The Blood That Bonds (30 page)

The world began to grey, and Theroen felt
his strength flagging. No chance, now. He could not move Abraham.
The pulse of his heart seemed to grow distant, like a receding
tide. He saw faces. Lisette. Naomi. Melissa. Tori. Two. He fixated
on this last, on the face of this woman that he loved. He wanted to
focus. He wanted to see her eyes one last time. He wanted to tell
her that he was sorry for everything, and that he would meet her in
some other place, at the end of the mortal life his demise was
buying her. He would wait there for her. If only he could focus. If
only he could see her eyes.

Theroen was still trying to make this happen
when he died.

* * *

Two felt him go.

The sensation was like a sharp tugging that
pulled at her whole body, and yet held no physical force. She
stopped, bewildered for a moment, and then realization flooded in
like a dark tide. Sam and Tori were looking at her in confusion,
but Two could not see them, could not see anything except blackness
before her eyes. She felt Theroen’s presence – so established
within her that she had ceased even to notice it – dwindling,
blinking out of existence. She felt her knees unhinge, and the
gravel by the side of the road they had been following bit into her
legs. She didn’t notice. Didn’t care.

Two tilted her head back and cried out
denial to the uncaring stars. Wailing, weeping, she fell to her
side, curled up like a baby, uncontrollable shuddering wracking her
body. Theroen was gone, gone from her and gone from the world.
Gone. Two wept, and screamed, and it was some time before Sam could
do anything more than watch.

At last, Two’s grief subsided enough for her
to hear Samantha’s voice calling her name, asking what was wrong.
She fought against her tears, fought against the despair
threatening to engulf her completely. Already she felt weaker,
colder, more human, though she knew that she had not yet begun to
revert to humanity. How long would it be before the various gifts
Theroen had bestowed upon her withered away? A week? A month?

There was no time to contemplate this now.
She had to get Samantha and Tori away from Abraham. The destroyer.
The dark god. The most evil being that she would ever
encounter.

Theroen’s life for hers, but had Two ever
truly believed it would come to that? Now she knew it had indeed,
and she knew as well that by staying so close to Abraham, she was
putting them all in great danger. They had to get away. She stood
up, brushing herself off and sniffling.

“
What is it, Two?” Sam
asked.

“
It’s over. He’s gone.”
Two’s voice was hollow. Dead.

“
Abraham?”

Two laughed. The sound was without humor.
She took a breath and shuddered. “No. Didn’t you listen? Abraham is
indestructible. He’s a god. It would be s—stupid to even fight
him.”

Sam looked at her,
uncomprehending, and Two felt her grief turn to anger before she
could stop it. “He’s
dead
, don’t you get it? Theroen’s
dead, and you don’t even know what that means! You don’t even know
what your life cost!”

Sam blanched, stepped back, frightened by
this sudden mood swing. Two saw this, felt despair well up inside
her again, and covered her eyes. She could find nothing there in
the darkness, no sense of Theroen, nothing to comfort her. After a
moment, she looked up again.

“
I’m sorry, Sam. We have to
go. Now. While we still can.”

“
Are you going to be okay,
Two?”

“
It doesn’t matter. Nothing
matters. He’s gone. I owe it to Theroen to make sure you and Tori
are safe. After that? Nothing matters. Let’s go.”

They began a hurried dash along the road,
glancing frequently behind them, expecting that Abraham would show
up at any moment to finish them all. Eventually they realized that
he was not coming, that he would indeed honor his bargain with
Theroen and let them go, and so they slowed to a walk, waiting for
headlights, waiting for someone who would pull over. Someone Tori
could make short work of. Someone with a car.

* * *

Chapter 6

Homecoming

Darren’s building. The hallway outside.

Two could hear muffled grunts, the
occasional cooing of some girl, bedsprings creaking. It sounded
like a bad porn movie, and she smiled despite the bitter taste in
her mouth. She’d come here because she didn’t know where else to
go. Dirty, tired, out of money, too ashamed and too frightened to
go to Rhes and Sarah, she had returned to the building she had
called home for the past year.

The trip hadn’t taken long. A car had
eventually come along, the driver slowing for the two young women
standing in the cold rain. Two had felt bad about rewarding this
kindness with death, but she was still a vampire. Still needed to
feed. Sam watched in horror, but Two could see the thirst in her
eyes. By the end of the car ride Sam, grudging and sullen, had
admitted that she was beginning to believe the whole vampire
thing.

They had spent the day in a motel, sleeping.
Two had packed Tori into the bathroom, blocking the cracks under
the door with towels, giving the girl plenty of blankets with which
to build some sort of nest. She and Sam had taken the beds. Two
woke, weeping, at sunset. There was no Theroen to wake up next to,
and never would be again.

By that evening, Sam was already looking
more human. Two still felt the same. She fed on a victim in an
adjacent room, and then the trio had continued toward Brooklyn,
toward Darren.

Darren’s voice, through the door. “That’s
good, baby. That’s real good, but you … gotta sound like you’re …
getting the best fuck of your life. Course, I know you are, right
baby?”

“
Anything you say, Darren.”
The girl turned the volume up a notch. Two grimaced. She’d done
this. She’d been here. It was a place she never intended to be
again. She stood in the same building, but not in the same place.
She had strength now, power now, purpose now. Descent and rebirth.
Two had survived this process twice already. She would survive a
third.

Two kicked the door, hard, just below the
lock. The frame splintered and the entire mechanism fell to the
floor with a clatter. The door swept inward on creaking hinges,
ricocheted off the wall with a flat smacking sound, and came to a
stop.

Darren was quick; Two had to give him that.
The door had not even finished its swing before he was rolling off
of the girl, yanking a drawer in the nightstand open and pulling a
gun from within. In a moment more he was up on his feet, pointing
the weapon toward the dark hallway. From his perspective, there
were only vague grey shapes. Two’s eyes were much better. Before
her stood Darren, naked and still half-aroused, gun cocked and held
out in front of him.

“
Who the fuck are you and
what do you want?” he snarled.

“
Put down the gun, dumbass,
before you get hurt.”

“
Answer the fucking
question, bitch. Who is that? You one of my girls? Gonna get you
some revenge, maybe put some holes in old Darren? Answer me or I
start shooting.”

“
Something like that. I’ll
give you a few hints. She’s short, she’s cute and she’s been
missing for a month or two.”

The gun wavered for a brief moment. Darren’s
eyes registered vague surprise before growing icy again. “I didn’t
authorize no vacation, Two.”

“
I didn’t fucking ask for
one.”

Darren sneered at her, still unafraid. Two
knew that look, and it was all she could do not to charge screaming
into the room, to tear her former pimp limb from limb. It spoke of
Darren’s complete disdain for his girls. It was a look that carried
with it all the baggage of his beatings, his orders, his forcing
addiction upon them. Two tried to think of Theroen. Tried to remain
calm.

“
Put the gun down. Now.”
She said.

Darren actually smiled at
this, and shook his head. “No, I don’t think so. Here’s how it’s
going to go: You’re going to come in here, and I’m going to kick
the living shit out of you. If you beg real nice, maybe I’ll stop
before I kill you. If that’s how it goes, then you’ll get back to
your room, and heal up, and get your ass out where it belongs, and
maybe then I
might
give you a ration some time this fucking century.”

Two laughed. After the blood, heroin had
lost its appeal. “Last chance, Darren. Put down the gun.”

“
No.”

Two shrugged, and released her grip on
Tori’s shoulder. What happened next was better even than she could
have expected. Tori sprang into the room, howling, so quick that
she seemed a blur even to Two. Darren’s expression moved from
confidence to terror in an instant. He got off one shot, wild, and
the recoil from the gun caused him to drop it. Tori leapt, and Two
was treated to the wholly satisfying view of Darren loosing his
bladder on his own feet. He ducked at the last possible moment, and
Tori sailed over him, into the bed.

Darren scrabbled away on all fours, making
noises that sounded something like words, something like screams.
There was a choking sound from the bed, and when Tori reappeared,
she was drenched in crimson. She leapt down to the floor and
advanced on Darren, growling low in her throat, the rumble of a
jungle cat. Darren had backed himself into a corner, soiled, wet
with piss and tears, and was making some sort of plea for his
life.

Two called Tori’s name, and the vampire
stopped, less than two feet from Darren. She raised her lip in a
sneer that was oddly human, then turned, picked the gun up in her
teeth, and brought it to Two.

“
Don’t do that. Dogs do
that. Use your hands.” Two’s voice was soft, her heart not really
in the scolding. She was too busy watching Darren to ensure he
didn’t move. She entered the room, Sam and Tori trailing behind,
and stood by Darren’s desk, looking at him. He sat on the floor,
glaring up, making the slow move from fear to smoldering
humiliation.

“
Stand up.”

“
Bitch, I ain’t
doing
shit
for
you.”

Two’s expression was almost bored as she
swung the gun upward and fired twice, putting a shot just to either
side of Darren’s head. Behind her, Sam made a small shrieking
noise. Darren’s eyes went wide, his face paper white.

“
I don’t have to miss,
Darren. Trust me on that, ‘kay? I’m in charge, now. Stand the fuck
up.”

Darren did what he was told.

“
Put on some fucking
clothes. I’ve seen all of
that
that I plan on seeing, thank you.”

Darren struggled into a pair of jeans, very
nearly catching himself in the zipper. Behind Two, Sam giggled.
Darren shot her a look that made it perfectly clear that being
laughed at by women was not something he was used to tolerating.
Two waved the gun, drawing his attention.

“
Don’t even look at her.
She can laugh all day, if she wants. We need money, Darren. Now. As
much as you have. You’re going to get it, and you’re going to get
us some clothes, and then you’re going to leave.”

Darren’s eyes blazed. “I’m not taking orders
from—”

Two cut him off. “Yeah? That right? Your
friend GLOCK here says you will. Even if he didn’t, I think Tori’s
next on the chain of command.”

Tori was sniffing around the bed. On hearing
her name she glanced at Two, wandered over, sat on her haunches and
licked blood from her arm, indifferent.

“
Get us some clothes,
Darren. Then come back.”

“
The
fuck
happened to you, Two?” Darren’s
voice was plaintive. Confused.

“
It’s a long story, and
you’re not worth the time. You know sizes. You can guess what’ll
fit us. If you feel like running, go right ahead. Tori could track
you anywhere, even before you smelled like piss, and as you’ve
seen, she’s a lot faster than you are. If you’re not back in five
minutes, I’ll send her out.”

Darren opened his mouth to say something.
Two cut him short with a gesture. “Next time I see your tongue,
Darren, I blow it out of your fucking mouth. Clothes. Now.”

Two motioned toward the door. After a
moment, Darren went.

“
That was amusing …” Sam
was looking at the bed with distaste. A hand hung limp from under
the covers. “Do you two do this often?”

“
Me? No. Not when I can
avoid it. Tori, maybe. I … Tori, get out of there.” Tori was
inspecting the closet, sniffing at garments. Two didn’t know where
Darren’s supply might be hidden. It was unlikely that it would be
any place so unguarded, but the last thing she needed was an
overdosing vampire.

Sam sat at Darren’s desk and lit a cigarette
from the pack that was sitting there. She dragged, coughed, dragged
again. “Three days without one of these. Thought I was going to go
crazy.”

“
Yeah, they get their claws
into you.”

They were quiet for a minute. Sam smoked.
Two watched. Tori sat at Two’s side, licking her arms like a
cat.

“
You want one?” Sam asked,
stubbing hers out.

“
No. Thanks. There’s a
shower through that door. You want the first one? I’ll deal with
Darren.”

“
Okay.” Sam made her way to
the bathroom. Two sat down at the desk, looking at her
watch.

* * *

Darren made it back with just under twenty
seconds to spare, and dumped the clothes unceremoniously on the
desk in front of Two. He stood, waiting, anger like embers at the
back of his eyes. Two had her feet up. Tori was curled up at her
side, but she opened one eye and growled low when Darren entered.
Two glanced at the clothes, nodded, and turned to look at him.