The Blood That Bonds (13 page)

I’m ready,
she thought.

Two took a deep breath, asked what she
wanted to ask. “Finish me?” The words seemed to hang in the air for
a moment before sinking, given weight by their implication.

“
I would not have offered
you a choice,” Theroen said after a moment, “had I been able to do
so on the first night. I was … rather arrogant, really, in my
desire. Now? Two, you must mean it with all of your heart and
soul.”

How can I ever be
sure?
Two thought to herself.
How could anyone ever be sure?

But what was it that she was leaving behind?
Drugs and prostitution, beatings, the constant humiliation heaped
upon her by her desperate life. Even if she was free of the drug,
now, what else did she have to go back to? There was no home, no
money, no support save that which Rhes and Sarah might offer out of
pity. Did she want to return to a life of picking pockets,
shoplifting, breaking into cars? Theroen was offering her
escape.

She was not tempted by the money, the
clothes, the fast cars, the expensive furniture. These things
mattered little to Two. Here though was a chance for love and
redemption. Everything she could possibly desire was here in this
mansion, on this couch. The blood was here, and if it held power
over her now, half-complete and unable truly to taste it as a
vampire might, then what might it be like once the transformation
was complete?

“
Love and lust, passion,
need … it is all things, Two. Yet it is nothing more than another
drug in the end. It is not the blood you need to accept. The blood
pushes itself upon you regardless, and you
will
do whatever is necessary to
acquire it.

“
You ask me to make you a
destructive force. A tornado. A fire. A flood. A thing beyond the
scope of mortal comprehension, who kills at her whim, because it is
her nature to do so.”

Still quiet, but wasn’t she now simply
giving Theroen the chance to say his piece? She could feel the
desire growing within her. The taste of what he offered: the blood,
the escape, the strength to put her past behind her, the
possibility of all this and more was intoxicating. Theroen’s words
of caution seemed weak by comparison.

“
You will have to kill,”
Theroen said. “Oh, Two, you’d be such a vampire. Lover, fighter,
mother, killer. It’s all in you. I sense it. Yet I can no longer
blindly force you down this path. You must lead yourself. You
…”

Two put her fingers on his mouth, turned her
head, locked her eyes with his.

“
Theroen. Finish
me.”

He paused a moment longer, looking into her
eyes as if searching for some fear she might be hiding. Two knew
that all he would find there was truth. Indeed, Theroen smiled at
her, and nodded.

Strong arms, lifting her, carrying her
toward the bedroom. Her arms were around his neck. In this short
moment, Two bid her mortal life farewell. Pain, anguish, hatred and
despair; these were the hallmarks of this life, a dark void lit
only by the occasional candle of friendship, an almost nonexistent
light. What chains bound her to these things? Two fled without
moving, fled on Theroen’s feet, toward the bedroom and away from
the darkness that had oppressed her since her first memory.

* * *

There was pain, but not like before.
Theroen’s teeth pierced the flesh of her neck, but to Two it seemed
minor. Far away. The pain was a vehicle to an end result that she
truly craved.

“
Ah …” the slightest sound
as she felt her blood begin to flow. No pulsing climax this time,
only a bittersweet ache of desire. This act was no culmination of
lust, but rather a final act of love. Two sighed, feeling tension
leave her. The draining sensation increased, seemed to swallow her.
The thudding of her heart, the deep rush of her breath, these
things soon brought her to a state of near hypnosis. Theroen held
her gently in her swoon, drinking, his lips against her neck,
judging her pulse. Waiting. At last pulling away.

Two looked up, eyes half-lidded. Breathing
seemed difficult, but the sensation was so far removed she could
not be sure. The world was grey and dim. Theroen’s eyes alone
seemed to shine out at her. She heard herself say something, the
words lost instantly. She would have to remember to ask Theroen
later what it was, what she’d said.

Is this death?
She had time to think.
This apathy, this dimness?
Her heart
pumped in her chest for what felt like the first time in minutes.
Weak. Two could not keep her eyes open.

A voice, whispering. Drink. Drink. And there
was pressure at her lips, and warmth, and a deep rushing sound
which seemed to swell in her ears until it vibrated through her
entire body.

Theroen felt Two’s arms tighten around him
and breathed a sigh of relief. For a moment he had been in mortal
terror that he’d killed her before she had a chance to drink. Her
words to him had shaken him quite badly, more so for the fact that
she clearly had not heard them herself.

He’d made the cut at his throat immediately
following her declaration, and pressed her lips to it, imploring
her to drink. He felt now the force of those lips, burning like
heated iron, felt the draining of blood, enough now that her change
was assured. He was dizzy. Trace amounts of the drug must still
have remained in her. It was no worse than dining on a young woman
filled with red wine, or warm brandy, though, and he had done
both.

Melissa’s voice at the door. A gasp of
surprise.

“
Oh!”

Theroen gestured to the chair beside the
bed, careful not to disturb Two, now locked so tightly to his neck
that he would have to pry her off. She was gasping for breath here
and there, whimpering slightly, still lost in swoon. Her thirst
would be far greater than ever before. It would take time to
satiate her. He heard Melissa sit down, felt her take his hand and
press it to her cheek.

“
I’m so happy for you,
Theroen.” He felt her muscles stretch as she smiled.

But he could feel tears there, too.

* * *

Darkness, my love. All I see for us is
darkness.

Two’s voice, Lisette’s words. Had she not
whispered this exact prophecy more than three hundred years ago,
tears coursing down her cheeks, reflecting the moonlight like
rivers of silver? Bare skin, sharp fangs, joined at the waist,
joined at the neck. Dull throbbing, dull roaring, the blood, the
skin, the tears, and then that whisper.

And all that had followed.

Tears at his fingertips. Melissa weeping, he
knew, for the beginning of the end. Theroen had betrayed her at
last, as they both had known he would someday do. How was she to
live as Abraham’s servant? What was left for her now that Theroen
had Two? Only Tori, and the darkness at the end of the hall;
madness on either side greater even than her own.

Tears at his throat. Two’s?
Lisette’s? Theroen drifted between New York of the
21
^st
century, and London of the 17
^th
, and heard again those words.
Darkness. Darkness.

Who better to speak of darkness than those
forsaken by the sun? Who better to voice those words than a
vampire?

“
I would make her my
bride.”

“
You will do no such
thing.”

“
You cannot hold me
forever, father.”

Theroen felt himself reaching the limit of
his strength. Two had drained him as much as he dared allow. He
unwound her arms from his neck, pushed her lips from his wound,
pushed her words from his mind.

* * *

Consciousness came to Two like layers of red
gauze being lifted from her eyes.

She could feel Theroen’s arms around her,
holding her safe, as the blood rushed and roared. It burned her
veins, as her empty body sought to replenish itself, but the hurt
was far away. Unimportant.

She spoke his name, forced her eyes to
focus, looked around. Melissa, too, was here now. Not Missy. Two
could tell solely from the expression on the face. Melancholy, and
yet filled with happiness. Tear tracks were drying on her cheeks.
Missy could not have looked like that if her life had depended on
it. Two coughed. “I’m thirsty, Theroen.”

Melissa laughed at this. Two felt Theroen
take a deep breath.

Two put her arms behind her, took her weight
away from Theroen, and glanced around. The light, previously dim,
now seemed much brighter. It was not overwhelming, but the change
was drastic. Melissa stood in a corner now, smiling in a way that
said she knew precisely what Two was experiencing. Two flexed the
muscles of her arms. Theroen watched her, his uncanny calm
returning once again to mask whatever he might be feeling.

“
How do you feel?” Melissa
asked. Her grin said she knew.

“
Thirsty. Hungry.
Strong.”

A pretty laugh, and Melissa glanced at
Theroen. “I think the young lady’s in need of a drive, Theroen.
Time to show her what she really is.”

Theroen stirred as if waking from deep
contemplation. He turned to Melissa. “And what are we, really,
sister?”

Melissa’s smile didn’t waver, nor did it
turn bitter or cynical. She raised her eyebrows a bit, eyes
gleaming. “I believe we are predators, brother.”

“
Ah. Yes. That we are. Do
you understand this, Two?”

Two considered. “Does it matter who I drink
from?”

“
Not so long as their blood
is untainted.”

“
Or relatively so,” Melissa
chimed in. Theroen sighed, and her smile widened momentarily. Two
looked out the window, thinking. One name came immediately to
mind.

“
Not tonight.” Theroen’s
voice was flat. Two turned to him.

“
Why not?”

“
He’ll wait. There will be
time to avenge the wrongs of your past, Two. Tonight is about your
future.”

“
Who would you have me kill
then, Theroen?”

“
There are twelve million
people sleeping in that city, Two, and several hundred thousand
between us and them. Pick one.”

Two mused, looking frustrated. Melissa
watched, obviously confused, but not yet ready to interrupt with
questions.

“
You confuse the mortal
desire for revenge with some sort of higher purpose, Two. You will
have it, but not tonight.” Theroen’s voice carried no judgment. He
was simply stating the facts.

Two looked over at him, swallowed, closed
her eyes momentarily. This was not what she had expected, exactly.
Theroen’s calm description of vampirism had seemed so clear, so
easy to accept. She had expected to come through to the other side
believing in it as thoroughly as she had when she asked him to
finish her. She had not expected this nervousness, this
concern.

“
How do you mentally
prepare yourself to kill someone?” Two’s voice was plaintive. “I
thought that … when I was finished, that I’d just want it. That I
wouldn’t care.”

Theroen shook his head. “No, not at first
anyway. Eventually you will come to understand, or to rationalize …
it depends to whom you talk. At first it will likely be hard for
you. I do not think, though, that your current thirst will let you
wait, and that is perhaps for the best.”

A moment passed. Two sighed. He was
right.

“
There was a town, in a
little valley, surrounded by trees. I saw it on the night when this
all started. You took me there.”

Theroen nodded.

“
There, then. If we’re
ending what was started that night, we might as well do it
there.”

Theroen stood and grinned. It was like sun
breaking through on a grey morning. “A good idea. We shall go
there. As beautiful as you look in that gown though, Two, I think
you may find your old dressing habits more suitable to this line of
activity. I will meet you in the garage.”

He departed. Melissa remained.

“
Who did you want to start
with, Two? Who were you talking about?”

“
Someone I should probably
just forget.” Two opened the closet and peered at the clothes
within. “Someone who maybe deserves worse than even I can give
him.”

Melissa raised her eyebrows, then shrugged.
If Two didn’t want to talk about it, that was okay. She turned to
leave.

“
Will I see you there,
Melissa?” Two did not turn to look, but her voice betrayed more
nerves, more fear, than perhaps she had intended.

“
Do you want me there,
Two?”

“
I’m going to cry, when … I
hate crying. Theroen’s been doing this for so long, I don’t know if
he understands anymore. He’s …”

“
He’s above it all.”
Melissa understood. Two could hear it in her voice.

“
Are you?”

“
Nearly so, but I still
remember. Two, I’ll be there if you want me to be
there.”

“
Theroen’s car won’t fit
us.”

Melissa smiled. “I have cars of my own. A
pretty little turquoise BMW, for one. I know where you’re going.”
She shrugged her shoulders. “Is it hard for you to ask, Two?”

Two nodded.

“
Then I’ll ask. May I come
with you, Two? I’d like to be there, but I thought you might want
only Theroen.”

Two turned to her, smiled, clearly fighting
against tears. “Yes. Thanks. I’m scared, Melissa.”