Her eyes were wrong.
Vicki stood in the doorway of the trailer, swaying slightly, her skin pale in a way that had nothing to do with exhaustion. Veins pulsed beneath her cheeks—dark, branching, visible even in the dim light.
"Matty." Her voice was a whisper. "I'm so hungry. He made me drink something, and then... the light hurts..."
No. No, no, no.
I knew what I was seeing. I'd watched the show. I knew the signs of transition—the sensitivity to light, the amplified hunger, the confusion as the body died and something else took its place.
Damon had turned her.
"Come inside." I pulled her away from the fading daylight, closing the door behind us. "Sit down. Tell me what happened."
She collapsed onto the couch, shaking. "He kept me in a dark room. Fed me something—his blood, I think. Then..." Her hand drifted to her throat. "He broke my neck. I woke up like this."
The transition. Vampire blood in the system, then death, then this in-between state. She had hours—maybe until morning—to either complete the change or let herself die.
"I'm so hungry, Matty." Her voice cracked. "It's all I can think about. The hunger is eating me alive."
I saw the moment her control slipped.
One second she was my sister, scared and confused. The next, she was a predator lunging across the room, veins fully visible, mouth open to reveal emerging fangs.
I didn't think—I acted.
My palm opened on the blade I'd kept hidden in my pocket, and I shoved my bleeding hand toward her face.
"Vicki, stop!"
She bit down on my palm instead of my throat, and the pain was sharp and immediate. But something else happened too—something I'd never felt before.
Click.
Like a key turning in a lock. Like a circuit completing. My blood flowed into her, and I felt a connection form—a thread of awareness stretching between us, binding her will to mine.
Vicki's eyes cleared. The feral hunger faded, replaced by confusion and then recognition.
"Matt?" She pulled back from my hand, blood on her lips, expression shocked. "What just—I can hear your heartbeat. I can feel... I can feel you."
The blood bond. I'd read about it in the Powers outline, but I'd never known what it would feel like. Now I understood: my blood had created a loyalty connection, a supernatural link that gave me influence over the vampire who consumed it.
My sister was bound to me.
"I'm sorry." Vicki started crying—red tears streaking her cheeks. "I didn't mean to attack you. I couldn't control it."
"It's okay. You stopped."
"Because you told me to." She stared at me with new understanding. "What did you do to me?"
Before I could answer, Stefan's car pulled up outside. He was through the door in seconds, assessing the situation with ancient eyes.
"She's in transition." It wasn't a question. "How long since she woke?"
"A few hours. She attacked me and I—" I showed him my bleeding palm. "My blood did something. Created a connection."
Stefan's expression shifted. He approached Vicki carefully, studying her like a specimen.
"Attack me," he said.
Vicki tensed, hunger flaring in her eyes, but she didn't move. Her body trembled with the effort of restraint.
"I can't." Her voice was strained. "Matt's blood—it won't let me."
Stefan looked at me with new calculation. "Blood bond. I've heard of it, but I've never seen one formed by a human. Your abilities keep getting more interesting."
"How long does it last?"
"Unknown. Days, maybe. Weeks if you're lucky." He turned back to Vicki. "You have until morning to complete the transition. Either drink human blood and become a vampire permanently, or refuse and die. That's the choice."
Vicki's hand found mine, her grip desperately tight. "I don't want to die, Matty. But I don't want to be a monster either."
I squeezed back, feeling the bond humming between us. Through it, I sensed her fear, her hunger, her desperate hope that someone would tell her the right answer.
I didn't have the right answer. I only had impossible choices.
"If you turn," I said carefully, "I can help you. The blood bond means I can keep you stable. Stefan can teach you control. You don't have to become a monster."
"And if I don't turn?"
"Then you die peacefully. Before dawn. And I'll be with you the whole time."
Vicki closed her eyes. Red tears continued to leak from beneath her lashes.
"I want my candy," she whispered.
It took me a moment to understand. "The sour gummies?"
"Yeah. Can you get them?"
I found the bag in my truck—the same kind I'd brought her at the hospital, bright packaging and artificial colors. Small comforts in the middle of catastrophe.
She ate them mechanically, barely tasting. Vampire taste buds were already replacing human ones, dulling the familiar flavors.
"They're not the same," she said. "Nothing tastes right anymore."
But she kept eating anyway, clinging to something familiar while her humanity slipped away.
Stefan and I sat with her as the night deepened. The bond pulsed between us, a constant awareness of her presence, her hunger, her fear. Through it, I felt every moment of her struggle.
At 3 AM, she made her choice.
"I don't want to die." Her voice was small but certain. "Help me, Matty. Please."
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