Chapter 117: 117
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My body writhes in pain.
Too late, too late, my mind echo's, a sharp pain stabbing at my head. Too late.
I groan at the hopelessness of it all, tears streaming down my face. Perhaps I should accept my fate now, there is no escaping it. I shall become a monster. Maybe at least that will make me something to fear.
"I know, darling, I know it hurts. But you are going to live now, just please, don't stop fighting," he assures gently, but only half convinced, unlacing one of his hands from mine to brush the back of his hands over my cheek to wipe away the solitary tear, his eyes glazed with the terrified frightfulness of my near death. My body flares up in pain, the virus solidifying itself inside my cells, fighting against my body for a place on its fragile host. I let out a despairing sob.
"Soren you don't understand, you d-don't understand what will happen to me," I plead, and with my returning strength strain against him, but his grip on me is firm, as steely and unmoving as a block of frozen stone. Part of me knows it's no use, that the blood has already brought its inevitable damnation inside me, sliding through my body like the snake of sin, immortalising my cells, turning my blood cold with the sullen emptiness of a body nearing its death.
"You are going to be okay," he insists, almost mechanically, palm pressing into my cheek, the coldness of his fingers sapping the remaining warmth from my body. And then with a single melancholy whisper, the reason of it all comes into an unsettling clarity:
"I don't want you to die."
Perhaps if my body wasn't riddled with pain and a virus of blood wasn't shooting through my veins, I might have had the nerve to laugh. I certainly am not going to die now. In fact, I will never die. At least Soren will be happy.
"Soren…" I beg, then trail off screaming as I feel a sharp pain shoot through the nerves in my gums, stabbing at my canines. My body writhes beneath him, flames speeding through my nerves, alighting a fiery pain that prickles under my skin.
"Why did... why d-did you-?" I cut myself off with another scream, body arching off the couch as I feel my canines lengthening at a rate not humanly possible, tapering downwards into viscous, sharp points. Something burns on my chest, a spiralling, swirling flame that etches itself into my skin, graphing my body with a pattern I can neither see nor am privy to. The onslaught of pain and transformation is never ending.
The demonic force continues to drive through me, altering the composition of my body, a sharp pain throbbing against my head in time with the slowing beats of my icy heart. A heavy force exudes from the back sides of my head as - no no no - horns begin to sprout from underneath the skin. I scream and scream in violent agony as they grow, curling down in and up again as the tip comes to rest just past my ears. There is no way I can even remotely think of hiding this from anyone. Not now.
There is a hunger that brews in my stomach, and a foreign power that boils in my gut, a bubbling mass of darkness that threatens to spill out of me in a tidal wave of spewing darkness. It is consuming me, consuming my body, my mind, my conscience, rendering no pathway for escape. If this is the pathway that fate has chosen for me, then I shall make myself more than a monster- I shall become a nightmare.
Watching this all unfold before him, Soren's eyes widen in panicked exasperation. His hands claw at empty air, his grip on me loosening, as though striving to find the answers that I cannot rightly give. There is a melancholy bereavement that shines in his eyes, twinkling with fast escaping tears, his face screwed up in a grimace, head shaking frantically, as though wondering where exactly it all went wrong.
"No, no, no, no. You weren't supposed to change. Fuck! What do I do, what do I..." He sits back up, staring at his hands with a mixture of horror and disbelief, a faint quiver playing in the swell of his bottom lip, his eyes dulled to a mellow yellow of bereavement and dread, as if only just realising the extent of his actions. A second passes, and then another as Soren's brain works frantically behind his eyes, his lips murmuring in silent whisper as he searches despairing for an answer.
And then something hits him.
A newfound look of determination playing on his face, he plunges a hand towards my heart. Soren's eyes flutter shut as his hand connects with skin and my vision blackens, my body glued to his touch, fighting against the virus of blood that swamps my body with its power, turning me against my will. But in tandem with my inner conflict, another force ebbs its way into my body, a second consciousness that joins my cowering soul in the depths of my body.
'I may not have been able to save you all, but I can at least save some. Whatever happens to you, know that I will love you all the same. Now I urge you, fight it, Serena. Do not let yourself be consumed by the hunger for blood, do not let it turn you into a monster. Fight it,' the voice whispers in glamoured tones, a low commanding hum that carries the tones of such a sweet caress that for a brief moment, I can feel the virus halt its pillaging of my body to stop and listen to its decree. My body glows a little brighter. 'Fight against it, Serena.'
By logic, my body should have been completely overrun by now, consumed by the vampires virus, turning my blood full cold with loathing, reddening my eyes with a lusty hunger, bestowing on my a distasteful longing of blood and death, and transforming me, my body, into a creature of shadows and night. I should be tearing up the walls, lusting for blood as many of the newly turned vampires do, yet somehow, a small margin of sanity still resides in my mind. Though I might be halfway there, there is still something, some small scrap of hopeful goodness left in me that despite everything, against all odds, fights the virus with every last ounce of force it has, called to arms by Soren's cry of war that urges me into a desperate battle.
Fight it.
My scream splits the air as my body plummets itself into painful swells of defence, fire and ice colliding in my veins, threatening to rip open the very fabrics of my being into shreds of nothingness. But Soren's voice, deep and calm, rich and smooth, no longer tainted with the rotten air of fear and mechanical desperation, stands firm in the backs of my mind, coaxing the essence of my fiery soul back into life against the icy tundra of his blood.
I throw my head back.
While my heart still beats, there is still a chance. Half a monster is infinitely better than a whole one. Soren's voice coo's one more time.
'Fight it, my dove, fight it,'
With those words, my body flares into life. My eyes fly open and with a pulse of energy and bright, blinding light as Soren is thrown back off me, his body clattering against the opposite wall with a heavy thud. I expect to hear a groan or a thud, or some kind of exclamation, but he picks himself up as gracefully as if he never fell down, wiping off his hands on his embroidered coat and running his fingers back through his hair as he watched me arise from the couch, shrouded in a golden glow that is tainted by a swirling blackness that is not my own. I bring my hands up to my face frantically, not bothering to hide the mask of horror that had set itself there.
"What's happening to me?" I cry, painfully aware of the now sharpened canines in my mouth and the horns on my head, the air filling with a strange resounding hum, like the wings of a thousand insects all chiming as one. A hum, I realise, dropping my hands to my sides with wide mouthed realisation, is coming from me. Yet despite the horns and the canines, I don't feel fully vampire, in fact, the more I ponder on it, I don't even think I hate it. Maybe I am a monster, but I don't feel weak any more. I feel strong.
No one can tear me apart now.
"I-I'm not sure," Soren says, stammering slightly from exhilaration, his eyes running me up and down from the opposite side of the room, as though apprehensive to come closer for the fear of being thrown back again. "I think your body is rejecting the rest of my blood, your soul is fighting to save what is left of you. It has worked, my darling. You are safe, you are alive! You-"
Soren is cut off as another pulse of light throws itself around the room, flashing like lightning off the walls and illuminating the Prince's pale face with a ghostly beam of light. A tugging sensation pulls at my chest, and a blazing heat in my heart.
I throw my head back, letting the power of vampire blood and the fervid flames of my soul shoot through me, flexing out my fingers out beneath me. A angel-vampire hybrid with the soul of heaven in her body. I thought this would be horrible, that I would be consumed by blood lust and anger, or become a heinous monstrosity, but in reality, I slowly find myself enjoying the rush of power in my veins. I smile inwardly. There is no denying it.
I feel powerful.
Without warning, golden flames shoot from my back, growing heavy, weighing on me as my back arches upwards to accommodate the new appendages that flare from my back momentarily, twisting and coiling into a pair of wings, and then, just like that, they vanish, and my body collapses beneath me. My eyes become impossibly large, my head whipping around to meet Soren's eyes.
But the damage is already done.
From across the room, a dead silence resounds in the stagnant air. Not a whisper of breath, nor a sultry murmur can be heard, only the heavy rises and falling of air in my chest, heaving at the ordeal that became of me.
But there is no denying. He must have seen it. He must have.
In that split second of transformation, my soul battling the darkness that tried to worm its way into my heart, I had wings.
But not just any wings.
Angel wings.
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My body writhes in pain.
Too late, too late, my mind echo's, a sharp pain stabbing at my head. Too late.
I groan at the hopelessness of it all, tears streaming down my face. Perhaps I should accept my fate now, there is no escaping it. I shall become a monster. Maybe at least that will make me something to fear.
"I know, darling, I know it hurts. But you are going to live now, just please, don't stop fighting," he assures gently, but only half convinced, unlacing one of his hands from mine to brush the back of his hands over my cheek to wipe away the solitary tear, his eyes glazed with the terrified frightfulness of my near death. My body flares up in pain, the virus solidifying itself inside my cells, fighting against my body for a place on its fragile host. I let out a despairing sob.
"Soren you don't understand, you d-don't understand what will happen to me," I plead, and with my returning strength strain against him, but his grip on me is firm, as steely and unmoving as a block of frozen stone. Part of me knows it's no use, that the blood has already brought its inevitable damnation inside me, sliding through my body like the snake of sin, immortalising my cells, turning my blood cold with the sullen emptiness of a body nearing its death.
"You are going to be okay," he insists, almost mechanically, palm pressing into my cheek, the coldness of his fingers sapping the remaining warmth from my body. And then with a single melancholy whisper, the reason of it all comes into an unsettling clarity:
"I don't want you to die."
Perhaps if my body wasn't riddled with pain and a virus of blood wasn't shooting through my veins, I might have had the nerve to laugh. I certainly am not going to die now. In fact, I will never die. At least Soren will be happy.
"Soren…" I beg, then trail off screaming as I feel a sharp pain shoot through the nerves in my gums, stabbing at my canines. My body writhes beneath him, flames speeding through my nerves, alighting a fiery pain that prickles under my skin.
"Why did... why d-did you-?" I cut myself off with another scream, body arching off the couch as I feel my canines lengthening at a rate not humanly possible, tapering downwards into viscous, sharp points. Something burns on my chest, a spiralling, swirling flame that etches itself into my skin, graphing my body with a pattern I can neither see nor am privy to. The onslaught of pain and transformation is never ending.
The demonic force continues to drive through me, altering the composition of my body, a sharp pain throbbing against my head in time with the slowing beats of my icy heart. A heavy force exudes from the back sides of my head as - no no no - horns begin to sprout from underneath the skin. I scream and scream in violent agony as they grow, curling down in and up again as the tip comes to rest just past my ears. There is no way I can even remotely think of hiding this from anyone. Not now.
There is a hunger that brews in my stomach, and a foreign power that boils in my gut, a bubbling mass of darkness that threatens to spill out of me in a tidal wave of spewing darkness. It is consuming me, consuming my body, my mind, my conscience, rendering no pathway for escape. If this is the pathway that fate has chosen for me, then I shall make myself more than a monster- I shall become a nightmare.
Watching this all unfold before him, Soren's eyes widen in panicked exasperation. His hands claw at empty air, his grip on me loosening, as though striving to find the answers that I cannot rightly give. There is a melancholy bereavement that shines in his eyes, twinkling with fast escaping tears, his face screwed up in a grimace, head shaking frantically, as though wondering where exactly it all went wrong.
"No, no, no, no. You weren't supposed to change. Fuck! What do I do, what do I..." He sits back up, staring at his hands with a mixture of horror and disbelief, a faint quiver playing in the swell of his bottom lip, his eyes dulled to a mellow yellow of bereavement and dread, as if only just realising the extent of his actions. A second passes, and then another as Soren's brain works frantically behind his eyes, his lips murmuring in silent whisper as he searches despairing for an answer.
And then something hits him.
A newfound look of determination playing on his face, he plunges a hand towards my heart. Soren's eyes flutter shut as his hand connects with skin and my vision blackens, my body glued to his touch, fighting against the virus of blood that swamps my body with its power, turning me against my will. But in tandem with my inner conflict, another force ebbs its way into my body, a second consciousness that joins my cowering soul in the depths of my body.
'I may not have been able to save you all, but I can at least save some. Whatever happens to you, know that I will love you all the same. Now I urge you, fight it, Serena. Do not let yourself be consumed by the hunger for blood, do not let it turn you into a monster. Fight it,' the voice whispers in glamoured tones, a low commanding hum that carries the tones of such a sweet caress that for a brief moment, I can feel the virus halt its pillaging of my body to stop and listen to its decree. My body glows a little brighter. 'Fight against it, Serena.'
By logic, my body should have been completely overrun by now, consumed by the vampires virus, turning my blood full cold with loathing, reddening my eyes with a lusty hunger, bestowing on my a distasteful longing of blood and death, and transforming me, my body, into a creature of shadows and night. I should be tearing up the walls, lusting for blood as many of the newly turned vampires do, yet somehow, a small margin of sanity still resides in my mind. Though I might be halfway there, there is still something, some small scrap of hopeful goodness left in me that despite everything, against all odds, fights the virus with every last ounce of force it has, called to arms by Soren's cry of war that urges me into a desperate battle.
Fight it.
My scream splits the air as my body plummets itself into painful swells of defence, fire and ice colliding in my veins, threatening to rip open the very fabrics of my being into shreds of nothingness. But Soren's voice, deep and calm, rich and smooth, no longer tainted with the rotten air of fear and mechanical desperation, stands firm in the backs of my mind, coaxing the essence of my fiery soul back into life against the icy tundra of his blood.
I throw my head back.
While my heart still beats, there is still a chance. Half a monster is infinitely better than a whole one. Soren's voice coo's one more time.
'Fight it, my dove, fight it,'
With those words, my body flares into life. My eyes fly open and with a pulse of energy and bright, blinding light as Soren is thrown back off me, his body clattering against the opposite wall with a heavy thud. I expect to hear a groan or a thud, or some kind of exclamation, but he picks himself up as gracefully as if he never fell down, wiping off his hands on his embroidered coat and running his fingers back through his hair as he watched me arise from the couch, shrouded in a golden glow that is tainted by a swirling blackness that is not my own. I bring my hands up to my face frantically, not bothering to hide the mask of horror that had set itself there.
"What's happening to me?" I cry, painfully aware of the now sharpened canines in my mouth and the horns on my head, the air filling with a strange resounding hum, like the wings of a thousand insects all chiming as one. A hum, I realise, dropping my hands to my sides with wide mouthed realisation, is coming from me. Yet despite the horns and the canines, I don't feel fully vampire, in fact, the more I ponder on it, I don't even think I hate it. Maybe I am a monster, but I don't feel weak any more. I feel strong.
No one can tear me apart now.
"I-I'm not sure," Soren says, stammering slightly from exhilaration, his eyes running me up and down from the opposite side of the room, as though apprehensive to come closer for the fear of being thrown back again. "I think your body is rejecting the rest of my blood, your soul is fighting to save what is left of you. It has worked, my darling. You are safe, you are alive! You-"
Soren is cut off as another pulse of light throws itself around the room, flashing like lightning off the walls and illuminating the Prince's pale face with a ghostly beam of light. A tugging sensation pulls at my chest, and a blazing heat in my heart.
I throw my head back, letting the power of vampire blood and the fervid flames of my soul shoot through me, flexing out my fingers out beneath me. A angel-vampire hybrid with the soul of heaven in her body. I thought this would be horrible, that I would be consumed by blood lust and anger, or become a heinous monstrosity, but in reality, I slowly find myself enjoying the rush of power in my veins. I smile inwardly. There is no denying it.
I feel powerful.
Without warning, golden flames shoot from my back, growing heavy, weighing on me as my back arches upwards to accommodate the new appendages that flare from my back momentarily, twisting and coiling into a pair of wings, and then, just like that, they vanish, and my body collapses beneath me. My eyes become impossibly large, my head whipping around to meet Soren's eyes.
But the damage is already done.
From across the room, a dead silence resounds in the stagnant air. Not a whisper of breath, nor a sultry murmur can be heard, only the heavy rises and falling of air in my chest, heaving at the ordeal that became of me.
But there is no denying. He must have seen it. He must have.
In that split second of transformation, my soul battling the darkness that tried to worm its way into my heart, I had wings.
But not just any wings.
Angel wings.
My body writhes in pain.Too late, too late, my mind echo's, a sharp pain stabbing at my head. Too late.I groan at the hopelessness of it all, tears streaming down my face. Perhaps I should accept my fate now, there is no escaping it. I shall become a monster. Maybe at least that will make me something to fear."I know, darling, I know it hurts. But you are going to live now, just please, don't stop fighting," he assures gently, but only half convinced, unlacing one of his hands from mine to brush the back of his hands over my cheek to wipe away the solitary tear, his eyes glazed with the terrified frightfulness of my near death. My body flares up in pain, the virus solidifying itself inside my cells, fighting against my body for a place on its fragile host. I let out a despairing sob."Soren you don't understand, you d-don't understand what will happen to me," I plead, and with my returning strength strain against him, but his grip on me is firm, as steely and unmoving as a block of frozen stone. Part of me knows it's no use, that the blood has already brought its inevitable damnation inside me, sliding through my body like the snake of sin, immortalising my cells, turning my blood cold with the sullen emptiness of a body nearing its death."You are going to be okay," he insists, almost mechanically, palm pressing into my cheek, the coldness of his fingers sapping the remaining warmth from my body. And then with a single melancholy whisper, the reason of it all comes into an unsettling clarity:"I don't want you to die."Perhaps if my body wasn't riddled with pain and a virus of blood wasn't shooting through my veins, I might have had the nerve to laugh. I certainly am not going to die now. In fact, I will never die. At least Soren will be happy."Soren" I beg, then trail off screaming as I feel a sharp pain shoot through the nerves in my gums, stabbing at my canines. My body writhes beneath him, flames speeding through my nerves, alighting a fiery pain that prickles under my skin."Why did... why d-did you-?" I cut myself off with another scream, body arching off the couch as I feel my canines lengthening at a rate not humanly possible, tapering downwards into viscous, sharp points. Something burns on my chest, a spiralling, swirling flame that etches itself into my skin, graphing my body with a pattern I can neither see nor am privy to. The onslaught of pain and transformation is never ending. The demonic force continues to drive through me, altering the composition of my body, a sharp pain throbbing against my head in time with the slowing beats of my icy heart. A heavy force exudes from the back sides of my head as - no no no - horns begin to sprout from underneath the skin. I scream and scream in violent agony as they grow, curling down in and up again as the tip comes to rest just past my ears. There is no way I can even remotely think of hiding this from anyone. Not now. There is a hunger that brews in my stomach, and a foreign power that boils in my gut, a bubbling mass of darkness that threatens to spill out of me in a tidal wave of spewing darkness. It is consuming me, consuming my body, my mind, my conscience, rendering no pathway for escape. If this is the pathway that fate has chosen for me, then I shall make myself more than a monster- I shall become a nightmare.Watching this all unfold before him, Soren's eyes widen in panicked exasperation. His hands claw at empty air, his grip on me loosening, as though striving to find the answers that I cannot rightly give. There is a melancholy bereavement that shines in his eyes, twinkling with fast escaping tears, his face screwed up in a grimace, head shaking frantically, as though wondering where exactly it all went wrong."No, no, no, no. You weren't supposed to change. Fuck! What do I do, what do I..." He sits back up, staring at his hands with a mixture of horror and disbelief, a faint quiver playing in the swell of his bottom lip, his eyes dulled to a mellow yellow of bereavement and dread, as if only just realising the extent of his actions. A second passes, and then another as Soren's brain works frantically behind his eyes, his lips murmuring in silent whisper as he searches despairing for an answer.And then something hits him.A newfound look of determination playing on his face, he plunges a hand towards my heart. Soren's eyes flutter shut as his hand connects with skin and my vision blackens, my body glued to his touch, fighting against the virus of blood that swamps my body with its power, turning me against my will. But in tandem with my inner conflict, another force ebbs its way into my body, a second consciousness that joins my cowering soul in the depths of my body.'I may not have been able to save you all, but I can at least save some. Whatever happens to you, know that I will love you all the same. Now I urge you, fight it, Serena. Do not let yourself be consumed by the hunger for blood, do not let it turn you into a monster. Fight it,' the voice whispers in glamoured tones, a low commanding hum that carries the tones of such a sweet caress that for a brief moment, I can feel the virus halt its pillaging of my body to stop and listen to its decree. My body glows a little brighter. 'Fight against it, Serena.' By logic, my body should have been completely overrun by now, consumed by the vampires virus, turning my blood full cold with loathing, reddening my eyes with a lusty hunger, bestowing on my a distasteful longing of blood and death, and transforming me, my body, into a creature of shadows and night. I should be tearing up the walls, lusting for blood as many of the newly turned vampires do, yet somehow, a small margin of sanity still resides in my mind. Though I might be halfway there, there is still something, some small scrap of hopeful goodness left in me that despite everything, against all odds, fights the virus with every last ounce of force it has, called to arms by Soren's cry of war that urges me into a desperate battle.Fight it.My scream splits the air as my body plummets itself into painful swells of defence, fire and ice colliding in my veins, threatening to rip open the very fabrics of my being into shreds of nothingness. But Soren's voice, deep and calm, rich and smooth, no longer tainted with the rotten air of fear and mechanical desperation, stands firm in the backs of my mind, coaxing the essence of my fiery soul back into life against the icy tundra of his blood. I throw my head back.While my heart still beats, there is still a chance. Half a monster is infinitely better than a whole one. Soren's voice coo's one more time.'Fight it, my dove, fight it,'With those words, my body flares into life. My eyes fly open and with a pulse of energy and bright, blinding light as Soren is thrown back off me, his body clattering against the opposite wall with a heavy thud. I expect to hear a groan or a thud, or some kind of exclamation, but he picks himself up as gracefully as if he never fell down, wiping off his hands on his embroidered coat and running his fingers back through his hair as he watched me arise from the couch, shrouded in a golden glow that is tainted by a swirling blackness that is not my own. I bring my hands up to my face frantically, not bothering to hide the mask of horror that had set itself there. "What's happening to me?" I cry, painfully aware of the now sharpened canines in my mouth and the horns on my head, the air filling with a strange resounding hum, like the wings of a thousand insects all chiming as one. A hum, I realise, dropping my hands to my sides with wide mouthed realisation, is coming from me. Yet despite the horns and the canines, I don't feel fully vampire, in fact, the more I ponder on it, I don't even think I hate it. Maybe I am a monster, but I don't feel weak any more. I feel strong.No one can tear me apart now."I-I'm not sure," Soren says, stammering slightly from exhilaration, his eyes running me up and down from the opposite side of the room, as though apprehensive to come closer for the fear of being thrown back again. "I think your body is rejecting the rest of my blood, your soul is fighting to save what is left of you. It has worked, my darling. You are safe, you are alive! You-"Soren is cut off as another pulse of light throws itself around the room, flashing like lightning off the walls and illuminating the Prince's pale face with a ghostly beam of light. A tugging sensation pulls at my chest, and a blazing heat in my heart.I throw my head back, letting the power of vampire blood and the fervid flames of my soul shoot through me, flexing out my fingers out beneath me. A angel-vampire hybrid with the soul of heaven in her body. I thought this would be horrible, that I would be consumed by blood lust and anger, or become a heinous monstrosity, but in reality, I slowly find myself enjoying the rush of power in my veins. I smile inwardly. There is no denying it.I feel powerful.Without warning, golden flames shoot from my back, growing heavy, weighing on me as my back arches upwards to accommodate the new appendages that flare from my back momentarily, twisting and coiling into a pair of wings, and then, just like that, they vanish, and my body collapses beneath me. My eyes become impossibly large, my head whipping around to meet Soren's eyes.But the damage is already done. From across the room, a dead silence resounds in the stagnant air. Not a whisper of breath, nor a sultry murmur can be heard, only the heavy rises and falling of air in my chest, heaving at the ordeal that became of me.But there is no denying. He must have seen it. He must have.In that split second of transformation, my soul battling the darkness that tried to worm its way into my heart, I had wings.But not just any wings.Angel wings.
