Echo opened his eyes to the cold darkness of the blood storage section of the hospital. His eyes fluttered, readjusting his focus to the darkness, he saw the curly haired vampire but the two humans were nowhere to be found. She turned to him, watching him get up to follow her to the back of the room, letting out a sigh in frustration.
"Figures you wake up right as I put you down."
He grunted, and rubbed his arms through his black hoody to shake off the frozen air.
"Any particular flavor, sunshine?" She mumbled beneath her breath, scanning the shelves for something specific.
Echo chuckled, "Sorry, I'm not too picky when I am so weak that i need sleep."
"Heh, I'm just not one for sleep, especially not since i met her." She replied fondly.
"I know the feeling." He ran his finger past several bags of blood, knocking them into his free hand.
"So," he started hesitantly, "how long have you two...?"
"Its a bit complicated." Tangling her fingers in her curly locks, she looked to him before continuing.
"I have time."
The two  sat against the empty back wall.
"We have known each other two years before we became a couple." She began to drink her first pouch, pausing as she caught his gaze, he seemed so lost in the trance of watching her drink, that he had forgotten about feeding. "You can begin, you don't have to wait for this story to be over."
Before she could even finish her sentence, she was watching him drink the blood more furiously than anyone she had ever seen. His eyes started to glow and penetrate the darkness with all the power they held in the light. Passion took in a deep breath and started her story.
"When it all started,  I had planned to tell her I was a vampire and that I liked her, but Jessey had to go and make things more complex. We got to the point where it was all or nothing. She needed to know how I felt, I made my move and I didn't want to hide what I was from her. It was a bit of a risk but I am willing to give anything for her happiness."
She stopped and turned to him again. He looked as if he was in a daze, completely out of it.
"You still there?"
"Yea, but I'm a bit troubled."
"Care to share?"
"My story has traveled through the vampire world, I am sure you have heard it, or at least what they think the story is."
"I have heard it, but I would rather listen to what you have to say."
"Okay. . . When I was turned, I killed my sire. Not from anger, or hate, nothing but my thirst. She was. . ." he stopped,struggling to finish, "she was my only love. I killed her, and i regret it everyday."
"Regret won't bring her back, nor will the pain you feel.  He knew the risks of turning you.  I doubt she would be happy that you prepare death and are critical of a loss."
Echo's lips pressed tightly together and his fists shook at his sides. A low hum reverberated through the room, a growl building in his chest.
"I know it hurts, and i know that it sucks that nothing in your life is sacred. Everyone in the vampire world knows who you are, what happened, and gossips constantly over your every move; But limping off like a wounded best is just shameful. You should stop being so cosed off and -."
"What? Let the sun shine in?"
"If your life is so horrible, why do you just kill yourself?"
His silence pierced through the room, crying louder than any reply could. His face grew still, not a single word or movement, just tears down his cheeks. Her gaze met his, and he could not see anything but her good intentions.
"Are you just too weak?"
"--"
"Is it too hard for you to do it by yourself?"
"--"
"Then why torture yourself? If life is so damn hard, and the pain scalds and sears your heart, why not end it? If this is some sort of redemption for what you had done, give it up. There is no one to impress and the pain isn't going to help you. I am sure you hate me right now, probably want to kill me. My love might even want to, or at least chew me out. But my point is this: you going around hurting yourself wont change anything; Learn to forgive yourself. You have put yourself through enough, and you needn't do this any longer."
Tortured breaths rattled in his chest. It took all his strength not to be crushed under the her pressure. All senses were overwhelmed by his agony. His jaw loosened and a breath squeezed from his lungs. She watched him carefully, waiting for him to respond.
"To forgive myself is to allow myself to let go of the memories. How can i forget about all of that?" How can i give up my soul?"
"Life has too much to offer to waste time living in the pain and regret of the past."
"Why do you want to do this to me?"
"Ever since I first heard your story, I have wanted to help, truly help. Especially because so many people want to pity and baby you, but what you need is to get better."
"Can we take a break then? This is too much at once."
"Heh, I guess we can." She relaxed and her voice lost its edge when she continued, "So..."
"hmm? We can talk about anything, I just wanted to stop the pain for a bit."
"Thats fine. Did you get any special gifts when you were turned?"
"Well, i got telepathy, as i showed you earlier, and I got a few other mental powers."
"Like what?" she jumped in intrigued.
"I have a very strong sense of empathy, I can sense others emotions even if it is hidden."
"It gets stronger with age, I can sense emotions of people hundreds of miles away simply by thinking of them."
"Really? Thats pretty cool... Lets see, what else do i have? Oh! I can see the future from time to time."
"Thats a quite uncommon gift you have there, it can only be gained if you are sired from a vampire that already has that ability."
"It is very difficult to control, and I am never quite sure what I will see. The things I see are usually very significant and memorable. When it does happen, I feel and remember everything."
Passion chuckled, "I am sure you can."
"I am still considered young, so all of my abilities have not fully developed yet, but I am over one-hundred now, and it shouldnt be long before my strongest abilities manifest themselves."
"Heh, one-hundred is not really a fixed number. I am going on five-hundred years now, and I am still gaining new abilities from time to time."
"Wow!!" He exclaimed, "You have been through so much! You have been through the great extermination of Europe, and all the wars with hunters."
"Yes, I am lucky to have lived through those days. So many things have been lost through the genocide, so much of our history was lost, and even though there are quite a few ancients in common society, and several secret societies of ancients, we have lost so much. Our origins are still somewhat a mystery, I have searched around for so long. What I can be sure of, is we have been around at least as long as humans have."
Echo looked at her, completely engrossed in the wealth of information. He looked like a child fascinated with his new toy.
"Don't stop...I never had anyone to teach me things, I tried to search for myself in the beginning, but my situation seems to distract people from being useful."
"Alright," she collected her thoughts, "I think the earliest vampires, at least from what the ancients that live in Rome say is that humankind was alone in the beginning, but not for long. A small civilization believed that if you drank the blood of something, you would gain its abilities. They were nomadic, but they were very skilled hunters. They hunted in packs, like wolves and would kill cheetahs. They drank the blood and truly believed they could run fast like them. Eventually, they settled down in what is now parts the Middle East, and Egypt. Skipping forward a bit, their descendants began to reject food, blood became more substantial, and the first that could truly be considered  a vampire, was considered a god. He was praised and worshiped by his followers, until the day he was killed. As part of the ceremony of his death, his disciples drank his blood, and became vampires."
Echo looked off in space, just imagining this all in front of him, completely amazed. After the story had sunken in, he began to shift back to the present, and became very depressed again. He slumped forward and tried to suppress the need to cry. Passion grabbed his shoulder and shook him.
"Hey, don't do that, I thought we were getting past this." She sighed, "I guess i am going to have to use one of my powers. The effects are only temporary, and I am only doing this for this one time. I can project emotions on to other people and I am not going to let you become dependent on this."
In an instant, Echo felt the pain vanish in a cloud of smoke and he was overcome by warmth and comfort. He became completely content with his situation, and he started to doze off against the wall. He had fought off sleep for so long, every chance he could feel the pain subside, he would imediately try to catch up on the years of sleep he had lost. Time flew, and Echo lie against the wall half asleep. His eyes never closed fully, and everything seemed to fly by at an incredible speed, and he could do nothing else but sit there. His mind was so clouded that he barely noticed when Passion nudged him and told him that they had to leave.
If there was one thing to be learned about not drinking fresh blood, it was to leave before you had a chance to get caught. He knew they had long overstayed their welcome and should leave before the hospital found them and punished them for enjoying their secret hospitality. They strolled through the dull white hallways of the hospital and Echo struggled to keep up. His rision was dulled and he was barely able to avoid running in to things. After going through a long series of halways to avoid contact with people, they found their way to an exit door and followed it down a flight of stairs to a parking lot.
The lot was nearly empty at this hour and Ly and Jessey were sitting on the hood of the car looking up at the stars. Jessey turned and talked to Ly, catching the two out of the corner of her eye, she nodded in their direction. They got off the hood and Passion hurried to the front of the car. She met Jessey and smiled, playfully she kissed her lips and started whispering beneath her breath. Echo tried to listen to what she was saying as he walked towards the car, still walking a bit slowly. He couldnt make out the words or understand them, but he could guess from Jessey's reaction that it was something to do with what had happened back in the hospital. She broke away from Passion and sat herself in the car, slamming the door shut. The remaining three got in slowly, fearing what was to come.
Passion started the engine and the car roared loudly. Everyone harnessed themselves in as the car raced down dark the dark two lane road. Jessey sat breathing heavily, the exhales seemed to fume her anger and hostility into the air. No one felt comfortable, Ly knew that Jessey was frustrated and irritated, but had no idea what was going on. Echo wanted to try and explain things, and Passion seemed somewhat detached, as if the possible fight meant nothing.
Jessey sighed, "Its not your place to meddle in the lives of others as you see fit, Passion. Where did you get the right to tell him how to live?"
"And where did you get the right to tell me how to live?" she asked.
"He was living the way he chose, what business of that was yours?"
"And I'm living the way I choose. You always say you want to help people, to save them. Well, sometimes kindness injures people more than cruelty."
"Its fine you two," Echo broke in, "She brought up something I needed to face and I was too scared to do that on my own. In fact, my talk with Passion has made me realize how much there is that i haven't dealt with, and so many things i still need to do. If it is alright with you, i wanted to ask her to be my new sire."
"You can do that?" Jessey asked.
"It doesn't happen often, but in circumstances such as this, it is possible to have a new sire. Echo, I will accept the role of your sire." Passion replied.
She reached across and rested her hand on Jessey's neck and began to massage her, all the tension in her body melted away. Echo was amazed watching Passions special ability at work on someone else. He unbuckled his seatbelt and sat closer to ly, watching her tighten up, and her breathing speed up. He lay his head on her shoulder, only to have her shrug him off. [i]Is this the same girl? She is acting completely different,[/i] he thought. He almost wanted to try and read her mind but he refused to use such a cheap method of extracting information from her, nor did he want her to experience the side effect of seeing all the things he is finding in her mind.
"Whats wrong?" he whispered in her ear.
"You're just like this boy I used to know and it hurts... Sometimes its too much to take at once." Tears traced her cheeks.
He buried her chest in his face and did his best to sooth her. After some time, she relaxed and he wiped away the remnants of her pain.
"I am sorry, Ly, you don't have to tell me about him if it hurts this much. You can leave it for another day okay?"
"No, its fine, I want to tell you." She pulled his head close, and began her story.
It all began several years ago when she first met Passion, in her home town where clouds were so thick the sun almost never shined. It was a paradise for vampires, to be able to go out in the light of day. The vampire he reminded her of was a boy she had known all her life, and was turned during their time in high school. He missed several weeks of school and returned a vampire. He showed immediate interest in her, and she was drawn to him. They dated for several months, until he told her that he was a vampire. She told him about Passion, and they grew closer. She loved him, loved the fact that he didn't kill, he stole blood like Echo did. One day, he told her to meet him in a park. He stood alone, and the cold autumn air chilled her, but he did not comfort her. He said he had to be honest, and he told her that their relationship was a lie, he didn't love her and was only after her for the thrill of the chase. Once she was willing to submit, he was satisfied, and he loved the taste of her blood. She was a walking meal full of affection, and once that was done, he wanted more, to move on. Unfortunately for him, Passion was nearby and was watching him closely. She came out from behind some trees and murdered him on the spot.
Echo looked in her eyes, his filled with horror. She raised the arm he had been drinking from and undid a bandage that was frayed at the edges. Her right arm was covered in scars from all the bite marks and there were so many scars that they resembed severe burns rather than bite marks. He  looked at her in shock as she bandaged her arm and took a long breath in before continuing.
"I loved him with all my heart, and he. . . used me. I was free blood and that was all he was after. He wasn't strong enough to kill me, but his words did."
She began to cry again and he caught her head in his hands. He tilted her chin up, and her eyes followed. She looked into his eyes and was fixed on them.
"You are too good for something like this, and for that, Ly, I am sorry. You didn't deserve to be used, someone so precious should never be just an object of necessity. I wont ever use you the way he did, I promise."
"I wish the fear would go away, I cannot escape being scared."
"You are not the only one."
"What is there for you to fear?"
"Being alone, it was my personal prison and I have tortured myself with it. But I never want to be alone again, the pain is too terrible. I hurt so much because I am scared that everyone will -"
She covered his lips with her finger, "So long as I'm here, you'll never be alone."
He looked at her face, so genuine and beautiful. Her words had consoled him so perfectly, he could say nothing else but "Thank you."