vampire short bc the phase is never-ending
It was a common misconception that a person had to be killed to become a vampire. Another belief was that vampire society operated under the motto of 'kill or be killed- again'. Jax now knew both of these things were false.
At least, he didn't feel dead. He stuck a finger under his lip and tugged the skin up, tilting his head as he looked in the mirror to catch a good glimpse of his fangs. On one side of his neck sat two neat dots from where he'd been bitten. A few hours ago, they'd been bleeding and the whole area was tinged crimson but now, they were nasty dark green holes with wriggling black veins highlighted around them. The rest of his skin was pale and clammy to the touch; even his gums and the inside of his mouth were white-ish pink and devoid of blood.
A quick glance to his feet told his all he needed to know about where his blood had gone. His calves and feet were swollen, purple and mottled, puffed up like grotesque balloons. He pressed his fingers to his pale wrist and couldn't find a pulse. Maybe he was dead after all.
"Compression socks." Heloise, a petite blonde vampire sat at the wine bar behind him, called out without looking up from her glass. "They help push some of the blood back up so you're not as swollen."
She, along with another vampire (a young boy who hadn't looked up from his DS during the whole time Jax had been there) had proved his assumption that all vampires hated each other wrong. Heloise had had every chance to kill him- from finding him passed out in an alleyway, to carting him to this underground maze- but hadn't given him any more than the occasional flick on the forehead to wake him up on the journey over.
"Thanks," he muttered, then pushed his black hair away from his forehead. It was limp and dull, plastered to his skin by a thin sheen of sweat that coated his body. "Do you have a shower around here?"
Heloise jerked her head towards a black door behind her with fairy lights draped across it, then drew her phone out of her pocket and started playing some sort of 'match the colours' game. The other vampire still had yet to acknowledge Jax's existence.
He took one last glance around the room. Every surface, save for the wine bar Heloise sat at, was made of shimmery black marble. One wall was covered by a large mirror that spanned from floor to ceiling, reflecting whatever Jax had become in all its sweaty, clammy glory. The wine bar was made of unstained wood, with fat yellow bulbs hanging from the ceiling around it. The rest of the room was lit by thin lines of white LED lights that ran across the ceiling and lined the mirror, shining so bright and clean it made his eyes ache.
One wobbly, numb step at a time, he walked to the bathroom and swung open the black door. The inside matched the main room: black marble, a sleek, simplistic steel showerhead that protruded directly from the ceiling and (he noticed with a wince) the same bright lights. There was no toilet or door lock.
Jax shut the door, pulled off his black t-shirt and shoved it under into the small gap under the door in the vague hope that would stop anyone from coming in. Then, he fiddled with two steel knobs on the wall nearest the showerhead until the water came flooding down. He tugged his shorts off and stepped under the water, head facing up, eyes closed.
For a few minutes, he was still. He could feel the water running down his body, washing away the grease and grime of the longest day he'd ever had. The pinprick fang marks on his neck didn't sting at all, even when he brushed the water off his face and opened his eyes to check they were still there.
There were three little silver bottles by his feet- labelled 'S' and 'C' and 'BW' respectively. He grabbed the 'BW' bottle, poured out a drizzle and lathered himself all over, watching the lavender, baby-power scented liquid foam up and became grey as it detached all the dirt from his body. He repeated the process with 'S' on his hair, but didn't bother with 'C'.
Something about watching the dirty soap bubble as the drain pulled it downwards made Jax's head go blank. Knees weak, he set his clumsy body down on the shower floor and sat with his head hung low. Water dribbled over his face, dripping off of his parted lips like a spring, but he wasn't thirsty enough to try sucking any in to drink it.
He wasn't thirsty at all.
Heloise threw the door open with all the subtlety of a gunshot as the last of the dirt bubbles fled down the drain. "Get up!" She smacked the top silver knob, stopping the water, and chucked a fluffy pink towel at Jax's head. "You're using all the hot water."
Jax scrambled to tie the towel around his waist. "Couldn't you have knocked?" He stuttered, cheeks flushed.
"Couldn't you have come out sooner?" She smacked her cheeks with her hands. "I need the hot water. It's good for my skin. Dry yourself and come outside, there's someone you should meet."
