I mean, I might be someday, but not now. His powers are way beyond mine. I just pick up things once in a while.”
“Heroin.”
“Oh, ouch. That’s not good. I mean... you know. Pot, E, maybe even a little coke, sure. But Heroin’s bad shit.”
Two shuddered, looked up at Melissa, eyes watery, tears very close.
“No kidding.” Her voice was a hoarse whisper.
“Hey, hey... sorry,” Melissa said, that expression of concern coming to her features again. “I’m not trying to be rude. Seriously. I’m a little scatterbrained right now myself. Always like this when I oversleep, and the girl last night had so much wine in her.”
Two raised her eyebrows, confused.
Melissa rolled here eyes. “And now I’m rambling. I can’t control it. I’m sorry. Can I do anything to help you?”
Theroen was right; Two did like Melissa. She was the polar opposite of the calm, collected vampire who’d brought Two to this world, but Two liked her just the same. She smiled, trying to keep the bitterness out of her voice.
“Unless you’ve got a fix in that purse, I don’t know if there’s much you can do.”
Melissa shook her head, her expression almost sad, as if it was indeed a travesty that she was not carrying the drug.
“No. Just some makeup and Kleenex and,” She looked around as if confirming that no one was listening, “maybe some weed.”
Two laughed, wincing at the pain this brought. A vampire carrying ganja. Wonders never ceased. Melissa grinned as well, maybe seeing the humor, maybe just happy to see Two smile.
“You can smoke that?” Two asked.
“Sure.”
“And it’s, like, the same as for a human?”
“Beats me. It does something, though. Everything does. What we find palatable, though, may differ a lot from humans. I think heroin would probably be too much for me.”
“When Theroen, uh... started me, he said that it made him really sick, just getting it from my blood.”
“Theroen’s a wuss!” Melissa laughed. “I mean, I’m sure it did... and if it was that bad for him I’m sure it’d be awful for me too. But he’s also pretty picky. He doesn’t even like it when there’s a little alcohol in the mix. Just all that serious ‘no, only blood, nothing else.’ Stuff.”
“Maybe that’s not such a bad thing?”
“Maybe. I don’t know. Does it matter? Bad? Good?”
“How old are you, Melissa? How old is Theroen?”
“Ooh, hmmm,” she mused, “I don’t know. He might want to tell you that himself.”
“What about you, then?”
“One hundred and forty eight and three days. Or twenty-two, depending on how you look at it.”
“You don’t look a day over one-twenty.”
Melissa laughed, and then looked again in concern as Two doubled over. Hot and cold flashes were running through her, and she was bathed in a cold sweat.
“Oh, fuck. I think I’m going to puke.”
“Are you sure there’s nothing I can do?”
“Theroen’s blood stops it. I don’t know. Would yours?” Two spoke slowly, through clenched teeth, trying to fight against the sudden onset of nausea.
Melissa shrugged. “Beats me. Worth a shot. I don’t mind. I probably shouldn’t let you just go at my neck or whatever, though.”
“Theroen bit his finger.”
“Sure.” Melissa’s teeth made a tiny clicking sound, like the noise of a stapler, and she held her finger out to Two, blood welling up from two tears in the skin. “Hurry up, before it heals.”
Two looked up at her. “Sorry. This is some fucked up, bizarre shit.”
“Live a hundred and fifty years, and you’ll see things that make this seem pretty tame. Do it, if you think it’ll help you. I don’t mind.”
Two put her lips on Melissa’s finger and let the blood roll on to her tongue. The effect of the blood was immediate, energizing her, and it was all she could do not to clamp down with her teeth. Melissa seemed to sense this, and grinned. “Yummy. Vampire blood is awesome. Hard to get, though.”
Two swallowed twice, forced herself to pull away. Her nausea disappeared, along with the cold sweat and the chills. Some of the pain remained, still, but it was distant. She guessed that Theroen was much older and stronger than Melissa, and that this affected the potency of his blood.
“Better?” Melissa asked, and Two nodded.
“Yes. Not perfect, but much better. Thank you.”
Melissa licked the last few drops of her blood off her fingers and smiled. “No problem. What’s your name?”
“Two.”
“Like the number?”
“Yes, like the number.”
Melissa laughed and clapped her hands. “That’s so cool! That’s much better than Jennifer or Betty or Melissa.”
Two shrugged. “I guess?”
“People with cool