The II AM Trilogy Collection

by Christopher Buecheler

  “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.

  “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?”

  “I don’t know, Two.”

  “Me neither. And that’s not all. What have I got left here? I have no job. I have three friends, one of whom also now has no job and is still hooked on smack. The other two don’t really understand me and don’t know how to help me. In another week or two, tops, I’m not even going to be a vampire anymore.”

  Two rolled her eyes and bit her lower lip, fighting back tears. Sam seemed to be trying to find the right words, but coming up empty. Two waved her hand, dismissive. “Don’t worry about it, Sam. I’ll be okay.”

  “Look, Two, I’m just a poor Dominican girl from the Bronx, so maybe it’s not
my place to say, but maybe you need to look on the bright side? You’re not on heroin. You’ve got friends. This might be a chance to start a new life.

  Two said nothing, just stared, sullen, at the floor.

  Sam toyed with another cigarette for a moment, then lit it. She looked concerned.

  “What, Sam?”

  “You want me to be honest?”

  “Yes. I can handle that.”

  Sam shrugged, trying for nonchalance. “I don’t know you very well, Two. We only met a day ago. But I like you, and I’m worried that you’re going to go and do something stupid, like kill yourself or something. I’m afraid to leave you alone.”

  Two shook her head. “No, I don’t think so. At least, it hadn’t occurred to me yet. Not since right after Theroen died anyway. I wouldn’t do that to you or Tori.”

  “Good. She needs you to take care of her. And I think you can count her as another friend, and me, so now you’re up to five. You could maybe forget Abraham, if you tried, and go back to a normal life. Would that be so bad?”

  Two pondered this, trying to put her feelings into words. “No,” she said after some time. “No, it wouldn’t be so bad. Being human is a wonderful thing, in a lot of ways, and I guess I could probably get used to it again. It’s being without him that I’ll never get used to. I’ll never forget, Sam. I … there was love, a lot of it, even though we didn’t know each other for that long. But that’s not all of it. When Theroen turned me into a vampire, it connected us in a way that human beings just can’t understand.

  “The way his mind worked, he was always there, always with me. I didn’t even really notice it, not until he was gone. I feel empty, Sam. Like a part of me died with him. That feeling’s not going to go away. I can tell you that right now. At best, it’s just going to fade a little.”

  “So what are your options then, Two? Find another vampire? Make the change again? Maybe you could get Tori to do it.”