I made sure not to get any saliva on the punture. I lowered my wrist and pressed it against her lips.

She hesitated for only a moment. She groaned but parted her lips and wrapped them around the wound. 

Vampires were cooler then humans. Usually. Our temperature was around 94.4 degrees Fahrenheit. Beth's lips felt cold even to me.  I felt her lips suck at the small stream of blood.

Even without the venom coursing through my body and blood her cool lips felt provocative as they pressed and rubbed over my wounded flesh.

My heart thumped as she moaned in pleasure. It was a tiny almost  unhearable sound but I was tuned to her. I heard.

The others seemed to fade into the shadows as she drank. Colors, emotions, scents and memories shifted and swam in head. My breathing became fast and shallow. It was like a slow emotional orgasm burned slowly through me. It ebbed and flowed crashed and ended only to start again.

My blood slowly started to effect her cells. Her first moan of discomfort snapped me back to the present.

"I'm so sorry my heart." I told her. My other hand found her hair and smoothed the locks behind her ear. I caressed the shell of her ear.

She groand, tried to pull her lips from my wrist and tighten her body, curling into the pain in her stomach.

I brought my wrist to my mouth and deepened the wound so the blood now gushed.

I pressed my wrist to her mouth, forcing her to drink deeply.

I wanted to weep. I knew this was only the beginning. She to knew. Jeremy had told her as I had suffered the Were transformation.

I prayed that she was strong enough to survive. I couldn't imagine a world that didn't have her in it. I hoped that God couldn't be that cruel. The Fates followed his laws. But they could still play games with our lives.

It was not to the Fates that I prayed. It was to God. I pushed aside the voice in my head that said He seldom interfered with our free will. I needed his help. Fear gripped me.

"Alex, you need to drink." Jeremy told me compassionatly.

I let my fangs descend to their full length. Carefully I repossession Beth and I on the bed.

I leaned forward. My chest pressed aginst her back, my arm wrapped around her shoulders, my bleeding wrist pressed to her lips. Her hand gripped the back of my wrist pressing it firmly to her mouth.

"I'm sorry, this may hurt." I pressed my fangs into her skin. She tensed but I held her tightly around her waist. A groaned of pain escaped from her. Blood trickled from her mouth. The pain of the puntures lasted only seconds and she relaxed in my arms. I knew that the real pain had yet to start.  Forcing the thought aside I drank from her vein until her heartbeat slowed.

I flexed a muscle in the back of my jaw. I had never used that venom glane before. But now I did, praying it would save and not end her it. The venom flooded her vein. Withdrawing my fangs I licked the puntures, sealing the venom in her body. Her slow heartbeat delivered the venom to her cells.

I didn't release my grip. Finally she screamed. I licked my wrist, sealing it. She thrashed in my arms. Pain contorting her body, I still held on. When she calmed I moved us again.

I sat with her mostly in my lap, I hoped my touch would ease some of the coming pain.

"It'll be okay." I whispered.

I heard Ann sobbing. Beth screamed. The agonizing sound seemed to be ripped from her lungs.

I felt the tears on my face. I felt helpless. Her boby jerked. I looked up and met Jeremy's eyes. How had he survived turning three people? I saw his sorrow. He knew what was yet to come.

I remember very little of my turning. However it was enough to know that it was like dying and being born at the same time. Jeremy said it was different for everyone. It could last anywhere from an hour, a few hours to days.

Beth was shivering in my arms. Her whole body shaking as the venom infused her tissues. Her teath chattered around her sobs. Sweat beaded her skin. She was breathing in short fast pants her body trying to regulate and compensate for the pain.

Her eyes were wet with tears as she looked up at me.

"Allleex," she said through violently shuddering teeth. A tear slid from the corner of her eye, trailed down her sweat drinched skin, and hid in the damp hair above her ear.

"I'm here, Beth, always." I tried to make my tone as assuring as possible but it was filled with the sadness.

"Hhurtsss."

"I know." I told her. But I couldn't look at her agonized eyes. I bent my head down and rested my forehead on hers.

My head on hers only made it easier to feel each tremble.

"Aaalllex." She grabbed my wrist and squeezed. Then she screamed.

I jerked back. Her body acrched as muscles stretched. 

"Ohmygod," I heard Ann whisper. Later I learned that Stephano had to pick her up, as she passed out, and take her upstairs.

Beth too had passed out. Her body still jerked. Her heart stalled then restarted. She was going through the process of becoming a vampire. Her screaming filled the air. I didn't understand how that was possible when she was unconscious.

At one point Jeremy moved forward and put a hand on my shoulder.

"This is good Alex. It's going quickly." He assured me. He moved back and I felt a sense of being left adrift. My grip on Beth, my anchor, tightened slightly.

In all honesty I wasn't comfortable with this feeling of need. I didn't want to need any one, not Jeremy, not Stephano, not not even Beth, but that didn't negate the need.

Her heart stopped and mine raced as fear gripped me because it didn't immediately restart.

I jerked my eyes up to Jeremy. He was already moving forward.

I wanted to scream, and whail, and cry, and rage.

Only about six seconds passed, Jeremy was reaching for Beth, her heart gave one weak shuddering beat, stalled, another beat, and then another.

Jeremy and I had frozen as her heart tried to beat. I groaned in joy, fear, and relief when we were sure that it had started to beat, it was slow but it was study.