The II AM Trilogy Collection

by Christopher Buecheler

  Two smiled at her, kept dancing. “I’m just fine,” she said. “This should be perfect. We’re working it off.”

  They were. The DJ had kept the music rolling for nearly two hours straight, blending smoothly from one song to another. Now he took the beat down, and down, ending his set. Two and Naomi cheered with the others in the club. The MC let them know that after a fifteen minute break, there would be yet another act. There was more applause at this announcement, and then the house stereo began blaring.

  Two and Naomi turned and began to make their way from the dance floor. A few people applauded them as they left, and they laughed and waved. Eventually, they found a semi-circular couch in a dark corner where they could finish their drinks. Naomi curled up on the soft leather, resting her head on Two’s thigh. Two, beyond caring if the entire world knew that she was sleeping with this woman, ran her fingers through Naomi’s hair.

  “Home after this?” she asked, and glanced down in time to catch Naomi trying awkwardly to drink her wine without raising her head. Two laughed, raising her knee in an attempt to aid in the vampire’s endeavor.

  “Thanks. Yes, I think I’ve had about enough.”

  “I’m going to want to take a shower when I get home,” Two said.

  “Can I join you?”

  Before Two could make her reply, which would’ve been positive, a male patron leaned over the back of the couch and slurred something at Naomi. It took Two a moment to decipher his thick cockney accent, but she was pretty sure the man had told Naomi that he had a much more interesting lap to put her head in.

  “I’ll keep you in mind if I ever fancy getting syphilis, cunt,” Naomi told him. The man sneered at her and turned back in the other direction.

  “That wasn’t very nice,” Two commented. She finished her drink and set the glass on a small table at the edge of the couch.

  “My first instinct was to punch him so hard in his ‘lap’ that it would be of no further use to him or anyone else. I thought I showed admirable restraint,” Naomi said.

  Two laughed. “Should I take you home before you beat someone up?”

  Naomi finished the last of her wine in a gulp and sat up, grinning broadly at Two.

  “Yes, please,” she said.

  * * *

  They were lying in what was, for her, absolute darkness. There was no crack in the blinds tonight from which the light of the street might enter. It didn’t matter; they hadn’t needed any light, content to navigate each other’s bodies with fingers, hands and lips.

  Naomi had reached orgasm three times, and at the last she had gasped in a strained voice, “God. Je vais mourir.”

  Two, who had learned a bit of French, had laughed. “You’re not dying,” she had said, yet only minutes later Naomi had brought her to a place that necessitated burying her face in the pillows and wailing, wondering for herself if she might not survive the night.

  Both had lived, and soon they were lying tangled together, the blankets thrown aside, not yet cooled down and unwilling to disconnect. There was only the quiet rush of their breathing, the scent and taste of sex, the feel of each other’s fingers tracing lines along each other’s skin. Then Two had made her request.

  “Tell me about the council.”

  Naomi took a moment to collect herself, then murmured her answer, her lips somewhere not far from Two’s left ear. “I have been before the European council only twice. Both times were … harrowing.”

  There was a pause, and Two supposed Naomi was waiting for the typical sarcastic, acerbic comment. Two had none prepared. She was in a state that precluded any such attitude, still drunk, half-asleep, floating on a cloud of post-orgasmic bliss. Right now, she thought, World War III could start and she would continue simply to lie there, at least until her legs stopped shaking.

  After it became clear that Two had no response to her statement, Naomi went on. “I suppose it may be less difficult for you because you’ve not spent hundreds of years dealing with vampire politics. You don’t generally care what’s proper, and aren’t as worried about offending people, so you may not be as scared of them as I was.”

  “Probably true,” Two said. She moved her head, resting it between Naomi’s breasts, listening to the vampire’s heartbeat. This sound amused her, unexpected as it might be to people familiar with vampire myths and legends. Naomi wasn’t dead. None of the vampires, regardless of their strain, were.

  “Honestly, it’s to your benefit,” Naomi said. Her words were still somewhat slurred from alcohol, exertion, and the proximity of sleep. Two smiled.

  “Probably true,” she said again.

  Naomi laughed a little, shifting her body, running a finger down Two’s spine. “It will not be like the American council.”

  “No?”

  “Some of it will be the same. They’ll want your story, of course, and I think you should tell it just as you did before: pull no punches, and give as much detail as you can.”

  Two nodded, knowing that Naomi could feel the motion.

  “Once you’re done, they will ask questions. I don’t know how many, and I don’t know whether they’ll be interested in anything Stephen or I have to say. It’s possible. Once they have everything they need, they’ll retire, deliberate, and pass judgment. They are all busy people, not much for dallying, and there are only five of them. It won’t take long.”

  “Don’t they ever disagree?”

  “The youngest vampire on the council is approaching fifteen hundred, and they have all known each other for centuries. Even as you’re telling your story, they will be anticipating each other’s opinions. The American council sometimes needs to debate for weeks – lord knows, I’ve listened to Stephen complain about our ‘pointless bickering’ more than once – but the European council has no such need. They simply decide. Eadwyn understands Gaius, Gaius understands N’debe, and … you get the point.”

  “Gauis, N’Debe, Eadwyn … who are the others?” Two asked.

  “The other two are Marian and Safeed. I do not know any of the five of them well. I am not even sure which type of vampire they all are, though I know Eadwyn is an Ashayt. He … he hears voices and has a rather unusual manner of speaking. Many call him Eadwyn the Mad.”

  Two considered this without speaking. Naomi continued.

  “I believe Marian is an Eresh, but she is not Eresh-Chen. Her line forked from that of Abraham and Theoren’s sometime in the Bronze Age. The others I do not know, though there is a strong possibility that Safeed is Ay’Araf. That strain originated in the Middle East.”

  “Why do they have a crazy vampire on the council?” Two asked.

  “There’s no proof that Eadwyn is crazy, just eccentric,” Naomi said. “He is the oldest living Ashayt vampire, has survived since well before the time of Christ, and fears nothing. He claims to speak with the voices of our ancestors, of all those vampires who have gone before us into death. I can’t imagine this is so, but then, who am I to deny any claims of the supernatural? It doesn’t matter – Eadwyn may be crazy, but his insight is always valuable.”

  “Oh,” Two said. “Well, I suppose that’s good, then.”

  “Yes, provided you can understand him.”

  Two sighed, long and deep, half in contentment, and half in concern.

  “Don’t worry about it now. It’s late,” Naomi said.

  Two changed her position again, kissing Naomi’s shoulder as she moved, resting her head on the pillow so that her lips were near the vampire’s ear.

  “I am too tired, too drunk, and way too full of hormones to get worked up about anything,” she murmured.

  “Did I … was everything … I mean, did you …” Two could hear the concern in Naomi’s voice. She laughed.

  “Sweetheart, stop. Yes. I came twice, and it was amazing. Why do you still worry about this?”

  Naomi shrugged. “I always worry about it.”

  “Why?”

  Naomi was silent for a long time; so long, in fact, that Two was positive
that the vampire girl had fallen asleep. At last, just as Two was beginning to doze, Naomi spoke. Her words came in a small voice that wavered with tension and, Two realized, terrible sadness.

  “I worry because we have been together like this for … for almost a year, now, and you have never said you love me.”

  Adrenaline coursed through Two at this statement, and it took an effort to keep her body from jerking, but she managed. When the feeling had passed, somewhat, she took a shaky breath, but did not immediately answer.

  “I worry that I’ve failed to … to satisfy you in some way,” Naomi said.

  “Naomi, no. It’s not that. You’re … I wish I could say that. I wish so much that I could say those words to you. It’s just that if I do say that, then that’s it, right? All of your walls come down.”

  “I don’t have many walls left,” Naomi said.

  “That still means you have some.”

  Naomi sighed. “Yes. And yes, if you say it, Two, then I won’t be able to help myself. Whatever defenses I’ve still got left would disappear, and you could hurt me as badly as anyone ever has.”

  “Even Abraham,” Two said.

  Naomi nodded. Two waited, thinking, and then said, “Even Theroen.”

  When Naomi inhaled next, the sound was shuddery, and Two knew that she was on the verge of tears.

  “He took her away from me,” Naomi said.

  Two nodded. She kissed Naomi’s temple and put her hand on the vampire’s waist.

  “He hurt you,” she said.

  Naomi shook her head. “They. They did it together.”

  “He didn’t know.”

  “I’ve forgiven him.”

  “What about her?”

  There was another long pause, and when at last Naomi’s words came, her tone was bitter. Angry. Resolute.

  “I will never, ever forgive her. Not for leaving me, and not for leaving us both.”

  “Naomi, I don’t know if that’s—”

  “Two, I can’t. I can’t!” Naomi’s anger, as much at herself as at the woman who had made her a vampire, was obvious in her voice. “It’s been hundreds of years, and still I can’t. Oh, what is wrong with me?”

  “There’s nothing wrong with you.”

  “Then tell me you love me.”

  Two was silent, and Naomi gave a defeated little laugh.

  “Indeed,” she said. “I loved Lisette, and now I love you. I have loved others, through the years, and said those words that you can’t say. I would know, even if you could make yourself say it, that you don’t mean it. You’ll never love me until you can let him go, and as hard as I’ve tried to make that happen … here we are.”

  “I’m sorry,” Two said. “Naomi, I’m sorry.”

  Naomi sighed, kissed Two’s collarbone, turned over on her belly: a sure sign that she was preparing to sleep. When she spoke, her voice was tired, and sad, and empty.

  “Goodnight, Two,” the vampire girl said. “I love you.”

  Chapter 25

  The European council

  The vampire elder did not look like a madman, but Two supposed that appearances could be deceiving. What Eadwyn looked like to her was a man in his late twenties, not tall, but broad through the shoulders. He was thin, almost painfully so, and had large hands that ended in long, delicate fingers. His hair was chestnut colored, and his light and watery blue eyes rested above a prominent nose. He looked to Two like a cleaned-up version of any number of British rockers she had seen on the covers of music magazines.

  Eadwyn was standing at the door of a small, stone building that looked very old. It was nestled tightly between two more modern structures, both of which were several stories taller than it, making the meeting place look even tinier than it actually was. It seemed an odd place for the oldest and most powerful vampires in Europe to gather, but then perhaps its age gave it sentimental or historical value.

  “Toothsome treacle twists from our lips, and with welcoming words we greet you,” Eadwyn said. “We will be happy to take you inside to meet the others.”

  Two found herself glancing around in an attempt to determine who “we” meant. Eadwyn stood watching her, head tilted, an amused expression on his face. He gave her time, and Two quickly confirmed her initial impression: there was no one else there. After a moment more, it clicked: Eadwyn the Mad, the vampire who spoke to the dead.

  “'Tis best never to travel alone,” Eadwyn told her.

  “Right,” Two replied. “Yes. Uh … thanks. For the welcome.”

  Eadwyn nodded, and turned toward Naomi and Stephen. Two found it amusing that this – not the stately old gentlemen that she had imagined – was what a member of the European council looked like. It made sense, of course; vampires didn’t grow old, and so despite Eadwyn’s great age, he still appeared to be a young man. What surprised Two was that she heard none of Eadwyn’s age in his voice, felt none of the imposing power that Abraham had seemed to give off.

  Eadwyn had been about to speak to Naomi, but now he glanced back at Two with a small smirk. Without warning, Two was nearly overcome by the sudden onslaught of something that struck her as similar to Naomi’s aura, though many times stronger. It was not sexual, not calming or warming, but rather filled her with fear, respect and awe. For a brief moment she could see in his eyes the ages that had gone by, that he had lived through unchanged in appearance but sculpted inside, mentally and physically, by the amazing blood that ran in his veins.

  And then it was gone and he was just a young man again, gazing at her with that same amused expression.

  “Flaunt, some fools do,” Eadwyn said. “We have never felt the need.”

  Two, still trying to catch her breath, could only nod. Eadwyn returned his gaze to Naomi.

  “Pray, pretty … picked any pockets of late?” he asked.

  Naomi turned a shade of light pink and cast her eyes downward, but did not speak. Eadwyn chuckled.

  “We are happy to see you again after so much time. You bring memories of your melancholy mistress.”

  “Thank you, Lord.” Naomi said, her eyes still downcast. “She is with me still … I miss her every day.”

  “Whispers and words wander my head, but few from her I hear. Perhaps she has found peace.”

  “I hope so.”

  “You know the truth about her now, pickpocket?”

  “About Abraham’s involvement? Yes. Two told me.”

  Eadwyn gave her a look of sympathy, nodding. “We are older, but he was stronger. Eresh are pesky in that way. We could not stop him.”

  “I understand,” Naomi said. “It is … in the past now.”

  Eadwyn shrugged. Nodded. Turned to Stephen.

  “Fáilte, fighter. We meet at last.”

  Stephen grinned, and Two understood that he was much more comfortable in front of this elder than Naomi was. She suspected that it was Stephen’s lack of concern for the political ramifications of his interactions with the council that made it so.

  “I was unaware that my reputation preceded me,” he said, giving a small bow to Eadwyn.

  “We hear many things,” Eadwyn replied. “European escort is not a traditional toiling for one of the warrior class. From whom came your instructions?”

  “It was my choice, lord.”

  “How unusual.”

  “I was unenthusiastic with the American council’s inability to come to a decision. I wanted to register my thoughts with you personally.”

  “I see, and so you lead lovely ladies to light upon our doorstep.”

  “Naomi led. I followed.”

  “And will you follow further if so she must go?”

  Stephen shrugged, held his hands apart, glanced briefly at his companions. Finally he said, “I don’t make decisions until the time has come.”

  Eadwyn laughed at this and clapped Stephen on the shoulder. He turned slightly and addressed the group as a whole. “Shall we?”

  He gestured at the door behind him, a sturdy thing of oak and iron the l
ikes of which Two had rarely seen on anything other than cathedrals. Naomi and Stephen nodded, and Two said, “Yes, please.”

  “Very well, then.” The elder vampire turned and unlatched the door, swinging it open to reveal a dimly lit stone hallway lined with other, similar doors. At its far end was a staircase that spiraled up and out of sight. Without further conversation, Eadwyn made his way inside, and the three companions followed.

  * * *

  The European council was made up of three women and two men, including Eadwyn. Two was struck again by how young they all looked, and how casual their demeanor. All were dressed in business attire, but there was no air of formality about them, no pretention of the type that had seemed to blanket the American council. These people were very comfortable, like long-time employees who had worked together for the same company, day in and day out, for many years. Two of the women were talking with the second man, while the third woman, a tall, black vampire with closely cropped hair, stood at the edge of the room, murmuring into her cell phone. When Eadwyn entered with their guests, she finished her conversation and snapped the phone shut, moving toward the others.

  “Wanderers, we welcome you!” Eadwyn said, his voice taking on a theatrical air. “Behold: before you sit – or stand – these most powerful of vampires, eldest and greatest of their lines. We are beings so powerful that the simple sound of our voices may cause you to drop to your knees, weeping and begging for forgiveness from sins which you never committed. Tremble! Tremble before these mighty—”

  He was cut off by a short, dark, severe-looking woman who Two thought must have been born in an area that was now India or Pakistan. “That’ll do, Eadwyn.”

  Eadwyn, who had stopped in mid-flourish and was holding his arms apart in a gesture of showmanship, smirked again and clapped his hands together.

  “As you wish, Safeed.”

  He made his way to one of a dozen large, tall-backed leather chairs that were gathered around the room’s central oval table. The council members had grouped themselves in a semi-circle around one end of the table. Two, Naomi, and Stephen sat down across from them. Eadwyn leaned back in his chair, put his feet up on the table, and drawled at them in a John Wayne impression startling in its accuracy.