Chapter 26

Annika

"A vampire,"

The word kept on ringing repeatedly in my head. This must be a joke, an expensive joke at that.

"Are you joking?" I asked him.

"No, I'm serious," He replied. I began laughing hysterically. It wasn't possible. I can't be a vampire, I'm human. I stood up from the floor and walked towards the mirror. I could see my reflection and it appeared human to me. I might look pale but I'm not a dead being.

"You're lying," I told him.

He walked up to me and showed me that spot in my hand.

"How do you explain this then?" He asked.

Dumbfounded, I asked, "Why did you do that?"

"You didn't deserve to die that way," he explained and I laughed.

I laughed so hard the tears started coming out of my face again.

"You should have let me decide that, you don't have any right to do that to me. Do you hear me? You have no damn right to turn me into whatever you just said you did," I yelled, hitting his chest repeatedly.

He held my hand, stopping me from doing that.

"It's not possible. You can't turn me into a vampire if you're not one yourself, right?' I asked. He raised an eyebrow at me.

"How do I explain this to you?" He asked.

"I don't know. Tell me something, anything but just don't tell me what you did worked"

"It worked, okay? You've turned to a vampire. But right now, you're a newborn and your type are newly transitioned vampires. You need time to process a lot. Because you might become unstable because of heightened senses and emotions, ``he explained.

Total gibberish.

"I don't understand what you mean because I'm not what you just explained"

I answered in disbelief.

"Come here," he suddenly called out, beckoning me to walk closer to him. I couldn't deny his request.

As soon as I was close to him, he held my face in his large palm.

"When you're better, we'll talk about this. You can do your research about vampires till then and you can also ask me any questions, I'll give you an answer," He promised. Suddenly, all thoughts about the matter vanished from my head and a strange calm overpowered me.

"When can I go home?" I asked again.

"You can't go home," He gave me the same answer a second time.

"Why?"

He scrutinized me before responding.

"I can't let you go home yet because I don't trust you,". He replied

"I won't hurt myself, I promise" Not after I've realized it won't work even if I tried.

"I'm not worried about you. I'm worried about the people around you. You're different now and I don't trust that you won’t hurt other people," he explained.

Before I could respond, he interrupted.

"You should take a shower or else I'll be forced to make you do that," He threatened before he walked out of the bathroom.

I sat in the bathtub again for the next twenty minutes and thought about everything I've heard.

He must be kidding. I can't be a vampire. Maybe I'm just being punished for trying to kill myself. Maybe this is hell.

Right?

I removed the nightgown I was wearing and finally stepped into the shower to take my bath. After I was done, I walked out of the bathroom, with a towel wrapped around me. I couldn't wear the nightgown back because it was already stained with blood.

As I stepped into the room, Andro was sitting on the sofa closest to the bed. His legs were crossed as he was busy texting on his phone.

"I don't have anything to wear," I said, waiting for his response. He was so engrossed in what he was doing that he didn't even lift his head or bat an eye.

"Andro," I called out. It felt strange to call him by his name.

That made him look up and for a moment, after which he was silent. His eyes were all over me, from my head to toe. I felt uncomfortable all of a sudden and I wanted the ground to open up and swallow me.

"What,?" He finally asked.

"Uhm, clothes" I replied.

He pointed to the wardrobe at the end of the room. "Check that and see if you'll be able to get anything to wear. They're men's cloth but it should do," he responded.

I walked over to the wardrobe and opened its door.

It contained all sorts of men's shirts and pants. I knew they were probably his own or someone else's.

"What’s your name?" He suddenly asked. I was surprised he was just asking that.

"Annika," I replied. "Annika Agapov"

"Okay," when I turned to look at him, he was busy with his phone again. A sudden knock on the door startled me. Andro stood up and walked out of the door.

I heaved a deep sigh of relief as that gave me the opportunity to wear a shirt over my head quickly before he would come back. I used my hand to straighten my hair in the little way I could.

As I removed the towel from my body, the door opened suddenly, it was Andro, walking in with a box of juice.

"I thought you'll be thirsty" he offered, giving the box to me.

I was hungry, hungrier than I’ve ever been. A box of juice wouldn't be bad. Maybe I'll request food once I'm done.

"Thank you," I collected the juice from him and went on to sit on the bed while he sat on the sofa.

The tiny straw was already in the juice so it didn't take me much time to take my first drink.

The taste of the juice was weird. It is the first time I'll taste anything like this. I couldn't get myself to ask because of how good it was.

"Why does it taste different?" I asked as I swallowed the last drop.

"Cos it's different. Cos its blood,"

Wait! What!