Time for Frank to wake up. Warning for blood, although I think you all are fine if you've made it this far, haha.
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Life. Simply being brought into this world and taking a first breath, the blood flowing through your veins keeping you alive as any other human being thrust into the world. Life and living differed from each other in terms of values, of adventures, of the memory book creating the story of each individual person. Blood and oxygen are what make a vessel human, what makes everyone similar to one another in the eyes of science, but one thing was certain, and it was that living was not the same as being alive. The chain of life was a mirage of colors touching, but not blending into one another, only briefly sharing similar identification through flesh and blood, eyes and teeth, working organs churning inside the costume of skin overlaying the true identity of the soul. Beauty and vanity are shields covering the blackness of makeshift insides coming from memories forcing the soul to succumb to the dark of pain, while ugliness in the vision of the human eyes could conceal a soul as light as the sun raining streaks of pitiful sunshine down onto us all to give our pores a chance to soak it in. The star in the sky prayed to God that its brilliant rays could cleanse the poor souls of the broken, but God never answered, as God continued to betray and save the cards of human lives upon His palms.

Living was loving. Living was being loved in return, touching the lives of friends in need, healing hands none of us realize we carry with us until a tearful thank you came from the sweet lips of damaged souls bandaged from the force of our own comfort. Living was fighting against the black, crawling from the holes sucking our bodies in, living was supporting ourselves and those around us. Breathing, the awareness of blood and skin and bones, it was only being alive. Life, though we treated it so cruelly as we destroy ourselves further for the benefit of pain, was an undeniably puzzling experience for every person in the human race.

Feeling life slip away when the undoing of its ties was out of love, it was peaceful. Frank felt the heavenly hands of angels pulling him from the darkness he awoke in, finding himself floating through the place between life and death without sight, without sound, but nothing alarmed him. Calmness, soft hands and warmth tickling the glowing inside of his soul, purity coming to him as it never had before. He felt himself being cleansed, mercy pressing palm-to-palm with him, until he was carried into the arms of an angel awaiting him. He wasn't aware of his limbs when he floated away into the bliss of the afterlife, held steady by comfort nourishing him into oblivious calm.

Frank opened his eyes, finally seeing the whiteness of surroundings he could barely pay his attention to when his angel was the one guiding him, a version from when he was flesh and blood. Softened olive green eyes accompanied by mellow shadows he'd never seen in them before, pale skin a tint darker, bursting with youthful color and the small imperfections alien to him when Frank was so used to this beautiful face. Soft lips a berry stained shade of pink kissed his forehead, his eyebrows, and gentle hands entangled in his hair.

"Die for me, Frank." Gerard whispered. The velvet was missing from his voice, a heart was thrumming in a chest filled with life, human life. Frank never thought he would see Gerard as a human, and viewing him now, he realized he had always been so incredibly beautiful.

"Aren't I already dead?" Frank kissed his lips, human and pliant against his own. Gerard kissed him back, floating with him, a glowing aura wrapped around him proving to Frank that he was only a heavenly vision given to him as a gift when the real man couldn't be with him.

"Your body is." Gerard whispered to him, caressing Frank's cheek with warmth shining in his eyes. "But you need to guide your soul back to it. I await for you there, my precious human." Warm fingers felt unfamiliar, but welcome upon Frank's face, the roughness of fingerpads stroking over his cheekbone and the oddity raised goosebumps all over his flesh.

"I don't know how." Frank whispered with sadness, filled with yearning to unite with his vampire back inside of a world a part of another dimension away from the one bathing him in the whiteness of forgiveness releasing him from the human urges of his repent. He loved Gerard, he felt his touch here, but his destiny laid within another time, another place, another form of his vampire.

"Close your eyes." Gerard quietly guided Frank, and he did as told, his lids fluttering shut. "Think of me, think of our last moment together, feel everything you felt then."

Frank could remember everything as clearly as when he lived in the moment, the sensations ghosting along his skin and wrapping around him like gentle fingers casting him into another time in which he felt complete. Velvet lips, the bitterness of blood, like a form of being made love to as death danced along the dark spots covering his vision until he faded completely under the demanding yet loving mouth of his vampire taking his life so tenderly. Gerard skin melted into his for the first time, and as he weakened under the control of stroking hands luring him into the spell of death for one moment, the first stage of the transformation began.

With kisses upon his eyelids from an angel taking the form of his lover to guide him, Frank felt the embrace of life enveloping him and the golden aura tying him to a heaven he wasn't made to resort to, floating back into the entity of time with the sensation of tipping back into the unknown filling him to the brim. He allowed gravity to care for him, hearing the strange, echoing sound of an unintelligible voice bouncing across the boundaries of each universe. He was suddenly snapped back into where he belonged, an alarming sensation of being thrown backwards, but making on contact with a harsh surface with deep whiplash as the rubber band of time snapped.

Eyes snapping open, first breath being taken, ears ringing with the vengeance of being deaf for so many moments—Frank had been reborn.

The fluorescent lights of multicolored glass casted beams over a caved ceiling, beams of wood supporting the foundation of the church and beholding the murals of angels dancing along the walls, images Frank had never seen before. A film of dust fluttered through the air above his nose, but the room smelled of roses, the burning wax of candles surrounding where he laid to keep his skin warm. The tiniest of fissures in the walls, the distorted colors of the four boundaries differing from each other due to age, the grains inside of the glass painted with holy images, suddenly became the only things Frank's new eyes could behold as they had never seen anything so sharply before. The first thing coming to his senses was the amazement at the renewed vision, the clearness of his eyesight drinking in the specks of dust colliding with the beams of color leaking into the room.

Awakening had been something he only dimly knew about. The transformation into another being, the difference of himself and how utterly strange he would feel. One thing he hadn't prepared himself for was the thirst he would feel; the brand new, all too consuming spark of pure hunger flooding into his very soul immediately. Suddenly, there was no time to pay attention to the smaller details of this new life his mind had yet to process. Inside of him, he felt desolate. Dried, abandoned by precious blood and the sweet preservation of his force of life keeping him veiled from the nature of thirsting for what once flowed through his own veins.

It wasn't dryness of the tongue, or the roof of his mouth as Frank's body when he was human. No cramped muscles, no dry throat in need of water to slide through the tissue to soothe it. This was further than desire, it was pure, burning need. The great pain of his veins rubbing together, the inner linings of his limbs shrinking in on themselves as venom gnawed away at the tissue and the cells, it was the madness of pain causing teeth as sharp as needles to slice through his sorely prepared bottom lip. Fangs, sliding out from his gums with a burst of pain, caused his body to arch, a hiss coming from the pit of his core sliding through clenched teeth. He smelled it now; blood, sweet and thick, the temptation of a heart thumping loudly with human life promising the sedation to his hunger shredding his body into pieces from the inside. It was the wafting smell of food to a man dying from starvation, a temptation so undeniably irresistible, more than anything he'd ever craved through his entire span of life.

Heavy breaths pumped through Frank's chest until they ebbed into growls belong to a predator, and in that moment, he became one as the disturbing demand for blood lifting his body from its place drove him mad. He saw everything in perfect detail as he moved with a speed once impossible for him to move at, his own body carrying him to the source of the delicious smell splintering his sanity, until his hands met with the warm flesh of an unconscious human girl limply seated on one of the pews beside another sleeping man filled with just as much thirst quenching blood running through his veins. Her flesh was soft as silk, almost hot to the touch as it seeped through the coldness of his incredibly pale fingers once a shade of tan.

Frank landed harshly on his knees, taking her with him, and followed the instinct peeling away all the layers of his past humanity to renew him as a whole. His teeth sunk into her tender flesh like it was the fresh layer of an apple, a divine crunch into her skin, as blood burst into his mouth in a spray as his fangs pierced the main vein twitching under her skin. She remained unconscious, but a quiet noise of pain vibrated in her chest. Frank felt it quivering in her blood, the stream of the heavenly substance leaking into his body. He moaned in pure greed from the taste of something so sweet and thick leaking violently into his mouth, the touch of salt gracing his tastebuds. He gulped down her precious blood and relished in the heat of human flesh too fragile to be possible pressing into his own as his bruising gripped latched onto her arms. The warmth of blood quickly entered his own body, blooming under his skin and filling his veins, an ethereal rejoicing as his insides came alive from the preciousness of the human's blood yanking him away from the brutal pain of being made of nothing at all. It was heaven, dare he say erotic as he sucked the last droplets into his mouth and listened to each of her breaths grow ragged until they completely dissipated. The taste excited him, the power a divine force taking control of every inch of his new body.

When she was run dry, Frank ripped away from her with a gasp, lapping at the blood smeared around her wounds. She was dead, a corpse limp in his arms, but he had yet to be fully satisfied. Frank dropped her to the ground, seeing the man still living beside him, but he froze up upon the touch of a hand at the back of his head. His nose captured a scent he hadn't caught previously, but the smell of it sent his body into a rigid posture. Hissing with blood dripping from his lips, he whirled around, shielding his meal going untouched behind his body. With sharpened senses and a mind clearing away the fog from rebirth, Frank immediately looked into the glistening gaze of a man he loved with every inch of his soul now tainted by the darkness, and at the lingering instinct standing bolder than ever in his heart twitching from the blood bringing his body to a functioning state, he was weakened by love, the recognition of love staring back at him.

"My love." Gerard breathed first. Blood tears rimmed his eyes so intense in Frank's new vision, every single speck and shade of color in his irises could be seen from a distance where Frank's human eyes would have needed to be incredibly close to view it all. The bow of his lips quivered softly, gazing deep into Frank's eyes, the new vampire drinking everything in at once. Gerard was slumped in relief, his face softened by love, and the pair reached out for each other in a sped frenzy fueled by their supernatural abilities.

"Gerard, my vampire." Frank cried softly, under the spell of his own voice familiar and yet so different as it sounded like it had been wrapped in thick velvet, smoothed over by angels, the same tone Gerard's had. His vampire shivered from the sound of him speaking as he caressed Frank, embraced him, kissed his eyelids and his forehead with trembling lips.

"You've awakened. Oh, my sweet, how I waited for you." Gerard took Frank's hands into his own, gazing deep into his new eyes. Frank could see the individual hairs of Gerard's eyelashes, the direction of the hairs in his eyebrows as well, and the sweet tones of pink hidden under his skin. The soft curve of his lips was a temptation, the soft lines imbedded into his smooth bottom lip meant for a kiss. Frank wanted to touch him, to kiss him, to lay with him, but the remains of human blood clinging to the sweetness of Gerard's breath stung Frank's system like a harsh winter chill of reality. Frank's sharpened fangs stuck out from his parted lips, the whisper of a growl darkening his gentle façade.

Gerard pulled away from Frank, his expression twisting into stony seriousness, but the gentle touch in his eyes had Frank following his vampire as he lead him to the unconscious male laying over the maple wood of the pew. Frank's blinding hunger was unleashed once again as the noise of his heart pumping blood in his veins, sweet blood calling to him like an alluring siren promising the cure to all of his lingering pain.

"Drink. Your transformation isn't complete until you are fully satisfied by blood." Gerard lead Frank to the limp human filled with such a substance holding the answer to Frank's unrelieved hunger.

Frank nodded and knelt down in front of the man swiftly, shutting out the fluttering thoughts finally registering inside his mind to allow his hunger to take control. Once it did, the soreness of the second row of fangs slipping out from his gums once again was only slight, and if it did bring him pain, all of it was eradicated by the heat of blood gushing into his desperate mouth the moment his teeth broke into the tender flesh of the man's throat. As a human, he never imagined himself becoming another being thirsting for blood, feeling how every piece of him would do anything for a sip of the heavenly scent of it radiating off of other people. He never felt how fragile humans could be until his teeth slipped into skin so easily, his fingertips bruising soft skin in shades of purple from the grip he had on limp arms of his victims. The taste of blood once coopery and bitter, now tasted like the finest nectar filling his mouth, savored as it slid down his throat and brought him back to a state similar to being alive, and yet, so powerfully different from it.

Gerard knelt behind Frank, stroking his hair, kissing the back of his neck and encouraging him to bleed to human dry for his own well being. Frank held the weight of blood in his mouth until he swallowed all of it down, sucking out the last few thin strings escaping the wound, and pulling away with a sharp gasp when the human was dead. The man's corpse fell to the ground, gray and lifeless, but none of Frank's concerns centered around the dry bodies surrounding him when he felt the silk of Gerard's fingertips, the rose petal softness of his lips. He whirled around, lips dripping with blood, and pinned Gerard against the pew to claim his mouth in a hungered kiss his oversensitive body urged him to steal from the vampire when all blood was gone and everything revolving around him was Gerard.

Gerard grunted from the impact of the wood hitting his back, lips spreading apart, and Frank took the opportunity to curl his fingers into Gerard's shirt and lean into him, kissing him as deeply as he pleased with the warmth of blood surrounding their mouths. His vampire moaned shakily from the blissful taste, peeling their lips apart in a breath of space to pant heavily. His tongue peeked out, tracing all along Frank's lips in such a sensual motion that left Frank shivering and melting atop of him even if he knew it was only for the taste of sweet blood covering him. He gasped, grasping Gerard's hands, shocked from the warmth of sunshine upon them when he grew accustomed to the cold. He was cold as well now, a creature created from love and beauty, but darkened by this lust for blood and for the flesh. Everything was heightened—sensation, especially, as Gerard sucked his bottom lip gently with a velvet tongue rubbing over sensitive lips still stained with dribbles of human blood, tugging with his sharpened teeth, leading Frank closer to him to grasp the sides of his face with hands softer than ever before. Hyperactive, sexually driven, overflowing with the searing touch of love as it had never filled him so intensely before, Frank was no longer a fragile human.

"My sweet love," Gerard panted against Frank's open lips now clean of blood, "I waited for your beautiful eyes to open for days. You were gone so long that I feared you may have left me forever, but the stillness of your flesh proved you would come back for me."

"I would never leave you." Frank ran his fingers through Gerard's hair like threads of thin silk, moving them across his jawline, touching his lips and drinking in the silken texture of them stained from the blood smeared between their kissing mouths. "I will always find my way back to you. My precious vampire, I love you, I love you so . . ." Frank was close to weeping, trembling against him, completely overtaken from this bubbling heat and hysterical romance stirring under renewed flesh. Frank sobbed softly, clinging to Gerard, and he looked up at his vampire helplessly, asking for answers to these emotions with his eyes.

"Our bond." Gerard gripped Frank's hands, lifting them both to his lips to kiss them with eyes filled with melting romance and speckled with brown tones of understanding, reaching into Frank's very soul like attentive fingers keeping him sane. "I created you, I fed you our love through my blood, our lips touched before you died in my arms. You are mine forever."

"I can feel you." Frank choked out, overrun with pure awe and love as he touched his chest, felt the faint beating of it finally jolting back to life after being fed. "I feel you here, I feel you in my veins, you're everywhere."

"And your blood remains warm and nurturing inside of me," Gerard pulled Frank into his lap, kissing his lips with a feather light embrace, "I can still taste you if I close my eyes and acknowledge your presence running through my veins."

Frank shut his eyes as Gerard explained it all to him, and he could immediately feel the warmth of Gerard inside the very center of his heart, keeping him alive, as if the heat from his touch was extracted from his very fingertips and shot into the flow of blood so new in his veins abandoned by what once made him human. He whimpered softly, opening his eyes and seeing his love as the most exquisite creature to have ever lived. He glowed in his eyes, the beauty of the waves of dark hair surrounding his porcelain pale face marvelous enough to be one of the seven wonders of the world. Gerard's nose, upturned and slightly pointed at the end, pressed against Frank's as he leaned in unconsciously. His fingers touched his face, tracing the curve of his cheekbones under his pale skin, reaching the curve of his lips to the flattened curve of his chin soon arching out into the perfect shape of his soft jawline. He smelled like something Frank couldn't explain with physical objects. All he inhaled was sweetness, blood, a compelling underlining of something causing Frank's mouth to water with a tingling substance. Venom.

"How do you feel?" Gerard brushed the back of his hand over Frank's neck, fingers soon moving upwards to slide through his locks of dark brown hair.

"New. Powerful. But I still feel like . . . like myself, underneath it all." Frank caught sight of his own hands, shocked to see the skin bone white and all signs of previous scars and tiny freckles smoothed out and erased. He brought them in front of his face, sharp eyes taking in the flawless skin on the insides of his palms, his fingers, how gracefully they rotated without any effort as he flipped them around to read the insides and his wrists. His veins were silver where they once thudded blue under the skin at his wrists. He hadn't noticed it in Gerard before.

"How beautiful you've become." Gerard's fingers caressed Frank's jaw, an otherworldly touch bringing shivers of heavy desire into Frank's veins now thudding with the strongest, most undeniable want to have Gerard touch him all over. It wasn't sexual, but the highest tier of love no human could ever imagine reaching. It was like his body was made for the push and pull of Gerard's hands. His vampire was now his creator.

"Am I as beautiful as you are now?" Frank's spark of intrigue mildly distracted him from the overpowering urge to kiss Gerard again.

"You are more beautiful than any vampire that walks among us." Gerard's hands rested on Frank's hips, pulling him close, and the vampire in his arms submissively melted under his hold. Gerard's eyes burned with passion and fascination as they traced each of Frank's features as if for the first time. "You have always been the most gorgeous man in my eyes, but now . . . I can hardly speak looking at you."

Frank would have blushed if he were human. He mindfully refused the statement as he knew Gerard was the most beautiful out of them all, but curiosity building high couldn't be denied to long. He kissed Gerard for a long moment to get the romance bubbling inside him to soothe itself, moving their lips slowly in a passionate tandem, and against Gerard's mouth, he whispered, "Let me see myself."

Gerard swiftly gathered Frank into his arms, lifting him with an unpracticed grace, and he held Frank close to him as he carried him to the alter Frank rose from. He kissed Gerard's cheeks, heavily in a daze from the strength of their connection living like a second soul inside him, and almost clung to him when Gerard placed him back on his feet. Had it not been for the hand mirror Gerard lifted from the table covered in rose petals, Frank would have done so.

"I brought this here knowing you would want to see your appearance as a vampire." Gerard held out the mirror to him, thick ropes of iron framing the oval glass facing upwards so beams of colorful light from the church windows bounced off of it.

Frank gently took it, a piece of him weary of what he would see there. He knew his skin was pale and Gerard told him of the breathlessness of his beauty, but he still wasn't fully aware of what to expect when he caught sight of a gorgeous vampire staring back at him in the mirror. He drew it close with caution, fingers tight over the handle of the mirror.

"Is it a huge difference?"

Gerard smiled gently at him and it sang in Frank's veins. "Vampirism enhances beauty. It doesn't alter it. And you have always been beautiful, my love."

Frank slowly guided the mirror closer to him. Taking in a breath and tasting the smells surrounding him inside of the church ghosting across his tongue, and he brought the mirror in front of his face. As soon as his eyes captured the sight of his face, a gasp wedged into his throat. He watched his own eyes widen and his lips part from the shock of seeing himself in a new state. As he knew, his skin no longer had the olive toned flesh tinged with tones of pink around his cheeks, but he hadn't expected perfection out of the paleness. The scar near his eyebrow vanished, the tiny freckles barely visible on his nose disappeared, and the scars from his piercings from the past vanished. His eyelashes were long and thick over electric hazel eyes with thrumming pupils, specks of gold and green flying inside the swirling irises. His eyebrows were smoothly arched and thin, no stray hair lingering along the shape of them. His lips were smooth, softened and the lightest shade of pink, the arch of his top lip perfect as he glided his finger across it with a ghosting touch. His hair was filled with luster, soft curls of chocolate brown hair curtaining around his pale face. His eyes were as deeply alive as Gerard's were even if the white of his skin told another tale, hypnotizing to look in as the hazel inside them bewitchingly rich and filled with light.

"I never really thought I was beautiful." Frank whispered, touching his skin. Soft, not a single flaw tainting it. "It feels so strange thinking that I am now."

Gerard appeared behind him in the mirror. Frank felt his presence like roiling waves of sunshine soaking into his layers of flesh, the charge in the air wrapping around them just the same as Gerard's arms embraced Frank's middle from behind. He was pulled into his body and Gerard gazed into Frank's eyes in his reflection, expression construed of love and a hint of a smile.

"The sight of heaven for a darkened soul such as mine." Gerard turned his head, lips skimming Frank's neck slowly, but never breaking eye contact. "Almost like you are my saving grace."

Frank nearly melted into a puddle of ivory skin and bone from the delicate kisses being touched to his neck. His tattoos remained somehow, faded, but the outline of them was visible enough to put Gerard's lips into a trance. His vampire kissed the scorpion inked there, slowly and deeply, lips moving over the sensitive flesh until Frank was shivering, a tiny moan being released. Frank watched in fascination as a curl of darkness rolled into the color of Gerard's eyes darkening them with the power of desire like a drop of black was spilled into pools of green. Gerard's hand trailed up Frank's body, now near his throat, caressing him and holding him against his chest until his lover was being driven mad by the kisses at his throat.

"Please . . ." He whispered. Frank wasn't sure what he pleaded for when his lower regions gave no normal reaction as he came to reluctantly realize. And yet, there was still arousal, the spill of heated blood in all of his insides, stirring under new skin more intensely than it could have when he was human.

"We must wait." Gerard whispered into his ear. He dropped his eyes from Frank's gaze in the mirror to shut his eyes, pressing his nose to Frank's hair as he stilled to calm himself.

Frank slowly lowered the mirror back onto the table to shift in the embrace of his vampire, stamping their lips together to keep himself going for the time between getting priorities away until the time Frank was allowed to get Gerard into his bed once more. Vampire erotica was only dimly known to him, the sensations yet to be discovered had Frank digging his fingers into the material of Gerard's skin until a faint rip was heard from the strength he had yet completely get used to.

"I'm sorry." Frank breathed, a giggle escaping him as the pair looked down at the slit now tearing the threads of Gerard's shirt.

"You have plenty to come to terms with, my love." Gerard grinned, pale lips over small teeth and fangs. "Come with me. The others have been impatiently awaiting your awakening."

__

Frank had been blissfully unaware of the scent of vampire blood mixing into the essence of burning candles and freshly blooming roses from the outside, the strong smell of grass growing from the soil kissed by rain falling from the sky. If he listened close enough, the pitter patter of rain falling onto the skylight of glass in the manor overlapped the sound of petals brushing against one another as they began to come to life, the snapping and tiny explosions of embers from the fireplace filling him with warmth despite being rooms away from it. As Gerard led him down the hallways slowly to allow him to process the new senses tapping into his mind, a small smile kept to his face, one Frank kept glancing back at as if he meant to ask his vampire if he heard the same things he did.

Entering a sitting room different from the one they usually hosted their talks, Frank caught sight of Mina gently running her fingers over the keys of a grand piano as Aura draped herself across a lounge chair with her back against Marius's chest, the man twisting her hair into larger curls with lazy movements of his fingers. The rest of the vampires sat around the chairs, listening to Mina's song, until all eyes snapped up to resonate on Frank standing in the doorway as his fingers interlocked with Gerard's.

"He's awake!" Mina shot up from the piano bench. Her flitting movements towards Frank were a glide he couldn't detect with his human eyes, a graceful movement of her legs as she used her speed to stand in front of Frank with a wide grin smoothed over onto her lips painted with glittering gloss to match the pearly long dress adorning her frame.

"He awakened only moments ago, he's fed and the transition is complete." Gerard stood behind him, kissing his shoulder softly as he untangled their fingers for Mina to take both of Frank's hands into her own.

"Oh, we waited for this for days, we were worried something went wrong." Mina breathed in relief and the statement caught Frank's attention.

"Days? How many?" Frank's eyes lifted away from Mina's face as a crowd of vampires stepped forward, all with smiles of their own on their pale faces.

"Six." Aura floated forward to stand beside Mina. "The awakening takes one or two days at the most, from what we've all seen. Gerard refused to leave your side, but he was beginning to grow sick with worry."

"You must have had a hard time finding your body again." Alexander, a vampire towards the back, interjected smoothly.

Frank's interest sparked. "Did you?"

Alexander nodded once. "I kept them all calm by reminding them that my awakening took four days. By being drained, you die, and finding your body once more can be a trick."

Frank only dimly recalled the warm hands of an angel guiding him into a scene of white, whispering to him that he needed to return to earth to be with his vampire. He wondered if it was possible to remain in the clouds without ever being guided back into the vessel awaiting in another realm to take a new breath.

"We are so glad you're awake." Mina squeezed Frank's hands, letting them go to softly pinch his cheek instead in a way that made his eyes widen from the excepted gesture. "How beautiful you are! So similar to an angel."

"Thank you." Frank meekly turned away, searching for Gerard's hand once again. His fingers brushed silky skin and the fingers belonging to his vampire tangled with his own, gripping firmly as his thumb swirled over the back of his hand.

"How do you feel?" Marius asked him.

"Was the blood any good?" Laila asked, quirking her eyebrows a smirk as she sank down onto the armrest of one of the chairs Raven occupied.

Frank looked down at himself, noticing every single stitch in his clothing and the grooves running deep in the wooden floorboards beneath his feet. He could hear every breath in the room and the lingering smell of blood clinging to the vampire brushed his nose.

"Everything is so much more intense. I see and hear everything, and I feel like . . . I don't feel like myself. Not in a negative way, I feel so light and indestructible." Frank looked down at his hands, and glancing back at Laila, a tiny smile surfaced. "And the blood was the most delicious thing I've ever consumed in my life."

The fair haired vampire squealed, grinning wide as she clapped her hands together.

"We are so happy that you've joined us." Mina smiled, reaching out to softly touch Frank's arm. "We knew Gerard would give in."

"Anything for my love." Gerard whispered, a warm swirl of air against Frank's ear, and the new vampire shivered from the sensation, tingling all over as he felt the charge from the minimal space between us.

"But," Aura interjected in her soft voice, and a slight frown dissolved the smile from her face, "we have news."

Frank tensed, as did Gerard standing close behind him.

"Aura, I think we should wait." Gerard spoke too quickly, voice dipped in sharpness adding to Frank's immediate alertness. "He's just woken up, he deserves to salvage some happiness before he's bombarded with bad news."

"Bad news?" Frank slowly twirled around on his heels, gazing up at his vampire with wide eyes. Gerard realized his mistake and his jaw tightened, regret staining the smile once brightening his angelic face.

"Darling," Mina whispered to Frank, gently tugging his arm until he turned again to face her, "there is something you must know. We have such little time, the news was delivered as soon as you were laid to rest at the chapel."

"Mina." Gerard pleaded, almost desperate to grapple onto the moment of light serving as an interlude to an overbearing load of darkness swallowing up the coven of vampires anxiously waiting for the words to be spoken, for Frank's reaction to them.

"Two days, Gerard." Mina looked Gerard in the eye, a hard stare with gentleness softening the edges of her dark irises glittering like jewels as she held his gaze to assert the urgency of the matter. Frank looked between them, a spring of irritation pricking his ribs like cold fingers when he was left out on something seeming so gravely important.

"One of you has to tell me." Frank cut between the thickness of the silence. Gerard tore his gaze from Mina to transfer it to the ground, losing the stiffness in his limbs as he succumbed to the power of Mina's convincing gaze pleading him his allowance to tell Frank the truth. Gerard wrapped his fingers around Frank's, holding him close, as Mina sucked in a breath to let it go with a fluttering sigh.

"We've received an invitation to a ball here in London." Mina went to retrieve a black envelope half torn from its violent opening on the table in the room. She returned to Frank and handed him the mysterious paper object with what felt like a card inside, a sliver of a black ribbon peeking out from the top. Frank slipped out the black card tied together with a neat ribbon, swirls on the front beside cursive lettering cordially inviting the person the envelope was handed to into a grand castle in London for a masquerade ball. Opening the card, Frank was overwhelmed by the sharp scent of old blood used as the red ink scratched along the inside, finding looped letters coming together, and as he deciphered each of the words, every functioning part inside of him ran cold. He smelled it now—the sickeningly sweet smell of skin, the lingering brush of satin and silk from the material of a dress clinging to the arms and the body of the person putting the invitation together as a mocking act of terror upon each of the vampires standing together inside the room.

"Lindsey is here in London." Mina swallowed hard, capturing Frank's gaze frozen in horror. "And she knows you are here as well."

——
A/N: I think I've mastered cliffhangers with this book, honestly, which probably irritates everyone, but it makes me laugh and rub my hands together.

What do you think? Thoughts? What's your opinion on the bond Frank and Gerard share now? I'll get into that in the next chapter and the upcoming ones.

Also, uh, my school laptop got turned in as I finished school, so updates will be slower since I only have my phone now. I'm so sorry, I wish I could fling them out as usual, but it's hard. I'll try my best though, I promise.

I hope you're enjoying this! The end is coming soon, I'm sorry, but I have an important question for you when it's over. Have a great day. ❤

"You were meant for this love, you're my flesh and blood."

-aprilxo