The Blood That Bonds (35 page)

Two smiled, nodded, dragged at her
cigarette. “I know, sweetheart. You’re doing fine.”

“
Can I stop now?” Tori
closed the book. Forty minutes of reading seemed to have worn her
out.

New York. Two had been back in the city for
three or four days. The mansion had provided her with enough money
that she would never need to sell herself again. Jewelry, clothing,
cars … Two had sold them for prices so low they were obscene, and
still pocketed an unbelievable amount of money. The Ferrari alone
had brought her a quarter of a million dollars. Two wondered how
much the heavily modified car would have been worth if sold
legally.

She had spent the past few days opening
safety deposit boxes, speaking with lawyers and accountants,
looking for ones who could help her to deal with this sudden influx
of wealth. She was not concerned with legality or morals, and soon
found counsel that could help her retain the money without any
questions as to its origins.

Two and Tori had left the mansion in
January. Near the end of February, Two had returned for a final
salvage trip, and found only a pile of ashes where once it had
stood. Whether the fire had been caused by man or vampire or simply
a bolt of lightning, Two could not say. She had not been able to
bring herself to search the ruins and see if the sub-basement
remained intact. Seeing him again like that, lying there on the
stone bier, would have been more than she could bear. Her physical
wounds were gone, but those that scarred her soul felt fresh still.
She left, choosing to believe that somewhere below the ash, buried
in a chamber of stone, was the body of her lover. Would he ever be
found? Puzzled over? Dissected?

Two tried not to think about it.

She sighed. “Sure, Tori. You can stop.
That’s fine.”

Tori handed her the book. “Do you want to
read, Two? You read good, like my big sister.”

Two looked at her, puzzled. Tori had been
mentioning this mystery sister for a few weeks now. When asked if
she meant Melissa, Tori would shake her head. No. Someone else. A
human sister? A mother? Two wasn’t sure. She dragged on her
cigarette, exhaled, let the fingers on her idle hand flip through
the book.

Tori wrinkled her nose. “Why do you smoke,
Two?”

“
Because a girl can only
give up so many addictions, Tori. I gave up the heroin. I gave up
the blood.”

“
Is heroin the needle
stuff?”

“
Yes.”

“
That’s bad for
you!”

“
Yes. Very bad for me, and
even worse for Abraham.”

Tori growled at the mention of her vampire
father’s name.

“
Don’t growl, sweetheart.
Dogs do that, not people.”

“
Okay, Two.”

Two knew she should call Rhes and Sarah,
knew that she should let them know she was not dead. She
desperately wanted to know how Molly was doing. She was waiting
until she felt safe that she wouldn’t burst into tears at the sound
of Rhes’ voice. She thought maybe tonight she could handle it.

“
Do you want to go meet
some friends of mine, Tori?”

“
Sure! who?”

“
You remember Molly? The
girl we saw when I took you to Darren’s apartment?”

Tori pulled at her hair, miming pigtails,
her eyes questioning. Two nodded.

“
Yes. Her, and a man named
Rhes, and his girlfriend Sarah. You’ll like them, Tori. They’re
good people.”

“
Okay, Two.”

“
Today should be one of
Rhes’ days off. They’re probably at home. Should we call, or risk
it and try to surprise them?”

“
I like
surprises!”

Two grinned. “Okay, Tori. Let’s go meet some
friends.”

* * *

Rhes opened the door and stood there for a
moment peering out at Two. He was tall and muscular, with short
black hair and a trimmed mustache-goatee combination. The
expression on his face brought tears to Two’s eyes even as it
caused her to burst out laughing. Shock, wonder, joy. He stammered
for a moment, finally finding words. “Jesus. We thought you were
dead.”

Two opened her arms, hugging him tightly,
crying into his shoulder. Rhes lifted her up off the ground for a
moment, set her back down, still grinning and looking like he might
weep himself. He ran a shaky hand through his hair. Tori was
looking around, bewildered. There was a dog barking in the
background.

“
Wow. I mean … I just …
wow! Are you okay, Two?”

“
I’ll be better when you
invite me in off your freezing-ass doorstep, and let me see
Sarah.”

Rhes laughed, moved aside, beckoned with his
arm. Two walked into the house, a small but tidy Brooklyn
brownstone, and looked around. Tori followed.

“
Sarah’s upstairs checking
on the kid, but she’ll be down in a second. Molly’s fine, before
you ask, Two. Well … maybe not fine, but much better. It was a
rough couple of months. Killed us to put her through it, but I
think she’s crossed over to the easier side of it now.”

“
Good. Thank you
so much
, Rhes. I don’t
know how I’m ever going to repay you guys for this.”

“
Two, I … listen, don’t
worry about it. Trust me. We love her. She’s the sweetest kid I’ve
ever met. I hope you’re not planning on taking her
somewhere.”

“
Hadn’t thought that far
ahead, but assuming she’s happy, and you guys want her here, I
can’t think of anywhere else she’d be better off.”

Rhes nodded. “Good. Who’s your friend? She
okay with dogs?”

“
Her name’s Tori, and I
have no idea. Guess we’ll find out. Let him in before he pees on
the floor, Rhes.”

Rhes opened the door to the kitchen, and the
dog, Jake, came bounding out, barking and wagging his tail. Tori
took a nervous step backward, but Two knelt down and cried out the
dog’s name, throwing her arms wide. Soon, both girls were laughing
and petting Jake, who was enjoying the attention.

“
Do you like him,
Tori?”

“
He’s soft! And … eugh!”
Jake licked Tori’s face, and she pulled back, grinning and rubbing
her cheek on her sleeve. Two laughed.

“
And friendly. And smart,
although I guess that seeing-eye dogs sort of have to
be.”

“
Sure do,” Rhes said. “Hey,
Jake. Relax, big guy. They’re not going anywhere.”

He patted the dog, then pointed toward the
couch. Jake leapt onto it and lay with his head over the arm,
watching them with big, dark eyes.

There were footsteps on the stairs, and Two
looked up to see Sarah descending them carefully. She had cut her
straight, red hair since Two had last seen her, and it now hung
just below her ears. She was wearing a pair of dark sunglasses, as
always, and was holding the hand-rail as she descended. “There
better not be any boots at the bottom of these, Rhes. If the blind
lady trips and falls again, she’s going to break your arms.”

Rhes laughed, looking sheepish. “No, hon.
They’re in the closet.”

Sarah came to a stop in front of Two. “Damn
near killed me last week. Who says love isn’t work?”

Two laughed. “How are you, Sarah? I like
your hair!”

“
Better for hearing your
voice, Two, and thanks. Do I get a hug, or did Jake wear you
out?”

Two embraced Sarah, laughing. They broke
apart after a minute, and Two looked around smiling. Rhes spoke up.
“You look good, Two. I hope you don’t mind my asking but are you
still, uh … you know? Staying clean, and all that?”

“
Oh, yeah. That’s done.
Been done for a while now.”

“
Any cravings?” Sarah
asked.

Not for
that
, Two thought. Out loud she said
“Occasionally. Mostly no.”

“
Good.”

“
Yes.”

There was a pause. Two sat down on the
couch, and Tori followed her. Rhes took an armchair. Sarah pulled
up the piano bench.

Silence for a moment more, and then Rhes
tilted his head to one side, looked at her for a moment, asked “You
going to tell us where you’ve been, Two?”

Two sighed. “I don’t know if I can. It’s
crazy, Rhes. You’ll think I’m crazy.”

There was another silence, then Rhes
shrugged. “Okay. I won’t push. Too happy to see you, anyway. You
want anything to drink? Beer? Soda?”

“
Fuck, yes. Beer. Whatever
you’ve got will be great.”

Rhes stood, moving toward the kitchen. “What
about your friend? And Sarah, do you want anything?”

“
I’m good, hon,
thanks.”

Two turned to Tori. “Do you want something
to drink?”

“
What’s beer?”

“
You wouldn’t like it. It’s
a drink that sort of tastes like raw bread dough.”

Tori made a face. “Yuck. Can I have a
soda?”

Two laughed. “Sure. Whatever you have, Rhes,
long as it’s got sugar in it. She’s not picky.”

Rhes departed. Sarah got up, and stole Rhes’
seat with a sideways grin toward the kitchen. She bit her lower lip
for a moment, then spoke. “So, uh … Tori, I hope you don’t take
this the wrong way, but I can’t tell if you’re five or
twenty-five.”

“
I’m this many.” Tori held
up seven fingers with pride. Two rolled her eyes. Tori picked a
random number of fingers each time her age came up.

“
Tori, Sarah can’t see
that, and it doesn’t matter anyway since you’re making it up. It’s
hard to explain, Sarah. She’s sort of both, really.”

Sarah raised an eyebrow. “Don’t suppose
you’d care to explain that, either?”

“
No, but I figure you’re
probably going to make me eventually, so I guess I might as well.
Let’s wait for Rhes.”

“
I get the impression
there’s a
lot
you’re not telling us, Two.”

“
Centuries
worth.”

Sarah raised her eyebrows, but Two didn’t
elaborate. Rhes returned with the drinks, handed Two her beer, sat
down on the piano bench.

“
Way to steal my seat,
dear,”he said to Sarah.

“
Your fault for offering to
get the drinks, sweetie.” Sarah was grinning, the slightest hint of
sarcasm in her voice. She turned to Tori. “Where are you from,
Tori?”

“
I came from a big house.
It was full of stuff but mostly I lived outside.”

“
Outside?”

“
Yeah. In the
woods.”

“
Oh, jeez …” muttered Two.
“We don’t know where she’s from. She only remembers the last place
she lived, for now.”

“
Right. The last place she
lived. Out in the woods. What the hell, Two?”

Two rolled her eyes, drank
from her bottle of beer, looked around the room for a moment.
“You’re not going to let me
not
tell you this, are you?”

Sarah spread her
hands.
Waddaya want from me?
Rhes said nothing.

Two sighed. “Okay. I … fuck it. Here goes.
When it’s done, you can call the loony bin and have Tori and me
committed. I’ll start by saying that I can prove this, if I have
to. I can take you to where the mansion was. I can show you what I
took from there. I can dig down to … to Theroen, and show him to
you, if I have to.”

“
Theroen?”

“
Let me tell it. It’s going
to take a while.”

“
Okay, Two.”

Two took a breath, gathered her thoughts,
and began. “It started on a regular night, I guess. As regular as
it gets, anyway …”

* * *

The story took three and a half hours to
tell. By the time she finished, Tori had fallen asleep next to her
on the couch. Sarah looked pale and shaken. Rhes looked dazed, like
someone had hit him in the head with a sledgehammer. Two couldn’t
meet their eyes. She was shaking, needed a cigarette, and thought
she might very soon begin weeping.

“
Questions?” she asked,
trying for humor and finding little. Her throat hurt, that muscle
ache at the back that comes with holding back tears, or talking
through them.

Sarah ran a hand through her hair, exhaled
as if just remembering that she needed to breathe, flopped back
against the cushions of the couch. “I have approximately seven
hundred billion questions, Two.”

“
That’s about half as many
as I have. I can’t answer most of them, Sarah. I didn’t have very
long to learn.”

Rhes spoke up. “I have one. You really
believe this, Two?”

“
Yeah. Yes. I really do. I
suppose it’s possible that I’ve been lying somewhere hallucinating
for the past three months, but I doubt it. I don’t have any
pictures, but I have the gun, and the stuff from the mansion, and
Tori, who’ll back me up as best she can if you ask her.”

Rhes rested his head on one hand, staring at
the floor, looking confused. “This is crazy.”

“
Yes.”

“
It’s … it’s
fiction
, is what it is,”
Sarah said. She heard Two’s intake of breath, held up her hand, cut
Two off. “Not your story. I don’t mean you’re lying, or making this
up. I haven’t even come
close
to making a decision on that. I just mean the
whole concept. The whole vampire thing. I want to believe you, but
this isn’t the dark ages. No one buys into that stuff
anymore.”