Jelly Babies

Many thanks to all my lovely reviewers -- Moonstar, Rin-chan, Doll'sEyes, Snidne, and StoryJunkie! I hope your New Year's resolutions included something about continuing to leave me such lovely feedback. *Wink*

Moonstar -- Don't worry. Kale is still, to his core, very much a badass. As we will see in the chapter that follows this one.

Rin-chan -- It's so wonderful to have you back! Thanks for all your great comments. As for the whole rebirth thing, the idea is that Pepper's spirit will be born into the baby, while Marzi's spirit will remain behind in his body.

Doll'sEyes -- You must be psychic.

Snidne -- In a previous review, you said "It's like fighters all right up at each other, all holding weapons, waiting. The first one to blink, dies." I liked that. And so, all I have to say about this chapter is: "blink!"

Love,
Falcon


Jelly Babies

Chapter Seven

It was nine o’clock in the morning, one of the few hours during which Inferno actually closed, when Marzi decided to attempt a sponge bath. After being forced to take refuge at the club, Kale had tried to arrange for the installation of a shower. But even his influence could only make plumbers work so fast. They had ripped up a considerable chunk of the men’s bathroom, and then vanished back into whatever alternate reality service people use as a hideout.

Don’t tell Balberith I said so, Kale had muttered, but there are some forces even Hell can’t sway.

For Nicholas, Kale, and Sylvia, using a sink to bathe was a minor inconvenience. For Marzi, it was a major production. However, he’d been feeling slightly ill ever since getting up, and because he hadn’t experienced any morning sickness after the fourth month of his pregnancy, he suspected that the nausea might be related to his own rather ripe body odor. So, armed with a dishcloth he’d borrowed from the bar, he retreated to the men’s bathroom, and stripped. The cold tile under his toes made him want to hop from foot to foot, but he repressed the urge. The last thing he needed to do was slip and belly-flop onto the floor.

You really told Nicholas? Marzi asked, continuing the conversation he’d been having with Pepper. How did he take it?

Better than I expected. I mean, he didn’t throw confetti and do a celebration dance, but he was alright. He tried to be happy for me.

Marzi turned on the sink faucet, carefully adjusting the water temperature before soaking his dishcloth. And you believe it? That he’s happy for you?

No, Pepper confessed, with a sigh that wafted through Marzi like a tattered feather. He’s drowning. And all I can do is stand on the shore, watching him pretend to swim. He’s so determined to be strong for me.

Well, we’ve all failed you in that regard. Failed you badly. Marzi squirted some hand soap onto the dishcloth, and began to rub it up and down his arms. You’ve always been the strong one. Now, we have to learn to be strong without you.

Oh, Marzi...

I’m going to miss you something fierce, little sister.

I know. But this is for the best. You and Kale can get on with your life together. Just promise me you won’t let Kale fit Nicholas with a pair of cement shoes and drop him in Lake Michigan.

Marzi paused for a moment, listening to the erratic tapping as water dripped from his cloth to the bathroom floor. Memory was a strange thing. It wasn’t just pictures carried in the brain. It lived in all the senses – in taste, and touch, and sound. Except for that first night, Marzi had never been present when Pepper and Nicholas made love. But every time he awoke, he woke up in a body that remembered each intimate taste, each orgasmic shudder, and each whispered promise of devotion. After nearly a year, it was impossible not to have...feelings. Whether those feelings were his own, or only the inescapable ghosts of Pepper’s own passion, was a question without any definite answer. Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Did it matter? The truth of the world was that it contained both eggs and chickens.

I promise you, Marzi vowed. Nicholas will always have a place in his daughter’s life. And in mine.

Thank you. Softly, Pepper slipped away from him, gentle as silk brushing past his outstretched fingers. Bending back over the sink, Marzi wished her a pleasant rest. And tried not to imagine what it would feel like when she had gone forever.


*****


Nicholas stared at the shot glass resting on the bar counter in front of him. When he stared long enough, its edges blurred, and the bits of light reflected within its depths seemed to slip and slide, like stars in a greased sky. Absently, Nicholas wondered if this was what being drunk felt like. Probably not. The whole point of getting drunk was to dull your pain, wasn’t it? His pain still gnawed at his heart with teeth that were sharp as knives.

“Here, try some of this.” Scott, Inferno’s bartender, retrieved a squat bottle from under the counter, and poured some of its contents into Nicholas’s glass. “More expensive than the scotch I usually serve customers. But since you’re Kale’s guest, it’s on the house.”

Scotch. That sounded promising, at least. Nicholas remembered the butterscotch candies Pepper had created for Sugar Hearts, glittering in their cellophane wrappers like drops of sunlight. He remembered playing checkers with her, using the candy as pieces – golden butterscotch for him, and bright red cinnamon for Pepper. He remembered each conquered piece being removed from the board, and then eaten, until they tired of the game, choosing to amuse themselves with kisses instead. Kisses like a wonderful mix of buttery richness and spicy sweet...

Nicholas snatched his glass, gulping down the scotch. But instead of the candy-like flavor he’d expected, the alcohol tasted like turpentine, and it took all his willpower not to spit it across the room. Goddamn! Desperate to get the taste out of his mouth, Nicholas swallowed. The scotch burned all the way to his stomach.

Oddly, Scott seemed to interpret Nicholas’s reaction as enjoyment. “Great stuff, huh? You want another?”

Nicholas’s eyes were still watering from his first shot, but if some sort of comfort lay at the bottom of that bottle, then by god, he was going to find it. Holding up his glass, he allowed Scott to refill it. However, before he could bring the liquid to his lips, a voice interrupted him.

“There you are! I’ve been looking everywhere. At first, I thought maybe you hadn’t come tonight, but you’re always here. It’s almost like you live at the club, or something. Anyway, I was searching the dance floor, when I saw a girl with the most beautiful necklace. It actually lit up! Do you think maybe they make beads that light up? It would be so cool if I could get some of those for my candy. And hey, why didn’t you ever tell me that you get free drinks?”

Nicholas offered Cassie a faint smile. Then he nodded to Scott, and the bartender retrieved another shot glass, which he set down in front of Cassie, before filling it with scotch.

“Thanks! I can never afford the drinks here. They need to give out coupons. Of course, I don’t really clip coupons. Not since that time I cut out a whole bunch, and put them somewhere extra safe, except mice came and took them away. Years later, I found their nest, embellished with torn pieces of paper offering fifty-cent discounts on orange juice, and two-for-one deals on packs of hotdogs. Hey, you know what? We should drink a toast to something. Let’s see...” Cassie raised her glass. “To light-up beads, free drinks, coupons, mice, and the rest of this big beautiful world.”

Giggling, Cassie tapped her glass against his, and then threw back her scotch. To Nicholas’s amazement, she didn’t even wince. When he tried to imitate her, the scotch burned again, but it began to be a comforting heat, warming the cold, empty places inside of him.

Nicholas hadn’t expected Cassie to notice his sadness. But when she set down her glass, concern flitted across her face. “You’re upset about something, aren’t you?”

Shrugging, Nicholas looked away. What could he say? Even if he could say anything at all? What was left, other than the great cliché that had already been said so many times before? I hurt. I feel like my heart is going to break.

For a rare moment, Cassie fell silent. In fact, the quiet lasted so long that Nicholas began to wonder if Cassie had left. But when he glanced up, she was still looking at him, her eyes a strange mixture of blue and gold, like flecks of stardust trapped in two perfect sapphires. Why hadn’t he ever noticed that she had eyes like that? Then Cassie raised her hand, and rested it against Nicholas’s cheek, sending a flurry of shivers skittering down his spine.

I can smell your pain. It taints the air around you, sickly sweet as decaying fruit. Decaying innocence. Her voice sounded so strange. Was he really only hearing it inside his head? Nicholas tried to look at Cassie’s lips, to see if they were even moving, but he couldn’t tear his gaze away from the hypnotic depths of her eyes. It doesn’t have to be like that. Everything in this world that’s hurting you, I can take you away from it. If you’ll let me.

Then Cassie removed her hand, and Nicholas blinked, wondering if the last few seconds had even happened.

“I know just the thing to cheer you up,” Cassie announced, taking hold of his arm. “It’s not good to brood. Causes wrinkles. Once, something happened to me, and I let myself brood about it for absolute ages. I brooded while the wallpaper peeled and the floorboards warped. But then I read these self-help books, and they said that our attitudes shape the world around us. I think that’s really insightful, don’t you? So I stopped moping, and decided to have fun with my life, and I’ve been having fun ever since. Incidentally, we need to keep away from Kale. For some reason, he’s annoyed with me, and he can be such a grouchy grump sometimes.”

Nodding, Nicholas followed Cassie away from the bar. He felt, with some conviction, that he knew exactly how much of a grouchy grump Kale could be. So he kept an eye out for Inferno’s owner as he and Cassie made their way through the club. But Kale must have been busy elsewhere – maintaining the spells that thwarted Aryeh, or molesting Marzi, or ordering the execution of innocent puppies – because Nicholas saw no sign of him.

Eventually, Cassie led him down a hallway he’d never noticed before. And, at the end of it, a door. “I found this about a month ago, while I was looking for the bathroom. I mean, I realize the main bathrooms are on the other side of the club, but there are always so many people having sex in those. Sometimes a girl just wants to pee in peace, you know? So I thought maybe this was a smaller, more private bathroom. It wasn’t. But it sure is interesting!”

Cassie pushed open the door, tugging Nicholas inside. For a moment, he couldn’t see anything at all, but Cassie moved effortlessly through the darkness, and switched on a dim light, which seemed to flicker above them, barely stronger than a lantern. Still, even its insufficient illumination allowed Nicholas to take in his surroundings. The floor beneath their feet was made from smooth black stone, and the walls were expensive wood paneling. In fact, the room would have seemed quite classy, if not for the assortment of cages, bizarre furniture, and dangling shackles.

“Isn’t this place a trip? I figure it must be something reserved for Kale’s special guests. And by special, I mean total perverts!” Cassie walked over to a box, just big enough for a person to kneel inside, and made from glass or some sort of clear plastic. A series of holes had been cut at strategic heights. “Still, everyone has their own tastes, I suppose. I mean, I love big earrings, the kind that bang against your neck when you walk, but a lot of people think they’re tacky, you know?”

Dubiously, Nicholas tugged at a strap affixed to an uncomfortable looking chair. Inspired by Marzi’s enjoyment of such things, he and Pepper had experimented a little, but discovered that neither of them possessed particularly kinky tastes. Aside from occasionally playing with a pair of fuzzy pink handcuffs, their sex was pretty normal – if fucking the spirit of his dead lover, currently residing in the body of her brother, could be considered “normal”.

Something tapped the back of his neck, and Nicholas spun around, startled to discover that Cassie had snuck up behind him. Again, she pressed her hand to his cheek, and again, he found himself tumbling into the depths of her gold-flecked eyes.

You think no one understands, her voice whispered. But I do. A lover leaving you, despite all her vows to stay. A child you never intended to conceive. Too much worry and struggle for someone so young. But I can make your heart light again. I can set you free.

Cassie caressed his skin with her fingertips, coaxing him closer. And, despite his better judgment, Nicholas surrendered to her touch. Bowing his head, he brushed his lips against hers, searching for a taste he couldn’t describe, a flavor he couldn’t name. After all, Pepper had loved twice. Maybe he could, too.

But he was not Pepper. Pepper had a heart so brimming over with love, she could give it away time after time, and it would always return to her, fuller than before. With him, it was different. From the moment he’d first kissed Pepper – maybe even from the moment she’d first peeked out at him through the guise of Marzi’s body – he’d known that she would be his one and only. Loving her would consume everything he had, and there would never be enough left for anyone else. So when he kissed Cassie, he tasted nothing, and the heat that she gave him was only the same heat he got from the scotch, a brief and empty comfort. But, like the scotch, it was the only source of comfort he had.

After returning his kiss, Cassie broke away. “Tag,” she teased, poking him in the chest. “You’re it.”

At first, Nicholas just watched as Cassie danced away from him, an impish smile on her face. His thoughts buzzed like a hive of bees. Somewhere, deep inside, he knew that this was wrong, that it would lead him down paths he didn’t want to travel. Unfortunately, such wisdom lived in the parts of him which hurt like hell. Parts he felt all too eager to ignore. So, after a moment’s hesitation, he ran after her.

Cassie giggled as she darted through the kinky obstacle course. Numerous times, Nicholas lunged forward, sure that he’d caught her, but she always shrieked and eluded his grasp. Until, finally, she scurried up a small stepladder placed beneath a pair of manacles dangling from the ceiling. Left without any route for escape, she could only squeal when Nicholas darted up after her and caught her in his arms. As he held her, her body squirming against his, and her laughter mingling with his own mute mirth, Nicholas experienced a brief instant of joy. The only real happiness he’d felt since Pepper gave him her news. Then, with inhuman speed, Cassie caught hold of his wrists, yanked them up over his head, and snapped them into the manacles.

“Gotcha!”

Nicholas arched his eyebrow, expecting this to be a continuation of their game. But Cassie’s manner had changed. When she jumped down from the stepladder, her motions were smooth, feline, and decidedly predatory. For a moment, she just looked at him, like a cat taking pride in the mouse it had cornered. Then she grinned. And as she pulled her lips back, Nicholas saw the light glint off two sharp, white fangs.

“This is going to be so much fun,” Cassie enthused, and the cheerful sweetness in her voice made it almost impossible for Nicholas to accept the truth revealed by her monstrous teeth. “The vampire who made me, he was alright, but he liked to talk. That was great at first, because he had some really interesting stories. Did you know that the ancient Romans had folding chairs? And fast food restaurants? I’d never have guessed! Of course, after three hundred years, even the most fascinating stories get old. Really, really, old. I eventually killed him just so I wouldn’t have to listen to them anymore.”

Still smiling, Cassie kicked the stepladder out from under Nicholas. A mute cry of fear tore from Nicholas’s throat, and he peddled his feet in the air, trying desperately to keep from falling. But no amount of flailing could beat gravity. Only the manacles kept him from hitting the ground, and when he jerked against them, Nicholas experienced a rush of pain, followed by a sickening snap as the force of the drop broke his wrist. Then he simply dangled in front of Cassie, helpless as a slab of meat.

“But we don’t have to worry about that,” Cassie assured, as if dull conversation was Nicholas’s primary concern. “You can’t talk, and I never say the same thing twice, so you won’t get bored with me. We’ll have so much fun together! I’ll show you things you’ve never imagined. We’ll go where we want, take what we want. No burdens, no responsibilities, nothing to tie us down. And I’ll never leave you. We’ll be together, young and happy, forever.”

While she spoke, Cassie lifted the overturned stepladder, and set it beside Nicholas. Then she climbed up, until their faces were at the same level. Nicholas shuddered as her fingers caressed his guilty lips. Once you’ve shared my bed, Cassie promised, her voice slithering inside him like a serpent, you’ll forget all about that ridiculous freak you’ve been screwing.

Desperately, Nicholas shook his head, and tried to explain. I’m sorry. Oh god, I’m so sorry! I never should have kissed you. I never should have tried to use you to numb my grief. That wasn’t fair to you, and I’m sorry. But please, don’t do this! Grief is the price of love, and if eternal happiness means losing everything I truly care about, then I don’t want it. Please. I don’t want it. Unfortunately, terror and pain caused him to stumble through his speech, reducing it to a few coherently mouthed words. I’m sorry. Don’t. Please don’t.

Cassie made soothing noises, and stroked his hair, like someone comforting a frightened pet. “I know. I was scared at first, too. But it really is wonderful. You’ll see. After the first hundred years, you won’t even remember what it felt like to be human.”

Let me go! Panicked beyond reason, Nicholas thrashed like a fish on a hook. But struggling only aggravated the pain in his broken wrist. When Cassie once again bared her fangs, all he could do was draw a shaky breath and try to brace himself for the sensation of those teeth tearing into his flesh. However, just as her lips were about to touch his throat, she suddenly hissed and jerked back.

“What kind of trick is this?” Cassie snarled, all perky innocence gone from her voice. “What abomination are you wearing, that burns me like fire?”

The feel of the leather cord, and its accompanying tin charm, had grown so familiar to Nicholas that he’d forgotten Pepper’s gift. His memory of it only returned when Cassie flicked open the collar button on his shirt, revealing the Medal of Saint Michael. At the sight of it, another angry hiss tore from her and she snatched at the necklace, attempting to rip it off. But she couldn’t maintain her grip for long enough. As she yanked her hand back, Nicholas could see the long, black mark the cord had burned into her palm. And he dedicated a silent prayer of thanks to Officer James Kelley.

For a long moment, Cassie just glared at him. Then she began to descend the stepladder. “Very well. There are other arteries in your body.”

Before Nicholas could even try to guess what she meant by that, Cassie unsnapped his pants. “This should work just as well. Unless a priest blessed your underwear. But, somehow, I doubt that.”

As Cassie pulled down his zipper, the sound of the metal teeth releasing their grip echoed in Nicholas’s ears like a shrill cry. Oh god, no. Please. I know this is all my fault, I know I deserve what she’s about to do to me. But please – no! Frantically, Nicholas tried to resist, but Cassie ignored his feeble kicks, and easily stripped off his clothes until he was naked from the waist down.

“There, there,” Cassie cooed. “You act like I’m going to do something terrible to you. But I think you’ll like this.”

Reaching between Nicholas’s legs, Cassie trailed her fingers across his most intimate regions – places only Pepper’s caress, and Pepper’s kisses, had ever explored. Places that he’d sworn would belong to her alone. Nicholas felt his breath catch in his throat. Little shivers of pleasure crept across his skin, as unwelcome as roaches. And, despite his best efforts, despite bursts of disgust so strong that they made him gag, he couldn’t keep his body from responding to the enticement of Cassie’s touch.

“See? That’s not so bad, is it? Now, if you’ll excuse me, it’s time to taste that sweet blood of yours. But don’t worry.” Cassie’s fingers curled, scraping the tips of her nails across sensitive flesh, and Nicholas mewled in silent pain. “If anything I do hurts, just say something.”

Still chuckling at her own joke, Cassie touched her mouth to the inside of Nicholas’s thigh. At first, she just kissed and licked, until Nicholas’s blood seemed to thunder inside his body. His broken wrist burned, as if wrapped in a bracelet of fire. Then, finally, Cassie sunk her fangs deep into his flesh.

Nicholas screamed. Not so much from the bite, but from the despair that pierced his heart. He had failed. Failed himself, failed Pepper, failed his unborn child. Ugly, awkward tears began to stumble down his cheeks. Oh, Pepper. Forgive me if you can. Despite the tricks my mind played, and the betrayals my body committed, please believe that my heart never turned away from you. Not even for a moment.

Cassie made hungry, suckling noises, and Nicholas felt a chill begin spread through him. His breath slowed down, and his heart beat less and less frequently, like a gong being played by someone who kept falling asleep. Eventually, even the pain in his wrist faded to numbness. The world turned hazy, vaguely out of focus, and Nicholas would have blinked, but his eyelids seemed so heavy, he was sure that once he closed them, he’d never have the strength to open them again. I’m sorry. Tell my daughter that her father loved her. Tell her that he didn’t want to leave...

Darkness swirled in the corners of Nicholas’s vision. However, just when he thought it would sweep over him, Cassie stopped drinking. Licking the blood from her lips, she climbed back up the stepladder. Then, to Nicholas’s horror, she used her fangs to tear open her own wrist, and pressed the bleeding wound to his mouth. “Now it’s your turn, my darling.”

But even as the first ruby drop spilled onto Nicholas’s tongue, he lost consciousness.