Blood Thirst

by Lena Hillbrand

  The breeder went down the hallway, away from them, and Cali let herself relax a little. Master looked at her. “You brought a man to tears,” he said with an amused smile. Her heart picked up speed again. She and Shelly may be able to overpower a strong human, but never a Superior. He’d probably kill her if he knew what they’d done.

  Master just shook his head. “I guess you don’t just taste good to me,” he said. Then he looked at Shelly, who sat on the floor beside the bed with his face down and his hand on top of the blanket on Cali’s leg. “And you might want to learn something from this breeder,” Master said. “That’s what kind of things I should hear from the two of you. Not a lot of silence every night. No wonder you couldn’t get things done.”

  Then Master was gone, and Shelly dragged himself onto the bed and looked at Cali. All the tension went out of her at once, and she started laughing in high-pitched hysteria. Shelly started sobbing and shaking. They held onto each other’s hands and lay facing each other, but they kept their bodies far apart that night.

  34

  Sally was plumb excited about turning into a bloodsucker. Sure, everybody she’d known her whole life hated the things. Heck, she’d thought she hated them too, until she met one. Come to find out he weren’t that different from anybody else. If she’d just met him one day, she wouldn’t’ve noticed nothing funny about him. Excepting the teeth. She wondered how long it would take her to get a good set of fangs like that.

  Did they grow overnight, so she’d have them first thing when she woke up? Or would they take a while to grow in, like regular teeth? Maybe her regular teeth would fall out and fangs would grow in. Or did the regular teeth just grow real long and sharp after a while? Maybe they never stopped growing. She thought she’d read somewhere that some big animal called an elephant had teeth that never stopped growing. But if that was true then them real old bloodsuckers would be walking around with teeth down to their own necks, and they’d never have to bite nobody else. She laughed at that thought, and Larry gave her a look.

  “You been acting kinda strange-like lately,” he said.

  “Have not.”

  “Has, too.”

  “Anybody’s been acting strange, it’s you. Exceptin’ you always act strange.”

  “Shut up, you ignorant woman. I can’t wait ‘til you get married and move on out of here.”

  “I ain’t getting married. Ain’t no man can take better care of me than I do. I can do anything any of you men do anyways, and I won’t have to wash nobody’s socks.”

  “Yeah, ‘cause you’re a lesbo. I never said you’d get married to a man.”

  “Least I got a shot. Ain’t no woman desperate enough to want you.”

  “Ain’t none desperate enough to want you, neither. Least I could give her a baby. What you gonna give her ’sides a headache?”

  “Why don’t you go torture a puppy or something, make yourself useful.”

  “Wish I could, but I’m real busy sitting just now.”

  “I wish Pappy was here to see how worthless you are.”

  “Aw, too bad he’s gone to town today.”

  “What? Pappy’s in town? Since when?”

  “See, that’s what I mean. Everybody knows that. You been walking around like a zombie lately. You ain’t hardly your own self no more. Always staring off and laughing to yourself. I think you finally done lost your marbles.”

  “I mean it. What’s Pappy in town for?”

  “For checking the place out. Next week is the trip to Princeton.”

  “Already? Dang. Seems like we just went the other day.”

  “Hardly. Can you believe what-all’s happened in just half a year? You realize we hadn’t never caught our own bloodsucker last time we went to town?”

  “I reckon it has been a while.”

  “Hey, speaking of bloodsuckers, you been out to check on ours lately?”

  “Me? No. Why would I go check on him? I ain’t got the key.”

  “I ain’t neither. Just thought you might’ve gone out to see if it was still alive.”

  “Nope, not me. Unh-unh.”

  “Wanna go check it out?”

  “Um, I don’t know. I think Tom looked in on him after that meeting th’other day.”

  “You think? I’m still going out to check. I been so busy with hunting and the garden and the trees I ain’t been out in more’n a month.”

  “Me, neither. I reckon I’ll go with you. I don’t much like going out there myself. It’s creepy.” Sally done herself proud with that lie. She weren’t the best liar, but that sounded convincing. She didn’t figure letting Larry go out there by his self was a good idea even if he didn’t have the key. She hoped Draven wouldn’t wake up and act all alive-like. He should’ve been close to dead by now.

  “I’ll protect you. Ain’t no bloodsucker gonna touch my sister,” Larry said, getting up from the step and brushing off his backside. “Come on, let’s check it out.”

  While they walked to the shed, Sally tried to think of something to say to warn Draven. “I reckon he’s dead anyway,” she said as loud as she dared without making Larry think she’d gone nutso. “You think you can tell when they’s dead? I mean, ain’t they already kinda dead to start?”

  “This ‘un screams pretty loud,” Larry said. “Maybe we can put a stake in it and see if it hollers.”

  “That’s nasty, Larry. Don’t seeing all that blood bother you none?”

  Larry shrugged. “I don’t reckon. I go hunting all the time.”

  “Yeah, but we eat them. You ain’t gonna eat a bloodsucker.”

  “Hey, maybe we should. What you reckon it taste like?”

  “Gross, Larry! How can you even say that? They look just like us. It’s cannibalist.”

  “Yeah, but that’s what they do. Maybe we’d get special powers from drinking its blood, same way it gets from drinking ours.”

  “That’s just sick.”

  Larry opened the door of the shed, and they went in. Larry took a stake off the pile and handed one to Sally without taking his eyes off Draven. It didn’t much matter, though. The man just lay on the floor looking pathetic and dead and kinda skinny. Sally couldn’t remember if he’d always looked like that or if he’d gotten skinnier. She couldn’t think if they got skinny when they was hungry, but she didn’t think so.

  In the light coming through the open door, Sally could see how filthy he’d gotten. He hardly looked human anymore. Blood and scratches and a thick layer of dirt cover his whole body. He didn’t smell bad, though, and he didn’t look exactly like a dead man, neither. More like an animal that lost all its fur somehow and rolled around in dirt and blood for six months. Which was pretty much what he was. Excepting the fur part.

  “He ain’t breathing,” she said. She couldn’t see one clean spot on his filthy-dirty body. His hair hardly resembled hair. Maybe she oughta get him a bucket of water to wash his self before they left.

  “Course he ain’t, you moron,” Larry said. “They don’t breathe.”

  In all the torturing, had no one noticed anything about the object of their hate? Sheesh. She hadn’t even been as close to him as they were when she noticed it.

  Larry aimed his stake and held his hand through the bars.

  “Don’t stake him,” Sally said, loud again. She knew Draven slept real deep. Sometimes when she got tired and hot from working, she’d come and sit in the dank shed where it stayed cooler than anywhere else. He never woke up unless she talked to him. Or maybe he was just real good at playing dead for someone who would never die.

  Larry let go of the stake and it flew at the sleeping man. But at the last second, Sally could’ve swore Draven must have moved, unless he could move the path of a flying object, ‘cause the stake hit the floor and buried itself in the dirt an inch or so. Larry looked at Sally.

  “Did it just move? I swear I aimed just so.”

  “I didn’t see it move.”

  “Dang. I must’ve not aimed right.” Larry got an
other stake.

  “Why you wanna stake him, anyway? He looks pretty well dead to me. I thought we was just gonna bury him.”

  “I’m just seeing if he’s alive. ‘Sides, I might take a taste of that blood and see if I get real powerful.” Larry threw the second stake. “It moved! You see that? I missed again. How can I miss twice? I never miss.”

  “It didn’t move. You’re seeing things. It’s darkish in here and you ain’t seeing him right. ‘Sides, drinking blood is gross. You wanna act like a bloodsucker?”

  “I tasted deer blood afore. And bear.” Larry missed again, and this time Sally knew Draven was moving just slightly every time, but so fast she couldn’t hardly see the movement.

  Larry loosed another stake, and Draven swung around into a sitting position and plucked it out of the air in one motion. Sally and Larry both jumped about a mile and grabbed each other with the shock of it. Draven’s eyes looked real white against the dark of his dirty face.

  “Holy shit,” Larry said in awe. “Ho-ly shit. How’d he do that?”

  “You don’t want to drink my blood,” Draven said.

  “What? I—shit. What do I do, Sal?”

  “I don’t know. It was your stupid idea.”

  “It ain’t never talked to me afore.”

  “You never said anything important enough to acknowledge,” Draven said.

  “What’s that mean? And I can drink your blood if I want. You can’t tell me what to do.”

  “If you do, something terrible will happen to you that will make what you did to me look like a day at play.”

  “A day at what? What’s it talking about? Why it talk so funny? I can’t hardly tell what it’s saying.”

  “He’s saying it will hurt like the dickens if you do. Worse’n you hurt him.”

  “He can’t even feel pain…” Larry said, but he didn’t sound real convinced now.

  “I guess he can.”

  “I don’t believe you,” Larry said to Draven. “You’re just saying that ‘cause you don’t want me to get fast and strong like you was.” Larry threw another stake, and Draven plucked it out the air like a feather floating to the ground. Sally’d never seen something so gol-darn amazing.

  “No, I’m telling you because I have more humanity than your whole family put together, which is ironic considering you’re the human,” Draven said, easily taking each stake from the air without even pausing in his words or looking at them. In fact he weren’t looking at anything. He’d squeezed his eyes shut.

  “Shit, how’s he do that?” Larry asked after he’d used up his handful of stakes. “He’s like a freak of nature.”

  “That’s exactly what I am,” Draven said. “Are you done throwing things at me? Because I’m not the only one who can be killed by a flying wooden stake.” Draven threw the stake, and it went through the bars and right between Larry’s legs and lodged in the stack behind them, almost all the way in. It looked like it had just slipped out of the stack a few inches.

  “Holy Moses,” Larry shouted, grabbing Sally and holding her in front of him.

  “Quit your dang squawking and get your hands off me,” Sally said, shrugging his hands off. He stayed behind her. “You’re the one who made him mad.”

  “Hiding your head and letting the woman face danger?” Draven said. “This seems a pattern in your family.”

  “What’s he talking about?” Larry whispered.

  “I speak of your sister. Angela, yes? If you drink my blood, you’ll end up like her. You’re only lucky you didn’t see what happened before you found her.”

  “You killed my sister?” Larry asked, stepping from behind Sally. “I’m gonna end this right now,” he said, grabbing a stake. He threw it, but Draven caught it again without opening his eyes. He put it on the floor in the pile beside him. Sally thought she’d better ask him how he could do that. Maybe when she changed she could do that. She didn’t know how anyone could look cool sitting on a dirt floor covered with near half an inch of grime, but Draven managed it just fine when he was catching them stakes.

  “I did not kill your sister,” Draven said. “I can read your mind.”

  “What? Sally, can he really? Oh shit. For real?”

  “How would I know?” Sally said.

  “I weren’t thinking about Angela,” Larry said.

  “She was,” Draven said, nodding towards Sally.

  “I don’t believe you. You’re probably the bastard who killed her. We’re gonna get you so bad.”

  “Ask her,” Draven said, nodding again.

  Sally didn’t rightly know what to say. She surely didn’t want to lie to her brother, but she might could have been thinking about Angela any old time, so maybe it weren’t a lie. Still, she weren’t too sure. But Draven kept on waiting all expectant-like, and she had to say something, even though she weren’t too happy about picking a bloodsucker over her own kin.

  “I really were,” Sally whispered.

  “Holy shit,” Larry said. “Come on, let’s get out of here before he hypnotizes us.”

  Larry hurried Sally out of the shed in front of him, and they heard a twonk, and both turned. Draven was throwing the wooden stakes back into the pile. Some of them fell to the floor, and some of them buried themselves back in the pile like they’d never left it. Larry looked at Sally, and she looked at Draven. She could’ve sweared he opened his eyes for a second and winked at her, but then maybe she’d started imagining things.

  “Mama, Mama,” Larry said, going straight into the kitchen. “The bloodsucker is still alive, and he looks all healed up, and I threw a stake at him and he caught, like, ten of them without breaking a sweat or even opening his eyes. And he read Sally’s mind. We gotta get him outta there. He’s creeping me out.”

  “Larry, Sally. Now I know your Pappy done told you not to bother it ‘til the next meeting. You know we discussed what to do with it, and we came to a decision as a community.”

  “Yeah, Mama, but you should’ve seen it. It was some weird, freaky shit.”

  “Y’all stay outta that shed. I don’t want you getting hypnotized if you look at it by accident. If it seems more dangerous, we’ll get your Pappy and Tom to go out and chain it up again when they get back. You can go too, Larry. But stay out ‘til then.”

  “What if it gets out of the grave?” Larry asked.

  “We’ll leave the chains on, of course,” Mama said. “That’s what we talked about. Might as well put the chains on now.”

  “When we gonna do it?” Sally asked.

  “Day after tomorrow. We’ll do it when everybody’s here, before the boys head off to Princeton.”

  “You gonna do it in the daytime?” Sally asked. Shoot. She needed Draven awake and as strong as he could be. Last time she’d thought he was ready, his spine had been in about ten pieces. He seemed to have healed from that, but she couldn’t tell real well. She hadn’t seen him walking and didn’t know if he could yet. And during the day, he couldn’t hardly see nothing. It was gonna be hard. She’d have to do it tomorrow night. That was real soon. When she thought about leaving, her heart started racing like a dog on the scent.

  If she had to free him tomorrow night, and she had to have evolved by then, that meant he had to change her tonight. Her heart raced even harder now. She swallowed and looked at her mama and brother. She’d never thought she could miss Larry, but she knew she would. He was a pain in the rear end, but she still loved him as much as any of them.

  “I love y’all both,” she blurted out. She thought she might cry.

  “What’s wrong with you?” Larry asked, looking at her like she’d gone crazy. “Mama, I think Sally’s preggers. She’s all weird lately.”

  “I ain’t preggers, you moron. I just got scared out there, and I wanted to let you know I’m glad I have such a great family and all. Next time I’ll remember how you hid behind me when the bloodsucker started throwing stakes. I still love Mama, though.”

  “Oh, honey I love you, too,” Mama said.
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  Later, an hour or so after dark, Tom dragged himself in and plopped down at the table. He looked real tired and old just then. Larry never did notice people’s moods and started right in. “Tom, the bloodsucker woke up, and he was real scary. Got Sally all emotional. He read her mind. It was wild.”

  “Everybody okay?” Tom asked.

  “Yeah, but I can’t wait to put the sucker in the ground. One year, right? Then we can dig it up and see if it can live a whole year without eating nothing. Then we can burn it, right?”

  “Yeah, Larry, that’s the plan,” Tom said. “Mama, get me some water, will you?”

  Mama got a jar of water and sat down at the table with him. “Everything okay? How was your trip to the ghost town? Why y’all so late?”

  Tom sighed and pushed his shoes off under the table. “Herman went ahead like we talked about, and he said it was okay and went on to Princeton to scout out the roads like he always does.” Tom took a long drink of water. Sally sat down, too. Something bad was coming, she could feel it in her bones.

  “The rest of us went in one of them buildings to find a good one to put up anyone who comes back with us if there’s any new ones, or to stay if we get caught out after dark. We found one all right, and once we were ready, we packed up and got the hell out of there.”

  Sally noticed some blood on the sleeve of Tom’s shirt and looked at him closer. He looked so dang tired. And mighty sad, too.

  “We’s on the road coming back when we seen some headlights from a car. We was all gonna hide in the woods, but one of them damn Henson boys wanted to get a bloodsucker. He says, ‘We got eight of us and only four at most fit in that car. We all gots stakes, what’s to worry about.’ Then he gets right up in the road, and of course that bloodsucker stops the car and… We all gets to staking him, and we got him all right.” Tom sighed and rubbed his face. “Only he got a couple of us, too.”

  “Oh no,” Mama said. “Where the rest of them at?”

  “They all went home. We was all plain wore out. I’m sorry, Mama.”