Blood Red

“Most vampires are created when you feed and kill.” He shrugged. “They are a different breed. They die, they rise from the grave. They need to worry more about coffins and soil than you do.”

Ben opened his mouth again and Jason waved him silent before he could speak. “I’ll get to it, Ben. Please save the questions for later.”

Ben nodded apologetically and Jason went on.

“There are other ways to make a vampire. Maggie, I suspect you already know what acts we did together that caused this.” Ben closed his eyes. Other than that simple action, he remained perfectly calm.

“But why me, Jason?”

“Because you fit the needs I was looking for.”

“How so?”

“Well, for starters, you’re a very independent woman. You have no strong connections to the world around you, and you fascinate me.” He shrugged. “All three were important to my criteria.”

“What? I’m an experiment?”

Jason laughed softly and shook his head. “No. And yes.”

She felt herself growing agitated and tried to follow Ben’s example.

“I am experimenting, but not on you. I’m experimenting on the other type of vampires because I’m curious. But that’s not really important. I did what I did because I wanted to, and because I think certain types of beauty should be saved. Maggie, you will never grow old and you will never have to die as long as you are smart.”

“How do you fix it?”

“There’s nothing to fix, Maggie. It’s done. You are what you are from now until the end of your existence.”

Her ears were ringing. Ben was looking from her to Jason and he was looking very unhappy. She’d have to talk to him about that. Not to chastise him, but to make sure he was okay with everything. She needed him to be okay, much as that unsettled her.

“Now, listen carefully, because there’s a lot to say. Sunlight will not kill you, but it will make you weaker. It will kill the ones that are made from your bite—”

That one took her off guard and she jumped a bit. “Oh shit.”

“They have been taken care of.”

Ben was looking very puzzled. She couldn’t take the time to explain and she didn’t want to either.

“How often do I need to drink blood?”

“When you hunger for it,” Jason shrugged. “There has never been any rhyme or reason that I have discovered. Sometimes I don’t need to feed for a couple of weeks and other times I cannot get enough without going on a killing spree.”

“Do you have to kill them?”

“No. But it’s convenient.”

Ben was shaking his head from side to side very slowly.

“Why?”

“If you bleed them and do not kill them, you can create more like yourself. It might take a while but it will happen if you feed from the same ones too often.” He placed his hand under his chin and looked at her intently. “Sex can cause the same problem.”

“So why is that bad?”

“Because too many predators can cause harm.” He smiled and shook his head, the dark hair moving in a soft wave. “We can be bad for the human population.”

“If you don’t kill someone, they don’t come back as a vampire?”

“Not often, and not unless you share with them.”

Maggie’s mind kept focusing on the fact that she would never grow old. “What about children? Can I have children?”

The answer was not what she expected.

VIII

Brian Freemont thought he was safe at the hotel. He’d chosen one in the center of town and stayed there with the lights on and the TV playing drivel in the background. He slept peacefully for a few hours.

Then the pounding started at his door. The blows were loud enough to scare him into consciousness, gasping and clutching at his chest. In his dream, Angie had been giving him a blow job—something she seldom did—and her teeth had been tearing his flesh away. He was glad the nightmare was gone, but terrified by what might be on the other side of the door.

“Who’s there?”

“Housekeeping, numb nuts.” The voice belonged to Richard Boyd. “Open the door before I kick it down.”

Brian opened the door, almost glad to see the little bastard.

“What do you want now?” He was wearing jeans but had taken off his shirt. The chill from outside was like walking into a gigantic refrigerator.

Boyd walked into the room, his face set in a shit-eating grin that chilled Brian far worse than the cold did. “Brian Freemont, you are under arrest. You have the right to remain silent, if you give up the right to remain silent anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law . . .” He kept reciting the Miranda while Holdstedter pulled out his cuffs and smiled a promise of lethal force if Brian even considered resisting.

Brian had the good sense not to resist. He wanted his shoes and his shirt. They wouldn’t let him have them.

“So what are you charging me with?”

“The rape and murder of Veronica Miller.”

“I didn’t do anything.”

“Evidence found inside the condom left at the scene places her DNA on the exterior of the condom and yours on the interior. Oh, yeah, and aggravated sodomy. Can’t forget that one, can we, Danny?”

Holdstedter looked murder at Brian. “No, Richie, I don’t think we can forget that, either.”