The Blood That Bonds

A Novel by Christopher Buecheler

Part One of the II AM Trilogy

About The Blood That Bonds

Two is trapped: hooked on heroin, held as property, forced to sell her body to feed the addiction. Time brings her ever closer to what seems an inevitable death and Two waits, uncaring, longing only for the next fix.

That’s when Theroen arrives, beckoning to his Ferrari and grinning his inscrutable grin. He is handsome. Confident. Eager to help lift her out of the life that’s grinding her down.

The only problem? Theroen is a vampire.

His blood can cure her addiction, grant her powers she has never had, change her forever into something greater than she was. But when he sinks his teeth into her neck, Theroen also thrusts Two into a world of danger, violence, madness and despair. The powerful, twisted elder Abraham will use her arrival to shatter the uneasy peace that exists in his mansion, bringing an end to the dark game he has been playing for centuries.

Dead Tree - The Blood That Bonds Illustration

Meet the Characters

Two Majors - The Blood That Bonds

Two Majors

Two Ashley Majors - 2AM - was named for the time she was conceived. When her mother died in a car accident, Two's father fell into depression and alcohol, his relationship with his daughter becoming strained to the point that, at age sixteen, she left him for the streets. Two made it to the age of nineteen relatively unscathed, surviving by hustling pool, picking pockets, and similar petty crimes. She fell into heroin and prositution by chance, when a severe beating left her unconscious and in the care of Darren, the man who would become her pimp.

Theroen Anders - The Blood That Bonds

Theroen Anders

Theroen Anders was born in Holland in the year 1586 AD. As a young boy, his parents emigrated to England. At twenty-three, Theroen became a vampire at the hands of Abraham. Theroen's master has largely kept him out of vampire society for the last four hundred years. On a relatively routine exploration of a Brooklyn neighborhood, he sensed Two and became enamored with her, watching her from afar for quite some time before setting his plans in motion. Theroen is an "Eresh-Chen" ... something which means a great deal more than he has been allowed to understand.

Abraham Schorr - The Blood That Bonds

Abraham Schorr

Abraham was born more than one hundred years before the birth of Christ. Even before his conversion to vampirism, he was not a man of good, and afterwards he was left almost wholly stripped of any sort of sentimentality or compassion. He views his fledgling vampires as his property, keeping them away from vampire society and forcing them to live with him in his stronghold outside of Binghamton, New York. Here, he often gives them petty tasks to perform, as much for his own amusement at holding such control as out of any real need.

Melissa / Missy Williams - The Blood That Bonds

Melissa/Missy Williams

Once, there was only Melissa, but Abraham's powerful blood broke her mind during her transformation into a vampire, leaving her with two distinct personalities: Melissa, a bright and cheerful girl, and Missy, a dark and twisted creature in love with pain, death, and torment. Both girls share a love for sex, and both are indiscriminate about the gender (or number) of partners they spend their nights with. They have lived in Abraham's mansion for over a hundred years, each one in possession of the body at different times.

Tori Perrault - The Blood That Bonds

Tori Perrault

Born in 1970 and raised in the small Ohio town, Tori was attending Syracuse University when she was abducted by Abraham. He forced his blood upon her and, like Melissa, the resulting shock did great damage to her mind. In Tori's case, it reverted her to a feral, animalistic creature doomed to roam the mansion grounds, relying on the other vampires to periodically bring her food. Tori often tears her victims to pieces in the process of feeding on them. Tori is far stronger than a vampire of her age should be, and faster even than Theroen.

Samantha Brea - The Blood That Bonds

Samantha Brea

Samantha is, in her own words, "just a poor girl from the Bronx." She grew up in a housing project with her parents and two siblings, and was attending community college with the intent on transfering to a four-year school. She met Melissa at a night club, where the vampire seduced her, bringing her home to the mansion.

Darren Cook - The Blood That Bonds

Darren Cook

Darren is an amoral pimp and a drug pusher with two business degrees. He owns a building in East New York, a downtrodden section of Brooklyn, where he houses his girls, who trade their services for the heroin he provides.

Rhes Thompson and Sarah Taylor - The Blood That Bonds

Rhes Thompson & Sarah Taylor

Rhes and Sarah are Two's closest friends. They rent a duplex in the Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. Rhes works as a bouncer/doorman for a very successful bar in Manhattan. Sarah was blinded in a childhood car accident and works as a teacher at a school for the blind. She rarely leaves the house without her seeing-eye dog, a black labrador named Jake. They are the most "normal" people that Two knows, a pair of college-educated, mid-twenties adults who are building a life together.

Molly Smith - The Blood That Bonds

Molly Smith

Molly is a twelve year-old orphan, a heroin addict, a prostitute in Darren's employ, and Two's roommate. Despite her situation, she retains a sweet, innocent demeanor. It is perhaps this, more than anything else, that makes her so valuable to Darren. She has long, brown hair which she keeps in pigtails, and blue eyes. She is very thin, only just beginning to show breasts, and dresses mostly in jeans and t-shirts. She has an assortment of dress-up outfits that Darren sometimes makes her wear for work.

Excerpts

Selected sections from The Blood That Bonds and its upcoming sequel, Blood Hunt.

What People Are Saying

"In the tradition of 'True Blood,' The Blood That Bonds presents vampires that are both attractive and terrifying — three-dimensional beings with a complex culture and fascinating history. Two is likewise a captivating heroine who struggles both with the dark vampire world and her own bleak background of human misery. The result is a Dennis-Lehane-meets-Anne-Rice romantic thriller that fans of dark vampire fiction will love."

—Diana Laurence
Author of How to Catch and Keep a Vampire & Bloodchained

Reader Ratings and Reviews

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Frequently Asked Questions

Click a Question to See Its Answer.

  1. + When is Blood Hunt, the sequel to The Blood That Bonds, coming out?

    This is by far the most commonly-asked question that we get. Unfortunately, it's the hardest to answer. The final draft of Blood Hunt is currently in production and should be finished in early 2011. At that time, queries will be sent to agents and publishers to gauge their interest in the book. This can be a slow process, and requires several months of patience to be sure that interest has been properly gauged. If however by the early autumn of 2011, no interest whatsoever has been expressed, plans will proceed to release an e-version of Blood Hunt to fans. We wish we could give a more concrete schedule than this, and as soon as we have any details, they will definitely be posted to our various news outlets (Twitter, Facebook, etc ...). Thanks for your patience!

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  2. + Will the Blood Hunt eBook be free?

    The price for Blood Hunt can't be determined until we see whether publishers are interested in it or not, but we currently expect to charge a reasonable amount for the eBook. Nearly twice as long as The Blood That Bonds, we think it will be worth it!

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  3. + How do I find out when new stuff is happening?

    There are multiple ways to get information! You can follow Chris's writing Twitter: @cwbwriting for news on all of his writing endeavours. You can also become a fan of The Blood That Bonds on Facebook, where news is frequently posted. You can subscribe to the new email newsletter. You can follow the RSS feed from Chris's Writing Blog too, as he posts large announcements there in addition to other topics.

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  4. + How can I help spread the word about The Blood That Bonds?

    The best thing you can do to help is to tell a friend or two. Or six. Or a hundred! Let them know that you really enjoyed The Blood That Bonds and think they would too. Other things you can do that really help include liking us on Facebook, and leaving ratings or reviews on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, and GoodReads. The more buzz we can generate, the better!

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  5. + How much revision did you do for the new edition?

    No substantial story details were changed for the new edition, and the vast majority of revisions were purely cosmetic: fixing typos, improving grammar and sentence flow, and rewriting an occasional sentence. A little more information on what Rhes and Sarah look like has been added, and a few scenes have been shortened slightly. Still, if you've already read the first editition, you know everything you need to know to enjoy Blood Hunt.

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  6. + How do I know if I have the 1st or 2nd edition of the eBook?

    Open your ebook and take a look at the copyright page (usually the first or second page in the eBook). If the date is 2011, you have the latest edition and are all set. If the date is 2010 or earlier, you have the first edition in all its typo-ridden glory, and should probably upgrade.

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  7. + I'm sure I have the 2nd edition, but I still found an error. What do I do?

    Sadly, no book is ever perfect. It is likely there will someday be a third edition correcting all of the little errors that have managed to sneak through the two editing passess that The Blood That Bonds has already undergone. Please feel free to use the contact form below to bring the error to our attention. Please include the full sentence that contains the error, what format you're reading (print or eBook), and what you think the error is. Thanks!

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Used Syringe Illustration

Excerpt I - Tori

The moon was like daylight to her eyes. The forest, which might have seemed foreboding to a human, barely registered in Two’s mind. Forests in the night were filled with predators, and there were none out this night greater than she and Theroen. They had been walking the grounds for thirty minutes. Theroen did not call for Tori, and it was obvious he knew where he was going. At times he would pause, change direction, and move forward again.

“Tori doesn’t stay still, and she doesn’t know we’re looking for her yet,” He explained. “I could call, but it would do no good. I can sense her, though. We will catch up eventually.”

At length they reached a small clearing. Here, Two saw, were paths carved into the ground from the frequent passage of some creature, like a dog which runs patterns into its yard. From the woods not far away, Two heard growling. The sound was low and guttural, the noise of a large jungle cat.

“Tori. Come.” Theroen said, standing in the middle of the clearing. He gave off no palpable sense of fear, but Two thought she could hear some measure of concern in his voice.

The creature which stepped from the bank of trees in front of them moved in a manner unlike anything Two was familiar with. The changes that vampirism had brought to Tori manifested themselves in a far more physical manner than Two had expected. On all fours, the girl moved with feline grace, sliding slowly into the clearing, eyeing them cautiously and growling. She stopped perhaps twenty feet from them, staring, teeth bared. Two shivered.

“She’s not pleasant to be around,” Theroen commented. He put a hand on her shoulder. “Introduce yourself. Be polite.”

“Hi, Tori ... I’m Two. It’s, uh ... nice to meet you,” Two said. She heard the nerves in her own voice, and hated herself for it. Tori stared at her, then suddenly opened her mouth and howled. Two flinched, but held her ground.

“She’s testing you. Stand still. If she charges, I will take care of you.” Theroen’s voice was a whisper, or perhaps nothing more than a thought on the wind.

Tori moved in a wide arc around them, eyes never leaving Two. She was naked and filthy, her long hair -- blonde like Two’s -- matted with dirt. Her teeth were more pronounced than in the other vampires Two had met, long and curved and deadly. She sat back on her haunches, watching Two. The eyes conveyed an intelligence and awareness far greater than her initial appearance had indicated.

Two sat down in the grass without thinking, meeting Tori’s gaze. She held her hands out, palms up, in front of her. “I don’t want to hurt you, Tori. I want to meet you.”

Tori cocked her head, rolled her body forward into her walking position, and moved a few feet toward Two.

“You’re playing with fire,” Theroen said from behind her. “She’s very fast.”

“If she kills me, she kills me. Maybe that’s how it’s supposed to go.”

Theroen murmured something inaudible. Tori was now only a few paces away, looking curious. Theroen shifted his weight from one foot to the other, and Tori immediately backed up a pace, eyeing him with concern.

“Go sit on that rock, Theroen.” Two indicated by tilting her head slightly to her left. The rock jutted from the ground near the edge of the woods, twenty meters away.

“Two ...”

“She’s not scared of you, exactly, but you definitely make her edgy. I don’t want that. Go.”

Theroen again said something under his breath, but Two thought she could hear a smile in his voice, fighting against his concern. He moved toward the rock. Tori took another step backward, watched him as he went, turned her attention back to Two.

“You’re nothing if not stubborn, my love.” Theroen said.

“Got that right. Now, Tori, do you want to say hello?”

Tori took a few steps forward. Two could see the muscles in her legs, tense, ready to spring or run if necessary. Two continued to hold her hands out, and Tori sniffed them, seeming to relax. She sat back, cocked her head again, appraising Two.

“Hello, Tori.”

Tori made a sound that started low in her throat and became a high-pitched whine. To Two, it sounded like a dog yawning.

“How does it feel, not having to worry, Tori? How does it feel to kill, and eat, and not think twice about it? No guilt. No sadness. No concern. How does that feel?”

Tori looked at her, unable to comprehend. She scratched behind her ear briefly, followed the flight of a bat with her eyes, then looked back at Two.

“Must feel pretty good, I bet. You hungry, Tori?”

Two brought her finger to her new, sharp teeth, and bit it. Blood welled immediately. She held her hands back out to Tori.

“You’re going to give me a heart attack, Two.” Theroen’s voice held more tension than she had heard at any time since her encounter with Abraham.

“Your heart’s strong, Theroen. You’ll survive. Go ahead, Tori.”

Tori moved her head forward, licked Two’s finger once, twice, and then abruptly moved her head away.

“You’re a killer, Tori. Take it. Take what you want. If you’re going to kill me, then kill me. I refuse to be afraid of you, so kill me now, or I guess we’re going to have to be friends.”

Tori looked again at Two’s outstretched hand, then reached up, bit her own finger, and held it out to Two.

“Okay, Tori.”

Two touched her lips to Tori’s outstretched hand and tasted blood, fire on her tongue. Her hunger leapt awake, but she too pulled her head away.

“Just a couple of killers out in the forest, that’s us, right Tori?” Two was smiling, but she could feel tears making cool tracks on her hot cheeks. “Just a couple of vampires getting to know each other ... getting to know who they really are.”

She felt Theroen beside her. Tori glanced at him briefly, but did not shy away. Theroen’s concern had dissipated, and in turn he no longer seemed a threat to her. He sat down in the grass next to Two, and she leaned against his shoulder, still looking at Tori.

“I wish I was like her.”

“Do you?”

“She’s perfect. She doesn’t care. Melissa, Missy ... they’re the same person to her. Who’ll take care of her when they’re gone?”

“I had thought she was not long for this earth, Two. Now? I am not so sure. She seems to have accepted you. Perhaps Abraham might permit us to take her.”

“Good. I understand her. I wish I was like her. Oh, God, Theroen ... how do you stand it? Is it always this much ... tragedy?”

“No, not like this, but there is always some tragedy, Two, and always some joy, and I am sometimes thankful for both. It reminds me of what it was like to be a human. You want to know what you are, Two? You are a killer. You are a vampire. You are a force of nature, like the girl sitting before us. You are cursed, and you are blessed, just like Tori. She will never know the things we know, feel the things we feel. That is her blessing. That is her curse.”

Two smiled at Tori. Tori smiled back, then turned suddenly, loped off through the grass, making high yipping sounds. In seconds she was gone. After a moment more, Two stood. The cut on her finger had already healed, but the thirst still burned within her.

“Let’s go into the city, Theroen. I’m hungry.”

They left the clearing, moving back toward the mansion. Overhead, the moon looked down on them, cold and distant.

* * *

Excerpt II - Lisette

The girl made the cut below the nipple on her left breast and stood, beckoning. Theroen lounged on overstuffed cushions of velvet, warm from the first kill, ready for the second. She was white cream against the red fabric. Pouting lips, full breasts, dark hair on her head, between her legs. Theroen reached out, took her hand, brought her to him. The girl swooned, falling against him, panting, as he drank from the wound she had inflicted upon herself. At length he tired of this small flow of blood and, with a snarl, thrust his teeth into the flesh of her neck. The girl cried out, but made no move to escape this sudden, deadly bite.

Her death came with a tiny gasp, and the girl went limp in his arms. Theroen shoved the body away, reclined, reflected.Two of them, and still he was unsatisfied. There could never be enough death. He could drown in a sea of human blood, and it would never be enough.

A walk, then, and perhaps another victim.

In the ten years which had passed since his rebirth into darkness, Theroen had learned little of his nature beyond that which was readily evident to him. He would not take instruction from Abraham, and the elder vampire in turn shunned his creation, leaving Theroen to his own devices.

Theroen knew he was strong. He knew he could read minds with a proficiency that seemed to enrage Abraham. He knew he could make women do terrible things to themselves, and in this last he sometimes took great pleasure.

There was no God, no devil, no heaven or hell. Lost in a sea of blackness, Theroen let his base instincts run wild. Women, always women, always engaging in acts forbidden by the church. Theroen rejoiced in these acts, though he never participated. They performed with themselves, with each other, not with him. Theroen’s touch meant only death.

Some went quietly, like the two tonight. Others laughed, wept, screamed, begged. It didn’t matter. How could it? How could anything matter at all when God had so clearly forsaken him? Theroen reveled in debauchery ten times greater than anything Leopold might ever have even imagined, and it just didn’t matter.

Someone was watching him. He could sense it, and this presence frightened him. Theroen was unaccustomed to being noticed. His speed and uncanny ability with the minds of those around him made it an infrequent occurrence, at best. What concerned him most was that he could not throw off this feeling. It pursued him through streets, back alleys, parks, graveyards. He skipped the whorehouse from which he’d been planning to acquire another victim, moved onward, toward the townhouse. Toward Abraham. Toward safety.

There was something humorous in that concept, that he might turn to Abraham for sanctuary. The vampire had all but denounced him. Yet blood bonded them. Theroen hated his master. Despised him. Loathed him.

And yet this fear ...

The presence shifted, and he realized that the feeling of being watched was more than a mere tingle at the back of the neck. It was spatial. It had depth. He felt the presence overtake him at a frightening speed. There was a short moment of paralyzing terror, and then it moved onward, in front of him now, yet still focused on him in some way.

From the shadows there was laughter like silver bells on a sheet of glass. The woman stepped out from the doorway of a cathedral. Black hair, pale white skin and oceanic green eyes. Theroen felt himself lost and drowning in those eyes, and looked away, snarling.

“Do you fear everything you don’t understand?” Her accent was French.

“I fear nothing.” A lie, perhaps. His fright was replaced with the hot flush of humiliation. Theroen was glad for this. Of the two, he preferred the latter.

“You fear me.”

“You were trying to hypnotize me.”

“I was doing nothing of the sort.”

Theroen looked back, was pulled again into the depths of those eyes. He struggled to maintain focus, coherent thought, any semblance of composure.

She laughed again, but there was no trace of mockery in the sound. Theroen’s spine knotted and he shivered. “Who are you?”

“Who I am would be a long tale indeed, my fallen priest. Your father knows me. Perhaps you could ask him.”

“Your name, at least?”

“You can call me Lisette. It is not the name I was born into, but the one I chose for myself later. After. It has a lovely sound to it, don’t you think?”

“Lisette. Madame. What do you want?” Theroen had regained some composure. His thoughts were more clear, the sense of fear not gone, but faded. The girl, and Theroen saw now that she was little more than such, laughed again.

“Ah, you are brave, child. But don’t make assumptions based on my appearance. I’ve walked this earth for far longer than you can currently conceive.”

Theroen looked again, trying to see past the facade. The eyes told him she spoke the truth. They were ancient and ageless, like Abraham’s, yet without the malice that forever darkened his. Lisette smiled at him and took a step forward. Theroen flinched, stumbled backward, immediately on the defensive. His fear seemed to leap forward, energizing his muscles. Lisette paused, shaking her head.

“Child, if I wanted to kill you, you would be very dead by now. Do you not understand this?”

Theroen shook his head, a guarded expression on his face. The woman before him was lithe, petite, nearly angelic in her beauty. A killer?

And then she was gone, and he felt the lightest touch of lips against his ear. Her voice was a whisper, heard as much in his mind as by his body. “That and more.”

Theroen jerked to the side, flailing his arms for balance, losing it, falling.

Then he was sitting. Sitting on a stone bench, vaguely aware of some sort of movement too fast even for his vampire senses to track.

“Dear God,” his voice was thick with fear and confusion. The vampire, now sitting beside him, smiled again.

“You speak to He who has forsaken you, Theroen. Is this not the case? Or perhaps you have only forsaken Him?”

Theroen searched for something to hold on to in his confusion, and found his anger. “I know not of Him. Not anymore. I know of fallen priests, and I know of their sins.”

Lisette clapped her hands together at this, laughing, merry, unperturbed. Theroen turned to her, teeth clenched, angry. She looked at him with calm eyes, and shook her head.

“I am not mocking you, my young priest. Ah, has Abraham taught you nothing? No, of course not. Your goodness disgusts him.”

“I’ve no goodness left in me, lady. You look upon a black hearted killer. A creature of evil.”

More laughter. “I look upon nothing of the sort. I look only upon a man, and a vampire, who knows nothing of his own true nature. I look upon a man who was been lead by others all his life, and knows not how to lead himself.”

“I look,” She said, “upon a fledgling in desperate need of answers.”

Theroen said nothing, but turned away. Answers? Perhaps, yes. Certainly Abraham had provided him with little in the way of understanding. He felt movement: Lisette leaning in closer. This time he did not shy away. He was instead suddenly, acutely aware of the woman next to him. She smelled of lilacs and blood. When she laughed this time, it did not bother him so much.

“You must learn to guard your thoughts, my child. Such impure images from a man of the cloth ...”

“I beg your pardon, Madame.” He could think of no other response.

Lisette moved her lips to his neck, held them above the vein. “Is that all you beg for?” Her breath set the tiny hairs below her lips standing on edge.

“Milady ...” Theroen felt out of breath. He was dimly aware of activity at his groin, a first since his baptism into darkness. No mortal woman had ever had this affect on him as a vampire, and before that, as a virgin priest for all of his twenty-three years, he had steadfastly disallowed any such impure thoughts. Now, they swamped him, overwhelmed him, swept him up.

Half-focused images, potent, carnal, flashed through his mind. Her open bodice beckoned, the white breasts luminescent in the moonlight. Skin like porcelain. Hair like ebony. Lips like blood. He sensed, or thought he sensed, some dull fire from between her legs. Theroen moaned slightly. Her lips never touched his skin, yet they burned there like hot iron.

“Alive below the waist,” She commented in a whisper. “How curious. Your father is possessed of no such blessing.”

She touched him there, ever so gentle, and Theroen made some sound, some choked sob. He began to turn toward her, desire overwhelming him.

As suddenly as it had begun, it was over. Lisette sat up, and the feeling, like a building explosion, drained away. Theroen drew in a shuddery breath. Lisette laughed.

“I like you, Theroen Anders. I shall visit you again.”

And she was gone.

* * *

Sneak Peak: Blood Hunt

Two's adventures continue in the second book of the trilogy, currently being finished up. Here's a little taste of what's in store!

The alley was dark, and damp, and smelled like mold. It stretched for perhaps twenty meters in either direction, opening up to streets on either side. There were no other exits. The vampire was nowhere to be seen.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” Two said, running a hand through her hair. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. Where did you go?”

She moved down the alley toward the rear of the building, kicking boxes and old newspapers out of her way. There was no sound but the noise of her progress, and the thud of the music. Two reached the end of the alley and peered down the street. Nothing.

“God damn it, don’t leave me here!” She shouted at the darkness.

Nothing.

Two began walking back up the alley, muttering to herself. “Fine. Fuck you and your stupid vampire bullshit. Fuck your stupid games. I’ll go home tonight, and I’ll come back tomorrow. And I’ll come back the next day, and I’ll come back the day after that. I’ll keep coming back until you talk to me.”

There was a sound like rushing wind, and Two felt something heavy hit her shoulders, dragging her to the ground. The motion was fast, disorienting, and Two was sure that at any moment she would hit hard concrete. Instead, she found herself cradled in the arms of the woman from the club.

“I will speak with you now,” the vampire said, “since you request it. Here are my words: prepare for death, little human.”

“Wait!” Two shouted, and took in air to speak more. It was too late. With one swift motion the vampire grabbed Two’s chin, forcing her head back and exposing the veins of her neck. Two felt pain like fire, first, lancing out from where the vampire bit her to touch every nerve ending. After a moment, it was replaced with warm, pulsing waves of pleasure that coincided with her heartbeat.

Two felt herself being drained, felt her life being stolen away from her, felt blackness speeding up to overtake her. It didn’t seem to matter. She thought to herself, at least it’s over. At least it’s finally done.

She did not expect the abrupt end to the sensation, nor the sudden plummet to the hard ground. She was dimly aware that she must still be alive, because hitting the concrete alleyway had hurt. She looked up, groggy, trying to clear her vision. The vampire was backing up, eyes wide, confused and startled.

“Tah ama vamper. Sa pare tah ama vamper. Ashi?”

The words meant nothing to Two, but she forced herself to respond anyway. Her mouth grudgingly formed the words. “Told ... toldjoo to ... wait.”

“Ashika moritas?”

Two was fading rapidly, but she forced herself to a sitting position. Her head spun, and she leaned against the side of the building for support. The walls throbbed and hummed against her.

“I don’t speak ... whatever that language is. Sorry.”

“You have vampire blood,” the woman said.

Two’s vision was fading now, being replaced by blackness. She laughed. The sound was more like a sob, and with it went the last of her strength. Two slumped to the ground, and her last words were a whisper.

“Not anymore.”

* * *

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