What little strength she had gained from Simon's blood seemed to evaporate as she walked into the loft. It was in worse shape than the day the Animals had come for breakfast. The futon was bundled against the wall; the books had been taken out of their shelves and spread out on the floor; the cabinets hung open, their contents tumbled across the counters; and a fine patina of fingerprint powder covered every surface. She wanted to cry.
It reminded her of the time she had lived with a heavy-metal bass player for two months, who had torn their apartment apart looking for money for drugs. Money?
She ran to the bedroom and to the dresser where she had stashed the remaining cash the old vampire had given her. It was gone. She threw open the drawer where she kept her lingerie. She'd kept a couple thousand rolled up in a bra, a holdover habit from the days of hiding cash from the bass player. It was there. She had enough for a month's rent, but then what? It wouldn't matter if Tommy didn't stop the other vampire. He was going to kill them both, she was sure of it, and he was going to do it soon.
As she weighed the rolls of bills in her hand, she heard someone open the stairwell door, then footfalls on the steps. She went to the kitchen and waited, crouched behind the counter.
Someone was in the loft. A man. She could hear his heart — smell sweat and stale deodorant coming off him. Tommy's deodorant. She stood up.
"Hi," Tommy said. "Boy, am I glad to see you."
Chapter 31
He Was an Ex-Con, She Was Defrosted…
She started to lean over the counter to give him a hug, then stopped herself. "You look awful," she said.
He was unshaven, his hair stuck out in greasy tufts, and his clothes looked as if he'd slept in them. He hadn't. He hadn't slept at all.
"Thanks," he said. "You look a little tattered yourself."
She raised her hand to her hair, felt a tangle, and let it drop. "And I thought my red hair went so well with freezer burn."
"I can explain that."
She came around the counter and stood before him, not knowing whether to hold him or hit him.
"That's a great dress. Is it new?"
"It was a great dress before the gravy and cobbler melted all over it. What happened, Tommy? Why was I frozen?"
He reached out to touch her face. "How are you? I mean, are you okay?"
"Good time to ask." She glared at him.
He looked in her eyes, then away. "You're very beautiful, you know that?" He crumpled to the floor and sat with his back against the counter. "I'm so sorry, Jody. I didn't want to hurt you. I was just… sort of lonely."
She felt tears welling in her eyes and wiped them away. He was genuinely sorry, she could tell. And she had always been a sucker for pathetic apologies, going back as far as the time the bass player she was seeing hocked her stereo. Or had that been the construction worker? "What happened?" she pressed.
He stared at the floor and shook his head. "I don't know. I wanted someone to talk about books with. Someone who thought I was special. I met a girl at work. I was just going to meet her for coffee, nothing else. But I didn't think you'd understand. So I… well, you know."
Jody sat down on the floor in front of him. "Tommy, you could have killed me."
"I'm sorry!" he screamed. "I'm afraid of you. You scare the hell out of me sometimes. I didn't think it would hurt you or I wouldn't have done it. I just wanted to feel special, but you're the special one. I just wanted to talk to someone who sees things the way I do, who can understand how I feel about things. I want to take you out and show you off, even during the day. I've never really had a girlfriend before. I love you. I want to share things with you."
He looked down, would not meet her gaze.
Jody took his hand and squeezed it. "I know how you feel. You don't know how well I know. And I love you too."
Finally he looked at her, then pulled her into his arms. They held each other for a long time, rocking each other like crying children. A half hour passed, ticked off with tear-salty kisses, before she said, "Do you want to share a shower? I don't want to let go of you, and it'll be dawn soon."
Warmed and cleaned by the shower, they danced, still wet, though the dark bedroom, to fall together on the bare mattress. For Tommy, being with her, in her, was like coming to a place where he was safe and loved, and those dark and hostile things that walked the world outside were washed away in the smell of her damp hair, a soft kiss on the eyelid, and mingled whispers of love and reassurance.
It had never been like this for Jody. It was escape from worry and suspicion and from the predator mind that had been rising for days like a shark to blood. There was no urge to feed, but a different hunger drove her to hold him deep and long and still, to envelop and keep him there forever. Her vampire senses rose to the touch of his hands, his mouth — as if finally her sense of touch had grown to feel life itself as pleasure. Love.
When they finished she held his face against her breast and listened to his breathing becoming slow as he fell asleep. Tears crept from the corners of her eyes as dawn broke, releasing her from the night's last thought: I'm loved at last, and I have to give it up.
Tommy was still sleeping at sundown. She kissed him gently on the forehead, then nipped his ear to wake him. He opened his eyes and smiled. She could see it in the dark; it was a genuine smile.
"Hey," he said.
She snuggled against him. "We've got to get up. There's things to do."
"You're cold. Are you cold?"
"I'm never cold." She rolled out of bed and went to the light switch. "Eyes," she warned as she flipped on the light.
Tommy shielded his eyes. "For the love of God, Montressor!"
"Poe?" she said. "Right?"
"Yep."
"See? I can talk books."
Tommy sat up. "I'm sorry. I didn't give you a chance. I guess we were always talking about — about your condition."
She smiled and snatched a pair of jeans and a flannel shirt from the pile of clothes on the floor.
"I talked to the other vampire the other night. That's why I left the note."
Tommy was wide awake now. "You talked to him? Where?"
"In a club. I was mad at you. I wanted to go out. Show off."
"What did he say?"
"He said it's almost over. Tommy, I think he's going to try and kill you, maybe both of us."
"Well, that sucks."
"And you've got to stop him."
"Me? Why me? You're the one with X-ray vision and stuff."
"He's too strong. I get the feeling he's really old. He's clever. I think that the longer that you're a vampire, the more you can do. I'm starting to feel… well, sharper as time goes on."
"He's too strong for you, but you want me stop him? How?"
"You'll have to get to him while he's sleeping."
"Kill him? Just like that? Even if I could find him, how would I kill him? Nothing hurts you guys — unless you have some kryptonite."
"You could drag him into the sunlight. Or cut his head off — I'm sure that would do it. Or you could totally dismember him and scatter the pieces." Jody had to look away from him when she said this. It was as if someone else was talking.
"Right," Tommy said, "just shovel him into a garbage bag and get on the forty-two bus. Leave a piece at every stop. Are you nuts? I can't kill anyone, Jody. I'm not built that way."
"Well, I can't do it."
"Why don't we just go to Indiana? You'll like it there. I can get a union job and make my mom happy. You can learn to bowl. It'll be great — no dead guys in the freezer, no vampires…