MY SUGAR MUMMY IS A BEAUTIFUL VAMPIRE

Blake knelt down beside Reggie's still body. Looking at his pale, motionless face pained him deeply. He focused his newfound energy, allowing the floating globe of vibrant blood to drift closer.

With a subtle flick of his fingers, droplets of blood detached from the orb and began raining down onto Reggie's face and body. At first, nothing seemed to happen. But then Reggie's eyelids started fluttering rapidly.

"Reggie? Can you hear me?" Blake said, barely able to contain his anticipation.

Reggie's eyes snapped open as he sucked in a desperate breath. He looked around wildly, taking in Blake's transformed appearance with sheer terror.

"Bl...Blake? What...what happened to you?" Reggie croaked out between ragged gasps.

Blake tried his best to look reassuring. "It's okay, Reggie. I'm still me, I promise. The ritual just...changed me, that's all."

Helping Reggie into a sitting position, Blake turned his attention to the fallen forms of Gunther and Randal. With an intense look of concentration, he summoned two more pulsing orbs of blood, letting the droplets rain down upon them.

As the droplets of blood seeped into their skin, a remarkable transformation began to take place. The burnt wounds they had sustained from exposure to the sun began to heal in real time, the charred flesh regenerating before their very eyes.

Yet, as the healing process unfolded at an astonishing rate, it became clear that something was amiss. The speed at which their injuries were being healed far exceeded the norm for vampires at their level, suggesting that some unforeseen force was at work.

One by one, Gunther and Randal's eyes opened wide as they were jolted back to life by the reviving blood rain. Their eyes immediately landed on Blake, and they recoiled in shock and fear.

"What in the devil..." Gunther sputtered, unable to comprehend Blake's disturbing new visage.

"What have you turned into Blake? Your eyes are glowing bloody red!" Randal screamed.

"Enough!" Blake's voice boomed with a commanding force that stunned them into silence. "I am still the Blake you know. This is just...a different form."

He looked at them imploringly. "The transformation saved my life after Elena struck me down. I don't fully understand it myself yet."

Reggie studied Blake skeptically. "But...those eyes...and tears of blood? That's not natural, even for a vampire, Blake."

"I am very much aware of that," Blake said dryly. "But I am fine, infact better than I have ever felt all my life. And these powers..." Blake's voice trailed off as he swirled a blood bulb around his hand, looking at it as though he was caught in a trance with a smile across his face. " I aim to use whatever power I've gained to stop Elena before her madness goes anywhere close to Rose,"

The three brothers glanced between each other uneasily. As rattled as they were by Blake's disturbing new vampire appearance, they could still sense the core essence of him beneath it all.

"So...what now then?" Nana who was quite all the while asked cautiously. "If you really do have some sort of blood...vamperic powers..."

Blake looked around at each of them firmly. "Now, we stop Elena's rampage and make her pay for her misdeeds, by any means necessary."

This declaration was met with uneasy silence. As shaken as they were, the gravity of the situation could not be ignored.

"Elena is powerful, too crazed. We can't stop her now, not like this..." Randal's voice shook with doubt. Although Blake had healed then on the outside, he couldn't tell how his powers worked but knew for sure that they didn't work to heal the damage done to the inside. The blood loss and everything was something that would take time to replenish.

The only viable source in their midst now was Nana and for some reason, that seemed questionable that he even had the thought.

In all, the thought of going back into a fight this early wasn't part of his agenda in any way. He still needed time to heal and recover and he knew his brothers felt the same way. The question was however what they were all thinking which was....What was Blake thinking?

Blake's eyes flared with that eerie red glow. "With this new power coursing through me, anything is possible. I can sense it - feel it growing stronger by the minute."

He clenched his fists tightly, fresh bloody tears streaking down his cheeks. "That woman has taken too many innocent lives. She tried to kill you guys once, killed the villagers without mercy. She tried to kill me, twice! And for what? Some twisted resentment for Rose or whatever?"

Blake's voice took on a tone of wrath and determination. "No more. Her reign of terror ends now. I will make her PAY for her crimes!"

The sheer intensity behind his words gave them all pause. There was an unsettling feeling that perhaps some small part of Blake's essence had been altered along with his body.

After a tense, heavy silence, it was Reggie who finally spoke up in a low, careful tone.

"Look...Blake, I know you have been wronged. Evil has been done, there is no denying that. But rushing off for wild vengeance helps no one. We need a plan. This kind of power, ...it's dangerous, unstable."

Reggie's words hung heavy in the air, his voice tinged with a sense of urgency born of the weight of their situation.

"Look, Blake," he continued, his tone measured yet firm. "We can't ignore the elephant in the room here. Duncan Salvador is out there, and he's more powerful than any of us could have imagined. He's an original vampire, THE ORIGINAL VAMPIRE, untethered by the laws that govern us. If it weren't for his intervention, we could have had Elena on the ropes back at the beach. We had a chance, but now...

things are different."

The group exchanged uneasy glances, each one grappling with the reality of Reggie's words. They all knew the truth in his assessment, yet Blake seemed to be operating on an entirely different wavelength.

"We can't let our emotions cloud our judgment," Reggie continued, his voice steady despite the turmoil swirling within him. "We need a plan, a strategy. Rushing headlong into a confrontation with Elena or Duncan is a death sentence. We just barely survived!! We need to approach this with caution, with precision. Otherwise, we're just throwing our lives away."

Blake listened to Reggie's words, his expression unreadable. Though he had reassured them countless times that he was still in control of his mind and moral fiber, there was an unsettling intensity in his gaze that gave them all pause.