Free The Blood That Bonds by Christopher Buecheler Page A

Unless you’ve got a fix in
that purse, I don’t know if there’s much you can do.”
    Melissa shook her head, her expression
almost sad, as if it was indeed a travesty that she was not
carrying the drug.
    “ No. Just some makeup and
Kleenex and,” she looked around as if confirming that no one was
listening, “maybe some weed.”
    Two laughed, wincing at the pain this
brought. A vampire carrying ganja. Wonders never ceased. Melissa
grinned as well, maybe seeing the humor, maybe just happy to see
Two smile.
    “ You can smoke that?” Two
asked.
    “ Sure.”
    “ And it’s, like, the same
as for a human?”
    “ Beats me. It does
something, though. Everything does. What we find palatable, though,
may differ a lot from humans. I think heroin would probably be too
much for me.”
    “ When Theroen, uh … started
me, he said that it made him really sick, just getting it from my
blood.”
    “ Theroen’s a wuss!” Melissa
laughed. “I mean, I’m sure it did … and if it was that bad for him
I’m sure it’d be awful for me, too. But he’s also pretty picky. He
doesn’t even like it when there’s a little alcohol in the mix. Just
all that serious ‘no, only blood, nothing else’ stuff.”
    “ Maybe that’s not such a
bad thing?”
    “ Maybe. I don’t know. Does
it matter?”
    “ How old are you, Melissa?
How old is Theroen?”
    “ Ooh, hmmm,” she mused, “I
don’t know. He might want to tell you that himself.”
    “ What about you,
then?”
    “ One hundred and forty
eight … and three days. Or twenty-two, depending on how you look at
it.”
    “ You don’t look a day over
one-twenty.”
    Melissa laughed, and then looked again in
concern as Two doubled over. Hot and cold flashes were running
through her, and she was bathed in a cold sweat.
    “ Oh, fuck. I think I’m
going to puke.”
    “ Are you sure there’s
nothing I can do?”
    “ Theroen’s blood stops it.
I don’t know. Would yours?” Two spoke slowly, through clenched
teeth, trying to fight against the sudden onset of
nausea.
    Melissa shrugged. “Beats me. Worth a shot. I
don’t mind. I probably shouldn’t let you just go at my neck or
whatever, though.”
    “ Theroen bit his
finger.”
    “ Sure.” Melissa’s teeth
made a tiny clicking sound, like the noise of a stapler, and she
held her finger out to Two, blood welling up from two tears in the
skin. “Hurry up, before it heals.”
    Two looked up at her. “Sorry. This is some
fucked up, bizarre shit.”
    “ Live a hundred and fifty
years, and you’ll see things that make this seem pretty tame. Do
it, if you think it’ll help you. I don’t mind.”
    Two put her lips on Melissa’s finger and let
the blood roll on to her tongue. The effect of the blood was
immediate, energizing her, and it was all she could do not to clamp
down with her teeth. Melissa seemed to sense this, and grinned.
“Yummy. Vampire blood is awesome. Hard to get, though.”
    Two swallowed twice, forced herself to pull
away. Her nausea disappeared, along with the cold sweat and the
chills. Some of the pain remained, still, but it was distant.
    “ Better?” Melissa asked,
and Two nodded.
    “ Yes. Not perfect, but much
better. Thank you.”
    Melissa licked the last few drops of her
blood off her fingers and smiled. “No problem. What’s your
name?”
    “ Two.”
    “ Like the
number?”
    “ Yes, like the
number.”
    Melissa laughed and clapped her hands.
“That’s so cool! That’s much better than Jennifer or Betty or
Melissa.”
    Two shrugged. “I guess?”
    “ People with cool names
never appreciate them. Now then. What you need is a bath. That’ll
take your mind off of this withdrawal stuff until Theroen gets
back, and then I’m sure he’ll know what to do.”
    Two crossed her arms, scratched her
shoulders. A bath sounded wonderful.
    “ You can use mine. The one
in here sucks. Theroen doesn’t know anything.” Melissa helped her
up. Two stood on shaky legs, looked around, took