I'm ending the war

That's what the man said to him. Those are the last words he spoke to Kita, right after the bite, before Alexis beheaded him.

Kita remembers being confused. He didn't understand how in the world biting him would end the war. Contracting vampirism never crossed his mind, especially since it's so rare. He doesn't remember the exact numbers, but it's something in the arena of a 10% success rate. Of course, the deeper they bite you, the more at risk you are, and that bite was so deep Kita's sure it touched bone.

Maybe he should've seen this coming. Alexis has always had such a crazy life, it shouldn't surprise Kita that it ended up affecting his own. Hell, Kita is about to fucking marry the guy. That's going to change his life a lot.

It was only a matter of time. Of course the vampires would fight back one day, and the best way to do that would be to go after someone Alexis cares about. Alexis himself is practically untouchable, as is his family, far too good at what they do, so... it makes sense.

Kita doesn't know what to do.

When he wakes up the next morning, he doesn't get a second of ignorant bliss. No, he remembers everything immediately. There is no lapse of memory due to his grogginess. He is immediately hit with a wave of stress and despair and fear. The shards of glass digging into his skin only serve as a physical reminder, and he just wants to be unconscious again. He wants a break.

Kita sits up, risking a glance down at himself. He's covered in dried blood. Some of it is his own, again, because of the glass. Vampire blood isn't quite black, but it is darker than regular blood. It's distinct from the blood leftover in the jar, which is still on his face. Either way, the smell of blood is getting the same reaction it did last night, though not as intense.

It makes him hungry, but not carnally, like last night. If faced with another jar of blood, he could resist. Last night? Not a chance.

Kita grabs the edge of his sink counter, and pulls himself up so he's standing. He looks the same as he did last night, though the red in his eye is less obvious. His fangs are ever present, however, and he can't look much longer than about five seconds before he has to turn away, and he's tearing up again.

This is bad.

This is really, really fucking bad.

Kita showers and does his best to clean up the mess, slicing himself on glass several times. His mind is running a mile a minute through it all, and he's having a difficult time breathing. All he can think about is the fact that Alexis will hate him.

Not only that, Alexis will kill him.

When Kita exits the shower, he can almost pretend things are normal. His eyes are back to their rusty brown color, and his teeth are no longer fanged and sharp and scary. He looks human.

That doesn't mean he is, though, and he knows better than to lie to himself about this. Last night was not some sort of crazy vivid hallucination. No, Kita is a vampire. The man a week ago turned him, and now the only thing left to do is research what he's dealing with, figure out how to manage it, then never tell a soul.

The concept of keeping things from Alexis doesn't sit right with Kita, but he doesn't see many other options. It's either that, be cast out, or killed. He's not sure how long he will be able to keep this up, since surely Alexis will notice there's something wrong eventually. Especially since they're about to be married. They're about to fucking live together.

Kita can't think of worse timing. Of course this would happen after he's already engaged to Alexis. He couldn't realize this before he made such a commitment—he'd have never agreed to marry his best friend if he knew he was a fucking vampire, Amarath be damned.

Kita is about to marry into the Sinclair family. The Sinclair family, who has been at war with vampires for centuries. Who has made it their sole mission to eradicate the species from existence. It is death on sight.

Kita is now the very thing he's supposed to hate.

He is lost, but he knows that his best option right now is, again, researching this. It would help to know more about himself, both to manage it and to hide it better. So, trying to keep a clear head, despite the hurricane brewing, he sneaks out of his house—he doesn't want to risk his mother attempting to make him food—and heads directly to the library.

Thankfully, finding vampire books isn't as difficult as he thought it would be. At least Amarath isn't censored, he supposes. Eve probably wants her people to be educated on what to look for and such, which is kind of unnerving. Oh well, at least it's working in Kita's favor right now.

Kita grabs a stack of vampire books from the monster section—he also gets a couple from other sections, in hopes of not raising suspicion—and takes a seat towards the corner, where hopefully nobody will disturb him.

The first one he opens is called something along the lines of Vampires For Dummies, and it has a bunch of drawn pictures. It's probably aimed at a younger audience, but whatever. That's actually better, since Kita can't read that well—don't get him wrong, he can read. It just takes a while. He didn't get the best education, since he wasn't born into money.

Most of the beginning is just information that Kita already knows, and towards the end it talks about the ways to kill them. It doesn't use the word kill, though. It calls it cleansing.

There's nothing about what happens when you are turned into a vampire—when you contract it, instead of being born into the species—so Kita decides to move on. He skims through a couple more before he finally comes across one that actually seems promising, titled The Bite.

Kita looks through the table of contents flipping to the first chapter, which is titled Basics. He is immediately skimming until he finds something useful.

The bite has a 15% success rate of the victim actually contacting vampirism. If you are bitten and experience any of the following symptoms: irregular body temperature, lack of appetite, consistent food poisoning, or heightened senses, contact the authorities or seek medical help.

Uh, yeah, Kita's experienced all of the above but he is absolutely not doing that.

Effects will not be as intense, and vampiric characteristics will not be as prevalent, due to not having been born into the species. There will be no extended lifespan or shapeshifting abilities, and reflections will still be visible. Similarities are that the victim will be limited to only receiving nourishment from blood, and should avoid all known vampire weaknesses: sunlight, garlic, holy water, etc.

Death is typical for born vampires: decapitation and wooden stake through the heart. Turned vampires can also die of old age, born vampires stop aging once the brain is fully developed. Once again, if you have been bitten, seek help. There is no known cure.

Something about that feels wrong. The book is directing the reader to go to the hospital or contact the authorities, but that last sentence stands out. There is no cure. So, if Kita were to actually seek help, what would they do? How exactly would they be of help?

Kita knows. It doesn't take a genius to figure it out. One of two fates await him were somebody else to find out: exile or death. Both would completely ruin his life.

Kita goes through a few more books, to no success. He learns a few miscellaneous things that may benefit him in the long run, but nothing of much use right now. Eventually, a couple hours after his arrival, he is checking out a random book and leaving.

It's late in the afternoon by the time Kita leaves, walking the short distance directly back to his house. When he arrives, he catches sight of a carriage outside, attatched to two white horses. Palace horses.

Oh no.

Kita hesitates in his step for a moment, before reluctantly continuing his previous stride. He doesn't know what's waiting for him inside, but he already knows he won't like it. Still, he doesn't hesitate, not wanting to prolong the torture.

When Kita enters his house, he is immediately met with the sight of both his parents seated in the living area. They aren't alone, though. Empress Eve is seated across from them, in a cushioned chair, looking out of place.

Upon his entrance, all eyes are turning to Kita. He freezes in the doorway, eyes wide, and wonders if it's too late to escape. His mother is clearly not happy, and it's hitting him now that he didn't tell her. She had to hear about his engagement from Eve.

"Nikita," Elizabeth Daelle says, and its clear in her voice exactly how she feels about the situation. Shit, she pulled the full name. Kita may be in trouble. At least she didn't say his middle name, too. That's when he knows he's really fucked. "Take a seat."

Kita gulps, avoiding eye contact with the empress and slowly walking into the room. He sets his book on the side table and takes a seat on the couch adjacent from them. He folds his hands in his lap, avoiding eye contact.

"Is there anything you would like to tell us?"

Kita purses his lips, picking at his hang nails. Why does he feel like he's in trouble? It has to be the fact that he didn't tell them. In his defense, it was an extremely recent development.

"Me and Alexis are engaged." Kita mumbles, and is met with dead silence. He glances up, and he finds his mother with a frown on her face, expression hurt. Kita needs to clear this up real fast, he and his mother have always been so close. It will break her heart if he lets her believe he purposely didn't tell her. "As of last night. It- It was really recent. I was going to tell you."

Kita's father is visibly disappointed. Kita doesn't really care when his dad is upset, though. He sure doesn't feel the same guilt he does when it comes to his mom. Eve has no expression on her face, though her eyes are unmoving from Kita. He can't read her, but she can surely read him.

"I asked you about your relationship," Liz says, and Kita takes pause. He looks at Eve, who just raises her eyebrows. He's sure she knows, since she's the one who proposed it be platonic. However, it appears as though his parents are unaware of such a detail.

That makes sense, he supposes. They own a pub, they talk to and know basically the entirety of the empire. They gossip. They can't be trusted to keep such a thing a secret, as much as he hates to admit it.

"You told me there was nothing going on. Why would you lie? Now the empress is here, and I find out that the two of you are getting married within the week?"

Okay, that information was not disclosed to Kita. He was completely unaware it was happening so soon, and he can't help but give Eve a surprised look. Wow, she must really be sick of ruling.

Kita doesn't even know what to say. He doesn't see a way of giving her an explanation without revealing the fact that their relationship is platonic. "I'm sorry. I was... nervous."

"Honey," Liz says, voice a bit softer. Kita finally glances up to meet her eyes. They're a bit watery, and it hits him that the lack of communication may not be all she's upset about. He's going to be leaving her, and she was completely blindsided by it. "You should always feel comfortable telling us these things."

"I'm sorry," Kita says again, unsure what else he can say. He just hears his mother sigh, and his dad speaks for the first time during the conversation.

"We would've appreciated some notice. You will be difficult to replace."

Kita doesn't even acknowledge him. He and his father never had a bad relationship, but the way that his dad treated his mom never sat right with him. Kita just goes silent until someone else speaks, feeling like he's in an intervention.

The rest of the conversation is just him being berated for not telling anyone about his romantic relationship with Alexis. It starts to get kind of annoying, especially since Eve obviously knows they're only friends. Kita doesn't like it when people get unreasonably upset with him, or he's blamed for things out of his control. It's not like they know that, but still.

Eventually, his parents need to go back and take care of the pub. So, Kita is left with the job of seeing Eve out. He walks with her to her carriage, and she stops, turning to face him. He starts to get the same feeling he had before. The one that says he's in trouble.

"I'm sure you're aware that you were not our first choice for this." She says. Kita averts his eyes to the pavement, scratching the back of his neck.

She has no idea just how true that is.

"I know." Kita says, and then her words actually process. Wait, our? She must be talking about Alexis, which is annoying. Kita is literally doing this for her and the empire, as well as to take the pressure off Alexis. Alexis was completely on board, too—he fucking hugged Kita. It sounds like she's just upset with her son being so stubborn, but she doesn't want to blame him.

"Either way, due to it being platonic and purely for the empire's sake, the two of you have my blessing." She continues, and something feels wrong about that. Kita ignores it. "I will have people coming by to collect your things tomorrow, and you should be completely moved into the palace within the next few days. The wedding is planned for Sunday."

Sunday. So, as she said, exactly a week from now. Kita is really having a difficult time processing how fast this is all moving, especially with the new developments in his life. To say he's nervous would be an understatement.

Kita's a fucking vampire, as much as he hates to admit it, and within the week he will be residing in a building constantly full of hundreds of vampire hunters.

Not only that... Kita will be married to one.

When Eve leaves, she still has that same emotionless yet borderline impassive expression on her face. Kita just sighs, heading inside, and spends the rest of the night working in his parent's pub. Possibly for the last time, which is surprisingly bittersweet.

That night, despite the species he is now a part of, Kita prays.