Vampire 141 - Fledgling!Reader
Actually, you truly believed hell must be kinder than whatever the hell was happening to your body these past few days.
Should you call the support line after all?
And to think it was all your bossâs fault. If that jerk hadnât made you work overtime and close the stupid convenience store without any warning, maybe you could have found a way to get home safely.
Now thanks to that, you were attacked on your way home after work.
Attacked in the middle of the night, on a week day, too far from any houses for anyone to hear the commotion.
And it had been a vampire.
You didnât know much about vampires. Their species was way too mysterious and reserved with outsiders. Thatâs not to say they didnât interact with humansâbecause they did, especially with the wealthyâbut it was one of those situations where someone like you would never get the chance to speak with one.
They were high society. Big families that controlled entire cities and states. Like the Mafia or some shit, living in the rich part of town that you had never even set foot in before.
Although, you had heard of vampires appearing here and there sometimes, walking around through the city quietly and discreetly when problems needed to be solved.
Problems like feral vampires.
Loners cast aside from their Covens for one reason or another, now crazed and out of control, following their bloodlust blindly. They killed as easily as any vampire did, even if their only focus was to drink their victims' blood.
They were rareâincredibly soâsince it was the responsibility of the high covens to protect the normal folk from ferals. They rarely appeared in other vampires' territory, fearing the powerful presence of their own kind.
Sometimes, a new one would appear from far away, starved and crazed like most of them were by that point. And usually they managed to kill one victim before the covens hunted them down to kill them for good.
So it was very important to call the right number to report feral vampires in the area.
Should you have done that? Yes, you should have. You really should have. But you were so. freaking. tired.
You were a college student working part-time at a convenience store. After waking up from your near-death experience, you just couldnât bring yourself to care anymore. In fact, for a good while after waking up, you even thought you had hallucinated everything. You went home like it was just another night, your mind drifting, more absent than present.
The moment your head hit the pillow, you were out.
But, when you looked at yourself in the mirror the next morning...
You were supposed to be dead. Someone would find your bodyâdrained and woundedâand call the feral hotline. Vampires would show up, deal with the feral with minimal effort, and make sure the area was secured again. Thatâs just how it goes.
You didnât even know that was possibleâa feral giving up on its prey after pinning it down instead of just killing it for the blood.
It was talking, tooâmumbling nonsense by your ear, like it was actually trying to communicate with you.
It bit you, injecting its venom.
Your skin was horribly marked now. The wounds that had once been there had all turned into thin layers of scar tissue. Not the usual kind, but one formed by the venom injected into your bloodstream. The red and black layers against your otherwise normal skin tone made it look like the weirdest tattoo youâd ever seenâlike you were a broken porcelain doll with satan himself trying to break free from inside out.
It started at your neck, on your left shoulder, blooming into an ugly, messy bite that was definitely the most obvious problem there.
It went down your left arm and chest, streaks that looked like veins, or cracks.
The artwork was completed by ending on the wounds youâd gotten on your lower body while fighting off the vampire on top of youâscrapes around your hips and legs.
At least you actually searched a bit about vampires after that, panicking hard over the weird markings on your skin. The only and most important thing you needed to know was whether ferals could transform humans or not.
Which, unsurprisingly, they could.
They still have their venom, but when they go feral, they usually just want to drink blood from their victims blindly, and the venom is mostly forgotten. There was never a case of a feral actually turning someone into a vampire!
Maybe that feral wasnât as far gone as the others...
But now, this was somehow your problem! You barely knew anything about vampires', or how they worked in the first place!
What do they even do after transforming someone?
Are you really a vampire now??
Why did you have the ugliest markings all over your body after being bitten, when youâd never heard of vampires leaving markings like this???
And why the hell was your boss still making you go to work after you told him you were attacked late at night last week, the asshole?!?!
Maybe you shouldâve specified it was a vampire who attacked you, but you were scared to face what had happened. What had been done to you, and what you might now become. Do you need to speak to vampires now? Are you actually one? You don't even have any fangs or anything different besides the markings...
You had so much to doâso many projects left unfinished for school. You never missed class, not even when you were sick. But now that youâve become a completely different speciesâŠ
"Dearie, what happened to you??"
You were startled by the worried voice of an old lady close to you, making you look up from the chip bags you had been staring at for a solid five minutes in the middle of the aisle.
You glanced back at her for a few seconds before turning your gaze to your own body, looking down at your neck and collarbone where the giant marking started, barely hidden by the collar of your work shirt.
"Oh, it's... dunno, a birthmark." You mumble, tired, not really caring much for a better excuse.
You were so tired lately... what the hell even happened? You always had that healthy college student tiredness from working and studying, but it never made your body feel this heavy.
If you were any more weak-minded, you might have just stayed in bed forever.
But then again, college student.
"It doesn't look like oneâŠ." The woman squinted, analyzing your neck like it was her fucking business.
Okay, maybe you were also a bit more irritaded than normal.
"Ma'am, it's nothing. Can I help you with something?" You force a smile, though itâs more cynical than polite, as you werenât really in the mood to be that polite to people who couldnât mind their own business.
She stared at you for a few more long seconds in complete silence, her eyes squinting as she made that slow, long hum that old people make when they're being casually judgmental.
"That's a vampire thing, isn't it?" A middle-aged man appeared around the corner, his eyes also drifting to your neck as he tilted his head to the side. "It looks like a vampire bite on your neck..."
This guy you actually knowâThomas, from the real estate office nearbyâwho always comes to buy a snack around this time of day.
"How did you even get to that conclusion...?" You mumble, frowning slightly in annoyance.
"For one, I can see two teeth marks on your neck, clearly. Second, have you not seen the news? There's a feral mosquito zooming around our area. He was spotted last week and still hasn't been caught."
The old lady gasped in shock, eyes wide as she turned back to you.
"Have you been attacked, dear?!"
Well, fuck. So much for ignoring the problem until it couldnât be ignored anymore.
"I guess..." You shrug, wincing slightly at the pain that shot up your left shoulder from the action.
"You guess?? You shouldâve called the hotline if you were attacked!" Thomas frowned, just as confused as he was indignant.
"You donât get it, I have so much going on right now..." You groan tiredly, already slipping into a depressive mood as you remember all the work you still had to do for your classes.
"What does that even have to do witâ?!"
"Hey, what's with the commotion?!"
You sighed heavily at your bossâs loud voice booming through the store, the balding man approaching with a huffy expression, slightly controlled thanks to the two clients standing with you in the aisle.
"Didn't know you were at the store today, mr. Miller...." You mumble softly, trying to dodge the last subject.
"I wasnât supposed to be! But we all received a notificationâthereâs a Coven coming here to deal with the fucking feral!" He grunts, clearly annoyed. "I came to close the store; apparently, those snobby suckers want all businesses closed to make their work easier."
"Oh no, donât tell me thatâŠ" Thomas sighs, suffering, pulling his phone from his pocket immediately to start a call with what you can only assume is his manager, turning away from the group.
"Does that mean I can go?" You ask, raising an eyebrow as you point hesitantly at the glass door.
"Oh, you have to let her go, she needs to go to the hospital...!" The old lady quickly agrees, nodding with the most pitiful look on her face.
"Hey, hey, wait a sec, who said anything about a hospitalâ?"
"You still havenât checked the fucking mark consuming your neck? Are you trying to kill yourself, girly??" Mr. Miller interrupts, glaring at you like this situation isnât part of his fault.
"What the hell? You didnât give me any days off??" You sputter, indignant.
"I have only you and that stoned kid right now, I can't afford to give any days off! You should go when you have time, like everyone else who works!"
Youâre ready to probably yell back at his face when Thomas quickly runs back to the group, a bit desperate as he fumbles with his bags and cellphone.
"They're already here...! I have to go back too!"
"Yeah, I should be going too! Hit me up when you're uptaded, Mr. Miller! Thanks so much, bye-bye!" You say quickly, running out the door after Thomas, your backpack already over your shoulder.
You couldn't even focus on your boss' loud ass voice as you hurried down the street, your head pounding relentlessly. Ever since you got bitten, this had been your realityâsplitting headaches, aching muscles, no appetite, itchy gums, and, above all, a bone-deep exhaustion.
To be fair, some of the symptoms were still pretty mild. But deep down, a gnawing fear told you something was off. You could barely wrap your head around the fact that you were actually turning (had already turned?) into a vampire. But feeling like absolute crap made you wonder⊠what if something was going wrong?
You should call the hotline. You should go to the hospital. Just get it over withâat least get some help. But wouldnât that change everything? Wouldnât it make things even more complicated? And what would the all-powerful vampires do with you then?
God, you canât graduate if you miss too many assignments in a row!
Donât you have that group project due in two weeksâthe one no one in your group has even said a peep about?
A small noise from the other side of the otherwise silent street caught your attention, your head snapping up in alert. The street was emptyâof both cars and people, as usualâexcept for the two men standing by the closed pet store.
And goddamn, these were NOT normal men.
They were dressed strangely, a mix of military style and high-end fashion. Clearly rich. Heavy black clothes with small pops of color, loaded with pockets and belts. Their bootsâthick, heavy, the kind that could break your bones with a single kick.
But that wasnât the weird part...
No, the weird part was how much of their faces they were covering. One of the men wore a heavy jacket, with a hood and beanie pulled up to hide his jet-black hair. A black surgical maskâlike the kind you'd see in a hospitalâcovered his face, and dark sunglasses hid his eyes.
The other⊠good lord, he had to be around three meters tall. Sure, vampires were naturally bigger than humans, but still⊠what the hell? This guy was wearing a full veil over his head, black, with suspicious red streaks running down it, and his heavy clothes hid the rest of his body just as much.
They... they had to be vampires, right...?
You flinched when the man wearing sunglasses suddenly snapped his head in your direction. His face was completely hidden, but you could feel the intensity of his gaze. The other man too turned in your direction slowly, now both of them facing you, completely still.
It truly seemed as if time had stopped for a few moments. No one moved or made a sound. You werenât sure what to do. The ugly markings on your skinâtoo high on your neck to be hidden by your snug polo work shirtâseemed to burn under their stares.
You can't take this anymore.
Without thinking, you immediately turned around and tried to make your way back to the convenience store, your heart hammering against your ribcage.
But you didnât even manage to take a single step forward.
"What is this?" the man wearing sunglasses asked, his voice rough and quiet.
You jumped in place, a small hiccup escaping your lips in surprise as you felt heavy hands settle on your shoulders, keeping you still.
How did they get to you so fast?? You were on the other side of the street!
"Fledgling." The other man spoke even more gruffly, tilting his head down to see you properly. His veil was falling forward just enough for you to almost see his face beneath it.
You could distinctly see a red glow beneath it.
Your stuttered words were interrupted by the veiled man's big, heavy hand tilting your head up gently, while his partner unbuttoned your polo shirt, pulling the cloth aside to reveal more of the damaged area.
"Abused by their Sire." The veiled man growled lowly in anger, his voice still mostly quiet as he analyzed the markings. You could clearly hear a distinctive German accent in his words. "Who? It's just our Coven here."
"There were visiting Covens not that long ago." The other one also spoke with an accentâsomething Asian, it seemedâbut you couldn't quite place it.
"Too fresh. This is a just-turned."
"This is a grievous sin against nature itself." The Asian man growled, making every hair on your body stand on end. The sound of his growl sent a shiver through you, paralyzing you slightly. "She didn't even complete the transformation."
"Fledgling, who is your Sire?" the German muttered slowly, forcing your head slightly higher so you had to look up at him.
Now they quieted down, letting you speak. Though you didn't really want to right nowânot when you didn't understand what the hell they were saying.
"M-My... my what...?" You mumble anxiously, looking up in between both of their covered faces.
"ScheiĂdreck!" The veiled man cursed gruffly, his hands immediately going under your armpits to lift you up as if you weighed nothing, making you yelp in surprise.
"I did think the tribunal was too quiet recently," the Asian guy grunted, his arms crossed firmly as he watched you squirm slightly in panic in the bigger man's arms. "They're gonna love to hear about this."
"And the feral?" the German asked quietly, gently immobilizing you against him, tapping your back in small motions to calm you down.
"The others are here. No matter how smart a feral, they are easy targets. We have more important matters to attend to now. Isn't that right, Fledgling?"
You whimpered slightly in fear and confusion, your head pressed against the taller vampire's shoulder.
"How are we going to deal with this...?" The German sounded slightly calmer now, less aggressive with you in his arms. "This is serious, Horangi, a crime of this caliber..."
"I know, König. The tribunal will deal with that. For now, we keep her close. How about her teeth?"
You felt your body being slightly adjusted to lay more against the big guy's body, his giant hand coming up to your mouth to push his fingers inside it.
"No way!" you hissed defensively, trying to turn your head from side to side to avoid him.
"Shh, Fledgling. You're okay, stay calm. Open up." You let out a grunt in surprise and indignation as Horangi stepped forward, forcing his fingers into your mouth while König held your head in place. "Ha, it's what we thought. A fresh fledgling. Her teeth haven't even fallen out yet." He laughed without humor, shaking his head slightly as he let go.
"F-Fall out?? W-Wait, t-this is...! O-Oh, God..."
You whimpered, getting overwhelmed. This was precisely why you didnât want to deal with the attack and transformation matter. And a tribunal?? You were so busy, living alone, and you couldnât miss workâmuch less miss your classes.
"You are tired, Liebchen. Your body is taking a toll after the bad transformation. Settle, we'll take care of things." He patted your back gently a few times.
"She has a ton of venom in her bloodstream, and she's still awake. Rock her a bit, and she should fall back asleep quickly. I'm calling Laswell."
