Catrina Billowson

I blinked.

“What?”

“You are a Vampire now, Catrina. How does it feel?” Harvey smiled wide, still looking at me as if I was something priceless.

I tore from his grip, shaking my head.

“This isn’t real,” I whispered aloud as a thirst biled up in my throat and my canine teeth lengthened in my mouth, ripping through the first layer of skin inside my bottom lip. Something acrid began to fill up my mouth and I spat it out. Blood and a clear substance thicker than saliva dripped out, the sight pricking my eyes with emotion. This can’t be real. I must be dreaming.

I pinched myself, but the teeth in my mouth stayed.

Could this be real?

“It’s very real,” Harvey said, resting a hand on my shoulder. I pull away, a growl rising in the back of my throat.

“It feels like I was tricked into becoming this wicked, horrible being,” I yelled.

I was furious. Even if I’d had the choice I wouldn’t pick the road down Vampire Lane. Or even if it was a life or death situation (which either way would end in death am I not right?) I still wouldn’t pick being a... Vampire! Which, apparently, are real.

Go figure.

I saw anger flash across his eyes, but he hid it under that thick layer of ice he called skin.

“I handed something to you that was great and you just tear it into shreds. You have no idea how powerful you are or how many people would want to be in your position!”

“And you couldn’t find anyone else?” I shouted back in rage. “I’m one of those people that would not want to become a blood-sucker! I’m not one to romanticize them, like you want me to. They are evil.”

He scowled at me, and with lightning speed I never knew he had, he gripped his large hand around my throat. It was no threat to me, I realized, as the newly acquired instincts slipped into my veins.

“Don’t ever call us that!” he threatened.

“Or what?” I taunted him, feeling different about it. “You’ll kill me? Too late. You will strangle me to death? Lay me in a coffin six feet under? Expose that I’m a Vampire to all of Italy?” I laughed. “This isn’t Twilight, Harvey. And this isn’t Kill Bill either. This isn’t something you can just slap on a PG-13 or R-rating onto. So take your stupid hand off of my neck, and just walk away before I rip your head off.”

Did I just say that?

He looked at me. Blinked.

He dropped his hand and let it slide down to my shoulders. Then it slid down the side of my body to the small in my back.

“Catrina,” he said, looking so deep in my eyes, I didn’t dare tear away from their strong grip. What is this power he has over me? “I really like you. A lot. And I think it may be enough to be love. But I don’t know,” he pulled me closer. “That’s why I turned you. That’s how much I wanted to be with you, and be close to you, and spend eternity with you.” His sweet, luscious voice slivered into my ear like honey onto toast. He pulled me even closer and I rested my head on his shoulder. “Catrina,” he pulled me away one more time, and I exchanged his glance. “I think I love you.”

I could not grasp the thought of every detail Harvey had just told me. I was in shock. I was in even more of a shock when I felt electricity blaze through my veins as he leaned in to kiss me again. But I heard a snap of a twig, and we both shot around to face the edge of the trees that it had come from.

And I was back to reality.

“Get behind me!” he whispered hastily to me.

I felt the adrenaline flowing through my almost-still veins. I was on my toes and ready to rock and roll.

Harvey hissed.

Vampires hiss?

Suddenly, a loud snapping noise filled the still, quiet air and it was so loud, I had to cover my ears with my freezing hands.

A circle of bark, leaves, trees and grass busted from the middle of one of the sides of the rounded area of trees. Out popped a very large wolf, the size of two grown men stuffed together. It had brown fur, and deep, green (yet familiar) eyes.

I saw Harvey shift his weight and go into a defensive mode. He hissed again, another warning towards the marvelous creature. I was immediately fascinated and overly curious. I touched Harvey’s shoulder, and told him, “No. It’s okay...”

He looked at me like I was a nut-job. Of course I never took my eyes off the large wolf.

“Are you crazy?” he said. “It’s a humongous wolf!”

I never answered, but I walked up to the creature. I cautiously put my hand out as I neared it. Its nose sniffed my hand, then, as if tasting me, licked me. I smiled. Clicks started to vibrate the air from the wolf.

It jerked its head forward and bit me, its body moving with it, as if it was about to attack, full-force.

“Agh!” I groaned, shocked I could feel every detail of the searing pain through my bones. It moved its head side-to-side as if I were a chew-toy, but something changed in its body language suddenly. It froze. Let go.

Its eyes stayed trained on me, and I could almost feel its emotions seeping into the air.

The large wolf turned and ran off into the woods again as if it didn’t know what to do with itself now that it had hurt something inhuman. Would it die because of me? Crud—would I die because of it?

“How can I still feel?” I whined. “Vampire’s nerves are supposed to shut off when they’re bitten! That’s why the poison or venom or whatever numbs the pain...” I said, coming to a realization. “At least… that’s what I know…”

“We feel pain. We feel it worse than any human could. The venom is a poison that sharpens all of our senses. Taste, sight, sound, touch, and smell.”

“So... if that theory’s wrong... then what else is?” I asked.

“I haven’t tested them all,” he chuckled. “Nor have I asked enough questions. But I know you can see yourself in a mirror, and you can go out in the sun. You can eat, drink, and you still have to use the bathroom,” he said disappointingly at the last one.

“So that means your organs are still running. And that means your heart’s pumping, and pumping blood, which means… we’re still alive?” I asked in disbelief.

“Only partially. They work slower, as if they are iced over or thawed slightly.”

“So that means we age?”

“Only when you don’t get enough blood, I believe.”

“Oh, I get it. You literally suck the life out of your prey! ’The life is in the blood’.” I collapsed onto my knees. “Ugh, why?!”

I felt like crying. So I cried. Tears fell down to my cheeks and blended into my skin before they could even reach my chin. What an emotional wreck I was.

“I told you why,” Harvey said as he kneeled down beside me and rested a cold hand against my back. “Because I love you, Catrina.”

I just shook my head, making my hair fly everywhere. My eye caught the bite on my hand. I moved it a little and winced at the pain that shot up my arm. “Why isn’t it healing?”

“Because it was a Werewolf that bit you,” he spat.

I looked at him. “They’re real too?”

Harvey nodded.

“So, what? Are unicorns and leprechauns real too?” I chuckled.

“Don’t know yet. Probably, but I wouldn’t go looking for them if I were you, just in case.” He smiled and helped me up. “Well, I have to go home. Wouldn’t want my parents wondering where I’ve gone off too,” he laughed. “I’ll see you at school. He hugged me and backed off. He waved as he took off with unbelievable speed through the labyrinth of trees.

“Wait!” I called, too quietly. I was alone and speaking to myself. “What happens when a Werewolf bites a Vampire?”

I ran back to the school and pedaled home in a panicked frenzy, finding I was too fast compared to normal too.

I was tired.

“Looks like Vampires need sleep too,” I mumbled aloud, after a long yawn.

My dad’s car was gone and I was alone in the house, so I decided to take a shower. I stepped into the hot water, and watched as the droplets hit my cold skin and create a thin fog. After a few minutes, it started to burn, so I turned the water colder.

I stepped out and noticed veins popping out of every area of my skin. They turned normal after I dried off and my skin was even paler than it used to be before the... thing happened. Of course.

“Can’t wait for tomorrow,” I muttered as I fell asleep, Harvey on my brain for some strange reason. And why, of all people, did I suddenly want to be his everything?