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I can feel my brow furrow. The harder I try to remember anything, the further away it gets. “Thank you for saving me.”
Oz smiles at me, but this time it is different like he is masking a kind of sadness behind it. “You’re very welcome, Wren.” I like the way my name sounds coming from his mouth. “Do you remember what happened when I pulled you from the water?”
I frown, trying to conjure the memory again. “I remember you… kissed my neck? And then… then I drank something warm, like what I just drank but different. Not tasty.” I am confused. Why would he be kissing my neck? My hand goes up to it, touching the spot where his mouth had been. He reaches his hand out and places it on mine.
“It wasn’t a kiss, Wren. I bit you and took your blood.” He maintains eye contact with me. I am lost in his eyes and can’t look away. Somehow, as crazy as it sounds, I know what he told me is the truth. “You drank my blood in return. That’s how I was able to save you. You were dying, Wren, so I changed you to be like me. I made you a vampire.”
I manage to snap out of it and a peal of laughter escapes me. “A vampire? That’s ridiculous!” I dismiss his words, turning my head to look around the rest of the room.
Oz grabs my head, forcing me to look at him. While his grip is rough, his voice is smooth and calm. “No, Wren. It’s the truth. I turned you, and now you’re like me.”
The honesty of his words crashes into me hard.
Of course, he isn’t lying. It makes sense. I am fully healed and feel amazing. Somehow I know it hasn’t been that long since the accident. Maybe a day?
“Why?” I still don’t understand. “Why change me?”
“I couldn’t let you die. You-” he trails off for a second and takes a breath. “You tried so hard to survive. You called for help, and you almost made it out of the lake on your own. I didn’t get to ask you what you wanted, but I decided to err on the side of you waking up again.”
My eyes can’t settle in one place for too long. Thick drapes over the windows, a door where he came from, a door to my left, presumably to a bathroom. He had pulled me from the water, made me a vampire, and brought me to his home for no reason other than I was dying. I shake my head, rubbing the spot on my temple like it would return my memories.
“It’s just so much to process.” I know he is being honest. I know I am a vampire, and he’d probably just had me drink blood.
My mind is reeling; this is too much to take in, and I can’t remember what was before. I am suddenly very aware of the fact that my heart isn’t beating. I am dead.
Am I un-dead? I’m not human anymore.
What.
The.
Fuck.
Oz sits on the edge of the bed, looking down at the floor like he is riddled with guilt. “I had to save you. I couldn’t just… I couldn’t watch you die.” It is like he is afraid I am mad at him or something. As if I wish he’d just let me go. I am confused and I am shocked. But I’m not angry or resentful. He had the power to do the impossible, and he did it.
“What does all of this mean for me?”
I look at Oz and see the corners of his mouth turn up in a smile. He looks smug. “Now, you live happily ever after.”
“Ha, ha.” I roll my eyes.
Dropping the smirk, I see he is deep in thought and worry. Something tells me my memory loss had more to do with my accident than it had to do with the whole vampire thing, and that bothers him.
“Now… Now we try to trigger your memory to return.” He looks at me, a pained expression on his face. “I don’t know why it happened. I can only guess it’s because of head trauma during the accident. But the turning should have fixed that….”
Fixed?
Ah yes, like my arm and other wounds, why wouldn’t it heal my mind?
I feel something stir within me.
Familiar.
And terrifying.
Almost like me, but not me. She feels more raw. Primal. And she is still hungry.
Ice creeps through me as the image of the cruel woman in my nightmares comes to my mind.
