Free Sophie Morgan (Book 1): Relative Strangers (A Modern Vampire Story) by Helen Treharne

put my hand over your neck to stop it all pumping out. I’ll admit, by the time I got you back here, it didn’t look as bad as it did initially, but things always look worse before you get them cleaned up".
    I slid my glass around the table, passing it between my hands. The rhythmic side-to-side motion was hypnotic and strangely calming. I could feel tears welling up behind my eyes; I closed them to try to cut them off. As the fluttering started in my chest, I knew I was probably fighting a lost cause. Seeing that I had difficulty keeping it together, a warm hand reached out across the table and tightly grabbed mine. He held it silently for a while, allowing me to gather my emotions and quietly wipe away the solitary tear that had managed to escape.
    I paused to compose myself, before turning my face towards him and looked straight into his eyes. With the most serious expression I could muster, I finally spoke.
    "Well, I’m pretty bloody sure that I was bitten by a vampire."
    "What?"
    The words came out part declaration, part question, but I knew in my gut that I was right. It was some strange, silent knowledge that I couldn't explain. Every cell in my body was whispering "vampire, it was a vampire." Perhaps it was all the Saturday nights watching Hammer Horror movies with my Mum, but at that moment I was absolutely convinced.
    "Okay, well perhaps not an actual vampire," I added, "as I’m guessing they don’t exist, and I’m not delusional, but someone grabbed me and they definitely bloody bit me. What would you call it?" I'm not certain if I was trying to convince him or me in that moment.
    "Right about now, I’m pretty open to believing anything, but a vampire? Do you honestly think that there is someone running around out there thinking they’re a vampire? I know what I saw, but none of this makes sense. To be honest, I’m more worried that that psycho is going to kick that door open any minute and try and finish off what he started, head injury or not".
    It took me a while to compose myself and re-jig the words bouncing around my head into something resembling a coherent sentence. "I think I may have been bitten by a vampire or at least someone who is pretty certain that he is".
    "You’re serious, you’re really serious?"
    "Yep", I looked straight at him. I wanted him to be under no illusion about my conviction. "Look, I know that probably sounds crazy, but it’s about the most rational explanation for the crazy that I have. I know that they can’t exist . I’ve scoffed at enough horror films in my time and people who believe in fairies and angels and all the rest of it, but I was bitten by someone. I’m not saying that he is some sort of freaking demon or anything. What I am saying is that he was no normal person. No ordinary person does that, and what’s happening to me isn’t normal human healing either. I think if you hadn’t come along he would have killed me. Maybe he feels that he needs to drink blood to survive – hell, maybe he actually does have to. Maybe he’s thirty, maybe he’s three hundred. I don’t know, but you can’t tell me that this is normal."
    "Okay, I’m prepared to admit that this whole thing is pretty feckin' weird. And sure, he was chewing you like an old dog with a bone, but do you have any idea how nuts this all sounds?"
    "Yes, Mickey I do. But I also know that what attacked me wasn’t exactly functioning like a sane person, if it were a person at all. And I think on some level you must know that because otherwise you wouldn’t have hidden that fact from everyone else here. Ask yourself why you didn’t tell them that some lunatic was tearing chunks out of my neck. You can say it was because you were in shock, because you didn’t want to upset people, or any other of the million reasons I’m sure I could make up if I were in your position. Hell, I was hardly shouting it from the rooftops either. But face it; you didn’t mention it because you know that something