Blood Hunt (11 page)

Thomas touched her shoulder, and Two glanced over at him.

“I think I’m good, thanks,” she said, glancing at her drink, which was still half-full.

“Just wanted to let you know that I think your friend might be coming soon. If it’s who I think it is, she usually shows up around now. Her usual routine is to order a glass of wine and sit by herself, people watching. Seems a lot like you, actually; doesn’t really talk to anyone. She just watches.”

“She is a lot like me, I think. Or at least, like I used to be. Thanks, I’ll keep an eye out for her.”

It didn’t take long. Little more than ten minutes after Thomas had spoken to Two, the girl walked through the front door of the bar. Two’s heart seemed to do a crazy summersault in her chest before settling into a steady, rapid pulse. She tried not to stare, but couldn’t help herself. The vampire looked directly back and, far from being startled by Two’s attention this time, she only raised one eyebrow and smirked.

Two tried to match her gaze but, after a time, felt awkward and looked away. She saw that Thomas was already pouring a glass of red liquid – too thin to be blood – and he set it down in front of the vampire woman as she reached the bar.

“
Merci
, Thomas.”

“
Pas de problème. Comment ça va?
” Thomas answered back. His pronunciation and accent were smooth.

“I am well, thank you.”

The woman leaned against the bar and glanced around, sipping her wine. None of the three spoke for a time. Thomas cleaned. The vampire seemed caught up in her own thoughts. Two watched the crowd and stole looks at the woman at the other end of the bar. Finally, the vampire spoke.

“The wine is good, Thomas. I have things to do this evening and can’t stay long. I will see you again soon.”

“Come back anytime, snowflake. You’re always welcome here.”

The vampire smiled at him, and looked directly at Two for the first time since entering the bar. After a moment she turned and made her way toward a hallway near the back of the bar’s middle room.

“I’d say that was an invitation,” Thomas commented, polishing a glass.

“Doesn’t matter, I’m going anyway,” Two said, pulling on her jacket.

“Best move quick. That girl disappears in a heartbeat.”

Two left cash on the bar. “Keep the change, Thomas. Thanks.”

“Pleasure’s mine.”

Two moved through the crowd, into the hallway, and toward the door at its end. Somewhere outside, the vampire was waiting for her.

* * *

The alley was dark, and damp, and smelled like mold. It stretched for perhaps twenty meters in either direction, opening up to streets on either side. There were other doors that opened out into it, but all seemed locked tight. The vampire was nowhere to be seen.

“You’re kidding me,” Two said, running a hand through her hair. “You have
got
to be fucking kidding me! Where did you go?”

She moved down the alley toward the rear of the building, kicking boxes and old newspapers out of her way. There was no sound but the noise of her progress and the bass thuds coming from the club. Two reached the end of the alley and peered down the street. Nothing.

“God damn it, don’t
leave
me here!” she shouted back at the darkness, but there was no response.

Two began walking back up the alley, muttering to herself.

“Fine. Fuck you and fuck your stupid vampire bullshit. Fuck your stupid games. I’ll come back tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day after that. I’ll keep coming back until you talk to me.”

There was a sound like rushing wind, something heavy hit Two’s shoulders, dragging her toward the ground. The motion was fast, disorienting, and Two was sure that she would hit the hard cobblestones of the alley floor. Instead, she found herself cradled in the arms of the woman from the club.

“I’ll speak with you now, since you request it,” the vampire said, her voice icy and detached. “You know what I am, and we can’t have that. I’m sorry …”

“Wait!” Two shouted, and took in air to speak more, but it was too late. With one swift motion the vampire grabbed Two’s chin, forcing her head back and exposing the veins of her neck. The vampire lunged forward and Two felt a brief spike of pain, like fire lancing out from where the vampire had bitten her to touch every nerve ending. After a moment, the pain was replaced with warm, pulsating waves of pleasure that coincided with her heartbeat.

Two felt herself being drained, felt her life being stolen away from her, felt blackness overtaking her. It didn’t seem to matter, anymore, caught in this comfortable embrace. She thought to herself,
At least it’s over. At least it’s finally done.

She did not expect the abrupt end to the sensation, nor the sudden plummet to the unforgiving stones below. She was dimly aware that she must still be alive, because hitting the cobblestones hurt. Two looked up, groggy, and tried to clear her vision. The vampire was backing away from her, eyes wide with confusion and surprise.

“
Tah ama vamper. Sa pare tah ama vamper. Ashi?
”

The words meant nothing to Two, but she forced herself to respond anyway. Her mouth grudgingly formed the words.

“Told … toldjoo to … wait.”

“
Ashika moritas
?!” the vampire cried.

Two was fading rapidly, but she forced herself to a sitting position. Her head spun, and she leaned against the side of the building for support. The walls of
L'Obscurité
throbbed and hummed against her back.

“I don’t speak … whatever language that is, sorry,” Two said.

The woman seemed to have regained some of her composure. She was regarding Two with curiosity.

“You have vampire blood,” she said.

Two’s vision was fading now, the world going first grey and then dark. She laughed. The sound was more like a sob, and with it went the last of her strength. Two slumped to the ground, and her last words were a whisper.

“Not anymore.”

* * *

Her body twitched, twisted, shifted to a different part of the bed. The sudden cool of the sheets brought Two up from the depths of sleep, and her first thought was:
I don’t remember buying silk …

This wasn’t her apartment. The events of the previous evening began to play like a film against her eyelids, flickering at first, growing stronger as she left sleep behind. Memory drove Two’s eyes open and she sat bolt upright in bed, eyes wide and panicked. The vampire had attacked her, but must have stopped in the nick of time. Two knew she had been on the edge of death the previous night, but now she was alive and resting in a bed.

Was this, then, the vampire’s home?

Two swung her legs over the side of the bed, surveying her surroundings. She was in what looked like a modest spare bedroom in a high-rise condominium, well-furnished but not lavish. The dresser on which her clothes were piled was oak, and there was a pretty standing mirror in one corner. She recognized a painting on the wall as a Monet print, but a very good one, chosen to match the rest of the room’s decor. The clock on the nightstand stood at eighteen past ten, the darkness of the room confirming that it was night.

Two was wearing a sea-foam green nightgown that had bunched itself up around her hips while she slept. She stood, smoothing the gown out, and rolled her eyes as folds of extra fabric pooled at her feet. Whoever the gown belonged to, she was significantly taller. Two took a step and nearly fell to the floor. Her legs were shaky, weak, not willing to hold her. She steadied herself with a hand on the foot of the bed and took another step toward her clothes.

“Lost a lot of blood, I guess,” she muttered, taking small, slow steps across the room.

Standing by the chair, Two pulled the nightgown off and replaced it with her blouse and slacks. Everything was still in its place: wallet, keys, cigarettes. Two wanted one of the latter but decided against it. Her life had been spared; she could at least do her host the courtesy of not lighting up in the house.

There was noise coming from out beyond the door, and Two stood in front of it for a moment, listening. Her legs were feeling better, and Two thought that getting some food into her system might help even more. She wondered if vampires kept anything edible in their kitchens. The noise from behind the door sounded like a televised sporting event, nothing that should have given her pause. Two turned the knob and opened the door.

The apartment was larger than she had expected based on the size of the bedroom in which she’d awoken. The hall contained entries to two more bedrooms and a bathroom. At its end, Two could see what looked like a substantial kitchen and dining area. The living area was adjacent to this, out of view, but light from the television flickered, reflecting on the stainless steel appliances.

“Come on, come on,” a man’s voice said, and then, “yes!”

Two walked down the hall and turned the corner. The living area of the apartment was better furnished than the guest bedroom. Before her were two overstuffed couches and a recliner set in front of a gigantic flat-screen television with a complete surround-sound stereo system. One wall was dominated by a massive aquarium filled with corals and tropical fish. Against the other wall were three large, oak bookcases, filled almost to bursting with hard-bound books. Some of them looked ancient.

On the couch, watching the television with his back to her, was a young man of perhaps twenty-five. He had long hair, somewhere between brown and red, that was pulled back into a ponytail. Two could not see his face. On the television, a team in black uniforms was moving around on a basketball court.

“Quit wasting time,” the man said to the television, his accent Irish. “Sure, it’s the pre-season, but a game’s a game. Stop pussying around.”

“Excuse me—” Two began, her voice tentative, and the man interrupted her without looking.

“I’m trying to watch the fucking game, Na—”

He paused in mid-sentence and looked suddenly over his shoulder at her. This man was another vampire, there could be no doubt. If the speed of his movement hadn’t told her, his eyes would have. They were bright green like Two’s, but ageless, reflective. Vampire eyes.

“You’re not Naomi,” the man told her. “She isn’t home.”

“No, I’m not Naomi,” Two replied.

“What the fuck is this? You’re not even a vampire!”

“No, sorry.”

The man stood up, frowning. Two took a step backward, not enthusiastic about the look she saw on his face.

“What are you doing here?”

“I don’t know. I mean … I just woke up. In the guest room.”

“Well isn’t that fucking brilliant. She goes out an’ doesn’t even bother to tell me that she’s left dinner in the other room.”

Two shook her head. “I’m not dinner. That’s … not why I’m here.”

The vampire smiled at her and actually licked his lips.

“You’re human, and you’re here with me alone. If you weren’t dinner before, girl, you are now.”

“Wait!” Two took another step back, and bumped against the countertop that divided the kitchen from the living area.

“No,” the vampire said, still smiling, and leapt at her.

For the better part of her life, Two had been forced to let instinct dictate her actions. She had long ago learned to trust her impulses, and they had thus far saved her from death on several occasions. Had she taken the time to think, it would likely have brought only her murder at the hands of the vampire sailing through the air toward her. Instead, Two let instinct and adrenaline think for her, pushing up with her arms and falling backward over the counter behind her into the kitchen.

She hit her head hard on the tile floor and saw stars dancing in her vision as the vampire flew over her and landed on the stove with a crash. Still acting on instinct, Two was up and moving in an instant, away from the vampire and toward the front door of the apartment. She heard him shouting profanities behind her.

Two would have died anyway, no matter how good her instincts, if luck hadn’t been on her side. The vampire was simply too fast, was in fact already up from his landing and reaching out with his long arms. He caught her hair in his hand, and Two gave a yelping shriek of pain and fear as he pulled her backward off her feet.

He caught her before she could fall, spun her, and pushed her chin back with his powerful hands, exposing the same vein that the vampire woman had latched onto. Two knew she could not survive another feeding, and she beat her fists against his chest, terrified and furious, but it did no good. She was helpless.

It was a voice that saved her, an angry shout that stopped her attacker in mid-bite, teeth only inches from Two’s skin.

“Stop!
Farake,
Stephen!
Mishke kel
,
vi ma kovre sa tarseson munta teo maje
.”

The vampire, Stephen, looked up and smiled.

“Oh, it’s not as bad as all that, surely,” he said.

“I am serious, Stephen,” the voice, a woman’s, snarled. “Release her. Right now!”

Stephen seemed to consider this for a moment, and then did what he was told. He let go of Two without warning, and she plummeted to the floor with a squawk of surprise. She pulled herself slowly to a sitting position and looked to see who had saved her. The vampire woman from the bar was looking down at her. She spoke, her voice now restrained.

“Hello, child of Eresh. I am Naomi, and I apologize for last night – and for my idiot friend who does not know how to mind his manners.”

Stephen was now propped against the counter, looking amused, not at all perturbed at having lost his opportunity to feed. He laughed. “Your idiot friend isn’t the one who left a human in the guest room without bothering to tell anyone, Naomi.”

“I made the assumption that you know me well enough to realize that if I’d wanted her dead, she would be dead.”

Stephen shrugged. “She’s food.”

“She is not.”

“She’s not a vampire. Look at her.”

Two, who had been trying to regain control of her heartbeat, grabbed the counter and hauled herself to a standing position. She scowled at the two vampires and said, “She’s getting tired of listening to you talk about her as if she’s not standing right fucking here.”