The Blood That Bonds (37 page)

Two let it pass. She didn’t want to scare
Tori with talk of taking her home to her parents. Now, though, her
suspicions confirmed, Two knew there was little choice. She had a
name to go on, and she owed it to Mona to at least find out where
the woman lived and whether she was still alive and searching for
her daughter.

Sarah was the next one down the stairs. “Ah.
Coffee. You’re a life-saver, Two.”

Two laughed. “I try my best.”

Rhes followed soon after. Molly was last,
and when she saw Two sitting on the couch, she came down the stairs
at a run, calling her name. Two had just time to set down her mug
before Molly embraced her, laughing.

“
Hey! Molly. Hi! Nice to
see you, too. How are you feeling? Are you okay?”

Molly smiled, cast a shy
look at Rhes and Sarah, and nodded. “Yes, I’m okay. I’m great,
really. I was
mad
at you, and Rhes and Sarah, at first … but it’s all right. I
started going to this program thing last week, just to talk to
other people like me. It’s … well, it’s not fun, but it’s really
helping. They’re all really nice.”

“
That’s awesome Molly.
Terrific. I’m so glad you’re okay. I was worried.”

“
We were worried about you,
too! Where
were
you?”

Two smiled. “Sorry. That’s a long, weird
story, and you don’t get to hear it right now.”

Molly began to protest, but Two only shook
her head. “No, Molly. It doesn’t matter, okay?”

A pause, and then Molly relented. “Okay,
Two. If you say so. Are you staying here with us?”

“
Only for last night. This
is my friend Tori. She and I have an apartment in SoHo.”

“
Oh. All right. Will you be
around, though?”

“
Don’t see why
not.”

“
Great! Sarah and Rhes told
me I could stay here as long as I wanted.”

Sarah spoke up. “We’re really glad you sent
Molly to stay with us, Two. We’re hoping she’ll stay for a very
long time.”

Two grinned. “Excellent. You going to go
back to school, Molly?”

“
I don’t know. Maybe.
Should I?”

“
We’re going to tutor her
for the rest year, and start her back at public school next fall,”
Sarah said. “I’m scaling back my work a bit. Shouldn’t be a
problem.”

“
Guess that answers that,”
Two said. “You’re a smart kid. You’ll catch up.”

Molly beamed at the compliment. There was
silence, not awkward, as Two and her friends sat and thought. At
length, Rhes turned to Two.

“
Breakfast?”

“
Thought you’d never ask,
big guy. Here, or out somewhere?”

“
Here, I thought. We’ve got
plenty of food. I’ll make eggs. You want to help, Tori?”

“
Sure, Rhes.”

Rhes headed for the kitchen, Tori behind
him.

* * *

Breakfast brought light conversation,
catching up mostly. Rhes was still working for Sid, Sarah still
teaching at the school for the blind. Two avoided conversation
about herself. There was too much she could not bring herself to
tell about her time with Darren, and she wanted to bring no
reminder to Molly of those dark days. She talked mainly of her
apartment, of Tori’s efforts to learn to read, of days spent
preparing for the future.

Two offered money. Rhes and Sarah refused.
Two accepted this, expecting it, and said they knew where to come
if they were ever in need. They thanked her. Molly seemed awed at
Two’s newfound wealth. She asked for details, and Two declined,
saying only that she had found great fortune in the past few
months.

No one mentioned vampires,
prostitution, heroin. They did not skirt around the topics, much,
but they’d been talked about.
Talked
out
, Two thought. She wanted to move on.
Molly wanted to move on. Rhes and Sarah saw this, and so they left
it alone.

Breakfast over, they made plans to visit the
library. Two took Rhes aside and explained Tori’s revelation of her
mother’s name. Rhes was pleased; this would make searching for
records that much easier. They agreed to meet at the library in the
early afternoon. Two and Tori left to go home and change into clean
clothes.

A subway ride took them back into Manhattan.
Two gazed out at the lights whipping by, illuminating names tagged
at great risk on the tunnel walls. Some she recognized, some were
new. Vandals and artists, publicizing themselves via drawings both
crude and complex in the dark under New York. Tori asked questions
endlessly, in the manner of a child. How did the subways work? Who
drove them? How far did they go? Were they really traveling under
buildings? Two answered them absently, smiling. Life in the city
made one forget the simple wonder it could inspire.

Back at the apartment, showers, new clothes.
Two thought about living on her own, wondering if she could stand
it. She thought of what it would be like to lose Tori, and thought
again of the girl’s parents, and what they must have gone through;
must still be going through. This only strengthened her growing
resolve. Rhes was right. They had to find Tori’s parents and, if
possible, get her home.

They set off toward the library in the full
light of day, unseasonably warm and dry, and for the first time in
recent memory, standing in the sunlight did not remind her of her
time as a creature of the night. There was too much to do. Two felt
she had some purpose again, something to do as a human. She would
help this other woman who was, or was rapidly becoming, also human.
That she might, by completing this task, leave herself with nothing
more to strive for was not now a concern. Two crossed bridges when
she came to them, and had little interest in contemplating them
beforehand.

* * *

Tori and Molly were in the children’s
section, flipping through books. Sarah sat reading books in
braille. Rhes and Two worked the library computers, searching
microfilm reference for a missing girl named Tori, daughter of
Mona. Rhes reflected that, even five years ago, it would have been
an all-day project. It took Two less than thirty minutes, refining
her search several times, to produce a short list of possible
matches. One in particular caught her eye.

Perrault Girl Still Missing

New developments in the possible kidnapping
of Ms. Tori Perrault have police baffled. Daughter of Mona and
James, of Lima, Ohio, Tori was last seen …

The clip was followed be a series of codes
that indicated the exact microfilm on which the entire article
could be found. Two laughed, called out to Rhes, earned a
disapproving look from the librarian on duty. Properly chastised,
but still grinning, Two beckoned for him to join her. He left his
own terminal and leaned over her shoulder.

“
Whatcha got?”

“
Sounds like maybe our
Tori. Almost definitely. Look at the date; twelve years ago. Gotta
be her.”

Rhes agreed. “Let’s get that microfilm.”

The reader was a bulky
piece of equipment, and skimming through pages of the
New York Times
took
longer than Two would have liked. Still, it was not long before
they came upon the article. Rhes scrolled the film so that the
entirety of the text was in view.

Perrault Girl Still Missing

New developments in the possible kidnapping
of Ms. Tori Perrault have police baffled. Daughter of Mona and
James, of Lima, Ohio, Tori was last seen in her dormitory at
Syracuse University on March twenty-fourth. Three days after this
last sighting, friends reported her apparent disappearance to
college authorities. After cursory investigation, university
security turned the disappearance over to the Syracuse Police
Department. To date, the young woman’s whereabouts are still
unknown.

“
There are few clues,” says
Officer Andrea Leigh, “For all intents and purposes, it appears
that the girl simply ran off. The only indication of foul play is
that she seems to have taken nothing with her. No clothes, or cash,
or anything else of value.”

“
There’s no apparent
motive, no ransom demands, no sign of any sort of struggle. We have
no indication whether the young lady is alive or not,” Leigh
adds.

The search continues for information on the
whereabouts of Tori Perrault. Parties with any such knowledge are
strongly encouraged to contact the Syracuse Police Department.

Rhes let out a long breath. “That’s
her.”

“
Oh yeah. No question.
Abraham or Theroen or Melissa showed up, snagged her, and brought
her back. Why the hell Abraham chose her, I have no
idea.”

“
Strange though. What were
they doing in Syracuse?”

“
Who knows? Abraham
traveled, not frequently, but he wasn’t stuck in the mansion. Maybe
he caught sight of her on a trip. Maybe he was bored. It’s beyond
me to guess what his intentions were.”

Rhes considered this. “I guess it doesn’t
matter, at this point. He’s dead, and she’s slowly returning to the
point she was at when all of this started. The most important thing
now is to find out more about Mona and Jim Perrault, of Ohio, I
think.”

Two agreed. That part was comparably easy.
The same computers that had led them to the newspaper article could
very quickly find addresses, phone listings, anything else they
might need. She and Rhes sat down at a terminal, filling in as many
blanks as they could. As expected, there were only a few Perraults
in Ohio to begin with, and only one couple in Lima.

They met with Sarah first. Jake was sitting
at her feet. He and Sarah looked up at the same time, before either
Two or Rhes had spoken, and she asked if they had found anything.
Two laughed. It took some time to get used to the fact that Sarah’s
other senses had heightened significantly to make up for her lack
of vision. She had heard their feet, even on the library
carpet.

“
A James and Mona Perrault,
of Lima, Ohio. It’s them, trust me.”

“
Great!”

“
Yes. Now we need to make a
phone call, I guess. But first I need to talk to Tori.”

They found her where they had left her.
Molly was engrossed in a book. Tori, still unable to read very
well, was beginning to get bored. When Two walked up to her, she
asked if it was time to go.

“
Almost. Tori, do you
remember your dad?”

“
I think so.”

“
Was his name
James?”

Tori stared blankly. “Dunno.”

“
Jim?”

Her eyes lit up. “Yes! Jim! Jim and Mona.
Mom and Dad. They live in Lima.”

Two rolled her eyes. “Could’a told me that
before, Tori, and saved us some time.”

“
Sorry, Two.”

“
S’okay. You ready to
leave?”

“
Sure. Where are we
going?”

“
First, a bank.”

“
What’s a bank?”

“
It’s a place where I can
exchange ten bucks for a bunch of quarters, so I can make a phone
call,” Two replied. Behind her, Rhes laughed.

* * *

The phone was picked up on the third ring,
and a man’s voice answered. “Hello?”

“
Mr. Jim Perrault?” Two was
nervous, playing with the phone cord and tapping her feet. She
really had no plan for how to proceed.

“
Yes?” Caution in the
voice. He probably thought she was going to try to sell him
something.

“
Hi. My name is Ashley
Majors.” Ashley felt no more right for her now than it had as a
child, nor during her time working for Darren, but it allowed her
to get on with the call without having to explain her real
name.

“
What can I do for you,
young lady?”

“
This is going to seem
strange, I think, but do you mind my asking you a
question?”

“
Go ahead …” Curiosity in
his voice, mingled with trepidation. Two felt nervous, afraid to
lose Tori, but determined to follow through.

“
Are you the father of Tori
Perrault?” she asked.

There was a lengthy pause. “Yes, I am.”

Mr. Perrault did not sound at all pleased to
hear his daughter’s name. “If this is ‘Unsolved Mysteries,’ then
no, we don’t want another list of phone numbers. There are a lot of
girls who fit Tori’s description …”

“
No, I’m not from a
television show. I’ve never even seen it. But I have seen your
daughter.”

“
Where?” Perrault sounded
exasperated, as if he’d long since given up any hope of seeing his
daughter again. Two didn’t blame him. Twelve years was a long
time.

“
She’s standing right next
to me.”

There was another, longer pause. When
Perrault spoke again, he was obviously angry. “Do you think this is
funny?”

Two was taken aback. “No. No, sir, I …”

“
Why is that, after twelve
years, there are still sick people out there who won’t have the
common decency to let a man get on with his life?” Perrault was
shouting by the end of the question.

“
Mr. Perrault, I
…”

“
I don’t want to hear it,”
he snarled. “Goodbye.”

Two listened to the dial-tone for a moment,
then slammed the handset down into the receiver. “Well … fuck.”