Melinda had allowed Lilith to guide her back to the sofa which was just as well as her whole body felt like it might crumble to dust beneath her.
“She made you do it?” Melinda scoffed. “She made you attack her, almost kill her, turn her? What would she gain from that?”
“She-“
“You’re completely despicable to blame her! She was a defenceless human! You’re a gosh darn vampire!”
“Honestly-“
“I bet you’re just the kind of… of butt-head, who lies about everything just to get what you want. You’re probably not even a doctor.”
Lilith, who had enjoyed watching someone else give Caleb a dressing down, was suddenly alert at this new information. “You’ve been pretending you’re a doctor?”
Caleb squirmed. Great, now they were both at it. “Only the once. Sandy Moss called demanding to see you, but your schedule was full. So I went to her house to see her.”
“The Sandy Moss? Wait, are we talking about April Moss here?”
“I didn’t want to turn down such an influential client. Plus, Sandy seemed to assume that ‘Dr. Vatore’ was a man so I went along with it. It seemed like a good idea at the time.”
“You could have just bumped Eliza down the list again, but instead you went to a human’s house, Sandy Moss’s no less, pretending to be me and thought while you were there, you’d just casually attack her daughter? Forgive me if it’s obvious Caleb, but what part of this did you think was a good idea?”
If Caleb’s face had fallen any further, his chin would have been in his lap. “I was only going to give her a few pamphlets, I swear. Also, I didn’t explicitly say that I was Dr. Vatore so I wasn’t pretending, really. I made to leave as soon as we finished our consultation.”
“April told me you stayed for dinner,” Melinda said.
“Of course you would stay for dinner with the humans.” Lilith had to laugh or she’d have just wept.
Caleb sighed and looked at Melinda, wondering what else April might have told her. “I did, that was April’s idea. She’s strange, isn’t she? She was following me all night and asking me a hundred questions about myself, my job, my name. I didn’t want to give myself away as a fraud so I tried to ignore her. I don’t think she liked that.”
“So when did you dine on April?” Lilith asked bitterly. “Was it before or after the fish course?”
“After. Sandy convinced me to stay and have a glass of wine with her. Although she drank both glasses and the remainder of the bottle by herself. Before you say it, I know I should have left,” the corner of his mouth lifted, “but Sandy seemed quite keen on me and she was so very charming. It was the most entertainment I’ve had in ages, her flirting with me as she became intoxicated.”
“I bet it was,” Lilith huffed. “You never learn.”
“I had no intention to drink from Sandy, or do anything else to her for that matter,” he clarified. “I’m not an imbecile.”
Lilith laughed, “Oh, you really are.”
“Alright, I’ll admit, I was getting pretty close to biting, especially when she was stroking my leg… I excused myself, thought I’d take a breather, so to speak. As I was on my way to the bathroom I encountered April, eavesdropping. Then, out of the blue, she said ‘I know what you are’ and called me a vampire.”
“So of course the next logical step is say ‘you’re right!’ and then attack the girl!” Lilith threw her hands up. “You idiot! Why didn’t you just deny it and leave?”
Caleb faltered. “It wasn’t just some off-the-cuff accusation. She knew Lilith. She knew about our family.”
“Our family? How?”
“A book, apparently.”
“What book?”
“I don’t know, some vampire encyclopaedia. That completely threw me, too, and before I knew what was happening she had cornered me and she offered herself. Quite eagerly, in fact.”
He closed his eyes as the memory intruded again.
It’s OK. I don’t mind. Gently, if you can.
“You should have left!”
“I know, Lil! But I’ve never had a human actually offer themselves to me before,” he said incredulous, “and such a beautiful, ripe one, too.”
“I’m never letting you outside again.”
Caleb was lost in his thoughts. “Holy hell, the perfume of her… absolutely divine, being near her was making me lose it. I tried to fight it, I really did, but she was so close, so insistent.”
Lilith was seething. “You’re unbelievable. You’re an absolute joke.”
“I was lost to the thirst, Lil. I guess that’s what decades of sobriety achieves. I didn’t even realise I’d bitten her, at first. Heck knows how much I drank before she fainted.” He knotted his hands in his lap, his voice quiet as he continued, “that snapped me out of it, alright. I laid her down on the floor and shook her. When she came round she was livid. She said I’d ruined her hair. She threatened to tell the papers about me, unless I turned her.”
“Trust you to fall for a honey trap. You should have knocked her out and left her. Or just killed the stupid girl,” Lilith hissed.
“I couldn’t just leave her! Kill her? Does that always have to be your answer? It would all be over, Lilith. This wasn’t some village girl. The daughter of Sandy Moss? No way could that go under the radar. They would’ve hunted us down, again. I wasn’t thinking straight-“
“You’re never thinking at all!” Lilith screeched. “Caleb, how many times?!”
“No… this can’t be right. April has her flaws but she’s not like that. You must be lying. Why would she do that? Why would she want you to turn her?” Melinda heard her voice but hadn’t been aware that she was speaking. She was overwhelmed; everything was the wrong colour.
“That I don’t understand,” Caleb answered honestly. “We didn’t have time to discuss the finer details. I could hear that Sandy was on her way and April was threatening me and so I just… did it. She drank from me and then, when her mother appeared, April pretended to pass out. Sandy freaked out, of course. Fortunately for us, she called Mortimer rather than an ambulance.”
“Wait, she drank?” Melinda’s eyes were wide and glassy as she struggled to focus. “She drank from you? Is that how you turned her?”
“Yes,” Caleb said, “that’s how it works. She barely took anything, but clearly it was enough.”
“Barely anything. And April was awake? She knew what was going on?”
Caleb nodded.
This time Melinda couldn’t stop the memory from flooding back.
The pair of them had made it to April’s bathroom without leaving too much of a mess on the stairs. As thirsty as April still was and as much as this situation was making her crazy, she couldn’t yet detach herself from the reality of what was happening. Melinda was bleeding everywhere and April had no idea what to do to stop it.
“Please, April,” Melinda whimpered, “I need to go to the hospital. I won’t tell them what you’ve done, honest.”
April had responded with an adamant no. She couldn’t risk calling an ambulance and the hospital was miles away. An idea suddenly hit her. “Maybe you have to drink a little bit from me to make it stop?”
“Won’t that make me a vampire?”
April hesitated. “I don’t think so. I didn’t drink from Caleb.”
“I don’t want to. It’s weird.”
“Can we at least try? If it doesn’t work, I promise I’ll get Broof to take you straight to the hospital.”
Melinda shook her head, sank to her knees. She’d had enough of this horror story. The thought of consuming any part of April… she couldn’t even form the words.
April cupped Melinda’s face, wiped away a tear and whispered, “please?”
Melinda wondered why she was nodding.
April had used her fangs to slit a small wound in her own wrist and had offered it to her friend.
“Oh my gosh. You’re so cold. Did you just slit yourself open? What the heck even is that stuff?”
“I don’t really know.” They both looked at the murky liquid that bubbled out through April’s porcelain skin.
“I can’t do it.” Melinda tried to get to her feet but her legs wouldn’t work.
“Please, Mel,” April begged, kneeling in the puddle beside her friend. “Please, just try it. I can’t lose you like this, I’ll never forgive myself.”
Melinda tried to focus on April’s face. “April… no. It’s so gross.”
“Please, Mel.” April’s voice broke around her words and Melinda’s heart went with it. “This is the best way. Please. You can’t leave me.”
Oh but I wish I could.
Melinda tried to imagine she was anywhere else doing literally anything else. She took a tentative lick from April’s wrist and sure enough, the flow from her own started to slow.
< Previous Chapter | Index | Next Chapter >
Almost Eternal 
So Dr. Vatora is a woman? Is Lilith a doctor?
I do not know who “stupid girl” here….
Caleb does not appear too cunning. He has been so close to revealing his sister and himself 😦
Your description of the transformations …. Everything makes sense now.
Really exciting story and well told 🙂
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Yes, Lilith is the doctor. Just as well as I don’t think Caleb would even know which end of the scalpel to use.
Stupid girl is a strange chapter title choice, isn’t it? Hmm… 😉
Aww thanks, great to have you here, Mona.
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Haha nice twist that doctor Vatore is actually Lilith.
You know, for how long the Vatore siblings would have known each other, Lilith doesn’t seem to know her brother very well, just jumping to all kinds of conclusions and trusting a complete stranger’s words over him. She seems very rash in her judgement.
I suppose Melinda will want to have a word with April now haha. Although I can definitely imagine April didn’t set out to make Melinda a vampire, and that she really just drank too much and then said whatever it took to save her friend’s life. Faith, though, I feel like could be another story.
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Yes, I wonder what might lead someone to believe a stranger over someone they care about? I mean, the woman can read minds, she should already know everything about Caleb, right?
Will Melinda have a word with April? That would involve them actually talking to each other.
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I’d say maybe it’s exactly because Lilith knows her brother that’s why she’s trusting a stranger’s words over her brother’s 😏
Also, Mel is cuter.
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Haha, Mel IS cuter 🙂 And I have no doubts Caleb’s given Lilith plenty of reasons to mistrust him. That doesn’t justify jumping to conclusions in my eyes though. If you automatically expect someone to always disappoint you by default, they will. (I am not a big fan of Lilith, haha.)
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Are you not? Well, colour me surprised! I’ll assume she’s not getting any valentines from you then?
Aww look at your cute avatar in her little hat!😍
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I know, I hide my dislike of Lilith really well, right? 😀
Yay! Thank you again 🙂 The hat is so perfect. As is my dubious self 😀
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So we finally get to see more of how it happened that those two turned. I’m honestly surprised Mel drank, but then, it was April’s insistent begging, I guess.
I loved how Lilith enjoyed Mel giving Caleb the third degree. 🙂
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Holy cow of COURSE he’s pretending to be a doctor. And turning mentally unstable girls because it seems like a good idea. And then not checking up on them. Gah, how much of a screw-up is this guy? xD
Whoa. April lied to Melinda’s face. She’s as manipulative as her mother, only her actions involve turning young teenagers into vampires against their will. This is more disturbing than killing her mother was. Sandy’s death I can understand – years of pent-up rage finally reaching the surface and exploding.
But turning Melinda? Lying to her and manipulating her into drinking from April under the guise of caring about her? That makes my skin crawl. And she knew what she was doing. Caleb explicitly showed her how to turn someone, and she already knew that passing out from blood loss didn’t actually kill you. No, this was completely intentional. From a teenager. Dear lord.
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He’s not in the mix for his rationale, that’s for sure.
Ah April, you hot mess. Look what you’ve done.
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Oh, forgot to say, I’m loving that Melinda sticks to her principles but isn’t soft. She’s just into punching up. That being said, I’m racking my brain and I don’t think I can remember a single good decision being made by anyone in the story so far. And I don’t think that’s going to change.
It’s time for an *EDUCATIONAL MOMENT*
Your friend is bleeding out. DO YOU:
(a) Clean the wound, cover it, and apply pressure
(b) Call an ambulance
(c) Move to an easy-to-clean area of the house and put a towel down, but not one of the good ones
(d) Here, drink from my wrist, that’ll help
(*EDUCATIONAL MOMENT OVER*)
Maybe Lilith’s hug was a good decision, but that’s it.
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Wouldn’t be any fun if everyone made good, sensible, logical decisions. April wouldn’t know how to dress a wound. Melinda would but she was too busy passing out. And Sandy would’ve killed her daughter if an ambulance had arrived at the house or if a towel got ruined with the blood of a commoner. So why not try sampling random body fluids? What’s the harm?
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At that point they might have better luck with a fashion montage, depending on how tight and antiseptic April’s sweaters are.
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I love a story where everyone is the actual worst. Caleb is trash…I mean April is manipulative but still. His bullshit ass “but but she made me” defense is for the birds.
I bet April did not want to be lonely though.
They do need to hunt down that book.
Teenagers are dumb. “Just lick my wrist, just a little.” lol.
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They’re all disasters, for sure.
You mean you -don’t- lick your friends when you’re bleeding to death? Huh, must be a British thing.
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Caleb dear, you’re a disappointment. As it is you have as much of a sex appeal as a damp mop.
I actually kinda dig the idea of April being a manipulative bitch at heart. Makes eyes on you and before you know it you join her vampire gang which was her plan all along.
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I see that you find Caleb desperately unattractive. As you can likely judge by the poses and facial expressions I chose to use, I was trying so very hard to make him sexy (lol) but unfortunately, he is who he is; a centuries old vamp living with his sister and turning random girls for random reasons outside random toilets. All while wearing that outfit, with that hairstyle and that grumpy face. It still works for some of his fans though. 🤣
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I blame the hairstyle and the out of fashion outfit. And the fact that he needs his sister to look after him doesn’t add much attractivity either. I’ve seen some really pretty makeovers of him, so he’s still salvageable in that regard. As for the other thing, it’s up to you as the author if you want to make him more of a dangerous mysterious man or not. I mean the whole ‘I was too weak to resist’ thing could still be just an act.
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It could be. 😇
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Ehehe
I like this mess.
So yeah, maybe Caleb said the truth, maybe he didn’t, but it looks as if April did her homework and learned how to turn others into vampires, maybe before Caleb appeared, maybe after, who knows.
Anyway it looks like she decided eternal life alone is no fun if you don’t have some loyal minions, so here we are, with vampy Mel and vampy Faith, and thank goodness there’s probably no vampy Sandy or lumberjack shirt & man bun wearing hipster dudes.
Poor Lilith, must be hard to have such a wet towel for a brother tho, using her hard work and reputation to get into some fancy actress’ houses and drinking their daughter’s blood. 🙈
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*snorts softly* Melinda, dear. What would April gain? How about immortality? Being a vampire /is/ a tempting prospect for some, you know? April and Caleb are kind of blaming each other for the whole debacle so far and who knows how it really was. Not that it matters, I´m going to stick to facts.
From the things Caleb says, it almost seems to me that he doesn´t get to feed properly. Worse… “decades of sobriety?” Sobriety? Are they actually treating the Thirst like an alcohol addiction? Holy heck, this isn´t some bad habit, this is a physiological necessity. So… let´s imagine it for our human minds with the need that Thirst replaces, Hunger. Let´s imagine we would keep a guy on some sort of food supplement, probably gross and not at all filling, for a long time. Then, we would put him in front of a feast and blame him if he eats anything. Yeah, makes sense, right?
…so, all in all, here is the point where I realized the characters aren´t what I was expecting. That, unlike in game, Caleb is not the least functional of the vampires. There, he´s all wimpy and pathetic with his Guilty Drinker weakness. Here, it´s Lilith who is going against every fibre of her own nature, isn´t it? The only reason why Caleb is /still/ wimpy is that he actually listens to his sis. Which is about the only thing I´m blaming him for right now. PX
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Totally, April didn’t even have a great attachment to food. Nothing to lose! (Except, y’know, everything.)
They’re definitely treating something as an addiction, yes.
Oh I kept his Guilty Drinker weakness. Heh. ‘What could possibly cause an attractive, alluring vampire to feel guilty about drinking?’ my brain asked. ‘Surely his prey would be willing?’ And oho, did I come up with an answer for that. 🤣😂
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(Well, yeah, but she had no way to know about THAT, poor girl. XD)
What could possibly make him feel guilty about it, hmm… you mean /except/ a moralizing, guilt tripping b-word of a sister? And I´m not censoring myself for Lil´s benefit, mind. I just don´t wanna insult any lovely dog ladies, here. ;DD
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