Suzanne Wright - The Bite That Binds

Before the vampire had the chance to produce another shield, one of Sam’s thermal energy beams was buried in his chest. Milliseconds later, he was ashes…but not before the tallest of the three remaining vampires duplicated himself until there were ten of him. All of the clones stepped in front, acting as shields. Shit. Of course each and every one of us attacked with our gifts, but each time some of the clones turned to ashes, more would take their place.

Harvey, we need to separate them .

Without hesitation, Harvey made a motion similar to that of someone abruptly yanking open a set of curtains. Thanks to his telekinesis, the clones parted like the red sea – some flew into the walls, and others fell to the floor, exposing the three vampires. Not giving the vampire a chance to duplicate himself again, I sent a charge of electricity out of my palm, reducing him to ashes. His clones died with him.

One of the last two vampires opened his mouth and exhaled a swarm of bees – not nice. Sam absorbed the energy around her, and suddenly a gust of wind sent the bees forcefully crashing into the wall, killing them instantly. That same gust of wind should have sent the two vampires crashing into that same wall, just as Harvey’s telekinesis should have knocked them over, but they hadn’t even stumbled against either force.

It was then that I realised something, and I sensed that Sam was realising it at the same time. The second vampire was gripping the waist of the one in front of him, holding him in position. I’d heard of a vampiric gift that allowed immovability, and it seemed that the second vampire had that very gift and was keeping them both stable.

Knowing what Sam had in mind, I teleported to her and lifted her so that she was above the first vampire’s level of height. She cracked her whip over his shoulder to wrap it around the throat of the second vampire, and tightened it enough to make him reflexively put his hands to his neck. Quick as lightning, yellowy-green ooze shot out of Denny’s thumbs and smallest fingers and engulfed the other vampire. Denny then bounced him to Salem, who delivered a fatal uppercut.

“And then there was one,” drawled Sam as she stared at the remaining vampire. He didn’t struggle against the grip of her whip as I would have expected. In fact, he didn’t do anything at all…other than stare at Sam in utter fascination, which supremely pissed me off even though I could understand it.

Don’t kill him yet. It might be worth questioning him a little first. I crossed my arms over my chest. “Just what did you do to the vampires in the cells?”

When he didn’t answer, Sam began to circle him, whip still in hand. “Have you ever pissed blood? You will if you don’t start answering our questions.”

His voice was shaky. “I don’t know anything.”

Sam sighed sadly. “No, they never do. But I can guarantee that within the next fifteen minutes after we’ve had some fun with you, your thought processes will be much improved.” When the whip caught his jaw, he jerked and whimpered.

I stepped closer to him. “Now, why did you hurt the vampires like that?”

“We didn’t hurt them,” he quickly objected. “We were trying to achieve something.”

“And what is that exactly?”

“Something that no one has even thought possible,” said an amused voice as the metal door slowly swung open. Four new vampires stood in the doorway in some sort of protective bubble. The two in front closely resembled each other with their inky black hair and squinty eyes.

I held up a hand, warning the squad not to attack in case whatever was thrown simply rebounded off the bubble and hit one of us. “Care to elaborate?” I snapped. “Care to explain how, and why, there are deformed vampires in those cells?”

The taller and sharper-looking of the two vampires only spared me a glance before his gaze locked on Sam. He seemed surprised and intrigued. “A Sventé with a Pagori power.”

She groaned and rolled her aquamarine eyes. “I wish people would just get over it.”

His mouth twitched into a smile. “A Feeder in full control of their gift. I cannot say that is something I have witnessed before. Your control…it is astounding. Inspiring, even. I find myself envying you, and that is not an emotion I am prone to experiencing.”

“Well that’s great, but we’d like to know why the bloody hell you hurt those vampires.”

“Neither my brother nor I planned for them to come to any harm,” the podgy vampire replied, looking offended. “Our experiments have simply not yet been fruitful and have caused negative side effects.”

“Negative side effects?” echoed Sam, disbelievingly. “It’s not like they’ve got the shits or something, is it? They’re deformed and half out of their minds.”

The podgy one spoke again. “Sometimes, when one is trying to achieve something grand, sacrifices must be made. And we will achieve our goal. Our work will be recognised by all of vampirekind.”

Sam scowled. “I don’t suppose you’re going to tell me just what that goal is.”

“Be assured that we only did to those vampires what they asked us to do. They knew the risks.”

That made little sense to me. “And what, exactly, would make anyone prepared to risk becoming deformed?”

“The feeling of desperation does many things to many people.”

And wasn’t that the vaguest thing I’d ever heard.

Sam must have been just as frustrated, because she growled at them. “Are neither of you capable of answering a question without talking in code?”

The taller brother pursed his lips. “If you want answers, we shall do better than tell you, we shall show you.”

The brothers exchanged a look that I didn’t like, and I was ready to question them when I felt an echo of fatigue and disorientation through my connection to Sam. As she suddenly staggered beside me and lost her hold on her whip, I wrapped an arm around her to steady her. Utter panic overtook me. “What the—” Then something else hit me via our connection; an all-consuming, agonising pain.

Sam cried out and doubled over with the force of it. Feelings of being stabbed, gutted, sliced at, and having her insides torn apart were torturing and weakening her. Fury and fear raced through me as I reflexively struck the bubble with a discharge so high in voltage that the entire building shook. It didn’t burst; only wobbled like jelly, oddly absorbing the electricity. Then, as quickly as it had come, Sam’s pain disappeared.

She double-blinked and took a steadying breath. “Oh, you little fuckers.” Most likely sensing that I was ready to charge at them, protective bubble or no protective bubble, she grabbed my arm. Looking at the brothers through narrowed, accusing eyes, she asked, “What did you do to me?”

The podgy brother cocked his head. “Something that has made every other vampire collapse in agony and froth at the mouth.”

Again I went to charge at them, but again Sam stopped me, worried they would hurt me too. I growled, intent on finding some way to burst that bubble and kill them all.

The tall vampire gave me a cool smile. “Rest assured that we have not harmed her, we would never wish to make her ill. On the contrary, if this works – and I strongly suspect it will as she is so much stronger than any subject we have used before – it will make her beautiful and unique in a way that you could never imagine.”

For a third time I moved toward them, but once again Sam held me back. I growled again. “Know this: I will fucking hunt you both down, and I will fucking destroy you both.”

“It is understandable that you feel that way now. But I truly believe that this is something you will come to appreciate.” He smiled at Sam. “I shall be seeing you again very soon.”