The Blood That Bonds (31 page)

“
So what happens now,
Darren?”

“
You tell me, slu—Two.
You’re the one with the gun and the crazy bitch who thinks she’s a
dog.”

“
You don’t want to talk
about her like that. I don’t think she’s very fond of you, and
I
know
that I’m
not.”

“
Feeling’s
mutual.”

“
Money, Darren. How much
have you got here? Don’t lie to me.”

“
Three, maybe four grand in
the safe.”

“
I want it. Then you can go
… under one condition.”

“
What’s that?”

“
Get out of this business.
You’re smart enough to make money some other way. I don’t give a
shit what you do. Open a bar. Run drugs. Whatever. Just stay away
from girls. You’ve fucked up enough of them.”

Darren rolled his eyes. “Spare me. Doesn’t
seem to have done you too badly …”

Two closed her eyes a moment, thinking of
Theroen. “No? You don’t have a clue, Darren, and you’re walking
into bad territory. I’m giving you a break here. If revenge was
everything, I should have Tori tear your prick off with her teeth
so I can feed it to you. It’s not, and I’m trying to be better than
that. Don’t talk to me about how I’m doing. Just get me my
money.”

Darren went to a safe at the wall, and if
Two had been human, things might have ended some other way. As it
was, she could see exactly what was in the safe, was well aware of
the cold glint of metal in the shadows. Darren stood by the safe,
appearing to count money.

He looked up at her, and there was a small
smile on his face. “You sure I have to leave? I was damn good at
this.”

Two rolled her eyes. “Yeah, exploiting
twelve-year-olds and beating up women. You’re the greatest,
Darren.”

Darren shrugged. “Got to keep you in line.
We had a business relationship, Two. I gave you what you wanted,
you paid for it.”

“
Fuck you. I never wanted
that. You forced it on me.”

“
And you loved it. I know
you stole shit from those other girls. You loved getting high.
What’s so wrong with that? It’s good shit. What does it matter what
you paid for it?”

“
That’s not love. That’s
need.”

“
What’s the difference?”
Darren shifted position. His eyelid twitched, and he glanced at
her. Cagey. Two knew what was coming. She thought about his
question. Love. Need. What was the difference? She loved Theroen.
She needed the blood. She loved the blood. She needed
Theroen.

“
You can’t have love
without need. You
can
have need without love. This is going nowhere, Darren. You’re
done.” Two glanced down at Tori, who was looking up at her in
anticipation. Tori could feel the tension growing. Two held out a
hand, hidden from Darren’s view behind the desk, telling Tori to
wait.

“
Suppose I said I don’t
want to leave?” Darren would have seemed calm to a normal person.
To Two he was a bundle of nervous tics. Tiny involuntary muscle
movements around his eyes, in the muscles of his right
arm.

“
I’d tell you that you
don’t have much choice.”

“
Baby, I have all the
choice in the
world
.” Darren snarled and made his move, bringing his arm up,
pointing the gun at Two. As he began his move, Two closed her hand
into a fist. Tori leapt into motion.

Darren was quick, but Tori was supernatural,
a creature beyond the bounds of human limitation. If the vampire
girl had moved fast before, she was like lightning now, covering
the distance between her and Darren so quickly that her passage
made an audible rushing noise. The gun was knocked away, Tori’s
teeth found his throat, her head made a ripping, rending motion,
and Two’s former pimp’s life ended with a gurgle that was supposed
to be a scream.

* * *

“
I thought you said you
didn’t do this often.” Sam was standing at the doorway to the
bathroom, wrapped in a towel, staring at the slumped form that had
once been Darren. Two was pulling it toward the closet, where she
had already deposited the corpse of the girl in the bed. Two
glanced over at Sam, shrugged. She finished her task, closed the
closet doors, walked over to the desk, and lit a cigarette. The
first drag made her cough. Made her head spin. The second went down
more smoothly.

“
And I thought you didn’t
want any of those.” Sam said.

“
If I can’t have anything
to love, I’ll take something to need.”

“
What?”

“
Never mind. Here, Darren
brought us some clothes.”

“
Okay. Two?”

“
Yeah.”

“
What now?”

“
Let me think about that.
You don’t owe me anything, Sam. There’s money in the safe. Take it
and run. Or stick around. I’d be happy to have someone to talk to,
at least for tonight. I have to wait here for a while.”

“
I’ll stay. Go take a
shower. Am I safe with … her?” Tori was again curled up at the base
of the desk, seeming to doze.

Two nodded, got up, and headed for the
bathroom.

The shower was heaven. Good, hot water and
lots of it. After two days on the road, and skipping a shower at
the motel, she‘d felt terrible. Being clean helped. Being rid of
Darren helped more. She didn’t regret it, not at all. One oppressor
down. She wasn’t ready to think about the other.

Two showered, dried off, brushed her hair
back into a ponytail and tied it wet. The girl in the mirror looked
pale and tired, but more alive than the heroin addict who had
stared back at her not two months ago. Theroen had done that for
her. Now he was dead.

She put it out of her mind, and left the
girl in the mirror behind.

“
You going to try to
get
her
in there?”
Sam indicated toward Tori, who was now sprawled out on the bed,
snoring in a most unladylike way, oblivious to the blood on the
covers.

“
Going to try. She
stinks.”

Sam nodded again. She was counting money,
pulled from the safe and spread across the desk. Two pulled off her
towel. Sam held up a hand and looked away. “Whoah, hey, let’s keep
the full frontal nudity to a minimum. Tori’s enough.”

Two laughed. “Sorry. I used to shower with
other girls in this building all the time. You stop thinking about
it.” She put on some clothes. Darren had managed a good guess at
both her size and Sam’s. Two had never been a heavy girl to begin
with, but now vampirism had shaped her form to its absolute peak.
Clothes that would have fit the Two that Darren had known were now
a little loose.

“
Tori. Hey, Tori. Wake up,
lazy. You want to take a bath? Or a shower?”

Tori rubbed sleep out of her eyes and looked
up at Two, puzzled. Two indicated toward the bathroom with her
hand, and Tori glanced toward it, not comprehending.

“
Ah, fuck, you don’t know
what the hell I’m talking about. This should be interesting. Come
over here, Tori.”

Tori followed Two into the bathroom. After a
moment, Sam entered as well. “Gotta see you try this.”

Two grinned. She turned on the water and
motioned toward the bathtub. Tori looked nervous.

“
Look, silly, it’s like
rain except it’s warm, and there’s no mud. You’ll be
fine.”

Tori was alternating between looking at the
shower, and looking at Two. Her expression was skeptical. Two
laughed.

“
You’ll be
fine
Tori. Look, Sam and
I both took showers, and we’re exactly the same.”

“
Well, technically our hair
is now ‘full of body and life,’ I think. According to the shampoo
bottle, anyway.”

Two rolled her eyes. She moved toward the
shower, ducked her head under the water for a moment, then returned
to where Tori sat. “See? It’s fine, Tori.”

“
Bathroom’s getting soaked,
Two.” Sam tossed a towel on the ground.

“
The superintendent’s dead.
I don’t think he’s going to bill us. Come on, Tori. We haven’t got
all night.”

Tori’s expression was uncertain, but she
allowed herself to be lead toward the shower. After a moment’s
hesitation, she stepped in and, feeling the warm water, gave them a
brilliant smile. Two laughed.

Sam held up her hands. “Okay, I’m out of
here. As much as Darren might’ve appreciated it, I’m not into
watching you teach Tori the miracle of soap. I’ll be waiting.” She
departed, returning to her counting. Two turned back to Tori and
began attempting to instruct her.

* * *

Two left the bathroom laughing. Tori trailed
behind her, appearing bewildered by the towel wrapped around her
upper torso. Her hair was dry and brushed, and she looked like a
completely different person.

“
Wow, holy shit … she’s
gorgeous with all of that dirt off,” was Sam’s
appraisal.

“
Yeah. You should’ve seen
her preening with her hair in the mirror. You’d think she was
getting ready for a date.”

“
Well, good to get in the
habit. I don’t think running around dirty and naked is going to
work for very long in the city.”

“
No, probably not. That
reminds me … time for Tori to learn about clothing, I
think.”

“
Don’t you suppose they
tried that already?” Sam asked.

Two pondered this, then shrugged. “I don’t
know. I’m not sure they ever gave her a fair chance. I think they
saw her regress, or change, or whatever, into an animal … and they
just let it happen. I think there’s more human left than they
imagined. Or maybe she’s starting to change back. I have no real
idea how this shit works.”

“
I’d comment that we’re all
human and I still think you’re crazy, but it gets harder to keep
that up every time I think about the last twenty-four
hours.”

Two nodded. “I think any ‘there’s no such
thing as vampires’ argument sort of goes out the window after you
meet Abraham. Hey, Tori, you want to put on some clothes?”

Tori looked at her, not understanding. She
tugged at the towel, and it fell away. Tori reared back on her
haunches and stretched, showing off well more than was proper.

“
I could’ve done without
that,” Sam commented.

“
She doesn’t know any
better. Come here, Tori. This is a shirt. See? Like the one I’m
wearing. Put it on. No … no, the other way sweetheart. That’s
backwards. That’s … Tori, here, let me help.”

Sam laughed. Two glanced sideways at her,
questioning.

“
You sound like my sister.
She’s got two kids. Also, you’re
never
going to get her to understand
the concept of a bra.”

Two smiled and rolled her eyes. “No, I
didn’t even bother.”

* * *

“
It’s been over an hour
since all that shooting, Two, and no one’s even bothered to
investigate?” Sam had finished counting the money, and was
reclining in Darren’s chair, feet on the desk, smoking another
cigarette. Two was sitting on a maroon couch across the room, also
smoking, taking a break from teaching Tori how to walk on two feet.
The room was nearly dark, illuminated only by the diffuse glow
creeping in from the city outside.

“
Most of the girls are out
right now. The rest are probably hoping he’s dead.”

“
Nice guy, huh?”

“
Oh, yes. A warm and
friendly person. Darren was loved by all.” Two’s voice was
dry.

Sam laughed. “Right. Okay, so … what’s next?
There’s four grand and two bags of what I assume is either heroin
or coke in the safe. I don’t know anything about that shit and
don’t even want to touch it. Do I get a share of the money?”

“
Yeah. Take half. I’d give
you all of it, but I need some immediate funds.”

“
Whatever. Two thousand
bucks will make up for one lousy night. That’s not enough for you
to flee to Mexico with, though. Are you staying here? I think New
York might be hazardous to your health, Two.”

There was a thud. Tori had been attempting
to cross the room on only her feet, and had lost her balance. She
made a sound of frustration. Two smiled at her, said something
encouraging, and turned back to Sam.

“
New York is dangerous to
everyone’s health. I don’t give a shit. And I don’t really know
what’s next yet, Sam. Sorry. Right now I’m waiting for Molly to
come in. I need to see her. If she’s still alive.”

“
Molly?”

“
She’s a friend. One of the
few I have. After I talk with her, Christ … I should run. You
should go home, and I should run. I should take off and go to
California. Or Europe. Or fucking Japan. Anywhere where
Abraham’s
not
, but
…”

Sam arched an eyebrow, spread her hands,
waiting for Two to elaborate.

“
But I don’t want to do any
of that.” Two sighed, ran a hand through her hair, shook her head.
Her jaw clenched. “I’m so fucking tired of living my life afraid,
Sam. He took everything I had. When Theroen … when it happened,
when I felt him go, I almost gave up right there. How am I going to
survive? How do I live knowing that Abraham’s out there somewhere?
That he might show up any time? That the horrible, twisted,
evil
thing
that
murdered Theroen is still wandering free?”