Chapter 2: Enduring

Hearing that the doctor knew what was wrong with Sora came as a great relief to Damien. He’d been terrified that Sora would just slip away from some unknown disease. But if there was some way to help her, then Damien needed to know what it was.

“What is it? What's wrong with her?”

“Nothing’s ‘wrong’ with her,” the doctor shook her head. “This is all perfectly normal. It’s Pah-Nath, a natural step in a Pureblood vampire’s maturity process. …I don’t suppose you know what that is?”

Damien shook his head, it was a foreign word.

“When a Pureblood is on the cusp of becoming an adult, their body begins to desperately crave life energy,” Leilandry explained. “A larger amount than normal. She’ll have to feed multiple times tonight if you want her condition to improve.”

The doctor gave Damien a stony look. “And it isn’t just a normal feeding with a few drops of blood. She’ll need to use her lightning. Every hour, for the next ten hours. Are you prepared for that?”

The few times Sora had fed off Damien, she only drank his blood. He’d never felt the sting of Dark Lightning before, and it looked like agony. 

But if it would keep Sora alive, then nothing else mattered.

“I’ll do whatever it takes to save her,” he declared, staring into the elf’s suspicious eyes. Forget the pain, he didn't have any doubts.

The look she gave him was disconcerting. It was curious… maybe with a little bit of caution and doubt, or confusion. But whatever her thoughts were she kept them to herself, shrugging her shoulders and nodding. “If you’re sure, then. Give me your hand.”

Damien held his hand out to the doctor, she grabbed him by the wrist and ran a knife across his palm before he could react.

“What in the hells was that for?!” Damien pulled his hand free, the sting of the blade warm and sticky on his skin. “You said blood wouldn’t be enough!”

“It isn’t.” The doctor turned to Sora, holding up the knife. “But it’s a start.” Leilandry reached down and tilted Sora’s mouth open, droplets of blood rolling down the blade and past her tiny lips.

Sora’s eyes snapped open. They were red and glassy, spinning in her skull as she sprang up from the bed with a shout. Leilandry was quick to react, grabbing her small shoulders and pinning her to the bed. Sora thrashed against the doctor, sparks of dark energy crackling across her fingertips.

“What are you doing?!” Damien tried to pull her away and got an elbow in the gut for his trouble. Coughing, he looked at the elf’s wild eyes and stopped himself, seeing how frantic she looked.

“I used your blood to prepare her for feeding,” Leilandry shouted over Sora’s feral growls. “Her lightning will do the rest. Take her hand.”

A manic smile crossed the doctor’s face, and for the first time that night Damien questioned her judgment. But he wrapped his hand around Sora’s all the same.

“And it’s going to sting a little.” 

Then Sora began to feed.

It was like getting struck by Lightning Magic, only about a thousand times worse. Damien couldn’t move as pain pushed up through his hand, dancing up his arm and into his heart, spreading out across his body in a wave of agony that drowned out everything else. His vision failed and the crackling screech of electricity filled his ears. The last thing he remembered was the feeling of weakness, like his soul was being ripped from his body, and darkness took him.

…

Damien awoke to the red eyes of Sora, staring at him with a mix of worry and curiosity. Her pale face twisted into a look of relief for a brief moment before panic set in, and with a gasp she disappeared from sight.

He groaned as he sat up, the ache of his muscles  and he had no idea what was going on. The room was spinning around him and he took a second to get his bearings, before realizing he'd been sprawled out on the living room of the log cabin he and Sora called home. 

He rose to his feet, still a little shaky about a lot of things. What had he been doing? Why was he on the ground? Those questions fell away as his thoughts turned towards Sora.

Damien had learned a lot about patience in the time he had gotten to know the skittish girl. She was incredibly wary and always fled when he approached, and then watched him cautiously from behind couches, under chairs or beds, or around corners. This time she'd chosen a couch.

“Hey there, Sora.” Damien put on the most reassuring smile he could, keeping his distance. He didn’t want to startle her. He kept his steps slow and deliberate. “Sorry, I must have frightened you, falling over like that." His caution seemed to be working. He could tell by the way she was watching him that she was looking his way.

“…Sure okay?” Sora mumbled, slowly coming out from behind the couch with a wary look on her face. Damien felt relief wash over him at her progress, managing two whole words to him.

“Yes, I’m sure I'm oka-“

Before Damien could finish his thought, the cabin door swung open with a loud bang. Sora jumped into the air with a screech and scurried back to her hiding place.

“Dami! I came for a visit, and I brought gifts!” A groan escaped from Damien’s lips as the familiar voice of Drana Salamandra filled his ears. His old friend strolled into the room with a bright smile on her face and a large basket in the crook of her arm, her midnight-black hair pinned up behind her head.

“Drana, I swear, please don’t just burst into my house like that,” Damien groaned, glancing at the couch. “You’ll frighten Sora.”

“…Oh, sorry,” Drana set down her basket with a shrug. “But forget about that! Look at all these cute little outfits I got for her!"

Damien forced himself not to chew her out for her lack of empathy. He began to look through the basket of clothes, feeling a strange sense of nostalgia. It was like he'd lived today already, it all seemed so familiar. But that feeling quickly passed as he felt the pressure of Sora’s eyes on the back of his skull.

He turned her way and a tuft of black hair dropped behind the back of the couch. What was he supposed to do here? He’d asked Drana to go into the city and buy some clothes so he wouldn’t have to go himself, but it wasn’t like he could just force the clothes onto her. He glanced at his friend, hoping her experience with feral Magic Beasts would lend some sort of insight.

Drana must have picked up on the urging in his eyes, because she stood up with a sigh and shook her head. “You know, Dami, first there was buying her clothes, now you want me to change her, too? If you’re aiming to be a parent, at some point you’re going to have to learn to do this stuff for yourself.”

Parent… there was that word. It sounded so foreign to Damien’s ears. He wasn’t… he wasn’t a parent. Sora certainly didn’t think of him that way. He was just… looking after her, that was all. Nothing to be so dramatic about.

Lost in his thoughts Damien didn’t that the world had changed around him. He didn’t question why he was seated on the couch now, or how Drana had somehow moved all the way to the door in just a few seconds, looking at him with a mischievous gleam in her sky-blue eyes.

“Presenting, dressed in a fabulous new dress, ooouuur next top model, Miss Sora Black!” Drana called, stepping to the side and applauding. She'd changed that fast? But hadn't Drana just... Damien shook his head and pushed those thoughts aside in favor of supporting his charge.

With far less confidence and enthusiasm than the lady who had introduced her, Sora poked her head out through the doorway, staring warily at Damien. She took a deep breath and stepped out into the living room, clad in a black dress accented in white, with little bows and ribbons and lace. Hope burned in her eyes, and Damien found a smile on his lips.

“You look lovely,” he heard himself say, and the way Sora’s face lit up like the sun was all the reassurance he needed that he’d said the right thing.

“Now, Sora, what did we talk about before?” Drana grinned, crouching down next to the small vampire. “What do we say when Dami says something nice like that?”

Sora’s eyes went as wide as saucers and she nodded rapidly, gulping in air and turning back to Damien. “Th-Th… Thank…” She stumbled through her words, her pale face flushing as she smiled up at him. “Thank you.”

Damien snapped awake with Sora's soft voice on his ears. “Wh-What?” Pain rolled through his body as he sat up, feeling dizzy and drained like he had just been working for two full days without rest. 

As his thoughts settled, he realized he had been dreaming. That day with Sora was a pleasant memory from weeks ago. He wasn’t at the log cabin. He was still in the clinic, at Sora’s bedside, letting her feed on him so she could heal. That was why he was so exhausted. He sat up in his seat, seeing the doctor looming overhead, studying him with an appraising gaze.

“Good, you’re awake.” Leilandry face morphed into a smile. “Perfect timing. I was about to wake you up myself, there are nine more feeding sessions to get through.”

At the mention of feeding another specter of pain shot through Damien, but he shrugged it off. Now wasn’t the time to be concerned about something like that. He looked at Sora, the small girl sleeping peacefully in spite of the rope that now tied her to the bed. “If that’s what it takes, then fine." He glanced at her hands, still crackling with electricity in preparation for feeding.

“If you’re sure,” the doctor said, warning in her voice as she raised the bloodstained knife to Sora’s lips again. “The next feeding will be more intense than that one. Don’t blame me if you pass out again.”

“That’s fine.” Damien stared pointedly at Leilandry, doing his best to show his resolve. “Whatever it takes.”

Leilandry let out a resigned sigh and shrugged her shoulders. “Then proceed.”

Blood rolled down the knife and Sora cried again, roused from her peaceful sleep and now thrashing against her restraints. It was painful to watch her like this, and Damien took her hand and soothed her, holding her tightly to let her know that she would be okay, even as the agonizing kiss of her Dark Lightning drained his strength.

It was so much worse the second time, and Damien nearly lost consciousness again. But this time he knew what to expect, and with the memory of Sora’s smiling face giving him strength he withstood the pain.

Just a little longer, Sora, he promised. I’ll let you drink your fill in order to get better, so please just wake up okay.