To Kill An Angel (3 page)

“It’s dark and we need to feed.  We both need more blood.”

I was immediately uneasy.

“Where are we going to get it?”

“The woods.”

At Bo’s words, vivid imagery flashed through my mind.  I thought of killing sweet, innocent animals just for their blood and saliva gushed into my mouth.  But it wasn’t from thirst; it was from nausea.

“Will they die?  Will we have to kill them or can we just take a little bit and let them live, like humans?”

Bo’s expression said he hated his answer, but that he had to give it.

“We have to kill them, Ridley.  For one thing, it takes much more animal blood to satisfy our bodies and keep our form.  Also, they’re life force isn’t as hearty as a humans, so ones left alive turn mad after only one feeding.  We can’t let them live.  I’m sorry.”

It was so distasteful, I dared not consider it. 

“I don’t think I can do that, Bo.  I just- I can’t…”

“Yes, you can.  You just have to try.”  Bo tugged on my hand, swiftly putting an end to the conversation.  “Come on.”

I let him lead me from the hidden room back into the main house, down the stairs and out to my car.  Bo opened the passenger side and helped me in before he rounded the hood to slide in behind the wheel.

“We could run, but there’s no reason to waste any energy until we can get you built up,” he explained, very matter of fact.

We rode in silence to the edge of woods.  Bo parked in the same spot we’d used several times, right beneath the
No Littering
sign that had been tagged with obscenities.  He cut the engine and got out to come around to my side.

I let him help me out and we walked, hand in hand, into the woods.  Though the forest wasn’t as brightly lit as, say, noon, I could still see as clearly as I could if the sun had been setting.  I could plainly make out branches, leaves, roots and fallen trees, as well as the shift of tiny bugs and things darting and scuttling about on the forest floor.

When we’d gone far enough that we could no longer see the car, Bo stopped.

“What are we—”

“Shh,” he whispered.  “Listen.”

At first, all I could hear was Bo’s breathing, his heartbeat and the loud sounds of woodland creatures scurrying about through the underbrush.  But then I heard a heavier rustling and I listened closely, trying to block out all the other sounds so that I could hear more clearly.

Twigs snapped, leaves crackled and bracken broke beneath the weight of a much larger creature, a creature with footsteps that sounded nearly human.  I could tell they were deliberate as whatever it was picked its way through the forest.  When the movement stopped, I heard a blowing sound.

“Smell,” Bo whispered.

Tipping my chin up, I stuck my nose into the air and inhaled deeply.  A strong and offensive animal scent assailed me.  My first instinct was to grimace, but beneath that smell was another aroma, one that made my mouth water a tiny bit.  It wasn’t even in the same league as the smell of Bo’s blood, but I could identify the sweet coppery notes of something similar in the air.

“Why can I smell blood?  Is it wounded?”

“No,” Bo murmured in response.  “You can smell things now that scent the blood, like pheromones and other hormones.  Blood has a very distinctive smell that seeps through the skin.  You couldn’t smell it before.”

Briefly, I wondered about Bo’s delicious scent and how it had always seemed so strongly identifiable to me.  However, my tangent was curtailed, as Bo’s next words brought me sharply back to the present.

“I want you to chase it, okay?  Pay attention to the sound of it.  That will tell you which direction it’s running.  Pay attention to the smell, too.  You can track things that way.  I’m going to run around and flank it.  I’ll meet back up with you in a few minutes.”

“You just want me to chase it?”

“Yes.  That’s all.  Just chase it.”

I had to admit that I felt a tremendous amount of relief that he didn’t expect me to hunt the poor thing and kill it.  I knew I didn’t have the stomach for it.  At least not yet.

“This is a good way to get you used to moving so quickly, too.  You need to know what it feels like so that you don’t do it in front of anyone else.”

“Okay, so you just want me to start running toward it?  Do I need to make some sort of noise or something to spook it?”

“When you get close enough for it to hear or smell you, you won’t have to spook it.”

“How far away is it now?”

“Probably a couple hundred yards.”

In my head, I stretched two football fields out, end to end, and imagined myself looking all the way out across that distance.  That simple exercise added some perspective to the true sensitivity of my heightened senses and I was duly amazed.

“I can smell something and hear it moving from that far away?”

“Pretty cool, huh?” 

Bo grinned.  The action accentuated his handsomeness and my stomach flipped over.   I couldn’t help but smile in return.  He was positively captivating.

“You ready to give your new body a whirl?”

Not really
I felt like saying, but instead, I nodded.

“Take off,” he said, pointing straight ahead.

Reluctantly, I turned to walk away.  When I’d moved several feet, Bo called out in a hushed voice, “Run!”

With a start, I pushed my feet into a faster pace until I was moving smoothly over the forest floor.  I looked down and could still see every leaf with crystalline clarity.  My eyes darted left and right, taking in the passing scenery, and I increased my speed, careful to mind my footing.

I edged myself on, faster and faster, until I felt like I was moving at the speed of light.  No matter how fast I went, though, my surroundings never blurred.  They simply passed by in quick-yet-clear images, like I was seeing them in high-speed snapshots.

I weaved in and out of the trees, my body reacting to every command quickly  and with an amazing agility.  It was as if the response time of my muscles had dwindled to the point that it seemed to coincide with the thought.

By the time I quit playing and remembered what Bo had said, I had no idea where I was.  I stopped and sniffed, realizing that the scent of the animal was very faint and very far behind me.  Quickly, I turned to head back the way I’d come, letting loose and running as fast as I could. 

It seemed like only seconds had elapsed when the smell of the animal began to saturate the air again.  I tuned out the sounds of my own feet passing over the leaf-strewn terrain and focused on the sounds of the creature, waiting for it to move.

And then it did.  I heard that blowing sound again right before it took off, crashing through the thick underbrush. In my mind’s eye, I imagined that it was a deer, running through the trees with a head full of antlers that tangled in every bush and short tree that it passed. 

I scanned the woods in front of me, making a semicircular pass from left to right and back again.  Finally, I caught sight of a flash of white bobbing between the trees. It was the raised tail of a deer as it darted frantically through the forest, away from me.

Keeping my eyes on it, I matched its speed and moved when it moved.  I zigged when it zigged and I zagged when it zagged.  It seemed as though my body could almost anticipate the actions of the deer, as if the instant the deer decided to go in one direction or the other, the information was relayed directly to my muscles.

With the heavy scent in my nostrils, the sounds of its flight in my ears and the beautiful white tail in my sights, I let go and began to enjoy the delicate dance the deer and I had engaged in.

But then Bo darted out from the right and the deer disappeared from my sight.  My heart leapt up into my throat and I ran to the deer as hard and as fast as I could.

When I reached it, the deer was on the ground and Bo was half-lying across its upper body with his mouth at its neck.  The deer wasn’t struggling, but I could see its one visible eye rolling around in terror.  And I could smell its blood, nothing like the sweet scent of human blood.  My stomach clenched in revulsion.

I stood motionless—thoroughly horrified and repulsed—as Bo killed that poor deer.  I tried to concentrate on the logic of the whole thing, on how we needed it to survive, no different than killing a chicken or a cow for meat.  But somehow, that didn’t console me.  My chin trembled, belying the indifference that I was trying to portray as I stood watching.

When Bo finally raised himself up off the deer and looked at me, I kept my eyes trained tightly on his.  I refused to let them stray to the red stains around his mouth. 

The nearly-black brown of Bo’s eyes had given way to the washed out, pale green of thirst.  But beyond his need was a sadness, like he’d witnessed the death of something other than the deer.  And I knew what that death was. 

In a way, that moment marked the death of my innocence.  I could no longer look on vampirism through the rose-tinted glasses that I’d apparently been wearing.  At times, our curse was a nasty business and there would come a day when I would have no choice but to act as Bo had. 

But tonight was not that night. 

“Ridley, we have to do this to survive.  You know why we can’t randomly feed on humans.”

I couldn’t speak past the lump in my throat so I nodded.  I understood it perfectly.  I just didn’t like it.

Bo held out his hand and I shook my head.

“Ridley, you need to feed.”

I knew that, but I couldn’t bring myself to take that final step and drink from the deer.  Although it was already dead and would know no difference, I just couldn’t do it.

“Ridley,” Bo said again, motioning me toward him with his fingers.

Again, I shook my head.  Bo stood as if to come toward me and, before I could even give it a second thought, I bolted.

My chest burned as I ran, but not with hunger.  It burned with a hopeless sadness that felt like acid, eating away at my heart.  This was going to be my life for all eternity.  And the only good thing about that eternity was no longer a certainty.  It was a very real possibility that I would end up spending the rest of my long, long life alone, without Bo.

The wind blew across my cheeks, drying the wet tracks of bitter tears.  Why was it that we just couldn’t seem to get a break, Bo and I?  One day it seemed that fate was on our side, the next it seemed she was playing hardball against us.

I had no idea where I was going, but apparently my nose and my legs had taken control of the situation and guided me back to the car.  Fishing out the keys Bo had handed back to me upon our arrival, I slid quickly behind the wheel and started the engine.  I spared only a moment’s hesitation before I shifted into drive and steered the car onto the road, leaving Bo in the woods behind me.

CHAPTER THREE

As I drove, I pondered the best course of action.  Of all the bad ideas that were my choices, I felt like going home and locking myself in my room was probably the only viable one.  I told myself that if I started to feel extreme thirst coming on, I would just leave.  Get the heck out of dodge.  But at least with that option, I could make an appearance at home, so as not to arouse any undue suspicion. 

Besides, I might not even run into Mom.  She might still be drinking, but even if she wasn’t, she’d likely be passed out in bed.  All in all, I felt pretty good about my chances.