"You can't just leave her in there forever. She is going to have to feed eventually," Stephen told Darby as they both stood in the hallway outside the small dark room where Bailey lay.
"I realize that but she keeps begging me not to stay with her. She is scared and I don't want her in there alone while I hunt."
"What is this nonsense you're spewing?" Stephen said, giving the vampire a distasteful glare. "It sounds like sympathy. I thought we became vampires to get away from things like that."
"Psh. It's not sympathy," Darby said, tossing her hair over her shoulder and trying to affect a more cavalier countenance.
"I just remember how scared I was when I changed and I don't want Bailey to go through the same thing. I want her to have the support she needs so she feels safe as she transitions."
Stephen looked at Darby with a blank stare.
"That is quite literally the definition of sympathy."
"Ugh whatever, Stephen. Go read a novel."
"You have to feed her," he insisted. "If you won't go hunting then feed her something we have here."
"All we have here is Thomas," Darby said, her eyes growing wide. Stephen shrugged.
"So feed her Thomas."
Darby's mouth fell open.
"They are friends, Stephen. She would never eat him."
Stephen winced slightly and looked down at the floor.
"Oh this is entirely different from your situation," Darby said reassuringly. "Beth was someone that-"
Before Darby could finish her sentence, Stephen had his strong hands around her throat and had shoved her roughly up against the wall. Darby gasped and choked as she looked into Stephen's angry brown eyes.
"You don't ever say her name ever again, do you understand?" he hissed in a voice more terrifying than a yell. The female vampire nodded as well as she could and Stephen released his grip letting her sink to the floor.
"The girl needs to eat," he said solemnly. "I will sit with her, you go hunting."
Darby nodded silent agreement and slipped quickly down the hall into the darkness. Stephen turned the knob that lead into the room where Bailey was being kept. He closed the door behind him and looked down at the transitioning vampire who lay weakly on the floor.
"Bailey has gone to get you food," he told her, sitting down and leaning his back against the wall.
"I won't eat anyone," Bailey told him.
"If you don't feed you will die."
"Then I will die," Bailey said simply. "This was a mistake. Darby made it sound wonderful but it is not. I hurt everywhere."
"You are changing. The pain will stop as soon as you feed."
"I won't feed," Bailey squeaked, her voice breaking as she tried to suppress sobs. "I am not a bad person."
"Soon you won't be a person at all," Stephen told her. "You are becoming a strong powerful being who does not need anyone to complete them and has control of their emotions. For the most part," Stephen added, remembering Darby's moment of sympathy and his harsh expression of anger.
"Emotions aren't bad," the girl insisted. "And I like people."
"Do they like you? From what Darby told me it sounds like you're not exactly popular."
"And you are? You live in a big dark house by yourself and your only company is your books," Bailey snapped, then quickly covered her mouth.
"I'm so sorry," she gasped. "I don't ever talk to people like that."
"The transition is getting stronger," he told her. "You are getting angry because you have not fed."
"You told me I would be in control," Bailey said, pressing her hands to her stomach as it began to cramp.
"You will be when you feed and complete the change," Stephen insisted, beginning to tire of repeating himself.
"There is no going back to who you were before," the vampire told her, as she looked up at him with hopeless eyes.
"You either become one of us or you die," he said, his voice getting louder on the last word. "You die alone in this big dark house that you apparently hate and no one will know what happened to you nor will they care. And neither will I. I will drain your blood and discard your body with the rest of my victims and I will never think about you again. You meant nothing in life and you will mean nothing in death."
Stephen looked down the pathetic whimpering figure of a girl and nudged her gently with the toe of his boot.
"I sent Darby out to hunt for you and I can hear she has returned and she is dragging your dinner kicking and screaming down the hallway," he told her, perking up his ears.
"So what is it, girl? Decide. Will you finish your transition or do I drain you now and toss your body to the birds?"
Bailey writhed on the floor whining with the pain.
"Decide, you pathetic bitch." Stephen demanded. "What will you do? What do you want?"
Suddenly with an unearthly scream, Bailey shot up from the floor put her hands against Stephen's shoulders and pushed him across the floor pinning him to the far wall. Her face was flushed and her eyes were red as she stared directly into his.
"Blood," she said, through clenched teeth. "I want blood."
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