Chapter Text
Your slumber was long and plagued with nightmares. Their subject matter was abstract and meandering, but each rolled into the next and ensured that you awoke feeling no more rested than before.
You came to in a surprisingly plush bed. The sheets were a dark satin, and the duvet a matching velvet. The comfort they provided did nothing to assuage your unease at waking up in a strange bed.
Blinking to clear your eyes, you propped yourself up, wincing at the twinge in your neck as you shifted.
Bringing a hand up to the sore spot, you lightly prodded at the area. The puncture marks had already healed.
You would have thought the whole encounter to be a dream if not for the pain and the bloody residue clinging to your fingers when you pulled them away.
“I was wondering when you’d wake up.”
Your eyes snapped to the corner of the room as you noticed for the first time that Eddie was there with you, seated in an armchair not unlike his throne in the drama classroom.
“How long have I been asleep?” Your throat felt like sandpaper as you spoke, and you were suddenly aware of how parched you were.
“Just a few hours. The bite really took it out of you. That’s partially my fault, I should have stopped earlier than I did.” He grinned mischievously. “You just taste too sweet for your own good.”
A wave of nausea overtook you and you clenched your eyes shut, willing this all to be a product of your hyperactive imagination. When you opened your eyes, nothing had changed. You were still here in the Upside Down, and as what? Eddie’s prisoner?
Eddie’s expression was unreadable — no remorse, no concern, nothing. That lack of emotion put you over the edge.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” you demanded, trying to keep your voice steady. “You could have killed me!”
There was a glint of something in his eyes (guilt, perhaps?) that vanished almost as quickly as it had appeared. He remained silent, and your treacherous lower lip trembled.
“Why did you do it, Eddie?” you whimpered softly, betrayal apparent in your eyes. “Were you angry at me for leaving you here? For moving on? Are you trying to punish me?”
You knew you should stop, but you couldn’t help the words that came out of your mouth next.
“Did you want to kill me?”
His eyes snapped up to yours. You hoped to see hurt in them, disbelief that you could ever accuse him of something so awful. Instead, he looked almost annoyed by the question.
“If I had wanted you dead, I would have drained you completely,” he answered far too matter-of-factly.
Your chest tightened in fright at his words, and you cowered away from him.
Eddie sat down beside you on the bed and reached a hand out to inspect your neck. You flinched at his touch, but he ignored your reaction.
“Looks like it healed alright…” he muttered, more to himself than to you.
Knowing what you now knew, the warmth in his hands surprised you. Whatever he was — a vampire, a demon — you had expected him to be cold, dead. Stripped of the lifeblood of humanity that provided warmth.
“Why is it healed?” you asked suddenly.
He didn’t answer right away.
“Because you’re changing,” he finally responded softly.
Hot panic shot through you and you looked at him sharply.
“Eddie,” you began in a dangerously low voice. “How have I changed?”
“You’re thirsty, aren’t you?”
The question caught you off guard.
“I don’t think that’s rele-”
“Aren’t you?” he repeated firmly.
Huffing, you looked away briefly before meeting his eyes. “Yeah. I’m thirsty. Do you have any water?”
He threw you a pitying smile. “Water’s not gonna help you.”
Your blood turned to ice as the implication set in.
“Am I even human anymore?”
“Mostly.”
You clenched your jaw. “‘Mostly’?”
He considered you for a moment, as if trying to gauge how much of the truth you could handle. “You’re still human — for now.”
He held out a hand to you to help you up. Recalcitrant, you pushed the duvet back and got to your feet on your own — and almost collapsed. Luckily, Eddie was there to catch you with strong arms.
Grudgingly, you let him lead you across the floor to a full-length mirror.
“Look,” he urged you, nodding toward the mirror.
You almost gasped at the sight. Your skin was dull, the area under your eyes was discolored, and you were covered in perspiration.
“I look like shit.”
He shook his head. “You’re just drained. You’ve lost a lot of blood.”
“So what now? Do I need a transfusion?”
“In a manner of speaking,” he spoke slowly, eyes flashing up to yours with amusement as if laughing at a private joke.
In the mirror, you watched him draw nearer. Extending his arm, he held his wrist in front of your face. With dawning horror, you realized that Eddie wanted you to drink his blood.
His breath on the back of your neck coaxed up goosebumps, and you shivered at the sensation.
“And if I do this, I become…”
“Like me. Fully,” he completed your sentence for you. “I just started the process. You just have to finish it.”
You locked eyes with him in the mirror. “And if I don’t? Would you let me leave?”
Eddie didn’t answer the question, and instead asked one of his own. “Do you want to leave?”
“Maybe I do,” you said defiantly.
Eddie cocked his head to the side.
“We both know that’s a lie.”
“Do we?” You raised an eyebrow. “Maybe I just don’t want to be with you anymore.”
In a flash, he flipped you to face him. His hands were clamped like vises on your biceps, and his eyes were desperate and wounded.
“Don’t say that,” he commanded harshly. “You don’t mean that.”
This was the first crack in his otherwise indifferent facade. He truly didn’t seem to know if you were lying or not, and your heart clenched at the now-visible pain on his face.
In it, you could see that he was still himself, however deeply buried. He was still your Eddie.
“No. I don’t mean that,” you reassured him softly, biting your lip in frustration at how quickly you folded. “But Eddie, you… I don’t know if I should be with you anymore. If I can trust you.”
“You have no choice,” he answered tersely, half angry and half sorrowful. “Either you drink or you die.”
The room fell silent, and you could hear the thud of your own pulse in your ears. It was weaker than usual, chugging along slowly like a steam engine that was running out of coal.
“So you did kill me, then,” you said softly, searching his eyes for confirmation. There was a hint of sadness there, but no regret as he spoke.
“This was the only way to get you back and keep you. I’ve been all alone here for a decade. A decade. And all this time you’ve been just out of my reach, falling in love with someone else while I had to watch. I was desperate.”
“And if you can’t have me, then no one can? Is that it?” Your voice cracked as you spoke. “If I choose not to drink, you’ll let me die?”
“No. You’re not going to die. You’re going to drink one way or another.” His face was resolute as he reached out to you again, stroking your cheek with a touch far more tender than his words. “Like I said before, I won’t lose you again.”
Pulling you easily against his chest, he dipped his head down to murmur in your ear.
“If you won’t drink willingly, then I’ll make you. Even if you hate me for it. I won’t let you go ever again.”
The words should have disconcerted you, but coming out of his mouth they were a siren song — beautiful and deadly.
Tears ran down your cheeks as you looked at him with inexorable, hateful love.
You were hyper-aware of each beat of your heart, each rise and fall of your chest as you spoke. Though your voice shook, your certainty in your decision was unwavering.
“Eddie…”
“Hm?”
“I’m so thirsty.”
Eddie’s eyes darkened in elated understanding. Still, there was some hesitance there, as if he thought you would change your mind.
Not that he would let you; he already made it clear that you have no choice, a self-disgusted part of your mind hissed.
But you knew in your heart that even if he allowed you to leave, even if he hadn’t bitten you, there was never another option for you; you would follow this man through hell. The moment you realized Eddie was still alive, the choice had been made for you.
You continued with a small, sad smile on your face. “I can’t lose you again either.”
Without warning he swept you into a deep kiss. His fingers dug sharply into your back and hips, but the discomfort was outweighed by the feeling of his lips on yours.
Pulling you back toward the bed with him, Eddie sat down on the edge of the bed and laid back, guiding you down with him.
Your mouth quickly found his neck, and you licked a hot stripe up from his collar to his ear. His hands slid up your thighs and over the swell of your ass as you pulled back from his neck.
You pulled back nervously, meeting his gaze. “Just… let me know if I hurt you, okay?”
“You can hurt me however you want. If it comes from you, I want the pain. I want everything,” Eddie breathed greedily, running his thumb back and forth on your thigh. Then, quirking a mirthless smile, he said, “Anyway, what’s love without a little bloodshed?”
You breath caught in your throat at his words — their sincerity, their eagerness. This was not a fleeting lover’s sweet nothings; this was a soulmate’s vow, your claim on each other.
Pressing a soft kiss to his lips, your own then returned to his neck. Even before biting him, you could feel the thrumming pulse of his blood.
It called to you, tempted you. Salivating, you sunk your teeth into his throat.
Eddie jerked at the sting, but moaned pleasurably underneath you. Thirst overtaking your senses, you gulped down his blood as if you’d been stuck in the desert without water for weeks.
“You taste so good,” you murmured as you drank. “S’like… nothing I ever had before.”
“Take as much as you want,” he groaned. “It’s all yours. I’m all yours.”
His blood satiated you in a way no other feeling ever had. Food, water, sleep, sex… every other bit of relief you felt in life paled in comparison to this.
Already, you could feel some sort of transformation in each cell of your body, like you were being electrocuted painlessly. More than that, though, it felt… good.
“Eddie,” you whimpered, your senses overwhelming you. You could feel your pupils dilating. With each breath, you could taste the energy in the room.
When he grasped your hips and stared up at you with adoring eyes, you were blinded by the light emanating from him. Like a flashbang of aura, you could see the connection between the two of you.
“You see it now, don’t you?” he murmured the question, brushing his nose along your jaw. “We were made for each other.”
You nodded rapidly in agreement, catching his lips with your own and all but devouring him. You understood why he bit you. This was how it was always supposed to be; how it always would be.
As you licked his pierced neck to soothe it, you both knew the truth: no matter what he did, no matter who he had become, you would always belong to Eddie Munson — just as he would always belong to you.