"Zach, no, I..." Victoria exhaled shakily, her voice breaking. "I can't. I'm sorry."

  "C'mon, just a bit?" I slurred, leaning against the doorway. "Just.. a sip."

  "I can't help you. We've talked about this."

  "You know I'll do something stupid if you don't."

  The girl narrowed her eyes at the threat and shoved me back rather harshly. My sneakers skid along the timber deck from the force.

  "I'm calling your mom!" she barked, slamming the door in my face.

  The sound echoed through the empty street and pierced my eardrums like nothing else. I whimpered and retreated as my headache worsened. The thin air was suffocating with every breath. I brushed a hand through my scruffy black hair as I tried to regain my composure. My fingertips were freezing off, it felt like. Through my dazed and delirious haze, I tried to bang on the door, but the noise only sent me spinning further, and I blacked out momentarily and collapsed.

  When my blurry vision returned, I was met with the sight of my mother towering over me. Even with her silhouetted against the dim porch light, I could see the sharpness of her scowl, carved deep into her face like it had been there for years. My stomach twisted. The familiar scene sent me back to all the times I'd seen it as a child. My breaths thinned, my body already curling inward, instinct taking over. Just like when I was seven, when I was twelve, when I was sixteen. Always on the ground. Always looking up at her. Always waiting for the impact.

  But this time, there was none.

  "I don't know why on earth he'd do this. He ate a rabbit just this morning, I made sure of it." the cursed woman conversed with a worried Victoria, who thankfully knew that half of what came out of the bitch's mouth was never true. "He's got more than enough life to drain back home. You'd think he'd go for one of the cows before running to a doll like you, huh?"

  "It... was unlike him." Tori murmured, only half listening. "Look, he didn't mean any harm. It's not his fault, and I don't want him to get hurt or anything. I just want him to go home, especially with the sun rising soon."

  "Oh sweetie, trust me, he won't be comin' round here for a while." the wicked witch smirked to herself.

  I couldn't move. I couldn't speak. My hearing was muffled - I wondered if the stickiness on my cheek was from my ear bleeding. I stared between the two women above me through the small slits my eyelids could just barely manage to pry themselves open to.

  How did I get here? What's happening? What did I say to Tori?

  "Yeah, I never really liked rabbit either."

  A warm smile crossed my lips as I watched my silent companion grimace upon taking a bite from a rabbit cutlet. She forcefully gulped it down before putting the rest back on her plate of assorted cuts of raw meat. She yawned. The harsh brightness of the room was like kryptonite to our shared nature, even if I had a better grasp of it. The lights pulsed with a brief flicker that was almost too quick to notice. The smell of blood and raw meat lingered in the air—faintly metallic, like the weight of death was settling in around us. Though to be fair, it always did with Tori. Her utter lack of any healing abilities meant her stitches needed to be replaced frequently. Namely for hygiene, among other things.

  Nights like this were easy. If the lights were on and all curtains were closed, I could just manage to trick her brain into believing it was still daytime, which made for a far less stressful sleep. Her body would be sluggish and weak, her head would constantly ache, and she'd be easily exhausted, but this lab-rat treatment was the only way to avoid disaster. Darkness often had a way of triggering Victoria's darker, more primal side - a side which any normal vampire would lose after their first few days of being turned, but thanks to her frozen in-between state, she was still accompanied by it. Tori was smart, too, which didn't help. In the past, I'd had numerous instances where I'd wake up in the middle of the night to find her halfway through an attempt to kill me, herself, wild animals, or even neighbours. Sometimes she'd run away and do god knows what before coming back before sunrise, which I wouldn't have found out about if it wasn't for the cameras I'd had to set up outside. She lost her rights to have her own bedroom after her first attempted murder. Despite the clear risk-to-benefit ratio, every time I had to enforce rules or restrictions on her, I felt a little more like a monster. I wasn’t any better than my mother.

  Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

  "Here."

  I picked up a chicken heart and took a bite, and fought the urge to giggle as Tori shot me a subtly offended look. She mirrored me and ate one of the others to prove something to me, only to pause as she tasted it. Her eyes lit up slightly and she started eating the rest like a kid in a candy store. Feasting on the hearts like it was her last meal, Victoria tore into them no better than an animal would. Her eyes sparkled with that same damn hunger I knew all too well, as blood and other meat juices stained down her chin.

  "Uh, don't just wolf them down like that..." I cringed, not appreciating how uncomfortable it felt to be on the other side of this type of situation for once.

  "Hmf!" she protested, making a mess.

  "I mean it," I crossed my arms authoritatively. "You don't have fangs, you're gonna need to use cutlery."

  Tori coughed over my warning, immediately proving my point. I reached over instinctively to grab her wrist before she could shove another heart into her mouth. My fingers brushed hers, and I hesitated for just a moment, before everything went black.

  The usual hum of the fridge died off, like a heartbeat slowly fading. The classical music I always had running was silenced. Darkness was all that remained, and my heartbeat was the loudest thing in my ears. It took me several long, frozen moments to realise I couldn't hear hers.

  "... it's just a blackout, Victoria," I spoke sternly to the empty air, desperately waiting for my night vision to activate. "Do. Not. Move."

  "..."

  I winced at her lack of response and quickly reached out for her again, but my hand touched vacant space.

  Damn it!

  "What's with you and running off on me, huh?" I huffed as I shot out of my seat and tried to navigate the room from muscle memory alone. I definitely hadn't lived there long enough for such a challenge. Within seconds, I'd already stubbed three toes and hit both shins on the dining table. As my eyes began to slowly make out lights and darks, I sighed in relief. Lately it'd felt like my abilities had it out for me, like they'd purposely take too long to respond to my mental commands just to spite me.

  I grew more confident checking each room the brighter my night vision got, until I was running around the house like a moron. I wasn't too bothered by Tori being spooked off like a deer again - it felt routine at this point - but the endless darkness was starting to quickly manipulate my thoughts more and more with every passing minute, and that definitely bothered me.

  "Victoriaaaa." I groaned as I traversed through the hallways. "Come on! This isn't a game!"

  The second I picked up her faint but racing heartbeat, I took off towards it. Through our bedroom, through the second door, and into the bathroom. Tori jumped at the sight of me barging into the room, while I rolled my eyes at the sight of her sitting in the corner of the bathtub and hugging her knees.

  "Okay... enough. I found you. Let's just..." I furrowed my brow at my own words. "Uh..."

  Why am I struggling to speak all of a sudden?

  Tori whimpered and curled up further. Her wide, bleached eyes stared up at me through the darkness. My eyes narrowed as I tried to focus solely on her, but I was struggling to stay afloat. My mind was flashing with violent images. Ideas. Plans. I had to shake my head to see clearly again. The damn darkness was messing me up quicker than usual. At least Victoria didn't seem to share my problems this time. If anything, she just looked scared of me. I could deal with that.

  No - what? No, she shouldn't be scared.

  "There's fl.." my eyes shut and my body swayed for a moment, before I forced myself back to consciousness and extended my hand to Tori, "..flashlights under the kitchen sink. The power should b-be back on soon."

  She looked from my hand to my face again. Silent. Unmoving. Like she was studying a wild animal and deciding whether to run or play dead.

  It pissed me off.

  "Don't do that." I growled.

  She winced.

  "Don't look at me like that."

  Her fingers gripped her knees tighter.

  "Victoria, I swear to GOD-"

  She whimpered at my volume.

  With a grunt and my sanity hanging on my a thread, I grabbed her wrist and tugged her out of the bathtub, leading her out of the bathroom. My night vision was fading again. Blurring, too. My eyes were losing the battle to stay open with every heavy step I took. The voice in the back of my head was getting louder. Angrier. Demanding. I squeezed my eyes shut, but the moment I did, it felt as if something cracked from behind them. My gums pulsed. My hands flexed. The sound of her heartbeat sharpened like a needle pressing into my skull, and I nearly choked on my own breath as a painfully specific urge hit me. I tried to keep walking, to keep leading Tori to the kitchen just metres away, but my control continued to slip. Just keep moving. Just get to the kitchen. Just—

  Then the world blinked out.

  A weak, wheezing noise pulled me back to reality, accompanied by a trembling heartbeat. The scent of fear lingered so sharply it burned my sinuses.

  I blinked, and the world refocused.

  Victoria was in the air, against the wall.

  My claws were wrapped around her throat.