I Bite She Sucks, Bloom, Penelope [recommended reading TXT] 📗

was the warmth of her mouth and the wetness of my blood as she drank. She pulled back, and I felt a hot line of blood run from the place on my neck down my chest.

I put my hand there, pressing against the already sore and aching spot.

“It’s done,” Ana said, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. “You taste quite delicious, by the way,” she added.

“Agreed,” Riggs said.

“I don’t feel any different,” I said.

“You won’t at first,” Ana said. “I should also mention you will feel a slight bonding effect toward me until the transformation finalizes. In some circumstances, the bond can be extremely intense. However, the purpose is to compel the partially turned vampire to complete the ritual. We’ll be completing the ritual immediately, which will only leave you with a slight lingering sense of my presence and perhaps a vague desire to be near me. Once turned, you’ll hardly feel it unless I wish you to.”

“How long will that take? Fully turning, I mean.” I asked.

“A day, perhaps. I’m rather old and quite powerful. That will speed the transition.”

“She’s being modest,” Vladimir said. “Ana is the oldest known vampire in our world. You’ve been given quite the gift being turned by her, girl. You’ll be powerful beyond your years, and it will only grow. Just like our son.”

I thought of how Victor’s supposed powers hadn’t stopped his head from getting ripped off, but that was an ugly thought, so I tried to ignore it. “As long as I stop getting sick, I’ll be happy.”

The two older vampires let us out of the dungeon and agreed to give us our room back for the time being. At our door, Ana stopped before she left. “What was the other thing you wanted from us?” She asked Riggs.

“I was hoping I could speak with a vampire who stays here. Kyla.”

34

Riggs

Sylvie was still weak, so I laid her down on our bed once Ana and Vladimir left. Her silky hair spilled around her head and a trickle of blood seeped from her neck, staining the pillow.

She smiled up at me, eyes red-rimmed. “Thank you.”

I shook my head. “It was the right thing.”

“Are you going to hate me now?”

“This was my idea, Sylvie. Well, originally yours and your sister’s, but no. I don’t think I could hate you if I tried.”

She smirked. “I’m pretty sure you did try to hate me a few times.”

“Maybe. So then I can say for certain I couldn’t hate you if I tried. And stop worrying about it. Just focus on resting so this change can happen smoothly.”

“It’s kind of exciting, you know? But I feel guilty. Like we should be rushing out the door right now to find the others.”

“They will be okay for now. It’s like I said. They are bargaining chips for Lazarus. He won’t waste them without a reason. That gives us time to do this right and make sure we come at him with a plan.”

Sylvie nodded. “I’m proud of you, you know. Asking to talk to your sister? Having them turn me into one of them? You’re changing, Riggs. And in a good way.”

I looked away. The truth was that I was still battling years of hatred on the inside. I didn’t magically want to shake hands with every vampire I met. But for once, I wanted to try to overcome the swirling black anger that I’d been cultivating in my heart all these years. For her, I wanted to change. At least I wanted to try.

Kyla came while Sylvie was napping. She slipped in the door quietly, head low.

My sister was tall with sandy blonde hair and our mother’s dark blue eyes. She was pale now, like they all were. She also had that supernatural smoothness to her skin they seemed to get, and she’d become thinner than when I saw her last, like she’d shed most of the lithe muscle she’d carried.

“Hey,” I said, feeling awkward.

“You asked to see me?” she said, not quite meeting my eyes.

Kyla was younger than me by a few years, and I was struck then by how fucked up it was for me to have disowned her like I did. All this time I’d thought how she was all I had, and she’d stripped me of that. I never flipped my perspective to realize I was all she had. I was the one who had severed ties. I was the one who had fucked it up.

I walked toward her and reached for a hug. She flinched, but I hugged her anyway. She didn’t react for a few seconds, then she finally put her hands around my back.

She hugged me tighter then, shaking softly as she cried into my shoulder. I felt the same prickle of emotion threatening to overcome me, but I held onto her, being the strong big brother I should’ve been all this time.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered into her ear.

35

Riggs

I lounged in the chair by the window of our room. Moonlight bathed the grounds of Blackridge while small figures moved from building to building, casting long shadows.

I still couldn’t quite believe I was in their world. In more ways than one, I supposed, as I looked to Sylvie.

She was hunched over a small table in our room scarfing down her third helping of hamburger and fries. I grinned, but felt a pang of sadness when I realized it might be one of the last times she ever craved human food.

I didn’t regret the choice I’d offered her. This was right for her. That was what mattered. It didn’t mean the slightest if I was going to struggle with the idea of turning the first perfect woman I’d met into the thing I’d sworn to hate.

It had been a full day since Ana turned Sylvie in the dungeon. Sylvie slept through the entire day and woke almost as soon as the sun set. She was asking for food almost as soon as she rose, and apparently already had shed