Stone lived in a human farm, a place where monsters bred their kind to serve or become them. There were no names here as they were all cattle, but his bother and he had named each other. They made a game of it, picking a word that matched the other and naming them thus. His brother had chosen Stone for him because he was unbreaking when the masters came for him, and he had named his brother Ghost because he was so quiet that one could barely tell he was alive. Most families were split up, but he and his brother were unique, identical twins, and the monsters were seeing how they fared when kept paired.

Every human here was housed in a pen with high wooden walls and nothing but hay to sleep on, mostly crowded four to six to a room. Stone was huddled in the back with Ghost sleeping on his shoulder while four others sat away from them. Nothing could tear him and his brother apart, and the other humans kept away because of it. They were outsiders and that was fine. Stone didn't need anyone else.

Most of the men here were tan skinned like him and his brother, with dark hair and darker eyes, and none of them were allowed clothes. The monsters wore them, but it was seen as a waste to put them on cattle. During the day, they were forced to exercise, run, lift, and stretch until their bodies were at the best physical capacity possible. They had to be in peak condition before the change.

The weak died.

Stone had seen the change happen, as the keepers let them see through the bars on the outside of their stalls. It was terrifying, how they drained the men of their blood, filled them back up with the blood of a monster, and then just left them there. They convulsed either way, their bodies straining against the monster blood until it finally collapsed in the gasp of death or woke with a roar of the darkness inside of them. If they survived the change, they lunged and drained the unfortunate human left in with them. It was usually one who didn't behave or had been deemed too weak for the change, so it was best to appear strong and obedient.

Today was the day of the change for him and his brother, and he held Ghost tight as the monsters came for them as the sun fell below the horizon outside the one window on the far wall. This was the only day they got a cell to themselves, and the monsters took them together to one not far from the rest. The humans watched as they always did from their cages.

Once they were there, Ghost couldn't stand, falling to his knees and trembling as the monsters came in to drain them. Stone reached down and offered him his hand and Ghost took it. Be strong. Stone's dark eyes said, and his brother clenched his hand and nodded.

They'd always been able to feel each other in a way other humans couldn't, so when they were knelt in front of the two monsters for the change, he could feel his brother's terror. Stone hoped that his brother could feel his strength and that it would help him through. Either they both made it through the change, or neither of them did. Stone would not live without Ghost.

The monster grabbed his short black hair and yanked his head back to bear his throat, and Stone glared at the beast above him. It saw nothing but the blood in his veins, but Stone burned the dirt color of his eyes and the ugly short dark hair that hugged his scalp into his memory, as well as the sharp thin nose and sunken in cheeks.

This was the man he was going to kill one day.

Fangs burned into his neck, and he gasped for air as he felt the pain in duplicate, his brother struggling and whimpering not a few feet from him. It would be okay Ghost. They would make it, survive, and once they were sold to a vampire house, they would come back and rip these men apart.

Everything grew cold as the blood drained from his throat, and he blacked out, but it seemed to only be for minutes before he woke again with a burning screaming in his entire body. Cold thick liquid poured into his mouth, and he realized his fangs were wrapped around the monster's throat. Knowing it was the man who'd just drained him, he clutched harder, trying to take him from this life, but someone hit him and knocked him to the ground.

A cell closed, the sound echoing in his mind like no other as his consciousness spun off into another dimension. He was floating, but he hurt everywhere. It felt like days that he writhed in agony until he could no longer scream, out of energy to even move and his throat ripped raw. Fire ate through him, and he watched parts of himself go up in smoke. Fear struck through him as he realized he was disappearing. No matter how he clutched to the thread of his life, things grew darker and he sank not into the life of a monster, but death.

No! Why? He'd fought twice as hard as his brother, trained until he fell, protected his other half from bullies out of the fields, made sure no one stole their food, and tore apart anyone in the cells who had dare touch him.

Why?

Ghost! He screamed his brother's name in the silence as he went under, the cold finally melting the fire, and he couldn't fight any longer. Sorry. He'd promised he'd be there for his brother, and now he was leaving him alone. Goodbye, Ghost.

A hand plunged through the darkness and grabbed him by the throat, pulling him back up into the fire, and he shrieked as the pain ate him from the inside. Dark eyes, his mirror, stared into his, and he clutched the hand with everything he had. The fire that burned through him now was different, like Ghost had pulled the chill of death up with him, and it seared through his veins in a frostbite that was worse than the coldest of winter nights he'd experienced.

And he was hungry. He needed... needed...

His jaw stretched, and he could feel it around him–two beating pulses, warm and full of blood–but his focus instead spiraled on the tepid pulse in front of him in Ghost's throat. It was cold but called to him like the cry in his veins. He opened his mouth and reached for his brother, pressing his fangs to his throat, but he froze.

No. He'd rather die if he had to feed from his brother like the monsters had.

His brother's hand touched the back of his head and eased him against Ghost's neck. Tears brimmed in Stone's eyes, but he was so hungry and couldn't resist when his brother wanted him to. His fangs sank into cool flesh, and he drank, taking his brother's life into him, filling himself and embracing him the entire time. With Ghost pressed to him, he felt himself changing, finally going over the edge into a monster like they'd wanted.

Then why was there such a commotion?

Growls echoed and angry voices talked beyond him, but all he could feel was his brother's life inside of him growing stronger, bringing him back from the darkness. Someone tore him away, and he snarled and struggled with a steel trap of arms. The more he focused on his brother, the more he saw himself flailing and thrashing like a wild animal, fangs bared in hunger for the one person he loved, the one sitting before him in anguish.

It pacified him, and he took in a few deep breaths to learn the scent of his brother for the first time as a beast. This was a sensation he would never forget, the sweat that beaded his brother's brow from the remnants of his humanity, and the unique scent of the blood that had brought him back to life. This was brother to him.

The lights went out, or perhaps he did, because he felt hay against his face, and he fell back into unconsciousness. It was soft and pleasant, like a dream, and not the afterlife he'd tasted before.

Stone woke in the dark, but he could see as if it were day. The first thing he did was search for his brother, and he was there before him, but he could also see himself lying on the ground. It was as if he were seeing two things at once, though neither overlapped, like he had two sets of eyes.

You'll get used to it.

Ghost's voice sounded inside Stone's mind, but his brother's lips hadn't moved. Happiness fluttered though Stone's mind at the fact that he wasn't dead, but it wasn't his. This was Ghost's thought. What in the world was going on? All he knew for sure was that there were bars separating him from the man he loved more than anything. He'd always been by his brother's side, and the space pained him. Desire turned into need, and some sort of ghostly energy formed around him. Then he was in his brother's cell, at his side, with no idea of how he'd traversed two sets of bars and the corridor.

Arms came around him and he felt as if he were hugging himself as they embraced. As he was squeezing Ghost with his whole being, he was overjoyed to be reunited with his brother and happy that he'd been able to save Stone. Wait, that wasn't his thought. He hadn't saved himself. What was going on with his head?

"How did it get into the brother's cell?" a monster said, and Stone snarled as he held Ghost closer. "Get them apart!"

Something dark surged in Stone, a protectiveness of Ghost as well as a need to stay by his side. Just as before, ghostly energy wrapped around him, but also Ghost this time. They had to flee, and he'd moved himself before, so why not take Ghost with him? They sank into the floor to the yells of vampires around them and Stone didn't know what was happening, but anywhere that was not here was fine. Anywhere with Ghost.

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