Chapter Text
Nick wakes up on his kitchen floor. The laminate is cold against his cheek, and his head’s pounding like someone’s been DJ-ing inside his skull.
Charlie crouches over him, looking smug. There’s a smudge of red on his mouth. “Oh good. You’re undead.”
Nick groans, pushes himself up, then freezes because his whole body feels like static. His teeth ache. His stomach is a black hole.
“Charlie,” Nick rasps. His voice sounds deeper. Weirdly sexy, actually. “What the hell did you do to me?”
Charlie tilts his head, all innocent curls and bloodstained lips. “I… might have turned you into a vampire.”
Nick blinks at him. “You might have?”
“It was either that or let you bleed out on the kitchen tiles,” Charlie says, like this is a normal Wednesday. “I panicked.”
Nick staggers to his feet, knocking into the table, sending a pile of mismatched pint glasses crashing. His reflection in the window stares back- he’s paler than usual, and his brown eyes are darker. Forget the Valencia filter, he looks like someone dragged him through a filter called emo.
“This is mental,” he mutters. “I’ve got coursework due. Training on Saturday. How am I supposed to play rugby if I burst into flames at sunrise?”
“You’ll manage,” Charlie says cheerfully, rummaging in a bag by the sofa. “Here.” He pulls out a little blood bag sealed with a hospital sticker and shoves it at him.
Nick stares. “You’ve been nicking from the NHS?”
“Borrowing,” Charlie says. “It’s that or you try to snack on the neighbours and end up on Crimewatch.”
Nick hesitates, then tears the bag open with his teeth. The taste hits like electricity. He moans without meaning to. Charlie watches, smirking. “Christ,” Nick gasps, wiping his mouth. “That’s… that’s...”
“Yeah,” Charlie says. “Better than a can of Monster, isn’t it?”
Nick paces the room, heart hammering even though he’s fairly sure it’s not beating anymore. Everything feels too much. The smell of his half-finished dinner on the counter turns his stomach.
He freezes. “I can hear your pulse.”
Charlie raises an eyebrow. “No, you can’t. We’re both dead. What you’re hearing is the boiler. It’s broken.”
Nick’s stomach growls loud enough to echo. Charlie sighs, pulls out another blood bag and tosses it at him.
“Rule one,” Charlie says. “Never bite another vampire. It’s like licking an empty crisp packet. Rule two, we shop at night now. Rule three, don’t visit anyone you love when you’re hungry. Cos you’ll probably kill ‘em.”
Nick slumps onto the sofa, bag of blood in hand. “This is actually worse than Freshers’ Week.”
Charlie grins, teeth flashing sharp. “Oh babe. Freshers’ Week was practice. Eternity’s where the real fun starts.”