“We’ll need a bit more,” Brother Al said, voice remorseful.
“You’ll have to mark deeper,” John Steeley said behind me.
I stared at him.
“This is how my wife feeds,” he said.
I nodded, breathed in, and opened my fist.A wave of nausea seemed to hit me.My palm was coated in blood, a ragged scratch opened and dripping.I shoved the pocketknife in the wound and dug, hissing.It felt like… well, like there was a piece of cold metal nearly popping the ball of my thumb bone out.More and more blood spilled out, and I tried to aim as best I could, but I dropped the knife, nearly dropping to my knees with the pain.
Almost at once, they moved.Brother Al had grabbed the blade.Eddie and Vic were holding each of my hands.With a horrid look of rapaciousness, Brother Al licked the knife blade clean, slowly, savoring the taste.Vic and Eddie shared tentative swallows, passing the goblet back and forth, and then finally to Aleister, who greedily drank, blood smearing the sides of his face.
“It’s done,” Brother Al said, and his voice sounded… sad.
“Get out of here, Stacey,” Eddie said.
“Go patch yourself up on deck,” Vic said.
“I might need some help,” I said.
“That is something we cannot give you,” Brother Al said.He seemed to be shuddering.“Get yourself gone from our sight.Do not return until you have stemmed the wound.The bloodlust from a feeding is not one easily reconcilable with our softer traits.”
I took the steps, holding my wound with my other hand.I felt… empty, somehow.I had meant to solve everything… but all I seemed to do was awaken some evil beast in each of them.
John Steeley caught me on the top deck.I was sitting and staring at the far shore, where the city itself loomed up large in my sight, revealing itself through a heavy mist.
“That’s what it means to love a vampire,” he said quietly.“I know… I know how it feels.What you’re going through.How can something so… demonic… live in someone that you love?I have struggled with that question since my wife and I have been together.If you ever need to talk, I’ll be here.”
“Thank you,” I said.
Chapter2
Ihad staunched the bleeding.Alone I sat at the edge of the ship and watched as we drew ever-closer.The streets of Chicago were soon to be open to us—awash with who knew how many deadies running rampant.This might be the last look I ever had at water, at ocean, at everything.
John Steeley popped his head back out.
“You done bleeding?”
“Pretty much,” I said.
“They’ve managed to rein themselves in,” he said.“It’s safe to come back down.”
I didn’t want to, but if anything was going to happen, it might be sooner rather than later.I felt a sudden sense of shame at my younger self—willingly hopping in bed with these men I knew nothing about—ones who promised love and intrigue and mystery, new ways of perceiving the world around me.I was attracted to their good traits—Brother Al’s serious, considerate nature—Eddie’s passion and strength—Vic’s curiosity and way of perceiving things—but also to the hidden danger I could sense in each of them.Now that it had grown real—now that it was shown to me, in all its dangerous glory, I felt like a hypocrite.
What was this feeling in my chest?So deep and so dark, so trembling, making my fingertips quiver and my wound ache and my chest flutter?
I was scared walking down to see my three vampire lovers.
They looked…well… normal again.I did not see any sign of the slavering, barely-held-back monsters that had reveled in my life’s blood.Here again, there were three individual men.Still, a little part of my mind on repeat kept hysterically wailing.These men had drank of me—took from me that which I had offered—fallen on it like wild animals.
I kept seeing my blood pooling down Brother Al’s cheeks as if he were quaffing some ale… watching his tongue lick the knife blade clean, a rapturous look on his face… all on loop in my mind’s eye…
“Thank you,” Vic said quietly.“We wanted to wait for you.”
“Oh?”I asked.I forced myself to stay quiet, stay still, not turn, and run from the room.
“Yes,” Vic said.“I figured it out.Watch.”
He strode around the table, twice, three times, bending and touching here, scribbling in the margins there, moving ritual implements here or there minutely.After some time, he seemed to complete whatever arcane circuit he was trying to—for he stood, and with a simple gesture of three claps, there was a flickering of static in the air over the table like so much invisible television snow and before us, there was the city of Chicago in miniature, translucent yet innately recognizable from its skyline.
