Lily’s blood tasted rich and dark, like a cup of coffee that was so strong it almost tasted like wine. I gulped down mouthful after mouthful, and her pulse just continued to send one wave of blood after another. After I had drunk from her for a few seconds, the curly-haired girl started to moan, but the sound stopped just as suddenly as it had started.
I glanced up at her, but she had her eyes clenched shut. I knew the sound of that moan meant she had started to enjoy herself, and based on the slight flush of pink under her olive skin, I guessed that she must have felt embarrassed at the sound she had made.
I just smiled against her wrist and then continued to drink. When I finally felt like all of the muscles in my body had been restored, I had just a second where I thought about not stopping.
I knew that was the monster in me-- the same monster who could rip out a man’s throat and drain him dry without even blinking, but I also knew that I was better than that. I might be a vampire now, but I was still the same man who loved his girlfriend and wanted to do everything I could to protect her and her friends.
Even as I felt Lily’s pulse start to quicken, I pulled my lips away from her wrist, licked the last of the blood from her skin, and then slowly released my grip on her arm. As soon as I licked the puncture marks that I’d left on her wrist, the wounds healed over and left behind only two tiny white scars.
“Not bad, right?” Catherine called from the back of the truck.
“No, that wasn’t…” Lily bit her lip. “Yeah, that wasn’t bad at all.”
“It’s okay if you enjoyed it,” Natalie said. “That’s totally normal.”
“Well, I mean, I did kinda-- it did kinda feel good, you know?” Lily finally opened her dark brown eyes to look at me.
“Oh, trust us, we know,” Catherine laughed.
“Holy shit,” I said as I looked at Lily’s eyes.
“What is it?” Erika asked. “Sam?”
But at first, I couldn’t even think of how to answer. I was too busy trying to figure out why all of a sudden, I could see what felt like hundreds of different colors in Lily’s eyes. Before I drank from her, I had just noticed that they were brown, but now I saw all the different shades of gold and orange and brown that all came together to form the color of her irises, and I had never seen anything so beautiful.
“Uh, wait right here,” I told the girls. “I’ll be right back.”
I didn’t wait around to explain. Instead, I hopped out of the armored truck, sprinted over to the window of the parking garage, and looked out to see just how good my vision really was.
I could see all the way to the Brooklyn Bridge, and I could damn near see all the details of the buildings on the other side of the river. I’d always had decent eyesight, but I had never been able to see anything like this, and honestly, I doubted that even people with the best vision could.
I would have bet anything that I could easily see a mile away, and I could see every detail of all the objects, trees, buildings, and streets between here and there. Whenever I turned my gaze toward something more close up, I saw all the colors and shadows that I’d never noticed before, like I had with Lily’s eyes. And whenever I looked at something further away, I could see each shape as clearly as if it had been right in front of me.
It was fucking weird, but I liked it.
I hurried back to the armored truck before the girls though I had lost my mind, and I helped Lily into the back of the truck so she could rest after she had given me so much blood. Then as soon as I shut the door, I turned toward the rest of the girls with a grin.
“Uh, Sam?” Catherine raised one of her perfectly arched eyebrows. “You wanna explain what’s going on?”
“Yeah, sorry,” I said. “It’s just that as soon as I drank from Lily, my vision-- it was all of a sudden like, crazy good.”
“How crazy good?” Erika asked.
“I’m pretty sure I can read street signs from a mile away now,” I said. “And all the colors and shadows and everything up close are just… I don’t know how to describe it. It’s like I can actually see for the first time or something.”
“What’s drinking from me got to do with anything?” Lily asked. “Maybe you were just feeling better with some blood in your system, you know?”
“Yeah, but I haven’t felt like that when I’ve drunk from the other girls,” I told her. “I’ve felt a lot of things, like focused and powerful and calm, but I haven’t ever been able to see a mile away in the distance in New York.”
“So what’s that mean?” Lily demanded.
“Maybe you just eat a lot of Vitamin A,” Natalie said with a shrug. “Isn’t that the thing that helps your vision?”
“Yeah, but that’s in like berries and carrots and stuff,” the olive-skinned girl replied. “And I don’t really eat that kinda shit if I don’t have to.”
“I might have a theory,” Erika announced.
“Of course you do,” I said with a grin. “Alright, let’s hear it. Why does Lily’s blood make me feel like I’ve got superhuman sight?”
“Okay, so we already know that the amount of blood that you drink as a vamp is what makes you strong, right?” the shy girl asked.
“Right,” Catherine said. “So the more blood Sam drinks, the stronger and faster and more powerful he is.”
“Exactly,” Erika said. “But ever since Sam told us how our blood makes him feel differently, I’ve been thinking-- what if the important thing isn’t just the amount of blood that he consumes?”
“What do you mean?” Catherine asked.
“What if the variety of blood is as important as the amount?” Erika pushed her glasses up on the bridge of her nose. “Like, what if the different kinds of blood he drinks are just as important as how much of it he drinks?”
“You mean different kinds of blood like A positive, O negative, that kind of thing?” Lily asked. “I’m A positive, if that matters.”
“Me too,” Catherine said.
“I’m A negative,” Natalie said.
“I’m not sure what I am,” Erika said with a shrug. “But I don’t mean blood type. I just mean literally blood from different people, regardless of what their medical blood type is.”
“If that’s true, then…” I hesitated. “Shit.”
“What is it?” my girlfriend asked.
“It just makes sense,” I said. “Erika’s completely right. Your blood all affects me differently, so I think this super good vision must just be the way that Lily’s blood affects me. And that means-- shit, it means who the fuck knows what other people’s blood would do to me?”
“Do you think you might get other abilities from other people?” Erika asked. “Like super-vision from Lily, and maybe like super-strength from somebody else? That kind of thing?”
“Sam’s a vamp, remember?” Catherine laughed. “I’m pretty sure he’s already got super-strength.”
“Yeah, but what if somebody’s blood could give him super-strength even compared to the rest of the vampires?” Erika twisted her black hair up into a bun.
I wanted to tell her that it made her look like a sexy librarian, but I figured now might not be the best time.
“I guess it’s possible,” Natalie said. “That’s just crazy! Especially because-- well, I guess the only way to test out this theory is for you to find a lot of other humans that you can drink from.”
“Then it’s a good thing you’re not the jealous type,” I teased.
“Uh, yeah!” Catherine said. “Because if it’s true, then there’s also no way to tell how one person’s blood is gonna affect you versus another. You had no idea how all our blood was gonna make you feel, and nobody knew that Lily’s blood would give you, like, hawk-vision.”
“Yeah, I think the only way for you to know how someone’s blood will affect you is for you to actually drink from them,” Erika said.
“Well, shit,” Lily sighed. “The possibilities of that are fuckin’ endless. I guess, like-- well, I guess I’m rea
lly glad I let you drink from me!”
“Otherwise we wouldn’t have really been able to figure this out,” Natalie said.
“I sure as shit appreciate it,” I said. “I guess that really just leaves me with one question-- do you think the other vamps have figured any of this out yet?”
“You mean the fact that it’s the variety and the amount of blood that makes a difference?” Erika asked. “That’s a good question. I haven’t seen anything on the message boards, but I doubt the vamps would go online to write shit about how their powers work.”
“No, no, I can see it,” Catherine said with a grand gesture. “A Day in the Life of a Vamp Woman: Blogging My Journey of Discovery into Blood.”
“Well, if anyone’s started a blog about blood variety, I haven’t seen it,” Erika laughed.
“I doubt most other vampires know anything about it,” I said. “At least, not yet. I’ve fought a lot of them already, and yeah, they’re really strong and fast, but none of them seemed like they had superhuman abilities like crazy vision or anything.”
“I hope they haven’t figured it out,” Lily said with a shudder. “If they do, then they’ll want to feed from us even more than they already do.”
“Most of the fuckers probably aren’t really thinking about it all that much,” Catherine said. “The vamps who are out there just draining people dry without even thinking about it can’t really be great critical thinkers.”
“They probably just feed and move on,” Natalie said.
“Exactly,” Erika said. “So if they drain an entire human to feed and then go another few days without any blood, and then they just do the same thing again, I doubt they’re able to notice any subtle changes that the blood does to them. They probably just think they feel really good because they just fed, but they don’t think about it any more than that.”
“That’s true,” I said. “And I hate to bring this up, but even the vamps who have captured humans--”
“It’s okay, Sam,” Natalie said. “It just makes us really glad that we’re with you.”
“Right, so even the vamps who have captured humans that they drink from over and over again--”
“Like fucking cattle,” Catherine growled.
“They’re probably just drinking a small amount from the same person whenever they need something,” I said, “instead of trying blood from a lot of different people.”
“Damn, that’s really fuckin’ crazy, you know?” Lily sighed. “At least we know now, right? And hopefully nobody else fuckin’ does.”
“Actually,” I said as I ran my fingers through my hair, “there might be some vamps who have figured this out.”
“You really think so?” Erika asked.
“I’m just thinking about the big bosses like Kowalsky,” I said. “They’ve gotta have something that sets them apart from all the others, right?”
“You mean other than just being smarter and scarier than the rest of the fanged assholes?” Catherine played with a loose strand of her dark red hair.
“Yeah, because what if they’ve figured out that blood variety, not just amount, is what makes them scarier?” I asked. “What if they know that variety is the key to giving them superhuman abilities that the rest of the vamps don’t have?”
“That would definitely give them a leg up over all the others,” Erika said.
“Especially if they kept that information to themselves,” Natalie added, “so only the bosses like Kowalsky know about it, and that keeps him as the most badass fucker around.”
“Otherwise, he’d never be able to keep all his goons in line,” I said. “It’d be a smart move to keep that information all to himself. He’ll just give his goons one or two people to drink from while he takes a little bit from each of his cattle so he’s Superman.”
“Then I guess it really is a good thing that we figured it out,” Lily said. “Now, just in case you gotta go up against one of them big bosses, you can, like-- I don’t know, be prepared and shit.”
“That’s true,” I laughed, “but I still hope I don’t go up against one of them any time soon. We’ve got enough other shit to worry about first.”
“Speaking of other shit,” Catherine said as she drew her long legs up toward her chest. “I’ve been thinking about Isaac, and I’ve decided that-- well, I’ve decided that I changed my mind.”
“Changed your mind how?” Erika asked.
“I think Sam should definitely go try to save Isaac and the two girls,” Catherine announced.
Chapter 4
I was surprised at how quickly Catherine had reversed her position, and from the expression on my girlfriend’s face, I guessed that she was pretty surprised, too.
“Do you really mean it?” Natalie asked.
“Ugh, well, yeah,” Catherine said. “I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t mean it.”
“What changed your mind?” I asked.
“Well, look,” the long-legged girl sighed. “If we’re gonna make it all the way out of the city at some point, Sam is gonna need as much blood and as much variety as possible.”
“Yeah, especially if he ends up having to fight these, uh, big boss types, right?” Lily added.
“Yeah, absolutely,” Catherine said. “So if Sam rescues Isaac and his girlfriend and also her friend, that’s three more people that he can feed from to help get us the fuck out of here.”
“It would be a good way to increase Sam’s blood pool,” Erika agreed. “Plus, you know, it would also mean that Nat’s brother was safe.”
“Hey, I’ll take any reason that you can come up with,” Natalie said, “just so long as it means that Isaac will be safe.”
I liked Catherine’s logic, but I still wasn’t convinced that I would add three more people to my blood pool at the end of all this. At the most, I guessed it would just be two people, since I guessed that Isaac was probably a vamp.
Of course, it was possible that Nat’s brother only sounded strange on the phone because he was just so traumatized by everything that had happened, and if he was still a human, I sure as shit didn’t want to leave my girlfriend’s brother behind. And the only way to really find out if he was a vamp or a human was to go find him in person.
But even if he did turn out to be a vampire, it would still be really helpful to have two more girls join us, and Catherine was right-- if we ever wanted to get out of the city, I would need all the power and blood that I could get in order to fight our way out.
“So what do you think, Sam?” Catherine kicked her long legs up to rest on a duffel bag on the opposite side of the truck. “You feel like staging a rescue mission today?”
“Do you all agree that I should try to get Isaac?” I asked. “Even with all the risks we talked about?”
“Definitely,” Natalie said and then looked at the other girls with her big blue eyes.
I didn’t know how anyone could resist them.
“Yep,” Erika and Catherine said at the same time.
“How about you, Lily?” I turned toward the olive-skinned girl.
“Well, I’m totally on board with the whole rescue mission, but…” Lily began. “But like-- what if we all just went up to Columbia together?”
“I already said it’s too dangerous to leave you four on a boat,” I said.
“Oh, yeah, I know,” Lily replied. “I just meant that maybe we could all just stay in the truck together.”
“And then what?” Catherine demanded. “How are we gonna get the fuck across the river?”
“It’s an armored truck, right?” Lily asked. “So couldn’t we just, uh, drive it across one of the bridges? Or through one of the tunnels? And just plow through any cops who try to get in our way?”
“Just because it’s armored doesn’t mean it’s an actual tank,” I snickered. “Eventually, even our badass Rhino would give out if I tried to use her to mow down too many vamps.”
“Yeah, and she’s all we’ve got,” Erika said. “So if we can possibly avoid takin
g her into combat, we should for as long as possible. Otherwise, how are we gonna take it all the way out west?”
“It would be pretty shitty if we fucked poor Rhino up so much that we couldn’t even drive her out of New York,” Catherine said and then petted the sides of the armored truck. “She’s way too special for that.”
“Well, maybe the bridges aren’t that bad,” Lily said and then bit her lip. “I was just thinking that, like, we could drive across, get through Manhattan, grab Isaac, and then just keep going north while we got some momentum, you know?”
“You mean go up through Yonkers and everything?” Natalie asked.
“Yeah, see?” Lily pushed the dark curls out of her face again. “If we go up that way together, then we could go all the way up to Tarrytown and then go west into New Jersey from there. And then we could just keep goin’ fuckin’ west, right?”
“Don’t get me wrong,” I sighed, “I like the idea of not having to come all the way back here after I take a boat up to Columbia, but it’s not worth the risk.”
“Also, it sounded like all the bridges and tunnels were pretty bad,” Erika said. “Sorry, Lily.”
“I don’t want to have to face off against a whole bridge full of cops with pointed canines, guns, and riot gear,” I said. “At least not if we can help it.”
“Plus, then we’d have to drive through all of Manhattan, and who the fuck knows how bad it is up there?” Catherine added.
“Maybe it would be more dangerous than if we just wait here,” Lily said. “I just wanted to save us some time, you know? And I really hate the thought of gettin’ left the fuck behind when Sam takes off in a boat.”
“I promise I won’t leave until I’m sure that you’re all really nicely barricaded and as secure as possible, okay?” I told Lily.
“Yeah, I think as dangerous as our plan with the boat might be, it would be more dangerous for us to try to come with Sam all the way up through Manhattan on the roads,” Natalie said.
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