Hunter's Kiss

by Niall Teasdale

  ‘The medical applications… Dione implied that this virus messes with the necrosis process somehow. If we could isolate that without the whole “turning into the undead” bit… There are diseases it could treat. It could keep people medically stable until they could be resuscitated.’

  ‘And you haven’t mentioned the life extension possibilities. Vampires don’t age, Leanne. Not physically anyway. Dione told me it’s rare for them to get to the millennium because they get tired, bored, or disillusioned. They let themselves fade away. She’s not sure how she’s kept going when most have failed, but she’s a little on the edge. You asked if I let her drink my blood? Well, Pat asked me to watch out for her and make her take it if she forgets. It’s only once a month, but if they don’t, they eventually slip into a coma and just fade away.’

  ‘And it has to be human blood?’

  ‘Live human blood. None of that stocking bags in the fridge stuff or eating rats.’

  ‘Well, there’s a thing. Why live human blood?’

  Lisa shrugged. ‘Don’t know. It’s that which keeps them going and lets them heal so fast. I guess that is a little supernatural. As in “it hasn’t been explained.”’

  ‘Yet.’

  Having trouble not laughing at her friend’s change in attitude, where anger and some fear had become fascination, Lisa just agreed. ‘Yet. Maybe you should–’

  A sound stopped her. It was a sort of crunching noise, like wood breaking under stress, and she stood up, turning toward the door of the apartment. There was a crack, and then the blonde man from the hospital rushed in. Lisa opened her mouth to scream, and he raised a crowbar, swinging it into the side of her head. She went down, sprawling on the floor, and he raised the weapon again.

  ‘No!’ Leanne shrieked.

  The man turned and smiled, showing his fangs as he rushed forward. Suddenly, he was on her, pressing her against the sofa, and she was looking into vibrantly blue eyes. Vibrantly blue and so deep. She tried to look away, but found herself falling into those eyes.

  ‘That’s right, Aimee,’ the man said, ‘just sleep. It’ll be all right. I see what I need to do now. I’ll bring you back to me and everything will be just as it was.’

  Leanne felt her conscious mind slipping away and there seemed to be nothing she could do to stop it.

  ~~~

  Lisa was sitting on the sofa with an ice pack pressed to her head when Mike stormed into the apartment. At Dione’s request, he had been waiting at home in case Leanne called or even turned up. Dione had got there faster when the call had come through from Lisa.

  ‘I’m sorry. Mike,’ Lisa said as soon as she saw him. ‘I tried to stop him. I should’ve sensed him. I should’ve–’

  ‘He used that on the door,’ Dione said, indicating the crowbar resting on the carpet, ‘and then on Lisa. I’d end the prick for that even if the Concilium hadn’t ruled on it.’

  ‘Where’s Leanne?’ Mike asked. Dione raised an eyebrow and nodded to Lisa, and Mike kicked himself. ‘Sorry. Lisa, you couldn’t have stood up to him, and this sense we have isn’t perfect.’

  ‘I could’ve…’ Lisa trailed off. ‘Okay, I’m taking judo lessons after this. I don’t know what happened after he hit me. I assume he took her. He thinks she’s someone else. Someone called Aimee?’

  ‘His creatrix,’ Dione said. ‘Stupid… She was a redhead and he got too clingy for her. Maybe she did leave because he was getting strange about it.’

  ‘Takes two to tango,’ Mike said. ‘I’d suspect she wasn’t ready for the commitment and he pushed too much. Losing her probably made his issues worse. But Leanne isn’t a vampire. How can he think she’s his creatrix?’

  ‘Dracula movies?’ Lisa suggested. ‘There’s been that whole “reincarnated lost love” thing in a lot of them. Maybe he thinks she ended and Leanne’s her reincarnated soul.’

  ‘Which would work if Leanne was six,’ Dione said. ‘He’s a romantic, betrayed by his lover, and then almost ended by a venator. He’s gone off the edge and… And we need to find them. Now!’

  ‘Oh! You don’t think he’s going to–’

  ‘Yes, I do. And while I think Mike could make a straight relationship work, I’d prefer to avoid the complications. Come here.’ Reaching out, Dione grabbed the back of Lisa’s neck and pulled her into a hard, rather urgent kiss. Lisa let out a squeak and then started to relax, and when Dione released her, she just flopped back against the sofa, ice pack forgotten. ‘Winthrop will be here to pick you up and take you to SCU shortly. You’ll stay there until this is over.’

  ‘Sure,’ Lisa said, grinning euphorically.

  ‘And try not to proposition him when he gets here. He’s old and I’m not sure his heart could take it.’

  ‘You spoil all my fun.’

  ~~~

  Leanne blinked a couple of times as her mind cleared. The experience had been surreal, distant, and she could barely recall what had happened, but she had let the blonde man lead her down into the subway tunnels, and then she had let him tie her to a concrete stanchion. Her arms were tied up high over her head and there were loops of rope around her ankles, hips, and ribs. It seemed that, while he could apparently control her, he wanted her secure for some reason. How the Hell had he done that anyway?

  ‘I hope the ropes don’t hurt.’

  Leanne looked down to see the blonde man kneeling nearby with a small, portable camp light, a few bottles of water, and her T-shirt and bra. ‘What’s going on?’ Leanne said with some considerable effort to keep her voice level. ‘Why am I tied up at all, and why did you strip me to the waist?’

  ‘I didn’t want to get blood on your shirt.’

  Swallowing, Leanne gave an experimental pull on her ropes and found them quite firm. ‘You’re a vampire.’

  ‘So are you, Aimee, you’ve just forgotten. I don’t know how they did it, but it explains everything. They couldn’t stand the burning light of our love, you see.’ Leanne almost winced at the simile. ‘So they took you from me and gave me that worthless… When I change you back, you’ll remember. And you’ll be mine. Forever.’

  He was going to turn her into a vampire. Well, there were worse fates, she supposed. Then she caught herself thinking that and wondered what the Hell was going on in her head! ‘Well… Well, I don’t remember you now, so what’s your name?’

  ‘Aaron. Aaron Quade, this time.’

  ‘Okay, well, Aaron, I don’t want to be a vampire.’

  ‘You will. Once you’ve converted, you’ll remember me, and how it was, and you won’t want anything else.’ He got to his feet.

  ‘Look, you’re making a mistake. I’m not this Aimee you knew.’

  ‘You simply don’t remember.’ He stepped closer and she could smell the… vampire on him. She was not sure what the scent was, but this close he just smelled wrong and panic started settling into her, driving her heart into her throat. ‘You will.’ His hand clasped her jaw, forcing her head to the side, turning her to bare her neck to him.

  ‘Please…’

  He leaned in. She felt his breath on her neck and then there was a sharp pain. She started to cry out and the sound died as a wave of warmth spread through her from the bite. She wanted to struggle, but the warmth seeped into her and she felt almost drunk. She vaguely felt his lips seal over the wound and knew he was drinking, sucking up the life blood flowing from her open vein. It did not really seem to matter. A wave of weakness passed over her after a few seconds. She was dying. She knew it and there was nothing she could do about it. She felt her heart stutter.

  And then he was knocked aside as something hit him, passing inches from Leanne’s face. Her vision was blurred, but she saw a dark shape, heard a scream. Dione. Dione wore a lot of black and she saved people from mad vampires. Dione had found her, somehow, and…

  The face of the teenager Leanne had seen at the hospital appeared before her, eyes hard yet oddly compassionate. He peered at her, as though he was looking at tropical fish behind glass.


  ‘Help me,’ Leanne managed, her voice a croak.

  ‘You’ve been bit,’ the boy said. ‘Only one thing I can do for you now.’ He lifted a thick, heavy-bladed knife, a machete, and Leanne could see blood on it. Her eyes shifted, seeing the body on the floor for the first time. There was a knife driven into Quade’s chest and his head was three feet from his body.

  ‘No…’

  ‘Sorry.’ He raised the machete.

  ‘You should really worry about the vampire that’s still standing and not tied to a post.’ That was Dione’s voice. Leanne managed to turn her head and there was Dione, standing in the hole that made a doorway to the ‘room’ they were in. In her right hand she held a gleaming sword, a katana, and she looked really irritated. ‘You’ve been causing problems, boy. You’re going to stop.’

  The boy moved, circling around behind the stanchion into clear space, his machete raised and pointed at Dione. With his left hand, he pulled another of his daggers from his coat. ‘I’ve killed twenty-four bloodsuckers like you. You’ll be my twenty-fifth.’

  Dione smiled. ‘You’ve never met a vampire like me, kid. I learned to use a sword when I was seven.’ Her eyes flicked to Leanne, saw the blood trail at her throat, the pale skin, the weakness. There was no time for messing about. ‘Drop the weapons and things will go a lot easier for you.’

  ‘Fuck you!’ The boy darted forward, swinging the machete in a diagonal across Dione’s body, but Dione just angled her body away from it and snapped her katana up and across. There was a clash of metal on metal and the machete skittered across the floor. Without a pause, Dione turned, the katana flashed in the light from the lamp, and the boy screamed as the blade slashed through his left arm. He stumbled and fell backwards, clutching at the stump.

  ‘Stay down!’ Dione snapped, turning immediately to Leanne. She was just unslinging the rucksack she was carrying when there were three loud bangs and she lurched at the impact of a bullet hitting her side. Then there was another, louder, bang as Mike fired his shotgun from the doorway. Hit in the chest, the boy was thrown backwards like a rag doll, and then his chest exploded outward in a shower of blood, bone, and organ fragments.

  ‘Do I want to know what just happened?’ Leanne asked, and Mike felt his heart sink at the weakness in her voice.

  Dione pulled a first-aid kit out of her rucksack. ‘No. I need to see to that wound or you’ll bleed out and finish what Quade started. I’m going to leave you hanging there until it’s patched, okay?’

  Leanne swallowed. ‘Okay.’

  It took only a minute to get the wounds closed with medical tape and pads, and then Mike held Leanne while Dione cut her down. ‘It’s kind of kinky,’ Leanne whispered in Mike’s ear, barely able to raise her voice higher. ‘I think I’d like it if you were the one doing the tying.’

  Mike did his best to laugh, but he was worried. He could tell that Leanne was too and that made it worse. He lowered her to the floor and then Dione went to work again.

  The rucksack contained a bag of something which, to Leanne, looked vaguely like plasma, but not. ‘This is an artificial blood plasma,’ Dione more or less confirmed. ‘Winthrop came up with it. It’s a perfluorocarbon-based mix with some antiviral agents, salts, the usual. It’s been proven to help when someone’s been bitten.’

  Leanne did not feel the needle going in, but Dione seemed to know what she was doing, while all Mike could really do was stand there and hold the bag up. Well, in two and a half millennia, you had to learn a few things, right?

  Ten minutes later, with a blanket wrapped around her, Leanne was feeling better, but not exactly healthy. Watching Dione strip out of her coat and blouse, and pulling the bullet out of her side with a pair of forceps was more interesting than disgusting, but the euphoria from the bite had worn off and Leanne felt like she had been through a war.

  ‘He shot you,’ Leanne said, her voice a little stronger now.

  ‘Hollow point,’ Dione said. ‘The coat took most of the sting out of it. I’ll be fine in a minute. Unlike you. We’ll get you up top and into SCU’s treatment room.’

  ‘I feel kind of sick.’

  Dione laughed. ‘No, really? I think a mild sedative is in order.’ She dropped to her knees beside Leanne and kissed her. Leanne knew it was coming and almost thought about stopping it, but then it was happening and thought went for a walk outside where it could avoid watching.

  ~~~

  ‘Could I get another kiss?’ Leanne asked. It was an hour later and they were in the medical room in SCU. She had tubes and wires attached, just as Mike had had after his attack, but she was in a better condition than he had been.

  ‘Not tonight,’ Dione replied, humour in her voice. ‘We want you back on your feet sooner rather than later, so you can have another tomorrow.’

  ‘It’s a little embarrassing, but it feels so good.’

  ‘Sure does,’ Lisa put in.

  ‘Embarrassing?’ Mike asked.

  ‘Makes you horny,’ Lisa explained. ‘Not like the scent. Breathe that in for a few seconds and you’d fuck a tree stump, but the kiss sure does make you want it.’

  ‘Thank you for that image, Lisa,’ Dione said. ‘Now, I suggest you all get some sleep. Mary and I will handle the clean-up in the subway.’

  ‘What happens with the boy?’ Mike asked.

  ‘We’ll arrange for him to go away. It means unsolved homicides, but homicides go unresolved all the time. He’ll get a proper burial. If it’s any consolation, he was firing wildly and could have hit Leanne, and the fact that you shot him means I don’t have to justify killing him in front of the Concilium.’

  ‘They’d roast you for killing a maniac like that?’ Leanne asked, sounding a little affronted.

  ‘Vampires aren’t allowed to kill humans,’ Lisa said. ‘Killing humans threatens the secret.’

  ‘Well,’ Dione said, ‘we can kill them. We’d just better have a damn good reason. Kind of like when humans kill humans. Except when you go to war, then it’s a given. Vampires have never had a war, at least one that anyone remembers. That’s not a boast; there’s just too few of us to create the circumstances. Now, sleep. If you don’t want to leave, the chairs in here are remarkably comfortable. Believe me.’

  ~~~

  ‘I don’t think I got my money’s worth from that last kiss,’ Leanne complained as she pulled on her T-shirt.

  No one had left and Dione was back in the office after grabbing a few hours of sleep at home. ‘You didn’t actually pay anything,’ Dione pointed out. She was lounging on one of the comfortable chairs, unabashedly watching Leanne dress.

  ‘Yes, but a couple of minutes of horny euphoria? It was much better last night. I was halfway out of the tunnels before the pain came back.’

  ‘The effects tend to be variable. The longer I press it, the more you’re likely to get a longer overall effect. If you hadn’t healed, I might have given you another this afternoon.’

  ‘But I’m fine, so no kissing. My life sucks so much.’ Leanne flashed the vampire a grin to show she was kidding.

  ‘I may get jealous,’ Mike commented.

  ‘Don’t worry, our love can never be. I’m a girl and she’s a vampire, and you know how that story ends.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Lisa said, ‘in five or more minutes of nonstop orgasm.’

  ‘Not helping,’ Leanne sing-songed. ‘So what now? Back to work?’

  ‘Winthrop wants you to stay here for another couple of nights. Just in case,’ Dione said. ‘I’ve arranged things with the hospital. Lisa, you too. You’re both in “protective custody” until we’re sure the danger is over.’

  ‘It’s over though, right? It is over.’

  ‘This time. It’s going to be a lot easier now you know about all this. We can have some serious talks about security. For example, you might want to move in with Mike. I know you’ve been planning it, or at least thinking about it. His apartment is far more secure. Lisa, Pat would like you to move in with her.’


  ‘With Pat?’ Lisa said, eyes widening.

  ‘She has more room than I do. You’ll have your own room.’

  ‘The rent on the apartment we’re in,’ Leanne said. Her voice sounded a little distant: now dressed, she had taken a proper look around and seen what was on the other side of the window in the isolation room. ‘We can’t just leave the–’

  ‘I’ll take care of that,’ Dione informed her. ‘I have a few investments, as you can imagine. A few months’ rent is quite worth it. Mike, I’d like you to discuss extra security with your mother. Aside from the fact that she is your mother, I like her and I want to be quite sure she remains fit and healthy for as long as possible.’

  ‘I’ll talk to her on Sunday,’ Mike said.

  Dione nodded. Then she said, ‘Say it, Leanne.’

  ‘That’s Juliana Nails. I watched her being buried. What’s she… Oh.’

  ‘That,’ Dione said with a sad tone in her voice, ‘is something else you can help us with. It would be… easier if she had a face she knows here when she wakes up. Lisa, you too. She’ll also need blood when she comes to. We’ll need to call in a few emergency supplicants for her. She’ll be quite thirsty.’

  ‘Is that what it’s called?’ Leanne asked. ‘A supplicant.’

  ‘Yes,’ Lisa replied. ‘I’m a supplicant. I gift to Dione and Pat.’

  ‘Then I guess I’m a supplicant too. I’ll be gifting to Juliana. I owe her that much.’

  ‘No,’ Dione said, ‘you don’t owe her anything. The man who does is truly dead. But if you want to give this gift to her, then it would be appreciated.’

  Part Four: Vampires Don’t Do Drugs

  New York, NY, 14th January 2015.

  ‘It’s… amazing,’ Leanne said. She was peering down a binocular microscope at vampire viral particles. The fact that she could see them through a standard microscope was amazing, but her exclamation was more general in nature. ‘Which species is this?’

  ‘Haemovirus cyprius,’ Winthrop replied, ‘which is one of the ones you have intimate familiarity with.’

  ‘Okay…’

  ‘It’s the succubus virus,’ Mike supplied. ‘A lot of the Latin names went over my head, but that one was easier and I made a point of remembering it.’