As he worked to scrub the sap off of the blade, David said, "I want to be able to do something about all this."

"All this?" asked Aidan.

"The vampires, the cities, the way things are right now. I mean... I know that just one person doesn't make much difference, but if you decided to go hunt vampires, you could kill an awful lot of them. It would be doing something!"

"I have another obligation. I can't just go out and kill vampires. Eventually they would hunt me down, and kill me, and I can't let that happen if I can readily prevent it. This is not my fight."

"But it is mine."

"You're not Vampire Hunter D, David, even if your name starts with the same letter. You can't fight this."

David took a deep breath and said, "I could, if I was a vampire."

Aidan gave him a long, measuring look. "You're not though."

"But I could become one. You said vampirism is a choice!" He managed to avoid emphasizing the point with the sword still in his hand. "Look, I've thought about this. This is what my dreams have been about. I want to fight them! I want to hunt them, even if it means eventually they'll kill me. I want to do this! And if becoming a vampire is a choice, then I can choose it. You could give me the taint, make me a vampire, and I could actually do something, and not huddle in fear! The whole human race is huddled in fear, and I've been hiding my whole life, and I don't want to anymore!"

"You're willing to die, and you do die, don't make any mistake about that, and to live on blood, to never see the sun again? To fight against your own hunger every day of your life? To never be able to live among humans? To give up everything, just so you can kill vampires?"

"Yes!"

Aidan shook his head. "I'm not sure I can do what you want. You have no understanding of what it will be like."

"Awful, I'm sure. But you know what? It's awful right now! It's been awful my whole life, and I never even knew that anybody could do anything about it. And maybe nobody can. But maybe somebody can make some kind of a difference, and the only person who's here to make that difference is me. I don't care what it's like. You're proof that it's possible to choose to be a vampire and still be human."

"I chose to be a monster, and regained what little humanity I have left at a great cost. It will cost you something as well, I assure you, to become a vampire."

"I don't care. You say you owe me a debt. Turn me and I'll consider that debt more than repaid."

Aidan looked at David for a long moment, then he sighed. "Turning you will not repay my debt, even if you say it will. But if you're that determined, I will do it."

"Thank you!"

"If you still feel that way afterwards, thank me then," he said darkly.

"I'm sure I will," said David firmly. "What do I have to do?"

Aidan grinned then. It was a disturbing grin, entirely unlike his usual cheerful expression. "You don't have to do anything." He took the sword from David's hand and set it aside. "Are you ready, really ready, tonight?"

"Yes," said David. There was a temptation to put it off, but he knew that if he put it off today, he'd put it off tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that, until it never happened at all.

"Very well," said Aidan, and then he leaped at David, with the snake-strike movement of vampire speed that was all the more shocking because David was used to Aidan moving like a normal human being. David gasped as Aidan grabbed him. The vampire grinned again, and said, "The best way for you to get the taint, and to not reject it, is if the tainted blood you receive is the correct blood type, you know. Which means that I am now going to indulge the hunger that I've fought off all this time. I suppose I should be glad of the chance to have human blood so easily."

David shuddered. His instincts were screaming at him to struggle, to try and flee, but he held himself still. This was what he wanted, what he needed to do, and nothing was going to keep him from doing it. Aidan looked at him, his blue eye intense, full of a need that seemed as great as David's own, and then the the vampire's look softened, and he sighed. "It seems you truly are determined. I'm sorry. I shall be as gentle as I can."

Aidan slid his arms around David, as he stood stiffly, and put one hand to the back of David's neck. David felt a prick of fangs on his neck, and then Aidan bit down, sinking his fangs in deep. His wings came up and folded around David as he drank. David closed his eyes, relaxing a bit. It hurt, but not that much. There was no soul-sucking evil or unbearable pain. Just the pain you'd expect from two small puncture wounds. And then there was... something else. Something strange. Not so much a physical sensation as an emotional one, a feeling that wasn't quite describable. It was warm, and... deep somehow. And it had regret and pleasure and hope and sadness all mixed up together in it. David sighed softly, relaxing completely, feeling as though he were floating in the strange warmth of whatever it was. After what seemed like a very long time he opened his eyes and realized that he was lying on his bed.