Then he remembered the rest of what the kid had said.
He looked down at his arm, and saw a crescent-shaped mark there. A bite mark.
He stared at it, feeling his heart start to pound like a jackhammer in his chest.
“Holy fuck,” he said, jerking against the straps. “Holy fucking shit...”
He remembered more about what the kid said, about drinking him, about drinking too much.
“Hey.” The boy stood up from the chair. Moving smoothly, gliding even more liquidly than a seer, he climbed up on Black’s chest. He purred at Black, his voice soothing, low. He began stroking Black’s face and arms with his hands. Something about the combination blanked Black’s mind, made it difficult for him to think past what the boy was doing.
As the kid touched him, in the background, the opening music of the movie began to play. Black saw images of chocolate swirling on the screen and felt even sicker. Hearing the music, the boy glanced back at the television set, smiled, then turned that grin on Black.
“Hey, relax. I just want to hang out and watch a movie with you and eat, okay? I won’t drink too much. I won’t kill you... I promise. And I’m sorry about what I said about drinking too much before. I shouldn’t have said that. Really, I meant it as a compliment. I’ve never tasted one of you before, so I got a little overexcited...”
Still smiling, he shivered a little, pressing against Black’s side, close enough that Black felt the kid’s erection digging into his hip.
“I have to admit, you taste really fucking good,” he said, smiling wider. “Really, really good. Better than anyone I’ve ever drank from. I’m going to drink some more now, okay?”
“No!” The word exploded out of Black’s lips. He stared up at the creature’s face, horror in his voice. “No! Fuck, no. Please. Please don’t do that...”
The boy looked disappointed again.
Then, as if thinking of something, he smiled.
Behind him, the movie’s opening credits continued to play, illuminating his stiff braids and throwing his face into shadow––all but those translucent, red-tinted eyes that seemed to glow from inside his skull.
“I can make it so you’re with her,” the boy said, his voice conspiratorial now, even as he smiled wider. “It’ll feel just like you’re with her... I swear it! We can project memories, and thoughts, just like we can pull them. And I’ve felt enough of your memories of her now. It’ll feel really real. I swear. You’ll see her and everything. You won’t even know I’m here. And when you’re really there with her, I can jerk you off if you want... it’ll be like you’re making love to her.” His face split in another grin, even as affection filled his eyes. “God! That would be so romantic! We have to try it. We just have to.”
Black shook his head, feeling a surge of nausea. “No! No, we don’t!” His voice came out harder that time, more violent. “Didn’t you say you’d leave me alone? That you wouldn’t bother me because I’m married? What the fuck is this, then?”
The boy barely seemed to hear him.
He climbed off Black’s chest, coiling his lean form back into the padded chair.
“No, you’ll love it.” He beamed at Black. “And that was totally different before. I was just going to fuck you... this time, it’ll be more like I’m helping you fuck her.” He smiled again, as if it was the best idea he’d ever had. “You’ll beg me for it,” he crowed, smacking Black’s arm playfully. “I bet if they keep you here for a few days, trying a few more types of venom on you, I’ll get you to a point where you get hard every time I bite you.”
He shivered at the thought, giving Black that cat-with-the-cream smile again.
“I like that idea. I like it a lot, Quentin.”
Black shook his head, staring at him, unable to speak at first. Another surge of nausea and horror clenched inside his chest, making it hard to breathe.
“What the fuck are you?” he managed, his voice a blurred gasp.
The boy tilted his head at him, the smile fading from his lips. “What am I? Are you serious? What have we just been talking about?”
Black just stared at him, not speaking, and the boy’s frown deepened.
“Didn’t they tell you why they brought you here?” he said.
“No.” Black shook his head, vehement. “No. They didn’t tell me shit.”
Understanding flared in those glass-like eyes. “Ah! Well, you’re in a secret government facility, Quentin,” he said, his voice matter-of-fact, and somehow even younger-sounding than before. “One that doesn’t exist at all, according to the records.”
“They told me that much,” Black growled. “What did they put in me? What ‘venom’ are you talking about?”
Black heard the fear in his own voice, and realized some part of him already knew.
He just couldn’t make himself fucking believe it.
The boy’s answer wiped away the last trace of that doubt, though.
“Vampire venom, of course,” he said. “The humans try to make vampires here, Quentin. The government has been trying for the last few years, ever since they figured out we exist. Of course,” he added, frowning with those bow-like lips. “...Their failure rate is pretty abysmal. But they’ve never had one of you in here before, so I don’t think they know what you are.”
He met Black’s gaze, his eyes serious. “You woke up pretty fast, compared to the humans who get shot full of the stuff. I think you’re going to be okay, Quentin. Of course, they’ll probably think you’re immune to the venom in some way, so then they’ll want to study you. I guess if they do that, they’ll probably figure out what you are, so... bummer. You’ll probably be locked in here like me after that.”
Thinking about that, he grinned wider. “Is it wrong to say I hope so? Just a tiny bit? Of course, I know you’re married, so that’s pretty fucked up for you, but still... it gets boring in here, and I’ve never talked to one of your kind before.”
Black stared at him, fighting to think around everything the boy was telling him.
“You’re a... You’re...”
“A vampire. Yes.” The boy smiled. Then he waved at him, like he was about ten years old. “My name’s Puzzle. I’m a captive here, too, in case you haven’t figured that out. They use me for venom. Me and about a dozen others.”
“Venom? You make venom? That’s how you make vampires?”
Puzzle nodded. “Well, that’s one way. The only way they know about. They extract it. They try to make a kind of genetic virus cocktail out of it...” He made a face, a delicate frown that slid into a grimace. “It hurts a lot. They make us wear these metal masks...”
He tilted his head back in demonstration, baring teeth that extended while Black watched, bringing another shock of cold fear to his chest. The boy spoke through his fangs and fingers in his open mouth, muffling his words.
“Fen fey ooze is ing on ah teef oo ake out enom...”
He closed his mouth, laughing at himself as he lowered his chin. His fangs remained extended, making him look like some kind of jungle cat.
“They use this thing,” he repeated, still grinning. “It’s like these metal pliers that take out the venom by clamping our fangs... it’s really painful,” he added, shuddering. He motioned towards Black’s collar. “Even more than that thing, believe it or not. At least, from what I could tell from your memories. But you’ve worn one of these before, right? In that other world?”
Black stared at him. He could see the thing looking at his wrist again though, and blurted out more words, if only to forestall it.
“Why did they leave you in here with me? Aren’t they afraid you’ll kill me?”
Puzzle looked surprised. “I need to eat. They can’t just starve me, Quentin. They need me to keep producing venom for them. And I promised them I wouldn’t kill you.”
“You promised?” Black growled. “Why not blood bags? Animals? Why are they feeding you vampires their own goddamned test subjects?”
“Well, they don’t let us feed from all of you,�
� Puzzle said, pursing his lips. “The ones that get super sick right away they isolate. But we don’t like feeding from blood bags, Quentin...” He shuddered, grimacing as if the thought disgusted him. “And most animals are gross. I promised them I wouldn’t kill anyone, so they tried me on it a few times, and now they trust me. We’re kind of like pets to them, I think.”
“Pets.” Black stared at him. When the boy lowered his mouth again, he blurted, “How many of you are there? Vampires?”
“I already told you. They have thirteen of us here, and––”
“No,” Black cut in. “Not here. I mean everywhere. How many are you?”
The boy blinked at him, almost like he didn’t understand the question. Then he shook his head, shaking his braids out before he smoothed them over his head with both hands.
“Millions, Quentin,” he said finally. “There are millions of us.”
From the television above, a man in a striped shirt sang about candy while kids danced around him. A lone, poor kid watched wistfully through the window, wanting candy of his own. Black found himself lost there, lost in the unreality of his situation, of the movie playing overhead... of the creature stroking the bare skin of his arm.
He turned to look at that same creature again...
Right as he lowered his mouth. Sharp teeth punctured his skin, so swiftly it didn’t even hurt at first. Then they sank deeper, into the flesh of his forearm, and Black gasped.
He cried out, writhing, fighting to get away.
The kid was freakishly strong, though. He held down his arm without so much as pausing as he drank. More to the point, Black’s wrist was locked to the metal frame of the bed.
After the thing had been drinking for a few seconds, that strange calm fell back over Black’s mind, even as a more distant, deeper-seated feeling of horror continued to pull at his gut and his chest. He fought the calm, that accompanying feeling of peace. He fought the part of himself that wanted to relax into it, to just doze off and let it happen. He struggled even as he felt how tired he was. He knew, deep down, he was too exhausted to fight, even as he reminded himself that he was exhausted partly because that thing had been draining him already.
The kid continued to drink, exuding contentment.
Even wearing the collar, Black couldn’t help but feel it, with the creature being so close. He could tell that some of his own calm came from the kid, too, and realized the vampire was in his mind somehow... not like a seer, but... somehow.
Even as he thought it, he saw Miri.
She appeared before him, clear as day.
He watched her look at him, a small smile playing at the edge of her lips, the kind of smile she gave him only when they were alone. She stood there, wrapped in one of his sheets, her hair mussed, her bare shoulders lit by firelight.
He remembered that night. He hadn’t been able to sleep, so he’d gone out to the living room to work. He’d just lit a fire when she’d wandered out to find him, and...
He cut the memory off, fighting it.
He knew it wasn’t real. He knew it.
Even so, the image grew so vivid that pain rippled through him, making him gasp again, writhing where he was tied to the bed.
By his wrist, the thing drinking him let out a growling purr.
Twenty-One
WE ALL SUFFER HERE
“IS IT TRUE the vamps are all fighting over this one?” Gina looked up, studying Dr. Nguyen’s face from where she bent over Black. “I heard one of them attacked Puzzle in the common room this morning... Luke said they were all shouting, that they had to tranq a bunch of them.”
She ripped the velcro blood pressure band from around Black’s bicep, glancing down to smile briefly at Black as she did.
Dr. Nguyen made an irritated sound.
“Yes,” she said, blowing up her bangs as she rolled her eyes. She looked down at Black, pursing her lips like he was a disobedient pet that might be more trouble than it was worth. “I can’t figure it out. I’ve never seen them behave like this before.”
Gina shrugged, glancing again at Black’s face. “I know you don’t like me saying it, but he is awfully good-looking. Especially compared to most of the test subjects we get in here. He’s healthy, too... and strong.” She fingered the muscles on his chest. “Do you suppose vamps care about something like that? How their food looks, I mean? Maybe it’s a health thing to them?”
Dr. Nguyen looked over at that, tapping her pen against her lips. Looking down at Black, she studied his features for a few seconds, as if seeing him for the first time.
“You might be onto something, Gina,” she said after a pause. “I admit, it hadn’t occurred to me until you said it, but vampires have been documented to routinely become sexually aroused while they feed. Perhaps you’re right. Perhaps he’s an object worth fighting over to them because they find him attractive. Or perhaps they associate that attractiveness and arousal with a healthy food source?”
Gina glanced at Black, smiling. “Can’t say I blame them,” she said, giving him another shy smile. “He’s gorgeous.”
Black flipped her off with one of the hands cuffed to the side of the padded table.
When she saw his upraised middle finger, she winced, almost like he’d struck her. Then she frowned, looking petulant.
“I meant it as a compliment,” she said, her voice carrying a hurt tone.
“You’re letting those fucking things eat me,” Black growled back. “You can take your moronic ‘compliments’ and shove them right up your ass.”
She mirrored the same words Puzzle had used that first night, her voice still reflecting the hurt he saw in her eyes.
“They have to eat.”
“They don’t have to eat me.”
“Well, what should we do? Let them feed on the staff?”
“Why the fuck not?” he snapped. “Let them dry hump you and suck on your veins for awhile. Maybe you’ll grow a goddamned brain in the process... or the capacity to feel a little fucking empathy, at least.”
“No need to be nasty––” Gina began, her voice even more hurt.
“Stop talking to him.” Dr. Nguyen’s voice cut through both of theirs, an unambiguous command. Despite her tone, Black heard nothing but disinterest in her words. “I’ve warned you about that, Gina. They are test subjects, nothing more. You need to stop treating them like regular patients. They’re not.”
“Must be nice to be a psychopath,” Black said, turning to her. “Uncomplicated. Sleeping’s not a problem for you at all, is it?”
Dr. Nguyen gave him a flat stare.
“I’m married,” Black snapped. “I have a fucking wife. I’m not a goddamned rabbit, okay? If you don’t give a fuck about me, what about her?”
Dr. Nguyen’s lip’s pursed briefly, but that flatter disinterest never left her eyes. She turned to Gina, her voice unchanging.
“Still no signs of transformation?” she said. “No change at all in his vitals?”
“No.” Gina shook her head, sighing. “No changes. He has that elevated heart beat, but he had that before. Glen thinks he might have a mild heart murmur, or maybe his heart just runs at a slightly elevated speed for some reason. Or it might have something to do with his blood type. Glen thinks he might have some genetic anomalies that are confounding the venom...”
Dr. Nguyen nodded, her face still expressionless. “We’ll try solution #PZZ98 today. Hook him up. We’ll do a full work-up on him tomorrow, if this one doesn’t work.”
“Are you going to give him to one of the others?” Gina said, as she began preparing the needle to put in Black’s arm. “Or leave him with Puzzle?”
Dr. Nguyen looked up from her tablet, which she’d been writing on with a stylus.
“We don’t give the animals new feeding partners halfway into a study, Gina,” she said, her voice a touch cold. “I don’t care how much they whine. And Puzzle is harmless. I don’t trust the rest of them to behave with this one... not given how they’ve been acting.”
Squinting at Black’s face, she looked him over a second time, again seeming to notice his physical appearance anew, likely based on what Gina had said.
Gina spoke while Dr. Nguyen was still staring at him.
“Do you really think that’s why they’re arguing about him?” Her voice was more timid that time, but still curious. “Because they all want to have sex with him?”
Dr. Nguyen shrugged, her voice studiously clinical.
“It seems likely,” she said. “They don’t have gender preferences the way humans do... but they might still care about aesthetics. It’s possible that different humans taste differently to them as well, but they’d have no way of knowing that with him, unless Puzzle’s been making claims... or sharing his experiences through that mind thing they do. But neither thing is really in his character. He’s submissive with the others, normally.”
She glanced at Gina, that thoughtful look still in her eyes.
“Puzzle’s the smallest of them, so he’s usually cautious with the alphas. Which aligns again with most of our dominance theories of group behavior in highly predatory animals... they tend to be very conscious of hierarchy and respectful of their own place within it. It appears that vampires are no different than lions in that respect. So maybe they see Subject 3297T2 as a status prize of some kind, and feel Puzzle doesn’t have the social rank to be worthy of it.”
She frowned as she turned over her own words, tapping the stylus on her lower lip as she studied Black’s face. Then she sighed, pulled from her thoughts as she focused back on her lab assistant.
“Is he ready? I have a meeting I need to go to.”
Black just lay there, thinking of ways he’d like to kill this woman.
While he grimaced at the thought of another night spent with Puzzle, he couldn’t help but be relieved they weren’t going to pass him around like a breathing hors d’oeuvre to the other vampires, either. As bad as Puzzle was, Black knew it could be worse. Puzzle hadn’t actually tried to hurt Black yet, despite everything else he’d done to him.
But he didn’t want to think about that, either.
Black And Blue (Quentin Black Mystery #5) Page 26