The first of these three pieces can be found here, called Change is Coming and involves the characters from Always for Eternity. You'll notice I use them a lot. They're my favorite characters, believe it or not. I love them to death.
The prompt for this was: “It’s okay,” he said, wrapping his arms around her as she shook with terror. “It’s over now.” - “No, it’s not,” she whispered back. “It hasn’t even begun…”
This story wasn't entirely planned out when I began writing it. It came from a role-play story (where two people write back and forth to create a story, each one having control over everything but the other writer's character), and I just fell in love with it. Which is how it tumbled into a trilogy of its own. Rather fun.
Times Change -- An original work by Julie Lynn Thorpe (C) 2016
I knew it was coming. Had known for a while, in fact.
Didn’t matter, though, that I knew it was coming. It hit me hard, harder than the shock that had forced me to keep my human form long after I should have shifted into my wolf form for the first time.
This, this hurt worse than anything I’d ever felt. My body shook with tremors I couldn’t control, though it was mostly from the fear I felt.
I was afraid to become a Vampire.
Gods honest truth, that. Victor had abandoned me shortly after the shaking had begun, fueled by fear himself, I guessed. Eli had taken his place, watching me transform from one monster to another.
I reached out to my longtime friend, seeking comfort, though it would help little to none.
“It’s okay,” he said, wrapping his arms around me as another quiver of terror wracked my body. “It’s over now.”
I laughed, humorless and loud before curling into his body. I was amused he thought it would be over so quickly.
“No, it’s not,” I managed to whisper back. “It hasn’t even begun…”
I felt him startle into stillness, the kind that if I hadn’t been in his arms or couldn’t see him, I would wonder if he was still there. The kind of stillness that only Vampires somehow managed.
“Oh, Mickey…” he murmured into my hair, hands rubbing my arm, my back, trying to be soothing. “I’m so sorry…”
Horribly bitter words bubbled up my throat. You should be. It’s your fault Josiah came after me. If you hadn’t come back, I’d be just fine. I hate you. Josiah did this because of his petty hatred for you, I got caught in the crossfire. I was just a tool for him, but you didn’t stop him.
I bit them back, all of them and let them sit in my stomach, bitter and nauseating. I wouldn’t say them, not now, not ever.
“Doesn’t matter.”
Hopeless words that fell flat really. He said nothing.
I don’t know how long he held me as my body shivered and quaked in his grasp. Too long.
I stilled.
He pulled back.
There, on the edge of my consciousness, I could feel the urge to eat. That wasn’t the right word, but it fit.
It wasn’t over, the change from beast to a monster, but it was finished in its attempt to tear me apart.
“Hungry,” I muttered darkly, staring at the Vampire in front of me.
He stood and disappeared for several moments, returning with something I knew to be blood.
My nose wrinkled. Part of me was repulsed by the scent sitting in a glass while the other part…
It hungered for the liquid so hard I blanched.
“Sorry,” Elijah muttered, helping me drink the lukewarm fluid. “You’ll have to get fresher stuff later. This is the best I could do on such short notice.”
I glared at him over the glass. Short notice? He was the one that had come to warn me about…
I huffed and ignored it. It didn’t matter.
Everything had changed.
Nothing mattered.
--
I stared at the bar in front of me. I could feel the pulse of hundreds of people in the area, but could taste nothing of what were now my own kin.
Vampire, nearly whole.
Wolf still sat within me, but I lacked the ability to shift. Yet, I kept the senses – wasn’t that part of the vampiric package as well?
Probably.
Reflexes too. Gods, how was I supposed to separate the two? Did it matter?
Probably not.
New start, free from the chains that bound you in Dekon, Mick… I strode into the bar and smirked darkly. A place to mark as your own, the strange half-breed you are. Make it good…
My smile grew wider as I strode to the bar. This dinky arena would be mine. I would take as I wanted, there would be none to stop me.
Not that it mattered if there was.
This was mine and I would take it, and keep it, by force if need be.
Eli had given me tips and tricks to make it better, to help me and I thanked him.
I thanked him by leaving.
Victor had never returned and I couldn’t care. He could barely handle me when I was a wolf, why did I think that he could have handled me now that I was some sort of new monster?
My family didn’t know, couldn’t know. Ty wouldn’t be able to handle it either, in the end. He’d hated Eli long before he knew the Vampire’s true nature.
Didn’t matter.
Not really.
This was who I was now, no going back.
I wasn’t sure if I wanted to thank Josiah or continue to curse his name until I died. Did I live forever as a Vampire or just have a lengthened lifespan like the Lycans? He was the reason for this, the reason why I was no longer certain of myself.
Fucking bastard.
I sighed, settling down at the bar. Might as well get used to this. The change was ever present, fighting between wolf and undead, probably for as long as I lived.
It ached, my body, as it fought itself. But it wouldn’t kill me. Not now.
There was nothing I could do now.
Didn’t matter.
I was born a monster and I’ll die a monster.
It’s all I knew how to be…
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