When Keith Roseberry meets Genevieve his life and his world are changed forever and home will never be the same.     Bloodlines Chapter 1 By Amethyst

The thirst, the bloodlust, consumed me and I pulled in desperation at my shackle as my eyes darted back and forth seeking a neck, something to quench the growing thirst. A familiar voice came from the doorway interrupting my search. “Kayla, remember where your food is.” That voice must surely come with a neck. I turned and lunged in the direction of the sound my need desperate, only to be stopped by the chain.

The voice rang out again, louder and more insistent this time, “Kayla! Remember where your food is.” It slipped through the red haze that was my hunger and I realized two things: One was that I was Kayla, and the second was that I knew that voice. On the heels of those two realizations came a third: I did know where my food was, and I forced myself to focus past the need for blood and make my way to the fridge. Once there I opened the fridge with shaking hands and pulled out a bag of blood which I quickly sank my fangs into, draining it quickly of the ambrosia it contained. It was cold and as always it tasted like blueberry pancakes with maple syrup, not at all like the salty coppery taste I would have expected.

A second bag followed then a third and a fourth before I was finally sated. Finished my meal I looked up at my Maker, knowing what to expect. Genevieve looked down at me sternly, “You know I’m going to have to punish you again Kayla, but at least you’re starting to remember where your food is. Hopefully I won’t have to remind you much longer.” I looked down ashamed of myself for lunging at her again and my eyes quickly shot back up at her as I once again caught a glimpse of the body that was not my own. Confused? You’re not the only one. Maybe I should back up a bit and let you know how this all started.

It all began on the evening of December 18th 2011. Classes had let out for winter break, exams were finished, and I was looking forward to chilling out for a few weeks before returning to the grind of University life. I was a physics major at the University of Toronto, so I had a pretty heavy course load and the exams were pretty harsh. Most people were heading home to see their families for a bit but I decided to stay and take in some of the city’s flavour over the holidays since my family and I didn’t really get along.

So there I was, shooting pool in a pub near the campus, when I saw her for the first time. She was easily the most beautiful woman I had ever seen; tall at about five feet ten inches, long wavy auburn hair falling down to her waist, skin as pale as new snow, perhaps D-cup breasts, long legs and deep green eyes that I swear could mesmerize you if you looked too long. I took a sip of my beer as I watched her head toward my table and to my astonishment she asked to shoot a game with me. I nodded numbly and began to rack the balls up as she turned to choose a cue, showing that she also possessed a fantastic ass.

Speaking of asses, she kicked mine in our first game. Hey, she was really good, and I was distracted. But we got to know each other as we played. Genevieve just finished her degree in psychology at some college in a tiny town called Ravencrest and she was travelling a bit before settling down into her chosen profession. Her mother apparently made some good investments so she was pretty well off. It surprised me though that she had already graduated as she didn’t look old enough. I said as much and she giggled in response before saying, “I get that all the time, I’m older than I look.” I didn’t ask how old since it’s not really polite to ask a girl her age.

Another thing that surprised me was that she had been in a sorority. Don’t get me wrong, she was definitely hot enough to be a sorority girl but she didn’t really seem the type, she was more focussed and intelligent than I would have expected from a sorority girl. I told her a bit about myself as well as we played our second game, and actually came close to winning as I loosened up around her. My name was Keith Roseberry, I was 25 years old, I came from a small town called Sena Island, I was a virgo, etc.

During our conversation she kept giving me penetrating looks and then looking away like she was expecting something to happen that didn’t. This stopped after a while and she’d ask me questions about myself and it seemed like she was practicing psycho-analyzing me and the funny thing was I couldn’t lie to this girl, even if I wanted to. I’d start forming a lie in my mind but the truth would leave my lips before I even finished planning my answer, this was especially embarrassing when she asked deeply personal questions, or off the wall ones like if I’d ever thought about what it would be like to be a girl. The answer to that one was really embarrassing, but she was cool about it.

After that I expected her to lose interest in me but she didn’t in fact she seemed more interested and it confused me a bit, because honestly she was out of my league. Don’t get me wrong I was a pretty good looking guy, but I was a bit of a geek and she was a knockout who could have any guy in the room. Yet despite my thoughts that she would move on to one of the jocks who was eyeing her up she stayed with me and I discovered we had a lot of the same taste in movies and books. After our third game I went to go get us both another beer while she racked up for a fourth game.

With the pub getting busy there was a bit of a line up at the bar, so it was a bit of a wait for the beers, and as I returned to the table she seemed to be talking to someone on her cell phone. “I think this one really has potential Mother.” She turned around seeing me coming and smiled, “Gotta go Mother, I’ll call you in a few days.” She hung up her phone and gestured to the table, “Now that my mom is done talking my ear off and you’re back with the beer, are you ready to lose again?”

I laughed, handing her one of the beers, “I’ll beat you yet, that last game was pretty close.” And with that we were back to playing pool and chatting like old friends. I actually managed to beat her that game, though it was down to the wire with the eight ball being the only ball left on the table. We decided not to play another game after that so I was able to leave with my male ego intact. She had to leave as she was going to meet the sorority sister she was staying with so they could get a late dinner and make arrangements for another guest they were expecting.

We were getting our jackets on and preparing to head out into the snowy Toronto streets and say our goodbyes when one of the jocks at the corner table walked up to us, his eyes never leaving Genevieve. “Hey Gorgeous, why don’t you ditch the geek and spend some time with some real men,” he gestured at his friends in the corner. Genevieve never missed a beat as she looked him right in the eyes with that same measured look she was giving me earlier, a look which quickly turned malicious.

“Why don’t you apologize to us and then go back and tell your friends how you were shot down. But who knows, maybe my sister and I will come back here later for dinner.”

“Okay, I’m sorry.” His eyes were glazed as he spoke, and then without another word he returned to his table, where his friends soon began laughing. We left the pub as they began to rack up the balls at the table we had vacated. I looked at Genevieve curiously as we left and her predatory smile softened as she wrote down something on a napkin.

She seemed to read my mind as she caught me looking at her, nodding back toward the pub, “That? It was the power of suggestion; I do work with the human mind you know, maybe I’ll teach it to you some day.” She handed me the napkin and I saw that there was a phone number written there. “Call me tomorrow, we can get together and do something if you’re not busy.”

“My schedule is wide open,” I grinned at her and waved goodbye as she got into a cab. Like I was going to pass up a chance to see her again, she was gorgeous, we got along great, and for some strange reason she was interested in me. Maybe I should have taken that as a warning sign, gone on with my life and just left it at one fun night. Seriously though, would you if you were in my place? It was a decision I would come to regret, treasure and spend many confused nights thinking about in the days to come.

When I got back to my dorm Pete, my roommate, looked up from packing his things for his trip back to Thunder Bay in the morning. Seeing my smile and the napkin I placed on my desk he grinned at me. “Duuuuuuude! You met a girl didn’t you? Was she hot?” I spent the next 20 minutes telling him about my night and the very hot Genevieve. He slapped me on the back and got a couple cans of beer from under his bed. Alcohol wasn’t allowed in the dorms but somehow Pete always seemed to manage to smuggle some in. “Awesome dude, so you’re going to see her tomorrow? Good luck man, I’ll want all the juicy details when I get back.”

We sat back on our beds and watched a movie, ordering a pizza for dinner, as we chilled for the rest of the night. It was one of those lame vampire movies Hollywood has been pumping out lately, not as bad as Twilight, but not much better either. So we did the whole Mystery Science Theatre thing we usually did with crappy movies, having some fun with it before heading to bed for the night.

When I woke up it was late morning and Pete was already gone. I took my time getting out of bed, never having been much of a morning person, and looked around the dorm room for something to wear. I found much to my relief that I had a clean pair of jeans and a clean t-shirt in my dresser, but noted that I would have to do some laundry soon. I quickly dressed and snagging my wallet, keys, cell phone and the napkin from last night I donned a warm jacket and headed out to the main cafeteria for a late breakfast.

After a healthy portion of bacon, eggs and toast I headed outside armed with coffee to fend off the chill of the morning and to keep me at least somewhat awake. My destination was the Student Centre on the other side of the campus so I could check my email and see it the exam results were posted yet. As it turned out there was nothing interesting in my email except for yet another email from my mother asking me to come home for the holidays. I ignored it and surfed the internet for a bit before I went to check my test scores.

I did well on most of my exams, my lowest grade being a C in biology but I still passed the course with a decent grade so it wasn’t a big deal. Happy that I survived another semester I pulled out my phone and the napkin and gave the number a call. I half expected it to be a pizza parlor or something, you know the pretty sorority girl having fun with the clueless geek, but a familiar voice answered somewhat sleepily, “Hello?”

I paused a moment, taking a quick breath before answering. “Hi Genevieve, Its Keith from last night, you said you wanted to do something today?” I identified myself hoping she wouldn’t have forgotten me.

“Oh! Hi Keith,” her voice took on a cheerier tone as she spoke. “Sorry, I had a late night last night with my sorority sister, we went out for a bite and then we started getting things ready for a friend of ours who’s visiting. And I’m not usually a morning person even at the best of times.”

“I can understand that, I’m not much of a fan of mornings myself,” I chuckled. “You mentioned the thing about your friend visiting last night. If you were up that late getting things ready she must be a good friend. Is she coming soon then? Is it another of your sorority sisters?” I figured it must be some sort of reunion since Genevieve wasn’t staying in town long herself from what she had said the night before.

Genevieve giggled, “Oh yes she’s very special, and we’re expecting her any day now. You could say she’s like a sister, but no she wasn’t a member of our sorority.” She paused a moment before changing topics to the reason I called. “We’re pretty much ready for her now so I have most of the day free. I was thinking we could meet up to play pool again and then you could come over to my sorority sister’s place after. She’s having a bit of a party tonight and I want you to be my guest. I told Carly all about you last night and she wants to meet you.”

“I hope you only told her the good stuff,” I laughed in response.

“Well I don’t recall anything bad, so I guess you could say that,” she countered.

“Oh good, just so long as I don’t have to work too hard to make a good first impression,” I chuckled as I looked at my watch. “How about five o’clock at the same place as last night then?”

“That sounds great, it’ll let me get a few hours more sleep and run a few errands.”

“Great I’ll see you then, sleep well.” We both hung up and I went back to the cafeteria for some lunch while I thought about how things were looking up for me. An extremely hot girl was interested in me, her friend who was probably equally hot was eager to meet me and I was going to be attending a party held by these girls tonight. For once it was good to be me. I should have known it couldn’t last.

After lunch I spent the afternoon tidying up my dorm room, doing laundry and such to be ready for the possibility that I might be bringing Genevieve back there. It was a slight chance but it was there, and as the old saying goes, “Hope springs eternal.” Once I was done cleaning I jumped in the shower and followed it with a shave, putting on a bit of cologne and changing into some clean clothes. Once I deemed myself presentable I grabbed my jacket and headed back to the pub from the night before.

The pub was still pretty empty this early in the evening so I was able to get a couple beers and claim ‘our’ table. I was halfway through a practice game when Genevieve showed up. “Hey there gorgeous,” I smiled as I offered her one of the beers and started placing the balls back in the rack. “How many games do we have time for you to beat me in before the party?”

“Hi yourself handsome,” she smiled at me as she took the beer, taking a sip and going to the wall rack to get a cue. Turning back she looked pensive for a moment, “I’d say we have time for best out of three, I promised Carly we’d be there before the party starts really getting going.”

I nodded, “What’s the winner get?”

“Oh I’m sure we’ll think of something.” She giggled, winking at me.

“Do you want to break or shall I?” I smiled, shaking my head.

“You go ahead.” She grinned at me, “You could use the head start.”

She was right, the first game was a rout, I had only sunk 2 balls before she won by sinking the eight ball. Once again in my defense I was distracted. The second game I was a bit more focussed and managed to eke out a narrow win. I think she may have let me win that game though because the third game was yet another lopsided win in her favour. I raised my hands in defeat, “I yield, you have proven once again that you can kick my ass. The question is what did you win?”

“Let’s get to Carly’s house and you can find out.” She took me by the hand and I was a bit surprised by the coldness of her skin. I let her lead me to our jackets though and soon we were out the door and hailing a cab. The cab ride took about twenty minutes and we were dropped off in front of a nice looking house in one of the wealthier parts of the city. I wondered whether all the girls in Genevieve’s sorority were well off as she paid for the cab. I didn’t get much time to think about it though as I was led along the darkened walkway to the front door. Nor did I get a chance to think about the sudden apprehension I felt as I was pulled inside.

Genevieve called out to Carly but didn’t seem surprised when nobody answered, “I think she’s out gathering some of the guests for the party, she wants the guests all here when our friend shows up tonight to make sure she gets a warm welcome.”

“Oh so your friend is showing up tonight then?” I asked.

“Yeah, she should be here soon,” she turned to give me a smile, “Come upstairs and you can give me what I won before everyone else shows up.” She led me upstairs through the darkened house to one of the bedrooms. Once inside she shut the door behind us, kissing me firmly on the lips as she took off her jacket. I was lost in her kiss as she then reached up and began peeling off my jacket as well. Soon the rest of our clothes followed. She may have won at pool but I certainly didn’t feel like I was the loser as she claimed her prize. As it turned out the prize was the best out of three too and I was sure to bring my A game.

An hour later as we lay in bed together I heard noise from downstairs. “Sounds like people are arriving; maybe we should get dressed and join them.”

“No, they aren’t ready for us yet, not until the guest of honor gets here.” Genevieve replied, her fingernail moving in slow circles on my chest. “Speaking of special guests, I have a bit of a present for you, something I think you’re going to really like. Our sorority only offers this gift to very special people.”

“Really? What kind of present?” I raised an eyebrow, my curiosity piqued.

“I can give you immortality and the body you’ve always wished you could have.”

And there it is, I thought to myself, I knew this had to be too good to be true. She’s gorgeous, she likes me, of course she’d have to have a screw loose. I decided to humor her for the moment as I did like her and she showed no signs so far of being dangerously crazy. “So how do I get this body and immortality?”

She shook her head smiling at me, “You don’t believe me, I didn’t either when I was offered it. I’m not crazy though and I won’t hurt you. If you want this gift, even if you doubt that it’s possible, drink this. Drink all of it.” She handed me a goblet filled with a liquid of some sort, I could smell cinnamon and some vaguely familiar other scents. The funny thing was I really believed her when she said she wasn’t crazy and wouldn’t harm me. I looked into her eyes seeing the depth of feeling she had for me, the connection I knew we shared… and I drank. As I drank she chanted something quietly.

The mixture was thicker than I expected, gritty and tasted of cinnamon, sugar, and probably a dozen things I couldn’t be certain of but some of which seemed familiar and I was almost certain one of the ingredients was blood. I drank it all and as I put down the goblet she opened her mouth and I saw her fangs. Fangs which quickly sunk into my neck, That was the last thing I saw as my vision faded to black.

I awoke to voices, one I knew was Genevieve’s. The first words that were coherent to me were spoken by another female voice and I could only assume it was Carly. “…. but why is she a kid?”

“It changes nothing Carly, she’s still going to need to feed when she wakes up, we’ll deal with the other problems after that, are our guests ready?” Genevieve responded, and I wondered who this she was they were both discussing. Maybe it was the friend who was supposed to be coming.

“Of course Gen, the three of them are downstairs waiting for me to get prepared and bring down my sisters for some fun. They’re Mesmered into thinking they’re at the best party ever and about to get laid. We’ll all get a good meal out of….” I moaned at this point as I realized how very thirsty I was and Carly stopped speaking as I opened my eyes looking at her and Genevieve. My vision was still fuzzy and for some reason things seemed a bit bigger than they were before.

Genevieve looked into my eyes and spoke calmly, “Okay honey I know you’re really thirsty right now. We’re going to go downstairs so you can feed, do you think you can walk?” I nodded numbly in answer as I got shakily to my feet. My balance seemed completely off but I managed to stand. Carly put a robe on me and the two women supported me as we left the room and I thought I must really be out of it because Genevieve now seemed much taller.

The thirst was insistent though and demanded my attention so I pushed all other thoughts aside as we made our way downstairs. Three men sat in the darkened living room on the couch, I could see clear as day but somehow I knew it was dark to them. I was helped to the one on the left, a guy I vaguely recognized from school. He, like the others, was staring off into space and I straddled his lap, knowing that only his neck had what I was thirsty for. I opened my mouth, salivating some as my fangs emerged for the first time, and I bit his neck, drinking the glorious blood that it provided. I continued to drink and was feeling the thirst subside as I heard Genevieve say, “Kayla enough, you don’t want to kill him, lick the wound to close it.”

I did as I was instructed, licking the wound and swallowing the last of the blood it provided. Genevieve and Carly had already done the same to their victims and I looked at Genevieve curiously now that the thirst wasn’t gnawing away at me, “Who is Kayla?”

She smiled at me lovingly, “You are Kayla, my daughter.” I looked up at her for a second, confused, and then I glanced down at myself seeing 2 mounds of flesh beneath my robe that had never been there before. Once again my world faded to black.

I awoke with the thirst once again gnawing away at me. I sat up and a cold plastic pouch was pressed to my mouth, I sank my fangs into it and drank it all. The pouch was replaced with a second, a third, and then a fourth before I finally had my fill. Genevieve sat beside me in a bed in what appeared to be a basement. The walls and floor were concrete and there were no windows anywhere to be seen, the only furniture aside from the bed I sat in was a small refrigerator about five feet away.

Genevieve waited a moment to be sure I didn’t need another pouch before she spoke. “The thirst is very difficult to control at first, you’ll be needing blood a lot for the first little while and when you’re not feeding you’ll be sleeping as your body recovers from the changes you’ve gone through. It’s very important to make sure you aren’t able to hurt anyone during this time so we’ve had to shackle you to the floor, do you understand Kayla?”

I looked down at my ankle, an iron band securely encircled it and a chain attached led to an iron ring imbedded in the concrete floor. My eyes moved upward once more resting on her face and I nodded slowly. “I understand. I…I’m a vampire now aren’t I?” The sound of my voice surprised me, it was higher, softer and so very not like my own, enough so that I added, “…and a girl?”

She nodded, “Yes, I knew you were special when we first met, I really liked you and you seemed to be able to resist my Mesmer. I knew I had to have you as my first daughter so I talked to Mother and she and Carly helped me get ready to turn you. I am your Maker and you can call me Mistress or Mother. I know this is a lot to take in but I need to tell you while you’re awake and not needing to feed, do you understand this?”

I swallowed the lump in my throat and answered quietly, “Yes Mother.”

“Good,” she replied, “You will have a lot to learn about your new self over the next few weeks. First though, and this is very important, I want you to realize that until you’re over the initial bloodlust you will wake very thirsty and unable to think of anything other than drinking blood. You need to remember where your food is when you wake.” She pointed to the fridge, “That is where your food is. Remember that. If you don’t I’ll have to punish you.”

I don’t know how long it was but I forgot and was punished many times. My punishment was simple; if I forgot where my food was she would wait, keeping me awake until I started to get thirsty again and then show me where my food was by removing a bag and drinking it herself as she sat out of my reach. And that brings us back to the here and now and me being punished… again. You’re all caught up, happy now? I’m glad somebody is.

I waited out my punishment, the thirst threatening to drive me mad as I watched Mother slowly drink from the bag. She swallowed once, twice, three times and then she did something that surprised me; she walked over and placed the bag to my mouth and let me drink my fill. As I drank she smiled fondly at me. “Your punishment was not as severe this time because you remembered where your food was my dear daughter.” She handed me a small box, “It’s Christmas Day Kayla and I’ve brought a gift for you.”

I did some mental calculating and realized I had been down here for roughly five or six days. It was funny, it seemed so much longer. I opened the box with shaking hands and looked at the contents. Inside was a slim choker of red satin ribbon trimmed with black lace and hanging from it was a single blood red stone, polished smooth in the shape of a teardrop. I stared at it for a moment before taking it out and securing it around my now slender neck. “Thank you Mother, it’s very pretty.” She kissed me on the forehead and had me lay back down and sleep took me once more.

I forgot where my food was twice more over the next few days but after that I found it much easier to think when waking and went straight to the fridge to drink my fill. Mother unchained me on the 29th saying that I seemed to be over the worst of it and needed to prepare to get food on my own. Therefore I needed to learn the ins and outs of being a vampire. Besides needing to drink blood to survive, I learned that we’re very fast and strong and we can Mesmer men to do our bidding, which comes in handy when you need a meal or need to make someone forget they were a meal. Apparently we can’t Mesmer women though.

As for the commonly held beliefs about vampires, here’s the rundown: We can go out in sunlight for an hour or so but we need to wear a good sunblock and try to avoid direct sunlight any longer or we’ll start feeling sick. We don’t much like silver but pretty much the only thing that can kill us are stakes and fire. Religion and holy relics, including holy water are as useless on us as regular water. We need to be careful about crying as we cry blood, this could be traumatic to people and get unwanted attention if done in public and even if done privately it tends to ruin perfectly good clothes. Finally, vampires in our ‘family’ don’t kill, as drained corpses tend to get attention we don’t want. One last cool thing Mother told me that most people don’t know about is that every vampire has a unique ability, Mother’s is that people around her speak only the truth, which will be useful when she starts working as a psychologist and is probably a hell of a lot of fun at parties.

Once Vampirism 101 was out of the way Mother decided it was best to get me ready to go out in public. She took me upstairs and steered me into the bathroom, having me remove my bloodstained robe and take a much needed shower. One plus about being a vampire is we don’t grow body hair so my shower was relatively quick once I got cleaned up. I stepped out of the shower feeling better than I had in my entire afterlife. It was nice to be clean, but I knew the feeling wouldn’t last as I had to face something I was dreading. Mother made me face it too, as soon as I was out of the bathroom she steered me into the guestroom to face the floor length mirror.

The girl looking back at me was stunningly beautiful, and make no mistake when I say girl I mean girl, not woman. From my face I couldn’t be much older than fifteen, possibly sixteen at the most, my formerly shoulder length brown hair now light blonde and reaching halfway down my back. The hair framed a gorgeous but undeniably young face with full pouty lips, a cute little nose and chin, high cheekbones, and slender arched eyebrows resting above big sapphire blue eyes with long full lashes. I used to be a big guy at six foot two and while I was lean rather than muscular my body now was tiny by comparison at five feet four inches and with a body that seemed at odds with my youthful face. It was the body of a girl blossoming early into full womanhood: slender with prominent breasts and wide hips, all the curves where they should be on a woman and long slender legs that would look great in heels. I cursed, “Awww fuck, I’m jailbait.”

Mother embraced me from behind, “I’m sorry Kayla you shouldn’t have looked this young, you should have been somewhere between 18 and your early 20s, that’s how it usually works. This has never happened before to my knowledge. I thought at first I made a mistake, since you’re my first child, but we went over the potion and the chant I used and they were perfect. I called Mother and she’s not even sure what’s wrong, it’s a wild guess but she thinks it’s either something to do with your nature or maybe whatever ability you have. Maybe it’s for the same reason that you could resist Mesmering.”

“We’re just going to have to deal with this as best we can,” came a voice from the doorway that I recognized as Carly’s. “Taking her to Ravencrest to see Mother probably wouldn’t tell us how she got this way and it’s not like she could stay at the sorority house looking like she is now. Besides, Wisteria would probably see her as some sort of threat and stake her before we could get her in the door.” I looked to the door to see another stunningly beautiful woman in her early twenties wearing cut-off denim shorts and a red baby tee looking at me sadly, “Hi Kayla, I’m Carly, in case you don’t remember me, you were pretty out of it with the bloodlust during our other encounters. I guess you could say I’m your aunt.”

I nodded slowly, taking in her deep brown eyes and short black spiky hair. She, like Mother and myself was incredibly gorgeous and like my own reflection and Mother she did absolutely nothing to get my blood boiling. I admired her looks but she just didn’t turn me on. ‘I guess it’s nice to finally meet you Carly.” I sighed heavily and turned my gaze back to my reflection, “So this is me now? Am I going to stay this way?”

Carly looked at me sadly once more, “Yeah, I’m sorry to break it to you, but it looks like you’ll be spending eternity as a teenager. The form we get from our change is permanent except for hair growth.”

“Why am I this way in the first place?” I stared at the girl in the mirror, seeing nothing of my old self there.

“I told you, we have no idea why you’re a teenager,” Mother answered patiently. “All we can do at this point is guess and try to help you adjust as best we can.”

“I know that Mother, I meant why am I a girl?”

Mother sat me down on the bed, taking a seat beside me. “When our family feeds we only feed on males, mostly because our Mesmer only works on males but also because females don’t taste as good to us. So when we turn somebody they usually start out as a male. To my knowledge we were all men once. We use a spell and the potion you drank to change our children into females when we turn them. Usually we try to only turn those who have wanted on some level to be female.” She looked me in the eyes, “Do you not like being a girl? I had thought from your answers the night we met that you had had some desire to be female, and I know that you couldn’t have lied to me, my ability prevents that.”

I sighed, considering that for a moment. Did I dislike being a girl? Would I rather still be male? “I could do without being a kid but being a girl isn’t really all that distasteful, it was more of a surprise than anything. I guess I never really considered my gender much, I was me and that’s all that mattered. This new ‘me’ will just take some getting used to until I discover who she is and become comfortable being that person. When you asked if I had ever thought about being a girl and if I had ever wanted to be one I did answer honestly when I said yes. I had wanted to be one on occasion hoping it would make my mom want me.” I looked down at myself, sniffling as tears came to my eyes, slow trickles of blood that ran down my cheeks.

Mother held me tight as I cried and I could feel Carly sitting on the bed to my other side. She pulled back my hair and softly caressed my cheek. I let myself give in to the tears, a lifetime’s worth of anguish bleeding from my eyes as the two vampires consoled me as my living mother never did. At last when I started to gain control of myself again Mother squeezed my hand reassuringly, “Why would you think that she didn’t want you?”

“Sh… she was always so distant to me. I always got the feeling she wanted a daughter rather than a son. One night, when I was eight years old, I overheard mom and dad talking while I was supposed to be asleep. Dad was trying to convince her to let me in on some ‘unseen secret’ as he called it. She said I was a boy and it wouldn’t be a good idea… and then she called me something that made me feel like I had failed her simply by being male, that I was useless, some sort of genetic misfire. She called me a ‘dud’. I was never sure what she meant, but to me the word from her lips felt like the worst thing in the world.”

The two vampires holding me froze and I heard them both say at the same time “Shit.”