Feed the Flames

-celine’s pov-

It’s extremely possible that over the years, humans began to ingest blood. Over this time perhaps one human ingested some blood that had some unknown virus in it. That virus made that first person crave blood. Perhaps this new disease was genetic, and that person’s children and grandchildren and so on contracted the disease. As tales of this strange family were born, the word began as ‘vampir’ then turned into ‘vampire’. From there the tales changed and varied until we have our modern day notion of what a vampire is.

‘Except for the part where that’s all wrong.’ I let out a frustrated growl and sat up on my bed, swinging my legs off the side. My bones ached with the movement.

‘Is it too much that I’m attempting to find some sort of sound reason in this shitstorm?’ My response was malicious, though I hadn’t meant it to be. There was a heavy silence in my head for a moment and I let out a soft sigh, and then quickly closed my mouth. It was strange, not having to breathe anymore but still sighing as if I was…

I didn’t feel different. I didn’t feel changed. I had different feelings, yes, like the sensation of someone’s blood in their veins, so prominent it was like I could track every cell, and this…hunger in me that made my entire body ache and hurt, but… I didn’t feel like some monster because of them.

‘Hey you should get on that hunger problem. My blood’s different than a normal vampire’s, it’s a bit…darker, I suppose due to my feeding habits. See normals, they just kind of power down and age if they don’t drink, but rogues, we power down and die. Wither away because our systems have become so dependent on human blood.’ I gritted my teeth and pinched the bridge of my nose, not wanting another problem on the list already. Standing up from my bed, my legs felt even weaker than they did yesterday. I felt even weaker.

Walking over to the open window, I leaned down on the window sill. One of Frank’s abilities was shapeshifting. The crow I’d seen on my window sill over the past few weeks had been him. Since I learned that I had begun leaving my window sill open for him.

‘Aw, you leave the window open for you birdfriend. Get it? Birdfriend? It’s like boyfriend but he’s a fucking crow.’ At Mason’s words I had to fight a smile.

‘You’re such a piece of shit.’ I couldn’t put the hate I wanted to behind my words. His laughter echoed around my head and as much as I wanted to keep the scowl on my face permanent, the sound did finally make me smile.

At first, I didn’t like even thinking directly to him, but over the past few days, I had become more comfortable with Mason’s connection to me. He had explained early on that one of his abilities was that he could get inside the head of those he turned. Meaning if he focused on me he could see what I see and hear what I hear. As of this moment, I was his only living connection. In a way it was nice, being able to talk to someone so freely, even if he was just listening to my thoughts. To not have to hold my tongue or filter my words was…freeing.

Over the few days, Mason had also told me about the guys. He told me about Mikey and Gerard, told me about Bob and Ray, whom he teleported away, but refused to tell me where. He didn’t tell me about Frank, however.

‘That’s…a bit sensitive, really. I feel like he should tell you what’s going on there.’ He had told me rather softly, actually. I expected him to jump on the bandwagon of disclosing everything, but he kept a sort of distance from Frank. I heard the door close behind me, and glanced over my shoulder to see Frank. ‘Speak of the devil, look who just walked into the room.’

I didn’t just hear Frank; I could feel him walk across the room. It was weak, but I could feel the blood in the veins of his feet moving as he strolled across the floor. “Feeling any better today?” He asked, coming up behind me, and I stood up straight from the window sill, shaking my head. I wondered for a moment if I should tell him about how my entire body was aching, but sided against it.

“Starved.” I whispered, my lips moving with the word before I could stop myself. Frank let out a sigh behind me, his arms going around my waist.

“I know, our stash disappeared-”

‘I have it. Mason’s voice interjected shortly in my head.

“-and Mikey’s looking into trying to find a way to turn a rogue into a normal vampire.” Resting his head on my shoulder, I stared out the window. Mikey was trying to find a way to turn a rogue into a normal vampire. Who was he talking about, though?

“Mason?” I questioned, staring into my faint reflection in the glass, and Frank let out a soft breath against my skin. I’d begun speaking a bit more, my voice healed fully, and the mental filter I usually ran all my words through was seemingly disappearing.

“You, actually.” The words were quiet, and spoken as if it was something he had done his best to ignore.

Mason’s voice interrupted again. ‘Told you so. Welcome to Blood Junkies Anonymous, my name’s Mason I’ve been a junkie for-” I stopped listening to Mason as he began droning about himself.

I turned in Frank’s arms, my hands going to his shoulders as I tried to keep my body from aching with each movement. “Everything hurts.” I finally whispered, and Frank pursed his lips into a thin white line.

“I know.” He whispered, and then seemed to notice the look of tire in my eyes. “Mikey’s looking into it and we’ll figure out how you can live without it, alright? There has to be a way.” He was certain of himself, that was for sure.

‘There isn’t another way.’ I expected Mason’s tone to be incredulous. I expected perhaps an insult thrown at Frank about how he was such a lesser being, but instead, Mason’s tone was serious and possibly even sympathetic. ‘Mikey can search all he wants, but this is a one-way road. Once you’re going down it there are no u-turns.’ With that I squeezed my eyes shut, burying my face in Frank’s shoulder. Within a moment, I felt all my aches wash away, a deep calmness soaking into my mind. I felt so at peace with him. ‘He’s doing it, don’t you realize? He’s doing the thing.’

I froze in Frank’s arms then. ‘What is he doing, Mason?’ Just then I realized I wasn’t afraid. Why wasn’t I afraid? What the fuck was Frank doing?

‘I shouldn’t tell you, he should. Ask him. I refuse to be the bearer of bad news.’ With Mason’s final thought, I pushed myself away from Frank. The calm was overwhelming me. I wanted to be afraid and confused but…those emotions were nowhere to be found.

“What’s wrong?” Frank’s voice snapped me from my thoughts, and I looked at him with slightly narrowed eyes. What was he doing?

Stepping around him, I made my way to my nightstand, grabbing my small notebook and pen. “Cell, what’s wrong?” I ignored Frank’s words as I began writing.

‘Mason says you’re doing something to me, but what?’ I ripped off the piece of paper and handed it over to him, and Frank took it skeptically, furrowing his brows as his read the short question, but then his face relaxed.

“You’re listening to him?” The words came out in a harsh scoff. “I know he turned you, and I know he’s in your head, but he’s-”

“The bad guy?” I cut Frank off, letting the words slip past my lips fast, and Frank tilted his head slightly to the side.

Frank nodded curtly finally. “Yeah, he is. He is the bad guy. He’s addicted to blood and he’s a murderer. He’s the lowest of the low. Look at what he’s done; Ray’s gone because of him, and you’re-” Frank stopped himself then, and I took a step back from him.

“A monster?” I couldn’t keep those words back even if I tried, and Frank closed his eyes for a second, seeming to calm himself before he opened his eyes again.

Frank stepped towards me again, and I took another step back. “You’re not a monster. You won’t be, anyhow. Mikey is going to fix you.”

“Fix?” The word was a hiss through my teeth, my mind losing its grasp on my tongue again.

The realization hurt Frank, and he shook his head, his eyes now pleading. “No, not…not fix, I didn’t mean that, I meant change.” Frank’s expression changed as his eyes softened even more, the corners of his mouth turning down. “I’m sorry, I care about you and I don’t want you to go through the hell I’ve been through, that’s all.” With his words, I could feel my defensive stance against him weakening. Maybe that was all he wanted. Christ, what am I doing? This is the guy who I sat on the roof with weeks ago and who read to me until I fell asleep. This is the guy who took time out of his day to talk to me when no one else bothered to notice me.

‘Celine, don’t fall for it! He’s fucking doing it again!’ I wanted to panic at Mason’s words as they flitted through my head, but…I just wanted to be with Frank. I felt like I couldn’t control myself as I stepped back towards him, and he smiled, putting a hand on the side of my face.

“I didn’t mean for any of this to happen to you.” Frank’s voice was a soft whisper, but Mason’s was not.

‘Goddammit Celine, God-fucking-dammit, that’s what he does! He instills emotions in people, that’s what he’s doing to you! Get away from him, now!’ Mason’s words went in one ear and out the other. They were meaningless. Frank was all I needed. I didn’t need Mason and his attitude towards everything, I just…I needed Frank.

Suddenly, Mason’s voice was no longer in my head. “Goddammit Celine.” It was an annoyed statement to my left, and as I looked over I barely had time to register what was happening before I felt his hand on my arm, and then-

As soon as we were gone, my balance was thrown off, and I stumbled away from Mason, falling back against a wall. All of the emotions running through me were gone instantaneously, as if I was taken out of a bubble.

We were in the maintenance room he told me about. The walls were almost like the grey walls of the illusion he’d trapped me in. Except there were exposed pipes running along the walls here, and the room was freezing. There was a chair in the middle of the room with chains hanging off of it, and next to it was a Styrofoam box.

Mason took notice of my disorientation, and took my shoulders. “Hey, you alright?” I nodded numbly, and Mason removed his hand from my shoulders. “Well, Frank will be here in a second probably. He’s got the whole…you know, bird thing going on.” Mason scratched at the back of his head, and I shook my head at that.

‘You said you can take me away, right? You can go anywhere, right?’ I looked at Mason, knowing he heard my thoughts, and he blinked a couple times.

“Yeah, wherever you want, but…I mean, are you sure?” I closed the gap between us quickly, not wanting to give Frank the time to get to me. I needed off these damn school grounds.

‘Then let’s go. France, let’s go. I want to see Paris, I want to see The Seine, I want to be anywhere but here.’ Slowly, a smile began spreading across Mason’s face, a smile that told me he was on board for the trip immediately.

“Paris- yeah, okay.” Mason grinned, the expression stretching his face and meeting his eyes. “Paris.”

“Take me there.” I whispered, and Mason took my hand. The moment his skin touched mine, we were already gone.

Immediately the sounds of water hit my ears. I didn’t stumble this time, didn’t need the moment to get my bearings. Mason’s grin turned into a smirk as took a step back from me. We were on the edge of a small pedestrian bridge, and it was dark out. France was seven hours ahead of the US, and so it was the middle of the night.

Mason looked around, seemingly rather excited about where we were. “Pont Royal over The Seine in Paris, France.” His tone was slightly cocky, and I had to take a breath as I looked around.

Reading had taught me a lot, from history books to simple works of fiction, I knew my surroundings. Everything was cast in a soft orange glow, though there were no lights on the bridge, streetlamps on either side illuminated everything just fine. The Pont Royal ran over the Seine.

‘A reconstructed version of the Pont Royal.’ I looked at Mason and he raised his eyebrows at me.

“History buff?” He questioned and I shook my head.

‘Bookworm. The original Pont Royal was carried away in…sixteen eighty-four, I believe. Finally finished reconstruction in sixteen eighty-nine.’ I fought a smile at his face, my mind grateful for once to be on something normal.

Mason crossed his arms over his chest then, staring down at me. “Well then, I suppose you know what that building to the right is, yeah?”

Wanting to laugh, I nodded shortly at his inciting. ‘The Musée d'Orsay isn’t exactly inconspicuous.’The Musée d'Orsay was a beautiful building. Started out as a railway station, then basically a post office during World War II, and after it was saved from destruction some forty five years ago it was shortly thereafter turned into a museum. It had seen some history, that was for sure. It had large arching windows, which were the most striking at night, being illuminated in a piercing white.

After a moment, I turned towards the river, looking upstream. Mason didn’t speak anymore, but instead moved back into my thoughts.

‘Upstream is the Pont du Carrousel, and on downstream is the passerelle Solférino, but I think they’ve renamed it in the twenty years since I’ve been here.’ I could tell he had a sort of liking for bridges, made even more prominent by the small smile that seemed to be permanently on his face. ‘There are about thirty-seven bridges that cross the Seine in Paris, and a few outside of the city as well. One of them, the Pont de Normandie, was at one point the tallest cable-stayed bridge in existence.’

‘Bridge nerd.’ I thought, and he chuckled, catching my attention.

“Yes, yes, I am thank you.” His voice sounded…cheery, almost. It was almost strange, but it was nice. To hear him enthusiastic about something instead of just bugging me about blood and the guys. It was even better to be away from everyone for the moment.

‘What’s your favorite?’ I asked him in my head, wanting to keep my mind away from everything else. He noted this, and that smile returned as he continued to indulge my addiction to lovely architecture.

“It’s not here, but it’s in southern France. Wanna go?” As soon as he presented the question I knew I wanted to, and as he held out his hand I took it without hesitation.

One second we were standing on the Pont Royal, the next we were standing on what I quickly realized was one of the masts of a large cable-stayed bridge. It took me a moment, but I realized we were high up as I looked around us and saw tiny little lights in the distance.

“And here we are.” When I glanced at Mason he stepped over towards the edge. The top of the mast was maybe eight square feet, and we did not have a lot of room to stretch. I stepped over to where Mason was, and looked down, seeing a bright white light illuminating the length of the masts. I counted seven lights for seven masts. “Careful, it’s over a thousand feet off the ground. This is the Millau Viaduct, the tallest bridge in the world.”

‘Well, you certainly have a different sense of adventure, I’ll give you that.’ I shook my head with my thoughts as Mason sat down on the edge, his legs dangling off the side. I carefully sat down next to him, my bones aching as I did so. Looking down I realized how extremely grateful I was that for the fact that I didn’t have a fear of heights.

“When you’ve been around for as long as I have, you get really bored really fast.” As I stared out over the darkness, dotted with patches of bright lights, the two of us quickly fell silent.

‘I like it here. It’s nice.’ I liked the quiet. The wind was blowing softly, but we were so high up everything was unobtrusive.

‘You know, I’m not one to get all touchy feely, but…all these years I’ve been on this rock, I don’t think I’ve felt this close to anyone.’ As Mason’s voice floated through my mind, I didn’t look over at him, I kept my eyes on the dark. ‘I’ve had this connection before, yeah. I’ve turned people. More than I care to recall, actually. Really, I wound up killing half of those I turned because of this damn connection.’ At that, however, I turned to face Mason, seeing him watching me with his unequal eyes. The deep red scar across his right eye seemed even more prominent in the darkness we were in. ‘I don’t…I don’t feel that way with you. You just…I don’t know. I do know that I won’t fuck up your emotions like that Frank kid will.’

I sat there staring at him for a second, even after he looked away from me, pursing his lips. ‘Are you trying to…sell yourself to me?’

‘Maybe, yeah- I-I don’t know. I’ve been in your head for…what? Almost five days now? I’ve learned almost every little detail about you, I’ve…I’ve grown closer to you no matter if you’ve grown closer to me or not. If you’re alright with Frank pulling your emotions this way and that, that’s fine, go for it, I don’t want to get in your way but…’ Mason looked back at me again, his eyes soft and sincere. ‘We’d make a good team.’

I couldn’t help but smile, though I managed to refrain from giggling. ‘Team?’ I mentally questioned him and he groaned.

‘Trying to kill me already? Jesus what do you want me to say? Partners? Lovers? Whatever you want to call us, go ahead.’ With an audible scoff I put my head in my hands, shaking my head.

“Lovers.” I whispered mockingly, almost disbelieving he’d even try that now.

He made a noise, grinning again. “C’mon, I know I’m good enough, you thought Frank was cute even when he wasn’t around. Have you not seen this face? I mean…” He trailed off, laughter soaking his words, a sound I was beginning to think I would get very used to hearing. “Hey,” I felt him tap my shoulder, and I looked at him, a lopsided grin on his face. “I know you’ve been thinking it. You can only hear what I’m thinking, but I have a direct line into your mind. We should pair up, really. I can teach you everything you need to know about this whole vampirism thing. I won’t fuck with you. I’ve got illusions, teleportation, and our mental link, but that’s it. Those are my only powers right now. Take note, I have no ability to instill emotions, unlike Frank.” With the last part of his proposition, I could feel my heart fall.

‘Everything with him…could it really have all been just a lie? Just some sick game he played with me?’ My eyes trailed away from Mason, my brain bringing up every moment Frank and I had together. Something definitely seemed to change with him after Mason turned me. He got more…clingy. He told me multiple times not to listen to Mason, that he was planting lies in my head, that nothing he told me was true but… Mason didn’t hide himself from me. He was open and left nothing to the imagination. Mason had a way to tug at my heartstrings for sure, but…he didn’t do it on purpose. He didn’t toy with my emotions; make me feel things that weren’t really there. But how could I be sure? How could I really be sure that Frank was doing all this to me for his own gain? I needed to go back. I had to go back and figure everything out.

“Hey,” Mason put a finger under my chin, snapping me from my thoughts as he turned my face towards him. “Fuck him.” He whispered, letting his finger fall from my skin.

‘I need to go back. I need to make sure all of this is certain before I really switch sides.’ My thoughts were fast, but I knew Mason heard them as he nodded, his expression faltering.

‘Okay, I respect that. Get everything in order, make sure it’s the right decision for you.’ He leaned in closer to me then, and I felt one of his arms snaking around my waist. “First, something to think about.” Before I could even reply, I felt like I was forced into sensory overload.

Mason tightened an arm around me, kissed me, and pushed us off the mast. Everything went by too fast.

His lips against mine, a feeling I wanted to never end.

The wind rippling around us, a noisy threat against our bodies.

Arms holding me tightly against his chest, silently vowing to never let go.

The sound of rushing water growing closer and closer until-

We were still. No longer falling, the familiar feeling of my bedsheets greeted me, and though the fall was over, the kiss was not. As I brought my hands up to his cold face, his arms moved from around my body, his legs straddled my hips as he finally pulled his lips away from mine. The smile on his face was of pure adoration.

“If you need me, you know where I’ll be.” Mason tapped his temple and I nodded shortly, the gesture being the only thing I was capable of at the moment. He kissed me again, but it was short and as I reopened my eyes he was gone.

Notes