Three Bites and You're Out....

Cassie looked at her neck in the mirror. Yep, they were still there. Two ugly, discolored hickeys that her new boyfriend, Jace, put there in a fit of passion. She sighed as she began applying makeup again in an attempt to hide them from the observant eyes of her family and co-workers. Thank God I live in my own house and not at home! she thought. Then she smiled, thinking of him.

She remembered the night she had met Jace at the opening of the Folk Festival barely a month ago. Their mutual attraction was evident right from the start. His handsome face with that gorgeous cleft in his chin almost compelled her to lean over and kiss him. But of course, she hadn't. She hadn't met him yet. He had just been a guy standing a few feet away from her, swaying to the music. But she couldn't take her eyes off him.

He told her later, after they'd become lovers, that he had been fascinated with her too. He had thought she had the most enchanting pixie-look about her, and that her short hair hugged her small face in such an endearing way. Jace had thought her violet eyes seemed almost too large for such a delicate face. Yet, it was those eyes he had said that fascinated him the most.

Eventually, Jace had wandered over to Cassie and introduced himself. That's how it all started. So simple. The kind of thing that happens all the time. Two people meet, and a relationship begins.

"But," Cassie said to her reflection in the mirror, "he has to stop giving me these hickeys! I have to deal with the public in my job. I can't be going around with this sort of 'thing' exposed on my neck for all to see. Geesh!"

She put the makeup brush down and looked in the mirror again. Do I look paler than normal, or is that my imagination? She shrugged and grabbed her purse from the bed, heading for the door. If she didn't hurry, she'd be late for work.

Cassie worked at a travel agency in the city. She enjoyed her job immensely. Planning vacation itinerary was her cup of tea. Today, she had an appointment with an elderly couple that wanted to go on a cruise to Alaska.

She squinted against the bright sunlight as she unlocked her car door. For some reason, the sun seemed to bother her for the last week. Maybe I should have my eyes checked, she thought, getting in the car.

***

Jace picked her up at seven that night and they went to a secluded beach. Cassie spread the quilt on the soft sand and threw a few pillows down on it. They had picked a spot between two sand dunes that had a perfect view of the moon over the glistening water. Jace built a small fire, and they roasted marshmallows, drank wine, and gazed at the moon.

"This is so romantic," Cassie said, nestling up against Jace on the quilt.

"Umm...." he replied, nuzzling her neck.

"Jace, don't you dare give me another hickey! I...."

But she said it too late. His teeth sank into her neck, and he drank greedily. She suddenly felt almost weightless. A lassitude engulfed her. She drifted. She was there on the beach, yet she wasn't. What is happening to me? she wondered, just before a blackness descended on her.

***

She opened her eyes to total darkness. She blinked, but could still see nothing. Where am I? She began to panic. She tried to sit up, but hit her head on something, which caused her to collapse back into a prone position. She reached out with her hand, feeling her boundaries. It seemed as if she was in a box of some kind. Oh God! Let me out of here! Hysterical now, she pushed at the top of the box, but it was heavy and barely moved an inch.

"JACE!" she screamed in fright.

But Jace did not respond. Where is he?

She pushed at the lid again, but she felt extremely weak and had to stop to rest. What's happening? How did I get in this...box? Frantic now, she gathered up what little strength she had left and shoved at the lid. To her relief, it opened...to more darkness.

Drawing in a ragged breath, she sat up and waited for her eyes to adjust to the slightly lighter shade of darkness than had been in the closed box. After several minutes, she realized she could see very clearly in the dark--as clear as she could have in the light of day. However, that realization was forced to the back of her mind when she noticed she was sitting in a coffin.

Oh my God! I'm in a coffin! Is this one of Jace's sick jokes? I'm not laughing....

She clumsily climbed out of the coffin, noticing it seemed to be in a vault of some kind. She scanned the area for an exit, and spotted Jace quietly sitting on another casket, watching her. Her eyes flashed as she stomped over to him.

"Is this your idea of a joke?" she screamed in his face.

"Hardly a joke, dear Cassie," he responded. "Come here and sit beside me."

Suddenly, she didn't trust him. She looked around the vault, seeing other caskets on ledges. No, this is too freaky. Why should I trust him after doing this to me?

"No, just tell what the hell is going on here. Better yet, lead me to the exit!"

"Cassie, there is no easy way to tell you this...."

"Tell me WHAT!?" she screamed at him.

"You are a...vampire now."

She looked at him with total disbelief in her eyes.

"That's not even funny, Jace. You on drugs or something?"

He ran his fingers through his hair, then looked at her and sighed.

"It wasn't meant to be funny. I was merely stating the facts. You see, I am a vampire and tonight...I converted you."

He looked so dead serious she found herself believing what he said. But it CAN'T be possible, can it? her sub-conscious screamed at her.

"I-I don't understand...."

"I'm sorry. It's my fault. I couldn't stop myself from drinking too much. It wasn't my intention to convert you. It just happened."

"You're serious then. This is not a sick joke? I'm really a vampire?"

He nodded his head sadly, and she collapsed to the floor in front of him. She sat there, trying to prevent herself from screaming like a lunatic at the unfairness of it all. Finally, she looked up at him.

"Jace, what does this mean? I never even knew vampires were REAL, damn it!"

"Shhh..." he soothed, "what's done is done. It can't be changed. You'll never be a human again."

"Oh my God...oh, my God..." she chanted, holding her head in her hands and rocking back and forth.

"There's some things you need to know. For instance, you will always stay the age you are now. You'll never get any older physically...."

She raised her head. "I will be ageless?"

"Yes. Not only ageless, but almost immortal. There are only two ways that you could cease to exist: the sun or a stake through the heart."

"The sun?"

Jace nodded. "Looking at the sun will kill a vampire--even being in direct sunlight could cause serious damage. So you must avoid the sun at all times, and only go out at night. Understand?"

Cassie nodded her head and looked at him with wide eyes.

"Now...er...you will need to feed. I don't mean eat in the human way. You will have the need for...blood. You have to have it. Not having it won't cause your death, per se, but lack of feeding will make you weaker and weaker until finally, you can't move at all--a sort of catatonia. So you must feed regularly...."

"What!? I have to drink blood? From...PEOPLE?"

This must be a nightmare. That's it, a nightmare, and I'll wake up soon and....

"Not necessarily from humans, Cassie, although human blood is the best. You can drink animal blood...any kind of blood, actually." He looked at her closely. "I can see the thought of drinking from a human is horrifying for you. That'll change in time. For now, perhaps it'd be better for you to feed on animals. If you don't drink more than you need, the donor will not die nor be converted. They will weaken temporarily, and sleep for several hours. When they awaken, they will not remember you biting them at all."

"Well, that's a plus anyway--not killing them, I mean. Umm...is that why I...er...only thought these were hickeys on my neck?"

Jace nodded. "Yes. You had no memory of my feeding." He smiled, then continued, "You also have the ability to transform now, and fly."

"Huh?"

"You can transform yourself into something else--say for instance, a bat--and fly around at night. Only AT NIGHT...remember that. The sun will kill you."

"So, I can only go out at night. Great Jace, that's just great. What about my job, huh?"

This CAN'T be really happening. No way. Vampires are just characters in movies. Wake up, Cassie!

"Well, I suppose you'll have to quit that job. Maybe find a night job somewhere."

"You been a...vampire long?" she asked him.

"A hundred years now."

"Get out! A hundred YEARS!?"

Now I know he's making this up. A hundred years? Yeah, right....

"Yes. I was converted in 1904."

"This is so hard to comprehend. I don't know if I can live like this. Why did you do this to me!?"

Just play along with him, until you wake up from this dream.

"I never meant to. It was the wine. I knew better than to drink it but...."

"What the hell does the damn wine have to do with this?"

"Vampires can't--or should I say, shouldn't--drink alcohol of any kind. When we do, we have a hard time controlling our urges."

"So, you drank more than you needed."

"Yes."

"Terrific. My life, as I have known it for the last twenty-four years, is ruined because of a bottle of wine."

***

Cassie's life changed drastically after that night. She had a hard time believing it hadn't been a dream after all. Suddenly, she found herself trying to survive as a vampire in a world of humans.

She got herself a job as a night security guard at a local toy company, making only half the wages she had at her old job. Of course, the security job was less hours too. It had to begin after the sun set and end before the sun rose. She worked from 9:00PM to 4:00am. This didn't leave much room for 'feeding' time.

She had begun buying and hoarding small animals in the basement at her house. Her nearest neighbors were half an acre away, so she didn't worry about the animals bothering them. Besides, it wasn't as if they would be running loose. She kept them slightly drugged to keep the noise level down.

She installed shelves, and there were rows and rows of caged animals lining the walls. She also had numerous cages of birds, medium to large birds. This was her 'food' supply for emergency use. She'd go 'grocery shopping' periodically to replenish her supply. So far, she hadn't resorted to feeding on humans.

At first, she thought she could only survive on blood and nothing else. Jace had been so unclear about some things, and at the time, she hadn't thought to ask. He was her boyfriend, and she assumed she could ask him whenever a question came up. Unfortunately, Jace stopped calling her after the conversion. Maybe the guilt of what he had done was too much for him. Whatever the reason, he no longer came around.

So in the first weeks, Cassie had only lived on blood and she lost weight at an alarming rate. Then one night, when thinking about Jace, it suddenly dawned on her that he had eaten human food. She remembered all the times they'd gone out to eat...and Jace ate as much, if not more, than she had. Jumping up, she grabbed her purse and went out looking for the nearest 7-Eleven.

She spent one whole weekend night light-proofing her bedroom. She painted the windows black, then nailed black plastic over them. Over all that, she hung insulated drapes. She'd go to sleep just before the sun rose, and arise after it set. No light infiltrated her bedroom.

At the toy company, she often got the urge to feed. At such times, she'd inform her partner on the job that she was going to the ladies room and sneak out the back door. There, she'd slink around the dumpsters, looking for unsuspecting rats to feed on. It really bothered her to have to do this, but she had no choice. It was either a rat or her partner's neck.

The first time she fed, it was on a stray cat she had found in an alley. She had knelt there, holding the cat, listening to it purr and had a battle between her vampire self and what memories she had of her human self. Just the thought of drinking blood--any kind of blood--made her feel nauseous. But in the end, the vampire side won the battle. The need to feed was too great. She extended her teeth, bent her head to the cat's neck and bit down through the fur. Cassie squeezed her eyes tightly shut as the blood entered her mouth, willing herself not to vomit. Now, feeding was done without squeamishness. It was just a means of survival.

Her social life was almost nil. On weekends, Cassie sometimes went to a club, but she felt uneasy around humans now. And there was always the worry, nagging at her mind, that one of them might look too good to her and she'd attack them.

So she spent a lot of time learning to transform and fly. The first time scared her, because when she transformed back to herself, her ears didn't change back. She still had bat ears, and feared she'd never get her own back again. She didn't know what to do.

“Oh, no! This can't... NO! What do I do now? Damn you, Jace!” she said to the empty room.

She tried tugging her short hair over her ears, but it wasn't long enough.

“Damn it!” she said, panicking.

She considered wearing a hat pulled down over her ears.

“It's summer, you fool! Humans will wonder....”

It wasn't until the next night, her last night off from work, that she tried transforming to a bat again, then back to herself, to see if the ear problem would fix itself. It was the only solution she could think of. Fortunately, it worked. There must have been some glitch in the first transformation.

She was slowly beginning to cope with being a vampire. She had to learn by trial and error, since Jace didn't stay around long enough to teach her the little intricacies involved in living as a vampire. Flying over her hometown in the dark of night, she couldn't help comparing her conversion to a baseball game. Only in her case, it was: Three bites and you're out...of the whole human race.

Life went on for her, but it was a lonely life. She didn't age, but watched as her family and friends get older, and older. She learned to explain her youthfulness by saying she had regular face-lifts. She knew she would have to move to another area soon--for her own protection. She couldn't keep up the pretense here much longer.

When her parents passed away, Cassie sold her house and moved to Paris. There she met other vampires, and her life became less lonely. Paris seemed to be a city of vampires. Unwittingly, Cassie had chosen to flee to a country beneficial to her.

Cassie met Jacques a few weeks after she arrived in Paris. She had transformed one night and was gliding over a rather ritzy Parisian neighborhood when she spotted him. He stood at the edge of a balcony and as she watched, he transformed into an owl. Seconds later, he was airborne.

Cassie followed him across the night sky, wondering why she'd never thought to transform into an owl instead of this ugly bat. Next time, a white owl, she thought.

Jacques flew across the city until he reached a very elegant house. He landed on the wrought-iron porch railing and almost immediately, began to change back to his human form. Cassie landed next to him and did the same.

Jacques' eyes widened in surprise. “Who are you and where did you come from?”

“I'm Cassie, and as you can see, I'm a vampire like you. I'm new to Paris, only been here a few weeks.”

He looked at her and nodded. “Welcome to Paris. I am Jacques. How did you know about this house?”

“I didn't. I saw you transform and followed you. You're the first vampire I've met in Paris.”

“I see. Well, nice to meet you, cherie. This house is a meeting place for the vampires inhabiting south Paris,” he informed her.

“There are more of us?” she asked in amazement.

He chuckled. “Many more of us, cherie. Did you think you and I were the only ones?”

“Well, I've only met one other vampire besides you. He was the one who converted me. I didn't realize how many vampires there are.”

“He didn't explain the history of the vampires?”

“No.”

“Were you converted voluntarily?” he asked.

“Uh...no. I had no idea what was happening until I regained consciousness.

Jacques shook his head. “That is not good. Did he intentionally convert you? Was it what we call 'sacrificial conversion'?”

“He told me it was unintentional, that he drank more than he should have....”

Jacques tsked-tsked for a bit, then said, “He should have know better. Come, I will introduce you and you will make some friends tonight.” He took her arm and led her inside.

Cassie was astonished to see nearly a hundred vampires socializing in a room that looked to be the size of four regular sized rooms combined. They all looked perfectly human but of course, they weren't human at all.

Jacques led her to what turned out to be the host and hostess of the gathering. “Marcel, Renée, allow me to introduce Cassie, a newly arrived vampire in Paris.”

“Delighted to meet you,” Renée said, taking Cassie's hand and squeezing it.

Marcel put his arm around her shoulders. “Come, we will introduce you to the others.”

So began her membership in the Paris Vampire Association. She couldn't get over the fact there were so many of them. She had spent years back home without ever seeing another vampire. There must have been some there, somewhere, but she had never run into any-or if she had, she never knew it.

She was trying to remember all their names when the clock struck midnight. As if the clock's chime was a signal, curtains along the walls slid back, revealing cages of animals-and several of humans.

Oh, my God! Cassie thought, looking at the caged people.

Marcel stood on a small platform and said, “Tonight, we have a rare treat.”

I'm going to puke Cassie thought, fighting the urge.

“As you can see,” Marcel continued, “besides our usual banquet of enticing animals, we have several humans delicacies tonight. Unfortunately, there are only five humans.” He sighed dramatically. “So, twenty of you will have to share each of these 'sacrificial conversions.'”

Twenty!? Is that possible? Will they be converted or dead when it's over? Cassie wondered. She was looking around for the exit.

“Since no one will get that much from the humans, I suggest you gorge yourselves on the animals and save the humans for dessert,” Marcel stated.

Cassie's mouth dropped opened at this suggestion. I'll never get used to this shit. Maybe because I'm not a voluntary vampire...I don't know. I have to leave before the feast begins...somehow.

“And,” Marcel continued, “since Cassie is new to Paris and our group, I think it would be the polite thing to do to let her have the first taste of one of the humans.” He turned and smiled at Cassie.

Oh, my God! No way....

“No...really... I insist on being last,” Cassie told him.

“No...no,” he insisted in return, “you must take the first bite.”

Cassie looked at Jacques in desperation, but he merely nodded his head and smiled.

Now what!? I'll feast on the animals and...maybe I can hold off on the human for a while saying I'm too full? Yeah...right.

“Well, if you insist,” Cassie told Marcel, forcing a smile.

“Excellent!” he crowed, just as Cassie spotted the exit door at one end of the wall of animal cages.

People started drifting to the cages to select their animals. Cassie glided toward the last cage near the door and was stopped by Jacques.

“This is quite an honor for you,” he told her.

Is he for real? she wondered.

She smiled at him. “I feel very...honored.”

He winked at her, then asked, “So, what will you have from the cages?”

“I have my eye on that puppy at the end there,” Cassie answered, pointing to it.

“Looks like a juicy one,” he commented. “I'm going for the little fox in the middle.”

“Enjoy,” Cassie said, as he walked away.

She managed to control the urge to run to the cage, and finally reached it, taking the animal out. Her teeth extended and she bit into it, drinking deeply. All the while her eyes were looking around at the other guests. They were all busy drinking and not paying attention to anything else.

The door was only two feet away. Cassie gently put the comatose puppy back in the cage, skipped the two feet to the door and was gone.

Finally reaching home, she flew in her open bedroom window and transformed back to her usual form.

“Thank God,” she said to the empty room. “That was close. Now I'll have some explaining to do next time I see them. Wonder if they'll believe I got sick and had to leave? Do vampires even get sick!? Oh God!”

Cassie was now working in a blood bank, which certainly seemed like a good job for a vampire to her. She had access to gallons of blood, but she had to be sneaky in taking what she needed, or they'd get suspicious.

She devised a plan. Cassie decided that she wouldn't record every tenth donor. Instead, she took their pint of blood and placed it in her backpack, which contained dry ice.

This worked out well. Most times she came home before sunup with three or four pints, sometimes more. She kept these in the refrigerator in thick, plastic containers.

She couldn't believe all the people that donated during the course of a night. Back home, the blood banks weren't even open to donors at night. Paris never slept it seemed.

Cassie wasn't even attacking animals much anymore now. She had her own supply of blood. Got this vampire thing under control! she thought, smugly. Except for drinking the blood from the fridge and flying around, she almost felt human again.

Cassie ran into Michelle on the street one weekend night and they went to a nearby café to chat. She had met Michelle at Marcel's house at the gathering.

“So, how have you been?” asked Michelle.

“Doing ok, how about you?”

“Oh, I have to find another place to live. They sold the apartment building I'm living in.”

“Bummer. How many rooms do you need?”

“Well, I could stay in one, if I had to, but the casket presents a problem.”

Cassie nearly choked on her coffee. “Casket?”

“Right. Where did you put yours?” she asked.

“Uh...I don't have a casket. Why do you have one?”

Michelle looked shocked. “You don't? Where do you sleep?”

“In my bed.”

“Bed!? You don't sleep in a casket?”

“Umm...no. Why would I?”

“Because all vampires do!” she exclaimed.

“They do not! Who told you such a thing?”

“Carlos, my converter.”

“Hmm...and were you converted voluntarily?”

“No. Damn him! You mean he lied to me about the casket?”

“Yep, big-time.”

“Double damn him! Arggghhh! I've been lugging that casket around for years! Do you have any idea how hard it is to hide one of those things?”

“I can imagine.”

“Ohhhh...that really gets me mad! I could have been sleeping in a nice, comfy bed all these years....”

“You going to ditch the casket?”

“Damn right I am! I'm going to get a nice queen-size bed.” She grinned. “I can't wait! Carlos better hope I never see his face again.”

“He dumped you?” Cassie asked.

“Yeah, right after the conversion.”

“Same thing happened to me.” Cassie then told her about Jace.

“So, we have something in common,” Michelle said.

As it turned out, they had even more in common. Michelle was only six months younger than Cassie and originally came from western Florida. Cassie was from the Florida Keys.

“Do you miss home and being human?” Cassie asked her.

“Hell, yeah! I miss wind-surfing and laying in the dunes getting a suntan. This wasn't something I wanted to be, you know?”

“I know. Me neither. Damn men!”

Michele laughed.

“Do you...er...drink human blood?: Cassie asked.

Michele actually blushed before answering. “Promise not to laugh?”

“Promise,” Cassie said.

“No, I don't do humans. I don't even bite into animals. What I do is...I have this transfusion kit I picked up somewhere in my travels and....”

“And?” Cassie prodded.

“And I'll get a dog or something, hook it up to the kit and siphon off a pint.”

Cassie's eyes widened in admiration. “Good for you! I do something like that myself.” She then explained about stealing from the blood bank. “Before that, I used to feed off animals. I could never feed off a human.”

“Me neither. Is that why you disappeared from the gathering that night?” Michelle asked.

“Yeah. How did you manage it?”

“I faked it. No one was really watching anyway. I just put my head down to its neck and waited a few minutes, then moved away. They never knew.”

“I'll have to remember that trick for future use,” Cassie said, grinning. “'Course, it wouldn't have worked for me that night; I had the first bite.”

“Right,” Michelle agreed. “The next person would have wondered why there was no bite mark on the neck.”

They began gathering up their stuff to leave. “Hey, I have an idea,” Cassie said.

“What?”

“My apartment has two bedrooms. You could move in with me! No casket, though.”

“Deal!”


Michelle moved in the following weekend. There was already a queen-size bed in the spare bedroom, so she didn't have to buy one. Cassie had light-proofed the room for her during the week.

“This is great!” Michelle said, flopping on the bed.

“Better than a casket, eh?”

“For sure!”

The two girls devised a routine to keep themselves supplied with blood. Cassie would go out on her nights off and collect stray cats and dogs. She'd bring these home to Michelle who transfused them. Once the animal was done with, Cassie took it back outside and let it go. The loss of a pint of blood didn't harm the animals any more than it did a human donor. In this way, they managed to collect a week's supply of blood every weekend. Cassie stopped taking blood from the blood bank.

By the time they went back to another vampire gathering, no one mentioned Cassie's disappearance from the last one she had attended. It was a place to go and just be what you were, a vampire. No need to pretend. They danced and flirted and amused themselves on a regular basis at Marcel's house.

Then one night they met Pierre and Henré. Cassie was infatuated with Henré. He had such a charming way about him and a great sense of humor. The fact that he was extremely handsome was a definite plus. They invited them to their apartment the next weekend.

“You think they'll come?” Michelle asked, nervously.

“Sure! They said they'd be here,” Cassie answered, setting a vase of flowers on the table.

“Sorry, I'm a nervous wreck. This is the first guy since Carlos-the creep.”

Cassie laughed. “I understand. First for me too since Jace.”

“We're a mess, aren't we? If we were human still, we'd have had dozens since them.”

“Yeah, probably. But in my case, I didn't know any other vampires, and I didn't want to risk going with a human-just in case I got the urge to bite him.”

Michelle grinned and the doorbell rang.

“That's them,” Cassie said, going to the door.

Typical exuberant Frenchmen, they immediately kissed and hugged the girls.

“Did you have trouble finding the house?” Cassie asked.

“No,” Pierre answered, “no problem.”

Michelle led them into the living room. They discussed many things that night, one of which was whether it was possible for a vampire to be converted back to a human.

“I do not think so,” Pierre said. “Why would you want to anyway?”

“We didn't consent to the conversion,” Michelle told him. “We were tricked into it.”

“Ahh...I see. You did not wish to be one of us.”

“Right,” Cassie said.

“Well,” Henré said, “I have heard rumors that it may be possible between a female vampire and a human male through sexual intercourse. But I do not know how true that is.

“Only between a female vampire and a human male? What if a male vampire wanted to convert back?” Cassie asked.

“It is said to be impossible for a male vampire. You see, it is like this: the human male during intercourse leaves part of himself in the female. That is what makes the woman human again. It cannot happen with a male vampire unless....”

“He mates with a man,” finished Michelle.

Henré nodded. “But like I said, this is just rumors. It has never been proven, and no one knows of any vampire that became human again.”

“Hmmm...” Cassie said, as she looked at Michelle and smiled.


“Ok, you ready?” Cassie asked Michelle.
“I guess, but I still can't believe I'm going out to look for some human to take to bed-a complete stranger!”

“Well, I've never picked up a stranger for sex before either, you know. You want to go back to being human, don't you?”

“Yeah, but....”

“This is the only way to do it...maybe...if the rumors are true. If not, well, no harm done.”

“No harm done!? What if we get pregnant? Catch AIDS?”

“Vampires can't get AIDS.”

“Lucky us, but we still could get pregnant.”

“That's a chance we'll have to take.”

Michelle looked at her like she was crazy.

It wasn't until they reached their third disco that they found two men that didn't turn their stomachs.

“Ok,” Cassie said, “I think I can manage to spend a night with this one without puking.”

The men were easier to seduce than Cassie would have imagined. Within the hour, they were being escorted to a hotel. When they all entered the same room, Michelle cast a frantic look at Cassie.

“Umm...” Cassie said, “we're all staying in one room?”

“No, darling,” Cassie's choice said, “we're just going to have another drink in here and then we'll go to my room across the hall.”

Michelle sighed in relief. She didn't need an audience watching her perform.

It was a long night for both girls. Every time they started to fall asleep, the men were at them again. Finally, an hour before dawn, the men passed out.

Cassie scrambled into her clothes, crept across the hall and lightly tapped on the door. She prayed the guy wouldn't answer her knock. Michelle opened it, already dressed.

“Good,” Cassie said. “We have to hurry. It's nearly time for the sun to rise.”

They found a window at the end of the hall, opened it, transformed and flew home.

Once there, Michelle asked, “How long would it take for this to work, if it worked?”

“I don't know. Obviously, it didn't work right away because we could transform and fly.”

“Right,” Michelle agreed, then she laughed.

“What's so funny?”

“Well, I was just thinking what if it worked while we were flying? We'd have taken a nose-dive.”

“Oh God, that'd be awful! We'd have succeeded only to end up DEAD humans.”

Michelle nodded, then began to cry.

“Aww, don't cry,” Cassie said, giving her a hug.”We made it safely back here.”

“It was so awful,” she whispered. “He was like a damn rabbit, doing it all night long.”

“Mine too, but hey, that's good, right? Better odds that it made us human.”

Michelle smiled through her tears. “Well, I guess if you look at it that way...yeah.”

Over the next few days, the girls noticed slight changes. They were only drinking half the amount of blood they normally did, for one thing. And it was getting harder to transform. At one point, they only transformed halfway. It just stopped. They had quickly transformed back again. After that, they couldn't transform at all.

“I think it's working, Michelle!” Cassie said, excitedly.

“Yeah, me too,” Michelle said with a grin.

The next day, their night-vision in total darkness began to fade. The night after that, they couldn't see in total darkness at all. By this time, they had no craving for blood at all and hadn't drank any in days. They didn't feel weak.

“Do you think it's over?” asked Michelle.

“I'm not sure. There's just one thing left.”

“What's that?”

“The sun.”

“Oh God! It's too dangerous. If we're wrong, it'll kill us.”

“But Michelle, we really have no choice. Besides, I don't think we're wrong. All the other vampire traits are gone. We'll wait a few days before we go out in daylight.”

“Make it a week. If we're not weak from not having blood by then, it probably worked.”

“Ok, one week. We have all the time in the world to do it.”

So they waited. Instead of getting weaker, they felt stronger day by day. Finally the week was up.

It was an hour after sunrise and the girls were in the kitchen having a cup of coffee. It was the first time either of them had been awake at that time in years.

Cassie opened the curtains and sunlight poured in. Michelle cringed instinctively.

“Relax, it didn't harm you,” Cassie said.

“Yeah, but we aren't directly in it yet.”

“Right, we'll take it slow, ok? First, we'll just sit here in the sunlight from the window for a while and see what happens.”

Michelle nodded, tensely.

“You feel all right?” Cassie asked.

“Yeah. You?”

“Yeah.”

After an hour, Cassie stood up. Michelle looked at her anxiously.

“Well, it's now or never,” Cassie said. “Ready?”

“No.”

“Ok, you stay here and I'll go test it. If it kills me, you're still safe.”

“I can't let you do that. We're in this together..all the way.” She stood up from the table. “I'm ready now.”

Cassie opened the door, then hand-in-hand they stepped out into the bright sunlight. The first thing they realized was that it didn't hurt their eyes. That had to be a good sign.

“Ok?” Cassie asked.

“I'm fine...so far.”

“Me too. Let's walk.”

They walked for a block and still nothing happened.

“Let's sit on this bench over here for a while,” Cassie suggested.

“Ok.”

Another hour went by.

Cassie turned to Michelle and grinned. “I do believe we're human again!”

Michelle grinned back. “I do believe you're right!”

They laughed and cried and hugged each other, then made plans for going home. Two days later, they were on a plane heading for the United States.

“You know,” Michele said on the plane, “we're gonna get old now.”

“Yeah, that's the only part that sucks about this,” Cassie agreed so seriously that Michelle laughed.

“Well, I think I can live with getting old better than I could with being a vampire,” Michelle said.

“Oh, for sure!” Cassie said.

Once back in Florida, they both shared a house in Miami and started their lives over again. They were always on the lookout for vampires, but at least now, they knew what to look for and would never be an easy victim again.

The End