“No problem,” Mila said. “Except that you seem to have developed a bad habit of turning people into vampires.”
“Wurdulacs,” Danika said, stepping backwards. “And habits are not necessarily a bad thing.” Mila seemed agitated.
“No,” Mila agreed. “Except when those habits include murder.”
“I’ve not murdered anyone!” Danika said.
“How fast the vampire’s memory fades,” Mila laughed. “You murdered me, you rotten selfish bitch of a sister … or did that slip your mind?”
Danika had to laugh. “Murdered? Then what are you doing standing here in my apartment when I’m trying to pack for a trip?”
“You’re not packing for a trip, you’re packing to go on a slaughter.”
“You always were the dramatic one,” Danika laughed.
“No,” Mila said. “That was you. I’m just here to stop you from hurting anyone else.”
Danika smiled and raised an eyebrow.
“Well,” Mila said, pulling a pistol from beneath the back of her shirt to hold it at Danika’s left temple, “I’m pretty sure you can’t bite anyone if you don’t have a working brain.”
“What do you want?” Danika whispered, cringing at the touch of metal on the cool skin of her temple.
“Take me to the place where you have your food stashed away,” Mila said. “That’s what I want to see.”
“You can’t eat off the smorgasbord if you’re not a friend already,” Danika warned.
“I’m well aware,” Mila answered. “And I’m not concerned.”
She held a gun out and leveled it at her sister’s face. “My goals go beyond food,” she said.
— 34 —
Danika was at a crossroads. She had never meant to hurt Mila, and didn’t want to, even now. But at the same time, she didn’t want to expose Hannah or her roommate, Sarah. They had enough problems keeping the “farm” secret. She didn’t want them having to fight Mila after she left for New York.
Of course … there was always the possibility that she would never make it to New York because Mila was just plumb fuckin’ crazy.
But Danika didn’t believe that, not really. Her sister had a bleeding heart that ran redder than the red sea after the locusts came. Mila felt guilty after swatting flies.
“Fine,” Danika said. “You want to see food, I’ll show you a smorgasbord.”
— 35 —
Mila kept the gun trained on her sister’s head during the entire ride across town. When they finally pulled into the garage of a large house on an otherwise empty, wooded street, she finally spoke for the first time. “Nice,” she said. “In the woods, nobody can hear you scream.”
Danika held her palm out to block Mila’s gun.
“Please,” she said. “We eat from them, we don’t torture them … or kill them. That would be somewhat counterproductive. Our food is happy here. And until feeding day, they’re all pretty happy going about their lives.”
“Lives in a cage,” Mila reminded.
“Well, yes, a very cozy padded one,” Danika agreed. “It’s a good life. They’re taken care of, and we’re fed. We do care for them, or this arrangement wouldn’t work, you know.”
“You are a twisted bitch, aren’t you?” Mila whispered. “Care for them my ass.”
“I never knew you had such a foul mouth,” Danika said. The faint trace of a smile colored the edge of her lips.
“That’s because you were always so busy looking at yourself in the mirror.”
“And a jealous little sister too!”
“Just show me what you’ve done here,” Mila insisted, and Danika shrugged.
“As you like. But I have a plane to catch soon, you know.”
Danika led her through the garage and into the basement of the large house. She had to key in a password in an electronic door lock system before it opened for her, and as she did, she found herself staring very self-consciously at all of the large-breasted women. A half dozen girls lounged inside wearing nothing but bras and panties, or, in some cases, ripped and stained T-shirts.
“Girls taste better,” Danika said, smiling at Mila’s obvious discomfiture. “At least that’s what Mack says.”
Danika walked slowly through the room, and the women barely acknowledged their presence. Most kept their eyes trained on the large screen TV playing an old episode of Baywatch.
“The trick is to keep them low on blood sugar,” Danika explained. “Then they really are happy to just lie around here in their underwear.”
“A frat boy’s dream,” Mila said under her breath. “Too bad there aren’t any fratboys here.”
“Oh, there are,” Danika promised. “I keep them upstairs.”
Danika pressed a key into a locked door, and waited until Mila passed before closing it and making sure the knob remained locked.
“Perhaps you’ll enjoy this exhibit more,” she laughed. “The male species. Every now and then, I have to admit, I enjoy playing with my food as much as eating it.”
She stepped into a room painted in deep blue. Much like the downstairs “women’s cage,” this room held a couple couches and a large screen TV. Three men lounged around the room, all of them watching a car race on the television. Two of them didn’t move or seem to notice that Mila and Danika had entered the room. A sandy-haired guy with a sleeveless T-shirt pushed himself off the couch slowly, and grinned at Danika as he stood.
“Hey sugar-momma!” he said.
“How’s it hanging, Pete,” Danika answered with a faint smile.
“Why don’t you come see?” Pete staggered as he moved towards her. His brow knitted in some internal confusion, and then he lost his balance again just before reaching Danika. She held her arms out to catch him, and then slapped his ass as he righted himself.
“Was he on the menu last night?” Mila asked. The disgust dripped off her words.
Danika nodded. “Little going away party.”
“What’s going to happen to your favorites when you leave?”
“Sarah and Hannah and Mack have all really gotten to be friends with all of them now,” Danika said. “We’re all family here. If you like, Ican introduce you …”
“How sweet,” Mila said. “I’ve been looking for a nice family to have Christmas dinner with ever since Mom died. I just never suspected that my new family would be the dinner.”
“You sound so bitter,” Danika said. “You need to come to terms with what you are now.”
“You mean, what you made me!”
Danika shrugged. “I didn’t mean to do it. I didn’t know what would happen.”
“How many of these people will turn?” Mila asked.
Danika shrugged again. “Eventually? Maybe all of them. Maybe none. I don’t know. We try not to take too much blood … and we keep them locked up separately at night, in case they do turn. But I’m not really sure what turns them in the first place. I know that I’ve drank from my producer at the station several times, a little at a time, and he’s never turned.”
“How many have you turned?”
“A few.”
“I can’t let you do it anymore,” Mila said.
“I’m not sure you can stop me.”
“This gun says otherwise,” Mila said, aiming the pistol at her sister’s face.
“What are you doing?” Pete cried, struggling to get back up off the couch where he’d just dropped himself.
“Taking care of a problem,” Mila answered, not taking her eyes off her sister. Danika simply smiled. “I don’t think so,” she said.
Hands suddenly closed on Mila’s wrists, yanking her arms up to point at the ceiling.
“Meet Hannah and Sarah,” Danika said, stepping forward to embrace Mila. Above her head, Mila struggled to gain control of her hands, but the two women held her tight. Danika rested her face on Mila’s shoulder, inhaling slowly as she hugged her sister closer.
“There’s something about you that tastes even better than the others,” she whispered in Mila’s ear.
A heat shot through Mila’s groin. Her mouth ached with hunger at Danika’s words. At her closeness. She could feel her lips begin to peel back as something in her jaw moved. Her belly roiled and she could no longer keep up the struggle for the gun.
“You’re anorexic,” Danika said. “I can feel your hunger. You need me even more than I want you. Take some,” she offered.
Danika tilted her head, offering her neck to Mila.
Mila opened her mouth to say, “I can’t …”
But she did.
Her canines extended. Before she could finish her sentence, her mouth was on her sister. Part of her screamed inside, no, no, no, this was not what she came here to do. But the bigger part of her, the part that Danika had made, was in ecstasy. The gun was lifted from her hands and she brought her hands down to hold Danika by the waist as she drank deep from her sister. The blood was amazing; as it coursed hot and fast down her throat she felt sexual sparks of lust shoot through her thighs and crotch, while at the same time her mouth and belly warmed with sensations that surpassed the feelings of the most amazing meal she had ever tasted. Her nerves sang with every note of pleasure they knew, and Danika smiled as Mila drank greedily. Maybe now Mila would finally understand.
All of the pain and weakness Mila had suffered for the past few weeks dissolved as her sister’s strength coursed through her body. She sucked hard and fire seemed to cover her vision. She didn’t try to hold back, as she did with Adrian. The world swam in a haze of pleasure. From somewhere far away, she heard people calling her, begging her to stop.
And then hands were on her shoulders, dragging her back, and Danika’s body fell to the floor, blood flowing from the wounds in her neck to stain the carpet.
