Burning Eyes

Thanks for your patience. Been working on Unrequited and sort of wanted to finish that, but it ain\'t gonna happen that soon so, here\'s another chapter.
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We said nothing as we walked. I huddled deeper into the collar of my coat. It was misty outside, typical London weather. Perfect for an outing with a vampire. We walked up Liverpool Street, going further east. I\'d been in this part of the city before, back when I was up for a ready party. The various clubs and pubs in and around Hoxton were easy: easy dress codes, easy women...just easy. Just as I\'d gotten used to the quick pace Hermione set, I suddenly felt as if I\'d been snatched up.

My feet were still on the ground, I think. It was as if I was just floating above the pavement. I looked over at Hermione. She hadn\'t reached a hand to me, but I knew instinctively that it was her doing. We were moving so fast that it was all a blur. I was beginning to get a bit nauseous from the speed. Just when I thought I couldn\'t take it anymore, we stopped.

The door of the place was as unremarkable as anything else in the street. We weren\'t in some back alley, but rather on a well-lit avenue. Hermione gave the knob on the unguarded door a turn and it opened easily. I had the feeling that if I had tried to gain entrance, I would be dead.

The inconspicuous facade hid a luxurious and well-appointed inside. It was done entirely in shades of purple and gold. With a slightly Asian flavour, it was a fit residence for a pasha. Thick cushioned sofas and pillows were scattered everywhere and oil lamps burned. The scent of sandalwood was heavy in the air. It caused me to feel very relaxed and just a little sleepy. A black suited maitre d\' showed us to a secluded corner formed by a rounded couch and a table draped in golden silks.

I sat down - rather ungracefully - and watched Hermione glide into the ultra soft cushions. Damn vampires. They\'re always in pose mode.

She smiled at me, showing off slightly pointed incisors that looked downright girlish. If it weren\'t for her slightly off gaze I would have thought she was herself again. I almost got pulled into the fantasy when she sat back and released my eyes with an ironic twist of the lips.

\"If only I could\'ve done that when we were teenagers.\" She snapped her fingers and a crystal goblet full to the brim was brought.

The waitress gave me a condescending grin. \"Bourbon and water for the gentleman?\"

\"Of course,\" Hermione answered.

\"Very good.\" The waitress departed, giving me another smirk.

\"How do you like the place?\" Hermione asked me, sipping at her drink.

\"It\'s very nice. The staff is a bit too familiar for my taste, though.\"

\"The \'staff\' and I are on very good terms. We\'ve shared a rather long acquaintance.\" Her pointed tongue darted out to catch a few stray drops of blood from rim of the glass. I found myself becoming fascinated in spite of my disgust.

\"Back to your earlier musings - thank you,\" I interjected when my drink was brought. \"What was that about doing something to me when we were teenagers?\"

\"Ah. That.\"

\"Yes, that. Explain yourself, Granger.\"

\"I was just thinking that if I could\'ve enticed you like that when we were teenagers it would\'ve made my life far easier than it was.\"

\"Was I really such a horrible shit to you, Granger?\"

\"Every chance you got, Malfoy.\" Her eyes turned hard, like glittering topaz. I shrank back into the cushions a little. Being here in this place, with a vampire in her prime, tends to make a man a bit nervous.

\"Mind if I apologize?\"

She laughed. \"Ha. You\'re only doing it because you\'re afraid that I might eat you.\"

\"Will you?\" I asked, feeling at ease with her teasing.

\"I may still just.\" She gulped down the rest of her drink. \"But I\'m afraid that you might be taste a little bitter.\"

\"Bitter? Me? That\'s a laugh. I\'m sweeter than sugar.\"

\"Let\'s test that theory.\" She picked up my hand and turned it over to expose the underside of my wrist. I was pale, pale, pale. Whatever colour I\'d managed to pick up over the summer was definitely gone. I could see my veins tracing almost lacy patterns just beneath the surface. She raised my wrist to her lips. I held my breath, fully expecting Hermione to sink her teeth into my flesh. Instead, that little pink tongue of hers darted out to lick my skin.

She laughed at my sigh of relief. \"Paranoid, Draco?\"

\"I must be mad to be here with you, in this place. Everyone in here is a fucking vampire, Hermione!\"

\"Not true. Some of them are pets.\"

\"Pets!\" I\'d heard of vampires keeping willing donors - people who got off on the euphoria of blood loss - but this was the first time I\'d encountered any of them.

\"Yes. Look around.\"

I did. She touched my hand again and my vision was sharpened so that I could see what she did. I could make out the faint reddish hues beneath the skins of those who yet lived. I could almost hear their hearts beating in excitement and anticipation. I could also sense the deep silence the bodies of the vampires exuded. An almost sickly silver tone lit their flesh from within. Their eyes glowed unnaturally. Above all, there was a pervasive feel of the Other - deep loneliness, cynicism and, perversely, a thrill - that I picked up.

I turned around to stare at my companion. \"Is that what it\'s like?\"

\"You\'ve only scratched the surface. Finish your drink.\" I did, gulping it down.

\"Tell me about Sri Lanka.\"

\"It\'s beautiful. Tropical. And filled with evil.\" Her voice had almost become shaky with her memories.

\"Evil? Isn\'t that a little dramatic?\"

\"Draco. I went there a wide-eyed little virgin witch and came back as a big, bad scary vampire. You make the call.\"

\"So tell me about it.\"

\"Irony of ironies, it was a very lovely day. There wasn\'t a cloud in the sky and it was warm, but not drippingly wet. My team and I went trekking through the jungle to get to the tomb. Gringotts sent us there believing there was a cache of gold and gems hidden there. Those greedy little goblins wanted to get their hands on it. My fee was to be a pretty hefty one and I wanted the comission. I would\'ve gotten paid enough to buy my own house out right - no mortgage. Plus we were to get a percentage of the treasure we recovered. Still, I\'d heard stories about those tangled tombs and I was reluctant to go. Only the fact that I would\'ve lost my job *and* the fat fee convinced me.\"

\"You weren\'t alone?\"

\"God, no. Bill Weasley was our team leader, for Merlin\'s sake. Susan Bones was with us and a couple of new people who went to Beauxbatons. Everything was above board.\"

\"Why you, then, and not your companions?\"

\"I fucked up. We were supposed to stay together and I noticed a little side tunnel that had some pretty incredible curses put on it. I told them that I was going to check it out. Bill didn\'t even notice, he was busy breaking hexes on the other side of the chamber. I got a non-committal grunt and set off. I should have turned back about ten feet into it, but my damned Gryffindor stupidity kicked up and I marshaled my courage. All the light, except for my wand was gone. I sent little bluebell flames down the corridor but they got swallowed up by the unnatural darkness. And that\'s when I understood.\"

\"Understood what?\"

\"I wasn\'t just in a tunnel that had curses on it. That tunnel *was* a curse.\"

\"Oh, shit.\"

\"Precisely.\" She stared down into her empty glass. \"And before I knew it, I was done for. I couldn\'t see a way out and the only thing to do was go forward. I kept walking and the tenor of the darkness changed, became less dense. All of a sudden I was in a large chamber, perhaps about the size of the Head Girl\'s rooms - with one distinct difference. The walls were lined with recesses carved out. Each one had a perfectly preserved body inside and there were piles upon piles of gold, silver, diamonds and every sort of gem in between.\"

She sighed and I waited for her continue.

\"The room had an occulus in the center and the sunlight poured in, but the bodies stayed in the shadows. From where the tunnel entered into the room, little gravelings came streaking in and out. That\'s when I knew that I was going to die.\"

\"Why didn\'t you Apparate out?\"

\"Non-Apparition zone. When mucking about in old graves, that kind of magic would wake the dead and no one wants that.\"

\"The ceiling was open, you could\'ve conjured up a a rope and climbed out.\"

\"Don\'t you think I tried that?\" Her eyes blazed at me furiously. \"Anything I tried, the gravelings stopped. They cut my ropes, melted ladders, even blocked my emergency Portkey. And then they sealed up the room. I was in the process of trying something else when they disappeared. I was nearly to the top of the room when I looked down and saw them rising from their graves. I\'d gotten my hands on the rim of the occulus and started to pull myself when I felt hands tugging at my ankles and legs. A graveling pried my fingers from the rim and that was it.\"

I was shocked at how calmly she related the tale. I sensed that she\'d been waiting to pour out the whole tale. But I still had questions. \"Who were the vampires? What was it like to become one?\"

\"Such a curious little viper.\" She\'d withdrawn into herself again and gave me a half-cocked smile. \"The vampires were just vampires. It\'s not as if I stumbled into the Illuminati of vampires. As for what it was like? It was painful and violent and messy. I felt my soul being ripped from my body and when it was over I was still alive. A bloody mess, but still alive. After a person is turned, they recede into a death like state until the process is completed.\"

\"Process?\"

She laughed. \"Draco, it takes nine months for a soul to fully inhabit a body. It\'s going to take more than two hours for it to leave.\"

I was shocked by her revelations. \"But what happens to the shell?\"

\"You mean this shell?\" She pointed at herself and laughed. \"It becomes harder, colder, brittle. Almost like it reverts to clay instead of flesh. I suppose that\'s what it does, being soulless.\"

\"But you\'re here, you\'re not completely soul free. You still feel, experience.\"

\"Not really. I\'m here, but I can\'t feel anything. I can\'t really feel you, feel your skin like I could when I was alive. Consciousness is here, but the spark is gone. The textures of things are different. It\'s like there\'s a layer of numbness all over me. As if my whole body has that prickly, feeling/not feeling sensation one gets when your foot falls asleep.\"

\"Really?\"

\"Yes.\" She stopped like she was debating to tell me more and then she plunged on. \"You see, everyone thinks that vampires need blood to live. That\'s not exactly true. A vampire, being bodily dead, doesn\'t need to eat anything at all. We drink blood because in it we can taste and savor all the things we are missing in this half existence.\"

\"So...\" I groped for the right words. \"If you really wanted to, you could stop drinking blood.\"

\"Yes.\" She flashed me a little smile. \"But I wouldn\'t be nearly as pretty as I am now.\"

\"How so?\"

\"I\'d become dried up, dessicated. There would be no life left in these bones until I decided to drink again.\" She snapped her fingers and the server placed another filled glass at her fingertips. \"And truth be told, I\'m finding it all rather...fun.\"

\"Your so-called \"half existence\" is fun, Hermione?\"

\"It\'s true, I do miss the sun. But then again, I spent most of my free time indoors studying anyway...\"

\"You did, indeed.\"

\"I noticed you in the library more than a few times, Draco Malfoy.\" She grinned at me. I had to make myself remember that I was on my guard.

\"Back to your turning.\"

\"Ah.\" The mask of the cynic slipped back into place. \"Of course. That\'s all you mortals really want to know about, isn\'t it?\"

\"They found you in the jungle, seemingly dead. You were buried. I went to your funeral!\"

\"Did you?\" An elegant, feathery eyebrow shot up in surprise.

\"I did.\"

\"Fancy that.\"

\"Were you still, um, sleeping then?\"

\"Of course. I remember rising at night and not knowing where the hell I was or what I was doing there. I remember having a terrible thirst and I remember feeling cold.\" Here she laughed derisively. \"Not much has changed from that night. I\'m still cold and thirsty.\"

She bolted down her drink, tossed a couple of galleons on the table and yanked me up. \"Let\'s go.\"

Before I knew it, we were back out into the night.