Seer: Thrall (26 page)

I wasn't ready to replace her, but I couldn't put up with her pouting.

So no, this one would be a one-night-stand. A fling for the evening.

I climbed from the car and moved to the trunk.

"Please don't make me watch!" I said in my head. "Please don't make me watch! Please don't make me watch!"

I opened the trunk and stared down at the girl. She began screaming into the gag, and I smiled.

"Please don't make me watch!" I screamed in my head.

Thankfully, mercifully, the dream heard me. It skipped ahead, and I was carrying the girl's lifeless body through the woods. I moved quickly; to human eyes, it would have been a blur. We came to an abandoned homestead, the building crumpled in upon itself. The barn was even worse, but we moved inside anyway. I dropped the girl then bent down and peeled a plywood cover from a dark, dank hole.

"I brought you some company," I said down into the hole.

Then I tugged on the girl's arms and flung her into the dark, smiling as her body made a sick "thunk" down at the bottom. I covered the hole.

The dream fast-forwarded once more. I parked the car in the street again, but this time I was deep in suburbia. I turned to the right. I hadn't noticed the passenger before. It was a young man. I climbed from the car and then dragged the man into the driver's seat, propping him up carefully, the keys still in the ignition.

I patted his cheek.

"Your mother shouldn't have been so rude to me," she told him. "Thanks for the use of your car."

Then I shook him, and he woke, looking ahead blurrily. I turned his face towards me and caught his eyes instantly.

"You had a very nice night," I told him. "You picked up a girl near the college. You partied. She was really good. You don't remember the rest."

I still had the girl's panties. I held them up in front of the man's mouth. "Lick these and remember what she tasted like."

He obediently did what I ordered, and I made sure he got them good and wet before I took them away and shoved them under the car seat. "Sleep!" I ordered, and immediately it was light's out.

I closed the car door and began to walk away.

* * * *

"No! No! No! No! No!" I screamed. "Solange!"

She was right there, immediately right there, pulling me into her arms.

"Oh honey," she said. "Oh darling, you're safe. I've got you. You're safe."

"She's horrible. She's horrible! Promise me we'll get her. Promise me!"

I paused, then I was crying. "I was her. Oh god, I was her! Oh my god, how can anyone be that evil?" I began to gag with the memory. "I'm going to be sick!"

She didn't wait. She had me in the bathroom inside two heartbeats, and I retched into the toilet. Solange held my hair out of the way and crooned softly to me. I stayed there until there wasn't anything left, and still I knelt there as Solange held me gently.

Finally I sat back, trying to shove down the tears, then Solange helped me stand, and I turned to the sink and began rinsing the taste from my mouth.

That was when I started to cry. "I can still taste it."

"Here," Solange said. She turned me to her. Her fangs were out, and I thought she was going to offer me her wrist, but instead she bit a finger. "Open."

I opened obediently, and she stuck her finger into my mouth, smearing the drops of blood over my tongue.

As soon as the taste hit my taste buds, I grabbed her wrist and closed my mouth, sucking heavily. I only got a few drops, but it was enough to chase the other tastes away. And the taste of her blood calmed me, even if there wasn't enough for the bliss.

I didn't resist when she slowly pulled her finger from my mouth.

"Enough?"

I nodded. "Thank you." I paused. "You said you were a monster, long ago. Were you like that?"

"I don't know, Sidney."

"She was horrible! I want her staked!" I screamed the last few words.

Solange put her hands on my shoulders. "Look at me."

I looked everywhere but at her. She was patient, and slowly my wild eyes settled on her face.

"I need you to be strong. Can you be strong?" I nodded. "Aubree is downstairs. Someone is with her. We need to go down there. We're going to ask you questions. Can you do that?" I nodded. "If you start to panic, I'll help to calm you, but I want you to try to hold it together. You wanted to break your blood addiction, so giving you more isn't helping with that."

"I'll try."

"Come on."

She turned me around, wrapped an arm around my shoulder, and led me back into the bedroom. She had my robe already out, and she slipped it over my shoulders then slipped her arm around me again. I laid my head against her shoulder, and together we slowly made our way back down to the library.

Aubree was there in the library with another woman. There was a fire going, and they were both huddled over cups of tea. There was a deck of cards on the coffee table, and they were playing some game. They both turned to look as we stepped in. Their gazes were gentle and full of concern. As Solange led me closer, both women stood up.

"Sidney, this is Amanda Jaynes. Amanda, Sidney Welsh."

She extended her hand, and I shook it automatically. She had a firm grip, and when I looked at her hands, I saw they were stained with paint. "You're an artist."

She smiled and nodded. "I'm pleased to meet you. I know this is very upsetting."

I looked at Solange. "What does she know?"

"Everything. Amanda is one of mine. Indirectly."

"Indirectly?"

"She belongs directly to Cadence, who belongs to me." Cadence ran the law firm for Sidney. She was, of course, a vampire. "My point is we can trust her."

I looked back at Amanda. "You paint?"

"Yes, but tonight I draw. I have some experience with drawing for law enforcement."

"We're going to report her to the police?" I asked.

"No," said Solange. "But we need drawings. I know this will be difficult, Sidney."

I straightened, and I realized I was taller than Amanda. "Let's do it. Where are your pencils?"

"We don't use pencils anymore," she said. "My computer is in the car. I'll go get it." She stepped past me, and a moment later, Aubree followed after her.

Solange drew me to the sofa and sat down with me. She hadn't released me since we left my bedroom. I leaned against her. She turned her face and kissed the top of my head.

"Solange, she keeps slaves."

"I know."

"Does the thought of keeping slaves excite you? Do you wish you could make me worship you? Kneel in front of you. Beg you to hurt me?"

"No, Sidney. Those thoughts disgust me. Is that what you think of me?"

"I don't know what to think. Do all vampires think like her? Is that what they all want?"

"We are the people we always were. Our emotions are more extreme, just like our strength. But she is whoever she was as a human, only more so."

"You said you were a monster."

"I was, perhaps, an amateur monster, Sidney. In time, especially if I'd had more years during harsher periods in history, perhaps I would have become like that."

"But you didn't."

"No. I didn't." She tightened her arm. "I was lucky."

I nodded. There were teacups waiting. Solange released me and leaned forward, pouring for both of us. She handed me a steaming cup.

"It's hot," she warned.

I held it with both hands, grateful for the warmth. "I'm cold."

"Do you want a blanket?"

"I want you to warm me."

"Oh darling," she said. She wrapped her arms around me, pressing against me, and I leaned against her again.

"Thank you."

We sat quietly after that, and then there was noise from the doorway. I knew they were back. I didn't bother turning to look.

Amanda led the way. She was carrying a keyboard and a computer pad. It looked a little like a mouse pad, but I knew she would have various pens, and she would "draw" on the pad. Whatever she did on the pad would appear on the computer. I'd once had one, but having the tools of the trade doesn't make you an artist.

Aubree had the computer. I had to smile. I was a huge, 27-inch shining metal iMac. "Oh, you have good taste," I told Amanda.

"Only the best," she replied. "Cadence takes good care of me."

Solange scoffed. "You two take good care of each other. You love her at least as much as she loves you."

Aubree set the computer on the coffee table pointed towards me. It took the two of them a few minutes, but they got it set up.

I was disappointed they didn't ask me to help.

"This is the latest model," I said.

"Top of the line," Amanda replied.

"Mine is old." I turned to Solange.

She smiled. "You can afford your own. Would you like me to take you shopping tomorrow?"

"Yes." I paused. "We're going to do this more than once, aren't we?"

"Yes, probably."

I turned to Amanda. She was kneeling at the side of the coffee table, watching the computer go through its startup sequence. "Amanda, can you email Solange with whatever I need on my computer so you don't have to bring yours over all the time?"

She nodded. "But I'll need to come over and spend a few hours configuring everything. I like it just so. You understand."

I certainly did.

"All right," Amanda said. "Sidney and I need to sit together." She looked pointedly at Solange.

"Will you be okay, Darling?" she asked me. "Do you want a blanket?"

"Yes, and yes."

It was Aubree who flew from the room, nearly literally. Solange climbed from the sofa at a pace more akin to human speeds, and by the time Amanda was seated next to me, Aubree was draping a blanket about me. It was Solange who stepped in and tucked it around me firmly.

"Thank you."

"All right," Amanda said. "Who are we drawing?"

"Two people," Solange said. "The girl first."

"Three," I said. "There's a young man, too."

"The girl first," Solange said, and I nodded.

"Tell me about her," Amanda said.

"It's horrible," I said. "Are you sure? This isn't for an artist to hear."

"I've lived with Cadence for forty years," she said. "She is very good to me, but she is a vampire. We. Um. Play."

"Oh." I looked her up and down. She looked my age. "Forty years?"

"Isn't Solange sharing her blood with you?"

"Forty years?" I asked. I looked at Solange.

"I told you," she said. "It holds off aging."

"I'm sixty-seven," Amanda said. "She told me if I would drink more, I would hardly age at all, but it messes with my art."

"And Sidney," Solange added, "Cadence is a young vampire. If Amanda drank as much of my blood as she drinks of Cadence's, she might appear another ten years younger than she does."

I nodded. "Side issue tonight." But I looked up at Solange, standing behind me with her hands on my shoulders. "But you keep your finger handy."

"Her finger?" Aubree asked.

Solange held up an index finger. "I call this my magic finger of partner-calming."

"You just use one?" Aubree asked. She held up two fingers and then made a crude gesture with them. "Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but I'm pretty sure I'm doing it the way you once taught me."

I turned back to Amanda. "Ignore them."

"Tell me about the girl," she said again.

"I don't know her name," I said. "She's in college."

* * * *

I stared at the screen. "You got the scene perfectly, Amanda. I can't think of anything else." I shuddered. "That poor boy."

We had printed the images as Amanda finished them. The boy seated in the car was the last of them. We had done several of the girl as well as a few "scene" shots. We had the girl and the vampire under the streetlight and another of the vampire dragging her to the car. I wasn't really into cars, and I couldn't describe it very well, so we'd left it without any details, just a hint of a car, and later a hint of an open trunk and the girl bound within it.

Amanda was good.

I glanced at the window. It was growing light. We'd been at it all night.

"You must be exhausted."

Amanda stretched. "And stiff." She looked over her shoulder at Aubree. "Will you tell Cadence I'm going to need her? Ask her to wait?"

"She's coming here to get you," Aubree said. "We don't want you driving right now. We'll get your car back to you later."

Solange stepped forward, and she handed a removable hard disk to Amanda. "I need you to put everything onto this, and then I need you to scrub everything from that machine. Make sure nothing is on it. Sidney, help her."

I took the keyboard, opened up a window, and then began a search for all files created or modified in the last eight hours. I let it run while Amanda copied everything to the removable drive.