The II AM Trilogy Collection Read online

  “Nothing you’d probably consider good.” At least he was honest. Two smiled at him, looked to the beer taps.

  “Just a Molson, then, please.”

  “Do I need to card you?”

  “Don’t know. Do you?”

  The bartender turned away, grinning. She watched the glass fill with the amber liquid. The idea of actually drinking it seemed a foreign concept to her now. After the blood, everything else had lost its appeal. Two doubted she would be able to stomach it, even if she were to try.

  But she wasn’t going to try.

  By the time the glass arrived in front of her, she’d found the one. Dark, quiet, withdrawn. His thoughts were black things, and she could feel them on the air like tendrils of wet mist. Theroen was right. The violence of which he had spoken seemed to exude from this man in waves, and with it something else – an undefined ease that told her the rest of what she needed to know. There was no guilt here. No remorse. This man had murdered his own wife and child in cold blood over the breaking of a glass, and sat here now feeling justified.

  He looked at her now, and Two could see the beginning of desire in his eyes. She stretched, her nipples outlined against the white cotton of her shirt, navel exposed, and glanced at him with smoky eyes. She could hear the blood pounding faster in his veins.

  The glance had been perfected during her time with Darren. She tossed it out, caught her prey, and began to reel him in. Phantom images seemed to dance across her mind: a woman’s horrified eyes, terror becoming distant and detached in death. A shovel. His breath in the cold moonlight. Two smiled at him as he moved toward her, hand on the bar, drunk and unsteady.

  “Hello.” Her voice was sweet sugar, long and slow and husky, full of promise. He nodded to her, sat down on the stool next to her, glanced at her untouched beer.

  “One for the road?” he asked. Two smiled.

  “Something like that. I didn’t come here for beer.”

  “Oh no?”

  “I’ve been on a trip, and now I’m headed back into the city. Back to my boyfriend. But I couldn’t go without one last stop. I couldn’t go without …” Two let her eyes flick down, just briefly, then return. She could see his eyes darken as his brain, or perhaps another organ, completed the thought.

  “Do you have a wife?” she asked him.

  “No. Not … no.”

  “A house?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’d like to see it.”

  She left a fifty on the bar.

  * * *

  Theroen and Melissa were not there, but Two knew that they had not gone far. She could not sense them, but she wasn’t trying too hard. They had no reason to leave, only to keep their presence unknown to this man. She was sure they wanted to watch. This was her first true moment as a vampire.

  They walked along the road that, only minutes ago, Two had traveled in the opposite direction. They didn’t talk. Two was nervous, shuddery, trying hard not to show it. The thirst was growing in her by the moment. She could smell the blood now, so close to his skin.

  “What was her name?” she asked.

  “Who?”

  “The wife that you told me you didn’t have. The one you lied about.”

  The man was momentarily taken aback. He paused in his step, looked at her, eyes wide. Two glanced back, the playfulness gone from her eyes.

  “What was her name?”

  “Look, I don’t know who you think I am. I’m Sean …”

  “I didn’t ask who you were. I asked what her name was.”

  Sean swallowed hard, shoved his tousled brown hair back from his forehead. Two stepped toward him, touched a stubbly cheek, smiled again.

  “It’s a simple question, Sean.” She moved her lips over his, barely touching, pressed the tip of her tongue to the center of his upper lip. He opened his mouth instinctively, and the touch became a kiss, long and damp. She touched below his waist, and what she found there was rock hard, despite his concerns.

  The nerves were gone. They’d slipped off as the moment approached, and Two was cold now. She played her lips about his neck, tasting his salty sweat, not yet bitter from fear. Sean’s hands were limp at his sides, his breath speeding. With one hand she touched his hair. The other unbuttoned his pants, navigated beyond his boxers, touched skin to skin. He shivered.

  “Were you hard like this when you did it, Sean? Tell me her name.”

  Sean moaned. Fear? Lust? Two’s hand quickened. She smiled, sharp teeth against his neck.

  “Tell me her name, you fucking murdering piece of shit.”

  “Th—Theresa. Her name was Theresa. Oh, God …”

  Two pressed her teeth against the flesh, pressed hard, waited for the pulse. She had been here before, on the receiving end, and found the wait now even more interminable than it had been then. That instant before release had seemed to her unbearable, but waiting for the moment when she could take the blood proved worse.

  Sean stiffened. His heart pulsed. Two bit down. What began as a cry of passion became a scream of pain, trailed into a moan somewhere between horror and ecstasy. Sean sagged. Two followed him to the ground, attached at the neck, lost in the blood.

  Ambrosia. Red and throbbing. Tears at her eyes, carving hot little tracks down her cheeks. The heart stopped, the flow of blood ceased, and Two pulled back, gasping. Crying. She looked at the body before her, limp organ hanging from open pants, the neck a still shot from a horror film. She stood, staggered backward, felt her heels bump the curb, felt her knees trying to buckle.

  Two sat down at the side of the road with his seed on her hands and his blood in her mouth, arms across her knees, head down, sobbing.

  * * *

  Chapter 4

  Life in Shadow

  Curbside. Sometime later.

  She felt Theroen’s hand on her shoulder, heard Melissa sigh beside her, felt a cloth cleaning her hands. Two made some sound, pressed herself against Theroen, couldn’t stop crying. He ran a hand through her hair, kissed the top of her head.

  “Was it what you thought it would be?” he asked at last.

  “No,” she said into his chest, miserable. Theroen waited. At last, Two was able to stop crying. She leaned against Theroen, sniffling, eyes closed. Melissa was still holding her hand.

  “What was it then?”

  “It was horrible. It was beautiful.”

  She didn’t see Melissa glance at Theroen, to exchange with him a tiny smile. Two loosened her grip around Theroen, sitting up and looking at him. “How can someone so awful contain all of that beauty?”

  “The blood doesn’t care about the vessel. Some vampires are like vigilantes. They take only from murderers, rapists and the like. Others take only from sixteen-year-old virgins. The truth? It doesn’t matter. The blood is the same regardless.”

  Melissa nodded. “It’s why we make our choices the way we do. It’s not worth worrying about. Someone catches my eye, and that’s that. I guess Theroen started you off with this guy because you were already looking for some kind of revenge?”

  “Yeah.” Two was trying not to look at Sean’s corpse. Revenge against anyone seemed to be the furthest thing from her mind.

  “It doesn’t matter though, Two. You need to learn that. It’s mortal sentiment.”

  “Sorry. Never done this before.” Two ran a hand across her eyes. The liquid was pink. She stared at it for a moment, laughed incredulously.

  “There is nothing to be sorry for. It is understandable. But as you can see, Two, you are not human anymore.” Theroen stood, glancing toward the body. He reached down and helped Two to her feet. She followed his glance and grimaced.

  “I don’t even know why I did … that.” She gestured toward the unbuttoned pants, the piece of meat hanging out of them.

  “Part and parcel of the thirst, Two. It’s a desire. A lust. They’re tied together, particularly for those of us lucky enough to retain our sexual capabilities.”

  “You’re a natural, to be honest. Not many
new vampires could have pulled off simultaneously grilling the guy about his wife and keeping him mesmerized at the same time. Theroen and I were impressed.” Melissa leaned down and, with an air of complete indifference, put the offending item back where it belonged. She hefted the body up on one shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

  “What do we do with that? With him?” The expression on Sean’s face, a mixture of horror and pleasure, made Two queasy. She looked away.

  “Good question. After a while, maybe ten, fifteen years, there’s not a ‘that’ to deal with. Eventually you won’t need that much blood,” Melissa said.

  “For the Ay’Araf and Burilgi vampire strains, that’s almost immediate. Their fledglings stop needing to kill within a week or two. Ashayt vampires … within a few months. Eresh vampires go into a deeper trance and take much longer to learn how to break it. Years. Melissa still kills sometimes.”

  “No. I don’t. She does.” Melissa’s voice was quiet.

  “My apologies, Melissa.”

  “S’okay. It’s weird, Two, but the stronger we get, the less we need. You’ll learn how to control that mesmerism stuff. Then you can keep them from remembering. They wake up feeling kind of crappy, figure it’s the flu … end of story.”

  “You can purposely do that?”

  “Oh, sure. One time I was with these two guys and this other girl, and we were all getting pretty into it, you know? And I was all hot and I started biting without even really thinking about it, and then the girl started freaking out, because this guy was, like, dripping blood on her, but he had his eyes closed and thought she was, you know … just getting off. So he keeps right on banging away at her, and I—”

  Theroen cleared his throat. “Melissa, do you have any stories that might illustrate your point without requiring a detailed description of your various acts of debauchery?”

  Melissa tilted her head, thinking. “No.”

  Two laughed. “It’s okay. Sounds sort of fun, before the screaming anyway. But that only tells me what to do with something alive. Sean has, uh … moved on.”

  Two tried to feel bad about this, but found herself unable to manufacture any guilt. The truth was simple: this man was as much a killer as she was, and it was difficult to be remorseful about what she had done.

  “Well, we could just leave him. The bite marks fade. Abraham says it’s something in our saliva.” Melissa shrugged, an odd gesture with a body slung over her shoulder. “Don’t know. I’m no biologist.”

  “There were others in the bar,” Theroen said. “No investigation will find us, but it’s best to take reasonable precautions. We can take him into the woods and bury him.”

  “With what?” Two asked.

  Theroen and Melissa exchanged another glance.

  “You’ll see,” Melissa said, and began moving up the road toward the edge of town.

  * * *

  The lack of shovels proved to be of little concern. Digging by hand is not, for a vampire, the difficult task that it is for a human being. Fingernails do not break, flesh does not cut or wear, strength does not flag.

  Work proceeded rapidly. Melissa chattered away at them. Two and Theroen were mostly silent, half-listening, absorbed in the work.

  “This is good for you to learn, anyway, Two. If you ever get caught away from someplace safe, and the sun’s coming up, you can actually dig down and go into the earth if you have to. It’s not the most pleasant way to spend the day, but it works. I had to do it once when I pissed off Theroen and he left me in the city. I was halfway through walking back when I realized that I wasn’t going to make it in time.”

  At this, Theroen glanced up. “I have never left you anywhere you did not wish to be left, Melissa.”

  A moment’s pause, and she shrugged. “Must be remembering it wrong. Anyway, it’s sort of funny. It’s not really the bugs or worms that bothered me, or even the difficulty breathing. It was the scent. I could smell everything rotting. It was pretty disgusting.”

  Melissa stopped working for a minute, a far-off, quizzical expression on her face. “What the hell was I doing out there anyway? I could have sworn we had a fight, Theroen. You don’t remember anything like that?”

  Theroen shook his head.

  “Guess I’ll have to trust you. You remember everything.”

  “Largely, yes. It’s of no real concern, Melissa.”

  “I suppose.”

  Theroen stood, brushed off the knees of his pants. The hole was done.

  Melissa dumped Sean in with no more reverence than if she were a farmer dropping a sack of grain. Two felt as if she should say something, shook it off. Human sentiment. She was no longer human. It was a waste of time, and Theroen and Melissa were no doubt hungry. She joined them, tossing the dirt back over the body with her hands.

  Finished. Less than an hour, and they’d managed to camouflage the hole quite well. Two’s watch said it was nearly two in the morning.

  “Do you guys need to, uh … eat?”

  Theroen grinned. Melissa laughed, brushing her hands together, trying to rid them of dirt.

  “Yes,” Theroen said, turning and walking away from the grave. “But that doesn’t have to take long.”

  “Ooh, are we going to get to watch the master at work?” Melissa’s voice was merry as they tramped through the woods.

  “If you’d like, though I’ve never claimed to have mastered this particular aspect of our lives. We can return to the town.”

  “We’re pretty deep into the woods. Should we get the cars?” Two asked. She didn’t really mind one way or the other, but it seemed impractical.

  “None of this is, or particularly needs to be, practical, Two,” Theroen said. “It’s for your edification mainly, and now is an opportunity for another lesson. Keep up!”

  Theroen turned, grinning, and took off like a shot through the woods, moving faster than seemed possible. Two felt her jaw hanging open, and closed it with a snap. Melissa laughed and ran after Theroen, crying out for Two to follow her. Two took a deep breath, and started to run.

  * * *

  The sensation was like nothing Two had ever before experienced. She had no idea how fast she was moving, but it seemed faster than even a trained sprinter could accomplish. And such agility! It was as if she ran not through moonlit forest, but on solid pavement. Her feet seemed to cope with the imperfections of the ground by themselves, no longer requiring any conscious effort. Theroen was far ahead, Melissa roughly halfway between him and Two. Both of the older vampires occasionally turned their head back, making sure they hadn’t outdistanced Two.

  They reached the outskirts of the town in less than ten minutes, slowing as they approached, and Two found that she wasn’t even winded. Melissa was laughing, the noise pretty and bright in the quiet streets, and Two joined her.

  “That was amazing!”

  “Only the tip of the iceberg, Two. I’ll take you through a vampire obstacle course sometime. You can’t imagine what it feels like to take a five-story jump.” Melissa sat down on the curb and looked at Theroen. “You find one yet?”

  “Yes, that one.” Theroen pointed to a small white ranch home to their left.

  “What’s special about that one?” Two was confused.

  “When I don’t have the time or inclination to be choosy about my food, I go with something easy to attract. Young women, usually. Normally I would spend some … how should I put it? Quality time with her, and then feed.”

  “I’m not sure if that should offend me.” Two was smiling when she said it. Theroen returned the grin.

  “Another thing I’ve learned from other vampires: Sex is sex. Love is love. The first is a raw biological process, the latter is something more.”

  Two considered this. “But love makes sex something more.”

  “Certainly. Which is why the sex without love is merely gratification. Insignificant in its implications. That much more pleasure, in addition to the blood. Sex is sex. Love is love. I love you, Two.”

 
; “Oh, and how many guys would like to be able to say that to their girlfriends, I wonder?” Melissa had taken out a compact and was checking her eye shadow.

  Two sat down next to Melissa. “A lot, I think. How many girlfriends would be okay with it? I don’t know. Probably not many.”

  “So are you okay with it?”

  Two looked at Theroen, who returned her glance with the same cool grin that had so intrigued her on the night she had first met him. She felt herself warming. The memory of Sean was fading, and thoughts of how she might spend the rest of the night were cropping up in her mind. Theroen, sensing this, laughed slightly.

  “Yes,” Two said. “I’m okay with it. He just watched me give the world’s deadliest hand-job, after all …”

  Melissa burst into surprised laughter before pressing her mouth into one arm to muffle the noise. Theroen shook his head, grinning. Two smiled, stood up, reached out on tiptoe to give Theroen a brief kiss.

  “Let’s do this and go,” she said.

  Theroen nodded, closed his eyes, breathed deeply. In a moment, the front door of the house opened, and a young woman in her early twenties stepped out onto the porch. She looked around, caught sight of the trio, and made her way toward them. Dark hair, dark eyes, she was generously proportioned under her nightgown. Two felt a momentary twinge of jealousy as the moonlight caught the swell of the girl’s ample breasts, but fought it down.

  She stopped in front of them, seeing and not seeing, swaying slightly. Theroen was standing in front of her but off to the left. When he touched her cheek, tilted her head, moved the hair from her neck, she sighed. Her nipples grew hard under the cotton of the nightgown.

  Two watched, fascinated. Theroen could kill this woman, if he wanted to, and she would go to her death happily; might even go in the throes of ecstasy, under the right conditions. It was amazing.

  It happened so quickly that Two almost missed it. One moment, Theroen was lightly caressing her cheek. The next, he had latched on to her neck. The woman gave a slight cry, her hips bucked once, and then she slumped. Theroen held her, drained her, and was done. He took a deep breath.