Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story Chapter 15

Part IINestingChapter 15Learning the LicksThey took their shoes murder and did it again. The second time was less pressing and they tried to impress each other with their respective repertoires of mattress tricks. Jody was cargonful non to appear too experienced and Tommy pul conduct on every(prenominal)(prenominal)thing he had ever read, from Penthouse to issue Geographic, trying non to appear too naive, while fighting the advocate to sh forth Gee whiz with her every move. There was entirely too much trusting refer on both their separate and they sinless calculateing, Well, that was pretty okay. Jodys fangs stayed safely sheathed behind her messines.She tell, What was that you sh discloseed at the stop?It was a Bantu love cry. I recall it translates, Oh baby, polish my rima oris saucer. Interesting, Jody utter.They lay there for a while, not splattering, intenting uncomfor display board and a little embarrassed. Whatever intimacy they sh ared physic every last(pr edicate)y was not echoed emotionally. They were strangers.Tommy tangle that he should confess something personal, something to match the extinctr descend on withous trust she had send in him by say him her secret. At the same time he was curious, and a little bit afraid. It wasnt as if she had shown him a hidden tattoo. She was a vampire. How do you match that? How do you file that? Under Adventure, he thought. I valued adventure, and here it is.Tommy, she said, not looking at him, talking more or less to the ceiling, Ill understand if you dont want to stay, but Id analogous you to.Ive neer lived with anyone before. This is all new to me. I mean, you probably have a lot more experience than I do at this.Well, not exactly standardised this. Ive lived with a few guys.A few?Ten, I think. plainly not under these circumstances.Ten? You must be ancient. No offense. I mean, I knew that you were older, but I thought it was fair a few years. non centuries.She rolled oer and looke d him in the eye. Im twenty- sixsome.Sure, you look twenty-six. But youve probably looked this itinerary for years. You probably have pictures of yourself with Abraham Lincoln and stuff, right?No, Im twenty-six. Ive been twenty-six for round six months.But how long I mean Were you born careIve been a vampire for four days.So youre twenty-six.Thats what Ive been telling you.And youve lived with ten guys?She got out of bash and started gathering her clothes. Look, I dont use the best judgment when it travel alongs to relationships. Okay?He turned absent from her. Well, thanks a lot.I didnt mean you. I meant in the past.He sat on the edge of the bed and hung his head. I feel so used.Used? She leaped over the bed and stood in confront of him. Used? She put her dactyl under his chin and bring up it until he was looking at her. Ive trusted you with the biggest secret I have. Ive offered to share my vitality with you.Oh, like thats an exclusive privilege. He pulled a modality fr om her and resumed pouting.Jody snatched a shoe off the floor and prepared to whack him with it, then remembered what she had done to Kurt and dropped it. Why are you being such an asshole?You drank my bloodYeah, well, Im sorry about that.You didnt raze ask.And you didnt protest, either.I thought it was a sex thing.It was.It was? He stopped pouting and looked up at her. Does that turn you on?Jody thought, Why are men neer prepared for the toxic radiation of afterglow? Why cant they climb on it through without fitting detached whiners or aggressive jerks? They dont sign up it, that cuddling afterward has zip to do with warm, fuzzy feelings its just the most intelligent way to ride the wave of post-coital depression.Tommy, I came so hard, my toes curled. No opus has ever do me feel like that before. How many times have I said that? she thought.Yeah?She nodded.He smiled, feeling proud of himself. Lets do it again.No, we need to talk.Okay. But thenPut on your clothes.Tommy scamp ered naked out of the bed get on to get a fresh pair of jeans from his suitcase. As he dressed, the infinite possibilities of flavour swam through his head. Only a week ago he had been thorough difference(a) down the barrel of a life spent in a pulverisation town of a union job, of a series of financed Fords, a mortgage, too many kids, and a wife whod go to fat. Sure, there was a certain nobility in being responsible and raising a family entranceing that they never did without. But when his father told him on his eighteenth birthday that he needed to start planning his retirement, he felt his succeeding(a) tighten on him like an anaconda. His father had make it clear that the cash for college wasnt there so after he went to the City and starved, he could come home and get a job down at the factory and get down to the profession of being an adult. But not now. He was a City guy now, part of the world he was involved with a vampire, and the danger of living a normal, boring life had passed completely. He knew he should be afraid, but he was too elated to think about it.He slid into his jeans and ran back to the bedroom, where Jody was getting dressed. Im hungry, he said. Lets go out and get something to eat.I cant eat, she said.Not at all?Not as far as I know. I cant even keep a glass of water down.Wow. Do you have to have blood every day?I dont think so.Does it have to be I mean, can you use animals, or does it have to be people?Jody thought about the moth she had eaten and felt as if shed just downed a cocktail mixed of two parts shame and quintet parts disgust, with a twist of nausea. I dont know, Tommy. I didnt exactly get an instruction book.He was bouncing around the room like a hyperactive child. How did it happen? Did you sell your soul to friction match? Am I going to turn into a vampire? argon you in a coven or something?She wheeled on him. Look, I dont know. I dont know anything. Let me get dressed and well go get something for y ou to eat. Ill apologize then, okay?Well, you dont have to burn down my head off.Maybe I do, she snarled, affect at the acid in her voice.Tommy backed away from her, his eyes dewy-eyed with fear. She felt horrible. Why did I say that? This was happening too often, this mischief of control showing her burned have to the bum on the bus, smash Kurt out, eating the moth, and now threatening Tommy none of it seeed to be by choice. It was as if vampirism carried with it a crampless case of rattlesnake PMS.Im sorry, Tommy. This has been hard.Its okay. He picked up the jeans she had destroyed and began elimination the pockets. I sound off these are done for. He pulled out the business card that the motel manager had given him. Hey, I forgot to tell you. This cop wants to talk to you.Jody stopped in the middle of tying her shoes. Cop?Yeah, an old gentlewoman was killed at the motel last night. There were a zillion cops around when I got there this morning. They wanted to talk t o everyone that was staying in the motel.How was she killed, Tommy? Do you know? soulfulness broke her neck and He stopped and stared at her, backing away again toward the bathroom.What? she demanded. Her neck was broken and what?Shed befuddled a lot of blood, he whispered. But there werent any wounds. He bolted into the bathroom and shut the door. Jody could uplift him throw the lock. I didnt kill her, Tommy.Thats fine, he said.Open the door. Please.I cant, Im peeing. He turned on the water.Tommy, come out, Im not going to hurt you. Lets go get you something to eat and Ill explain.You go ahead, he said. Ill catch up to you. Wow, I rattling had to go. Must have been all that coffee I drank today.Tommy, I swear I didnt know anything about this until you told me.Look at this, he said through the door, I found that crucifix I lost last week. And whats this? My lucky vial of holy water.Tommy, stop it. Im not going to hurt you. I dont want to hurt anybody.Oh, my garlic wreath. I wonde red where Id put that. Jody grabbed the door knob and yanked. The doorjamb splintered and the door came away in her hand. Tommy dived into the bathroom and peeked over the edge at her.She said, Lets go get you something to eat. We need to talk. He pulled himself up slowly, ready to dive down the drain if she made a move. She backed away.He looked at the ruined doorjamb. Were going to get our bank now you know that, right? Jody threw the door aside and offered her hand to serving him out of the tub. Can I buy you some fries? Id really like to watch you eat some French fries.Thats weird, Jody.Compared to what?They walked to Market way where, even at ten oclock, the sidewalks were crowded with bums and hustlers and teams of podiatrists who had escaped the Moscone Convention midsection to seek out burgers, pizzas, and beer in the heart of the City. Jody watched the heat ghosts trailing the lane people while Tommy handed out coins like a meter-maid ideal trying to atone for a life time of giving chickenshit tickets.He dropped a quarter into the palm of a half-fingered glove worn by a woman who was pretending to be a robot, but who looked more like a golem newly shaped from gutter filth. Jody noticed a black aura around the woman, as she had seen around the old man on the bus she could smell disease and the rawness of open lesions and she almost pulled Tommy away.A few steps away she said, You dont have to give them all silver just because they ask, you know.I know, but if I give them money I dont see their faces when Im about to fall asleep.It doesnt really help. Shell just spend it on booze or drugs.If I was her, so would I.Good point, Jody said. She took his arm and led him into a burger joint named No Guilt orange Formica tables over industrial-gray carpet, giant backlit transparencies of food glistening with grease, and families gleefully clogging their arteries together. Is this okay?Perfect, Tommy said.They took a table by the window and Jody trembled while Tommy ordered a rush of burgers and a basket of fries.She said, Tell me about the woman who was killed.She had a dog, a little gray dog. They found them both in the dumpster at the motel. She was old. straight off shell incessantly be old.Pardon?People always stay the age that they died at. My big brother died of leukemia when I was six. He was eight. Now when I think of him, hes always eight, and hes still my big brother. He never changes, and the part of me that remembers him never changes. See. What about you?I dont have any brothers or sisters.No, I mean, are you going to stay the same? Will you always look like this now?I havent thought about it. I guess it could be true. I know I heal really fast since it happened.The look brought Tommys food. He squirted ketchup on the fries and attacked. Tell me, he said around a mouthful of burger.Jody started slowly as she watched his every bite with envy, telling him first about her life before the attack, of growing up in Monte rey and dropping out of community college when her life didnt seem to be moving fast enough. Then of moving to San Francisco, of her jobs and her loves and the few life lessons she had learned. She told him about that night of the attack in too much detail, and in the telling she realized how little she understood about what had happened to her. She told him about waking up, and of how her might and senses had changed, and it was here that words began to fail her there were no words to hear some of the things she had seen and felt. She told him about the call at the motel and about being followed by the other vampire. When she had finished she felt more confused than when she had started.Tommy said, So youre not immortal. He said that you could be killed.I guess I dont seem to change. All my childhood scars are gone, the lines on my face. My body seems to have lifted a little.Tommy grinned. You do have a great body.I could lose five pounds, Jody said. She inhaled sharply and he r eyes went wide, as if shed just remembered some explosives shed go away in the oven. Oh my GodWhat? Tommy looked around, thinking she had seen something frightening, something dangerous.This is horrible.What is it? Tommy insisted.I just realized Im always going to be a pudgette. I have jeans Ill never get into. Im always going to need to lose five pounds.So what, every woman Ive ever known thought she needed to lose five pounds.But they have a chance, they have hope. Im doomed.You could go on a liquid diet, Tommy said.Very funny. She pinched her hip to confirm her observation. Five pounds. If hed merely waited some other week to attack. I was on the yogurt-and-grapefruit diet. I would have made it. Id be thin forever. She realized that she was obsessing and turned her attention to Tommy. Hows your neck, by the way?He rubbed the spot where she had bitten him. Its fine. I cant even feel a mark.You dont feel weak?No more than usual.Jody smiled. I dont know how much I I mean, I dont have any way of measuring or anything.No, Im fine. It was kind of sexy. I just wonder how I healed so fast.It seems to work that way.Lets try something. He held his hand by her face. Lick my finger.She pushed his hand away. Tommy, just finish eating and we can go home and do this.No, its an experiment. My cuticles get split from cutting boxes at the store. I want to see if you can heal them. He touched her lower lip. Go ahead, lick.She snaked out a tentative tongue and licked the tip of his finger, then took his finger in her mouth and ran her tongue around it.Wow, Tommy said. He pulled his finger out and looked at it. His cuticle, which had been split and torn, had healed. This is great. Look.Jody studied his cuticle. It worked.Do another. He thrust another finger in her mouth.She spit it out. Stop that.Come on. He pushed at her lips. Pleeeeze.A big guy in a Forty-Niners sweatshirt leaned over from the table next to them and said, Buddy, do you mind? Ive got my kids here.Sorry , Tommy said, wiping vampire spit on his shirt. We were just experimenting.Yeah, well, this isnt the place for it, okay?Right, Tommy said.See? Jody whispered. I told you.Lets go home, Tommy said. Ive got a flog on my big toe.No fucking way, writer-boy.Its low in calories, Tommy coaxed, spine her foot with his sneaker. Good, and good for you.Not a chance.Tommy sighed in defeat. Well, I guess weve got more to worry about than my toe or your weight problem. want what?Like the fact that last night I saw a guy in the store parking lot that I think was the other vampire.