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  Two took in a deep, shuddering breath and looked up at them with eyes that were hard and glassy, filled with anger and sadness and hate.

  “It was like that,” she said. “I loved him, and Abraham took him from me. Now he’s gone, and you’re my only hope.”

  “Never been someone’s only hope before,” Stephen muttered. Naomi glared at him.

  “This isn’t funny, Stephen. I’ll not tolerate your attitude, even if Two is willing to put up with it.”

  Two shrugged. “I don’t really give a shit. As long as one of you can fix me, you can say whatever you want.”

  “Fix you?” Naomi looked perplexed.

  “Bite me. Drain me. Give me blood. Make me what I was. Can either of you do that?”

  Naomi and Stephen looked at each other, considering this request. When Stephen spoke, his voice was slow and cautious.

  “We are … both at an age where we can produce fledglings, yes. We are neither of us Eresh, so we could not make you what you were, even if we could do what you ask, which we can’t.”

  Two looked up at him, not understanding. “Why not?”

  Naomi spoke up. “It’s … I’m sorry, but it’s forbidden.”

  “What do you mean ‘forbidden?’ Vampires make fledglings all the time, don’t they?”

  “Yes. Well, not all the time, but they do make fledglings. You’re right. That’s not the issue, Two.”

  “Then tell me what the problem is so we can figure out a solution.”

  Naomi and Stephen exchanged another glance, and when Stephen smiled at Two, she could read the apology in his eyes.

  “You’ve been marked by a vampire. Any vampire would be problematic, but your original sire was the heir apparent to the Eresh dynasty. A lord among lords. Theroen may not have known what he was, but everyone else does. We are not permitted to touch you.”

  Two was too stunned to feel anger, or sorrow, or much of anything. She felt the empty, dead feeling creeping back over her. “But … why?”

  “It’s against our laws,” Naomi said. “The Code of Eresh-Kigal states it very clearly. A vampire’s claim to his or her fledgling is absolute, and no other vampire shall interfere.”

  “No other vampire …” Two murmured, considering this.

  Stephen frowned. “None who follow the laws of the council, anyway, which effectively rules out all but the Burilgi. Believe me, Two, what you know of vampire life holds little similarity to what the Burilgi are. You do not want that.”

  Two stared at the floor a moment. When she looked back up at them, her eyes were burning with rage.

  “He’s fucking dead!” she shouted. “He’s not coming back. He’s not going to come climbing up out of the fucking ashes to make me whole again. How can it matter?”

  Naomi sighed. “I know what it is like to lose a sire, and a lover, and a friend. You know who I am, so Theroen must have told you of his time with Lisette.”

  “Yes,” Two said. She was shaking again, this time from anger at these two vampires and their idiotic laws. “I know about Lisette. I know all about Lisette.”

  “Isaac stole her from us, from Theroen and me, when we were still young, because of the very same law that prevents us from touching you.”

  Two shook her head. “It was Abraham who burned her, and he didn’t do it because of some stupid law. He did it because she took something that belonged to him and it pissed him off. The law was just an excuse to get Isaac to do the dirty work for him so he could trick Theroen into coming back. He told us that, before the end. I heard it from his own mouth.”

  Naomi stiffened, her considerable pallor whitening even further. After a time she spoke, in a voice that was distant and strained.

  “It is … good that he is dead.”

  Two rested her palms against her forehead. “He was an evil, horrible monster. He took everything I had, and now you’re sitting here telling me I can’t get it back. What do I do?”

  “I’m sorry. We’re sorry. It’s … Two, if I could bring him back for you, I would.”

  Two looked down again, and to the two vampires it seemed then that a change came over her. Though she barely moved, it was as if all the life had fled from her body.

  “Sorry doesn’t help me,” she said. “Nothing can help me anymore. I can’t have Theroen back, and no one else can help me. So what’s left? Nothing.”

  “We will do what we can to help,” Naomi told her.

  Two looked back up at them, sighed, shrugged.

  “The only thing left you can do for me is kill me.”

  Chapter 6

  Tori’s Choice

  “You want me to kill vampires for you?”

  Tori stared at Charles, unable to believe what he had just said. He looked back, head still tilted, watching her with a slight smile on his face. When Tori realized no explanation was coming, she forced herself to speak again.

  “I can’t … I mean, why would I do that? They’re not all like Abraham. They’re not all like these things that murdered my parents. I’m here to take care of my personal business, not to become some sort of vampire assassin.”

  Charles looked her in the eye. “What if I told you that you’re wrong? That most of them are like Abraham? What if I told you, Tori Perrault, that there is a council of vampires – the Kharas Mach – that rules over nearly all of the vampires in this country? What if I told you that they ordered your parents’ murder to punish you for your crimes against Abraham?”

  Tori opened her mouth to respond to this but found herself at a loss for words. After a moment she closed it again, clenching her teeth. It couldn’t be … and yet, didn’t it make sense?

  “They are a blight,” Charles continued. “A plague. A threat against humanity. They will eventually destroy us, if we don’t destroy them first. You are a human again, Tori. Will you sit here and allow that? Will you tell me ‘no’ and go on your way and wake to find them there one night, ready to bind you with chains and drag you to your death?”

  “No, I—”

  “Will you do nothing as other young women are torn from their lives and their families, to be thrust into misery and despair? Or perhaps you would have them return, as you have, to a bleak world where there is nothing left for them but the pursuit of raw, empty pleasure?”

  Tori started at this, and Charles continued, “Yes, we know all about that. We know about the drinking, the smoking, the men. We thought at first that it would pass. We believed that you were merely readjusting to human life, but it’s only getting worse for you, isn’t it, Tori? You lust for the thrill you once had: the pleasure of the kill, the taste of blood.”

  “It’s … not like that,” Tori said. She closed her eyes and put a hand against her forehead, trying to get her bearings. Was what Charles had said true? Had some council of vampires ordered the murder of her parents? Her innocent, harmless parents?

  “It is like that, I think. You don’t want to admit to such bestial thoughts and desires, but they are within you. That was vampirism’s gift to you, the gift given by the creatures who made you, the same creatures who held your father down and tore his throat from his body!”

  “Stop it!” Tori shouted. “I’m not like that! Not anymore!”

  “You are repulsed by your own desires, I understand, but do not deny their existence. Do not lie to me. You will not escape this nightmare without our help.”

  “I don’t need any help,” Tori said, knowing it was a lie, her voice low and broken. What was there for her now? What was there but an unending procession of empty, hopeless days?

  As quickly as his mood had changed, Charles now snapped back into his calm, smooth, polite tone.

  “Of course you need help. Tori, it begins now, with this simple choice. You are beset upon by evil, and as strong as you may be, you are not strong enough to face it alone. Our enemies have, through their reprehensible actions, delivered you to us and given you this choice.

  “You can choose to send me away now, send me from your hom
e and wait huddled in the dark for the inevitable end. They will catch you. They will kill you, and before they do, they will hurt you. They will make you give up the names of those you care about. When death has come to look like bliss compared to the pain they will put you through, you’ll tell them anything they want to know, and they’ll use that knowledge to go and hurt others. This is what they do.”

  Tori stared at him. Charles contemplated his manicured fingernails for a moment, looked up, met her gaze.

  “You can make that choice, and I won’t stop you. Under ordinary circumstances, I might even admire your bravery, but these circumstances are nothing of the sort. These things are not a shadow in a child’s closet, or the imagined monster under the bed. They are very real, and they will come for you. Is this what you want, to stay here alone until they come for you?”

  Tori shook her head.

  “Then come with me. Let us together bring a scourge down upon these creatures, these terrible things so willing to destroy lives and shatter families. Come with me to meet the other Children – come and learn, if nothing else. You have been travelling this path alone. I cannot offer some other, easier journey, but I can promise that with the Children, there will always be a hand there when you need it.”

  Tori closed her eyes and thought of Two. What would Two choose, if given this chance? What would she do?

  A cold voice, this one belonging to no one but herself, spoke up in her mind. Two would leave you here. She would go back to New York and leave you here to go insane, leave you to watch your parents die and your life crumble. Isn’t that the choice she already made? Isn’t that what Two would do?

  “It is time, Tori,” Charles said. “I must depart, with you at my side or not. There will be no second offer. Will you come now, and meet with the Children, or will you stay here and meet your death?”

  Tori took a deep breath, wiped her arm across her eyes, opened them and looked at Charles.

  “I’ll go with you,” she said. “I’ll go and meet the Children.”

  Charles breathed in a deep breath, smiled, nodded as if the conclusion had been forgone. He set his cup of coffee down and stood. Tori stood with him. Together, they left her parents’ house behind.

  Part II

  Chapter 7

  Broken Door, Broken Window

  Rhes Thompson couldn’t feel his legs. It wasn’t that they weren’t there; he could see them, crossed beneath him on the plush carpet lining the hallway outside of Two’s apartment. Any feeling they’d once had was now long gone, and it was this sensation that had pulled him up out of sleep.

  “Sarah,” he said. “Baby, you gotta get up. I can’t feel my legs.”

  “Whuzzah?” Sarah mumbled, stirring. She took her head from his shoulder and yawned. “Where are we? Rhes, this isn’t our room …”

  “No. We’re in Two’s hall, remember? We’re waiting for her to come home.”

  It had been six hours since they had read the news report on Tori’s parents and five hours since they had reached Two’s condo in SoHo, followed another resident inside, and set up camp in the hallway. In that time, they’d seen no sign of their friend, and had eventually fallen asleep leaning against the wall.

  “Oh, yeah, that’s right. Sorry.”

  “S’OK. Do you think you could move for a sec? I fell asleep and lost all the feeling in my legs. I like them too much to let them get gangrene.”

  Sarah laughed and shifted, taking her weight off of Rhes. She drew her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. Rhes had to use his hands to uncross his legs.

  “Gonna suck when they wake up,” Sarah commented.

  “I’m trying not to think about it.”

  “Did Two ever come back?”

  “I don’t think so. At this point, I think we have to give up for the night. We called, we came over here, we sat in front of her front door … I don’t know what else to do. It’s almost three in the morning.”

  “It’s OK, Rhes. I’m sure she’s fine. We’ll get in touch with her eventually.”

  “How do we know she’s not lying in there right now, hurt or dead?”

  Sarah shrugged. “We don’t. But we just talked to her this afternoon … police won’t do anything about it yet. You going to break down the door?”

  Rhes considered the possibility for a moment before answering. “No, I guess not. If we don’t hear from her for another few days, though …”

  “If that’s the case, we’ll come back and try to get in. I’m with you. Can you walk yet?”

  “No way. They’re just waking up. You’ve got at least ten minutes of listening to me … agh … bitch and moan.”

  Sarah grinned, slid up next to him, and kissed him on the cheek. “Poor baby. You were the one who said he’d stay awake, though.”

  “Yeah, I know. Ow! Why does the human body … ow, ow, ow … do this?”

  “Think vampire legs fall asleep?”

  “I can’t even keep track of it all. Half the things Two told us about Theroen don’t jive with the Dracula creature-features I used to watch as a kid.”

  “More than half,” Sarah agreed. “But she did also say that there was more than one type of vampire, and that Theroen was unusual.”

  Rhes massaged his legs, biting his tongue and making faces. “Right, Theroen. It’s hard to think of him as a person and not some creepy monster, no matter what Two says about him, you know?”

  “I know. He seems to have been good, though. Better than good, really. I’m angry about what’s happening to Two now, but it’s not his fault. If he hadn’t saved her, she’d have probably OD’d by now or something.”

  “Probably true.”

  Rhes grimaced and pulled himself to his feet. The prickling feeling in his legs was finally beginning to recede.

  “You ready to go?” Sarah asked, standing as well.

  “Almost. I’ll call Two tomorrow before I go to work, I guess. Worst case, I just get the stupid voicemail again and leave another message.”

  Sarah nodded, then arched an eyebrow. “Can you walk yet? I need to work out some of this frustration, and Molly’s away for the night. Maybe we can … make some noise.”

  “Walk? Put it like that, and I think I can run.”

  Sarah grinned, turned, and started toward the elevator, tracing her fingers along the wall to keep her bearings. Rhes took a moment to admire the view and then, still wincing at the prickles in his legs, followed behind her.

  * * *

  Had Rhes and Sarah stayed for another forty minutes, they would have encountered their friend, still alive and healthy, excited for the first time in months after her first brief encounter with a vampire. They had no way of knowing this, of course, and so returned by cab to their home in Brooklyn. After the sex, which had been as loud as Sarah could make it and very good, Rhes lay awake, thinking about his life and his friend. Was she simply gone without a trace, like it had been when Theroen had first taken her? Even if they eventually found Two, was there really anything he could do for her?

  It didn’t matter. He had to try, if not for Two’s sake then for Tori’s. Somewhere, Tori was dealing with her own hardships, and Rhes knew that she had been through things that he simply couldn’t comprehend. He and Sarah wouldn’t be able to help her the way Two would.

  Now what? Rhes’s brain asked him, over and over again, as he lay in bed staring up at the ceiling. Now what?

  He didn’t know, and that was the primary source of his frustration. He could have handled an undesirable answer, if such an answer had been obvious. It wasn’t. Should he forget her? Some days he wanted to, thought it would be for the best. She would not have been the first friend to fade from his life. He didn’t want to forget her, however. He wanted to save her.

  Rhes loved Two – not in the way he loved Sarah, but in the fierce and protective way that he would have loved a younger sister. The idea that she was suffering some sort of hurt he couldn’t help her with bothered him a great deal. That she mig
ht be in danger, real physical danger, was ever on his mind. Sarah understood this and shared most of his concerns, and Rhes was thankful for that. It would have been easy for her to let Rhes’s relationship with Two drive a wedge between them.

  He glanced over at his sleeping girlfriend, tousled and sweaty and beautiful, her arms wrapped around one of his. She always fell asleep like that, gripping his arm, holding him to her. The feeling was so comfortable now that Rhes had difficulty sleeping without it.

  Two was not driving them apart as he had once feared she might. Rhes and Sarah had been together for three years, and he loved her more now than he ever had. He tried not to think about losing her because it made him feel confused and frightened, emotions with which he was not generally familiar. Sarah, for her part, found ways to make him understand that she felt the same. Sometimes it was words, but more often it was gestures, like wrapping his arm up in hers before falling asleep. You’re mine, this told him, and you’re not going anywhere.

  It was when he thought about losing these things that he believed he could understand some of what Two must be going through. Her relationship with Theroen had been short, but they had bonded at a mental level unavailable to normal human beings, and his death had clearly scarred her deeply. Rhes supposed a psychiatrist might be able to lend some insight into how she could heal, but he believed that dragging Two in that direction would make irrevocable cuts to the ties of their friendship. At the same time, she was shoving them away anyway, so maybe …

  Rhes sighed, stared, thought.

  “Gonna go nuts, if you don’t stop,” Sarah murmured, her voice fuzzy from sleep, hoarse from her earlier cries. There was concern there, and a kind of loving exasperation, but also understanding. She pressed up against him, still holding his arm, and kissed his neck.

  “I know,” he said. “You’re right.”

  “Love you, Rhes. Worried.” Sarah was still as much asleep as awake. She was mumbling into his neck, muffling her words.

  “I know. Don’t.”