I screamed like a girl.

A girl watching her undead boyfriend burst through the earth beneath her, tearing himself from his own grave.

I shook that thought out of my head. Not my boyfriend. He wasn’t my boyfriend. He might never be my boyfriend, after the night we’d had.

Nico brushed me aside and jumped to seize Toby’s hand to pull him out of the dirt. Toby struggled, choking on the soil, scrabbling to right himself, and Nico had to dig his heels in to stay balanced.

Dirt cascaded off of Toby’s body as he stumbled and caught himself, finally upright. If Nico and I looked rough, Toby looked like he’d tunneled himself through hell.

Maybe he had.

“Toby?” I said, tentatively reaching towards him. He turned towards the sound of my voice, and I saw his eyes--previously a warm brown, now red like embers. He let out a low snarl, and the last of the moonlight flashed on his newly-grown fangs. “Toby…”

He lunged at me.

I flinched, my back colliding with a tree trunk, and shut my eyes--waiting for his fangs to tear into my flesh. When no excruciating pain followed, I opened my eyes.

Toby’s face was inches from my own. He leaned against the tree, hands on either side of my head, trapping me in place.

“Paige,” he said softly. His eyes searched mine, but I couldn’t tell what he was looking for. Guilt? Regret? “I thought I’d lost you.”

“I needed to make sure you were okay,” I said. His eyes drifted downward, somewhere just below my chin--and I grew acutely aware of my own heart pounding in my chest. One of his hands slid over the bark of the tree trunk, drifting towards the pulse of blood in my throat--

Nico caught his wrist. I gasped at his sudden appearance--for a moment I had forgotten he was still there. Toby looked like he’d forgotten as well.

I watched Toby’s face as he looked at Nico--then back at Nico’s hand on his own narrow wrist. Toby’s brow creased, trying to understand, and I saw the moment it sank in.

The moment he realized what he’d become.

Toby staggered back. He pressed a hand to his chest, checking for a heartbeat, and didn’t find one. A look of terror crossed his face--chased with disgust--chased with despair.

I wanted to run to him. To hold him. But I couldn’t force my legs to move.

Nico, unshaken, checked the distance between us like the chaperone in a Jane Austen novel, then brushed Toby’s dust off his hands.

“You’ll need to control yourself around your betrothed,” he said sternly to Toby. Toby looked at him suddenly, like he was waking up from a dream--and yanked his arm away.

“We’re not--” Toby and I both started, then looked at each other. I broke eye contact first.

“We’re not, um. Officially together,” Toby said. Nico looked at him, and then at me.

“This is an illicit tryst?” he asked me, disapproval in his red eyes.

I looked back at Toby for help defining… us to this archaic vampire. Toby just looked at me expectantly.

“We’re getting to know each other,” I said finally. “Like adults. In the twenty-first century.”

Nico balked.

“You wandered into the dark woods with a man you don’t know--?”

“That’s not important,” I interrupted. I was not in the mood to be slut-shamed by a four hundred-year-old vampire in front of my newly-vampiric crush.

I turned to Toby. “Do you--do you remember what happened last night?”

“I remember pulling the trigger,” Toby said, avoiding Nico’s gaze. I saw his tongue run across his new fangs. He looked at me. “But you’re still human?”

“Nico saved your life,” I said. “The arrow went into your side. I didn’t… I didn’t know what to do.” I pulled my jacket tighter around myself. “He saved your life. He is an Averus, but he’s not evil.”

“And now I’m…” Toby ran his hands through his hair, dislodging clods of dirt, and dragged his palms over his now-sunken cheeks. “... so hungry.”

Oh. I had not thought this through.

“He’ll need to feed,” Nico said to me. He glanced at the glowing horizon. “Keep him away from other humans, at least for a few days. He may have trouble controlling his impulses as he adjusts. And keep him out of direct sunlight.”

“I thought vampires didn’t burn--?” I asked.

I watched Toby as he pressed his thumb against his new fangs. He stared at the thumb, waiting for blood to well up. It took too long for a drop to appear: unusually dark even in the predawn shadows.

“There’s a transition period,” Nico said. ”It will take a few months for his cells to develop properly. Until then, you have to get him inside before the sun rises.”

Toby looked up at Nico as though just tuning in.

“He needs to feed daily for at least a week.”

“Daily?” I felt dizzy just thinking about it.

“Not much. Just a taste. An adjustment, like I said.” Nico glared at us. “Inside. Now.”

“Wait--” I didn’t know where to start. I looked at Toby, covered in dirt and thinner than ever, then back at Nico. “What do we… do?”

“Get. Inside.” Nico looked at me like I was an idiot. “I’ll meet you here in a week. For your end of the deal.”

Then he disappeared into the forest.

Toby was watching the horizon, where the red glow was turning yellow, almost white. He was a skinny man to begin with, but now his face had lost any traces of softness. Shadows slashed into his cheeks like they’d been cut right out of his face.

The first glimpse of sun started peeking over the horizon, and Toby hissed.

“Shit,” I said. I took off my jacket and threw it over his head. “Let’s go. Let’s go!”

I grabbed his hand and we ran for the dorms as the sun rose on a strange new day.