“It’s just the way I felt.”

Katie kissed Alexis. “Then thank you for sharing it with me.”

Alexis lifted and kissed each of Katie’s hands, then guided Katie’s head to her neck.

“I can’t do it, I can’t,” Katie cried.

“You’ll be fine. Once you taste it, you’ll start to feel a million times better than you do on a good day. Here, let me help.” Alexis’s fangs erupted from her gums, and she bit her own lip making the blood flow from it. Alexis then kissed Katie, and the blood flowed into her mouth.

As soon as the blood hit her tongue, Katie felt a pressure in her gums and then a sharp pain as her fangs burst through. She sucked on Alexis’s blood like it was the last water on earth.

“It’s not enough,” Katie moaned.

“Bite my neck.”

Before she had time to think about it too deeply, every fibre in her being made her body act and bite Alexis’s neck. Her initial shock at the act of biting through Alexis’s skin was soon banished when the rush of blood entered her mouth.

Katie gulped and gulped it down, and as she did, the hunger inside her started to calm. The taste of Alexis’s blood was better than any indulgent food treat she had eaten to sate a physical hunger. It tasted like it was made for her. Despite the fact that Katie had no experience feeding from anyone else, somehow she just knew nothing would taste like Alexis.

Then something else happened. The weakness, the tiredness she had felt since waking from death was disappearing. Every cell in her body was being renewed, and it felt amazing. Katie had never taken drugs, but she imagined that high didn’t even come close to what she was starting to feel.

“Are you all right, Katie?”

Katie took her teeth from Alexis’s neck and gasped some calming air into her lungs.

“I feel like…” Katie stood and took stock of how her body felt. It was shocking. Every small ache and pain she’d ever had was gone. “I feel like every cell in my body is filled with bright, intense energy.”

Alexis smiled. “It’ll feel overwhelming for a while, but you’ll get used to it. You’re safe now. That’s all that matters.”

Katie’s nerves were jangling like she had taken an amphetamine. She had to do something with this energy or she might burst. She sped from one side of the room to the other, at top vampire speed. She laughed. “I can sneak up on you now.”

“You can. There’s so much to learn about your new abilities, but I’ll be with you at every stage,” Alexis said.