The Loners Ch. 17

Katie gasped as she heard Rachel's words, and her eyes shifted back and forth between Alan and Rachel.

"I'll do it, but, I want you to know that I don't want to. I know what's going through your mind, I can see it as clear as day. First of all, there is no guarantee that you'll get what you seek, not unless you are reborn with extraordinary powers, and that only happens on rare occasions."

"Second, going down the path of bloodshed that you seek will forever change you, in the same way it did me. Please, I beg you to reconsider. If you do this, you won't have anything left..."

"HAVEN'T YOU BEEN WATCHING!? IN CASE YOU DIDN'T NOTICE, I DON'T HAVE ANYTHING LEFT ANYMORE!" Alan screamed.

"WHAT ABOUT US? YOU STILL HAVE KATIE AND ME! HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT YOU SON OF A BITCH!!" Rachel screamed back, tears in her eyes.

Alan bit back his next words, and calmed himself. "Look, I'm sorry, alright? But, I'm not changing my mind on this. Those bastards killed my closest friends that I've known for years. Are you really going to stand there and tell me that I should sit and do nothing? Just duck and run!? No, I'm afraid I can't do that. In fact, it's because we ran that they're dead now."

"You don't know that for sure! Please, don't make me do this! I don't want you to go through with this. At least think it over, at least for a day or so. Just...don't jump to something rash like that. You know why I don't want to turn you!"

"And look where it's gotten us! Just how long do you expect me to sit on the sidelines and watch as more and more people I know get hurt or killed!? Who's going to be next? You? Me? Katie? Katie's family? Yes, it was the vampires that killed them. But, it's also our fault for choosing to run instead of trying to fight back!"

Those words were too much for Rachel, and she could no longer face Alan. She began quietly sobbing, and the one thing she had feared the most was coming true. Alan was descending, all because she had pulled him into it.

While it was true that she could simply refuse him and vanish, she also knew that she couldn't do that. It was because this was her fault, and turning him was the only way she could own up to it at this point. This was because she also knew that even if she vanished, he would probably still choose to fight, even if he remained a human.

Rachel turned to Katie, her eyes pleading, hoping that Katie could say something to talk Alan out of this.

Katie saw the plea, and turned to Alan. "Alan..." Katie drifted, unable to form any other words.

"I'm sorry Katie, but nothing either you or Rachel can say is going to change my mind."

"Not even the promise you made to Rachel that you would father a child that she could raise?" Katie suddenly remembered, hoping that it would be a convincing enough.

It wasn't. Alan shook his head.

"Just how much do you plan to sacrifice to get your revenge? At least tell me that much." Rachel said in a low voice, still unable to face Alan.

"And what if you were in my shoes? How would you react if the people close to you were taken in the same way mine were?"

Rachel remained silent. Both Rachel and Alan knew the answer to that.

"...fine." Rachel tear filled eyes turned to Katie. "What about you? Do you want to be turned as well?"

Katie weighed her options, and in the end, shook her head. "No. I...I think it's important that I, at least, remain human. I mean, after what we just built together, I don't want to see it destroyed like this. I feel that, if I remain human, I'll be in a better position to protect you both from the darkness that you fear. Not only that, I'll still be able to give you the child that you hope to raise someday."

Katie's answer caused Rachel to smile the briefest of smiles, which faded as soon as she turned to Alan.

Her eyes fell. "One last time, Alan..."

"I've made my decision."

Rachel's eyes closed, allowing the last few tears to flow before she steeled herself for what was to come.

Rachel opened her eyes, and turned to Katie. "I need you to grab something sharp, like a knife." She instructed, her voice now all business.

Katie was puzzled, but nodded and began to search for such an item as Rachel turned to Alan. "Let's go upstairs in the bedroom." Rachel said as she walked past Alan.

Alan followed close behind as he followed Rachel into the bedroom. When he entered, Alan felt a strange sensation. Just a little while ago, he and Rachel were happily enjoying themselves in this very room. Also, in this very room, he, Rachel, and Katie had one of the wildest and most special moments in their relationship. But now, that seemed like a lifetime ago, even if it was all within a single day.

Rachel began removing her clothes. "Undress, completely." Rachel instructed, to Alan's confusion.

Alan did so, despite his confusion.

Rachel pointed to the bed once she saw they were both finished. "Lay down on your back." She instructed next.

"What's all of this for?" Alan asked as he followed Rachel's instructions.

"To make you as comfortable as possible."

It was here that Katie returned, holding a large knife in her hand, which Rachel took.

"Okay, Katie, sit next to Alan so I can explain to you both about what's going to happen."

Katie silently did so, and both she and Alan stared at Rachel until she began to speak.

"What we're about to do is perform a Blood Exchange." Rachel began.

"A Blood Exchange?" Alan asked.

Rachel nodded. "This is how vampires turn humans, a ritual known as a Blood Exchange. The name implies exactly what is going to happen. You and I will be exchanging blood. However, the manner of which we'll be doing it is what can make this difficult. You see, you and I must drink each other's blood."

"In normal cases, vampire's blood is poison to humans, and if mixed with human blood, it will kill the human. However, if a vampire drains the human's blood as the human drinks the blood of a vampire, the vampire's blood 'replaces' the human blood. When that happens, you will literally die. My blood will kill most of your organs once inside of you, and you will be dead anywhere from seconds to maybe an hour or so before you are reborn. You will lose most of your normal organ functions, such as the liver, kidneys, and heart."

"The other reason why the vampire must feed during this process is the amount of blood that will be lost. In order for this to work, I must keep my own blood supply high, otherwise complications will form. Just like in human conceptions and births, complications can form during this process. If either of us drinks too much or too little blood, one of us will die, permanently."

Rachel then focused her eyes on Katie. "This might be a rather unpleasant sight, if you don't want to watch, that's fine."

Katie shook her head. "No, I'll watch."

Rachel nodded. "Then, can I ask for your help?"

Katie blinked. "Help?"

Rachel nodded again. "Yes. If you can, I need you to watch Alan carefully. Once he blacks out, and he will, I need you to pull me off of him if I don't stop feeding. Otherwise he will stay dead. After that, we're going to bandage both his and my open wounds to prevent further blood loss for both of us. Can you do that?"

Katie hesitated for a moment, then nodded. "Yes, I can do that. Let me get something that we can use." Katie said, getting out of the bed, and began a new search.

Rachel then set her eyes on Alan. "You should feel lucky, a lot of vampires aren't this kind when performing the Blood Exchange. This is another reason why there aren't that many vampires, and why lower level vampires don't perform this ritual. For a Lord, this is easy since they have immense powers and a much larger supply of blood then those below them. For a Greater, this can be difficult for them, but still can be done."

"As for me, I guess I'm somewhat powerful at this point, but I'm not sure if I'm strong enough. However, I sympathize with what you're feeling. Even if I die turning you, at least I'll make up a little for the responsibility I hold myself for your losses." Rachel said grimly, crawling up to Alan.

"While we're waiting for Katie, let's practice a little bit." She said, creating a cut on her hand with a knife, and blood immediately began to slowly seep out.

"Here." Rachel said, offering her open wound. "It's poison to you, but a small taste won't kill you. This isn't going to work if you can't drink my blood."

Alan was stunned at her words, and began having doubts on whether or not he should really do this. He didn't realize that the process of turning a human into a vampire could be such a complicated, and potentially dangerous process.

Rachel saw this hesitation, and prayed to herself that Alan reconsidered his decision. This time, however, she didn't say anything, and allowed him to make the choice himself. After all, it was because of her that Alan had lost any chance of returning to his normal life and family.

Rachel remained expressionless as she saw Alan reach out for her hand, and lightly sucked on the wound. Alan only did this for a moment before withdrawing.

"A little unpleasant." He remarked.

"You're going to have to deal with it. You have to drink a lot more than that."

As Rachel said that, Katie returned with towels in her hands. "These are the only things I could find that I think will work."

Rachel turned to Katie and saw what she was carrying. "That's fine. A bit crude, but they'll work. Hand me one of those." Rachel instructed, and Katie did so.

"As soon as I separate from Alan, I need you to jump on him as quickly as possible and press down hard on his wound before he bleeds out, understand?" Rachel said, and Katie nodded.

"There's going to be quite a bit of blood as well, can you handle that?" Rachel asked, and Katie nodded again.

"Now for one last thing." Rachel said, repositioning herself on top of Alan. She then reached down, grabbing his cock, and proceeded to descended upon it, bathing Alan in her warm tunnel. This caused him to remember that they were actually still in the nude, having been distracted by the serious conversation.

Alan saw that Rachel's eyes had now changed, however, they weren't the normal, playful eyes that he had become accustomed to. They were the eyes of a vampire that was getting ready to feed.

"As I said earlier, the sexual contact here is to make you as comfortable as possible, because for you this is going to feel exactly as it should feel. I need you to fight from blacking out and feed from me as long as you can. Are you ready?" Rachel asked one last time, bringing the knife to the left side of her neck.

Rachel saw that Alan was taking deep breaths, and was preparing himself. "Also, don't be gentle. Drink as though your life depends on it, because it does." Rachel said, giving last minute advice.

After several intense and silent moments, Alan at long last nodded. When he did, several things happened very quickly.

Rachel braced herself, and slashed the left side of her neck, which immediately caused blood to pour out. She quickly brought Alan up to her neck, and he clamped down, drinking the blood that was now pouring out. At the same time, Rachel revealed her fangs, sunk them into Alan's neck, and began drinking herself.

Katie watched as the two of them slowly fell on the bed completely, as both Rachel and Alan continued to feed on each other. Katie then had an odd thought. As strange as it seemed, this was, in some strange and weird way, a highly romantic and erotic scene.

Katie shook her thoughts of that off, and focused on Alan, moving so that she could see him.

As Rachel instructed him, Alan continued to drink Rachel's blood as much as he could. He was surprised by how much there was, and how much he was going to have to drink the unpleasant substance. As Rachel said, he was also in pain from having Rachel's fangs currently in his neck, and he felt his life leaving him as she drank from him.

Alan felt himself going, and he tried to fight to stay awake as long as he could. However, it was a futile fight, and he was getting weaker and weaker. Although he knew it was because he was dying in a sense, it actually only felt like he was really tired. He felt like he was trying to fight sleep after not having slept for days. At long last, after doing as much as he could, his eyes slowly closed, and he lost all conciseness.

Katie saw it, noticing that Alan's eyes, which had been fighting to stay awake were now closed, and he had gone limp.

"Rachel! He's out!" Katie cried out, and Rachel immediately disengaged herself, despite her reluctance to do so. Alan's blood was the best tasting blood that Rachel had ever drank.

"Quick! Get a towel on his wound and press down on it, hard! Do not be gentle! Press hard!" Rachel shouted as Katie did so, and began pressing down on Alan's neck wound. Although the sight of so much blood made her want to turn away and puke, she held strong, and kept the towel she had pressed down.

Rachel had grabbed the towel that Katie had given her, and was pressing down on her own neck wound. She felt weak, despite having fed so much, and her eyes returned to normal.

"I-I'm going downstairs to drink from the blood bags, can you stay here with him?" Rachel asked weakly.

Katie turned to Rachel and nodded. "Yeah, I can do this." Katie said.

"Don't panic if he stops breathing or showing other signs of death. As I said before, he is going to quite literally die, okay?" Rachel warned.

Katie nodded again, and Rachel turned and went downstairs.

Katie was shaking as she began to feel the blood soak through the towel and on to her hands, and she watched Alan carefully. Each of his breaths seemed to get slower and slower. It was just as Rachel had said, Alan was dying.

Tears filled Katie's eyes as she wondered just how much this would change Alan. When he dies, will his normal, human personality die with it? Will the original Alan Brooks that Katie had come to know and love be gone, replaced by some other, foreign Alan?

Or, will it be his hate that kills his personality? Katie hadn't been this helpless and this uncertain of the future since she had been kidnapped, and she despised it. She hated this feeling, and vowed to try and do her best to help preserve Alan and Rachel as they were as she watched Alan, who had now stopped breathing.

*****

Rachel was almost seeing double by the time she reached the blood bags. Alan had drained a lot out of her, and she hadn't felt this weak for a long time, even when she had been starving herself. She continued to press the towel she was clutching against her neck, which she felt was beginning to become a little soggy from the blood that was soaked into it.

The first bag was easily gone, and she let out a grateful breath as she finished. She had needed that. She decided to check her neck wound, and found that yes, there was a bathroom on the first floor with a mirror.

Rachel saw that she looked pale, though she knew there was more than one reason why she was pale, and it wasn't the blood loss. She saw that some of the blood had gotten into her hair, which she was going to have to wash as soon as her wound healed.

She removed the towel, and saw that her wound hasn't healed yet, and it was still leaking. She pressed the towel back on, and sighed.

What she just did was eating at her. She hoped that Alan didn't change that much now that he was going to be a vampire. She had loved Alan just as he was. Normal, kind, and a human. Rachel would never forgive herself if Alan started giving in to the temptations of power, and change because of it.

She once again began fighting tears. Alan had told her once that she was the best thing that happened to him. But now, Rachel was beginning to feel that she was, in reality, the worst thing that could have happened to him. And now, it was too late to go back. Whether she stayed or left him, it would destroy him as much as it would destroy her.

And then, there was Katie. How long did she have before she would begin to ask Rachel to turn her? How long would it be before Katie went through something similar, and her kind heart began to fill with hate just as Alan was beginning to do?

Rachel once again condemned herself for being so stupid and blind. She had been so excited and happy to finally bond with others on such a deep level that she really didn't think of the consequences of her being in their lives.

Unfortunately at this point, all she could do is wait and pray.

*****

"Lord Constantine, to what do I owe this honor?" Lady Pandora responded politely. Lord Constantine may have been a tricky son of a bitch, but he and Lady Pandora have always gotten along, to an extent.

"I think you know as well as I what I would want to discuss with you." Lord Constantine answered.

"Thinking of stirring up some trouble are we?"

"Please don't put it so lightly, I believe a 'coup d'etat' would be a much better expression."

"Quite the ambitious one aren't we?" Lady Pandora, however, was smiling at this.

"Neither of us like Lord Caleb, I thought that this might be a good time to get rid of him."

"Maybe, but with the other Lords here, that could be dangerous. Lord Hector and Lord Issac would join Lord Caleb's side since they would want to preserve the balance as it is, and Lord Christian would also join him to protect his own interests. As for the others, well, Lady Helen and Lady Francine would probably join us, which only leaves Lord Richter. I'm not sure what he would do. He just might want to sit back and watch us fight from the sidelines."

"Yes, that's true. But, if we manage to oust Lord Caleb in one fell swoop, that will solve everyone's problems. I somehow doubt that the others will fight on Lord Caleb's behalf if he is dead."

"Confident as well as ambitious, I like that."

"Unfortunately, Lord Caleb is now being cautious. Upon learning that all of us Lords are coming to America, he's increased security on his holdings. His power base is still in Boston, but he's constantly relocating from what I hear. He might be expecting someone to try to move against him."

"What do you propose?"

Lady Pandora was sure she could hear Lord Constantine's grin. "Let's do what he does, something extreme. We will, however, need as much help as we can get. See if you can get the other ladies to help us. I will do what I can concerning the other Lords, see if I can get them to look in the wrong direction. I'll also try to talk to Lord Richter, and see if I can get him to help us."

"I want to hear more about this 'extreme' idea of yours first."

*****

Lord Issac could sense it. War was approaching. As Lord of the Middle East, Lord Issac had always been attuned to war, since his region was in almost constant conflict. He wasn't sure who, but was sure that the target would probably be Lord Caleb, the most unpopular Lord among the nine.

Despite Lord Caleb's questionable actions, he hasn't done anything that merits a full out war. If he did, Lord Issac would be one of the first to step up and attack. However, that is not the case, and therefore, war is not justified.

Since Lord Issac had grown up in the holy land during the time Ottoman Empire had ruled it, Lord Issac had seen nothing but war almost his entire life. He had been forced into both world wars and it was during the World War 2 that he had been turned. He had also fought in the wars against Israel, the Iran-Iraq war, the war in Afghanistan, and the Gulf war.

All of these he had seen and fought in, mostly to try and protect the lives of the innocents who had been forcibly dragged into the wars. He was sick of war, and wanted to avoid them at all costs. Although he couldn't prevent the second Gulf War, along with the second war in Afghanistan, despite being a Lord at the time, perhaps this one he could help prevent if he came to America during this minor crisis that was going on.