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Chapter Text

When Vax had been trapped in Lady and Lord Briarwoods' room he did expect to come out of there alive for a moment. Sylas had taken a bite out of his neck and was blocking the only door in the room, so Vax did the only thing he could think of and jumped out the window "JENGA!".

Everything after that was blur, he was focused on helping Percy and the others defeat the vampire and witch that he hadn't really thought about the bite on his neck, that isn't to say he wasn't careful on keeping it covered. It is only after Delilah and Sylas are defeated does he allow himself to really think about how he is feeling. 

So now he sits in his room in Greyskull Keep and takes a moment, he is sat on the edge of his bed with his hands in his hair as he lets out a sigh. It is only here that he is hit with such hunger it could of made him fall to his knees had he been standing. Vax quietly groans as he shakes his head, he is unsure of what he needs but everything in him is telling him to eat.

But not food.

It's weird but he understands that food will do nothing, if not make it worse. So he closes his eyes and tries to focus on what he needs. His mouth feels like it's on fire and his eyes are itching but he pays them no mind. He can't do much of anything when he feels as though he is about to bite into his wrist and eat it.

Wait.

Vax looks down at the veins on his wrist and stares, his eyes grow wide as he realises what he needs and before he can stop himself he bites into his wrist and starts to drink his own blood. It tastes, surprisingly, like cranberry juice to him. So he keeps drinking until the hunger fades to a small ebb in the back of his mind. 

He looks up to the mirror on the other side of the small room and sees two fangs from his mouth covered in blood, a drip falls onto his lap and blends into his dark coloured trousers. His eyes look the same until the light reflects off them that he notices the difference. They shine red.

Over the next few days he avoids the others as much as possible, afraid that he will see them and use them a juice box. He soon finds out that his own blood cannot satisfy him no more and soon he is left feeling exhausted. The days continued as pure torment as the hunger returned far worse than before, it is no longer something he can ignore but it is something that grows stronger and stronger each day he is left without blood. A gnawing hunger that grows so bad he drinks from himself in hope that it will do something.

Instead he is left feeling even worse than he did before.

None of the others noticed until Vax refused to come out of his room for days, Vex was the first to mention. "I know my brother is stubborn but even this is something else. He hasn't even touched the food I've left at his door." She says as she points to the untouched bread at Vax's door. The others shrug and say to give him a few more days until they break down the door.

Little did they know Vax could hear them clearly and was very unsure if he would survive the night at the way the hunger was eating him whole.

Keyleth stands at his door that night with hope that she can get through to him. "Vax please. Open the door, I know you don't wanna come out but at least let me in. Whatever is going on, let me help you." She begs and almost cries with joy when she hears him get up and unlock the door. 

She opens the door to find Vax sitting on his bed with his head facing the ground. Keyleth immediately crouches in front of him and takes his hands into hers. "What's going on? You look so...unwell." She settles on. Vax looks to be as pale as a clear moon in the sky, the bags under his eyes are so noticeable that Keyleth almost sobs at the sight. What's worse is that Vax has not even bothered to keep his hair neat, something he took pride in doing ever since she met him.

"Kiki...I can't...I can't control it." Vax rasps quietly as he gains the courage to look her in the eyes. "Control what?" But Keyleth's voice trails off as she finally notices the two bite marks on Vax's neck, than the many bites on his wrists. The blood that had dried on his clothes, the bloodshot eyes that hinted red and the fangs that shone bright in his mouth.

It is here she realises Vax is a vampire.

Vax expects her to run and leave him to starve in his room, but instead she holds out her wrist and judges his chin with it. "I'm not letting you starve." She states and her eyes shine with such confidence it leaves Vax feeling slightly scared. How did a monster like him deserve someone like Keyleth? Vax opens his mouth to be object but hunger overwhelms him, it clawing every fibre in his body and suddenly he looses control. 

He bites into her wrist without a second thought and began drinking as fast as he could, the hunger instead telling him that this could be his last meal. 

Moments later he snaps back to reality and feels Keyleths free hand playing with his hair, trying to untangle the mess it has become. He unlatches and blood drips from his mouth, he looks up to Keyleth "I..I'm sorry I don't know what came over me-" he is shushed by shaking her head. "Vax it's okay. I trust you to be careful." She smiles gently as she takes his head and presses their foreheads together. 

"I'm by your side through everything."

Oh and how he wished her words were true.

Chapter Text

Other the next few days Keyleth continued to be Vax's support despite his protests. No matter what he said she insisted on helping him the hunger that pained him. He had tried tried to distance himself in fear of hurting her or lose control, but she always figured out how to comfort him and bring him back. Her quiet strength kept his fraying nerves from exploding, though he hated what their arrangement was slowly doing to her.

"You can't keep doing this." he said one night, blood stained on his fangs as he finished feeding from her neck. His voice was barely above a whisper as the hunger tended to make his voice raspier than usual. He had only taken enough to stave off the hunger tonight because of the guilt he felt when he saw Keyleth's pale face.

"I'm fine, Vax," she tried to reassure him but her body betrayed her and she swayed as she stood.

"You're not fine," he snapped, catching her arm to steady her. "Each time we do this you get paler, you're weaker every time. What happens when I take too much? What do we do if-" 

"We will figure it out," she interrupted, her tone firm despite her fatigue. "I trust you Vax and I'm not letting you go through this alone." 

He wanted to argue, to tell that their was no point helping someone beyond repair, but her resolve was set in stone. She trusted him even when he could not trust himself.

---

The rest of Vox Machina were not blind to the small but noticeable changes in their friend. Vax's avoidance to the sun, his sudden aversion to holy magic when he used to be so curious about it, and the way all of his movements seemed to be sharper than normal, almost like a predator at times, none of these went unnoticed.

"Something's wrong with him," Vex stated one evening as the two sat alone in Percy's workshop. She had watched her brother disappear into his room with Keyleth not long ago, normally she wouldn't have cared and instead would have teased him endlessly about it but with how he was acting lately she couldn't help but be suspicious. "He's hiding something."

Percy adjusted his glasses with a frown. "You're not imagining it. He's... different. It is subtle but it is there." 

Later they would mention this to Pike, Grog and Scanlan and ask their opinions on it.

"Maybe it's just stress?" Pike offered, although her voice was laced with uncertainty.

"Or maybe it's something worse." Scanlan muttered, taking the topic rather seriously for a change.

"He smells weird. Like blood and something weird." Grog added helpfully but Vex shot him a sharp look.

"Don't be ridiculous."

But the seed of doubt had been planted.

---

It all came head to head one quiet night as the group settled for dinner together in their living room.

Minus for Vax who was absent once again.

The group had recently taken a bandit into the underground cell, the bandit in question had been caught trafficking tieflings off to higher ups as servants simply because they were tieflings.

The group were just about to dig in into their stew when they heard a scream coming from the cell and they all leapt from their seats and down to where the cell was.

What they saw was Vax pining the bandit against the cage, one hand planted flat on the wall while the other was choking the bandit and holding him in place. Vax's mouth was connected to his neck as his drank from the bandit, who's scream had stopped and eyes had glazed over. 

Vax seemed to be unaware of this as the hunger begged for him to keep drinking, to feed off a man who's crimes could justify Vax for feeding off him.

He didn't hear the others until it was too late.

"VAX!"

The shout broke Vax from his frenzy and he jerked away, his fangs still visible and blood staining his lips. The look in his eyes was slightly wild and they flashed red before they settled back to the dark colour they naturally were. Keyleth gasped, covering her mouth with her hand as Vex, Percy and Pike stared in horror. Grog had his axe out, his posture tense and Scanlan by his side with his lute.

"What in the Nine Hells is going on?!" Vex demanded, her voice a mixture of anger and fear.

Vax stumbled back, letting go of the bandit and letting the body drop to the ground, his expression wild. "I-I can explain."

"Sylas... fuck he bit you, didn't he?" Percy's voice was icy, his hand twitching towards Retort. "What has he done to you, Vax?"

Keyleth stepped forward, taking Vax's hands into hers like she had done when she first discovered his condition. "Why didn't you come get me?" she asked, her voice slightly breathless.

"I-I couldn't stop it Kiki," Vax choked back a sob as the realisation of what he had done sunk into him. "I couldn't control myself- I didn't mean too-" Keyleth shushed him as he burried his head into her neck. "I know, love. I know."

"You're comforting the guy that just drank a guy dry!?" Scanlan yelped as he pointed to Keyleth, but Pike shushed him. "Hear what he has to say."

The rest of the group fell silent as they let Vax take a moment to gather himself to explain.

He took a shaky breath, his voice low. "Percy's right. Sylas bit me during the fight. I didn't realise what it meant at first, but I... I'm changing. I've been trying to fight it, to resist the fucking hunger, but I can't. Keyleth's been helping me, but-"

"This is insane." Percy muttered, running a hand through his hair.

"Are you even you anymore?" Vex asked, her voice trembling.

Vax flinched at the question, from anyone else he would have shrugged it off but the question coming from his sister, his twin and other half of his soul, hurt more than the hunger ever did. "I'm still your brother Vex-" but she shook her head.

"My brother died the moment Sylas bit him" and she turned around the left the room.

Vax could only stare before Pike was asking him a question. Clutching her holy symbol that was glowing faintly. "Why didn't you tell us?"

"I didn't want you to look at me like this," Vax said, his voice barely audible as he remembered the fear Vex's eyes had held. "Like I'm a monster."

For a moment, no one spoke. Then Scanlan nudged Pike and Grog "Cmon, he doesn't want us to look at him like a monster so we won't look at him at all." Grog followed Scanlan out while Pike looked back to Vax before sorrowly following them.

Percy and Keyleth stayed. Vax was surprised that Percy stayed but his brother-in-arms was not leaving. 

"Whatever happens, we are here for you Vax. Your sister will come around, she's just hot headed right now." Percy told him before retiring to his room, hours after everyone else had left. 

Keyleth and him sat together on the cold stone floor, they shared no words because none would help them right now.

So Keyleth sat in silence with hope that everything would be better in the mroning.

While Vax sat in silence making the final decision in his head.

He'd be gone by the morning.