The storm forming on New York's horizon felt distant and irrelevant inside Ruby's isolated refuge. In the master bedroom, the only light came from scattered candles, creating a sea of dancing shadows across the dark silk sheets.
Natalie sat at the center of the bed, her knees drawn to her chest, her gaze unfocused. Withdrawal and anticipation made her body tremble slightly.
On one side, Rose traced Natalie's back with sharp nails, gliding along her spine. On the other, Ruby toyed with a strand of Natalie's hair, her playful smile clashing with the hunger in her eyes.
"You're shaking, kitten," Rose whispered, her rough voice brushing Natalie's left ear.
"Is it fear… or desire?"
"It's need," Natalie replied, her voice breaking. She no longer lied. Shame had been burned away by urgency.
Ruby chuckled softly, moving closer on her right side.
"She learns fast, Rose. I like that."
Rose leaned in, kissing Natalie's shoulder, slowly working her way up to her neck.
"Tonight… we're going to give you something different. A double dose. But you have to endure it."
Natalie looked from one to the other.
Rose's predatory beauty — cold and commanding.
Ruby's chaotic, seductive warmth.
She felt small between two forces of nature, and that submission was intoxicating.
"I can handle it," Natalie promised.
Rose and Ruby exchanged a knowing glance, a silent understanding forged over decades.
Without warning, they moved.
Rose grasped the left side of Natalie's neck.
Ruby took the right.
Their synchronization was perfect.
Both sets of fangs pierced Natalie's skin at the exact same instant.
Natalie's world exploded into white.
There was no pain — only an overwhelming electric shock that raced through every nerve in her body. Fire and ice collided in her veins. The toxins of two different vampires flooded her system, an overdose of euphoria that arched her back and tore a scream from her throat — muffled by Rose's mouth as she pulled away from Natalie's neck only to kiss her.
The taste of blood — hers and theirs — was metallic and sweet.
Ruby continued feeding, a rhythmic suction that felt like it was pulling Natalie's soul out of her body. Rose's hands roamed lower, exploring the human's body with hungry possessiveness, touching where her skin was hot and damp.
The line between feeding and making love vanished.
It was all the same thing: consumption.
Between moans and gasps, clothes were discarded. The vampires' pale skin clashed against Natalie's flushed, living flesh. They touched her, kissed her, and bit her, turning her into the center of a profane ritual of pleasure.
Natalie lost all sense of where she ended and where they began. She was nothing but sensation. Nothing but an offering.
When climax came, it was violent and absolute, tangled with the dizziness of blood loss.
Natalie collapsed into the sheets, panting, her heart pounding erratically, the twin marks on her neck pulsing.
Rose and Ruby pulled away, sated, their lips red and their eyes glowing with stolen energy.
Rose lay beside Natalie, pulling her against her cold chest. Ruby settled on her other side, tangling her legs with the human's.
Silence reigned for a long moment as Natalie's breathing slowly steadied.
Rose brushed a sweaty lock of hair from Natalie's face.
"Do you feel it?" she asked softly.
"This fragility? This exhaustion?"
Natalie nodded, too weak to speak.
"You wouldn't have to feel this," Rose continued.
"If you accept… if you leave humanity behind… the strength you feel when we feed from you? It could be yours all the time."
Natalie opened her eyes, staring at Rose.
"What?"
"Transformation," Rose said bluntly.
"I can do it. Now. Here. You die as Natalie, the sad orphan, and are reborn as one of us. No pain. No weakness. Eternal."
Ruby watched in silence, her expression serious. She knew this was a path with no return.
Natalie stared at the ceiling. The offer was tempting. Power. Freedom. Never being a victim again. Never being left behind.
But then, a memory flashed through her foggy mind: Kara.
Kara's smile. Kara's warm embrace. Sunlight on campus.
Becoming a vampire meant killing that.
It meant never seeing the sun again.
It meant drinking blood to survive, not just for pleasure.
"I…" Natalie hesitated. Fear of the unknown collided with fear of death.
"I don't know, Rose. I don't know if I can leave everything behind."
Rose didn't push. She simply kissed Natalie's forehead.
"Think about it. But know this — the offer won't last forever. Humanity is a terminal disease, Natalie. And I'm offering you the cure."
Natalie closed her eyes, confusion spinning through her drugged mind. She wanted the power. But she was still afraid of losing the last pieces of her soul.
Thousands of kilometers away, in a time zone where the night was older and heavier, a car stopped in front of an isolated mountain hotel in Brașov.
Alice and Kara stepped out. The icy Transylvanian air sliced across their faces, a physical reminder of where they were. The hotel was a gothic structure, with stone gargoyles and dark windows that seemed to watch the newcomers.
Alice grabbed the bags, but stopped when she noticed Kara's expression.
The human stood on the sidewalk, staring at the full moon illuminating the Carpathians. She hugged herself — not only against the cold.
"Kara?" Alice called.
Kara turned around. Her eyes were filled with unshed tears.
The Council's letter burned in her memory.
Transformation or Oblivion.
"Alice…" Kara's voice trembled.
"What if I can't do it?"
"Do what?" Alice stepped closer, dropping the bags to take her hands.
"Choose," Kara said, staring at Alice's pale fingers.
"I love you. More than anything. But the idea of never seeing the sun again… of drinking blood… of watching my parents grow old while I stay the same…"
She swallowed hard, the same dilemma haunting Natalie across the ocean now crushing her chest.
"And the other option… forgetting you? Waking up tomorrow not knowing who I am, not knowing what we had? That's like dying too."
Alice pulled Kara into a tight embrace under the light snowfall that had begun to fall.
"We'll find a way," Alice promised, though in her heart she saw no escape.
"I won't let you be lost. Not to death. Not to oblivion."
Kara buried her face in Alice's coat, breathing in the familiar scent of safety. But for the first time, even Alice's embrace couldn't drive away the terror of the coming decision.
"I'm not ready, Alice," Kara whispered.
"I don't know what I want."
Alice kissed the top of her head, gazing toward the dark fortress of Brașov in the distance.
"I know. But time is up."
They entered the hotel — two souls walking toward judgment, carrying the same doubt echoing in New York:
What is the true price of eternity?