The Blood That Bonds (23 page)

Naomi, understanding this to be a dismissal,
stood. She was unsteady on her feet, so Lisette helped her down the
hall toward the bedrooms. Theroen watched the girl disappear into
darkness, returning her small wave. Lisette moved back to the
couches, sat again next to Theroen, and looked at him for a time
with her sparkling eyes, saying nothing.

Finally she asked, “Was that evil,
Theroen?”

“
Mil—Lisette, I don’t
know
what
that
was.”

“
Ah, but that I can answer
for you. It was but a small taste of what a vampire like yourself
might experience. We are both of us blessed, Theroen.”

“
How so?”

“
What Naomi just
experienced is but a shadow of what more skilled ministrations can
bring her, and that but a hint of what a vampire lucky enough to
retain such human abilities can feel. I possess that gift, Theroen,
and so do you. Think of the fun we shall have!”

Theroen stared at her, smiling. “Lisette, I
believe if I contemplate that possibility overmuch, I may well
never leave your side again.”

“
Then don’t.”

“
Abraham—”

“
Abraham is a black-hearted
fool who understands nothing more than death. All that was human in
him died during the change. He erroneously assumed the same would
be true of you, my priest.”

“
And you believe
otherwise?”

Lisette again left him to decipher only her
smile.

* * *

Two’s eyes were wide. The mansion was not
yet near. Theroen had paused momentarily to glance at her and gauge
her reaction.

“
Am I boring
you?”

Two laughed, shaking her head. “No. God, no.
This is great. It’s like vampire porn. ‘The Erotic Adventures of
Theroen, Chapter 1.’ ”

Theroen laughed at this. “Four hundred years
would add up to many chapters indeed, but the truth is that much of
it would sound the same. Sex may not grow tiresome for those
involved … at least, if they’re good at it. But listening to
stories about it only lasts so long.”

“
It’s not even the sex,
really. I know what that’s like. It’s the idea of you not knowing,
I think,” Two said.

“
The loss of innocence,
yes. People often find that arousing.”

“
Did you enjoy
it?”

“
Greatly.”

“
Did you sleep with
Lisette?”

“
Not that
night.”

“
But
eventually?”

“
Oh, yes.”

* * *

For several months, Theroen spent every
waking moment of his time with Lisette and Naomi. It took little
time for Lisette to coax Theroen into the fullness of his own
sexuality, and evenings frequently began with feeding, perhaps a
show, and ended in lengthy stretches of passion. His early
teachings came from Naomi, and with Lisette’s guidance the two
learned rapidly. Naomi took his virginity from him, gave him her
own, in a bed of satin, Lisette’s soft whispers a soothing backdrop
to the heat of passion, the heat of blood.

After this, their lovemaking was frequent,
spontaneous, shared. Theroen and Naomi, Theroen and Lisette,
Lisette and Naomi, the three together. Naomi would be a fledgling
someday, Lisette explained. Her body was young, yet, but the time
was nearing. Naomi, for her part, was content for now with the
ministrations of her vampire lovers.

Days blurred into weeks, weeks into months.
Theroen saw nothing of Abraham, delved no further into the darkness
that had held his soul for the past decade. Mental, physical,
spiritual, Lisette was his teacher in all things, and found Theroen
a most willing pupil.

A year. Another. A third. When Lisette
brought Naomi to darkness, Theroen was there, watching like a proud
father. The process was more difficult for her than it had been for
Theroen, and Lisette explained that this was due to differences
between the vampire strains. There was pain, but Naomi bore it, and
in the end was nearly unchanged by the transformation. She gained
strength, speed, the ability to see in the dark, but no evil
touched her, and she did not lose her sexual abilities. She
remained their constant companion, a fledgling learning from her
mistress, and from her friend.

They made quite the trio, strolling the
streets of London after dark, dressed in the latest fashions,
hunting as it pleased them. There were events to attend. The
theatre, the symphony, the opera. Time passed, as it does during
the good times, in what seemed a blur.

In her third year of vampire life, Naomi
discovered the pleasures of coupling with her victims before she
fed. This was a bittersweet occurrence. Her time with both Theroen
and Lisette became less frequent, much to their disappointment. She
still lived with them, still enjoyed their company, but now hunted
alone, and most of her lovemaking was with humans. Simultaneously,
this left more time for Theroen and Lisette to be alone together.
They used it, growing ever more skillful in the pleasures they
brought to one another. Naomi was a welcome addition when she
wished to be, a companion otherwise.

More years. Five became ten, ten became
twenty, twenty became forty. Abraham was a distant memory. Lisette,
Naomi, they were reality. Theroen’s companions. He had come to love
his immortal life with them, to cherish it more than he could have
thought possible.

But in the forty-first year of his new life,
Theroen found these things he cherished, his entire world,
shattered beyond repair.

* * *

It started in a grove of trees, under a full
spring moon. Lisette and Theroen, walking in the park, talking
quietly, warm from the kill. They entered a small grove, away from
prying eyes. The glint in Theroen’s eyes had made Lisette laugh.
“Someone will call the constable!”

“
Let them.”

Skin against skin, lips at each other’s
necks, warmth flowing between them, growing to a fire. No one had
called the constable. When it was through, they lay in each other’s
arms, saying nothing. Lisette stared at the moon.

When she sighed, there was melancholy in it,
to Theroen’s surprise.

“
What is it,
Lisette?”

“
Theroen, sometimes I think
I can see the future.”

Theroen was unsure of how to respond.
Lisette sighed again, put her forehead in the hollow between his
neck and shoulder, kissed the skin there.

At last he could take the silence no longer.
“What do you see?”

No words, for a long time, and then Lisette
moved her head, rolled her weight on top of him so she could look
into his eyes. There were tears in her own, a first from Lisette.
He saw them drop, felt them land, cool on his cheeks. The moon
reflected silver in the tracks on her face.

“
Darkness, my love. All I
see for us is darkness,” Lisette whispered, and putting her head to
his chest, she wept.

* * *

Thereon paused for a moment, took a deep
breath. Two glanced over at him.

“
This is hard for you. I’m
sorry, Theroen. You don’t have to tell it.”

Theroen shook his head. “No, it is best that
I do. I have kept this story to myself for hundreds of years, and I
think perhaps this is why it is still so painful. If I could have
brought myself to talk about it, I might have been able to heal.
Modern psychology seems to bear that theory out.”

“
Could Lisette really tell
the future?”

“
She was certainly right in
this instance. All there was for us, in the end, was
darkness.”

“
What happened
next?”

“
Next? It’s funny, in a
way. What happened next was done to protect me. Ah, Two, I was
young. I was so very young. I had lived for over sixty mortal
years, yes, but forty of those were vampire years. They pass in a
blur, and contain fewer lessons. There was no death to deal with,
aside from the victims. No sickness. No worrying about occupation
or supporting a family. There was nothing to make me into a
man.

“
Lisette knew this, I
imagine; she knew how naive I was. Perhaps that is what made her
love me. Lisette’s strain is prone to depression, particularly
after long stretches of immortality. She was more than eight
hundred years old when I met her. I believe that Naomi and I became
her anchors. Her reasons for living. She was terrified of what
might happen to us, but equally terrified of pushing us away and
being alone.”

“
What did she
do?”

“
She told me not to worry
about it, to forget her words. I was confused. Upset. To be honest,
I was frightened quite severely by this sudden change. I had never
seen Lisette weep. In truth, I had never seen her give in to a
weakness of any sort. To see her so distraught was disturbing,
though I did my best to comfort her. I held her, and she clung to
me in a panic for a time. I whispered in her ear that I would make
things right, that all would be well. Eventually she regained her
composure.”

“
Did she
explain?”

Theroen shook his head. His voice betrayed
more frustration than sorrow. “No. I attempted to learn more from
her, but she would say nothing. She dismissed it as the emotional
ramblings of a woman, and like a fool I accepted it. The calm,
collected, unperturbed Lisette I knew was returning, and I was glad
for it. Relieved. I took her at her word. This was a momentary
emotional outburst.”

“
But it wasn’t.”

“
No. And looking back on it
now, it is obvious. Her entire demeanor changed after that night.
She knew that the end was coming, and she hid that knowledge to
protect me. Ah, Two, I loved her. I loved her as I love you, but I
am so angry with her, to this very day. Furious. Why did she not
explain? Combined, prepared, we might have prevented it. There
might have been some other alternative.”

“
Sometimes people, even
people who have been alive for hundreds of years, make mistakes,
Theroen.”

Theroen nodded. “Indeed. It is not the
mistake that frustrates me. I have only grief for that. It is the
knowledge that, if she were here right now and presented the same
choices, she would come to the same decisions. She would make the
same mistake.”

“
But she’s not here, now.
Something happened, Theroen.”

“
Isaac
happened.”

“
Isaac?”

“
There were other vampires
in London during the seventeenth century. Naomi and I did not know,
because Lisette had never explained it to us, but there are rules
among vampires. Laws. Lisette was breaking them, and by extension,
so were we.”

“
Normally, fledglings are
in great danger if separated from their masters for any extended
period of time. Even now, this is sometimes a problem. Rival
vampires are likely to attempt to make an example of them. I was
tolerated in my separation from Abraham in part because his power
was so immense even then that there was concern over what his
reaction might be, and in part because of my lineage.
Eresh-Chen
, first child
in a line of first children, dating back to she who was the source
of all vampires.

“
Traipsing around with
Lisette and Naomi, two vampires not of my bloodline who had, it
seemed, stolen me from my sire … this was not acceptable.
Eventually, disapproval became dislike, and dislike became hate.
Isaac used this hate in an attempt to further his own political
position among the local vampires. He made an example of Lisette in
a bid for power.”

Two looked out at the road ahead. Theroen
was not driving at his normal reckless speed, as the road did not
have his full attention, but they still drew near to the mansion.
“Finish the story, Theroen? I want to know how it ends.”

Theroen nodded. “There is little left to
tell, to be honest. Six more months of happiness – forced, on
Lisette’s part – before it all ended. I said before that I had
never really had call to become a man, in the forty years I spent
with Lisette. I made up for that in one night. In one instant.

“
When Isaac kicked the door
to our apartment in, Lisette did not even flinch. She did not even
look up, just continued to stare into the fire. I looked into her
eyes and I saw great sadness there, and great fear. I also saw
acceptance, and understood that Lisette knew that her death had
arrived. In that moment, Two, I aged those forty years.”

* * *

Theroen was on his feet, startled. The door
to the apartment had been blown inward, shattered and destroyed.
The hulking silhouette in the shadowy entrance did not move, only
stared, pale blue eyes shining out at them. Lisette closed her eyes
for a moment, touched a hand to her forehead, and turned her head
to the door.

“
Isaac.”

“
Lisette.” The vampire took
a step forward, into the light, and surveyed them. He looked for
all the world like a Viking in Englishman’s clothing. Tall, well
over six feet, with long blonde hair and a heavy blonde beard,
Isaac’s vampire nature only added to his already formidable
presence. He looked at them with an air that seemed almost
detached. There was certainly no fear in him.

“
I knew it would be
you.”

“
Ah. Who else? It is time
to pay for your transgressions, Lisette. You must answer for what
you’ve done, for thieving away the
Eresh-Chen
from his master. We will
not stand for it any longer. You will release them, and come with
me for judgment.”