Read Online The Blood That Bonds by Christopher Buecheler - Free Book Online Page B

was
the effect of immortality.
    He smiled, shook his head. “No.”
    “ Just you?”
    “ Just me.”
    She looked up at him from the bed, let her
eyes tell him that if the chair was uncomfortable, other
arrangements could be made. Theroen laughed out loud.
    “ Oh, if only I could, Two.
But I haven’t the time that I’d like to spend.”
    Two frowned in disappointment, but accepted
this without comment. They had forever, perhaps.
    “ Perhaps?”
    “ Are you reading my mind?”
She questioned, a mischievous grin surfacing, pretending to be
offended. “Is that another crazy thing you can do?”
    Theroen smiled. “Your mind is a fascinating
place. I find it hard to draw away.”
    “ Where are you going? Why
can’t you stay with me?” She had meant it as another playful
question; the spurned, jealous lover. Another game, nothing more,
but she saw a momentary flick of something on Theroen’s face.
Frustration? Anger?
    He sighed, examined his fingernails.
“Abraham requires my services. I would must do ask he asks,
particularly now.”
    “ Why?”
    Theroen looked up at her, the expression of
one in love stamped clearly on his face, eyes locked again with
hers.
    “ He didn’t kill
you.”
    “ Did you think he
would?”
    “ I did not
know.”
    Theroen looked away from her, ran a hand
through his hair. It seemed that this admission, more than any
other, hurt him. Two tried to understand the reason for his pain.
She reached out, touched his hand, drew it between her breasts,
held it against her heart.
    “ I did not know. Two. I
have not feared anything, at all, in centuries. Not even Abraham.
Nothing alive, nothing undead. Not until we approached his chamber.
And to see you in his arms? Under his spell? Terror.
Terror.”
    “ He couldn’t hurt me, in
the end, you know. That’s what he wanted, and I didn’t give it to
him. I wasn’t thinking of him at all.”
    “ No?”
    “ No.” She sat up, leaned
forward, kissed his lips. “I was thinking about someone
else.”
    Theroen touched her cheek, touched her hair,
held her head in his hands, kissed the skin of her forehead.
    “ That comforts me,” he said
at last, “and you make me regret heeding Abraham’s summons this
night. There is much else I would rather be doing.”
    Two smiled at this. It echoed her own
thoughts.
    “ Go, then. Do what he wants
and come back soon.”
    “ So quick to dismiss me?”
It was Theroen’s turn, mock hurt in his voice, a grin on his
lips.
    “ I’m afraid if I don’t, I’m
going to jump you whether you like it or not.”
    Theroen laughed, deep and rich, and stood up
to go. But Two called him back. One last kiss, long and deep this
time, and during, Two bit deep into her own lip, felt the blood
seep from the wound, shared it with him. The taste of it was like
fire, like nectar, like life and death and dreams.
    And oh, how those mental ties to humanity
seemed like candles in a strong wind, blinking out of existence,
one after the other.
     
    * * *
     
    Pain lanced through Two’s midsection,
stomach knotting, muscles cramping. She sat up, doubled over,
gasped. In the depths of her body, a need that had nothing to do
with blood, nothing to do with her new nature, reawakened.
    Heroin, the pain cried out to her, and Two
felt tears standing out against her eyes, thought these themselves
felt dry and burned. No. This was over. This was her past. She had
left this behind.
    Another spasm. Another cramp. Two cried out,
arms wrapped around her stomach, Abraham’s words coming back to
her.
    “ She is
unclean. ”
    Theroen’s protest, that the change, her
rebirth into immortality, would cleanse this need from her.
Abraham’s deceptive chuckle.
    Suppose it didn’t? Suppose now she would be
trapped in this addiction for the duration of her immortal life?
Two thought that if this were the case, such a life would end more
quickly than expected.
    And so it went. Two could not remember when
Theroen had left her, could not remember how