Drip. Drip. Drip went the sound of the leaky pipe. It was the only way I was able to mark time because I didn’t dare move even though the phone in my pocket was going off once more. Its incisive buzzing alerted me that the battery still had some charge left. The building was abandoned, by all but myself. That statement was mostly true. I couldn’t say I was the only living person, because I wasn’t technically living and I couldn’t say I was the only body, because there were two others there too. I suppose saying I was the only person with active consciousness was politically correct.

It was dark and cold as if no sun rays dared shine through the windows to grant me the privilege of knowing the time of day, but being a vampire gave me certain advantages. Feeling the sun’s movement was embedded in the makeup of every vampire, even for a day walker like myself. A storm had come in during the night blanketing the day in darkness with the exception of a random bolt of lightning brightening the sky for a brief moment before darkness would fall once again.

There was no warmth, hardly any light and the only sound was the dripping of the leaky pipe. My heart was even silent for the first time since my transition. The air surrounding me was tinged with the coppery sweet smell of blood and the horrid musk of death; a dreadful combination. I wish I could say it was the first time I had been forced to inhale the appalling stench, but it wasn’t. After finding the body of a friend of mine just a few short days ago, the foul odor was something I was all too familiar with.

Hours had passed, yet I still didn’t know the time so I counted the drips. Ten thousand, four hundred and sixty three. Ten thousand, four hundred and sixty four. All the warmth had faded from Grayson’s body long ago, yet I stayed curled next to him unable to move, unable to leave him until I knew for certain. I had longer to wait still and many more drips to count before I would know if Grayson’s transition would be complete. The sun had not even hit its apex yet. Even though I could feel the change in the sun, it did not compel me to rest, yet rest was what I needed. Fear kept me from closing my eyes.

I had never heard of a vampire conversion being done the way I had been forced to do Grayson’s. He had received fatal injuries from the evil, psychopath vampire, Anton, who had left him to bleed out on the floor, slowly, in hopes he would die before I could get to him. I found Grayson just before he slipped into unconsciousness and fed him my blood. The normal transition process is when the sire vampire first drains the human of all their blood. When the heart starts to slow, the sire then feeds their blood to the human, replacing the human blood supply with vampire blood. All of it must be done before the heart stops beating.

With Grayson bleeding out on the floor, I didn’t have his blood to drain. I simply gave him what was left of mine. After my battle with Anton, I had lost a large portion of my own supply before my body could heal its injuries. My only saving grace was the fact I had fed before seeking out Anton. At dusk, if the transition worked, Grayson would rise as a vampire and possibly hate me for changing him against his wishes, although we had never really discussed it. All I knew was I couldn’t live in a world where he didn’t exist and I prayed that’d be enough for him to forgive me.

Twenty two thousand nine hundred and forty seven. Twenty two thousand nine hundred and forty eight. My phone buzzed again but I ignored it. It had started going off around dawn. I didn’t bother checking to see who it was. I was pretty certain it was Shawn, my best friend, who just happened to be a werewolf. I had spoken to him briefly when he first called only answering it because I knew Grayson would need blood when he woke. If he woke. I almost forgot about the thirst after transitioning.

“OMG! Gaby! I thought something bad happened. You never called. Where are you? Did you find Grayson?” Shawn shouted.

“I don’t have time to explain, Shawn. I need you to come to the address I’m going to text you. I need you to gather as much blood as you can; preferably about six quarts, if not more.”

“Six quarts? That’s a whole human!”

“I know and I really need twice that. Just be at the address a few minutes before the sunsets, no sooner. Please respect my wishes on this.”

“Respect your wishes? Gaby, what happened?” I hung up and texted Shawn the address.

I wanted nothing more than to talk to my best friend, but I knew he’d want to know detail of things I wasn’t ready to or could not explain. Like clockwork my phone would buzz around every three to four thousand drips.

Anton was dead, that much I knew for sure. Grayson was a different situation entirely. Currently, he was dead, but that didn’t mean anything in my world. He could wake when the sunset and be like me, a vampire, or he wouldn’t. The latter was an unbearable thought. So for the moment, I did my best to stay focused on anything other than my current situation. Death was the only certain thing in this world, even for us immortals. If Christian mythology was correct then one day the world would end and I doubted it would leave even us behind, but if it did, we wouldn’t survive without humans and our death would follow shortly. We hadn’t evolved beyond needing human blood and there was no True Blood for us.

As time passed, I watched Grayson’s blood begin to dry around us, yet I stayed where I was at his side. I didn’t care that I was resting in it. My mind didn’t register the feeling of it drying on me. The man I loved, my mate, the other half of my soul was lying there beside me and I cared about nothing else but him opening his eyes.

My head rested on his chest, like it had so many times before when we had been lying in bed together, tangled in sheets and each other. But now I rested it there begging to hear the sound I had carelessly disregarded as commonplace. I reasonably knew that what I was craving was impossible. Even if he became a vampire, until he fed, he would have no heartbeat, but I just didn’t know what else to do. Letting my mind be hopeful was the only thing that kept me sane. My body tingled with the lack of blood in my system. I needed to feed after giving Grayson my entire blood supply, but I refused to leave him. Right now there was still hope he’d wake and hope was the only thing I had to cling to.

I shifted my head, switching ears on his chest. The small movement showed how achy my muscles were. I had barely moved since his heart had stopped. I let my eyes drift to the window high above the floor even though no light showed through it. I could feel the sun was beginning its descent. The time was growing closer. My anxiety hit me like a sack of bricks. Forty thousand. Forty thousand and one. I closed my eyes, clutching Grayson tighter to me. God, please let him wake up. I didn’t know if god answered the prayers of vampires, but I didn’t know who else to pray to. I’d pray to anyone that would hear me. I just wanted Grayson to live, even if he hated me. Hating me was easier to handle than him being dead.

I sat there quietly, unmoving until I heard a car pull up outside the building. I was grateful Shawn had listened and waited until just before sunset. Grayson would need to feed immediately after waking or he could risk dying permanently and if he didn’t wake, I would need my best friend to comfort me.

I rushed to the door, not wishing to be away from Grayson for too long, swinging it open. My body fought me every step of the way. It was a struggle standing much less putting one foot in front of the other. Exhaustion was beginning to weigh heavily on me, but I tried to stay focused on the task at hand which was get the blood, then get back to Grayson. Shawn stood just over the threshold clutching several blood bags. Doing a quick assessment, I knew he barely had enough for Grayson. It was fine. I could wait to feed until I got him home. Shawn’s eyes widened as he took in my appearance. I had completely forgotten that I looked like a victim out of a horror film, being covered in blood, with my clothes shredded. I dropped down in a defensive crouch when I heard a second set of feet.

“Gaby, it’s cool. It’s just my brother, Chris.” Shawn spoke rapidly. Trying to ensure me everything was okay. I stayed crouched for a moment making sure what Shawn said was true then slowly nodded when I saw Chris standing frozen on the other side of the car. I could see him fight his natural impulse to flee, but werewolves knew enough about vampires to not do anything when our hunter instinct kicked in. Any quick movements were likely to set us off. I turned and rushed back to Grayson, before my knees gave out. I placed my hands over his chest waiting for even the slightest movement.  I closed my eyes trying to allow my hands to feel more. I could hear Shawn and Chris right behind me.

“Oh my god...” I heard Chris groan as he took in the sight of all the blood on the floor.

“Gaby...” Shawn sighed, “What did you do?”

My head slumped between my shoulders. “What I had to.”

Neither of them spoke as they stood by. I’m sure their curiosity was piqued, whose wouldn’t be, but I suppose they both were putting the pieces of the puzzle together. It wasn’t difficult for anyone with some supernatural knowledge to figure out that I was attempting to turn Grayson.

I sat there for what seemed like forever before I heard my name.

“Gaby?” Shawn spoke, his voice holding none of its normal vibrancy.

I opened my eyes seeing nothing. If it was dark before it was obscure now. The pitch darkness swarmed around me distorting my vision for a moment. I could no longer feel the sun in the sky which suggested that it was past dusk. I shifted abruptly, my muscles arguing against the move. I turned to Shawn who I could barely see.

“What time is it?” I wondered.

He and Chris both pressed a button lighting up their phones. They exchanged a look before Shawn spoke. “The sun set an hour ago.” I didn’t know how long I had closed my eyes for, but it didn’t matter. An hour had passed since sunset and Grayson still hadn’t risen.

Overwhelming despair took me. My chest ached and my eyes burned with grief. Leaning over Grayson, I buried my face against his chest. My bloodstained hands clutched his shirt as I sobbed. I cried for him. I cried for what he lost. I cried because I hadn’t gotten to him in time, because I hadn’t had enough blood for the transition.

Shawn approached me placing his hands on my shoulders trying to pull me away from the man I loved, but I refused to budge. All I could think to do was blame myself and Anton, but he was dead. It wasn’t like I could hunt him down and kill him again for vengeance. There was no reprieve from my guilt. I had brought this chaos into his life when I came into it. I knew my world was dangerous and I brought that danger with me. He was killed because of Anton’s infatuation with me, along with Anton’s obsession. I cried for several minutes not finding an end to my grief in sight, when I heard a small groan.

The hunter in me became alert. My sobs cut off instantly like a switch had just flipped them off. I sat up trying to track where I heard the noise. I looked to Shawn and Chris, both had wide eyes silently saying they heard it too.

“Gaby?” A hoarse voice croaked.

I hovered over Grayson, no longer feeling the ache in my body. It was like the pain vanished.

“Grayson?” I begged, hoping my blood deprived mind wasn’t playing evil tricks.

His face contorted in pain. I watched in awe as his hand reached up to clutch his throat. All the while I could not move. I just stared in shock. Was this real? Was he really awake and talking to me? Did the transition work?

“Gaby, it burns,” he groaned his hand still grasping his throat.

The sobs broke free once more, only this time they were happy tears. “Oh my god, you’re alive!” I threw myself on top of him. He grunted as I landed hard on his chest.

“Of course. You think you can get rid of me that easily?” he mumbled. I laughed even though when he spoke his words held no humor. “Gaby?” I sat up looking at him through tear stricken eyes. He double tapped his throat.

I shook my head completely forgetting about the thirst he must be feeling too wrapped up in my joy that he was talking. “Of course.”

I turned to Shawn who moved quickly to the spot where he had sat the blood bags. I looked over at Grayson who seemed to be asleep, but with no heartbeat and no breathing. I briefly thought that I had just hallucinated him waking up and talking to me. I shook him to make sure he was still alive.

“What?” he groaned almost hostilely.

I knew from experience that exhaustion came with the transition, at least until you fed. “You have to stay awake.” I wasn’t going to lose him over not feeding soon enough. Grayson groaned, clutching his throat. “I know baby. I’m going to make it stop burning, okay?”

He gave me a single nod. I reached my hand out for Shawn, who immediately put a cold blood bag against my palm. I scooted my way towards Grayson’s head, lifting it onto my lap. Ripping open the bag with my fangs, that I didn’t even know were out, I tilted his head back carefully to make the blood flow easier down his throat with little effort on his part. “Drink,” I commanded and he did. Once on bag three, Grayson’s hand covered mine, holding the bag to his lips.

“What about you, Gaby?” Shawn questioned quietly. I simply shook my head. I wanted to make sure Grayson was fed. He needed it more. “Gaby...” Shawn sighed. I shot him a glare and with my current honey green eyes replacing my normal sapphire blue ones, it silenced him.

It wasn’t long before my eyes began to lose focus; exhaustion and blood loss finally were catching up after the endorphins began to wear off. I felt them begin to roll back in my head.

“Fuck it,” Shawn groaned just before I felt blood spill against my lips. Instinctively, I opened them graciously accepting what I truly needed. It was cold, but it didn’t matter. It was gone too fast to care.

My eyes cracked open, but Grayson was no longer resting on my lap. He was kneeling beside me with an arm wrapped around my waist supporting me. I looked into his eyes and saw anger boiling in them. I felt his gaze scan over me and his grip tighten in response. He then turned to Shawn.

“One of you, give me your shirt.” They both went to remove theirs, but Chris was slightly faster. He handed over his button up shirt while still wearing a simple white t-shirt. Grayson placed Chris’s shirt on me covering the shredded remains of my tee and my exposed skin. “We have more blood in the fridge at the apartment.” I didn’t hear anything else. My eyes closed and I drifted off. Even in my exhausted state I savored the feeling of resting against the man I loved. For all I knew, it might be the last time.