Undesirable: Chapter 21
TITLE: Undesirable (A vampire novel)
RATING: NC-17 (This chapter R)
SUMMARY: Wally and George actually dare hope that Darlene will solve their problems. LOL.
Word Count: 6340
Chapter 21
Abram reached into the pitch-dark room and flicked a switch. An overhead lamp flickered on, throwing soft, golden, low-watt light around what appeared to be a sparsely appointed bedroom. My eyes were immediately drawn to a grey patchwork lump, lying in the middle of the queen-sized bed. My eyes wanted to see it as a comforter left in a discarded heap, but it wasn't. My god. It wasn't.
I sucked in a deep breath, smelling a rankness that I'd never encountered before and watched with deepening horror as the lump moved. A hand, bare of all but a single finger seemed to push away an empty water pitcher as the thing uncurled.
I was glad the lights were dim. I didn't want to see more than I was seeing. I already saw too much, because Darlene was naked and yet she seemed to be clothed in the alien landscape of her own flesh. Vast tracts of her skin had been furrowed in a way that would have seemed ridiculous and unrealistic had it been movie special effects. Now my mind seemed to hone in on those deep bloodless ruts interspersed with livid skin, crusted up and oddly webbed over. She'd been ripped nearly to pieces, but somehow, impossibly, she was alive. More than alive, healing. The injuries looked years old, her new geography so well scarred that not a single sore was left open or oozing. The stumps of her missing arm and leg each had a small, floppy appendage no larger than a newborn's, wiggling and flapping disgustingly as she eased herself onto her back.
Perhaps most frighteningly, around her neck was a thick collar of steel held by a sturdy length of chain - she'd been tied to the wall at the head of the bed like a rabid animal. You just don't bind things up like that if they aren't dangerous, not unless you were hugely paranoid and that was the one thing Abram did not appear to be. I looked down and saw a line of yellow tape crossing the floor, my feet safely on the right side of it. I felt glad for Abram's presence just behind me.
"Wake up, my dear," said Abram. "Your retinue is here. They wished to see you."
Darlene pulled her single arm over her face, as if ashamed of her appearance, then lowered it to focus her eyes our direction. As her roving eyes caught mine, her ruined face briefly twisted and her fangs seem to glow.
Terror gripped me and it was only the presence of Abram at my back that prevented me from running. She hates me I thought, shuddering. I shouldn't have come down here.
Darlene's words caught me off guard. "Thank you," she said, softly. "Would you get me some more water, please, my Lord." There was no echo of her words in my mind, and to my ear she sounded breathy and tired. She's weak I thought. Not crazed at all.
"Of course, as soon as these two have seen their fill. It wouldn't be safe to leave them alone with you."
Darlene's eyes closed briefly, then opened. I thought I caught a gleam of anger in them. "They are still mine, Abram. I will not harm my own harem. They are still mine." Even with all this her voice commanded respect.
"The rules," said Abram brusquely. Then he turned his head and I saw Rose just outside looking perplexed. He left without taking the water pitcher, which lay neglected on the mattress by Darlene's feet. Abram closed the door behind him, giving me just the briefest glimpse of Rose leaning towards him as if to whisper something in his ear.
Then, slowly, I turned around again. Darlene was staring at me, the accusation clear and cutting in her eyes. "So, what is it that Abram thinks you are to me?" Her voice was firmer. The chain rattled as she lifted her head.
"Your driver, my Lady."
"Driver. More like my own personal albatross."
"I'm sorry, my Lady," I said in a gush. "I truly am. If I had any idea this was going to happen, if I could have changed anything, I would. I never ever meant for anything like this." Her eyes, so clear even in this light, continued to glare me down until I found my throat closing up and my apologies choked off.
"My lady," said Wally, trying to step in front of me. "This isn't his fault. I was the one who involved you. It was mine -"
"Shut up!" she snapped. "I know you two think you are getting on my good side by pretending you're to blame for this fiasco, but you're insulting me more than I can put into words, so both of you, shut the fuck up." We both jumped backwards. "You are my responsibility, I'm not yours. I'm the vampire here. Don't you dare talk down to me like I'm just another human."
Wally and I nodded and murmured a quick chorus of "Yes, ma'am."
Darlene drew herself up with surprising agility, until her back rested against the wall. Her one leg hooked in front of her stump. All over her body flaps of skin opened and closed like gaping maws. The rank smell intensified. My stomach lurched and I nearly heaved my dinner over the floor.
"You know what's to blame for this shitty situation?" she asked us. "My retched luck, my curse. It started long before I ever met either of you, so don't you presume to be the cause of it." A tear welled up in her eye and dropped glistening and clear into the deep groove in her cheek.
"My lady…" said Wally, then stopped himself.
"I don't want to die," she said, and for a moment her voice was clear and young. "I'm forty-four years old, Wally. Even for a human that's young. My parents are still alive, even though they are the stupidest mouth breathers in existence. You think you two are the first people to turn my life to shit? Those two have you beat."
I hung my head. Weirdly enough, listening to Darlene rant about her parents was more uncomfortable than having her accuse me. I felt pity for her and that made me feel even shittier about my part in making her life unbearable.
"I should have known that Nadette was lying. When has anyone ever held their promises to me. They are all liars, using me for their own aims, the self-serving assholes. Even Abram. He talks of charity, but he just wants as much money and… everything else… he can squeeze out of me before he ships me back to Portland Protectorate, barely functioning, to face the wrath of the vampires back there."
Wally's face went through a slow collapse. "I'm just a human, but I'll do what I can for you. I brought George back to you - we can do what we planned - contact Chauncey and he can smooth things out for you the way he did before --"
"Chauncey pitied me," Darlene interrupted. "He kept me alive when the others would have put me down for being defective. But even he has his selfish side. For fifteen years I did all his grunt work, every nasty job, every obligation that he didn't feel like doing himself. The day I asked to be released - to finally walk on my own two feet as a full fledged Vampire and not some orphaned childe - he made me …"
She stopped and sobbed. We waited, not daring to prompt her more.
"He made me forget his face, forget our times together. I can remember everything about the clubs that he owns, all those annoying, boring tasks, but I can't remember the sound of his voice. I can barely remember what he's like. He was the closest thing I've ever had to a father - certainly that shit my mother married didn't count. My own sire only wanted me as an expendable weapon. He made me in a week. A week, then went on to make others just like me, like some fucking assembly line. Defective canon fodder for the fucking Coup. I wasn't even supposed to live, I was just there to protect the important vampires, take the bullets instead of them. I was nineteen years old expected to die for a fucking three-century-old abomination I didn't even know. But I lived. Despite him."
She paused in her babbling long enough to take a deep breath. "But he still spites me every day. I can't marry or have children, I can't even sire a childe. I'm not human and Vampires look down on me. I can't even keep myself alive without… fucking …charity." She slammed her hand against the mattress with a resounding thump.
Then she turned and glared at me again. "All people ever do is fuck up my life, George, so don't go thinking you're anything special to me."
"I'm sorry," I said, sincerely. Why the fuck had I thrown up on her? Such a small stupid act. She hadn't done anything to deserve it.
"I tell you this, not because I want you to pity me," said Darlene turning to Wally. "I say this because my bad luck doesn't end with me. And I know better than anyone how fucking unfair your situation is, and if I could do anything about it I would. But I can't. You fucked me over, Wally, but you did it with the best of intentions. You are maybe my most loyal human -- isn't that a sad statement? You brought your own lover back to me, so that I can use him as a tool to dig myself out of this latrine I've been dumped in. You don't deserve what I've done to you, anymore than I deserved what you did to me." She laughed. It was bitter and horrible.
"My lady?" asked Wally, confused. I wasn't. I knew something like this was up. My gut clamped down like vise.
"You don't think Abram is just letting me feed off his harem for nothing. I had to pay, Wally. Quid pro quo. You were the only harem I had in the neighborhood. I had to give you to him."
"You what?!"
"Still sympathetic? Still loyal?" Her eyes went wide. "I can use George to butter my way back into Chauncey's good graces, but it's not going to do either of you any good. I'll be going home in a week, healed as I can make myself on the weak sour blood that Abram allows me, and I'll take my 'driver' with me. But you, Wally, are staying here." She rubbed her face with the palm of her single hand. "Crap, I even thought I was doing my harem a favor, you're home business is more portable than anyone else's on my payroll. It was the practical decision."
The door opened up, Rose had a fresh pitcher of water in her hand. Abram stood at the door and nodded while she went and put it on a table within the taped zone. Darlene watched with obvious longing, but she didn't stir a muscle. We were all quiet until Rose had had time to retreat back behind the line, taking a deep breath of relief. Once she withdrew, Darlene spang. Her movements were so fast that I could barely see them. Darlene had the pitcher hooked in her arm and was guzzling down the water, in huge, throat stretching swallows. When the water was half-drunk, she put the pitcher back on the table with surprising dexterity. She then closed her eyes and turned her head away from us. She seemed to collapse into an inanimate heap.
"Fuck," I breathed, making sure I was well behind the yellow line.
"You are upset, Walter," Abram stated. "Did your patron tell you about our arrangement?" I swore I saw some amusement in his sympathetic smile.
"Sir," said Wally. He looked desperately at Abram, then at Darlene and then at me. "Sir," he said to Abram again, "Please. I'll be happy to make up for the meals that my Lady has taken from your harem, but when I'm done, please let me go home. Please, promise me, I can go home."
"That would be extremely impractical, it would take months."
"Sir, then let it take months. Months is nothing. But don't make it forever. I'm in love. Don't separate me. That would be cruel. Darlene can send for someone else."
Darlene snorted.
Abram wrapped an arm around Wally's shoulders. "I would never be cruel to you. Let's leave Darlene to heal. We will discuss this upstairs." Wally followed him meekly. I had no idea if that was because Abram was pulling his string or if he truly was that resigned.
Rose caught my arm in the hall as I attempted to follow along. "Best to let our Lord deal with it," she said.
"He's my boyfriend. I think I should have some say."
"If you want him that bad, request to stay here with us." Rose made it sound obvious. But damn it, I couldn't. I hadn't left Chicago just to be trapped in Serenity. I wanted to go home. But I wanted to go home to be with Wally, and if Wally wasn't going to be there… This was fucked up.
Without letting go of my arm, Rose turned around to darken the room behind us and close and lock the door on Darlene.
"Shouldn't you leave the light on at least?" I asked. It seemed cruel to leave Darlene alone, chained in a pitch-black room.
"Lord Abram says it's better for Vampires to be in the dark when they heal. Instinct or something."
"Oh." I had no idea how vampires functioned.
We stood there in the hall awkwardly, not really looking at each other, not able to go anywhere either. The moment I started towards the stairs, Rose tightened her grip on my arm again and shook her head. "Not yet. Abram will let me know."
"He's taking his fucking time."
"Hush," said Rose, completely scandalized. After another tediously long minute she broke the silence again. "You were at Nadette's party weren't you?"
Cautiously, I admitted, "Yeah."
Rose was asking a question: "Was a Lord Jeffrey one of her guests?"
My whole body tensed up like I'd been shocked. "Yes," I managed to be non-committal. Was he close enough on my trail that Abram's staff would have picked him up? Of course, Jeffery knew where I was. He knew about the Motel 6, following the Townie's trail through the various check points was even simpler than following a debit card trail. But had he figured out what I was up to? Would he keep quiet about me? Or blow my cover sky high? "Why do you ask?"
"He called, but he didn't leave a message. Do you think he knows we are hiding Darlene?"
I felt instant relief that Rose hadn't figured it out yet, but the worry didn't go away. My secret wasn't going to remain that way for long. I knew it in my bones.
Maybe Jeffrey can help, I thought for a moment, then I dismissed it. Jeffrey might have reason to spring me from this hellhole, but what possible motivation would he have to steal someone else's rightful harem? Would he even understand why I wanted to be with Wally? After all, vampires kept bloody harems. The idea of me having a single special lover might not even make sense to him. And even if it did, the one lesson I'd learned really fucking well this trip is that Vampires didn't give a crap about what their humans wanted: if it interfered in any way with a Vampires agenda, humans could just go suck a lemon.
I couldn't let Wally go. Everything else, yes. But not Wally. I couldn't rely on vampires to help. Fuck Darlene - she couldn't even save herself right now, I couldn't expect her to raise a finger for me. Fuck Chauncey Towers, I'd never even met the guy, but he sounded like a self-important prick. Why would he give a rip about either of us? No, We were on our own. Wally and I were going to have to run - this time I'd do it better. We'd hike ourselves up to Lincoln somehow and search in earnest for the resistance - or lacking that, make our resistance.
"Abram says we can go up now and he apologizes for keeping us in the hall." I shook my head and realized Rose was talking to me. She didn't seem to notice my inattentiveness. "Come on," she said. "Wally's back in his room. And I still need to make up a room for you."
"Don't bother," I said quickly. "Wally and I can share."
"The bed is really tiny."
"I'll sleep on the floor then."
Rose twisted her lips, then shrugged. "I can get you some extra bedding."
I flopped forward with relief. "Thank you."
Rose looked sad. "I am sympathetic, you know. I don't want you thinking I'm not. But it just all seems kind of futile to me. Why fight it?" And without waiting for my answer she stepped lightly but quickly up the stairs.
Why fight it? Why fight it? Because that's the George Handle way of getting things done, that's why.
Wally was sitting in bed with his knees tucked under his chin. His face was blank and his eyes staring out unseeingly at the picture of Jesus on the wall. He glanced at me briefly as I walked in but then went back to his thoughts.
I hesitated only a moment, then climbed up onto the bed next to him and put an arm across his back. There. If he needed to talk, or if he didn't want to, either way, I was here for him. For about fifteen minutes we just sat in silence. Then Wally spoke.
"I screwed up. I'm sorry."
"You didn't screw up."
"You were right. I was wrong. I should never have brought you here."
"You had no idea. Neither of us did."
Wally shook his head, "You were worried -"
"About myself not about you. I was being selfish. This was the way to go, the only way at the time. You couldn't have known." I rubbed his back gently. He reached back and caught my hand and held it tightly.
Silence descended for another five minutes. My leg was starting to fall asleep so I shifted position. That seemed to jar Wally out of his thoughts. "Tomorrow I have to go to Abram. He let me have tonight off because we'd had sex earlier and he could still smell my, uh, discharge on you. He ordered me not to make love to you again until after he'd fed so that I can be fresh… for him…."
I leaned over and kissed his shoulder. "Vampiric smell. I guess that explains how Lady Darlene knew we were lovers. It's okay."
"I don't want to sleep with him-"
"I know you don't."
"-I want to sleep with you, be with you, I want to be faithful, but I can't."
"I know," I repeated. "It's vampires. They don't count."
Wally looked at me. "Abram told me that when you leave with Darlene, he'll erase my memories of you, so I won't miss you. He thinks that will solve the problem and make me happy." With one arm he reached and hooked me around the neck, pulling me so that we huddled, forehead to forehead. "Don't leave me, Geo. Promise you won't leave me. I don't want to lose my memories of you. You're my best friend. I love you. I'd rather die than lose my memories."
"I'll never leave you," I breathed. I caught his hand again and squeezed it fiercely. Then we kissed, long and hard. "I'll think of something."
We didn't make love again that night, but we did lie together on that narrow bed and held each other. At some point, I rolled over and fitted myself in the pocket left by his larger curled body, and we both fell asleep, fully clothed, on top of the sheets, with the lights on. Spooning.
We slept until almost noon the next day. Rose finally got us up because the cook needed to know how many to make lunch for. After turns in the shower we joined Rose on a patio in the back of the property while Martha served us home-made meatball subs. The green lawn extended out farther than I'd ever seen a lawn stretch before, divided up in strategic areas for various gardens and fountains and gazebos with stepped retaining walls, layering down to a line of large trees. Through the branches thought I could see a dark line of water.
"You on a lake?" Wally asked. I'd been wondering the same thing. Though I'd driven here, I was still a bit sketchy on where "here" exactly was in the grand scheme of things.
"That would be the mighty Missouri River. Not hugely mighty at the moment, but after a good storm the water sometimes comes as far up as the garden. We had a pretty dry winter so right now you could probably go down to the banks and toss a stone across." Rose sat back in the wicker chair and took a sip of sweet herbal tea through a straw. "Back in '93 it came up all the way past the house - and just sat there forever," she rolled her eyes dramatically. "Total loss, the house had to be rebuilt from scratch. I was like four, though. I don't remember a thing."
"What's on the other side?"
"Missouri. We're pretty close to Kansas City. I sometimes go in there for supplies and stuff, with our Lords permission, of course. I've even been to Lady Nadette's place a couple of times carrying our Lord's work. It's very ostentatious, don't you think?"
"I guess," said Wally, "We didn't see that much of it. The fight happened not long after we arrived." I bit my tongue to keep from adding to the story. I was just the "driver."
Rose nodded. "That's what Darlene said. She was attacked almost the moment she came through the door - that's just such… bad manners!" Rose's eyes were alight. I'm not sure what it is with girls and gossip, but she obviously was on the edge of her seat with the need to spread some. "When I'm down there I'm always on my best behavior, but the way they look at me like I'm dirt or something. Such snobs, I swear. I don't like going down there, but, you know, sometimes you have to."
I kept my thoughts to myself, but looked her over. Rose would not have fit in at the party. Sure she was fashionably thin and quite young, but despite that, her face was just wasn't beautiful. Too square, too thin lipped, too big a nose: pick a feature and there was something imperfect about it. And yet she wasn't unattractive either, just normal. And she was obviously Abram's full time harem. More than that - she seemed to be his right hand woman. If she was the best Abram could find, I could understand why he might be so keen to have Wally in his harem. Abram must be more than normally hard up. On that thought, Stan's words from the greyhound came back to me. See a vamp fawning on some ordinary pimply eighteen year old, best thing you do is find some reason to be elsewhere. I shuddered. Wally and I hadn't gotten to see Abram's bad side.
Wally gave a short version of what he'd witnessed at the party, leaving out anything to do with my role there. Rose nodded sagely from time to time, though it was clear she didn't know as much as she wanted to let on. She didn't seem to understand what Nadette's beef with Darlene was, and Wally and I were just as happy to leave it that way. "Personality clash, I guess," Rose speculated. "Vampires can be crazy scary, trust me. I'm so glad I got one of the good ones protecting me."
I looked meaningfully at Wally, but he didn't pick it up, so I just shook my head. How bad does a vampire have to be before his Harem will call him something other than 'one of the good ones.' And then my stomach soured around the meal I'd just eaten because the answer came back, blatant and obvious. Never, that's what mind control is for.
Sobered, I listened in as Rose described as best she could what she knew of Lady Darlene's escape.
"She apparently jumped a fence at the edge of Lady Nadette's estate and found a highway below her. There were like twenty vampires - I'm not kidding! - on her trail not even one second behind her, so she did the only thing she could possibly do. She jumped so far out into traffic, she landed bang bang into the back of a yard debris truck. Well, this driver he hears this thud, he does the smart thing to do -- he slows down -- but then he goes and sees all these vampires running along behind him and shee-it he jams on the gas so hard Darlene said they must have hit a hundred miles per hour.
"When he pulled over like 10 minutes later, Darlene got him. She said she must have taken half his blood right out of his body. Luckily for her he had a partner, because that man could not drive anymore. So Darlene, she snuggles right up between the guy she drained and his partner and she forced them to drive. They didn't know where they were going, and neither did she, so they kinda stumbled into our town. Officer Dan caught 'em at the check stop. And the rest was like you see. It was the most exciting thing to hit this town in 10 years."
"Was the driver okay?" Wally asked.
"Oh, yeah. He rested up in the clinic, until Abram had a chance to edit his mind. Then we sent them on with instructions to take it easy and to forget all about it. I don't know how Lord Jeffrey figured it out, but maybe he caught a license plate as they sped away or something."
I shifted uncomfortably.
Rose powered on. "Abram will find some way to throw him off, don't worry. This is our Lord's territory and he don't get intimidated by big city vampires."
Thankfully after that the conversation changed to safer topics. Rose promised to show me the washer and dryer in the house so I could wash my own clothes as needed. Abram was not planning on spending a dime more on me than he had to. He probably begrudged the food I was eating. Wally, she'd take into town later to find all the stuff that he needed until they had a chance to contact the movers to pack up his things and have them trucked over. Then they'd hit the store and buy the foods Wally liked, and maybe go and look at some of the new houses being built, though Wally could, of course, live at Abram's indefinitely if he liked. The difference in her treatment of me and Wally was glaring, but at least understandable. Wally was "us" and I was "them".
I was not invited on the outing, so I spent the rest of the day wandering around. I explored the house and grounds while waiting for the my jeans and shirt to be washed. Then I changed back into my more fashionable duds and took a long walk down the road to see what I could find. No one stopped me. I barely even saw anyone.
By four that afternoon, I'd all but given up on the notion of running away on foot. It took nearly an hour to walk to the end of the "block," which was demarked only by one semi-paved road intersecting with another. The crops in the field were the same - rows and rows of something all uniformly 8 inch high. I could see for miles in all directions, and it all looked depressingly the same.
I turned around and walked back to Abram's house, arriving in time for Martha to come back with the groceries for dinner. It was going to be barbeque ribs - Wally's favorite. The wooing was in full force. Wally and Rose returned somewhat later, laden down with bags of clothes and toiletries, snacks. I could hear Roses laugher all the way down the hall and wondered what the hell was so funny.
"Did she buy you a car," I asked somewhat snidely, somewhat hopefully, when Rose left us alone briefly.
"I wish," said Wally. "But I think they know I'd be out of here so fast their heads would spin." He eyed me suspiciously. "Jealous?"
"Hardly," I scoffed. Yes.
"Don't be," said Wally. "It's tough pretending everything's copasetic when all you want to do scream obscenities. I hate this place already. And I think Rose thinks she's going to marry me." He shuddered. "It's going to take a lot of mind control to make that happen."
He suddenly pulled his cell phone out of his back pocket. "They have a cell tower in town, so I was able to finally get some reception. Had to go into the toilet or a dressing room to get any privacy. Rose thinks I'm a clothes hound with a weak bladder." He fingered his way through a bunch of apps, then handed the phone to me. "Read this."
I looked at the screen. It was an email.
Heard your sitch via forum, think me and my friends can help. We can't get into Serenity, that bitch is tight. If you can get over the border to any other protectorate, email me @ Thwel42tYk@hotmail. This email good only for 1 week so don't fuck around. We can get a driver to your area in @ an hour give/take and vamoose you to safe place. Put email into your addressbook and erase this message. Tell no one, don't be stupid.
"The resistance," I said, excitedly.
"A resistance," said Wally. "Sounds like a couple of local guys."
"Well, good enough for me. How far away is the border?"
But the conversation stopped abruptly there. Rose barged in without knocking. "Thought you could use some help." Even though Wally told her "no" as politely as he could, she then unhelpfully hung out with us until dinnertime. By then, everything had changed.
I can pinpoint exactly when things went sour. It happened just a few minutes into supper - a phone rang. Rose quickly stopped her gossip and wiped her mouth, she then went into the kitchen to answer it. To our surprise she didn't return immediately to the table. She past us walking in a little half-walk, half run around the corner to the stairs going to the basement. Her face was grim. We heard her feet pounding down the steps, a door open and shut, then nothing for a surprisingly long time.
Wally and I continued to eat dinner, but we were both on edge. Wally wanted to discuss our running away plans and we made a half hearted attempt texting messages to each other using his phone, but Martha kept walking in and out of the kitchen and we quickly gave it up, lest we'd get caught being obviously sneaky.
Martha had cleaned up our dishes, but Rose hadn't come back. At loose ends, we excused ourselves to the cook and headed back to Wally's room. We were almost there when we heard a pounding down the hall and there was Rose, somewhat breathless. She looked relieved when she saw the both of us there. Her eyes went to me first.
And that's the moment I knew the jig was up. They knew who I was.
She didn't admit it. Instead she said, "Our lord would like you two to go to your room for a little bit. He'll be in to see you in a moment."
"Isn't he normally in devotions now?" Wally asked.
Rose froze as though she wasn't sure what to do. "Please, just get into your room. Lord Abram will explain in a minute."
We should run. I thought. But how far could we go before Abram runs us down? The answer seemed obvious: Not far enough.
Wally made my mind up by walking the extra couple of feet to the bedroom. I joined him and Rose slammed the door on us and we both heard the lock twist. "Hey!" Wally yelled and rattled the knob. It didn't give. Of course, not.
"She locked us in!" he said to me, apoplectic. "What the hell?"
It was all too familiar for me so I just sat down on the bed, shaking my head when Wally pressed to know what I did.
We didn't have long to wait. The key turned and Abram entered the room. He had with him all the confirmation I ever needed in the form of a black electronic brick the size of a power supply with a circular finger slot in one end. Oh fuck it. I closed my eyes and held out a finger, feeling him slip the thing around it. I hissed at the momentary sting, then withdrew my finger knowing the damage was done.
Abram said nothing. He just stood there for the two minutes while the Taster did its thing. When it chimed, he shook his head and then looked at me with some exasperation. I expected him to demand some explanation, or question how I was able to lie to him, but he did neither. He turned around and locked the door on us again.
It was the better part of an hour before Rose returned. Her face was ashen when she opened the door. "Lord Abram wants to see you in the Western Room." Her eyes were solely on me, but she said nothing. I got the feeling she thought I was in deep trouble and was afraid that it might rub off somehow on her.
Abram was sitting on the same couch he'd used before. He watched us approach quietly, his hands touching fingertip to fingertip in a way that reminded me very much of a disapproving teacher. "Sit," he commanded.
Now we get to see his dark side, I thought, wincing.
"I have no dark side," Abram said to me, and to Wally, "I have no intentions of harming George."
Wally swallowed. He wasn't used to Vampires being able to read his mind. Lady Darlene's disability had given him a false sense of privacy.
"I have some very bad news to inform the two of you," he said, despite this he had a very thin, ironic smile. "I'm afraid, sometime during the day, Darlene succumbed to her injuries. She is with us no more."
I jerked with surprise. What the hell was this? What happened. Wally put a hand over his mouth, horror and grief played across his face. He was in as deep a shock as I was.
"But -- how?" said Wally. "She was healing. Why would she die now?"
Abram's eyes kept a steady gaze on both of us. "She was on the edge the entire time she was here, and she was weak even before she was injured. It is the common way for vampires to die - when the cost of healing injuries exceeds the vampires limited energy reserves. It can happened suddenly. She was not in pain." His voice sounded very sincere and I found myself curiously reassured.
"She never formalized my transfer from her to you," said Wally, suddenly certain. "That has to be witnessed. You didn't want anyone knowing that she was here --"
"Walter," said Abram. "You are in my territory without a patron. You are mine. No vampire is going to protest it." His smile grew more genuine. "When I have had a chance to take you in my arms, I will lay your doubts aside, and you will realize -"
"I want to see her," said Wally standing up. He was shaking with rage and fear. I was deathly afraid for him for a moment. Every instinct told me that Abram didn't take well with open defiance.
Abram's eyes flared with anger for the first time. But then he simply nodded. "Loyalty is an admirable trait, Walter. Come with me, you may view her body."
We were lead down the stairs and to the end of the hall. The light in Darlene's room, dim as it was, had been left on, and I could see her lying still, laid out flat on her back with her single arm draped across her ruined breast. Her eyes were closed, her mouth lay slackly open. Her fangs for once looked almost like ordinary teeth, just slightly longer and more pointed.
I hesitated at the edge of the taped section, then stepped past it. Darlene didn't move. Wally was ahead of me, kneeling at the edge of the bed. He took her hand and brought it to his lips, tears streaming down his face. He loved her, I realized. Maybe she forced it on him, maybe she earned it, but he really did love her.
Then I totally forgot about that line of thought because I spotted the "what is wrong with this picture" clue. Wally noticed my horrified expression and was momentarily confused, then he happened to look down at Darlene's hand and saw the two deep punctures in her wrist - perfectly proportioned for a man's fangs. That's what my arms would look like if I hadn't healed up after each vampire attack. Darlene hadn't had a chance to heal. She'd died with someone's fangs still embedded in her flesh.
Abram had murdered her.
Back to chapter 20
Forward to Chapter 22
RATING: NC-17 (This chapter R)
SUMMARY: Wally and George actually dare hope that Darlene will solve their problems. LOL.
Word Count: 6340
Chapter 21
Abram reached into the pitch-dark room and flicked a switch. An overhead lamp flickered on, throwing soft, golden, low-watt light around what appeared to be a sparsely appointed bedroom. My eyes were immediately drawn to a grey patchwork lump, lying in the middle of the queen-sized bed. My eyes wanted to see it as a comforter left in a discarded heap, but it wasn't. My god. It wasn't.
I sucked in a deep breath, smelling a rankness that I'd never encountered before and watched with deepening horror as the lump moved. A hand, bare of all but a single finger seemed to push away an empty water pitcher as the thing uncurled.
I was glad the lights were dim. I didn't want to see more than I was seeing. I already saw too much, because Darlene was naked and yet she seemed to be clothed in the alien landscape of her own flesh. Vast tracts of her skin had been furrowed in a way that would have seemed ridiculous and unrealistic had it been movie special effects. Now my mind seemed to hone in on those deep bloodless ruts interspersed with livid skin, crusted up and oddly webbed over. She'd been ripped nearly to pieces, but somehow, impossibly, she was alive. More than alive, healing. The injuries looked years old, her new geography so well scarred that not a single sore was left open or oozing. The stumps of her missing arm and leg each had a small, floppy appendage no larger than a newborn's, wiggling and flapping disgustingly as she eased herself onto her back.
Perhaps most frighteningly, around her neck was a thick collar of steel held by a sturdy length of chain - she'd been tied to the wall at the head of the bed like a rabid animal. You just don't bind things up like that if they aren't dangerous, not unless you were hugely paranoid and that was the one thing Abram did not appear to be. I looked down and saw a line of yellow tape crossing the floor, my feet safely on the right side of it. I felt glad for Abram's presence just behind me.
"Wake up, my dear," said Abram. "Your retinue is here. They wished to see you."
Darlene pulled her single arm over her face, as if ashamed of her appearance, then lowered it to focus her eyes our direction. As her roving eyes caught mine, her ruined face briefly twisted and her fangs seem to glow.
Terror gripped me and it was only the presence of Abram at my back that prevented me from running. She hates me I thought, shuddering. I shouldn't have come down here.
Darlene's words caught me off guard. "Thank you," she said, softly. "Would you get me some more water, please, my Lord." There was no echo of her words in my mind, and to my ear she sounded breathy and tired. She's weak I thought. Not crazed at all.
"Of course, as soon as these two have seen their fill. It wouldn't be safe to leave them alone with you."
Darlene's eyes closed briefly, then opened. I thought I caught a gleam of anger in them. "They are still mine, Abram. I will not harm my own harem. They are still mine." Even with all this her voice commanded respect.
"The rules," said Abram brusquely. Then he turned his head and I saw Rose just outside looking perplexed. He left without taking the water pitcher, which lay neglected on the mattress by Darlene's feet. Abram closed the door behind him, giving me just the briefest glimpse of Rose leaning towards him as if to whisper something in his ear.
Then, slowly, I turned around again. Darlene was staring at me, the accusation clear and cutting in her eyes. "So, what is it that Abram thinks you are to me?" Her voice was firmer. The chain rattled as she lifted her head.
"Your driver, my Lady."
"Driver. More like my own personal albatross."
"I'm sorry, my Lady," I said in a gush. "I truly am. If I had any idea this was going to happen, if I could have changed anything, I would. I never ever meant for anything like this." Her eyes, so clear even in this light, continued to glare me down until I found my throat closing up and my apologies choked off.
"My lady," said Wally, trying to step in front of me. "This isn't his fault. I was the one who involved you. It was mine -"
"Shut up!" she snapped. "I know you two think you are getting on my good side by pretending you're to blame for this fiasco, but you're insulting me more than I can put into words, so both of you, shut the fuck up." We both jumped backwards. "You are my responsibility, I'm not yours. I'm the vampire here. Don't you dare talk down to me like I'm just another human."
Wally and I nodded and murmured a quick chorus of "Yes, ma'am."
Darlene drew herself up with surprising agility, until her back rested against the wall. Her one leg hooked in front of her stump. All over her body flaps of skin opened and closed like gaping maws. The rank smell intensified. My stomach lurched and I nearly heaved my dinner over the floor.
"You know what's to blame for this shitty situation?" she asked us. "My retched luck, my curse. It started long before I ever met either of you, so don't you presume to be the cause of it." A tear welled up in her eye and dropped glistening and clear into the deep groove in her cheek.
"My lady…" said Wally, then stopped himself.
"I don't want to die," she said, and for a moment her voice was clear and young. "I'm forty-four years old, Wally. Even for a human that's young. My parents are still alive, even though they are the stupidest mouth breathers in existence. You think you two are the first people to turn my life to shit? Those two have you beat."
I hung my head. Weirdly enough, listening to Darlene rant about her parents was more uncomfortable than having her accuse me. I felt pity for her and that made me feel even shittier about my part in making her life unbearable.
"I should have known that Nadette was lying. When has anyone ever held their promises to me. They are all liars, using me for their own aims, the self-serving assholes. Even Abram. He talks of charity, but he just wants as much money and… everything else… he can squeeze out of me before he ships me back to Portland Protectorate, barely functioning, to face the wrath of the vampires back there."
Wally's face went through a slow collapse. "I'm just a human, but I'll do what I can for you. I brought George back to you - we can do what we planned - contact Chauncey and he can smooth things out for you the way he did before --"
"Chauncey pitied me," Darlene interrupted. "He kept me alive when the others would have put me down for being defective. But even he has his selfish side. For fifteen years I did all his grunt work, every nasty job, every obligation that he didn't feel like doing himself. The day I asked to be released - to finally walk on my own two feet as a full fledged Vampire and not some orphaned childe - he made me …"
She stopped and sobbed. We waited, not daring to prompt her more.
"He made me forget his face, forget our times together. I can remember everything about the clubs that he owns, all those annoying, boring tasks, but I can't remember the sound of his voice. I can barely remember what he's like. He was the closest thing I've ever had to a father - certainly that shit my mother married didn't count. My own sire only wanted me as an expendable weapon. He made me in a week. A week, then went on to make others just like me, like some fucking assembly line. Defective canon fodder for the fucking Coup. I wasn't even supposed to live, I was just there to protect the important vampires, take the bullets instead of them. I was nineteen years old expected to die for a fucking three-century-old abomination I didn't even know. But I lived. Despite him."
She paused in her babbling long enough to take a deep breath. "But he still spites me every day. I can't marry or have children, I can't even sire a childe. I'm not human and Vampires look down on me. I can't even keep myself alive without… fucking …charity." She slammed her hand against the mattress with a resounding thump.
Then she turned and glared at me again. "All people ever do is fuck up my life, George, so don't go thinking you're anything special to me."
"I'm sorry," I said, sincerely. Why the fuck had I thrown up on her? Such a small stupid act. She hadn't done anything to deserve it.
"I tell you this, not because I want you to pity me," said Darlene turning to Wally. "I say this because my bad luck doesn't end with me. And I know better than anyone how fucking unfair your situation is, and if I could do anything about it I would. But I can't. You fucked me over, Wally, but you did it with the best of intentions. You are maybe my most loyal human -- isn't that a sad statement? You brought your own lover back to me, so that I can use him as a tool to dig myself out of this latrine I've been dumped in. You don't deserve what I've done to you, anymore than I deserved what you did to me." She laughed. It was bitter and horrible.
"My lady?" asked Wally, confused. I wasn't. I knew something like this was up. My gut clamped down like vise.
"You don't think Abram is just letting me feed off his harem for nothing. I had to pay, Wally. Quid pro quo. You were the only harem I had in the neighborhood. I had to give you to him."
"You what?!"
"Still sympathetic? Still loyal?" Her eyes went wide. "I can use George to butter my way back into Chauncey's good graces, but it's not going to do either of you any good. I'll be going home in a week, healed as I can make myself on the weak sour blood that Abram allows me, and I'll take my 'driver' with me. But you, Wally, are staying here." She rubbed her face with the palm of her single hand. "Crap, I even thought I was doing my harem a favor, you're home business is more portable than anyone else's on my payroll. It was the practical decision."
The door opened up, Rose had a fresh pitcher of water in her hand. Abram stood at the door and nodded while she went and put it on a table within the taped zone. Darlene watched with obvious longing, but she didn't stir a muscle. We were all quiet until Rose had had time to retreat back behind the line, taking a deep breath of relief. Once she withdrew, Darlene spang. Her movements were so fast that I could barely see them. Darlene had the pitcher hooked in her arm and was guzzling down the water, in huge, throat stretching swallows. When the water was half-drunk, she put the pitcher back on the table with surprising dexterity. She then closed her eyes and turned her head away from us. She seemed to collapse into an inanimate heap.
"Fuck," I breathed, making sure I was well behind the yellow line.
"You are upset, Walter," Abram stated. "Did your patron tell you about our arrangement?" I swore I saw some amusement in his sympathetic smile.
"Sir," said Wally. He looked desperately at Abram, then at Darlene and then at me. "Sir," he said to Abram again, "Please. I'll be happy to make up for the meals that my Lady has taken from your harem, but when I'm done, please let me go home. Please, promise me, I can go home."
"That would be extremely impractical, it would take months."
"Sir, then let it take months. Months is nothing. But don't make it forever. I'm in love. Don't separate me. That would be cruel. Darlene can send for someone else."
Darlene snorted.
Abram wrapped an arm around Wally's shoulders. "I would never be cruel to you. Let's leave Darlene to heal. We will discuss this upstairs." Wally followed him meekly. I had no idea if that was because Abram was pulling his string or if he truly was that resigned.
Rose caught my arm in the hall as I attempted to follow along. "Best to let our Lord deal with it," she said.
"He's my boyfriend. I think I should have some say."
"If you want him that bad, request to stay here with us." Rose made it sound obvious. But damn it, I couldn't. I hadn't left Chicago just to be trapped in Serenity. I wanted to go home. But I wanted to go home to be with Wally, and if Wally wasn't going to be there… This was fucked up.
Without letting go of my arm, Rose turned around to darken the room behind us and close and lock the door on Darlene.
"Shouldn't you leave the light on at least?" I asked. It seemed cruel to leave Darlene alone, chained in a pitch-black room.
"Lord Abram says it's better for Vampires to be in the dark when they heal. Instinct or something."
"Oh." I had no idea how vampires functioned.
We stood there in the hall awkwardly, not really looking at each other, not able to go anywhere either. The moment I started towards the stairs, Rose tightened her grip on my arm again and shook her head. "Not yet. Abram will let me know."
"He's taking his fucking time."
"Hush," said Rose, completely scandalized. After another tediously long minute she broke the silence again. "You were at Nadette's party weren't you?"
Cautiously, I admitted, "Yeah."
Rose was asking a question: "Was a Lord Jeffrey one of her guests?"
My whole body tensed up like I'd been shocked. "Yes," I managed to be non-committal. Was he close enough on my trail that Abram's staff would have picked him up? Of course, Jeffery knew where I was. He knew about the Motel 6, following the Townie's trail through the various check points was even simpler than following a debit card trail. But had he figured out what I was up to? Would he keep quiet about me? Or blow my cover sky high? "Why do you ask?"
"He called, but he didn't leave a message. Do you think he knows we are hiding Darlene?"
I felt instant relief that Rose hadn't figured it out yet, but the worry didn't go away. My secret wasn't going to remain that way for long. I knew it in my bones.
Maybe Jeffrey can help, I thought for a moment, then I dismissed it. Jeffrey might have reason to spring me from this hellhole, but what possible motivation would he have to steal someone else's rightful harem? Would he even understand why I wanted to be with Wally? After all, vampires kept bloody harems. The idea of me having a single special lover might not even make sense to him. And even if it did, the one lesson I'd learned really fucking well this trip is that Vampires didn't give a crap about what their humans wanted: if it interfered in any way with a Vampires agenda, humans could just go suck a lemon.
I couldn't let Wally go. Everything else, yes. But not Wally. I couldn't rely on vampires to help. Fuck Darlene - she couldn't even save herself right now, I couldn't expect her to raise a finger for me. Fuck Chauncey Towers, I'd never even met the guy, but he sounded like a self-important prick. Why would he give a rip about either of us? No, We were on our own. Wally and I were going to have to run - this time I'd do it better. We'd hike ourselves up to Lincoln somehow and search in earnest for the resistance - or lacking that, make our resistance.
"Abram says we can go up now and he apologizes for keeping us in the hall." I shook my head and realized Rose was talking to me. She didn't seem to notice my inattentiveness. "Come on," she said. "Wally's back in his room. And I still need to make up a room for you."
"Don't bother," I said quickly. "Wally and I can share."
"The bed is really tiny."
"I'll sleep on the floor then."
Rose twisted her lips, then shrugged. "I can get you some extra bedding."
I flopped forward with relief. "Thank you."
Rose looked sad. "I am sympathetic, you know. I don't want you thinking I'm not. But it just all seems kind of futile to me. Why fight it?" And without waiting for my answer she stepped lightly but quickly up the stairs.
Why fight it? Why fight it? Because that's the George Handle way of getting things done, that's why.
Wally was sitting in bed with his knees tucked under his chin. His face was blank and his eyes staring out unseeingly at the picture of Jesus on the wall. He glanced at me briefly as I walked in but then went back to his thoughts.
I hesitated only a moment, then climbed up onto the bed next to him and put an arm across his back. There. If he needed to talk, or if he didn't want to, either way, I was here for him. For about fifteen minutes we just sat in silence. Then Wally spoke.
"I screwed up. I'm sorry."
"You didn't screw up."
"You were right. I was wrong. I should never have brought you here."
"You had no idea. Neither of us did."
Wally shook his head, "You were worried -"
"About myself not about you. I was being selfish. This was the way to go, the only way at the time. You couldn't have known." I rubbed his back gently. He reached back and caught my hand and held it tightly.
Silence descended for another five minutes. My leg was starting to fall asleep so I shifted position. That seemed to jar Wally out of his thoughts. "Tomorrow I have to go to Abram. He let me have tonight off because we'd had sex earlier and he could still smell my, uh, discharge on you. He ordered me not to make love to you again until after he'd fed so that I can be fresh… for him…."
I leaned over and kissed his shoulder. "Vampiric smell. I guess that explains how Lady Darlene knew we were lovers. It's okay."
"I don't want to sleep with him-"
"I know you don't."
"-I want to sleep with you, be with you, I want to be faithful, but I can't."
"I know," I repeated. "It's vampires. They don't count."
Wally looked at me. "Abram told me that when you leave with Darlene, he'll erase my memories of you, so I won't miss you. He thinks that will solve the problem and make me happy." With one arm he reached and hooked me around the neck, pulling me so that we huddled, forehead to forehead. "Don't leave me, Geo. Promise you won't leave me. I don't want to lose my memories of you. You're my best friend. I love you. I'd rather die than lose my memories."
"I'll never leave you," I breathed. I caught his hand again and squeezed it fiercely. Then we kissed, long and hard. "I'll think of something."
We didn't make love again that night, but we did lie together on that narrow bed and held each other. At some point, I rolled over and fitted myself in the pocket left by his larger curled body, and we both fell asleep, fully clothed, on top of the sheets, with the lights on. Spooning.
We slept until almost noon the next day. Rose finally got us up because the cook needed to know how many to make lunch for. After turns in the shower we joined Rose on a patio in the back of the property while Martha served us home-made meatball subs. The green lawn extended out farther than I'd ever seen a lawn stretch before, divided up in strategic areas for various gardens and fountains and gazebos with stepped retaining walls, layering down to a line of large trees. Through the branches thought I could see a dark line of water.
"You on a lake?" Wally asked. I'd been wondering the same thing. Though I'd driven here, I was still a bit sketchy on where "here" exactly was in the grand scheme of things.
"That would be the mighty Missouri River. Not hugely mighty at the moment, but after a good storm the water sometimes comes as far up as the garden. We had a pretty dry winter so right now you could probably go down to the banks and toss a stone across." Rose sat back in the wicker chair and took a sip of sweet herbal tea through a straw. "Back in '93 it came up all the way past the house - and just sat there forever," she rolled her eyes dramatically. "Total loss, the house had to be rebuilt from scratch. I was like four, though. I don't remember a thing."
"What's on the other side?"
"Missouri. We're pretty close to Kansas City. I sometimes go in there for supplies and stuff, with our Lords permission, of course. I've even been to Lady Nadette's place a couple of times carrying our Lord's work. It's very ostentatious, don't you think?"
"I guess," said Wally, "We didn't see that much of it. The fight happened not long after we arrived." I bit my tongue to keep from adding to the story. I was just the "driver."
Rose nodded. "That's what Darlene said. She was attacked almost the moment she came through the door - that's just such… bad manners!" Rose's eyes were alight. I'm not sure what it is with girls and gossip, but she obviously was on the edge of her seat with the need to spread some. "When I'm down there I'm always on my best behavior, but the way they look at me like I'm dirt or something. Such snobs, I swear. I don't like going down there, but, you know, sometimes you have to."
I kept my thoughts to myself, but looked her over. Rose would not have fit in at the party. Sure she was fashionably thin and quite young, but despite that, her face was just wasn't beautiful. Too square, too thin lipped, too big a nose: pick a feature and there was something imperfect about it. And yet she wasn't unattractive either, just normal. And she was obviously Abram's full time harem. More than that - she seemed to be his right hand woman. If she was the best Abram could find, I could understand why he might be so keen to have Wally in his harem. Abram must be more than normally hard up. On that thought, Stan's words from the greyhound came back to me. See a vamp fawning on some ordinary pimply eighteen year old, best thing you do is find some reason to be elsewhere. I shuddered. Wally and I hadn't gotten to see Abram's bad side.
Wally gave a short version of what he'd witnessed at the party, leaving out anything to do with my role there. Rose nodded sagely from time to time, though it was clear she didn't know as much as she wanted to let on. She didn't seem to understand what Nadette's beef with Darlene was, and Wally and I were just as happy to leave it that way. "Personality clash, I guess," Rose speculated. "Vampires can be crazy scary, trust me. I'm so glad I got one of the good ones protecting me."
I looked meaningfully at Wally, but he didn't pick it up, so I just shook my head. How bad does a vampire have to be before his Harem will call him something other than 'one of the good ones.' And then my stomach soured around the meal I'd just eaten because the answer came back, blatant and obvious. Never, that's what mind control is for.
Sobered, I listened in as Rose described as best she could what she knew of Lady Darlene's escape.
"She apparently jumped a fence at the edge of Lady Nadette's estate and found a highway below her. There were like twenty vampires - I'm not kidding! - on her trail not even one second behind her, so she did the only thing she could possibly do. She jumped so far out into traffic, she landed bang bang into the back of a yard debris truck. Well, this driver he hears this thud, he does the smart thing to do -- he slows down -- but then he goes and sees all these vampires running along behind him and shee-it he jams on the gas so hard Darlene said they must have hit a hundred miles per hour.
"When he pulled over like 10 minutes later, Darlene got him. She said she must have taken half his blood right out of his body. Luckily for her he had a partner, because that man could not drive anymore. So Darlene, she snuggles right up between the guy she drained and his partner and she forced them to drive. They didn't know where they were going, and neither did she, so they kinda stumbled into our town. Officer Dan caught 'em at the check stop. And the rest was like you see. It was the most exciting thing to hit this town in 10 years."
"Was the driver okay?" Wally asked.
"Oh, yeah. He rested up in the clinic, until Abram had a chance to edit his mind. Then we sent them on with instructions to take it easy and to forget all about it. I don't know how Lord Jeffrey figured it out, but maybe he caught a license plate as they sped away or something."
I shifted uncomfortably.
Rose powered on. "Abram will find some way to throw him off, don't worry. This is our Lord's territory and he don't get intimidated by big city vampires."
Thankfully after that the conversation changed to safer topics. Rose promised to show me the washer and dryer in the house so I could wash my own clothes as needed. Abram was not planning on spending a dime more on me than he had to. He probably begrudged the food I was eating. Wally, she'd take into town later to find all the stuff that he needed until they had a chance to contact the movers to pack up his things and have them trucked over. Then they'd hit the store and buy the foods Wally liked, and maybe go and look at some of the new houses being built, though Wally could, of course, live at Abram's indefinitely if he liked. The difference in her treatment of me and Wally was glaring, but at least understandable. Wally was "us" and I was "them".
I was not invited on the outing, so I spent the rest of the day wandering around. I explored the house and grounds while waiting for the my jeans and shirt to be washed. Then I changed back into my more fashionable duds and took a long walk down the road to see what I could find. No one stopped me. I barely even saw anyone.
By four that afternoon, I'd all but given up on the notion of running away on foot. It took nearly an hour to walk to the end of the "block," which was demarked only by one semi-paved road intersecting with another. The crops in the field were the same - rows and rows of something all uniformly 8 inch high. I could see for miles in all directions, and it all looked depressingly the same.
I turned around and walked back to Abram's house, arriving in time for Martha to come back with the groceries for dinner. It was going to be barbeque ribs - Wally's favorite. The wooing was in full force. Wally and Rose returned somewhat later, laden down with bags of clothes and toiletries, snacks. I could hear Roses laugher all the way down the hall and wondered what the hell was so funny.
"Did she buy you a car," I asked somewhat snidely, somewhat hopefully, when Rose left us alone briefly.
"I wish," said Wally. "But I think they know I'd be out of here so fast their heads would spin." He eyed me suspiciously. "Jealous?"
"Hardly," I scoffed. Yes.
"Don't be," said Wally. "It's tough pretending everything's copasetic when all you want to do scream obscenities. I hate this place already. And I think Rose thinks she's going to marry me." He shuddered. "It's going to take a lot of mind control to make that happen."
He suddenly pulled his cell phone out of his back pocket. "They have a cell tower in town, so I was able to finally get some reception. Had to go into the toilet or a dressing room to get any privacy. Rose thinks I'm a clothes hound with a weak bladder." He fingered his way through a bunch of apps, then handed the phone to me. "Read this."
I looked at the screen. It was an email.
Heard your sitch via forum, think me and my friends can help. We can't get into Serenity, that bitch is tight. If you can get over the border to any other protectorate, email me @ Thwel42tYk@hotmail. This email good only for 1 week so don't fuck around. We can get a driver to your area in @ an hour give/take and vamoose you to safe place. Put email into your addressbook and erase this message. Tell no one, don't be stupid.
"The resistance," I said, excitedly.
"A resistance," said Wally. "Sounds like a couple of local guys."
"Well, good enough for me. How far away is the border?"
But the conversation stopped abruptly there. Rose barged in without knocking. "Thought you could use some help." Even though Wally told her "no" as politely as he could, she then unhelpfully hung out with us until dinnertime. By then, everything had changed.
I can pinpoint exactly when things went sour. It happened just a few minutes into supper - a phone rang. Rose quickly stopped her gossip and wiped her mouth, she then went into the kitchen to answer it. To our surprise she didn't return immediately to the table. She past us walking in a little half-walk, half run around the corner to the stairs going to the basement. Her face was grim. We heard her feet pounding down the steps, a door open and shut, then nothing for a surprisingly long time.
Wally and I continued to eat dinner, but we were both on edge. Wally wanted to discuss our running away plans and we made a half hearted attempt texting messages to each other using his phone, but Martha kept walking in and out of the kitchen and we quickly gave it up, lest we'd get caught being obviously sneaky.
Martha had cleaned up our dishes, but Rose hadn't come back. At loose ends, we excused ourselves to the cook and headed back to Wally's room. We were almost there when we heard a pounding down the hall and there was Rose, somewhat breathless. She looked relieved when she saw the both of us there. Her eyes went to me first.
And that's the moment I knew the jig was up. They knew who I was.
She didn't admit it. Instead she said, "Our lord would like you two to go to your room for a little bit. He'll be in to see you in a moment."
"Isn't he normally in devotions now?" Wally asked.
Rose froze as though she wasn't sure what to do. "Please, just get into your room. Lord Abram will explain in a minute."
We should run. I thought. But how far could we go before Abram runs us down? The answer seemed obvious: Not far enough.
Wally made my mind up by walking the extra couple of feet to the bedroom. I joined him and Rose slammed the door on us and we both heard the lock twist. "Hey!" Wally yelled and rattled the knob. It didn't give. Of course, not.
"She locked us in!" he said to me, apoplectic. "What the hell?"
It was all too familiar for me so I just sat down on the bed, shaking my head when Wally pressed to know what I did.
We didn't have long to wait. The key turned and Abram entered the room. He had with him all the confirmation I ever needed in the form of a black electronic brick the size of a power supply with a circular finger slot in one end. Oh fuck it. I closed my eyes and held out a finger, feeling him slip the thing around it. I hissed at the momentary sting, then withdrew my finger knowing the damage was done.
Abram said nothing. He just stood there for the two minutes while the Taster did its thing. When it chimed, he shook his head and then looked at me with some exasperation. I expected him to demand some explanation, or question how I was able to lie to him, but he did neither. He turned around and locked the door on us again.
It was the better part of an hour before Rose returned. Her face was ashen when she opened the door. "Lord Abram wants to see you in the Western Room." Her eyes were solely on me, but she said nothing. I got the feeling she thought I was in deep trouble and was afraid that it might rub off somehow on her.
Abram was sitting on the same couch he'd used before. He watched us approach quietly, his hands touching fingertip to fingertip in a way that reminded me very much of a disapproving teacher. "Sit," he commanded.
Now we get to see his dark side, I thought, wincing.
"I have no dark side," Abram said to me, and to Wally, "I have no intentions of harming George."
Wally swallowed. He wasn't used to Vampires being able to read his mind. Lady Darlene's disability had given him a false sense of privacy.
"I have some very bad news to inform the two of you," he said, despite this he had a very thin, ironic smile. "I'm afraid, sometime during the day, Darlene succumbed to her injuries. She is with us no more."
I jerked with surprise. What the hell was this? What happened. Wally put a hand over his mouth, horror and grief played across his face. He was in as deep a shock as I was.
"But -- how?" said Wally. "She was healing. Why would she die now?"
Abram's eyes kept a steady gaze on both of us. "She was on the edge the entire time she was here, and she was weak even before she was injured. It is the common way for vampires to die - when the cost of healing injuries exceeds the vampires limited energy reserves. It can happened suddenly. She was not in pain." His voice sounded very sincere and I found myself curiously reassured.
"She never formalized my transfer from her to you," said Wally, suddenly certain. "That has to be witnessed. You didn't want anyone knowing that she was here --"
"Walter," said Abram. "You are in my territory without a patron. You are mine. No vampire is going to protest it." His smile grew more genuine. "When I have had a chance to take you in my arms, I will lay your doubts aside, and you will realize -"
"I want to see her," said Wally standing up. He was shaking with rage and fear. I was deathly afraid for him for a moment. Every instinct told me that Abram didn't take well with open defiance.
Abram's eyes flared with anger for the first time. But then he simply nodded. "Loyalty is an admirable trait, Walter. Come with me, you may view her body."
We were lead down the stairs and to the end of the hall. The light in Darlene's room, dim as it was, had been left on, and I could see her lying still, laid out flat on her back with her single arm draped across her ruined breast. Her eyes were closed, her mouth lay slackly open. Her fangs for once looked almost like ordinary teeth, just slightly longer and more pointed.
I hesitated at the edge of the taped section, then stepped past it. Darlene didn't move. Wally was ahead of me, kneeling at the edge of the bed. He took her hand and brought it to his lips, tears streaming down his face. He loved her, I realized. Maybe she forced it on him, maybe she earned it, but he really did love her.
Then I totally forgot about that line of thought because I spotted the "what is wrong with this picture" clue. Wally noticed my horrified expression and was momentarily confused, then he happened to look down at Darlene's hand and saw the two deep punctures in her wrist - perfectly proportioned for a man's fangs. That's what my arms would look like if I hadn't healed up after each vampire attack. Darlene hadn't had a chance to heal. She'd died with someone's fangs still embedded in her flesh.
Abram had murdered her.
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