Seer: Thrall (25 page)

Solange leaned down behind me. "Just a dream, Sidney."

"Not just a dream! That girl died, Solange."

"For you, it is just a dream. You're alive and safe."

I shook my head, not responding to that. "I ran. I couldn't run very well with my arms bound, but she let me run down the road. Then suddenly I ran right into her. 'Oh no. I caught you. Now I get to bite you.' She bent me backwards terribly, pulling me off my feet, and then she sank her fangs into my shoulder." I looked up at Solange. "She was cruel. It wasn't like when you do it."

"Your shoulder?"

"Yes." I touched myself. "It hurt like hell. She only drank for a minute. The entire time I was screaming into the gag. Then she thrust me away and said, 'Round two. Run!' She was wiping my blood from her mouth when she said it. She wasn't very careful."

"She couldn't drink an adult dry in one sitting," Solange said. "She would be gorged with two pints. If she intended to kill her victim, she wouldn't care about waste."

"So I ran, and she caught me. She bit the other side that time. The third time she caught me, she literally ripped my jeans from me then held me on the ground and bit the inside of my leg. She didn't heal any of the wounds, so I kept bleeding. The fifth time she caught me..."

I closed my eyes again. "She raped me. With her hands." I started crying in earnest. "The worst part is, she was gentle, and she spoke soothingly, like you would to a lover. But then she... she bit me. Down there."

I sat there quietly for a while, drying my tears. When next I spoke, it was woodenly. "I lost track of how many times she let me go, how many times she bit me. Eventually she freed my hands, suggesting I run faster. But finally I couldn't run anymore, and I just wanted it to be over. I... I gave up, I guess, and that's when she finished it. She was laughing when I died." I looked up at Solange and screamed, "She was laughing, Solange! Laughing at what she did to me."

I slammed my eyes shut and withdrew into myself. They gave me a minute, but then Aubree pulled my hands from around my knees and asked gently, "Do you remember what it was like? Trees? Desert?"

"Trees," I said. "The road was narrow, very, very narrow. It was steeply uphill on one side. Mountains? It was dark."

Solange moved around me and sat on the coffee table. She picked up one of the photos and held it facing me. "Bistra has a large home in the mountains of Kentucky," Solange said. She tapped the photo. "It's an hour or two from Louisville."

"It's her."

"Yes," Solange said. "It's her."

"Will you help me destroy her?"

"No. You will help me."

"What do you need me to do?"

"I can't go against her directly, Sidney. I'm sorry, but I can't. She is far more powerful than I am, and she would destroy me as easily as any of her other victims. We require subterfuge."

"I bet she doesn't have a seer."

"I bet you're right. It may be very distressing, but if you want to destroy her, we need to learn more." She paused. "Did you ever get a look at the victim?"

"No."

"We don't have to do this, Sidney."

"Yes, we do."

"You don't need to have these dreams."

"She's a monster. Sun Tzu said, 'Know your enemy'."

"It's going to be bad, Sidney."

"I know."

She paused. "All right." She turned to Aubree. Aubree glanced at her, then moved forward and pulled me into a hug. I clutched at her for a minute, trying to calm down a little further.

"If you want someone to talk to, and don't want to talk to Solange, you can talk to me," she whispered into my ear. "If this gets to be too much, there's no shame in telling us."

"Thank you," I replied.

We held each other for another moment, and then, without another word, she slipped away. I watched her as she walked from the library. I turned back to Solange.

"Sidney, I would like some of your blood."

"Where?"

"I would prefer your room, but we can do it here if you want."

I thought about it. "Will you be making me sleep after?"

"Yes. And dream."

"About her?"

"Yes."

"I'll go get ready for bed," I said. "Give me a few minutes."

"All right."

* * * *

Solange slipped into the bed, cradling me from behind. It was my idea. "I can make this slow or fast," she said. "I won't always want to offer you the choice, but you're going to have a bad dream tonight."

"Fast," I said. "And no pleasure, if you can control it."

"It will hurt if I do it that way. I don't want to hurt you, Sidney. Let me do it my way."

"Fine," I said, "but not like last time."

"No, not like last time."

We settled in, and she adjusted me until she could reach my neck.

"No more foreplay than necessary," I said.

She didn't give me any warning. Suddenly her fangs plunged into me, and I gasped. We both stilled. I panted and hissed from the pain, but then she sucked, just once, and the pleasure arrived, driving the pain away.

She only took a few swallows, and then I felt her tongue bathing the wound, delivering more pleasure. I slumped weakly against her, still panting, but this time from the pleasure. And then she stilled, lifting her head from me, and we both shifted around until I lay against her, my head against her shoulder, our cheeks touching.

"Will you stay with me?" I asked softly.

"Yes. I brought a book."

She slipped out from behind me then helped me settle in. I lay on my side, and she sat in a chair next to the bed. "Look into my eyes. I'm not going to capture you right away. Just listen to what I say." I nodded and stared at her eyes.

"I want you to dream about Bistra Miladinova. I want you to be her. I want you to see through her eyes. If you can, I want to know what she is thinking. What she is feeling. But I want to know what she is seeing. Can you do that?"

"Some of it. Sometimes I know the thoughts of the people I am with, especially surface thoughts."

"This is going to be bad, Sidney. I want you to see her victims."

"No."

"I have a plan, Sidney. But you need to see the victims, and you need to remember them well enough to describe them."

"Why?"

"We're going to get drawings."

I took a deep breath and held it for a moment. "All right. But please be here. Please don't leave me." I shoved the tears away, but there was little I could do about the fear.

"I'll be right here, Sidney."

"Thank you. I'm going to be a basket case." I closed my eyes for a moment, then opened them and stared into her eyes again. "Ready."

She captured me nearly immediately, and I felt my body relax.

"That feels good," I whispered. "Everything you do feels good."

"I'm glad," she said. But then she cocked her head, and I felt the rest of my thoughts disappear. "Sidney, you are going to dream. You will be Bistra Malidinova. She is a very ancient vampire from Macedonia, and she speaks with a Slavic accent. You have seen her before. You have heard her voice before. You are going to be her as she takes a girl walking home late at night. You are going to see the girl. You are going to see her face. You are going to see her eyes. You are going to see her fear." Solange went on and on for a while, then she said, "Now sleep, and dream."

* * * *

I stood under a street light, watching carefully. I could see into the shadows. Everything was so sharp and clear, even in the deepest of shadows, although the colors seemed a little strange, perhaps like a photograph in which someone has played with the color balance in Photoshop.

Groups of college students walked by, small groups, a few large groups. I moved into the shadows as they approached, and they never noticed me.

A young man approached. He was big and wearing an athletic jacket. I considered him carefully. He would be a challenge.

I enjoyed a challenge.

But as he grew closer, I could smell the beer. It was rancid, and I knew I wouldn't want that smell filling my nose when my mouth was over his neck. I let him pass. If he saw me, it was barely in passing. There was a time I wouldn't have noticed, a time when bathing was considered unhealthy. Now, an unwashed body disgusted me.

A few more groups passed me. A pair of lovers walked past, holding hands. I thought about taking them both. It would be delicious to make the girl watch as I took her boy. I could smell the scent of sex wafting off of them, and I wondered where they'd made love. I could take them both. It would be easy.

But if one ran, I might be forced to kill one, right here, and I never left the bodies where someone could find them. That was dangerous.

I let them walk on, feeling disappointment. Maybe another night. Maybe I'd find them another night. I could follow them home and take them, one at a time. That would have been safer.

But I didn't follow. I waited. There would be another. College students were so stupid, after all, walking these streets during my time, during the deep of the night that belonged to me. The night belonged to me!

My patience was rewarded. A woman was walking towards me. I let her see me, and she slowed, but she saw it was another woman, and she must have decided I wasn't a threat.

Stupid human. Doesn't she recognize a predator when she sees one?

She smiled as she drew closer.

"It's a poor night to be out alone," I said to her. She slowed for a moment but averted her gaze and kept walking. She strode right past me, stepping from the curb into the street, and that's when I swarmed behind her, wrapping my arms around her, pulling her backwards.

She tried to scream, but I had my hand over her mouth before she could make a sound. She struggled against me, animal sounds coming from her throat, and she panted rapidly through her nose.

"It's a good night to die," I said into her ear. "Maybe I won't kill you. Maybe I'll make you my slave."

I dragged her further backwards, out from under the streetlight. She struggled, but I didn't let her regain her feet. I made sure her heels dragged along the sidewalk. I kept her back arched, keeping her off balance.

Her struggles excited me, and I could smell the fear radiating from her.

Oh, I loved that smell.

That was when I moved my hand, pinching her nose shut while still holding her mouth. I continued to drag her backwards while blocking her breath.

She renewed her struggles. She tried to kick me, but I kept moving further down the street towards the waiting car. She tried to yank my hand from her mouth, but of course, I didn't let her.

Then she grew weaker and weaker until she slumped in my arms. I held her for another ten careful seconds before I removed my hand.

She wasn't breathing, so I shifted her, and I breathed air into her, inflating her lungs, and after a moment, she was breathing on her own again.

I picked her up and carried her the rest of the way to the car.

I had gotten a good look. She was pretty. Not ravishing pretty, not a real beauty, but pretty. Young and innocent and very naïve. She wouldn't be naïve much longer.

I set her down at the back of the car. I took another look at her slack face. I considered putting her in the back seat, waking her up, and then telling her if she pleased me, I wouldn't kill her. Then I could rape her.

That would have been fun.

I shook my head. No. I wanted more excitement than that. I popped the trunk open, dropped her in, and rolled her onto her stomach. Rope was waiting for me, and I tied her hands and legs. I was careful and thorough. I was always careful and thorough. Then I rolled her onto her side, securing her that way, and checked her breathing.

She was fine.

I slipped the leather harness over her head, buckling the straps securely, then shoved the gag into her mouth and secured it to the harness. Ah, humans. What will they invent next?

I considered my choices. The dark was frightening, but seeing where she was could be frightening, too. I decided to play with her, and I grabbed several flashlights, turning them on and leaving them spread around the trunk, wedging them into place so they wouldn't roll around too much.

I slammed the trunk closed and walked to the front of the car. I smiled at the sight of a parking ticket on the windshield. "Oops. Maybe I shouldn't have parked in front of a fire hydrant."

The dream fast-forwarded. We were in the rough mountains, now far from Louisville, and deeply secluded. I'd driven the last ten miles without the headlights, and no one would have seen us. I brought the car to a stop.

During the drive, I'd considered my choices. I thought of taking her home, of making her into my cute little pet. I could bite her. I could make her beg for me to bite her. I could make her worship me.

But I still had those other four, and Danette could be especially jealous. I really should just bleed her dry, but she was just so clever with her tongue, and her words were so sweet. I loved when she begged me to hurt her. I loved when she screamed, but then begged for more.