Teeth_ Vampire Tales - Ellen Datlow [61]
Gina turned around.
Amy doubled over and gagged again.
That was how they met.
“Hi,” Gina said, pulling out one of the earbuds and letting it dangle. The music spilled out a little louder into the tunnel now. Amy recognized the song. It was old, one that Amy used to like.
“It totally smells down here, right?” Gina continued.
Amy nodded. Her teeth were extended, so she kept her face hidden, placed her hand on the tunnel wall to steady herself as she tried to calm her frenzy and coax her teeth back down.
“I almost threw up last week,” Gina overshared.
Amy nodded again. It was difficult to be understood when her mouth changed. Usually she didn’t have to talk—she just ate.
“You going to be okay? I’ve got water in my bag if you need some.”
“I just need a minute,” Amy said as clearly as she could manage. “I’ll be fine.”
And she would. This had happened before, a stunted kill. It happened. Not all easy marks turned out to be easy. That was part of the thrill of being a hunter.
Composed, expression set back to normal, Amy stood up and turned to face Gina.
Amy noticed that Gina was very small and very thin and very pale. Even paler than her. Even paler than any vampire she’d ever known. Gina’s skin was more ivory than bone. Her veins so blue that they showed uncomfortably bright through her skin. Her hair was reddish once, but it was so lifeless and dead that it lacked any prettiness to it.
Amy knew one thing for sure. This girl was a dead girl. Not actually dead. But dead soon.
“You taking a class here?” Amy asked. It was the most normal thing she could think to ask of the girl who was supposed to be her dinner.
Gina nodded.
“I’m getting my high school diploma,” Gina said.
Gina extended her slender hand. Amy took it. The hand was as cold as hers. It made her shudder. She’d never felt a human with no warmth.
“I’m Gina,” the girl said. “And I love your boots. Even though I’m not so into the seventies.”
Gina was wearing a royal blue velvet dress with a high neck and many tiny little buttons. It was vintage 1910. It had a lace collar. She wore white patterned thick tights and vintage boots.
“I’m Amy,” Amy said.
Now that Gina had given Amy her true name, she would never feed on her. Amy had long ago decided that she couldn’t feed on anyone she humanized. She could only feed on someone she thought of as an animal. They were just human meat. If they were human, like she was once before, if they had a name, she couldn’t feed. Gina was no longer meat; she was now Gina, a human.
Amy was surprised to discover that they had been walking together, side by side, and that now they had arrived at the campus.
Amy knew that tonight she was not going to eat.
So she went with Gina to class.
That’s how come Amy finally finished high school. It was because of her chance meeting with Gina.
Amy as a human died and was reborn as undead in 1976. She didn’t want to, it just happened, in an alley in New York City. It was Independence Day and she was watching the tall boats come up the Hudson River. That night she was tripping on acid with her friends down by the Battery. She left the group alone to go find a bathroom. When she saw the vampire coming toward her, she laughed. She thought it was just a part of the trip. A great hallucination. He was cute, and she welcomed him coming close to her. He started kissing her neck. It tickled at first. Until he bit. Bit hard. Amy was still laughing when the blood was being drained out of her. Even though it hurt like hell. Even though there were explosions in the sky. Even though she was tripping like mad.
But before he killed her completely, he stopped sucking her blood. He later told her he was confused by her laughing. And also, he was hallucinating, too. He stopped and looked at her and saw every girl he’d ever loved. Every girl he’d ever killed. His mother. His aunts. His sister. His niece. His wife. And they were all doing the same thing as Amy. They were laughing. At him. And that