The Blood That Bonds (21 page)

“
Tori. Come.” Theroen said,
standing in the middle of the clearing. He gave off no palpable
sense of fear, but Two thought she could hear some measure of
concern in his voice.

The creature that stepped from the bank of
trees in front of them moved in a manner unlike anything Two had
ever seen. The changes that vampirism had brought to Tori
manifested themselves in a far more physical manner than Two had
expected. On all fours, the girl moved with feline grace, sliding
slowly into the clearing, eyeing them cautiously and growling. She
stopped perhaps twenty feet from them, staring, teeth bared. Two
shivered.

“
She’s not pleasant to be
around,” Theroen commented. He put a hand on her shoulder.
“Introduce yourself. Be polite.”

“
Hi, Tori … I’m Two. It’s,
uh … nice to meet you,” Two said. She heard the nerves in her own
voice, and hated herself for it. Tori stared at her, then suddenly
opened her mouth and howled. Two flinched, but held her
ground.

“
She’s testing you. Stand
still. If she charges, I will take care of you.” Theroen’s voice
was a whisper, or perhaps nothing more than a thought on the
wind.

Tori moved in a wide arc around them, eyes
never leaving Two. She was naked and filthy, her long hair – blonde
like Two’s – matted with dirt. Her teeth were more pronounced than
in the other vampires Two had met, long and curved and deadly. She
sat back on her haunches, watching Two. The eyes conveyed an
intelligence and awareness far greater than Two might have
guessed.

Two sat down in the grass without thinking,
meeting Tori’s gaze. She held her hands out, palms up, in front of
her. “I don’t want to hurt you, Tori. I want to meet you.”

Tori cocked her head, rolled her body
forward into her walking position, and moved a few feet toward
Two.

“
You’re playing with fire,”
Theroen said from behind her. “She’s very fast.”

“
If she kills me, she kills
me. Maybe that’s how it’s supposed to go.”

Theroen murmured something inaudible. Tori
was now only a few paces away, looking curious. Theroen shifted his
weight from one foot to the other, and Tori immediately backed up a
pace, eyeing him with concern.

“
Go sit on that rock,
Theroen.” Two indicated by tilting her head slightly to her left.
The rock jutted from the ground near the edge of the woods, twenty
meters away.

“
Two …”

“
She’s not scared of you,
exactly, but you definitely make her edgy. I don’t want that.
Go.”

Theroen again said something under his
breath, but Two thought she could hear a smile in his voice,
fighting against his concern. He moved toward the rock. Tori took
another step backward, watched him as he went, turned her attention
back to Two.

“
You’re nothing if not
stubborn, my love,” Theroen said.

“
Got that right. Now, Tori,
do you want to say hello?”

Tori took a few steps forward. Two could see
the muscles in her legs, tense, ready to spring or run if
necessary. Two continued to hold her hands out, and Tori sniffed
them, seeming to relax. She sat back, cocked her head again,
appraising Two.

“
Hello, Tori.”

Tori made a sound that started low in her
throat and became a high-pitched whine. To Two, it sounded like a
dog yawning.

“
How does it feel, not
having to worry, Tori? How does it feel to kill, and eat, and not
think twice about it? No guilt. No sadness. No concern. How does
that feel?”

Tori looked at her, unable to comprehend.
She scratched behind her ear briefly, followed the flight of a bat
with her eyes, then looked back at Two.

“
Must feel pretty good, I
bet. You hungry, Tori?”

Two brought her finger to her new, sharp
teeth, and bit it. Blood welled immediately. She held her hands
back out to Tori.

“
You’re going to give me a
heart attack, Two.” Theroen’s voice held more tension than she had
heard at any time since her encounter with Abraham.

“
Your heart’s strong,
Theroen. You’ll survive. Go ahead, Tori.”

Tori moved her head forward, licked Two’s
finger once, twice, and then abruptly moved her head away.

“
You’re a killer, Tori.
Take it. Take what you want. If you’re going to kill me, then kill
me. I refuse to be afraid of you, so kill me now, or I guess we’re
going to have to be friends.”

Tori looked again at Two’s outstretched
hand, then reached up, bit her own finger, and held it out to
Two.

“
Okay, Tori.”

Two touched her lips to Tori’s outstretched
hand and tasted blood, fire on her tongue. Her hunger leapt awake,
but she too pulled her head away.

“
Just a couple of killers
out in the forest, that’s us, right Tori?” Two was smiling, but she
could feel tears making cool tracks on her hot cheeks. “Just a
couple of vampires getting to know each other … getting to know who
they really are.”

She felt Theroen beside her. Tori glanced at
him briefly, but did not shy away. Theroen’s concern had
dissipated, and in turn Tori no longer seemed to regard him as a
threat. He sat down in the grass next to Two, and she leaned
against his shoulder, still looking at Tori.

“
I wish I was like
her.”

“
Do you?”

“
She’s perfect. She doesn’t
care. Melissa, Missy … they’re the same person to her. Who’ll take
care of her when they’re gone?”

“
I had thought she was not
long for this earth, Two. Now? I am not so sure. She seems to have
accepted you. Perhaps Abraham might permit us to take
her.”

“
Good. I understand her. I
wish I was like her. Oh, God, Theroen, how do you stand it? Is it
always this much … tragedy?”

“
No, not like this, but
there is always some tragedy, Two, and always some joy, and I am
sometimes thankful for both. It reminds me of what it was like to
be a human. You want to know what you are, Two? You are a killer.
You are a vampire. You are a force of nature, like the girl sitting
before us. You are cursed, and you are blessed, just like Tori. She
will never know the things we know, feel the things we feel. That
is her blessing. That is her curse.”

Two smiled at Tori. Tori smiled back, then
turned suddenly, loped off through the grass, making high yipping
sounds. In seconds she was gone. After a moment more, Two stood.
The cut on her finger had already healed, but the thirst still
burned within her.

“
Let’s go into the city,
Theroen. I’m hungry.”

They left the clearing, moving back toward
the mansion. Overhead, the moon looked down on them, cold and
distant.

* * *

There was no need to find a criminal this
time. Two was ravenous, and beyond caring. “I’m fucking starving.
Whatever’s close. I’ll hate myself in the morning, but right now I
don’t care if it’s a virgin girl about to win the Nobel Peace
Prize. Force of nature, right?”

Theroen had nodded, and headed for the city,
the Ferrari roaring beneath them. There was little said during the
drive. Both were occupied with their own thoughts, reflecting on
the recent events at the mansion. Was there any way to avoid the
coming storm?

Eventually Two sighed, closing her eyes and
leaning her head back against the seat. Theroen took her hand
momentarily, squeezed it.

“
This is going to drive me
crazy, Theroen.”

“
I’d rather you not let it.
We have a surplus in that area already.”

Two let herself smile a little. “I don’t
think Tori’s actually that nuts. She’s just … stripped raw. I’m
also not sure she’s as unaware of what’s going on as you guys
think. That bit with the blood was pretty impressive.”

Theroen shrugged. “It is possible. Tonight
is the longest she’s ever allowed me to be close to her.”

Two fed on an older woman returning from a
late night at work. There was little ceremony, this time. She
simply followed the woman into her building, attacked her in the
stairwell, and she and Theroen pulled the body up and into the
woman’s apartment, where they left it. Theroen fed from a neighbor,
a woman in her mid-twenties whose cats were petrified of him, left
her lying flushed and feverish in her bed, and they departed.

“
Why did we come so far, if
it was that easy?” Two asked.

“
You will need to be
careful with your eating habits for some time, Two. Most vampires
do not stop killing out of some misguided sense of morality, but
for personal protection. Sixty thousand people die every year in
the city and the surrounding area. It makes for good cover. But
even a small portion of vampires, killing a victim per night, would
rapidly raise suspicion. Fortunately, like I said, those of our
strain are the only vampires that need so much blood for so long.
There are not many of us.”

“
Why not?”

“
We breed differently.
Unfortunately, I do not know all of the specifics. There is very
much that Abraham never bothered to teach me, and that Lisette did
not have time to. I believe she may actually have withheld a great
deal from me, in order to protect me until I had grown
stronger.”

“
Lisette.”

Theroen sighed, and nodded. “Lisette. Yes. I
never did finish that story. There are nearly forty years I could
talk about, but most of that is empty details. A lot of hunting. A
lot of sex. Fond memories, but I wish we’d done more with the
time.”

“
I think just about
everyone does, Theroen.”

“
Yes, I think so, too.
Where did I leave off?”

“
She left you that first
night, and you went home.”

“
Ah. Home. Home to sleep.
Home to wait. For night … for Lisette.”

* * *

Theroen made his way back to the dwelling
where he spent most of his time. Though he had started his life as
a vampire living in tombs, this was simply meant to be a lesson
from Abraham. After a week or two of sleeping on cold slabs,
Abraham had brought Theroen to his home, a large estate on the
outskirts of the city. Theroen thought perhaps the lesson was that
Abraham could provide better than what Theroen could manage on his
own.

Theroen, already falling into the anger and
hatred that would consume him for the next ten years, took from his
sire only the knowledge that he did not need to live in the
graveyard. Within six months he had left Abraham and acquired his
own apartment in the city. Abraham was apoplectic. Theroen didn’t
care. “Kill me then,” he had told the elder vampire. “Do what I now
wish you had done that first night. I am damned now, so what does
it matter?”

Abraham had not killed him, had let him go.
“You will return, Theroen. Wait and see. Fledgling vampires need
their masters more than they realize.”

Thus far, Abraham had been wrong. Theroen
saw him only occasionally, when he needed vampire blood. Abraham
gave it, to Theroen’s surprise, although not without complaint. He
would insist that Theroen was being foolish, putting himself in
needless danger. Theroen would simply listen in silence, waiting
for the blood, and Abraham would eventually grow tired of
sermonizing.

Theroen saw no reason for this to change.
After the initial surprise and fear of this chance encounter with
the vampire named Lisette, he had been unsure whether to continue
on his path toward Abraham’s home, or to turn back toward his own.
Eventually he realized the truth of her words; if she had wanted
Theroen dead, he would be dead by now.

With that realization, he found himself no
longer concerned for his safety. He turned and moved back the way
he had come, mulling over the events of the evening. Lisette’s
refusal to believe his claims of evil and darkness, the sudden
awakening of his sexual appetite. Lost in a sea of thought, Theroen
wandered. Contemplated.

Lisette was the polar opposite of the only
other vampire he had known. Was it possible that there could be
more to the afterlife than the pursuit of darkness? Was this why he
resisted Abraham’s tutelage? Was it his horror at his own, lost
soul that made him lash out so at humanity?

It seemed he could smell her on the wind,
but her presence was gone from his mind. Lisette. Her accent was
French.

Theroen smiled a small smile, and looked up
at the stars.

* * *

The next night saw no sign of her. Theroen
fed lightly, a single girl. No performance, no sexuality. He found
the girl in a darkened alley, took her before she was even aware of
his presence, moved on. He wandered, waiting for Lisette, but
Lisette did not come.

Two days. Three. His frustration mounted.
Theroen began to wonder if he had simply hallucinated the entire
event. It seemed unreal to him now, this visit from a creature of
such power and beauty. Four days. Five. The anger began to rise
again within him. The hate cried out to him. Let go. Give up. On
the sixth day he took two women, watched them bring each other to
the heights of pleasure, cut their throats like sacrificial lambs,
and hated himself for it.

Seven, eight, and the memory of laughter
like bells in the night was fading rapidly. A chance encounter, if
it had happened at all.

He lost count, descending again into rage.
Nights of red haze, lashing out against God and his creations. Had
she been so close to him? Had he felt the touch of salvation?