I would do anything for Aaron.

I was alone in the spacious, classy office of the smoky club, fidgeting nervously. Under normal circumstances, I would have laughed at the name of the establishment. 'That Damned Club'. But I had seen the way the doorman eyed me, like a cougar appraising a rabbit. He was one of them. One of the Damned. I skittered past him as he politely informed me I was expected, and appointed a bouncer to escort me to Tevin's office.

The sound of heavy, pulsating music reverberated faintly through the walls. The room was richly furnished and clean. Too clean, as if it was hardly used. It gave me the creeps. What madness possessed me to come to a place crawling with denizens of the night? I should have left before what remained of my sanity vacated the space between my ears.

"Justine."

He stood outside, his tall, lean form filling up the doorway. I swallowed a lump in my throat. Seeing him for the first time after many years had certain effects on a girl who'd known him extremely well before he'd strayed to the other path.

Tevin hadn't changed much. If there was any difference, it was his aura. He radiated darkness. Not a physical darkness. A spiritual one. I knew I was one of the few, if not the only, person in the club who could sense it.

"Tevin." I managed. He walked into the room, his feet making no sound in the thick carpet. He looked...human. But we both knew he wasn't. Not any more.

"You look beautiful, as always." he smiled, leaning his hip against the edge of the desk. The smile didn't quite reach his eyes. They used to light up with his smiles.

"And you look...." I willed the nausea away. You look well. How are you, Bernie?"

He laughed softly. Knowingly. "Bernie's gone, Justine. But I'm fine," he replied. "What can I do for you?" His lips curled up into what I thought was a grin. I fancied I saw his fangs.

Tevin knew I was afraid of him. It hurt him: we used to be close. Brother and sister in Christ. He tried to seduce me with the Gift the last time we met.

Friends forever. In Christ, or otherwise.

I rejected him and the gift he offered me. I spoke the name of Jesus, my Saviour, bound the devil's temptation by the blood of the Lamb. He looked amused when it did not have any effect on him. Then, the hurt that crept into his face made me regret my actions, but I couldn't take back the insult I had dealt. He'd only tried to share something wonderful with his best friend.

"It's Aaron..." I said. I faltered. Tevin nodded in acknowledgment. "Your boyfriend." he supplied. "He's going to die."

I blanched at the word 'die'. "My fiancé." I corrected. "You can save him." I looked at him, willing myself not to beg.

"You hated me after I was converted. Why would it be any different if Aaron becomes one of us?"

"I don't hate..." The outrage that prompted those words faded as I evaluated my feelings for him. Did I hate him? Was it that obvious?

So he was going to make it hard for me. Tevin carried on speaking, lighting a cigarette as he spoke. "I know what you are thinking, Justine. I was saved from death by letting myself be turned into a vampire. I should pass on the favour." He blew a puff of smoke into the air and looked at me. "Your time would be better spent beside Aaron, waiting for your God to claim him."

I gritted my teeth. "You offered it to me." I reminded him.

"And you said no." he interrupted. "In more words then I care to remember, but the bottom line was no. The offer is non-transferable, Justine."

I closed my eyes. "But it was my fault." I whispered.

"I know."

There was silence as the nightmare replayed itself in my head. I asked Aaron to walk the dog. Normally, we would do it together but I was swamped with work. He took Whammer out on our usual route. Whammer came back alone, trailing his leash and looking very pleased with himself. I thought the playful mutt had escaped and run home, leaving my poor Aaron hunting around the neighbourhood for him. An hour later, I started worrying. I went out looking for him, taking Whammer with me for company. I returned home after finding no trace of him. The light on my answering machine was blinking. It was the hospital. A car had skidded off the road and hit Aaron.

"Why do you think your God allowed this to happen?" Tevin's question brought me back to the present.

"I don't know. I..." I shook my head. "All things work together for the good of those who love Him." I blinked, surprised at what I just said. It was a Bible verse, but it sounded wrong. "All things..."

Tevin laughed softly. "I used to say that to you a lot, didn't I?" He crushed the smouldering butt in the ashtray. The smell of smoke lingered. "I loved Him, but He wasn't working for the good of me or anyone else when I was dying." He folded his arms over his chest.

"Is that why you....converted?"

"Ummmm...." he murmured. His eyes were looking at me, but he was seeing something in his past. "I didn't want to die. I was given a chance to live. I took it." He shifted his weight so that he was in a more comfortable position, still propped against his expensive desk. "You have never looked death in the face, Justine. I did, and I knew I wasn't ready to go."

"Nor is Aaron," I hissed. "I cannot live without him. If he dies, I will kill myself."

His expression sobered as he studied the determination on my face. His lips twitched into a wry smile. "You have changed." he remarked. "No more living for Christ and doing God's will, eh?" He pushed himself away from the table and paced down the length of the room. "There is nothing I can do for Aaron. In order to be converted, the person has to be willing. I know Aaron. He won't accept any help from me. Not even if his life depends on it." He yanked open the door to show me out. "Goodbye, Justine. Thanks for dropping by." His voice dripped with sarcasm.

"Aaron," I said, not moving, "will accept help from me."

Those words hung in the air between us like electricity. I was painfully aware of what I was doing. Tevin could have me. I only wanted to save the man I love.

I would do anything for Aaron.

What took place between Tevin's office and the hospital was a blur to me, but it didn't matter. What happened then was something I didn't want to dwell on, something I shall regret for the rest of my days.

I slipped past the night security without much ado. They simply did not notice me. The lift was empty when I stepped into it. I smiled at the wraith-like reflection on the brushed metal surface of the elevator wall. I still had a reflection. That was nice to know. The nurses ignored the shadow that flickered past the desk and down the cold, sterile hall. I reached Aaron's room unchallenged.

The room was quiet except for an occasional beep from one of the many machines standing guard over my Aaron. He was in a coma. He was dying. His body was broken but his spirit lingered.

I stood by the bed, watching his peaceful face. He looked slightly different but I couldn't determine what changed. Tevin warned me that the world would look different through the eyes of the Damned. This was the first time I had truly looked at anything since I left the gloomy place where Tevin took my mortality and fed me the forbidden fruit.

I called to Aaron in my mind and he answered me. A fledgling vampire should not have been able to do that. But I did. I have yet to figure it out. I would not be able to mindspeak again for many years to come. Yes, he was still there. He'd been waiting for me to come. Where had I been?

I showed him my memories without speaking a word. My terror when I walked into the club to make a deal with the devil. The exchange; my salvation for Aaron's life. He saw in his mind my Conversion. He heard my soul scream in protest as it was ripped from its place in my being. He felt the fierce fire that consumed me as my mortality died, the torturous ordeal of being reborn as a Damned.

I offered that Gift to him and heard silence. If my heart was still beating, it would have stopped in cold fear. Surely he would not reject me after what I had done for him. He sighed and turned his head aside. One of the machines bleeped a little faster.

They're coming for me, he told me.

I gripped the rails on the side of his bed. Who?

The Harvester of Souls, came the whispered reply.

I panicked. Time was running out.

Come with me, I compelled him. Please come with me.

Justine...

I took his face in my hands. He was cold. As cold as I was. He was slipping away.

Take me, Justine.

They were the very words I longed to hear. I bared my fangs to his throat. Then, something happened.

I couldn't do it.

Hurry, came a whispered plea.

I was no longer the Justine he knew, but I still loved him.

I'd do anything for Aaron.

I drew back, my eyes filling with tears. I didn't know vampires could cry. I thought they...we...were without emotions. "Aaron." I whispered. "Aaron, I love you."

I was staggered backwards as a glorious light exploded between the ceiling and the bed, throwing swirls of colour everywhere. Shielding my eyes with my hand, I squinted towards the source of the light. I saw it.

The Death Angel had a stern but kind face. I did not expect looks of compassion from a messenger of the God I had turned my back upon. I was a child of darkness now, beyond redemption, fallen from grace. He reached into Aaron and helped him sit up. Not Aaron's physical body; I was referring to his soul. It looked just like him, but it was shimmering and almost transparent, like a ghost.

Aaron stared at the Death Angel, then at me. Confusion flooded his face.

"Goodbye." I said, softly. There was finality in that word. "We will never meet again. Not in this world, not in the next." We were going to two completely different places.

"Justine..." Aaron's soul said, his voice coming to me as if from a great distance. I shook my head violently.

"Justine's dead." I blurted. "I...I'm not..." I turned and ran from the room. The Angel's light glowed brighter. Beams of light and colour danced over the walls and ceiling. Then, it was gone. I threw one last look over my shoulder, at the form that lay so still on the bed.

The monitors went off as I fled.

I stood on the rooftop of the hospital, on the ledge where I could see tiny dots that were the roofs of cars in parking lot below. I was not planning to jump. I doubted the fall could kill me.

What happened in those few seconds when I was about to make him into what I am? I closed my eyes, trying to calm the riotous thoughts in my head.

It was not a higher power that stopped me. I just couldn't do it. I could not subject the one I loved to this dark world I now live in. I could condemn myself, but I could not condemn Aaron.

In my moment of confusion, I had allowed myself to be fooled into thinking that I could change the future. I forfeited my place in the kingdom of heaven for one moment of folly. I loved a man so much I thought that love alone could move mountains and defy death. I was wrong.

There was little cause to go back to my former routine. I had three key elements in that existence. My salvation, my beloved, my life.

Now, I am a new creation. My condemnation is complete. I stand beyond the grace that sets me free, a creature of the night, condemned to roam the years and centuries until the Day of Judgment comes. I live with the knowledge that nothing I do now will save me from the fiery depths of eternal hell.

As I looked up into the heavens and stars above, fresh tears streaming down my cold cheeks, I wondered if Aaron could see me from his new home. I hoped not. The wind ruffled my hair with its rough fingers as I contemplated my future. There would be a new life for me, a new identity. I was now blood-bound to Tevin, who would instruct me in the ways of the Damned.

Justine is dead. My name is Eve.