The Blood That Bonds (27 page)

“
I’m going to light a
candle. There’s one down here. Everything’s going to be okay.
You’re fine, and I’m here to help. Try to relax, if you can. It
will be better for you.”

Samantha lapsed into gulping, panicky
breaths, staring out into the darkness. Only half-vampire, her
vision was not as good as Two’s. There was a candle on a small
table by the cell, a box of matches sitting beside it. Two struck
one, and held it to the wick. The flame glowed and flickered,
casting enough light that Samantha was able to pinpoint Two’s
whereabouts. She scurried down the length of the bars, pressed up
against them, held her hand out, and cried, “Help me! Help me!”

Two sat on the floor and extended her hand.
Samantha gripped it tightly, enough so that the pressure would have
been painful, if Two were still human.“Samantha. It’s okay. You’re
okay. You’re not hurt.”

“
I feel
wrong
. Help me!”

Two laughed a bit at that. “Yeah, I imagine
you do. Let me guess: right now you can hear better than you ever
could before, and see better in this light than you should be able.
Am I right?”

“
Yes. I … yes.”

“
Okay. Look … I’ve been
through this, and I’m okay. You’re okay too, I promise. Can you
take the facts straight, Samantha?”

Her matter-of-fact tone was working.
Samantha closed her eyes and, with visible effort, forced herself
to breathe deeply, to get control of herself. Her grip on Two’s
hand loosened slightly.

“
Just tell me,” She said
after a moment.

“
How much do you
remember?”

“
I don’t know. I was … I
was at the club. Some Goth chick kept smiling at me, and I couldn’t
stop staring at her. Look, I’m not normally into that, okay? I
couldn’t help it. I remember finally getting up to go talk to her …
and then I woke up in this fucking hole.”

Two nodded, and said, “Okay, well, here it
comes. When you don’t believe it, I’ll prove it to you. But I’ll
tell you first. Last night you came home with a vampire named
Missy. You uh … hooked up with her, and she bit you, and drank a
lot of your blood. Normally you’d either die, or wake up somewhere
and not remember anything, but she decided to give you some of her
blood in return. Since she didn’t drain you all the way, you’re not
completely a vampire yet, but you’re about halfway there. After
that it gets … complicated.”

The girl was silent for a long time. Her
response, when it came, didn’t surprise Two much.

“
What?”

“
I know it sounds hard to
believe …”

“
Hard to believe?” Samantha
gave a tiny, hysterical laugh. “Hard to fucking believe? I pass out
somewhere, and I wake up in a fucking prison, and some random chick
comes down and tells me that I’m in some fucking Brad Pitt movie,
and it’s only ‘hard to believe’?
Dios
… this is fucking
impossible!”

“
It’s not impossible. Trust
me.”

Samantha pulled her hand from Two’s and
gripped the bars, stared out at her, furious. “Listen, you crazy
bitch, I don’t care who you are. I don’t care what the fuck
hallucinations you’re having. Tell me where the fuck I am, and then
let me go. Right now.”

Two felt anger for a moment, and forced
herself to react as Theroen would. She closed her eyes for a
moment, and when she opened them again, they were calm.

“
Samantha …”

“
Sam. Everyone calls me
Sam.”

“
Sam. Get up. Go look in
that mirror on the wall. You couldn’t see it in the dark, but I
know from experience that the candle’s more light than your eyes
need, now. Go look, and tell me how hard it is to
believe.”

Sam stared at her for a moment, then curled
her lip in defiance and stood up. She took two quick strides over
to the mirror and peered into it. Her reaction was immediate, and
very similar to what Two’s had been. She flinched, stumbled, fell
backwards, crying out: “Jesus!”

What had Theroen
said?
Jesus has nothing to do with
this
.

“
I’m sorry,
Sam.”

Two watched as Sam covered her face with her
hands and wept.

* * *

“
I’m dreaming.” Sam was
staring at Two with horrified eyes. Two had not moved, was still
sitting Indian-style on the cold stone floor. She shook her
head.

“
No.”

“
Then I’m insane. Locked up
somewhere. Hallucinating. Someone gave me some bad acid.
Something
…”

“
No.”

“
How can you say ‘No’? This
shit is not possible.”

“
I sometimes find it hard
to believe, myself. I’ve only been a vampire for a few days, and I
was human less than a month ago. You grow accustomed to it pretty
quickly, though.”

“
Somebody wake me up,” Sam
moaned.

Two shrugged. “Okay. I don’t really care
whether you accept this or not, right now. How about this? At least
play along. It will make things easier in the long run.”

Sam sighed, shrugged, said, “Fine. You’re a
vampire. I’m a vampire, too, I guess? What do we do now?”

“
Do you want to get out of
the cell? I can take you upstairs to meet the others … or Theroen,
at least.”

“
Who’s Theroen?”

“
Theroen and the girl who
made you, Missy, were made by the same vampire. If you follow the
whole vampire lineage thing, I guess he’s something like your
uncle.”

Sam grimaced. “If I pretend to believe you,
will you let me out of here?”

“
You have to promise me a
few things.”

“
Like?”

“
Like first, you’re not
going to bolt out the door the moment I open it. You wouldn’t make
it past me, and you definitely wouldn’t make it out of the mansion.
Theroen would know what you were doing before you got up the steps.
Even if you did get outside, you’d have to deal with Tori, and I
think she’d probably kill you. So when I open the bars, let’s stay
calm, okay?”

“
I can do that, I
guess.”

“
Good. Second, try to keep
an open mind. I know how hard that is … believe me, I know. Try to
at least give what you’re seeing and hearing a chance, before
shutting it all out.”

“
I … okay, I’ll try.” Sam
didn’t sound like she held much faith in herself on this point, but
at least she had regained some of her composure. Two produced the
key Theroen had given her, unlatched the door, and opened
it.

“
Okay. Let’s go
upstairs.”

* * *

It was evident to Two, simply by the
expression on Sam’s face, that she was no more accustomed to such
opulence than Two had been. Sam seemed unable to decide what to
look at first, and was moving her head about in quick motions, like
a bird, taking it all in.

“
Interesting, huh?” Two was
walking slightly behind Sam, letting the girl take her own
meandering course through the first floor’s many interlocking
rooms.

“
It’s
incredible.”

There was silence for a time, as they
walked. Eventually, Sam spoke again.

“
So … you said the girl I
met in the bar was Missy, right?”

“
Yes, her name is
Missy.”

“
Who are you?”

Two laughed. She’d forgotten to introduce
herself.

“
My name’s Two. Like the
number. It’s a long story.”

“
Do you live
here?”

“
I do now, yes. For the
time being, anyway. Like I said before, I’m pretty new to all of
this myself.”

“
Did Missy do this to you,
too?”

Two suppressed a shudder. “No. Missy is,
well … it’s complicated. Missy is Theroen’s sister, so to
speak—sister vampire anyway; the same person made both of them. She
and Theroen, and another girl, Tori, were created by the elder
vampire who lives in the other wing of the mansion. His name’s
Abraham, and if you never meet him, then consider yourself
lucky.

“
Theroen created me, but
I’m not really his daughter. More like his girlfriend or wife, I
guess. Like I said: complicated.”

Sam said nothing. She glanced briefly at
Two, and the expression spoke volumes about her skepticism.

“
I know you don’t believe
me, Sam. Just … let’s go on, okay? Maybe Theroen can convince
you.”

Sam shrugged. “Don’t get your hopes up.”

Theroen was nowhere to be found. Eventually,
Two lead Sam back to the media room. “We might as well wait here
for him. You can watch TV or something.”

“
I want to get out of
here.”

“
We can’t, yet. You need to
talk to Theroen first. Trust me.”

“
Why?”

Two opened her mouth to explain, but before
she could, they were interrupted. The mansion’s front door opened,
closed, latched. Footsteps in the hall, growing louder, coming
toward them. Two turned, expecting Theroen. She was greeted instead
by a nightmare.

* * *

Missy. It had to be Missy. She was standing
in the doorway, drenched in blood. The red liquid coated her face,
her neck, the collar and upper buttons of her blouse. Her hair was
tousled. Her eyes burned like embers.

“
What are you doing in this
room, with
my
child?” Missy’s voice was calm, but her expression bore malice
beyond anything Two had thought possible. She leaned her weight on
one hand, resting on the door frame. Her fingernails made repeated
clicks against the beveled wood.

Two breathed deeply, steeled herself, met
Missy’s gaze and held it.

“
Talking.”

“
If I wanted you talking
with her, I would have given you my permission.”

“
You weren’t around. Your
better half went out hunting.”

Missy retained her composure, but her lip
curled up at this. She glared at Two for a moment, and then her
lips formed a smile. Her eyes still held nothing but hate.

“
The woman you’re referring
to is gone. She gave up. She let me in. First time in my life I
haven’t had to wait for the stupid bitch to go to sleep to take
over. She just … gave up. It was marvelous. She gave me control,
and that tells me everything. I know it, and she knows it: I
am
the better
half.”

Two opened her mouth to reply to this, and
Missy held up her hand.

“
Save it. Melissa’s stupid
and scatterbrained and she doesn’t remember anything about me, but
I remember
lots
of
things from her time in this body. Like what Theroen’s planning.
His little parting gift to his sisters. I know all about your
little plot: the priest and the prostitute, safe and happy and
away. I know what Theroen has planned for me and Tori.

“
But oh, Two, he doesn’t
know what I have planned for you!”

Without further warning, Missy sprung
forward into the room, moving at the same uncanny speed that Two
had seen before, in the forest. Sam shrieked something incoherent,
terror in her voice. Two felt adrenaline flood her body, felt
herself springing to her feet as if propelled by some outside
force. She shoved the sofa at Missy and backed away, holding her
hands up. Her hip bumped an end table, and she put it between
herself and her oncoming attacker.

Missy vaulted the sofa with ease, came to
rest on the carpet in front of it, and leapt again in one fluid
motion. Her timing was nearly perfect, and Two was only able to
dodge out of the way by fractions of a second. Missy hit the hard
oak end table with the full force of her weight, and it shattered
under the impact, vomiting pieces of itself in a spray around the
room. Two dodged flying debris and moved behind the couch, looking
for escape. The door led to the hall, but then what? Missy would
catch her before she reached the mansion’s entrance.

The other vampire, the woman who shared the
body with someone Two considered a friend, almost a sister, was
back on her feet and raving.

“
You weak, stupid, useless
whore! Where is your protector? Your lover? Your
Superman
? He is with
Abraham. Abraham called to him, and he went, and left you helpless.
I’m going to bring Abraham your heart on a plate, and he’ll laugh
and laugh, and there’s nothing Theroen will be able to do about
it!”

“
Missy, Missy, wait! You
don’t have to do this. It doesn’t have to be like that!” Two heard
herself speaking, heard the fear in her voice, and could accept it.
It was the tone that made her hate herself. The pleading tone
sounded like old memories, like her time with Darren, like empty
despair. This situation was out of Two’s control and there was no
hope for salvation. Theroen was not here to swoop in and save
her.

Missy snarled, racing around one edge of the
couch. Two moved swiftly to the other, keeping the sofa between
herself and Missy’s claws, hooked into talons and ready to tear at
flesh. Her foot landed on something: a table leg. It rolled, and
Two was unable to cope with the sudden shift in balance. She
stumbled backward, fell to the carpet and landed on her back with a
thud. The plush softness of the material seemed somehow obscene in
light of the situation.