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Nettie sat next to the town beacon. She needed to calm down. Ever since the incident at the mass grave a week ago, Nettie had been feeling… conflicted. In all the stories it was always so simple; the vampires were always evil, were always monsters. Even when looked at sympathetically, they were still villains. So why, bar one, were all the vampires she knew about seemingly on the side of the humans?
The beacon used to be calming, and in a way it still was, but not the type of calm she needed. She felt a pull to everything weird, occult, and taboo. Anything that was generally not-normal helped her calm down. When she first arrived here everything, the beacons, the border, seemed so strange, but over the course of the month she had spent trapped here, what once had been weird had become mundane and oppressive. The holy beacons still radiated the same good feeling they always did but she had gotten used to it.
“I’m so tired.” She muttered to herself.
She had to admit that she found the existence of vampires to be alluring but part of her missed when they only existed in the realm of fiction. Then they wouldn’t be able to hurt anyone. But they were real. She had come to Oakhurst hearing stories of them; her great grandfather had mentioned them in his journal before he had disappeared in this valley, they were talked about in that recording she found, but she never actually expected vampires to exist. But they did exist, and they did hurt people. Cameron was murdered in cold blood. And then Cameron became one of them.
She needed to calm down.
Nettie returned home. She climbed up the ladder to the second floor of her house, and eyed the human flesh on her wall. It would be so easy to- No, she banished the thought. She had found it in a barrel underground, who knew how old it was, where it came from? But that just made it more alluring. It would be so easy to take just one bite. And besides, what was the worst that could happen? Eris had licked that bloody ribbon and she seemed fine. Well, as fine as Eris could be, at least. And it was probably from the same source as the blood on the ribbon; one of the humans who had come here 200 years ago. The thought of tasting it filled her with a grim satisfaction, let alone actually-
Footsteps.
“Who’s there?” She called out.
Walking outside she saw Randon walking towards her house. He stopped and spoke, “I need to have a word with you.”Seven. Seven Vampires, according to Cameron. That was almost half of the people in Oakhurst. Nettie was… she had to admit it, she was scared.
She could see what was likely to happen, she had known this would happen; everyone would fall and be turned, one by one, and this had been happening, and it was happening so quickly, and who would be next. She couldn’t let herself die. She couldn’t let herself be turned, no matter how alluring the prospect, no matter how much she wanted to feel one’s bite and feel her life force slowly being drained.
Well, actually, if Ronan was telling the truth there would be no harm in letting one take just one drink from her. And if he was lying, and being bitten by a vampire cursed you to become one after death, well, she would be dead anyway, that didn’t affect her. As long as she wasn’t actively turned she would be fine. Since she had an excuse to talk with Ronan anyway he would do well. And she didn’t have to give her neck, he could drink from her hand, and if he tried anything she had holy word, silver weapons and stakes. Thinking about it, there was no reason not to, and she needed to know how it felt. No. No. She couldn’t. She knew herself, she knew where that choice could lead. She did however need answers from Ronan, so she would still have to talk to him.
Nettie had found Ronan in town and led him out into the woods. She asked him about the situation, and tried to convince him to take the cure. When Ronan brought up the possibility of her being turned, she immediately pushed down the temptation to ask for it right then and there.
“I don’t want to die.” She replied,
“I don’t mean death.” Ronan said, his voice reassuring, regardless of the ulterior motives Nettie knew he must have had.
“I know what you mean.” Nettie answered. She wouldn’t accept death, and turning was death. Whatever being would take her place would not be her. That’s why she needed to fight, to cure or kill all of them. That was the only way she could leave alive.
“I’m not trying to coerce you, I’m just trying to find out if you had considered it.” Ronan started speaking,
More than you know. Nettie thought.
Ronan continued, “I like living like this, I don’t think I want to be cured. Or whatever that entails.”
“I don’t exactly want to be turned either,” Nettie tried to make herself believe it, “and I think that there’s definitely a lot of people in town who won’t either.”
“Yeah,” Ronan sighed, “I’ll let you know, Luther is very insistent on-”
Nettie cut him off, “What? What do you mean?”
“On, well, on not dying, and not giving up. You can’t tell anyone else this.”
“Luther is alive?” Nettie questioned. His survival would be a weight off of her conscience, but… well it made the situation vastly more complicated.
Ronan nodded.
“Okay.” Nettie paced back and forth, her hands were free of blood at least, but Luther… His survival put others in danger. There were already too many vampires, he could have had the courtesy of staying dead when she staked him. The Vampires were the villains, Luther was a villain. But what of the rest of them? She couldn’t trust them but they nearly outnumbered the humans now. And that number would keep on increasing, the number of vampires would grow as it did in all the stories, and how long would it be before they got to her. She couldn’t let that happen, she needed to stop it, to stop any more turnings, any more deaths. At least they had the courtesy of letting Corven’s body stay at rest, but Cameron? Ash? The town was stupid too, they were willing to negotiate. ‘If some of them want to stay vampires then that’s fine, we’ll figure it out later,’ well what about those who wanted to stay human? Either they cured everyone or turned everyone, and she would not let the latter option happen. She needed to-
“Do you want some of my blood?” She found herself mumbling.
“Oh-” Ronan was clearly surprised, “what an offer, how could I refuse?”
The choice was made now, there was no going back. Though maybe it was a good thing, she needed to calm down and had always found engaging in the occult to help with that.
“You all must be starving, there isn’t even a single person in town who hasn’t come down with a random sickness as they are slowly being drunk from each and every night, honestly you're not doing the best job.” Nettie’s attempt to use the joke to stop her nervousness failed. It would be fine though. She was… well maybe not a capable fighter, but she had garlic, stakes, silver weapons, holy word, it was day, and the town was not too far away. If he tried anything she could easily make a break for it. Maybe if she got chased into town a second time that would make people see her side- that would go against her deal with Ronan, but if he tried anything then all bets were off anyway.
“Yeah…” Ronan sighed, his eyes filled with hunger. And yet, he still asked “are you sure?”
Why do you have to make this so difficult?
“Yeah, just don’t take too much. Here.” Nettie lent Ronan her hand.
“Thank you.” Ronan said. “I’ll try to not make it hurt you.” She watched as he searched for a vein, before sinking two sharp fangs into her wrist. Nettie winced as she felt a jolt of pain and fought the instinct to run away, and let him drink. Nettie felt her blood leaving her body, like bleeding just… slower, as she was overcome with a feeling of pleasure. The blood Ronan had taken was replaced with a feeling of certainty- Regardless of the other vampires, Luther was the main threat. He was a monster, and he needed to be killed. Next time Nettie would make sure she did it properly.
Ronan only drank for a few moments before stopping, but Nettie longed for him to continue.
“You're welcome.” She said, her mind racing. She wanted more, she wanted him to continue. Maybe being turned wouldn’t be so bad, if being drank from felt so good.
“I-” Ronan started, but Nettie cut him off, cutting off her own train of thought also.
“I need to go.” She said, watching Ronan’s previously satisfied expression be replaced by one of… was it sadness?
She wanted to stay there, to stay in that moment forever, but she knew she couldn’t. She knew where it might lead and she needed to stop herself. Besides, there was work to do and a vampire to hunt.