Abraham had time to smile as Theroen charged. Ah, it was going to be glorious.
Hitting Abraham was like hitting a wall of solid concrete. Theroen collided with his father, fingers hooked into claws, seeking to rend and rear. The force of the initial blow alone would have shattered mortal bones. Abraham took only a small step backward.
Hands like manacles around Theroen’s wrists, forcing his claws away from Abraham’s face. Theroen snarled, lunged forward anyway, oblivious to the pain as his shoulders dislocated, snapping his teeth at Abraham’s neck. He tried to bite, to drink. Perhaps if he could cut Abraham, he might weaken his father.
Abraham twisted, and pulled Theroen around by the arms, heaving his son to the ground and landing on top of him. The creature was cackling, a horrific, mad sound, happy at last for action, after so many years of dark study.
Theroen screamed as he felt teeth tear through the flesh of his neck, opening his jugular vein in a warm gush. He struggled against the weight on top of him, to no avail, as the draining sensation began. Abraham was drinking. Laughing. Bathing in Theroen’s blood.
The world began to grey, and Theroen felt his strength flagging. No chance, now. He could not move Abraham. The pulse of his heart seemed to grow distant, like a receding tide. He saw faces. Lisette. Naomi. Melissa. Tori. Two. He fixated on this last, on the face of this woman that he loved. He wanted to focus. He wanted to see her eyes one last time. He wanted to tell her that he was sorry for everything, and that he would meet her in some other place, at the end of the mortal life his demise was buying her. He would wait there for her.
If only he could focus. If only he could see her eyes.
Theroen was still trying to make this happen when he died.
* * *
Two felt him go.
The sensation was like a sharp tugging that pulled at her whole body, and yet held no physical force. She stopped, bewildered for a moment, and then realization flooded in like a dark tide. Samantha and Tori were looking at her in confusion, but Two could not see them, could not see anything except blackness before her eyes. She felt Theroen’s presence -- so established within her that she had ceased even to notice it -- dwindling, blinking out of existence. She felt her knees unhinge, and the gravel by the side of the road they had been following bit into her legs. She didn’t notice. Didn’t care.
Two tilted her head back and cried out denial to the uncaring stars. Wailing, weeping, she fell to her side, curled up like a baby, uncontrollable shuddering wracking her body. Theroen was gone, gone from her and gone from the world. Gone. Two wept, and screamed, and it was some time before Samantha could do anything more than watch.
At last, Two’s grief subsided enough for her to hear Samantha’s voice calling her name, asking what was wrong. She fought against her tears, fought against the despair threatening to engulf her completely. Already she felt weaker, colder, more human, though she knew that she had not yet begun to revert to humanity. How long would it be before the various gifts Theroen had bestowed upon her withered away? A week? A month?
There was no time to contemplate this now. She had to get Samantha and Tori away from Abraham. The destroyer. The dark God. The most evil being that ever she would encounter.
Theroen’s life for hers, but had Two ever truly believed it would come to that? Now she knew it had indeed, and she knew as well that her continuing presence so close to Abraham put them all in great danger. They had to get away. She stood up, brushing herself off and sniffling.
“What is it, Two?” Samantha asked.
“It’s over. He’s gone.” Two’s voice was hollow. Dead.
“Abraham?”
Two laughed. The sound was without humor. She took a breath and shuddered. “No. Didn’t you listen? Abraham is indestructible. He’s a god. It would be s...stupid to even fight him.”
Samantha looked at her, uncomprehending, and Two felt her grief turn to anger before she could stop it. “He’s dead, don’t you get it? Theroen’s dead, and you don’t even fucking know what that means! You don’t even know what your life cost!”
Samantha blanched, stepped back, frightened by this sudden mood swing. Two saw this, felt despair well up inside her again, and covered her eyes. There was nothing to be found in the darkness, nothing to comfort her, so after a moment she looked up again.
“I’m sorry, Sam. We have to go. Now. While we still can.”
“Are you going to be okay, Two?”
“It doesn’t matter. Nothing matters. He’s gone. I owe it to Theroen to make sure you and Tori are safe. After that? Nothing matters. Let’s go.”
They began their course along the road, waiting for headlights. Waiting for someone who would pull over. Someone that Tori could make short work of. Someone that would provide them with a car.
* * *
Chapter 6
Homecoming
Darren’s building. The hallway outside.
Two could hear muffled grunts, the occasional cooing of some girl, bedsprings creaking. It sounded like a bad porn movie, and she smiled around the bitter taste in her mouth. She’d come here because she didn’t know where else to go. Dirty, tired, out of money, too ashamed and too frightened to go to Rhes and Sarah, she had returned to the building she had called home for the past year.
The trip hadn’t taken long. A car had eventually come along, the driver slowing for the two young women standing in the cold rain. Two had felt bad about rewarding this kindness with death, but she was still a vampire. Still needed to feed. Sam watched in horror, but Two could see the thirst there in her eyes. By the end of the car ride Sam had admitted, grudging and sullen, that she was beginning to believe the whole vampire thing.
They had spent the day in a motel, sleeping. Two had packed Tori into the bathroom, blocking the cracks under the door with towels, giving the girl plenty of blankets with which to build some sort of nest. She and Sam had taken the beds. Two woke, weeping, at sunset. There was no Theroen to wake up next to, and never would be again.
By that evening, Sam was already looking more human. Two still felt the same. She fed on a victim in an adjacent room, and then the trio had continued toward Manhattan, toward Darren.
Darren’s voice, through the door. “That’s good, baby. That’s real good, but you... gotta sound like you’re... getting the best fuck of your life. Course, I know you are, right baby?”
“Anything you say, Darren.” The girl turned the volume up a notch. Two grimaced. She’d done this. She’d been here. It was a place she never intended to be again. She stood in the same building, but not in the same place. She had strength now, power now, purpose now. Descent and rebirth. Two had survived this process twice already. She would survive a third.
Two kicked the door, hard, just below the lock. The frame splintered and the entire mechanism fell to the floor with a clatter. The door swept inward on creaking hinges, ricocheted off the wall with a flat smacking sound, and came to a stop.
Darren was quick; Two had to give him that. The door had not even finished its swing before he was rolling off of the girl, and he was up on two feet before it stopped moving, pointing a gun toward the dark hallway. From his perspective, there were only vague grey shapes. Two’s eyes were much better. Before her stood Darren, naked and still half-aroused, gun cocked and ready, held out in front of him.
“Who the fuck are you and what do you want?” He snarled.
“Put down the gun, dumbass, before you get hurt.”
“Answer the fucking question, bitch. Who is that? You one of my girls? Gonna get you some revenge, maybe put some holes in old Darren? Answer me or I start shooting.”
“Something like that. I’ll give you a few hints. She’s short, she’s cute, and she’s been missing for a month or two.”
The gun wavered for a brief moment. Darren’s eyes registered vague surprise before growing icy again. “I didn’t authorize no vacation, Two.”
“I didn’t fucking ask for one, asshole.”
Darren sneered at her, still unafraid. Two knew that look, and it was all she could do not to charge screaming into the room, to tear her former pimp limb from limb. It spoke of Darren’s complete disdain for his girls. It was a look that carried with it all the baggage of his beatings, his orders, his forcing addiction upon them. Two tried to think of Theroen. Tried to remain calm.
“Put the gun down. Now.” She said.
Darren actually smiled at this, and shook his head. “No, I don’t think so. Here’s how it’s going to go: You’re going to come in here, and I’m going to kick the living shit out of you. If you beg real nice, maybe I’ll stop before I kill you. If that’s how it goes, then you’ll get back to your room, and heal up, and get your ass out where it belongs, and maybe then I might give you a ration some time this fucking century.”
Two laughed. Heroin? Who needed heroin? “Last chance, Darren. Put down the gun.”
“No.”
Two shrugged, and released her grip on Tori’s shoulder. What happened next was better even than she could have expected. Tori sprang into the room, howling, so quick that she seemed a blur even to Two. Darren’s expression moved from confidence to terror in an instant. He got off one shot, wild, and the recoil from the gun caused him to drop it. Tori leapt, and Two was treated to the wholly satisfying view of Darren loosing his bladder on his own feet. He ducked at the last possible moment, and Tori sailed over him, into the bed.
Darren scrabbled away on all fours, making noises that sounded something like words, something like screams. There was a choking sound from the bed, and when Tori reappeared, she was drenched in crimson. She leapt down to the floor and advanced on Darren, growling low in her throat, the rumble of a jungle cat. Darren had backed himself into a corner, wet and dirty with piss and tears, and was making some sort of plea for his life.
Two called Tori’s name, and the vampire stopped, less than two feet from Darren. She raised her lip in a sneer that was oddly human, then turned, picked the gun up in her teeth, and brought it to Two.
“Don’t do that. Dogs do that. Use your hands.” Two’s voice was soft, her heart not really in the scolding. She was too busy watching Darren to ensure he didn’t move. She entered the room, Sam and Tori trailing behind, and stood by Darren’s desk, looking at him. He sat on the floor, glaring up, making the slow move from fear to smoldering humiliation.
“Stand up.”
“Bitch, I ain’t doing shit for you.”
Two’s expression was almost bored as she swung the gun upward and fired twice, putting a shot on either side of Darren’s head. Behind her, Sam made a small shrieking noise. Darren’s eyes went wide, his face paper white.
“I don’t have to miss, Darren. Trust me on that, ‘kay? I’m in charge, now. Stand the fuck up.”
Darren did what he was told.
“Put on some fucking clothes. I’ve seen all of that that I plan on seeing, thank you.”
Darren struggled into a pair of jeans, very nearly catching himself in the zipper. Behind Two, Sam giggled. Darren shot her a look that made it perfectly clear that being laughed at by women was not something he was familiar with. Two waved the gun, drawing his attention.
“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 give the orders here.”
“Yeah? Your friend GLOCK here tells me he gives the orders. Even if he didn’t, I think my friend Tori here is 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. Stay the fuck out of my old room. And 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, your exploitation of twelve year olds is renowned, and your woman-beating skills are top-notch, 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. W
hat 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.
The Blood The Bonds Page 23
