Heather stood in engineering keeping an eye on things, unfortunately, there were small white lines around her mouth an indication of the pain she felt. She hadn’t gotten a bite to eat in two days now, but she’d been keeping an eye on Fitzgerald. When one of her officers passed and she struggled to keep her fangs from shifting she knew she was in trouble. The temptation to take a bite out of one of her own was high at the moment. She’d felt the pains this morning having slept on a cot in engineering yesterday instead of going back to her quarters. Which was a mistake really because she didn’t keep a supply of blood in her office just in case someone should happen upon it.

Gritting her teeth to keep from bitting the Ensign right here in front of everyone and that would be a death sentence for Heather. “Ensign Walters,” Heather called the ensign back to her. “I need you to keep an eye on things here, let me know if anyone goes near the warp core.” She said in a tight strained voice. it was evening now and the nanites in her blood had left the bloodstream and were digging into her internal organs to find much-needed blood to fuel their bodies and keep her at her peak condition as she were. Granted she wouldn’t start to age rapidly if she didn’t feed soon. but her body would shut down. If that happened her secret would be out beyond that of the CO.

Turning she left Engineering figuring she had time, after all, it took three days for a vampire’s system to shut down at the very least. The temptation was all around her really. Every officer she passed made her want to sink her fangs into their neck. Every fiber of her being screamed at her to feed and every ounce of her willpower was used to keep from doing just that. She had to struggle to control her speed to if she moved past so fast as to draw attention then that would be it for her as well. She stumbled into a lift thankful it was empty giving her quiet from those around her. Ordering the deck she needed she felt the lift move and she leaned against the wall of it praying no one stopped it or entered the lift with her.

Unfortunately, her prayer was not answered and the lift stopped allowing two officers to step on. They stood before her and Heather couldn’t stop from licking her dry lips as the scent of their blood teased her nose. She grits her teeth feeling them trying to shift and forcing them to stay as they were and look normal. The problem was that one of the Officers was wounded and they were heading to sickbay. As soon as the doors to the lift opened on her deck, Heather pushed passed the other two officers. “Hold your hand up higher than your heart or you’ll bleed out before you get to Sickbay.” She told them as she passed, her voice tight with pain as she hurried passed and down the corridor to her quarters.

Once inside she used her security code to lock the door. Entering the same code into the panel under her bed the cold storage opened and Heather reached in for a bag of blood slapping it to her fangs as they slide out like cat claws and watched it drain instantly up into her fangs. Heather gave a sigh of relief as the nanites in her body left her organs for the bloodstream again. Falling back onto the bed Heather fed on two more bags like that before tossing them in the recycler that she’d programmed not to notice the blood signatures. the fact that it was synthetic but as close to the real thing as her cousin and his R&D company could get it helped to keep the system from registering it as blood.

Once fed Heather head back to Engineering a lot calmer than when she’d left it.

Heather Argeneau, CE