Chapter Text
Getting to know Victor, Nova learned quickly that most of what she’d been told about vampires was a lie.
She’d been told that vampires were cruel, but Victor was sweet. He bought her flowers, took her out for frozen yogurt, and hung onto her every word.
She’d been told that vampires had an ice-cold touch, but when they held hands, Victor’s hand was warm.
She’d been told that vampires were monsters. That was technically true, but she was also a monster, so was being a monster really so bad?
Although the vampire and daywalker communities were learning to coexist, Nova and Victor still sometimes got weird looks when they were together in Shadyside or Sunnyside – they had been assured by their friends in Seabrook that “change takes time,” but it was still uncomfortable. To avoid awkward side-eyes and not-so-subtle whispers, the couple found places to go where they wouldn’t be bothered by all that. Their favorite place so far was the beach. They could walk on the beach for hours, talking, holding hands, laughing. It was amazing how well they got along. Although they still didn’t know what it meant that they’d had visions of each other before ever meeting, it was hard to argue that it had something to do with fate. It had to, right?
One afternoon on the beach, they sat next to each other on the sand. They were both expected back home soon, but for now, they could just be content to be together.
Nudging Nova’s ponytail aside so he could rest his head on her shoulder, Victor asked, “Can you sing that song again?”
“Which song?” Nova replied, staring out into the waves. Her boyfriend’s head was a comforting weight on her shoulder, his red-and-black hair soft against her cheek.
“That daywalker song I always hear. The one about the street.”
Nova giggled. “Jeez, that is such an old song. My grandpa used to sing it to my dad when he was a baby, and it was old back then.”
“Aww, come on.” Victor wrapped an arm around Nova’s waist, and Nova tried to ignore her heart speeding up. “Vampires hardly listen to any music that doesn’t have a ton of electric guitar. I want to learn more music, and daywalker music is fun.”
“Fine,” Nova sighed. She cleared her throat, hoping her voice wouldn’t shake as she sang:
Grab your coat and get your hat, leave your worries on the doorstep
Just direct your feet to the sunny side of the street
Can't you hear that pitter pat, what a happy tune is your step
Life can be so sweet, on the sunny side of the street…
At some point while Nova was singing, Victor had started snapping along to the swingy rhythm of the old tune. She joined in and snapped with him, but that made them both laugh, and she lost her place in the song.
“You’re so goofy,” Nova commented. She was keenly aware that somehow, not just one but both of Victor’s arms were around her now.
“What if I changed the lyrics to say the shady side of the street?” Victor asked.
“Add some electric guitar, and I think Shadyside could have a new number-one hit single,” Nova joked, sliding her arms around him.
Victor smiled, revealing just a hint of his sharp fangs. Nova always thought his fangs were cute.
They sat like that for a moment, holding each other and saying nothing. The sound of the waves around them and the feeling of the sand under them felt somehow enhanced by the racing of Nova’s heart… or was that Victor’s heartbeat she was feeling? It was hard to tell. Maybe it was both. Was it possible for two hearts to be in sync like this?
Victor opened his mouth to speak, and somehow Nova knew exactly what he was about to say.
“Can I kiss you?”
His eyes searched her face for a moment, but she couldn’t utter a noise. Of course she wanted him to kiss her. She’d wanted that before she even knew he was a real person and not just a figment of her imagination. Still, anything she could’ve thought to say got caught in her throat. Eventually, she gave up on saying anything and simply nodded enthusiastically.
Any momentary doubt that had shown on Victor’s face disappeared as he happily leaned in. They pulled each other close, and the kiss was all warmth and excitement. All the sounds and sensations around them seemed to blur into the background, making way for this kiss to come into full focus. His thumb brushed her cheek, and she wished she could bottle this moment. Her first kiss. Their first kiss.
The moment ended when Nova felt a sharp pain on the side of her lower lip, then tasted iron. Startled, she pulled away from Victor. She touched her lip where it hurt, and when she inspected her fingers, they were tipped with red.
Blood.
“I’m bleeding,” Nova gasped. She looked at Victor and just barely caught him licking the red off his fangs. “Your fangs must’ve cut me.”
“Oh no, I’m… sorry…” Victor’s voice slowed as if he was confused. His Adam’s apple bobbed slightly like he was swallowing. When he spoke again, his voice was deeper.
“Let me kiss it and make it better,” he mumbled, his eyes seeming to shift out of focus.
“What?” Nova started, but was interrupted when he pulled her close again.
He leaned in as if for another kiss. Instead of a kiss, though, he went straight for the bleeding part of her lip, sucking on it roughly.
Nova told Victor to stop, but he only latched on harder. She felt two more sharp pains on her lip. He must be biting her on purpose this time. She screamed. At least, she screamed as well as she could with something attached to her mouth. She flailed and kicked and pushed until he finally let go, and she used her new freedom to scramble backwards a few feet.
“Victor, what the heck–”
It only took a glance to realize there was no point in asking Victor what had gotten into him. His eyes had turned completely black, no whites, no irises, just a pure inky black that stared at Nova with no recognition. He bared his fangs, still bright crimson with her blood, and snarled like a wild animal.
Adrenaline got Nova on her feet instantly. Whatever was going on with Victor, she wouldn’t, couldn’t bring herself to hurt him, so fighting him or throwing fireballs at him was out of the question. She had to get him to snap out of this.
“Victor! Cut this out!”
He lunged at her, leaving her no choice but to run.
She took off into the forest, but Victor was close at her heels. When they reached a denser part of the woods, he matched every twist and turn she made, never once tripping on a root or running into a tree.
“This is bad, this is bad,” Nova panted as she searched for something she could use to stop this: a hiding place, something to trap Victor, some sign of nearby civilization, anything . She couldn’t keep this up forever, and Victor didn’t seem to be slowing or tiring.
She couldn’t believe she was running from a boy she’d just kissed. Things had been going so well, but what happened?
Through the trees, a few wooden-looking structures came into view. The campsite. She darted toward it, praying for something there that could help her. There was no time to survey the area, so she hurried into the nearest building and locked the door behind her. Thank goodness the door had a lock!
Nova leaned her back against the wooden door, panting, when a female voice from within the room nearly made her jump six feet in the air.
“Nova?” called the voice. When Nova jumped, the voice continued, “Whoa, easy. What’s going on?”
She turned and found her friend Eliza, the zombie, approaching her from across the cabin with a look of concern. Eliza had said she’d be spending time in the campsite during her fall break to get some research done, and Nova was grateful that fall break was right now.
It felt like any of the words Nova could have said all crashed together and came out as stammering gibberish. The only intelligible word she could manage was, “Help.”
When Eliza got close enough to take a good look at Nova, she said, “Oh my gosh, your mouth. You’re bleeding.”
Nova didn’t have time to respond before a thud shook the door at her back, startling them both. Nova had to clear her head. Eliza couldn’t help if she didn’t know what was going on.
“It’s Victor,” Nova panted. “Something’s wrong with him.”
“ That’s Victor?” Eliza asked, pointing to the door as another thud shook it. “What happened?”
“I don’t know. He’s like a monster. He tried to attack me. What do I do?” She couldn’t get the words out fast enough.
Eliza’s eyes widened. “Why did he try to attack you?”
“I don’t know, Eliza! He just lost it, and I need help!” Nova was raising her voice now. The thumps on the door were getting harder and more frequent, and she could hear Victor’s horrible animalistic snarls outside. She was starting to worry about how long the lock would hold if he was attacking the door like this. “I can’t fight him off without hurting him.”
“Okay, okay. Let me see if I can find my bear spray.” Eliza went to her backpack.
“No bear spray, that’ll hurt him!” Nova cried.
Either Eliza didn’t hear her or simply didn’t acknowledge her concern, because she dug through her backpack anyway. Instead of the expected spray can, she pulled out a gray metal wristband that looked vaguely like a smart watch.
“My extra Z-Band!” Eliza exclaimed. “I got this from my internship at Z-Corp, and I’ve been carrying it around in case my old one malfunctions. What if we try this?”
Nova cocked her head at Eliza. “Aren’t Z-Bands for zombies?”
“They were designed for zombies, yes, but really all they do is deliver soothing electromagnetic pulses to the wearer. When I was interning at Z-Corp, they were actually testing the technology to see if it would help calm anxious animals. You said that Victor went nuts, right? We could try this to calm him down. And if that doesn’t work…” Eliza reached back into her bag and pulled out a small black can. “... then we do the bear spray.”
As much as Nova didn’t like the chances of this working, it was the only option she could think of. Plus, even though resorting to the bear spray would hurt Victor, it wouldn’t be as bad as fighting him… would it?
“Okay,” Nova sighed. “I’ll hold him down, you put the band on his wrist.”
Eliza nodded. “Got it.”
Saying a short, desperate prayer to whatever higher power might be listening, Nova unlocked the door and swung it open.
Victor charged in, having evidently expected to collide with the door again. Before he got his bearings and came to a stop, Nova leapt toward him, knocking him to the wooden cabin floor and pinning him. Victor thrashed and growled and snapped his teeth at Nova, but she held firm, trying not to look into his not-Victor-like black eyes.
With the swiftness and precision of a paramedic, Eliza crouched beside them and clamped the Z-band on Victor’s wrist. The screen on the band flashed the familiar, friendly green of its Online display. Eliza stepped back, preparing the bear spray in case this didn’t work.
Nova held her breath. Victor’s flailing slowly became less violent, then stopped entirely as his eyes returned to their normal brown, the whites and pupils coming back. He blinked a few times, then looked confusedly up at the girl pinning him to the floor.
“Nova?” he asked. She could have cried knowing that he recognized her at all. “What’s going on? Where are we?”
Cautiously, but with great relief, Nova got off of Victor and sat beside him. “He doesn’t remember,” she said to Eliza.
Victor looked from Nova to Eliza and sat up, seemingly surprised to see their zombie friend there, but not asking any further questions.
Eliza sat across from the two of them, again taking on a sort of medic-like seriousness. “Victor, something happened, and for us to understand it, we need you to tell us the last thing you remember before now.”
“Well, uh…” Victor blushed. “Nova and I… kissed.”
Despite the terror that had just taken place, Nova couldn’t help blushing either, especially when he saw how flustered her boyfriend was. Even the corners of Eliza’s lips curled up.
“And then what?” Eliza asked patiently.
Victor thought for a moment. “And then… oh no, my fangs cut her. And she started bleeding. I felt so bad about it.”
He turned to Nova and took a good look at what he’d done to her face.
“The cut is even worse than I remember. I’m so sorry, Nova. I’ll be more careful next time.”
Next time? He was already thinking about the next time they would kiss? Nova smiled, even though smiling made the ache in her still-bleeding bottom lip worse.
But the warm feeling that his words gave her was soon replaced with a sinking pit in her stomach. How would there be a “next time” if there was a chance he’d attack her afterwards? Would she have to stop seeing him, or worse…
No, she wouldn’t think about the “worse.” Not right now.
“Do you remember anything after that?” Eliza asked him.
“No,” Victor answered quickly. “What happened?”
Nova took a deep breath and, as calmly as she could, explained what Victor had done. About the transformation, the chase, and eventually getting a Z-Band on him. Victor listened in stunned silence.
“I can’t believe I attacked you,” he said when she was finished. “I’m so sorry.” He went in to hug Nova, but she recoiled from him.
The last time he’d put his arms around her, he’d bitten her, and they still didn’t know why.
Even so, Victor’s pained reaction hurt Nova. After everything that had just happened, she wanted to lose herself in his arms, to comfort herself and comfort him. She wanted to trust him, but knew she couldn’t. Somehow, that hurt more than her bleeding lip.
Nova stood, trying to keep Victor at arm’s length. He stood too, but he didn’t come too close after that initial rejection.
“Victor, do you have any idea – even a theory – about why any of that happened?” Nova asked.
Victor looked down at his new Z-Band. It was clear that he was trying not to fidget with it.
Apparently sensing the same thing Nova was, Eliza pressed. “Victor, what are you not telling us?”
“Promise you won’t be mad?” Victor mumbled to the floor.
“Just tell us,” Eliza insisted at the same time that Nova said, “Of course we won’t be mad.”
Taking a deep breath to steel himself, Victor admitted, “Nova, I kind of lied when I said that feeling bad about cutting your lip was the last thing I remembered. When you started bleeding, I tasted some of your blood. And it tasted… good. That’s the actual last thing I remember.”
The entire cabin suddenly felt like a big vacuum. Nova couldn’t breathe, and she felt like her eyes might pop out of her skull. When she turned to Eliza, she saw a similar eye-popping expression from her.
This was bad.
“What?” Victor demanded from the two girls after a moment of tense silence.
Nova looked to Eliza, hoping that her older friend would speak up first. She had no idea how to break this news to Victor, but she realized that Eliza was just as confused as Victor.
She’d taught herself to stop believing in the legends and horror stories about vampires, and here she was, about to repeat one of the nastiest vampire rumors to the vampire she cared the most about.
But if she were in Victor’s shoes, she would want to know.
Nova started, “The daywalkers have a legend about vampires.”
Victor scoffed. “Yeah, I know. Vampires have our fair share of legends about daywalkers.”
“Just listen,” she tried to say as gently as possible. “We have a rumor that vampires didn’t always eat blood fruit like us. They used to…”
Nova swallowed down the rising bile in her throat. She couldn’t look in Victor’s eye as she continued.
“They used to drink actual blood. From people. Humans, daywalkers, anyone they could catch. They switched to blood fruit when they learned it would also satisfy their hunger, and now, they’ve been eating blood fruit for enough generations that none of them even remember a time when they had to hunt for their food.”
The word “hunt” got caught in the back of Nova’s mouth. She touched her wounded lip again, which had thankfully stopped bleeding.
“But legend has it that if a vampire ever tastes blood… they’ll remember. And when they remember, blood is all they’ll want.”
“That’s ludicrous,” Victor protested.
“I don’t want to believe it either, Victor,” Nova choked, “but it’s the only explanation for what just happened.”
Eliza sighed. “We can call it a hypothesis. But Victor, until we figure this out, do not , under any circumstances, take off that Z-Band. It might be the only thing stopping you from zombie-ing out. Or, I guess, vampire-ing out.”
Victor opened his mouth to argue, then closed it.
Checking her watch, Nova realized it was about an hour later than she’d thought it was. “Oh no, I’m late for dinner! My dad’s gonna…”
She was about to say kill me , but somehow that felt inappropriate since she’d actually been afraid for her life earlier.
“...Be… really mad,” Nova said instead.
“I can walk you home,” Victor offered, a heartbreaking hopefulness sneaking into his tone.
Nova flinched like she had when he’d tried to hug her. She wanted nothing more than for her boyfriend to walk her home, but she was also afraid of him. What if his Z-Band malfunctioned? What if he tasted blood again and the electromagnetic pulses weren’t enough to keep him calm?
Blessedly, Eliza put a hand on Victor’s shoulder. “That might not be the best idea. Why don’t you just head home, and I can make sure Nova gets home safely?”
Before Victor could protest, Nova said, “That’s probably for the best. Thank you.” Then, apologetically to Victor, “I’ll see you later.”
Victor deflated, but nodded in agreement. “See you soon.” He reached out as if to take her hand, then seemed to think better of it and dropped his arm to his side.
On her walk back to Sunnyside with Eliza, Nova couldn’t get the image of her boyfriend’s disappointed frown out of her head. She blubbered to Eliza the whole way home.
“That was our first kiss. What if we never kiss again? I always liked his fangs, but will I ever look at them the same after this? And oh my gosh, what will my dad think? What will the other daywalkers think? Will this start a war with the vampires?”
“Do not tell anyone in Sunnyside about this,” Eliza interrupted firmly. “I’m gonna do some research on vampires, but until we know more about what’s going on with Victor, it’s best for his safety if as few people as possible know about it.”
“Okay,” Nova sighed. “Thank you again, by the way. Did I already say thank you?”
“Only about a hundred times on this walk, but I’ll take it.” Eliza nudged Nova. “Look… I know this is scary. But you’ve been through scary things before and proven that you can come out stronger on the other side. So if there’s anything we can do to make this thing between you and Victor work, we’ll do it.”
“It has to work. It’s fate. Our visions…” Now Nova wasn’t even talking in complete sentences.
Eliza nodded. “I know. But right now, we don’t know how dangerous Victor is.”
The words cut deep – it wasn’t about whether or not Victor was dangerous, but how dangerous he was.
“So maybe, at least for now, try not to be alone with him. Your safety may depend on it,” continued Eliza.
Great. As if this couldn’t get any worse, now she couldn’t even be alone with her boyfriend.
When they entered Sunnyside, the pair walked in silence until they reached Nova’s house. Not a lot of people were out on the street at dinnertime – daywalkers took family dinner very seriously – but the few who were out hardly looked their way. It was funny how seeing a zombie in Sunnyside was now somehow more common than seeing a vampire there.
They went into Nova’s house through the back door, but there was no way to avoid her dad. She swore he could hear every footfall in that house as if the floor were all creaky floorboards, so of course, the moment they stepped foot in the house, he came right over to greet them.
“Nova,” Commander Bright said to her, standing unnecessarily straight, “you’re late for dinner. Is this any way for the future leader of the daywalkers to behave?”
“I’m sorry,” Nova mumbled, hoping her father wouldn’t notice how hard she was clenching her jaw. Everything, from brushing her teeth to keeping up with her battle training, had to be about her being the future leader of the daywalkers. Did he not consider that sometimes, she was just a person with concerns of her own?
Commander Bright took a better look at his daughter. “What happened to your face?”
Whatever Nova’s dad put her through, at least he took great care when she needed medical attention.
But what was she supposed to tell him? She couldn’t tell him the truth, but what else would explain her injury?
Thankfully, Eliza spoke up. Commander Bright seemed to only notice her when she spoke, which was mildly infuriating. He liked to treat her friends like they were Nova’s shadows.
“It was an accident,” said Eliza. “I was test flying one of my drones and hit her in the face with it. I’m really sorry that I hurt your daughter, Mr. Bright.”
“ Commander Bright,” he corrected her, not kindly but not unkindly either.
Eliza clicked her tongue, something she did when she was annoyed but she didn’t want the elders in the room to notice how annoyed she was. “Right,” she said slowly.
She continued, “Well, I should get going. Nova, if you need anything at all,” she gave Nova a pointed look, “ anything, call me, okay?”
Nova smiled, and this time it didn’t aggravate her wounded lip. “Okay. Thanks. Good night!”
As soon as Eliza shut the door behind her, Commander Bright cleaned Nova’s injury with some peroxide. The liquid stung her bite marks, but she thanked her father for helping anyway. He then had her sit and eat some dinner. Nova wasn’t really hungry, but she forced a blood fruit sandwich down anyway just to avoid rousing unnecessary suspicion. While she ate, her father asked her questions.
“Didn’t you say you were going out with that vampire boy today?”
“I was out with Victor , Dad, but Eliza joined us.” Nova made a point to emphasize Victor’s name because her dad didn’t like to acknowledge that anyone outside of Sunnyside had a name.
“So your zombie friend is…” he made a vague circular gesture with his hands. “...part of this?”
It took Nova a second to register what her father was asking. When she did, she nearly choked on blood fruit.
“No no no, Eliza’s…” What was she supposed to say here? Eliza’s in a relationship? Eliza’s not interested? “Eliza’s a college student. She’s, like, five years older than us. That'd be weird.”
Commander Bright nodded in approval for probably the first time that month. “Smart girl.”
When Nova finally got a moment to herself, she went to her room and washed her face. She saw herself in the mirror for the first time since the attack: she had a short cut near the corner of her mouth and two punctures on her bottom lip. Purple bruises were forming around the latter.
“I look like I've been kissed by a vampire,” she said to her reflection.