Consciousness returned in a single violent moment.

  Subject 23's eyes snapped open, his body jerking upright on the boratory bed with such force that monitoring leads tore free from his skin. The hunger hit him immediately—not the familiar emptiness of missed meals, but a devastating, all-consuming need that obliterated rational thought.

  His body demanded something. Not food—something else entirely.

  Dr. Keller and Viktor, who had maintained their vigil through the night, jumped to their feet in surprise.

  "He's awake!" Viktor excimed, reaching for the nearest monitoring device. "After thirty-six hours with no vital signs—"

  Dr. Keller moved closer, his face alight with scientific triumph. "The transformation worked. Subject 23, can you understand me? How do you—"

  He never finished the sentence.

  Subject 23 lunged forward with a speed neither scientist could comprehend, driven purely by instinct and hunger. His teeth found Dr. Keller's neck, tearing through skin and flesh with horrifying ease. Neither Subject 23 nor his victim noticed how his canines had elongated into razor-sharp points, perfectly designed for this gruesome purpose.

  Dr. Keller had no time to scream. The attack happened too quickly for his brain to process the pain before massive blood loss rendered him unconscious. Subject 23 drained him with inhuman efficiency, the warm liquid pouring down his throat and temporarily quieting the maddening hunger.

  Viktor stood frozen in shock, his scientific mind unable to process what his eyes were witnessing. By the time his body responded to the danger signals his brain was frantically sending, it was already too te.

  Subject 23 dropped Dr. Keller's empty corpse and turned toward Viktor, moving with a speed that defied human capability. The researcher's attempted scream died in his throat as newly-formed fangs tore through flesh, his blood joining his colleague's in Subject 23's transformed system.

  The door to the boratory burst open as several scientists, drawn by the commotion, rushed to investigate. They froze in the doorway, confronted by an incomprehensible scene—their colleagues drained and discarded on the floor, their test subject transformed into something terrifying.

  None had time to flee. Subject 23 moved through the small group with mechanical precision, his mind clouded by hunger, his body acting on pure instinct. As his fangs punctured each scientist's neck, his saliva—carrying his transformed DNA—entered their wounds. This critical biological detail would ter prove significant, though Subject 23 had no awareness of it as he drained each researcher completely.

  With the immediate vicinity emptied of life, the transformed Subject 23 felt the pull of hunger driving him onward. But rather than exploring the entire facility, his newly awakened predatory instinct drew him toward the exit, toward the vast supply of prey that existed beyond these sterile walls. Behind him, in other sections of the sprawling research complex, scientists continued their work unaware, the facility's size and compartmentalized design keeping them temporarily isoted from the horror that had unfolded.

  The main doors opened automatically as Subject 23 approached, security systems responding to credentials he had consumed along with their owners' blood. He stepped through without hesitation, leaving the research facility behind, driven only by the need to feed. The scientists he'd attacked y still on the boratory floor, appearing lifeless but already undergoing their own transformations beneath the surface.

  Hours ter, when these researchers reanimated as the first generation of vampires, chaos would truly begin. By then, Subject 23 was already far from the facility, continuing his rampage elsewhere, spreading a transformation that would forever alter the course of human history.