Isabella had reached out to touch one of the crossbows, but she withdrew her hand instantly. The thought of feeding on people didn’t really appeal to her. Yes, she had known that it was a huge part of becoming a vampire, but she had planned on getting her diet through blood bags. The idea of biting, hurting and feeding on people just didn’t thrill her one bit.
“Okay, what is wrong?” Samson asked, instantly noticing the look on her face and the way her body tensed up.
“I’m not sure how I feel about feeding on people, Samson” Isabella replied.
Samson gave her a weird look. “There’s nothing that can be done about that, Belle” he said. “It’s a huge part of being a vampire. You need human blood to survive so you have to feed. It’s that simple, you don’t feed…. You die. Why are we even having this conversation right now? I thought I told you to think about this stuff before you turned, and you assured me that you did. You assured me that you were ready for this. You said it was what you wanted.”
“It is what I want, Samson” Isabella said as she rubbed her forehead, “and I do not regret my decision to be a vampire. I just thought… I just wanted to drink through blood bags. I mean, it’s still blood and that way I don’t have to Hurt anyone. I’m not the kind of person that hurts other people. What…. What if I kill someone in the process? I don’t think I be able to live with myself, so can we just skip the ripping into people’s necks part? I’m sure that there are other stuff that you can teach me today”
She looked at him with sad, puppy eyes and for a second Samson actually let himself think about what she said. But it wasn’t possible to just skip that part. She was a vampire now, and she had to learn how to be one.
“I get your point, Belle. I prefer the blood bags too, but trust me, there are times when you might not have access to blood bags. You might run out of them and then you’re going to need to feed on someone. Now you have to learn how to control yourself when you do that, because if you don’t, you are going to end up killing someone and you would just be doing what you have been trying to avoid doing. Believe me, I’m speaking from experience and the last thing I want is for you to go through the same thing I did. You might not be able to handle the guilt. We’re vampires. We’re a toxic species. Whether you wanna blame it on magic or biology, it’s just who we are. When a human gets ravenously hungry, they eat a double cheeseburger. When we are hungry, we drink blood… You are definitely going to need to feed on someone one day… Some of us kill people and some of us are more extreme than others, but that’s just who we are.”
As much as Isabella hated this, she knew that he was right. She was a vampire now and she could skip any of it no matter how much she wanted to.
“Fine” she agreed, “But can we at least start with something else. We don’t have to start with the biting, do we?”
Samson chuckled as he closed the booth. “There’s no need to run from it. You will get used to it, but, yes, of course we can start with something else. Let’s start with the vamp speed thing. It’s really easy”
“Fine. I always thought that that was one of the cool things about being a vampire” Isabella said as the moved away from the car. “It makes you kinda like superman… If I had become a vampire sooner, I wouldn’t have had so much trouble with being late to classes. All I would have had to do was use my vamp speed.”
Samson cocked his head to one side. “True” he said, “When you become a vampire, You feel like you can do anything. Be anyone. Everything is heightened, just a little bit more intensely and it can be overwhelming. You feel things even more…. Touch, pain, Anger becomes rage, you love more powerfully, When you’re sad, you’re in despair. Grief. Loss. It can cripple you. Hunger is heightened too… Even your hearing and sense of smell. I’m sure you must have noticed most of these things by now”
Isabella nodded and he continued, “You might not like the biting part, but you shouldn’t concentrate on that because when we bite them, we can also heal them. Now, like I said, the speed thing is easy, all you have to do is concentrate and just push every muscle in your body. Our reflexes and dexterity are heightened, we can catch stuff and move real fast with ease. This is one of the things that come to you naturally as a vampire so you don’t have to try too hard. Watch”
Isabella watched him and a few seconds later, he was several meters away from her. “Now you come meet me here!” he shouted.
Isabella laughed. Okay, that definitely looked like fun, she thought, as she did as he said. Seconds later she was by his side, and laughing like she had just heard the funniest joke in the world.
Samson smiled at her, glad that she was having fun with this. Since she had turned, a part of him had been hoping that she wouldn’t wake up one day and regret her decision to turn…. That she wouldn’t wake up and realize that she had made an irreversible mistake, so far, she had not given him any reason to to think that she regretted her decision. Although he was still concerned about the issue with her dad, she hadn’t bought up the issue and he did not want to rush her. She would open up and talk to him when she was ready, and he would wait for her to be ready.
“How did that feel?” he asked her.
“Awesome!” she said. “Kind of like the first time I drank blood… Your blood. At first, it felt strange, the metallic taste. But then, it was like electricity coursing through my body– a million stars exploding in my mind all at once. It was like nothing I’ve ever felt before. It was amazing. Being in one place one second and being in another so damn fast. It’s so cool. And all I can think now is… I want to do it again.”