The II AM Trilogy Collection

by Christopher Buecheler

  “Bullshit. I know how to punch without breaking my thumbs.”

  “Good, then punch. Let me see your form.”

  Two threw a few shots at the bag: stiff, short jabs.

  “Stop trying to anticipate what I want you to look like and just punch like you would punch if this bag was ‘some girl’ whose teeth needed knocking out.”

  “OK.”

  Two threw punches, circling around a bit. She knew that it would be obvious to Stephen that she was not trained, but hoped she would be able to keep from making a fool out of herself. At least, as she had said, she knew how to keep from breaking her thumbs.

  Stephen was right: she had earned the right to hit something, and Two found herself enjoying this exercise. Moving with the bag, timing her swings, not minding the scrapes on her knuckles as the heavy canvas bounced against them. She could feel a light sweat forming all over her body, but she felt good, not out of breath or overexerted, simply a well-honed machine performing in the manner that it should.

  “I guess I should thank you for this,” she said as she punched.

  “I was curious if you would feel that way,” Stephen replied.

  “For a long time, I didn’t. I thought you were pushing too hard, just enjoying being the asshole drill sergeant that I couldn’t say ‘no’ to.”

  “Who says I wasn’t?”

  Two laughed. Punched. “Fine, but I’m still thanking you for it.”

  “Why?”

  “Dunno. Passed the time? Gave me sexy abs? Made me cut down on the cigarettes?”

  “You should quit those entirely.”

  “Sure. I should probably quit the bourbon, too, but that’s not gonna happen either.”

  “Very well then, but I don’t think any of those are the real reason that you’re thanking me.”

  “Suppose not.”

  Stephen waited. Two punched. Finally, she said, “I was tired of not being in control of anything.”

  “That’s very interesting,” Stephen said.

  “Why’s that?”

  “The way I see it, you’ve been in control of this entire situation from the moment Naomi tasted your blood and learned what it is you were. At the very least, you’ve been in control from the moment she stopped me from killing you.”

  “What the hell have I been in control of?”

  Stephen tilted his head and answered her question with one of his own. “Do you know why the American council wasn’t able to come to a decision?”

  Two, who had no idea, shook her head.

  “They’re scared of you. Terrified. Centuries of order have come crashing down because you – little, tiny you, not even in shape at the time – killed the bogeyman. You didn’t just kill him, you slaughtered him like a farm animal. You chopped his head off and set him on fire, and you didn’t do it by accident. You did it by walking up to him with every intention of killing him.”

  “I … hadn’t thought of it like that,” Two admitted.

  “There’s not a vampire in the New World who hadn’t fantasized about doing what you did to Abraham, at some point. Not one. Just … taking him on, and winning. But for them … for us … it was fantasy, until you actually went and did it. If you can kill Abraham as a weak, half-human fledgling, just think what you might be capable of down the road!”

  Two shrugged. She knew what she wanted, and it had nothing to do with things that should scare the council.

  Stephen laughed. “That says it all, Two. You don’t even know what you did. Not really.”

  Two hit the bag, sidestepped, hit again. “Don’t know, don’t really care,” she said.

  “Exactly. That is exactly right. You are going to be a fantastic vampire. All instinct and action. The council is going to be horrified at first.”

  “And then what?” Two asked, smiling, enjoying this vision of herself as a raging agent of chaos.

  “Then there will be changes. Many, many changes, most of which will involve you in some way or the other.”

  “Look, Stephen, I appreciate the confidence, but seriously …”

  “You don’t have to believe me. Just call it a hunch. Now stop talking and keep hitting.”

  Two shrugged again and did what she was told.

  “Good. Good enough,” Stephen said after a time, and Two stopped, inspecting her knuckles. They were raw, but weren’t completely destroyed.

  “Did I look OK?” she asked.

  “No, you looked terrible … but not hopeless.”

  “Oh.”

  “You did very well, Two. It will not take long to teach you the basics.”

  “How long are we talking?”

  Stephen made a noncommittal noise. “A week or so to get your jabs in the right place. We’ll work on the other punches after that. If nothing else, you don’t swing like a girl.”

  Two, who had seen too many street fights – some up close and personal – to still punch as if she were swinging a purse, laughed and nodded.

  “It took me weeks to get Naomi out of that habit,” Stephen said.

  “You taught Naomi to fight?”

  “I tried.”

  “Why’d you stop? Wasn’t she up for the work?”

  Stephen raised his eyebrows. “She put in the work … though I might have been a bit softer in my youth than I am now. But I haven’t seen Naomi fight in decades, and that’s the crux of it. She doesn’t have the heart for it. She’s a lover, as you know. I have the suspicion she’s as gifted in her craft as I am in mine.”

  “No comment,” Two said, but she was unable to suppress a telling smile.

  “Where is she tonight, anyway? It seems she’s rarely home these days.”

  Two shrugged. “Naomi does her thing. We don’t really go out much … not since you started training me. I can’t go out to the clubs because I’m busy training, and she gets bored sitting in front of the TV. She’s got some vampire friends here, but I’ve never met them. I don’t want to.”

  “When I first met you, all you wanted was to meet as many vampires as you could,” Stephen said.

  Two thought for a moment, trying to find the right words. “I want it too badly,” she said at last. “I want what she has. I want what they have. It hurts sometimes just to be with her. Hanging out with her and a bunch of other beautiful, brilliant, perfect vampire girls? No thanks.”

  “It doesn’t hurt to stay here and train with me?”

  Two considered this, then shook her head. “You have what I want, but it’s not the same. I don’t understand you and your people. I want to learn to fight, but not because I love to fight. I’m not like that. I’m closer to what Naomi is.”

  Stephen shook his head, and Two glanced up at him.

  “What?”

  “I don’t think you’re any closer to her than you are to me,” he said. “I understand why I don’t bother you, and why they would, but it doesn’t mean you’re like Naomi. I know exactly what you are, and so do you, and it’s why every time I bring up your relationship with Naomi in any manner other than jest, you look like you’re going to cry.”

  Two was unable to form a response to this at first. Finally she said, “Sometimes I hate your fucking honesty.”

  “You and the rest of the world,” Stephen replied.

  “What am I, then? Huh, Stephen? Not a fighter, not a lover … what?”

  Stephen looked her in the eyes, and he gave her a sad smile that she had never before seen on his face. She found herself wishing quite fervently that she would never see it again.

  “You’re an Eresh,” he said.

  * * *

  “Two, they’ve set a date!” Naomi wasn’t even through the front door yet, and she was already shouting. “The council has set a date!”

  Two, who was sitting at the kitchen table and eating a late dinner, turned and raised her eyebrows. “Really?”

  “Yes, really!” Naomi pulled her shoes off, walked down the hallway to the kitchen. “What are you eating?”

  “Pork chop. Sal
ad. Bread. Want some?”

  Naomi wrinkled her nose and shook her head. Two laughed as the vampire sat down across from her.

  “So when’s the date?” she asked.

  “Three weeks from today.”

  Two choked on her salad, coughed a few times, looked at Naomi in surprise. “Wait, seriously?”

  “Yes … why?”

  “Well, that’s … I mean, we’ve been here for more than a year, Naomi. I kind of figured they’d be like ‘OK, we’ll have a meeting in six months’ when you finally got through to them.”

  Naomi laughed. Two had opened a bottle of chardonnay to go with her meal, and now the vampire girl stood, found herself a glass, and poured the wine. She refilled Two’s glass, and then held up her own.

  “To not waiting another six months,” she said.

  Two grinned, touched her glass to Naomi’s, and said, “Amen. Cheers!”

  They were silent for a moment, drinking their wine and considering this information. Two spoke first, turning to Naomi with a wry smile that she couldn’t help.

  “So … what do you think about my chances?”

  Naomi shrugged, but she smiled back at Two. “I honestly have no idea. The European council members are all older than any living vampire in America, and there are only five of them. I can’t guess at how they’ll choose to interpret our laws.”

  Two blew air upward toward the short strands of hair that now spiked out above her forehead. “I think I hate your laws, Naomi.”

  Naomi made a noncommittal noise and asked, “How was your workout tonight?”

  “It was OK,” Two said.

  After training, Two had made her way upstairs and taken a long, hot shower. She had thought about what Stephen had said and concluded that it was the truth. Theroen had chosen her for a reason. He had seen her on a random walk through Brooklyn and felt some spark, some kinship, and further observation had convinced him that she was the one. He had made her an Eresh-Chen, yes, but whatever it was he had seen in her had already been there, and was with her still.

  There weren’t enough Eresh vampires. Two didn’t know any, other than Leonore and her apprentice James, and neither of them was old enough to make fledglings even if she’d wanted anything to do with them. According to Naomi, there might be as few as seventy Eresh in the entire world, and of those only a scant few were within the right age range. Two wasn’t about to go looking for them.

  That left Ashayt or Ay’Araf. Lovers or fighters. There was only one route that made sense. She had an available patron, a high-ranking member of the American council and an Ashayt at the prime age to create a fledgling. There was no reason not to take Naomi’s blood as soon as it was offered. No reason at all, except for the growing certainty within her that to do so would lead only to tragedy in the long run.

  These thoughts ran through Two’s mind in moments, their only outward expression a slight wrinkling of her brow. Naomi noticed this and tilted her head, giving Two a questioning look. Two waved her away.

  “Nothing, don’t worry about it,” Two lied. “I was trying to remember if Stephen wanted me to do anything else tonight, but I think I’m good.”

  Naomi smiled, considering this. “So you’re free tonight, hmm?”

  Two felt Naomi’s aura pulsing around her, and she gave the vampire a small smile. “Yes, but it’s a little early to head for bed … still hours ‘til dawn.”

  Naomi laughed. “I know. I thought perhaps we could go out, have a few drinks … relax, for once. You never come out with me anymore.”

  “I—” Two began, and Naomi held up a hand, stopping her.

  “I’m not trying to make you feel guilty. I just miss you. I told you I understood, when we talked about it, and I really do. I know that it’s not easy to stand on the outside, looking in.”

  “Yes.”

  “Tonight though, I promise, no long talks about vampire life, and no visits from any of my friends, and no worrying about the future. Just you, me, and some loud music. We’ll go, and drink, and dance if you want, and then we’ll come home.”

  “Before dawn?” Two asked.

  Naomi smirked. “Oh, yes. Well before dawn.”

  “I’m sure you have some lovely ideas in mind for when we get home,” Two said, heading for the hall closet where she had hung her jacket.

  Behind her, Naomi laughed, a pretty sound not tinged by the sadness that Two so often heard in the other woman’s voice. She was glad for this, glad that at least for tonight they were going to go out and focus on having fun, rather than worrying about the future.

  “I think I will dance tonight,” Two said, pulling on her jacket. “I want to get all close with you and make every guy in the place stare. Sound good?”

  Naomi joined her in the hall, still smiling. “I cannot think of a single thing that I would like more.”

  * * *

  Naomi pressed against her, soft and warm, expertly moving to the thudding music. Two could see that the exertion, the heat, the booze, and the excitement had combined to make even the vampire sweat, no easy feat. The club was packed with bodies, flooded with colored lighting, and had become something like an inferno. Throngs of people surrounded them, holding drinks and yet managing to undulate in time with the pulsing trance beats. Two normally hated this type of music but she was drunk and wanted to dance, and tonight she was happy to have it.

  Naomi was six inches taller than Two and might have proven a difficult partner if not for her superhuman reflexes. She moved with Two, undulating, twisting, reacting perfectly in time with the beat and with Two’s movements. Two, for her part, was in the best shape of her life and acutely aware of both her improved stamina and new agility. They had been drawing stares all night, their dance an open simulation of sex, liquid and sinuous, rhythmic, building and building, only to pull apart at what seemed the very last second.

  Eleven men and four women had tried to cut in, break them apart, draw one of the two of them off. To Two’s surprise and gratification, not all of them had targeted Naomi. Nonetheless, they had turned all of their suitors down. Two and Naomi weren’t here to hook up with strangers. They were here to dance, and there was no better partner to be found for each than the other. Just as Two was thinking this to herself, Naomi seemed to reassert the fact by gleefully grabbing Two’s rump. Two glanced up at her, eyebrows raised, and the vampire leaned in.

  “I want you so badly I might strip you right here on the dance floor,” Naomi said, her lips against Two’s ear.

  “I doubt anyone would complain,” Two said, pressing against her lover, hands held above her head, hips moving.

  “Don’t tempt me!” Naomi laughed. She kissed Two on the cheek, moved her head away, continued dancing.

  Two danced with her eyes closed, letting Naomi worry about adapting to her movements, knowing that the vampire girl would have no problem doing so. She thought about the life Naomi had lived, the people she might have loved who were no longer alive. There was Lisette, of course, but had there been others as well? Was Two the first human that Naomi had loved?

  Naomi had begun biting Two during sex several months earlier, and as it had with Theroen, the act substantially enhanced Two’s orgasm. While it worried Two, in a way, that they were becoming so close, it seemed impossible to ask Naomi to stop. Not only was the pleasure nearly indescribable, but she didn’t want to hurt Naomi’s feelings.

  Then there had been the evening in June when, lying in each other’s arms and at the very edge of sleep, Naomi had said “I love you” to Two for the first time. Naomi had fallen asleep within moments. Two had spent the next hour and a half staring up at the ceiling, unsure of how to react to the vampire’s words. Love? Naomi was wonderful. Beautiful. Amazing. Yet, no, not love. Not quite. Love was for Theroen. Two would not, could not, say those words back to Naomi.

  Three weeks ago, Naomi had proven her love in a way more intimate than all of the sex or words Two could ever have asked of her. After the apex of their lovemaking, with both
women exhausted and near sleep, Naomi had bitten gently into her own arm and shared her blood with Two. Just a few drops before the wound had healed, just enough to coat Two’s tongue, and yet it had set ablaze within her that old desire, a need that had gone unfulfilled for nearly two years. This was Naomi’s promise, Two understood instinctively, that no matter what the council decided, they would find a way.

  Am I the first since Lisette? Two wondered. It couldn’t be possible. Lisette had died hundreds of years ago. There must have been others. Where were they now? What had happened? What could …

  Naomi leaned in close again and said, “Whatever it is you’re thinking about, I order you to stop right now!”

  Two laughed, opened her eyes, smiled at Naomi. “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Mademoiselle!” Naomi corrected, feigning indignation. “I may be four hundred, but I’m not married. Good … now drink this.”

  Naomi thrust a glass into Two’s hand, and Two did as she was told. Something sweet and strong burned within, a flavored liquor cut with cola. Vanilla vodka, perhaps, Two thought, but she was too drunk to be sure.

  “Where did this come from?” she asked.

  Naomi pointed toward a cocktail waitress making her way through the crowd with practiced expertise. “She stopped by while you were … lost in your reverie. Compliments of the bartender.”

  “What’d we do to earn that?” Two asked.

  “He knows me, and he knows how I tip,” Naomi said. “Also, there are at least a dozen boys who would have bailed on this place already if they weren’t watching us. That’s more money for him. The least he can do is a couple of free drinks, no?”

  Naomi was holding a wine glass, cupping it so that her palm covered it. In a single fluid movement, still timed with the music, she switched hands, took it by the stem, brought it to her lips and drank.

  “Ooh!” she exclaimed. “Bordeaux. Lovely. I was born near there.”

  “This is the last one for me, OK?” Two said. “I mean … unless you want to finish the night listening me to puke.”

  “I would truly rather die,” Naomi said, looking grave. “You don’t have to drink it!”