weaker human form?”

Scott seemed surprised, and Billy sounded impressed as he said, “I don’t think I could have explained it better, Greg. When James taught me to change, he told me that most vampires believe they have to be in this form to feed. The truth is that we only need to drop our fangs, as you did at dinner, to feed.”

Confused, I turned to Scott and asked, “Then why were you in your vampire form when you fed from Donna last night?”

“I was injured by the sun, and we heal better in our vampire form. Something to do with it being a combination of both our natures, I think.”

I nodded as I thought about Scott’s explanation, then decided to try what they were saying. Looking inward, I found my beast. He was in his spot in my mind, still pouting, when I asked him, ‘Will you help me with this? Or are you angry at me?’

I could almost hear his sigh before he replied, ‘Angry or not, I will always help you. I am you, and you are me; that can never change.’

Encouraged by his words, I tried to visualize Scott’s vampire form. I had seen it during my changing, but my mind was hazy. I had also seen it when James revealed to me that I was a Baron, but my mind was reeling from that revelation, and I didn’t get to actually look closely at Scott. After struggling for a few minutes, I looked at Scott and said the dumbest thing I’ve said in a long time.

“Could you guys vamp it up some? So I know what I’m supposed to look like?”

While Billy was almost rolling on the ground in a fit of giggles, Scott rolled his eyes in exasperation, then shifted into his vampire form. My memories were correct. His body didn’t change, other than his skin, which turned a pale bluish-white, the same color as his full beast. The tops of his ears grew longer and pointed, and his eyes, which now had a slight glow, seemed to sink slightly into his face. When he smiled, I saw the cutest little fangs. I couldn’t resist; I grabbed him and pulled him in for a kiss. As my tongue slid across his fangs, I tasted my blood. He did too, and from his reaction, the taste of my blood was an aphrodisiac. I felt it as our erections rubbed against each other, and he sucked hard on my tongue, trying to get more of my blood.

As I got more aroused, I could feel my body changing. My ears grew, and my fangs descended. The next time Scott’s tongue entered my mouth, I bit down and tasted his blood for the first time. I lost control, and soon we were both lost in the passion of the moment. When I heard Billy cough, I quickly pulled away from Scott and mumbled an apology about getting carried away.

“It’s fine, Greg. I just didn’t want the two of you to mate bond until you decided to; without the blood fog affecting you. If I’m honest, it was kinda hot to watch.” Billy blushed as he said this last part.

Scott had recovered from what Billy called a blood fog and said, “Well, if you enjoyed watching, there will be more in our room later.” Turning to me, he warned, “And Billy’s right. We don’t need to be exchanging blood again until we want to mate. Our mate’s blood puts us in a fog of passion, and we might actually complete our bond by accident.”

“Um, okay, I understood none of that, so I’ll just go with it,” I said. Part of me wanted to finish what we had started, and a bigger part of me wanted more of Scott’s blood.

“Alright, you two horndogs, you can finish what you started later. For now, Greg, how do you feel?”

I smirked at Billy and was tempted to ask him how he thought I felt, but I concentrated on my body and replied, “I feel stronger than my human form but still fully in control. I can tell that my beast has shared his physical abilities because I can see and smell better.” Pausing to listen, I went on, “I can hear better too. I just heard Donna ask James if he thought we were okay, and the house is over a mile away, right?” I then heard James laugh and tell Donna we were fine.

Scott answered, “Yes, we’re just over a mile away. Is your beast fighting you for more? Or is he happy letting you do as you wish with his traits?”

I laughed, “He’s far from happy, but he’s fine with me in control. He’s upset I only let him out for a few minutes, and he’s pouting.”

‘You’d pout too if you were restrained for 18 years and only given five minutes to play.’ I heard in my head.

Billy grinned and asked, “How about I run the squirrels and rabbits back to the house while the two of you let your beasts run and play? I’ll join you after I let James know we’ll be out all night.”

“All night?” I asked, shocked. “Don’t we need to get some sleep?”

“Actually, no, we don’t. Billy might want to grab a nap later, but you and I are old enough that we can go seventy-two hours on eight hours of sleep. While I like Billy’s suggestion, I think you should go back to the house and feed from Dad before we go romping through the woods.”

I decided to take Scott’s advice, so I opened up my connection to James. When he accepted, I told him our plans and asked if I could come feed. After being told that I could feed at any time I needed to, we headed to the house. As we walked, I realized that we were all still in vampire form. Rather than scare Chris, I suggested we change to human. Billy immediately changed, but Scott had an evil grin on his face as he suggested the many ways we could mess with Chris. While I thought it might be entertaining, I didn’t want to scar my friend for life and convinced Scott to behave. We shifted as we walked through the door.

As we entered, I focused my senses and discovered that Mary was in her apartment, watching the television. Donna was speaking to someone on the telephone. Mike was upstairs in the southeast bedroom, and I wasn’t sure what he was doing until I heard him shuffle some papers; he was working. Chris was in the basement, and I could hear the sounds of lasers, so I knew he was on a gaming system. James and Tommy were sitting on the terrace, enjoying some wine with their conversation. Scott and Billy headed to the meat locker, where they would drain and butcher the rabbits and squirrels. I said I would join them after I fed and headed out to the terrace.

“I see you’re back in one piece. I assume from their scents that Scott and Billy are still alive?” He paused and scented the air, then gave me an appraising look as he asked, “I smell Scott’s blood in you, Greg. Did anyone tell you about the blood fog?”

Sitting down next to James, I poured myself a glass of wine and replied, “Billy mentioned it, and Scott gave me a quick explanation.”

Nodding, James said, “Yes, well, you boys are old enough to decide when you’re ready, but exchanging blood before that time can lead to unplanned mate bonds. As long as you’re aware of the risks, I’ll leave it to the two of you.” He paused, then asked, “You wanted to feed. Do you want to do that now? Or did you have questions first?”

I thought back to my feeding during dinner, and there was one thing I wanted to know. “Scott explained how young vampires learn from their parents. Well, the theory on it, at least. When you fed me at dinner, I noticed that I could seek out knowledge in your mind. You seemed to sense it, and I got the impression that you were surprised. Isn’t that how it works?”

Tommy seemed intrigued and leaned forward as James replied, “As I keep saying, you’re my first changeling, so I can’t say for sure. I will say that I’ve never experienced that sensation while feeding my other three sons.” He turned to Tommy to inquire, “Do you have any insight for us?”

Shaking his head slowly, Tommy said, “I’ll ask Lenny; hold on a second.” His eyes lost focus, and I knew he was speaking to his mate, mind-to-mind. When his gaze focused on me, he said, “He says he never actually sought out information, but when he woke from his changing, he did have a basic knowledge of Italian, a language he had never spoken before. He believes he got it from George, but he can’t be sure. And he’s not aware of anything else he may have gotten through those initial feedings.”

While I sat sipping the wine, I considered what Tommy had said. I wanted to continue to seek knowledge from James as I fed, but I also needed to respect his privacy and not go digging around in his mind. He seemed to know what I was thinking.

Offering me his wrist, James said, “Greg, I trust you to do your best to avoid the private areas of my mind. Feel free to seek any knowledge you desire as you feed. I have faith that if you should stumble upon something private, you will keep my secrets as if they were your own.”

I took the offered wrist and nodded to James, saying, “Thank you,” just before I dropped my fangs and bit. I immediately made the mental connection and sought out his language base. I knew that communication was key to any relationship, and this was my easiest route to learning several languages that I might put to use for centuries. Wanting to prolong the connection and draw as much knowledge as I could, I slowed my feeding. When I did, I heard James say something, so I paused to listen.

“What was that?” I heard Tommy ask.

“I said smart. He’s slowed his feeding so he can pull as much knowledge as possible from this feeding,” James explained. I felt his hand on my shoulder as he said, “You can continue to feed from me as long as you are able to learn, Greg.”

I sent him a mental message of thanks and continued my ‘studies’.