Darkness. An intense all-surrounding darkness, numbing her senses and suffocating her body. Her mind was left floating in the silence until it suddenly sparked back to life. Confusion and chaos erupted. Her body was still wrapped in paralyzing darkness. Her mind fizzled and buzzed.

Something had hit her tongue, causing the sudden jumpstart. Something sliding down to . Cool and warm at the same time. It reminded her of something, but she wasn’t able to recognize it yet. Her mind had been shut down and it was only just rebooting. Rebooting, that’s what this was like.

Her body finally caught the spark that had her mind whirring, tingling her muscles and skin. The tingling got worse. It spread to stinging and not soon after it burned. She screamed. But what reached her ears wasn’t the earsplitting scream she’d imagined. Only a soft murmur.

She frowned. And startled at the movement of her facial muscles. She heard that murmur again. It hadn’t been her. She was sure of it. and voice were still refusing to cooperate.

“Slowly,” someone murmured close to her ear.

She could feel the soft breath against her skin now.

“Don’t force anything. Even if it hurts.”

God, did it hurt. It felt like she was being torn apart. Put together. And torn apart again. A whine slipped from . Hoarse and barely audible, but it was the first sound she’d produced since… She stilled again. Since what? Since her body had shut down. Since her mind had faded away. She’d died. She was supposed to be dead.

“Slowly,” the voice chided her as she in a sharp breath.

Ah, now she knew. Her eyes blinked open, painfully slow. She couldn’t see anything yet except blurry images. She took her time and waited for her eyes to adjust. A face came into focus. A sharp chin. Pale smooth skin. Blond bangs falling into his eyes. A small smirk playing around his lips.

“Oh… Sehun…”

His smirk grew even wider.

“Welcome back.”

She watched the intriguing dark swirling in his eyes, only vaguely noticing how close he was. She could almost count his long eyelashes.

“How…?”

Her tongue peeked out in a reflex to her dry lips.

“Here.”

He lifted his wrist to . She stared at him in confusion.

“Drink,” he urged. “You’ll need it to regain your strength.”

The confusion only grew as she saw the blood on his wrist. He carefully tilted her chin, pressing the wound against her lips. Cold and warm. Soft and intense. His blood slid down , setting her body even more on fire. She coughed and spluttered. He chuckled softly.

“You’ll feel better in a while.”

Ae Ri sighed tiredly.

“What happened?”

“Didn’t I tell you? You had a price to pay.”

“But I’m still breathing...”

“No,” he corrected. “You’re breathing again. Though you don’t really need to.”

“I don’t… understand…”

She tried to get up, but yelped in pain. He quickly pressed her down again.

“Don’t. Your body is still adjusting.”

“Adjusting?”

He hummed, repositioning himself to get comfortable and Ae Ri suddenly realized he was laying flush against her and sneakily pressing even closer. She didn’t mind.

“Your body died. And now it’s rising again. It’s trying to adjust.”

“It hurts.”

“Only for a little while,” he soothed. “It’ll stop hurting soon.”

It stayed quiet for a while. A comfortable silence. Ae Ri slowly felt the dizziness fade and sighed in relief. Sehun let out a soft laugh in amusement.

“You’re a vampire now, Kim Ae Ri,” he smiled. “And you’ll be spending your eternity with me. That’s the price I’m claiming from you.”

Ae Ri stared at him. She’d been scared of him. For more than ten years. And she couldn’t understand it anymore. Where she’d seen cold eyes, there was nothing but warmth now. Where his voice had sounded dangerous, he sounded soothing now. She knew he was a creature of the dark and capable of many cruel things. But apparently… so was she now.

Ae Ri let her gaze wander around.

“We’re in my room?”

He looked around as well and nodded.

“I thought you’d appreciate a more familiar place to wake up in then a rundown house.”

Ae Ri was stunned.

“Thank you.”

He shrugged.

“It already felt like home to me anyway.”

She frowned. Sensing something hidden behind his sly smile.

“How so?”

“I’ve been coming here for years now.”

He grinned. His sharp fangs peeked out from the gesture.

“What?”

“Ever since you ran out of that house, I’ve been keeping my eye on you.”

So those eyes she’d felt on her weren’t imagined? Every time she’d thought she’d seen a flash of something, she’d convinced herself it was just her mind playing tricks, but it had been real…

“The shadows hide me easily enough. I’ve watched you sleep here. Read, do your homework, talk to your girlfriends on the phone…”

Ae Ri blushed a bright red. Oh, god, what else did he see? She got dressed in her room for crying out loud.

“I was even here when you brought that boy over…”

His eyes flashed in anger at that.

“Though I did admire that slap you gave him when he put his hands where they didn’t belong.”

He nearly growled at the memory, looking away with a scowl.

“I came close to tearing his throat out a couple of times. But I didn’t want to risk scaring you away. I already managed that with that idiot babysitter of yours. Who the hell brings a child along to an abandoned house?”

The image of her former babysitter easily emerged in Ae Ri’s mind. Eccentric and never one for sitting around quietly. It hadn’t been the first time she’d taken her charge out along with her.

“She was supposed to go with her friends the night before, but they bailed on her. And I’d never been afraid of such things. Not back then at least.”

“I know,” he smiled. “From the moment you saw me, you were staring at me so fearlessly.”

He leaned closer, keeping their gazes locked together.

“Those eyes held the world and all creatures in it. I felt as if I’d fallen under a spell. But you were still so small. Still a child.”

Sehun reached out and softly her cheek. Ae Ri leaned into the gentle touch without thinking.

“I was surprised when you came to find me on your own. I’d already been planning to come over to claim you now that you’re no longer a child.”

Suddenly he dipped his head down, pressing his lips on hers. She gasped. Her body reacted quicker than it had the entire time she’d been waking up. She arched up into his embrace and felt him smile into the kiss. She kissed back fiercely. It was everything like their first kiss and more. Her skin burned wherever he touched her. The nagging pain in her body melted away. Sehun’s tongue slipped between her teeth and he tangled it with hers. When Sehun suddenly winced, Ae Ri realized she had two sharp-edged fangs as well. She pulled away from the kiss.

“Sorry,” she murmured, completely out of breath.

He chuckled, looking disheveled and his eyes hungrily took in every inch of her.

“Doesn’t matter,” he grinned. “You could’ve used more blood anyway.”

She hummed softly as his hand ran down her waist teasingly slow.

“How much more?” she smiled, leaning up to kiss him again.

He quickly accepted her invitation, tangling themselves together again. They kissed until Ae Ri couldn’t hold her desperate grasp on Sehun anymore. Her body was crying with exhaustion. Sehun pecked her raw-kissed lips and his own who looked just as red and swollen. He tugged her into his arms, keeping her warm in his cool embrace.

“Sleep,” he ordered. “When you wake up tomorrow night, you’ll no longer be human.”

“A vampire…”

Ae Ri let the realization roll around in her mind. She was a vampire now. Sehun noticed her distracted stare.

“Are you angry?”

She thought about it for a while. She would have to give up her life now. Her parents, her friends,… Daylight, ice-cream,… But she’d already been prepared to give all that up when she walked into that house. She’d expected death. Now she had a life after death. With Oh Sehun.

“No… But you better not regret it.”

A small grin formed on her face. He raised his brow in question.

“You promised me eternity by your side. You’re not backing out of it now.”

He shook with laughter.

"I wouldn't dare."