by Angela Allen
He put his hands on the bricked window and reached out again with his senses. Someone was definitely inside. A steady heartbeat thumped, and Chun could hear the slow whoosh of air moving in and out of that person’s lungs. Whoever it was wasn’t moving much; perhaps the victim was bound in some way or unconscious. He crouched against the house, hands tightened into fists.
He pounded his fists against his thighs, remembering the ultimate goal, the greater good. Besides, what could he do, dig into the earth and break through the walls to save one person? He stood. What if—? He took the missing boy’s watch out of the pouch and held it. No. It wasn’t him; none of his energy spiked near the house, inside or out. Chun took a deep breath and placed the watch back in the pouch.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered, patting the bricked window. He reminded himself of one of the Noble Truths of Buddhism: we all experience suffering. If he took care of the vampire tonight, he could return, and perhaps aid the unfortunate person in the basement.
Chun left the house. He didn’t need a personal item to sense a vampire, especially a First. Her energy signature danced in the air, sharp-edged and bitter. Adina was hungry again. He frowned. This was unusual. Two days in a row. It was going to be a long night.
Adina walked the streets, savoring the movement of humans around her. As the sidewalks filled for a Friday evening, painful hunger accelerated up and down her bones. Hundreds of years ago she’d satisfied herself early in the evening, wanting the burning to stop. But she learned to savor the sensation. Pain or pleasure, it was all one feeling. The longer she waited, the more violent the feeding, the greater the pleasure.
Each step sent a fiery wave up her spine, joining the growing hunger in her stomach. Each person she passed on the street, every woman, man and child, was the answer to her pain, the relief she needed. She could barely wait for lights to change at street crossings with people standing near her. Images tantalized her: tearing into flesh, blood flowing through passersby splashing on her. At one corner, she bit her own lip. Thick blood leaked in a bitter trickle into her mouth.
The nightclub she met Michael in last night was near. If she went in and saw him, she didn’t think she could sit and listen to music with this hunger growing inside. As much as she wanted to consume him, she didn’t want it to be fast. A cramp gripped her stomach. She grabbed a lamppost.
“Are you alright, miss?” a man in a suit asked. He put his hand on her arm.
The blood surging through his body sang to her, as if it begged to be allowed to put an end to her pain. She suppressed a growl.
“I’ll be okay.” He would do.
A woman came up to them. She was clearly with the man. “Can we take you to a hospital?” she asked.
Damn. “No, it’s okay. I’ll be fine, I just need to eat something.” Adina pulled away from him and walked around the corner. Some of the sidewalk cafés of Greenwich Village still had tables outside, even though the evening air was cool.
Someone was in the alley behind her. One person.
She ducked into the alley. The narrow passageway ran through the middle of the block, winding along the backs of buildings and fenced-in gardens. The human was deep in the middle of the block, sitting against a pile of boxes, smoking a joint. He was young and healthy. Though his long blond hair hid his face, she could tell by his clothes and smell that he was probably living on the street. Perhaps a runaway. Even better—no one would be expecting him home tonight. She smiled and watched him, the burning and hunger intensifying.
Chun picked up her trail in the same neighborhood she had been in the night before. Odd for her to hunt so close to her last killing. She was getting sloppy, good thing for him. He stood in front of a leather shop, pretending to window-shop so he could track which way she had gone. He followed her trail through brightly lit streets to an alley. Ducking into the darkness, he removed his sword from under his coat and carried it in his right hand, against the side of his body.
He sensed another person in the alley. Human. No doubt her next victim. His only chance was to catch her feeding. She would be too occupied to be fully aware of his approach.
Adina closed her eyes and let the sound and smell of the boy’s body fill her senses until he was no longer a human being but a web of blood circuits, veins pulsing with sweet fluid, stomach gurgling, heart pounding.
She growled. He looked up, his eyes dazed by the drugs. She walked slowly toward him, stumbling a little.
“Hey, girl…” he said, standing.
She easily pushed him to the ground and slid next to him, her hand still on his shoulder.
“Don’t get up for me,” she said, smiling slightly.
“I was just—”
“Yes, I can see you were just getting high,” Adina said. “I don’t have a problem with that.”
“You’re not going to bust me?” he asked.
“Not at all.” She sat closer to him, the swish of blood rushing through his body echoed in her ears. Feverish, the blood hunger churned in her veins.
“Hey, do you want some? I think I have another joint in here.” He rummaged through his backpack.
“Want some? Yes, but not that.” She shoved the backpack away and pulled him across her lap.
“What—” he started to say, but stopped when he saw her sharpened teeth catch the moonlight.
“You look scared. Don’t be. This can be very pleasurable. Well, at least for me.”
He tried to pull away and scream, but she handled him like a doll, putting her hand over his mouth and holding him down.
Chun stared in horror. For a moment he thought she had Ron, the missing boy, but the moonlight revealed her new victim was another teenager. As much as Chun wanted the words from her, he wasn’t sure he could watch her kill the boy. He centered himself and gripped the sword in both hands.
He heard a sound behind him too late. A hard object smashed into the back of his head and everything went black.
Adina jumped to her feet, releasing the boy, who scurried down the alley as quickly as he could. Michael, the writer from the jazz club, stood over the body of a man, a piece of bloodied wood in his gloved hands.
“Well, looks like I got here just in time,” he said, tossing the piece of wood aside.
“You’re following me?” she said.
“I would say we were both following you. I suspect for different reasons,” Michael said, kicking at the sword.
She looked down the alley to where the boy had run, then back at Michael.
“You won’t need him,” he said. He walked up to her, took her in his arms and kissed her. She started to push him away but instead drank in his obvious desire. Then she bit his lip.
He jerked but didn’t pull away. She licked his lip, the drops of blood intensifying her hunger.
“You know what I am?” she asked.
“Yes, Adina. I know.”
He kissed her again, wrapping his arms around her tightly. “It took me a while to find out your kind were real. It’s surprising how much information is on the Internet and the streets if you take the time.”
Adina pushed him away from her. “I imagine you did more than that.”
“Yes, I would do anything to find you,” he said.
The moonlight flowed over his face. His pea jacket was open, the white shirt unbuttoned; smooth brown skin invited her bite. He was beautiful. She ran her hands over his chest. His heart beat strongly, his body firm and obviously aroused.
“You’ve gone through a lot to find me. Why?” she asked.
“I needed to find a way to meet you, let you see I wasn’t a threat. I’m dying. I know I don’t look sick, but inside I am.” He touched his head. “A tumor. The doctors say I might live one or two more years.”
“What do you want?” she asked, even though she could guess.
“To be like you, to be Remade,” he said.
“Indeed.” She considered him. It had been hundreds of years since she had changed a human into a vampire. “I t
hink we should get out of here. The young one might call the police.”
Michael walked over to Chun and went through his pockets and found car keys. “He has a car. If we could find it—”
“I won’t have any problem following the trail of his crude scent back to it,” she said.
“Your place or mine?” he asked.
“Mine.” She prodded Chun with her leather boots. “Let’s bring him and his sword.”
They had no trouble dragging Chun between them, like a drunk friend, to his car. They slipped him into the trunk and drove to Adina’s house.
Chun came to tied to a chair. The back of his head hurt like hell. Adina had her back to him and was straddling a shirtless man on a chair. He thought at first the man was tied also, but could quickly see that wasn’t the case. They were kissing. He closed his eyes and gently tried the bonds on his arms and legs. They were tight enough to keep him secure, but not so tight as to cut off his circulation.
“He’s awake,” Adina said. “You might as well open your eyes, Chun. I can feel you’re conscious.”
He opened his eyes. “What did you do with the boy?”
“The boy? You mean in the alley?” she asked, standing. She picked up his sword and leaned on it.
Chun nodded.
“He got away,” the man said. “A fair trade. We have you.”
“Who the hell are you?” asked Chun.
“Where are my manners?” Adina said. She picked Chun’s wallet up from the floor and read his name. “Chun Zhang, meet Michael Simon.”
Michael stood and bowed slightly.
“I’m guessing I can thank you for my headache?” Chun asked.
“That’s right. Couldn’t have you hurting my Maker,” Michael said, sitting on the black leather couch opposite Chun, drops of blood seeping from small wounds Adina had made on his chest.
“Maker?” Chun asked. “You want her to change you into a vampire?”
“Remade into something stronger than human, yes. Into something that can live forever—absolutely,” Michael said.
“Why?” Chun asked, trying to buy time.
“Glioblastoma multiforme. A fancy name for inoperable brain tumor that’s aggressively killing me. I have no interest in dying in a painful drugged haze. Why not live forever?”
“But—” Chun started to say, but Adina put her finger to his lips.
“Now, now, don’t try to talk him out of this. He’s very determined. You have no idea how determined.” She turned to smile at Michael.
Chun felt a sudden surge of hunger. Heat radiated from his groin, up his chest to his neck. He stared at her. Somehow he was picking up her feelings, sharing her reactions.
Adina dipped her nail into the bleeding wound at the back of Chun’s head and licked the blood. She frowned. “Your blood doesn’t taste right. You’re only the latest hunter to follow me, but you’re not quite human, are you?”
“It doesn’t matter what I am,” Chun said.
“Oh, but I think it does. I’d like to know before I kill you,” she said.
Michael stood. “You said I could feed on him, after you Remade me.”
“That’s true, I did.” She pointed the sword at Chun and winked.
Chun had a sinking feeling in his stomach. “You can’t trust her, you can’t trust any of them. She’s going to kill you.”
“You don’t listen very well, do you? The tumor is already killing me. At least this dying is part of the transition to a different life. Besides, who should I trust—you?” Michael said. “I think you would say anything to destroy her. That’s not going to happen.” He walked over and slapped Chun hard.
Adina caught Michael’s hand before he could slap Chun again. “No need for that. Not yet.”
She put her face next to Chun and sniffed him. “Definitely not all human.” She looked into his eyes, holding his chin. “But you’re not vampire. You have the blood of a First in you, don’t you?”
Chun tried to jerk out of her grip.
“Yes. I see. Not very talkative. You hunters are quite stub-born, but I can be persuasive.” She brought his sword down, embedding it in the floor before him. Her face contorting in pain, she grabbed her stomach.
Chun winced, lurching in the chair. Pangs of hunger tore at his gut.
“You feel it also?” Adina asked. She caressed his face with a finger. “I taste an echo of my blood hunger in you.”
He didn’t want to feel what she felt. This had never happened before. Maybe he had connected to her while he was unconscious. Whatever the reason, he wanted the hunger to stop.
“This will be very interesting for both of us,” she said. “I’ll bet you’ve never been this close when we Remade one of you, other than the time you were changed.”
Adina spun toward Michael and pushed him onto the couch.
Chun tried to stay calm and centered, but squirmed in the chair in spite of himself, her craving pouring into him. He wanted blood. He’d never wanted blood before, but he’d never been this close to a First for so long.
“Watch and learn, hunter,” she said, smiling at Chun.
“Is it time?” Michael asked.
“Yes,” she said, caressing Michael’s bare chest. “Past time.”
She worked over Michael for the next hour. After half an hour, he started screaming. She quickly ripped out his vocal cords, collapsed one lung. After that, the sounds Michael made were muted, more guttural.
Chun was disgusted by the sight but couldn’t look away. Adina’s yearning pulled him into the unfolding violence. The more she ravaged Michael’s body, the deeper her satisfaction reflected in Chun. Her passion built into an indescribable wave of lust. Chun couldn’t control the reactions from deep inside his body. The tainted blood wouldn’t let him. Thoughts left him as everything became animal sensation. Her tongue against his skin, the thick warm blood sliding down her throat, blood slippery and slick under her hands. Chun’s heart raced, his breath quickened, adrenaline flooded his body. Adina’s desire dragged him to the brink of orgasm.
Near the end, Michael turned toward Chun.
Chun could see terror in his eyes. Adina looked at Chun, smiled and turned Michael’s face toward her. “Pay attention,” she growled. “I have something to tell you.”
She whispered, “Fumiya ayzie, kambui sipo,” and ripped into his throat.
Chun tried to push away the sounds of her feeding but the contact with her remained strong. As Adina filled, he was engulfed in the same orgasmic high she floated in. A shiver ran through him as release came to both of them.
She was suddenly beside him. She ran her nail along the side of his face. Chun jumped.
“Don’t tell me you didn’t enjoy that, half-made,” Adina said. She laughed, Michael’s blood splattered over her arms and neck. She walked into another room and came out with a wet towel, wiping the blood off.
Holding the blood-soaked towel near his face, she asked. “Want a lick?”
He turned away.
She laughed. “So, you don’t drink.” She sat down next to Michael’s body and patted his thigh. “He really wanted it, you know. He believed I’d Remake him. It would have been a great disappointment for him to discover he wasn’t going to live forever. The Remade can’t. You have to agree I’ve done him a favor.” She stretched and leaned forward, her elbows on her knees. “What to do with you? Perhaps make you part of my collection. I’m curious how you came about.”
She untied some of the knots, releasing him from the chair, but leaving his feet and hands tightly bound. She threw him over her shoulder, grabbed his sword and carried him to the basement.
Adina dropped him to the dirt floor. A pervasive smell of death permeated the walls and floor. Many people had died in this place.
“You probably don’t need the light, but not everyone here is special like you and me,” she said, flipping on an overhead light.
There were four large trunks with grates on the sides in the center of the room. Chun sense
d life in one; the other three were empty.
“You know which one has my other guest, yes?” She waved her hand in the air. “Your sensing is crude, you know. It fills the air like the scent of rotten fish.” Adina laughed again, her cheeks flush with Michael’s life. She stumbled a little, as if high.
She unlatched the trunk and pulled an unconscious body out.
It was Nisi.
Chun squirmed backward. “No.”
“You know her?” Adina asked, propping the bound woman up against the trunk and sitting on the trunk next to her. She caressed Nisi’s dreadlocks. “Do you have a vampire hunters’ club, meet for drinks, give out assignments?”
Chun stared in horror. Nisi was bruised and marked with puncture wounds, her torn clothes streaked with blood. She must have put up a good fight, but her skill hadn’t stopped Adina from taking her captive and, worse, feeding on her. Nausea rose in his stomach. He vomited on the floor.
“I’m sure she’d appreciate your gesture of disgust if she were conscious,” Adina said. “She’s lasted quite a while, although I don’t think she’ll be with us much longer.” She released Nisi’s head from her hold. Nisi slid sideways and moaned; her eyes fluttered open for a moment. She looked at him, shook her head and passed out.
“Nisi,” Chun said. He closed his eyes to concentrate. Her heart was still beating. She was alive. For now.
Adina lifted him from the floor to a standing position. “Why can you do that?”
“If you let her go, I’ll tell you everything,” Chun said.
She laughed in his face, dropping him to the floor. He couldn’t keep his balance with his ankles tied. He fell to his knees. She stooped down, tipped his head up with a nail under his chin.
“Why would I let someone go whose life is dedicated to destroying me?” she asked. “Maybe I should Remake her. What do you think? How would she feel about changing sides?” Adina laughed. “But let’s forget about her and talk about you. You have the blood of a First in you. I can taste that much.”
She ripped his shirt open to examine his chest and neck. She traced the scars with a finger, her eyes closed. “Hmmmm, let’s see. You were attacked by a First and somehow survived. Now you live with his blood mixed in with yours. The blood changed you: you run faster, hear better, see in the dark, feel around with your clumsy perception. Is that close enough?”