Blood Thirst

by Lena Hillbrand

  “Anyone else?”

  “I don’t rightly know. For all I knows, they sacrifice them to the gods. Can we just get back to the kissing and nasty stuff?” Larry didn’t wait for an answer, just pushed Cali down and started trying to pull her jumpsuit down again. For the first time, she was glad for the difficulty of the woolen garment. Larry started working it down over her shoulders. She thought of the breeder, and she kicked at him and wished with all her strength she had never run away. She started to pray, and then she remembered she had promised the gods she would never run away again. Now she had. So this must be her punishment.

  She squeezed her eyes closed and prayed with all her might that it wouldn’t hurt too bad, and then she felt Larry’s hot, dry hands on her waist, and she kicked at him and prayed harder. And just like the gods heard her prayer, Larry was gone. He didn’t climb off, or roll off, he was just gone. She felt the rush of air that pulled away from her body with him, like he’d been stolen by a gust of wind or eaten by a hungry god.

  49

  The smells hung strong and delicious in the building when Draven and Angel found their way inside. Rows of doors lined both sides of the long hallway, a few with numbers above them and old white signs with black letters falling from them. The two men followed the scent of sap to the source, but the humans had barred the door of the room from inside. Angel found an unmarked door that led first to a set of stairs and then into a dark second story that smelled of rust and decaying insulation.

  The building was so dark that Draven could barely see, but Angel did not seem to share Draven’s limitation. Strange metal contraptions that had somehow escaped salvage clustered near each small window that looked into a darkened room below. Some had brown plastic scrolls threaded through them, and behind one of these ancient machines they found the small window from which the scent of sapien wafted up. Upon finding the warm smell of food once more, Draven thought of Sally and his promise not to harm her family. He had not promised not to harm anyone else, though.

  Angel looked through the window before drawing back, his hand over his silent heart. He looked at Draven, and even in the darkness of the place, Draven could see Angel’s distress. The wetness of the boy’s tears had a scent both unsettling and familiar.

  “A human violates my love,” Angel said.

  Draven strained to see through the darkness into the room below. After a moment, he found the pair Angel had indicated. The male had raised himself over the female. Draven could not see the human woman, though he knew Angel had. After a moment, he made out the hands of the other human, the one who lay struggling beneath the man.

  “I will bring you her,” Draven said. “And then you will let me go in peace.” He had to struggle to work his small frame through the even smaller window. As he dropped down into the room filled with humans armed to kill him, he thought of his own stupidity. And yet he did this task willingly, and for a boy he had only just met. Though the boy appeared fragile, Draven knew he was powerful nonetheless. And he wanted to please Angel, that he might benefit from his service. Draven had checked his backpack and knew he had no papers and no money for a set of replacements, and he wondered if Angel wasn’t the sort to reward loyalty with money.

  He pulled the man off the girl, holding his breath against the smell of sap and sweat and human filth and the awful stench that surrounded them, the odor of the bulbs on Sally’s door. With one hand he closed the man’s mouth while holding the body tight against him with the other. Both his hands functioned perfectly now. The man made a sound of surprise and began to struggle, but a sapien would never overpower a Superior, not even a weakened one. The man hit Draven’s ribs with an elbow on the exact spot in which Draven had sustained the stake wound, causing Draven to suck in a breath of pain. His lungs filled with the man’s unmistakable scent.

  “Larry,” he growled.

  Larry made a sound, louder but still muffled, while Draven kept his hand on the man as a muzzle. He had savored something else, faint but wonderful among all the awful scents. Ignoring the distracting familiarity of the fragrance of sap around him, he wrested Larry to the floor and knelt over him. He sensed the moment Angel dropped to the floor behind him.

  “Don’t you know how to treat a woman, even if she is only a sapien woman?” Draven asked. Larry continued to make muffled noises when Draven shook the man’s head. “I would break your face with my bare hands if it weren’t for your sister,” he said. “And I wish she could see what kind of man you are and let me do it.”

  Larry went still, and Draven thought he must have realized who had landed on him. If Larry was capable of such a deduction. When Draven released his face, Larry said, “Don’t you say nothing about my sister.”

  Larry could have screamed and woken the others, but he defended his sister first, and Draven had to respect him a bit for that. He covered Larry’s mouth again, not sure how long it would take the sap to realize he could have a dozen humans on Draven in a moment if he screamed.

  “You don’t deserve your sister,” Draven said. “She’s a better man than you’ll ever be. You’re too much of a brute to realize what sort of person she is. And I shall say what I like, since I’m quite certain I love her more than you ever will.” Larry began shaking his head back and forth wildly and thrashing under Draven. “What is it,” Draven asked. “You do not like me saying I love your sister?”

  A sapien a few meters away rolled over and gave a frustrated sigh. “Would y’all shut up?” the sapien said. “You wanna fight over a girl, save it for morning.”

  Larry shook his head back and forth and made a noise high with anger, but he could not expel the sound from his throat. Draven laughed softly. He leaned close to Larry’s face and whispered, “That’s all right, Larry, she knows I love her. I told her, just before I sucked her.”

  The sound in Larry’s throat rose to a muffled scream of rage, and several saps began moving in the room. Draven located Angel a few paces off, holding the girl he loved. She lay limp in his arms, draped backwards over his arm, and whatever he was doing to her was the most frightening thing Draven had ever seen. And then Angel moved slightly, and her hair swayed, and Draven caught her scent and knew.

  He leapt from Larry, and in a moment he had launched himself at Angel, not thinking of what he did until he’d done it.

  Angel, his love, and Draven tumbled to the floor together.

  Larry screamed, “Bloodsuckers! Bloodsuckers!”

  The sapiens around them began rising, scrambling about in a panic in the dark room, shouting orders. Chaos rolled through the room with the stink of fear. Then the door exploded inward, and everyone began screaming.

  50

  Draven had fallen to the floor with Cali and Angel when the three Superiors from the road burst through the door. Now he crawled towards Cali. Larry had pulled her jumpsuit off her top half, so Draven used the empty sleeve to pull her unconscious body under his. Then he pushed his way along on the floor while the others stumbled and toppled over each other. He hoped none of them would fall on him with their stakes, but he knew the chances of one falling at the precise angle to pierce his heart were slim. He’d been staked before in other places, and he knew he’d live.

  He slid one arm under Cali, and, keeping his head down, crawled towards the bottom of the room. The floor, smooth and slick between the craters where chunks of flooring had come up, slanted at an angle. The rough edges of the craters cut into his knees through the velvety red cloth that had been spread over the floor. As he slid along the floor, the cloth twisted under his hands and knees and the feet of the others, and several humans stumbled against each other and fell.

  Upon reaching the bottom of the room, Draven found a thick cloth curtain that would have reached from his hip to the floor if he stood. He pushed it aside, climbed through a set of crossed iron bars, and pulled Cali under. As soon as he’d settled himself, a screaming human careened towards his hiding spot. Before the human crashed into the curtain, the screaming ceased abr
uptly and she fell outside the curtain, very near. She continued moaning, the sound drowning out the chaos in the room.

  By lifting the edge of the curtain a bit, Draven could make out the form of the injured human. Blood coursed from her body. The enticing aroma of fresh sap invaded Draven’s hiding spot, taunting him. She was so close. After a moment’s hesitation, he pulled her under the curtain and covered her mouth. Thick, sticky liquid spilled into his lap. He touched her abdomen and found a cut crossing her body from one side to the other. When he pressed his fingers to it, they slid into her entrails, still warm and pulsing softly. The girl shrieked, expelling a wet rush into his palm. Placing his hands tightly on either side of her skull, he closed his eyes, took a breath and twisted hard.

  She stopped screaming and went limp in his arms.

  Ignoring the muffled snapping sounds that echoed in his muscles, Draven held the body only a moment before he sank his teeth into the vein in her neck. He drew what he could from her, all the sap that had not been wasted. He tried not to think of the killing, tried only to think that her heart beat more and more slowly, and he needed to eat. She would have died anyhow, so he might as well use what he could of her life before it spilled onto the floor. But knowing did little to assuage his guilt. A sick feeling crept into his gut when he thought of it. He withdrew his teeth and pressed his face to hers.

  “I’m sorry,” he whispered. For a few moments, he squeezed his eyes shut and let himself breathe the scent of her sap. When the sickness passed, he finished her.

  He slid her body back under the curtain and crawled to Cali’s side. She lay as he’d left her. Placing his hand over her heart, he could sense her warmth and the slow quietness of sap moving under her skin. Her warm, delicious scent greeted him, combined with the scent of the other woman’s sap on him, that of the bulb’s disguising juices on Cali, and the sour odor of human sweat and dirt on her. But touching her skin again, feeling her heartbeat, knowing she lived… He had found her so unexpectedly, like a blessing for helping Angel. A strange peace descended in the hidden corner of a room filled with clamor and terror.

  “Cali?” he whispered, brushing a few strands of hair from her face.

  She didn’t move. But she lived. He rested his head on her chest and listened to that wondrous organ working inside her. Never before had he been so close to that most miraculous, live-giving part of a human, with only her skin and bones between his ear and her heart. A thrill passed through him at the thought of what he was doing, touching a sap in such a way that he never would dare to ask for if she’d been awake. He would never again have the chance to touch a sap in such an intimate manner, so near her pulsating core. He wished he could push his face inside her and touch it with his mouth, taste the origin of her life.

  At last he had found his human, brimming with life. If he could take her from there without the humans killing him, or Angel killing her, he’d not need more. He knew he was a coward for avoiding the fight, but he had nothing to fight for. His fight was over, and he had won. Now he only wanted to leave with his victory.

  How perfectly everything had turned out. He had come to this place and almost left. But he’d run into Angel by chance, and agreed to Angel’s request for reasons he didn’t quite understand. When he’d entered the room, he’d found Cali, as if she’d been sent there to lure him in. That thought stopped him for a moment, but he didn’t believe it. Angel had no reason to lure him here. No one did, except Sally’s family. If they had somehow discovered him missing…

  But they had no way to know that before they went back. Only Tom could know, and he didn’t have any way to communicate with the others. It made no sense, unless Sally had betrayed him. And why not just kill him? Why go to all the trouble of letting him go if they only wished to lure him back? Did they want him to serve them, to come back like the beaten dog he had spoken of to Sally?

  When he thought of the day he’d compared Cali to a dog, he realized he had never told any of the vigilante humans her name, not even Sally. The only person who might bring Cali here was Byron.

  As soon as the thought flickered in Draven’s mind, the knowledge clicked into place. His old friend had no way of knowing Draven’s whereabouts unless he had somehow tracked him. But whether or not he knew Draven’s location, Byron had come to meet him. That was the familiar Superior scent Draven had caught earlier, the scent that reminded him of home and comfort. Because Byron was his friend. And when he saw what Draven had gone through at the hands of those humans, when he saw the lengths Draven had gone to in finding Cali, he’d sell her.

  Wouldn’t he?

  That no longer mattered, though. Draven had no money. Not one anya. So he had to take Cali and leave.

  He struggled to maneuver her limp arms into the sleeves of the heavy woolen suit she wore. Once he had dressed her, he did up the clasps on the front of her garment. He had crawled into a small, dusty passageway that ran along the front of the room. Somewhere nearby a small animal had made a nest, and Draven caught the scent of its droppings and the animal scent it left. He groped along the wall, searching for something his eyes couldn’t make out. But he found no exit.

  No way out. He would have to leave his sheltered space and enter the room where the fight wound down at that very moment. To the right of the curtain, near the bottom of the room, he’d seen a door. If it didn’t lead him outside, at least he could escape to another room and perhaps escape the killing as well.

  “Cali. Aspen,” he said, touching her face and shaking her. “Cali, awaken. It is I, Draven. Awaken.”

  “Who…are you?” Her voice sounded dreamy, and she touched his chin with her fingertips. Though her breathing changed when she woke, her heartbeat stayed slow and steady, and her body remained as limp as if still unconscious.

  “Cali. It’s me.” He kissed the tips of her fingers, a swell of frenzied triumph rising inside him. He had her, he had her. At last, she was his. He wanted to kiss her, crush her, eat her, bathe in her blood, adore her every incredible living aspect. Her sap would be his for as long as she lived. He’d make sure she lived for a long time. He would be so good to her.

  “How do you know my real name?” she asked. Her fingers moved away from his mouth, exploring his face with soft touches.

  Before Draven could answer, the curtain was torn away. Byron stood pointing a gun at them.

  Draven had been so focused on Cali, and on escaping, that he had forgotten the dwindling noises. Now a wave of scent washed over them, fresh sap and death and all the scents that accompanied it. The room had fallen silent except for a quiet moaning sound, and a baby crying, and the sound of one heartbroken sob following another.

  “Draven,” Byron said, looking quite confused.

  “Master,” Cali said. She tensed and shrank back against Draven.

  “Cali?” Byron said, now looking back and forth between his sapien and his friend.

  “My love,” Angel said, descending on them like a parachute, gentle and open, reaching through the bars to touch Cali’s face. “Now you can come home with me.”

  Draven pushed Angel’s hand away. The boy looked at him in surprise. “You have saved my love,” he said to Draven. “Thank you, friend.” He pulled Cali under the bars and folded her into his arms. Though she looked dazed, she made no protest.

  Draven slid from under the bars and stood looking down at Angel. “No.”

  “Pardon?”

  “I did not know this was the human you sought,” Draven said. “I already have a claim to her. She is mine.”

  Byron started laughing. “You’re all a bunch of fools, fighting over a human like she has that much worth. She’s mine, obviously. I have her papers.”

  Both men ignored Byron, their eyes locked on each other.

  “Do you love her?” Angel asked.

  “How can he love her?” Byron asked incredulously. “She’s a sap. Draven, can’t you see, he’s gone crazy. He’s an incubus.”

  “Yes.”

  “Then
you know he’ll kill her,” Byron said. “We found his lair already. He tried to kill me and my partner, stuck us in the tomb where he keeps all his human corpses. He left us there to rot. You can’t listen to him.”

  “Cali,” Draven said, and she looked at him. “Where do you wish to go? With which one of us will you leave?”

  Byron laughed, the sound echoing off the ceiling of the room. “You ask a human what she wants? You’ve lost your mind. It doesn’t matter what she wants. I own her. I bought her, and you know it. And you come here to try…what? To steal her? I told you, ten years, soldier.”

  “Do you love her?” Angel asked again, cradling Cali’s limp body in his arms. He still sat on the floor at the feet of the two other men.

  Draven looked at Byron, and then at Angel, and at Cali, and back to Angel. “Yes.”

  Angel looked up at Draven, and his big eyes filled with tears. He released Cali, and she rolled from his lap onto the floor and lay motionless except for her eyes which followed the conversation. Angel crawled away, sliding on the twisted curtain on the floor, sobbing. The sound wrenched at Draven’s insides, and more than anything, he wanted to make it stop, to give the boy what he wanted so he’d cease crying. The baby wailed on and on behind the sound of Angel’s sobs, creating a mournful chorus.

  “I came here for Cali,” Draven said. “And I intend to have her.”

  “She is not for sale,” Byron repeated through clenched teeth.

  “Then I will have to get her by other means.”

  Byron gave Draven a pitying look. “You’re a fool, or insane, or both. I’m your superior, don’t forget. You must do as I say, and I command you to stand down.”

  The carnage from the slaughter overshadowed all inclination towards obedience and civility, and something of the lawlessness in the room gave Draven courage. “No.”

  “No? Do you mean to challenge me? And with what? I see no weapon.”