“No,” I sobbed. “No, no, no, no, no!”

Tears rolled down my face as I felt the strength rip through me. I trembled as my vision pulsed and flashed, and every single detail around us became crystal clear. I could see…everything in the dark.

“No,” I whispered as they swept through the dark.

They found Cyrus.

“Sevan,” he breathed.

His eyes were wide. Terrified. He looked like he would be sick.

“No,” I cried again. I shook my head. Horror filled me, made bile come up my throat.

I knew it. He had turned me.

In the end it hadn’t mattered that I had told him no. Cyrus turned me, anyway.

“Sevan,” Cyrus said as tears slipped down his face and slowly, he stepped toward me. “I’m so sorry. I only wanted to be together.”

“No,” I cried again. I took a step back from him as the fire ignited in my throat.

“I’m so sorry, Sevan,” he cried as his face crumpled.

---

I couldn’t control it.

The thirst was so all-consuming. It was all I could think about. The burning in my throat. The heat that would spread down to my chest. Out to my fingers. Race down my legs. To my toes. It consumed my brain.

Drink. Drink.

It was all I could focus on.

Within the first week of being cured of death, I killed seven people.

We could no longer go out in the daylight. It made hunting easier. Very few were out in the dark. But it meant no witnesses to our nightly activity.

Until the day a mother saw us take her teenage daughter.

She screamed for the entire town to hear.

With panic, Cyrus took my hand. We ran. So fast no one could see us. We ran, and we went home, and we packed.

We set off with our precious belongings and all the coin we had accumulated.

But it was not long in the next town before the same happened.

Out in the woods, a blanket thrown over our heads to keep the dewy rain off of us, I laid on my back.

“We will figure this out, Sevan,” Cyrus assured me through the dark that was so comforting. “I promise I will find a way for us.”

When I had opened my glowing eyes for the first time, I was filled with utter hatred.

Cyrus had betrayed me in the darkest way.

He had taken away my choice.

My wishes.

He had forced this life on me.

But I was so delirious with the thirst. I was so consumed.

I needed him. I had to rely on his experience.

Together.

We were in this together, even if I hated him.

He’d spent every day of my new life apologizing. Being so attentive. Sobbing and asking for my forgiveness.

I couldn’t give it.

“You’ve been better since you changed,” Cyrus said in the dark. “I was getting worried. You were so ill. It seems the cure not only alludes death, but other illnesses.”

I wasn’t really hearing his words.

Absentmindedly, I placed my hands on my stomach.

I’d thought that perhaps my body had just been swollen with all the blood I had drunk.

But there, deep inside, I felt a flutter.

Just a small movement.

But distinct.

A sharp breath pulled into my throat. Emotion bit at the back of my eyes and they instantly welled.

“What is it?” Cyrus said, sitting up, looking around, on high alert.

Gently, I ran my hands over my stomach.

And instantly I knew.

“Cyrus,” I breathed. My eyes shifted over to his, meeting them in the dark. I shook my head. “I was not ill all those weeks. It wasn’t just stress.”

His eyes flicked to my hands on my stomach.

I watched his expression change. It went slack, his eyes widening. His mouth opened.

Gently, he reached over, placing his hand on my stomach.

“A child?” he said breathily.

I sat up, climbing to my knees. I placed my hand over Cyrus’, holding them gently.

And suddenly, in that moment, it didn’t matter anymore.

What he had done. That it was so wrong.

Here, inside of me, we were making a new beginning. A new future.

From that moment forward, this was what mattered.

Our little family.

“We’re going to have a family, Cyrus,” I breathed. And for the first time in so long, happiness rushed through me. I smiled. A breathy laugh came through my lips. “We’re…we’re going to have a family.”

Tears filled Cyrus eyes. But joy, real joy spread on his face.

It was a mirrored motion as we each reached for one another. We both held on tightly in an embrace. And in the moment, everything was right once more.

There in my husband’s arms, I felt it again.

How much I loved him.

How I’d walked away from everything to start this life with him.

It had taken a turn for the dark.

But here we were.

Together.

---

We lived like animals for months.

The woods were our protection. Out in the wild the scent of human blood did not drift our way. There was little temptation. We separated ourselves. We built a hut to protect ourselves, somewhere to get away from the sun that burned our eyes.

When the burn became too much to handle, we took the day journey to the closest village.

Slowly, we began to learn control.

We could drink without taking it all.

We took only what we needed to survive.

But that meant leaving survivors. That meant witnesses.

So eventually, deeper and deeper into the forests we moved.

My belly grew. I could feel the tiny life growing within me. During the day as we hid from the sun, Cyrus would place his hand on my stomach. Quietly he would talk to the baby. We’d smile and laugh and plan for our future.

We knew we needed to get away. We needed to escape the country we had been born in and travel to somewhere far and remote.

But I was large with pregnancy. Even with my new abilities, my enhanced body, it felt dangerous and difficult.

“Cyrus,” I said one night. I reached over, searching for the warmth of him in the bed. “I need to feed.”

I rolled over, a difficult task. My belly was huge. The baby constantly squirmed, kicking against my insides.

It had to come any day now.

“Come, then,” Cyrus said. He helped me to my feet, and hand in hand, we stepped outside our hovel. Through the dark of the fall night, we stepped over branches and leaves.

“We’re going to need a name for the child,” I said as I walked beside my husband. His hand tightened around mine, steadying me, even though I had no trouble. “Have you thought about what we should call him or her?”

Cyrus looked over at me, and my heart swelled just a little.

A part of me would always hate Cyrus for what he did.

But I also knew he hated himself for it. He regretted it every second.

I had to recognize that he’d done it out of love.

I’d chosen this man. And looking into his face right now, I’d choose him again, a million times over.

“I think I need to see him first to know his name,” Cyrus said, giving my hand a squeeze.

“And what if it’s a daughter?” I teased him.

“Then I shall be the luckiest man in the world,” he said as he leaned in and pressed a kiss to my temple.

A sound in the woods whipped both of our heads back forward. Instantly, we both dropped into a crouch.

Flames flickered into view a long way ahead.

Voices floated to our ears.

Monsters. Demons. Soul eaters.

The words pierced through the night.

“Cyrus,” I whispered. “They’re coming for us.”

I’d spoken so quietly, but suddenly, the mob went quiet.

And then a bellow, and the sound of pounding feet tromping through the trees.

“Run!” Cyrus yelled. Instantly, his hand wrapped around mine, and through the dark, we ran once again.