Experimentation

"Finally!" The scientist screamed joyfully as she watches the mouse injected with Astrid's blood an hour ago walk around his cage healthy and happily.

"It worked now I can bring you back." She says stroking the face of her barely alive lover on the examination table with a crazed smile on her face.

"Sharon, we need you in the emergency room." Her college says knocking lightly on her room door.

"Be right out." She responds while hiding all the evidence in a chest under her bed before leaving her room. She enters the emergency room and wastes no time getting to work until her lunch break when Astrid enters the clinic with Zagan following behind her.

They discuss something animatedly before they leave the clinic though she doesn't know what they discussed she is curious about it but decided to avoid attracting unnecessary attention to herself. That night after her shift she heads back to her room and begins setting up everything for the blood transfusion.

"Don't worry. I'll save you." She whispers as she hocks him up to a bag of Astrid's blood beginning the transfer before settling into bed and falling asleep to the sound of the blood dripping. The next morning she wakes to find him sitting up confused as to how it's possible.

"Sharon, what happened? How?" He asks voice horse due to the lack of water.

"It worked. I saved you." She says as she happily approaches him.

"How do you feel?" She asks him and he looks at her strangely as he feels some discomfort.

"Strange." He responds looking at his hands.

"It'll pass." She says giving him a full checkup as she barely contains her excitement when all the results are positive. She embraces him in a hug allowing her tears of happiness to run down her cheeks. Pulling away she backs an overnight bag and taking his hand leaves the building heading to her apartment where they can hide out until they can leave the city.

Upon entry to her apartment, they're greeted by her pet cat Lou who's happy that his master is home. She leads him to the bathroom where he can freshen up while she starts dinner preparation. Finished with his bath he looks at his healthy reflection in the mirror oblivious to the darkening of his veins as he pulls on a fresh set of clothes before joining his love in the kitchen.

They settle down for dinner and he listens attentively as she updates him on everything that has happened. That night they fall asleep happily in each other's arms thinking that they have nothing else to worry about but everything isn't as it seems. A few days pass and Sharon notices her lover's discomfort one morning as she gets ready for work.

"What's wrong?" She asks him worriedly.

"I'm hungry and I feel hot. Maybe I caught the flu bug." He says with a sigh brushing his hair back and looking at her with a carefree smile.

"I can stay home and keep you company." Sharon offers but he waves away her concern encouraging her to go to work.

"Don't use your powers." She says referring to his dhampir abilities and he nods in agreement. Though he's a dhampir he was born sickly and wasn't able to feed as he should and using his abilities always harmed his body. Once Sharon was gone he lost his composure and sunk to his knees as he tried to control his craving to no avail. Astrid's blood tipped the balance of vampire and human blood in his system making his vampiric genes stronger. Lou hisses as he sees his features shift to that of a half-scaled being with his pack hunched with hands representing claws and his eyes a deep unnatural red as his teeth become jagged.

He takes a step towards Lou who gives him a warning hiss and he stops despite his hunter's instincts. Not wanting to hurt the pet that his lover holds so dear he leaps out of the open window and disappears into the night searching for an unsuspecting victim to satisfy his hunger.

By morning he wakes up in bed next to Sharon with no recollection of what happened the previous night not that it bothers him in the slightest. The days go by and his nights end the same way until one morning when they're a circulating headline about a humpbacked beast attacking unsuspecting victims and a blurry photo is shown taken in the light of a street lamp. His victims were dismembered and found in various alleyways of the city.

Sharon stops breakfast preparation, listening to the news report confused until the end of the program. Placing a plate of waffles in front of him along with a cup of coffee she kisses him goodbye and heads to work while he stares at the plate of food feeling no desire to eat it then his gaze falls on his hands where his veins have become dark inky webs spreading slowly across his body. He looks at it in fascination not scared in the slightest by the fact that he's changing.

One bright Saturday morning while packing away her documents she notices the lab rat she experimented on displaying odd behavior which puts a pause on her packing up her belongings. She notices that it's shedding all its fur sickly colored scales replacing it and its claws grow in length and become sharper, teeth jagged with its eyes an unhealthy yellow.

It notices her watching it and with surprising speed rams, it's head against the glass producing cracks. She wastes no time injecting poison into its water and watches as it dies before removing it and extracting a blood sample to study. What she finds in its blood makes her panic as she sees the blood cells from Astird's blood attacking that of the rat killing and changing it in the process.

"Abomination." She whispers as she rushes out of her office and runs home wanting to make sure that her lover is alright.