By Renee

An overwhelming thirst was the first thing of which he became aware. That, and the hard ground beneath him and a multitude of pains that should have equaled death.

"Well, I’ll be damned," he muttered, before even opening his eyes. "Thought I was a goner, for sure."

He became aware of the source of the most intense pain as he opened his eyes and saw a man. A bloodied, battered, filthy man who withdrew fangs from his wrist and wiped a blackened, dirty hand(his only hand, the man on the ground noted distantly) across his mouth as the man on the ground watched in horror.

The battered man looked down at him with red glowing eyes that changed to chocolate brown, even as he watched.

"You’re supposed to be dead now," the man stated matter-of-factly.

"Oh yeah?" was the reply, "and what the hell are YOU supposed to be?"

All the while, he was thinking,

"Me? Well, I’m a vampire. And from the looks of it, you are too, now. Though, how the hell that happened, I don’t know," With that thought, the man ran his hand through long, dark locks of tangled hair and expelled a weary sigh.

"I certainly didn’t mean to bring you across," the chocolate eyed vampire muttered with a note of consternation. "What a perfectly rotten day."

The man on the ground’s mind was spinning a hundred miles an hour. He looked around him in confusion at the debris and smoke, the charred and twisted remains of the plane he had been on, silent testimony to what a TRULY rotten day this had turned out to be.

"So, in the midst of all this," he asked- while gesturing at the chaos all around them, "you decided to nosh on me? Have a little snack? That right?"

"Uh, sorry about that," the chocolate-eyed vampire responded good naturedly, "but I have a bit of an injury here," he said as he gestured at what was left of his left arm. "I needed it to begin to heal."

"Oh, gotcha." the new vampire wondered,

"Well, I hate to eat and run," chocolate eyes stated, with a sheepish grin, "but mortals will be swarming over this place soon and I gotta split. You need to make yourself scarce too," he added, almost as an afterthought.

"Now wait just a damn minute," the newly made vampire interjected angrily. 'You can’t just turn me into a vampire and then vanish! You gotta clue me into a few basic rules first- tell me how this thing works, for Christ’s sake!" he ended angrily, crossing himself as an afterthought. "Hey, SHIT! Why did THAT feel weird?!" he demanded.

"Yeah, well, I guess I do owe you THAT much," the new father stated reluctantly. "Come with me and I’ll clue you in," he added, reaching down to help his accidental protégé up. "What’s your name, again? I've already forgotten?" he asked.

"I never TOLD you," was the angry reply.

"Yeah, but in the blood...." at the look of frank amazement on the new vampire’s face, chocolate eyes grinned. "Yeah well, it’s in the 'welcome to the undead' spiel, I’m about to give you, once we get outta here," he replied to the unasked question.

As the new vampire rose to his feet, his 'father' said, "I’m Javier Vachon and you are....?"

"Schanke," replied the new born son, "Don Schanke."

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