Charm Bracelet

Writer's foreword: I kinda just wrote this off the cuff, the editing isn't wonderful, there's no structure, I just wanted to do something a bit less intense than what I normally try to do. So please don't judge me too hard for being a poor writer. Also there's no sex in this chapter, but with any luck I'll release more soon. Just wanted to share this for all the other subs out there lmao.

In case it isn't obvious, all characters are at least 18 when engaging in sexual activity. No one's doing vampire hookups at bars without ID.

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I was turned when I was seventeen.

I don't actually know if it was unpleasant, but I also don't actually know what happened. It had been a normal day at highschool and I blacked out when I was out with Taylor and got sick afterwards. She was my best friend at the time, and neither of us knew what was going on.

We knew sunlight started to bother me a lot, my body started to change and I started to develop fangs, and that first time I asked if I could bite her neck, we both realized I was becoming a vampire. I hated the idea, but she did the research and told me what to do, to keep away from silver and garlic and probably churches and crosses too. She even let me feed on her every so often, and I felt so guilty afterwards. But we knew we couldn't tell anyone, so it had to just be us.

Through experimentation we found out sunlight wasn't lethal to me, but god it hurt like all hell. Like the worst migraine in your life all over my skin. We also found that if I had more blood then I could deal with sun a lot easier, and I got a nice boost to my strength, not that I wanted it.

Taylor and I were close, she was the only one I'd felt comfortable coming out to about being trans, and when I was turned and my body for some reason became a girl's body, she grit her teeth and helped me work out how to find victims. She told me the alternative was probably that I died and she couldn't let that happen to me, and she wouldn't let me become a labrat either.

I was horrified by the idea, but we both knew I couldn't live with what little blood she could give forever. When my eighteenth birthday passed, she started taking me to bars with my rapidly feminizing body, told me what to say to people and my body did the rest. I hungered for them, and after we'd kiss, I'd lean into their neck and feed, and it was wonderful just to have blood on my tongue. Afterward, they'd forget what just happened, just like I must have, and just like Taylor did on the occasions I fed from her.

The first time I did it, I felt sick with myself, and said I wouldn't do it again. Taylor told me I had to, but I put my foot down and did not. It wasn't so bad for the first week but the sun got harsher, and I got weaker. First I couldn't bear to go outside, and then I couldn't bear to get out of bed. I stayed like that, so weak I could barely move for a month, until Taylor had enough, put her neck to my mouth and let my instincts take over. We found out like that, the hard way, that I didn't technically need blood to survive.

I moved out and managed to get a simple enough white collar job eventually, so I could stop pretending the changes were happening. Bruce became Amber, and she told me I'd become quite an attractive young girl, even if I seemed to keep aging until I was about 20. Things became routine, no one ever got in my pants so genderwise I never got clocked, and Taylor and I split paths eventually. She knew now that I could take care of myself, and I knew she couldn't take care of me forever.

Every week I'd go to a random bar, get a guy in private to make out with and take a bite of him. I started to become numb to the guilt, even if I liked them back on occasion, they did throw themselves at me and I almost felt they asked for it, considering how little I took. I'd leave, try not to think about it, and get on with my week.

Until things changed.

It seemed like a normal feeding night, I was at a bar, chatting up some guys. One of them was falling for me, I could see it in his eyes. I don't know if it was that he was naive, but this boyish innocent look betrayed that I could get what I wanted from him. I just had to make him think he could have me, and get him alone. But then she walked in.

She approached the group I was in, chatting up the group in a similar manner that I had, but of course more appropriate for someone with the style she displayed. I usually stayed dismissive of anyone who wouldn't be useful to me in a place like this, but she was something else. She must have been six feet tall, a full half foot taller than I had become after the changes stopped shrinking me into this body, with auburn hair and warm brown eyes and arms that looked like she could just carry me away with ease. And the way she talked. She just oozed confidence. There was no way I was pulling her in any direction she didn't want to go, making her do anything she even slightly had misgivings about. This was someone who got what she wanted. Consciously I knew that made her a very bad choice for a victim, but she was so enchanting.

I must have been staring because she turned to smile at me, and I felt my cheeks warm. I hadn't been paying any attention to what anyone had said for a little while now. I tried to reorient myself, paying attention to the boy from earlier. He seemed taught between us, but I needed to get his attention. "Hey, why don't we go ta-"

"Tell you what fellas, how about you guys go get a round of free drinks, and I get a moment with the cutie over here?" to everyone's amazement, she just pulled out a couple of hundred dollar dollar bills and laid them on the table like they were a tip. The guys shrugged at each other and I felt a heat on my neck as my target gave me an apologetic look and followed his friends. She slid into the booth and gave me a terrifyingly predatory smile. I had to ask myself if she knew something.

"Look at you..." she rested her head in her hand, just watching me with a smile. It made me nervous, but I tried to keep calm. She was probably just a lesbian. If I played my cards right, it's possible I could even feed on her.

"I'm sorry?"

She paused, placing her drink on the table and stirring it with her straw, before raising it near her lips and looking at me again.

"You're cute."

I felt my cheeks warm, but I wasn't convinced I could even blush, just as long as I had something of a deficiency of blood to even run to my cheeks. She was affecting me though. I'd always been the one pushing boys in the past, and they let me have them, but it felt like someone wanted to take me away for once. With the normal dynamic reversed, I felt something stir in me when she looked at me like that.

"I, um... thank you"

She chuckled, and her voice was warm, I couldn't help but smile hearing it.

"What's your name cutie?"

I smiled just a little, the warmness in my cheeks refusing to go away. "I'm Amber... it's short for Ambrose."

She nodded, smiling all the while. "Ambrosia, the nectar of the gods and the one who lives forever. You know you have a boy's name, right?"

I shrunk a little. Well educated or not, the last thing I needed was a reminder of that part of my life, even if it was a simpler time. "Tell my parents that", and I might have come off a bit curt.

She smiled again. "I'm Holly. Nice to meet you." There was no hand shake, she just paused for a moment, then continued

"What is a girl like you doing in a place like this though? I hope those boys weren't troubling you" there was the slightest hint of concern, but more so I felt like she was toying with me somehow. Whatever I told her, she would use in a way I couldn't predict. I had long since learned that as much honesty as I could afford was the best lie, so I looked down bashfully, ashamed as I truly was.

"I just... need someone right now. Things are hard, ya know?"

She nodded, and seemed gentler this time. Predatory still, the warmness of her eyes kept stealing my gaze, threatening to care for me like no one had in a long while. I tried to keep my eyes down more.

"Were you planning to take one of those boys home then? You're young, aren't you, don't you feel a bit like you take something from them? You had that kid wrapped around your finger when I came in"

I dare not look at her, nodding sullenly.

"I wasn't gonna sleep with them, but, yeah... I don't feel great about it but I need someone."

She reached across the table and put a hand on mine. I jumped slightly to be taken from my thoughts, and I must have looked like a deer in the headlights, looking up at her again.

"How about I take something from you instead tonight?"

My cravings were mounting, but so were the feelings she stirred in me. I knew I would feel awful with myself feeding on her but I also knew I needed to soon, and it seemed like she would let me.

Hesitantly, I let out a quiet "y-yes please..."

She grinned at me some more, stepping out of the booth, all the while never letting go of my hand, only to lift me out as well. She led me along by my hand out of the bar, around its corner and to a spot no one would find us unless someone else had the same idea we did. I'd been here before, made out with others then taken their blood in this exact spot, and I found myself afraid to do the same with her. It had only been a couple of minutes and she already had me all figured out, except how it mattered most. Maybe that made her special. Maybe if I fed on her, I'd lose someone I might want to keep.

We got to the spot and she pulled me in front of her more forcefully than any boy had before. Instead though, she didn't lift me up and start kissing me immediately, she just held me there and looked into my eyes, and I wanted her even more. Gently, she pushed me up against the wall and only then lifted me up, and I found myself unconcerned with the dirt I was inevitably getting on my clothes. I knew my eyes were a cold unfeeling blue, the kind that might just tell you in advance you were looking at a monster. But she looked into me anyway with those beautiful brown eyes all the same, and I just wanted her to kiss me already.

Slowly, like she was teasing me, she brushed her lips against mine all feathery, and I felt myself pull her into me. She kissed me then, forcing her lips against mine in the best way. I was so hungry for her, when she pushed her tongue into my mouth, I wanted to just go crazy there and bite her.

This wasn't like the kisses I'd had from boys in the past. Boys who were so grateful just to have their tongues close to mine, and were easy to control. She had a purpose, and she attacked me with precision and desire and made me putty in her arms. Softer in all the ways only a woman could be, and rougher in only the way she could be. It was like no other kiss I'd shared.

I felt a sharp need building in me, the anticipation for blood that knew feeding was just a moment away. Her lips were on mine but I could feel my interest in that slipping away. I would use my strength to overpower her, huge as she was, just for a moment, then get at her neck. I was going to, and then.

And then I felt a burning sensation where she held my wrist, and that inhuman strength I had come to rely on was gone. I let myself fall back out of the kiss, turning my head away to cough as I tried to push her away. Somehow I couldn't though. She had me in her arms and wouldn't let go, holding me up so my head remained near her shoulder. I was so close. Managing to get my coughing under control, and saliva building in my mouth, I tried to shift myself over and at least bite at the lower section of her neck.

Premature euphoria hit me, just to have a neck between my teeth, and I bit as hard as I could which wasn't very hard anymore, and nothing came out. No blood. She held me and stroked my back while I licked around and sucked as hard as I could. My tongue felt no piercings, no marks in her skin, and no fangs in my teeth. My fangs were gone. How would I feed? What happened?

Dread began to fill me, and tears of uncertainty began to soak my eyes. "What... why did..." I must have sounded like I was in shock. I had been so close, and now, what did this mean? What if I couldn't feed anymore? What if I had to endure the sickness forever?

She just held me and rubbed my back more. "How old are you, baby?"

"What? I'm... I'm 22..." and I felt her arms tighten around me like iron, as though she could crush my lithe form to pieces in that grip of hers. I sobbed harder, trying to move any of my free muscles to escape.

Her voice was hard, firm, almost menacing this time. "Don't lie to me. How old are you really? Sixty? Two hundred?"

Who did she think I was?

I tried to double my efforts but it felt hopeless, everything felt hopeless and I couldn't see anything with my vision all watery. "I'm 22, please... let me go... get off"

Her hold on me did not loosen, but she moved her hand into my hair and began stroking my head gently. The mix of pain, fear, and gentle comfort just made me cry more into her shoulder, and I gave up trying to get her off me. Her voice softened again, and she asked more.

"What is your real name? From before you changed?"

"I'm, I told you, my name is Amber" I managed to get each bit out through the tears as my hope ran out. She had me. She probably knew what I was. She could be here to kill me and that would be the end. Maybe I deserved it, maybe this was right. That I had been doomed from the moment I was turned, and I had been a fool to think I could get away with it this long.

"Amber..." her voice was soft with me, as I felt more soft strokes in my hair. "Short for Ambrose, a boy's name." She had me up against the wall again, and what fear had been replaced by hopelessness returned. She lifted her leg up between mine, and I was powerless, or rather too slow maybe, to stop her. I felt her leg press against my crotch, and she would have felt it too. I whimpered, and my sobbing renewed. She knew about the part of me that hadn't changed when the rest did. The one place I was still a boy. No one had known about that for years, and perhaps I'd been a fool too for thinking I could just keep that to myself. Prying hands on feeding nights were kept out, bathing suits had been avoided and trust had been a luxury I couldn't afford, and none of that could stop this woman who knew both of my worst secrets. All I could do was cry more.

But she rubbed my back more, loosening her grip so she no longer felt like she would crush me. "I believe you baby, it's ok" and I found myself clinging to her now. I wanted to run away but I also didn't want to leave this shoulder I could cry into and these arms that would hold me and comfort me, that had only a moment ago been my prison.

"Shh... I'll make sure everything's alright baby. Don't worry anymore." She cooed and comforted me, and I felt myself coming back to my body as the tears ebbed, to the situation I was stuck in. I licked around my teeth to look for my fangs, and kept looking and looking, like they had to be there somewhere. I'd felt burning in my wrist earlier, which I also tried to feel around for. I found a thin metal chain, which I tugged on, hoping it would come off. But she squeezed me and I instinctively tensed.

"Don't try to take that off baby, you won't be able to anyway."

I looked up at her, resenting her. I mustered up all the inner strength I could, and put on the confident face I held when I just needed to twirl someone around my finger, hoping to get her to fear or respect me.

"What did you do to me?"

"I've neutered you, baby. As long as you have that charm on you, you can't bite anyone or overpower anyone. You're not dangerous anymore."

I looked down at myself and began to cry gently again, and she resumed rubbing my back.

"You're free to go if you want, but I'm still not sure you can survive like that. I'll make sure you get blood again when the time is right, baby. I'm the only one who can take the charm off. Don't try to run away from me" Her voice was scary but also so... caring. Like a vet trying to save an injured animal, telling it to stop struggling. Was I just that? An animal? I hunted like one, I guess. A part of me didn't care though. She at least didn't seem like she was going to hurt me now.

I looked up at her again, tears in my eyes this time, as I tried desperately to read her face. Those warm chocolate eyes looked back at me, pierced me and reminded me of how vulnerable I was. I looked away.

"What... are you going to do with me now" for all I knew she would leave me here, with no warm arms around me, no warm blood in me, left to get sick forever and ever, until my landlord kicked me out and I would be sick in the rain and the burning sun.

I think she saw somehow what was going through my head. "If you'll let me, I'll take you home with me and keep you safe. I need to run some tests on you and see how the charm is doing."

I let my gaze wander dejectedly. I didn't really think I ever wanted to leave these arms anyway. But. "So... I get to be your experiment... o-or?"

"Or you take your chances and hope I got it perfect this time, which I probably didn't. I'm sorry baby, but I can't keep letting you hurt people."

I dare not look at her, but leaned into her for all the heat I could get. The air was cold and silent. The whole world could have gone away and she would still have me entirely. That confidence, those looks, I should have seen the warning signs. She knew she would have me, and now she did. I lusted for blood in my mouth, but she was probably right. How could I have gone on like that, hurting people forever. I was out of tears.

"Take me" I managed, simple and apathetic. My eyes half closed, she shifted me up into her arms and carried me bridal. From the lights, I guessed we went to the parking lot, but I couldn't care to see too much. I heard the sound of a car unlocking, and its door opening, and she gently if not awkwardly lowered me into the back seat.

I leaned against the seat, and looked up at her. She smiled at me, and reached out to move the hair from my eyes, then stroked my head soft. "You're so beautiful, baby. I'm glad I picked you. Try to get some rest if you can, I know you're hungry and it's been a big day" I lowered my eyes, and looked away from her. She leaned in and kissed me on the forehead before closing my door and getting into the driver's seat.

I leaned against the door the whole way, my eyelids half closed as I tried to take her advice. I might have drifted off a couple of times but I couldn't stay asleep like that.

The house she pulled into was large, and looked expensive. It wouldn't have surprised me if she had gone into a nice neighbourhood while she went. I opened my eyes a little more and looked around her car too. It looked expensive as well, and couldn't have been that old. I had no way of knowing where she got all this money from, but she clearly knew more about this world than I did. I happened to be a vampire, but she knew vampires, and how to 'neuter' them, and charms. I closed my eyes and felt my throat tighten. This world was too complicated.

She was at my door again, undoing my seatbelt, and I found myself reaching up for her to carry me again, bringing me into her home. She kept the lights off, and carried me up some stairs through which I clinged a little tighter to her. At last I felt her place me in a bed, and I felt her rubbing my back, only to realise she was trying to tell me I could let go now. She was quiet now, and my senses were not as acute in the night as they had been.

"Do you want to sleep in those clothes, or would you prefer to take them off?" I only shrugged, and to my surprise I heard her taking off clothes before getting into the same large bed behind me. They'd sounded heavy, maybe even armored, but now she was pulling me close again. My cheeks were warm and I shifted around to face her, moving up the bed to bite her neck again, biting and sucking and hoping anything would come out. She stroked my back and let me before I just sobbed into her.