Chapter Text
Shelby was happily fishing with her roommate, and Owen and Pyro, they had to move since Owen had told them that the fish were starting to stop biting in this area. While it didn’t feel like it, she would believe Owen as he lived in the woods and probably fished a lot to live.
Owen led them to a part of the river where it had a steep drop a few feet into the water. She set down a wood block from her inventory to sit on as she fished. Pyro was cracking some jokes, she didn’t really get them but was happy that they were happy.
Shelby hooked a fish and was cheered on by Scott as she reeled it in. Owen and Pyro pulled back on their rods and got nothing, both grumbled about not catching something and stepped away from the river.
She finally pulled the fish out of the water and it was a giant salmon. Shelby excitedly showed Scott before turning around and panicked as Pyro launched at her, fangs bared, and bit into one of her arms that she had raised to show off her catch. Her startled scream echoed off of the mountain next to them and her fish sorted itself into her inventory.
Scott grabbed the arm Pyro was biting and tore him off of her and threw him into a tree with a sickening crack. Scott turned to her and began speaking, “I’m sorry Shelby, I didn’t want you to be turned like this.”
She didn’t hear much of what he said with her blood pumping in her ears, all she saw was their gleaming fangs in the moon light. Vampires were real. That was amazing. She found the supernatural, one step closer to Bigfoot.
“I’m sorry, your blood smells too good.” and then Shelby felt pain in her neck, not that bad and with far more care than what Pyro gave. She was ok with this, Scott was a friend and she would get to investigate the supernatural for eternity.
He even apologized for something the other vampire did. Proving her belief that the mythical weren’t inherently bad. That went out the window when someone roughly bit into her upper arm, almost at the shoulder, and tore another scream out of her.
She kicked Owen away, his hand coming up and scratching where he bit, and she fell into the freezing water, Scott falling in with her. As she went below the water Scott let out a snarl and stopped feeding on her, launching himself away as he wasn’t prepared to get in the moving water.
Shelby kicked off the bottom of the shallows, over the edge and into deeper water, resurfacing for a few seconds for a breath of air and saw the three vampires on shore. Scott stared at her while the two others looked at him.
“Shelby, come back! I didn’t mean to scare you!”
She believed him but she didn’t trust the other two to not hurt her, they already did. She dived back down and pulled herself along the bottom before getting swept up in the strong current, keeping her down there.
Shelby panicked as she tried to swim up, when that didn’t work she kicked off the bottom and got out of the current and finally she was able to swim up so she wouldn’t drown. After breaking the surface and getting a big gulp of fresh air, she heard Scott yelling at the other two, “-he can still drown! She’s human! Or have you already forgotten what it was like to be one!”
Owen and Pyro began moving down the river towards her as she swam back to the shore, it was way too cold and she was tired, from blood loss or the cold, she didn’t know. Suddenly a warmth enveloped her and comforted her, but she heard and saw the vampires stagger and let out pained screams.
It gave her a chance to stand up and run out of the water and into the forest while they were distracted. She ran through the woods and found the pathway back to town.
Shelby stumbled a bit as she exited the woods and was caught in the arms of Drift.
“Oh my god, Shelby you’re freezing. What happened?” She was asked as Drift pulled her into a hug.
She was going to tell her about Owen and Pyro, but that would reveal Scott. She couldn’t do that to one of her first friends, he didn’t even belittle her for her beliefs. Sure he didn’t believe that the supernatural could exist, but that could have just been for cover. But she couldn’t lie to her other first friend.
Drift didn’t deserve that, but what if Shelby could protect her, all she would need to do was talk to Scott, no need to worry Drift.
“Slipped into the water when fishing, the current dragged me out.”
“What about the guys?” Drift asked as she supported Shelby, on her left side, and helped her to the town.
“I didn’t see them when I was able to get out of the water, I think they might be looking for me.”
Avid saw them entering town and screamed, “Shelby, you’re bleeding!”
She looked down at herself and saw blood dripping off of her right hand from the wound Pyro tore open on her arm. “Huh. I didn’t feel it.”
“Were you attacked by a vampire?” Avid asked as he brought out a wooden stake.
“NO! I fell into the water, the rocks must have cut me open.” Shelby immediately denied, pulling back and trying to hide behind Drift, getting Drift to look at Avid with contempt.
“Where’s the Doc?” She asked as Avid looked wounded from the look she gave him.
Cleo heard Shelby’s yell and came over with Pearl, where was she and when did she get back?, catching the last of what Drift said, “He’s at his home. What happened?”
“Shelby fell into the river and was swept downstream. She was also cut open on some rocks. Can you get a group together and go tell the guys she’s back at town, they’re probably looking for her.” Drift asked her as she began helping Shelby to the Doc’s house.
“Sure, why did she yell though?”
“Avid saw she was bleeding and asked if she was attacked by a vampire… While pulling out his wooden stake.”
“AVID!” Pearl yelled right before Cleo whacked him over the head.
“Ow. What! If she was-” Avid tried to explain.
“If she was what!?” Drift interrupted in a panic, quickly shoving open Legundo’s door and entered. Shelby stuttered at the entryway, mumbled about stumbling, and Drift helped her get her footing before shoving the door closed. Luckily for Shelby, Avid was too busy trying to defend himself from Cleo to see Shelby hesitate.
“Legundo! Can we get some help?”
“Aye, be right out, what’s the issue?” Lengundo called from the back.
“Shelby’s bleeding.” Drift called out.
The noise from the back quickly picked up before Legs appeared, carrying a case, most likely medical. “Oh, my. Shelby sit, sit.”
Drift helped her into a chair and stood back as Legundo got onto a knee, and began to examine her wounds.
“Shelby, how did you acquire these wounds?” He asked as he examined her forearm.
“I was fishing with Scott, Pyro and Owen before I slipped into the water. The current was a lot stronger than I thought. It pulled me down the river and along the bottom through the rocks.” Shelby spoke,
Legs hummed before saying, “I’m gonna ask you to remove your shirt, I need to see where all your wounds are.”
Shelby nodded before Drift helped her pull her shirt off after she winced in pain from moving wrong. Legundo had turned around after asking her to remove her top and only turned back once they told him to.
Shelby tied her shirt around her chest to cover herself, Legs turned to Drift and asked, “Any other wounds besides the ones on her arms.”
“Not that I could see.” Luckily for her, the bite on her neck closed up and healed because of how gentle the bite was, instead of the aggressive bites on her arms. Drift got a nod from him before he opened a bottle and soaked a cloth with the liquid, “This will hurt for a second but I need to clean your wounds before I can determine what treatment I should go with.”
“As long as it isn't an amputation.” Shelby joked, getting a sigh and a chuckle out of him before he rubbed the alcoholic cloth over her forearm, a scream tore from her before she muffled it with her free hand.
“Damn that doesn’t look good, but good news, you’ve stopped bleeding so you aren't going to bleed out. I’ll need to look at your other arm but if it's the same I’ll only need to wrap them up.”
Shelby knew why she wasn’t bleeding, she didn’t know how but she did, there was no blood being pumped through her body anymore. The wound that was just cleaned had two, one inch, jagged wounds parallel to each other from her mid forearm to her wrist. She switched which hand covered her mouth and presented her other wound.
It was the more gruesome wound, as Owens mad grab at her caused her to have overlaying wounds, “Yikes, alright looks like this spot was hit multiple times. But good news, no bleeding, your body’s remarkable, I wonder if it was the cold of the water that slowed blood flow enough for your body to seal off the wounds. I could write a paper on this, I-”
“Doc! Can you wrap me up… I’m tired.” Shelby interrupted Legundo’s rant after she relaxed from the pain of the disinfectant.
“Right. Right, sorry.” Legs said before unraveling some gauze and wrapping up her wounds.
When he was done he began speaking, “Alright, don’t do anything too strenuous and come see me tomorrow night to replace the wraps.”
“Ok, thank you Legundo.” Shelby spoke as he turned around to give her a bit of privacy, Drift helping her put her shirt back on.
Cleo led a small group to the river, with her was Pearl, Avid, Ren and Abolish, she didn’t want Avid to go with them but she would rather have him here than near Shelby. He was ready to stab her after seeing she was injured.
His paranoia was gonna hurt someone.
They finally reached the river and saw Owen pacing as he yelled “SHELBY!”
“Owen!” Pearl called out and startled him before he turned around.
“Shelby’s back at town.” Cleo told him as they got closer
“She is?”
“Yeah, she told us what happened.” Pearl said as she bounded over to him.
“She did?” Owen asked, his eyes darting around.
“Yeah, you and the guys are good friends, looking for her, she asked us to come tell you that she was back in town and that she was safe.” Pearl continued speaking.
“She’s getting treated by the Doc for her injuries.” Abolish said as he clapped Owen on his shoulder.
“Her injuries?”
“Yeah, when she got swept away she got cut on some rocks.” Pearl explained after seeing Owen’s worried look, misinterpreting why he had that look.
“Oh, I’m glad she’s getting patched up then.” Owen sighed in relief.
“Where are the other guys?” Avid asked.
Owen looked around before speaking, “Pyro is more downstream from here and Scott is on the other side of the river, somewhere. I’m sorry… It was terrifying when she was swept away. I’m glad she’s safe. I’ll let the other two know that she’s back at town.”
“It’s alright Owen, we'll help you look for them.” Pearl said as she went to go down the river.
“Nah it’s alright. Go back, get some sleep. I’ll go grab them.”
“You sure?” Cleo asked as Owen began walking down the river.
“Yeah.” Owen replied as he waved them away and became obscured by the fog.
Avid was annoyed, he wanted to make up a story about Shelby and see if the vampires would try and confirm that as the truth, he knew they were vampires and once he proves it he can rally the town to hunt them down. Cleo spoiled that immediately by telling Owen the story Shelby told them.
He also tried to sneak away but Ren grabbed his arm and shook his head, preventing him from trying to follow Owen.
The group headed back to town, and saw Drift exiting Shelby’s and Scott's home.
“Hey Drift, how's Shelby?” Pearl asked as she ran over to her.
“She’s doing good. I got her all wrapped up in blankets as her clothes dry.” Drift said as she headed to her home.
“Don’tcha know, Whatch about cher injuries?” Ren questioned as they followed her.
“She had stopped bleeding at some point, so her chance of survival went way up, now all she needs to do is get warm.” Drift answered before stopping in front of the door to her house, “Avid, I’m going to grab my things and stay with Shelby… I can’t trust that you wouldn’t do anything.”
“Oh, come on, she was injured while she was with Scott. A VAMPIRE!” Avid aggressively yelled at her.
“Oh and the other two are vampires as well, and Shelby wouldn’t immediately yell about finding the supernatural?” Drift said while Pearl held Cleo back.
“She’s right Avid. Even if she was turned into a vampire she would still say something, even if she tried not to.” Abolish indulged Avid slightly to try and alleviate his worry before Cleo broke free and clocked Avid in the jaw.
As Avid groaned on the ground, Drift went into the house and sorted all of her stuff into her inventory. All Drift could hear was Cleo ripping into Avid, how he was a paranoid idiot, how he needs to stop before he gets someone killed.
When she opened up the door, she saw Avid curled up on the ground, Cleo standing over him as Pearl tried to get her to leave him.
“Goodnight everyone, I’m heading over to Shelby’s house.” Drift said as she left, getting a goodnight from Pearl, a nod from Ren, Abolish seemed to have left and Cleo grunted as Pearl began dragging her away.
When Drift entered Shelby’s home she placed her bed in the corner, plopped down, removing her boots and going to sleep.
It was the next morning when Shelby woke up and felt something was different with her, there was a thirst. An indescribable thirst that she couldn’t explain where it came from as sleep clouded her mind. She could also hear her heart beating in her head.
What sun that made it through the clouds and her windows almost blinded her when she opened her eyes. Her mouth felt cramped, running her tongue along her teeth identified what was the issue. Her top canines were longer, about a centimeter longer.
Oh, she turned, that’s odd, she was sure a vampire had to be biting someone as they turn them, and not bite and turn. She was a vampire, this was great, she had an eternity to search and study the unknown.
She could smell prey nearby, all she had to do was bite and drink. How did she smell prey, was her nose that good now. Shelby rubbed her eyes to adjust to the light, her vision must have also gotten better… still not good enough to not need her glasses.
She finally shook off her sleep and looked around the room as she sat up, the blanket falling a bit but still keeping her decency. She saw Scott’s bed was empty but there was another bed in her home, and there was prey resting in it… what?
The prey… no, the person rolled over and Shelby saw her face, it was Drift.
The prey was asleep, now was the time to strike.
No she was a friend not prey, Shelby gripped her head as she fought with herself.
She ended up waking Drift, “Goodmorning Shelbs.”
Shelby froze, both the hunter and the human agreed to put aside their differences so as to not scare Drift. “Goodmorning Drift, why are you in here?”
“To look after you, after what happened last night I thought it was best to have someone here if you started having any issues.” Drift said as she sat up and began putting her boots on.
‘The prey was protecting me?’ The Hunter questioned.
‘Stop calling her prey, she is a friend and probably the only one who will let us drink from her,’ Shelby responded back, ‘Also I must have finally gone insane, I’m arguing with myself.’
‘You haven’t gone insane, I’m the more vampiric side, you’re the more human side. We are the same.’ The Hunter, the Vampire told her.
‘What?’
‘We should have merged but we haven’t for some reason.’
‘How do you know this?’
‘I don’t know. We should ask one of the older vampires why. After we get some blood.’
‘What can we drink?’
‘I know just as much as you in that department.’
‘So Human?’
‘Yeah the other vampires drank from us, you said Drift was likely to let us drink from her, figure out a way to isolate her and get her to let us drink from her. You’re the one in control.’
“Shelby, are you okay?” Drift asked as she walked over to Shelby.
“Uh… sorry, I guess I’m still out of it,” Shelby said before she realized Drift stayed with her to protect her, even though her vampire sided pointed it out, “Thank you for staying. I, um, where are my clothes?”
“I put them near the fireplace to dry off.” Drift pointed over to the fireplace with Shelby’s clothes hanging near it.
“I’m, uh, can I have some privacy?”
‘NO, she can’t leave, we need her!’ Her Vampire side yelled at her.
“Oh yeah, I’ll wait outside the door to make sure no one comes in. Let me block up the windows first.” Drift said before placing signs on the windows to cover the windows without limiting the space in the house.
‘We can’t get blood from her while in town, at least not yet.’ Shelby responded before getting up after Drift left and quickly putting on her clothes.
When she opened up her door she saw Drift facing away from her, neck somewhat exposed, ‘Not gonna say anything?’
‘No, you made a fair point.’ Her vampire side said.
“Hey Drift, thank you for everything. I know the Doc said for me to not do anything strenuous, so I was wondering if you wanted to go with me to the crypts? tombs? and look at what books there might be now.” Shelby asked as she tugged at her sleeves.
“Sure, want to go grab some others?” Drift asked as they gently pulled Shelby along.
“No thank you, I kinda just want to hang out with you… Did Avid really pull out a stake last night? I was somewhat out of it at the time.”
“Yeah he did, it’s also why I was in your home, I couldn’t sleep in the same house as him. Can I just move into your home?”
“I’ll have to ask Scott but it shouldn’t be a problem.” Shelby told her as the two of them left the walls of Oakhurst.
Drift hummed in acknowledgement before speaking, “So what do you plan to do while you heal?”
Shelby didn’t know, she wasn’t injured anymore, but they needed blood so maybe build some farms for the humans.
‘A vampire is approaching.’ The vampire part warned her.
Shelby looked around and spotted Owen walking down the trail to her, he looked hungry.
‘NO, this is our blood not his.’ The vampire yelled in Shelby’s head.
‘Don’t yell, and I’m calling you V. We protect Drift, got it.’ Shelby told the voice in her head.
‘I got it, sorry for yelling.’
‘It’s ok V.’ Once she was done with V Owen was in talking distance, “I don’t really know Drift, maybe a book we find will give me an idea. Hey Owen, thank you for looking for me after I fell in the river last night.”
Owen could smell that Drift was the only human out of the three of them. He would try to tag team Drift with Shelby if Scott hadn’t yelled at him and Pyro for what they did, he wasn’t allowed to drink from a human until Scott told him he could. He normally wouldn’t listen to Scott but something was telling him he messed up and that Scott might actually kill him if he doesn’t follow this punishment.
“Hello Shelby, you’re welcome. I’m glad you’re safe, sorry I couldn’t find you quicker.” Owen said as he saw Shelby become a bit defensive the closer he got to them, and he couldn’t help but give a veiled threat that only she would understand.
“Owen, what do you plan on doing today?” Drift asked, oblivious to Shelby’s protectiveness and Owen’s annoyance.
“I wanted to talk to everyone in the town square at nightfall.”
“Ok, we’ll try and be there.” Drift told him, Shelby nodded along.
Drift and Shelby finally arrived at the tomb. They climbed the stairs and hopped down into the water.
As Shelby followed behind Drift all she could feel was her insatiable thirst, she needed blood and V began speaking. ‘Now’s the chance, she’s distracted.’
‘I won’t just attack her, that's wrong.’ Shelby responded, still keeping enough control of herself to not jump on Drift and drain her of blood.
‘But we’re so thirsty, think about how good it will feel to drink her blood.’
Shelby did think about it, the red liquid sliding down her throat, her fangs piercing her skin… the betrayal Drift would feel. She got this far, she didn’t really think about what she would do after getting Drift alone. Tears began to slip down her face, she couldn’t just attack Drift, but she couldn’t not attack her.
Drift opened up the chest and pulled out a glowing book, she read what it does and saw that it helps grow plants. Turning around she saw Shelby’s face in her hands and her shoulders shook as she cried.
Drift immediately put the book into her inventory and ran over to Shelby, “Shelbs what’s wrong?”
Shelby raised her head and Drift saw her yellow eyes glow… they were glowing, that shouldn’t be right. They were facing away from the entrance, they shouldn’t be glowing. And when she opened her mouth to respond, Drift saw fangs.
Oh, vampires are real.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry… It's too much.” Shelby mumbled as she buried her face into Drift's shoulder.
‘Oh… poor Shelby,’ Drift thought as she wrapped her arms around her.
“Can you look into my eyes?” Shebly asked Drift and when Drift did, Shelby’s eyes pulsed and then she rested her forehead onto Drift's shoulder.
“I’m sorry Drift… you were the only one that I trusted enough to help.” And with that she pulled the left side collar to the side and bit into Drift's shoulder.
She took small, quick sips, Drift didn’t know what to do, when was she turned, was Shelby still there, if she was then Drift would help her, but was Shelby going to stop? Drift saw her hearts slowly lowering and right as she went to get them off of her, Shelby violently launched away, screaming.
“You hypnotized her? V we don’t do that to friends.”
V? Who was she talking about? Drift looked down at her shoulder and saw two pricks in her skin that were closing up, even in her panic she made sure to not hurt her, Shelby was still there.
“Shelby, who are you talking to?”
“V, no you can’t. I’ve already told you, no harming our friends.” Shelby threw up her hands in exasperation.
“Shelby?”
“V! Just because she’s human doesn’t mean-” Shelby yelled before suddenly stopping for a few seconds before continuing, “No! Hypnosis still harms, even if not physically.”
“SHELBY!” Drift yelled and finally snapped her out of, what Drift believed to be, her insanity.
“Drift I’m so sorry, I thought you were letting me drink from you, I stopped once V told me what she did. I-”
“Shelby calm down, I wasn’t hypnotised. And who is V?” Drift interrupted her.
“You weren’t?,” Shelby excitedly asked, “Oh, V is what I call the more primal side, we both have a vampire mindset but hers is more um… hunter orientated?"
“Yeah hypnosis only begins to work a week after a vampire was turned. Avid talks a lot about vampires and info dumped everything he knew to me, but he didn’t say anything about vampires having two minds.” Drift told her as she walked closer to Shelby.
“Wait, that meant you let me drink from you?” Tears welled up in their eyes before launching at Drift and pulling her into a hug, inadvertently burying her face into the shoulder she bit.
“Yeah it does. Was the ‘fell into the river' thing a lie?”
Shelby shook her head as she said, “Not really, Pyro attacked me and Scott tore him off because he was hurting me. Then Scott bit me but his was a lot gentler, I realized that I couldn’t exactly flee and I didn’t mind becoming a vampire. Then Owen bit into my arm a lot harder, it hurt so I kicked him away and fell into the water. That caused Scott to stop and jump away while I used the water to hide and get away.”
Drift listened, mentally marking down who else was a vampire, and spoke up once Shelby was done, “We should let the other know vampires are real-”
“We can’t, Avid will kill us-”
“Let me finish, we should, but you are right, Avid will try and kill any vampire. I don’t want you to die, and I don’t think I can convince him not to, seeing as he was going to stab you last night. If Avid wasn’t here I would tell the others but the likelihood of Avid overhearing is too high, so can I ask you to tell the other vampires to not turn anyone else… Also are you satisfied with the amount of blood you drank, I can spare a few more hearts before I get into dangerous territory?” Drift asked while pulling back to look Shelby in the eyes.
“I’ll have to talk to Scott and see if he can convince the others. And for how I’m feeling I would say that I’m good, great even, I’m full and have a bit of a buffer… do you mind if I take a sip every now and then?” Shelby looked at her pleadingly.
“Thank you and sure, but we need a way for you to let me know you’re thirsty.”
“I can hold a wither rose in my left hand.” Shelby said as she opened up her inventory and looked for a wither rose, and realised that she put it into the chest at home, but she did see the salmon she caught last night, “Ooo here have this, I can’t eat it anymore so someone should have it.”
They handed Drift the meter long salmon, “Woh, nice catch.”
“Thanks, I fought it for a while to reel it in.” Shelby looked at her feet as she shuffled them.
Drift pulled her into a hug, “Come on lets get back to town, then you can go find Scott… How did I taste?”
Shelby bounced on her heels as they headed to the entrance of the tomb and said, “You tasted fantastic. Better than any meal I’ve ever had.”
For some reason that brought a smile to Drift’s face.