Fictional Reality.

Syn POV.

I lost track of how long I sat by the bath keeping an eye on Blair. Long enough to remove the assortment of defrosted foodstuffs and refill the bath with cold water twice. Her temperature was starting to drop, slowly but surely. Her face was getting gaunter and her skin still had that awful grey hue that made my stress levels increase far more than I was comfortable with. I glanced towards the door, Danger still hadn’t returned and I couldn’t hear any sign of where she was. In the bath Blair groaned. Dammit, Zacky needed to be back here like yesterday. Blair shifted in the bath, her head flopping to one side. As I caught a glimpse of her face, I could have sworn my hearth damn near stopped. Her whole face was gaunt, as if she had been starved for years. I could see the outline of every bone underneath her grey skin, and down towards her jaw, the outline of growing fangs was becoming more and more prominent.
“Well fuck.” I muttered, darting forward and starting to lift her out of the bath. “Danger!” Blair’s clothes were sodden, dripping across the bathroom floor, soaking me as I carried back into the bedroom. I paused at the bathroom doorway, shifting Blair enough to grab a couple of towels off the rail. “Danger! Any time this week would be good!” I yelled as I tried to figure out how to get both Blair and the towels down on the bed. I settled for setting Blair down carefully first before wrapping towels around her as best I could. Already I could feel the change in her from when I rushed her into the bath, she was thinner, bonier. This was really, really bad. I turned, heading towards the door.
“DANGER! NOW WOULD BE A GOOD TIME TO GET YOUR MAGICAL ASS BACK IN HERE!” I screamed out the door.
“Oberon’s balls there’s no need to deafen me, I’m here.” Cursed Danger, rubbing the ear that I had inadvertently shouted down in my panic. “What’s the ma…” She trailed off as she looked at Blair. “Fuck.”
“Yeah, where is Zacky? Did you manage to contact him?” Danger shook her head, worry clouding her eyes. “Shit.” I looked back to Blair, her fangs were clearer and almost fully developed. “Danger we don’t have long. First hunger will be on her soon. We can’t wait much longer.” She nodded.
“I can’t reach him at all. Something must have gone wrong with their recon.” She stepped closer to the bed, reaching out to check Blair’s pulse. Before I could stop myself, I found myself growling at her. Danger raised an eyebrow at me. “Her pulse is weakening.” I could feel the panic rising inside me, at this rate she wouldn’t have long. Why the fuck was I still growling? I silenced myself, moving past Danger and lifting one of Blair’s eyelids. Her normally light hazel eyes already had a red tint to them. I could hear her pulse slowing, becoming more and more irregular. She was changing faster than I’d ever seen anyone change before.
“She’s changing too fast.” Danger nodded her agreement.
“Late changes are always rough, but this is …” She was cut off as Blair’s eyes shot open, a deep vibrant red. A hoarse scream shot out of her throat, her fangs standing out clearly as she launched herself towards Danger. “Holy fucking shit balls!” Exclaimed Danger, darting backwards out of reach. I shot forwards, grabbing Blair by both arms and forcing her back onto the bed. She writhed, snarling and snapping as she tried to escape my grip. “Fuck me sideways, I nearly shit my pants.” Mumbled Danger. I grunted, still trying to restrain the thrashing Blair. Her nails were growing longer, curling into wickedly sharp points.
“First hunger’s a bitch. We’re running out of options, we need Zacky.” Changing Vampires needed a full blooded vampire to anchor them and pull them through the change – the reason why I hadn’t been able to leave the room, too much distance and that anchor would fail and she could die. Changes were tricky, especially when first hunger hit, the best anchors were experienced elder vampires or a blood relative. Which was why we needed Zacky to be here. I glanced up to see Danger frantically dialling her phone with one hand while chanting and weaving shadows through the other hand.
“She was a princess, she could have been a queen, she had the angels beneath her broken wings, she had the vision, she had the sight, she wants perfection, she wants it right.” The spell burst around her, the shadows between her fingers knitting together to form a swirling ball that she promptly threw at the wall. The shadows bled and swirled around each other creating a small oval mirror that hung in mid-air. Danger flicked her fingers at the mirror as she began to speak. It took me a moment to realise that she was talking on the phone.
“Pull everyone you can out of Home who can maintain an illusion and travel fast or cast strong Seekings. I want as many people as possible searching for them. Time is running short.” She didn’t wait for an answer before hanging the phone up. Blair began to writhe again and my attention switched back to her. Her face was looking gaunter and greyer than previously. I didn’t catch what it was that Danger did next, but a chill wind began to looking positively feral as she snarled unhappily at a whirling void of shadows in the mirror. “Fucking useless.” She cursed. “Show me.” She barked, I could feel the bolt of power that was trying to force the shadows to coalesce into something solid. Before they could form anything recognisable, they melted back into shapeless darkness. Blair’s keening was getting more and more desperate as the first hunger ripped through her. I remembered the pain of that first blood craving, how agonising it was, how it felt like my body was being ripped to shreds from the inside out. I hoped against that she wouldn’t remember this. She started to buck and convulse, nearly causing me to lose my grip. Swearing a blue streak and dodging those sharp nails, I readjusted my grip, climbing onto the bed next to her.
“Danger, give me a hand. Hold her legs still.” Before I could blink Danger was at the end of the bed, grabbing hold of Blair’s legs and pinning them to the bed. Blair’s shrieking kicked up a notch. I could clearly hear the pain in her voice. My gut started to twist. I couldn’t leave her in this much pain. “We can’t wait any longer!”
“We have to try, it’s her best shot of survival.” Replied Danger, grunting as she battled with Blair’s thrashing legs.
“We have NO idea where Zacky is, let alone how long it may take him to get here. Dawn can’t be too far away, so he may not even make it back tonight! If we wait much longer she dies anyway!!” I countered, trying to shut out the agony that was coursing through my gut at the pain Blair was going through. “It has to be now.” Silence for one moment. Two. Three. I was about to speak again when Danger replied.
“You’re in charge here. If you say it has to be now then do it already.”
“Right, hold her still.” I ordered, gesturing towards her arms with my head. “Don’t go near the pointy parts.”
“No shit Sherlock.” Muttered Danger, swinging up onto the bed and straddling Blair to keep her lower half still while she pinned her arms to her sides so I could move. “Whatever you’re going to do, do it quick as I don’t fancy getting head-butted by a face full of fangs.” I shifted behind Blair on the bed, swearing as I sat on a soaking wet towel. “Don’t mind me, you just fret about your wet ass while I get eaten by my sister-in-law.” Mumbled Danger, leaning her head back slightly as Blair snapped desperately towards her face. I pulled a face at her, chucking the towel on the floor and propping myself up against the headboard.
“Ok, when I say – let go and get the hell away from her.” Danger gave me a startled look that at any other time would have had me in stitches.
“Let her go? Are you trying to kill me?” I gave her a level stare.
“Trust me. Just move like hell out the way.” She didn’t look any happier, but settled for muttering something in an ancient Fae dialect that I had no doubt was highly uncomplimentary. “Ready?”
“No.”
“Now!” Danger pushed into the bed, releasing her grip on Blair’s arms at the same time as catapulting herself into some kind of superhero backflip off the bed and across the room. At the same time, I moved forwards, wrapping one arm around Blair’s waist as she started to throw herself forwards after Danger. Dragging her back against me, and wrapping my legs around her to hold her in place, I shoved my wrist into her mouth. “Come on kid, bite down, that’s it. Chew on me and not the pointy eared one.” Blair’s fangs slashed into my wrist as she latched on. Her arms quit flailing as she grabbed hold of my arm and began to feed. I let out a sigh of relief, but didn’t slacken my grip on her. Across the room Danger ran a hand across her face.
“By Maeve’s giant tits, I hate vampire changes. Give me a confused and angry werewolf any day.” I snorted at her choice of curse. One day one of the Faery rulers would return just to get back at for taking their name in vain.
“They still try to kill you.” I pointed out, still keeping an eye on Blair.
“Yeah, but they usually only try it once before the brain kicks and reminds them that I’m in charge. I don’t get that perk with Vampires.” She pushed herself off the wall that she was leaning against and shoved a hand through her hair. “I’m going to get you some blood, judging by the look of her you’ll be there for a while.” I nodded my agreement, wincing as Blair bit deeper. She would probably feed for a few hours yet as her body reconfigured itself and began to adjust to the changes. Danger stalked out the room, still muttering about murderous vampires. I smiled, leaning back against the headboard and pulling Blair back with me so that she was leaning against my chest.
“That’s it kiddo, you take all you need.” I murmured as I cradled her close. “It’s better than what you would have got from the pointy ear.”
“And don’t think I’m going to be forgetting THAT any time soon either!” Yelled Danger, her voice floating in from further down the corridor. Oh boy, I was going to pay for that later.

Notes