Available Darkness Season 2

almost painfully nervous. “And how long did it last?”
    “Terrible. I felt like I wasn’t even in my own body. Not sure how long it lasted, but I don’t think it was long.”
    “And that’s the first time it’s ever happened when you weren’t feeding?”
    “Yeah,” Abi nodded. “Do you think you can get John to come visit? I want to ask him if this is normal.”
    Larry nodded his head, “I think so.”
    “How do you feel now?”
    “OK, I guess. Just tired. And sad.”
    “Why are you sad?” Larry said, knowing she could reel off any number of reasons, with every one legitimate. She’d had a shitty life, and was now living mostly alone, except for his lousy self, and now a few hours of company with Katya per day. Far from a normal life for a girl her age, or any age, really.
    “I don’t know,” she said. “I’m just so tired of killing.”
    Larry sighed, “But you have to feed, or you’ll die, Abi. I thought you were OK with it, so long as we were killing bad people.”
    “But they’re not all bad.”
    Larry swallowed, “Listen, I know Karen was a mistake. And I’m sorry. I should’ve done a better job with my research. It won’t happen again. I promise.”
    “It’s not just her,” Abigail said, meeting Larry’s eyes.
    “What do you mean? There’s other innocent people?”
    “No, not that. But they aren’t all bad. A lot of them were good as kids, then their parents, or other people, hurt them. Abused them like Randy did to me. For some of them, stuff was even worse. They were turned into monsters.”
    Larry paused, not wanting to say the wrong thing. “Are you saying we should feel bad for them?”
    “Well, yeah, we should, but that’s not what I’m saying. What I’m trying to say is that every time we kill another one, I feel their pain. All their pain. Their sadness gets added to mine, as if all the bad things that ever happened to them have happened to me too. I don’t know how many more times I can feed on that, especially if the memories are going to come back again and again.”
    Larry swallowed. He’d never thought about the consequences of feeding from evil and how it would affect someone so young. “I don’t know what to say.”
    “How does John do it?” Abigail asked. “He only kills bad guys, too, right?”
    “Yeah, but he’s been doing it a lot longer. Plus, he’s not human, so I’m thinking it’s probably different for him. He might be able to compartmentalize things better.” Larry smiled. “Maybe he can teach you to do it, too.”
    “You think?”
    “Yes,” Larry nodded, still smiling while hoping he wasn’t telling yet one more lie.
    Abi smiled, then reached out her sleeved arms, circled them around Larry’s gut as she leaned into him, and gave him a giant hug.
    “Thank you, Larry.”
    Larry hugged Abigail back, making sure not to touch her skin, and swearing she felt more fragile than ever.

    * * * *

CHAPTER 6 — John

    It had been more than an hour since John heard from Tiny, and, adding another layer of dread to his worry, the big man wasn’t answering any telepathic attempts to reach him.
    Has our connection dropped?
    Has something happened to him?

    Though John didn’t know the man well, Tiny had sacrificed his mortality to become a vampire and help John battle Jacob’s Harbingers. In turning Tiny, John had seen inside the man enough to know he was nothing if not loyal. If Tiny said he’d try to find him, he would.
    But will he in time?
    John sank to the ground, leaning against the iron door where he felt certain someone was either standing or sitting on the other side. He would have thought it was Shadow, waiting for him to die, except that didn’t make sense. If they wanted him dead, why not just kill him while unconscious? Surely, someone like Shadow had a magickal onyx blade at his disposal that could easily kill John.
    But they hadn’t killed him, which meant something else. John wondered if they were trying to scare him, or maybe waiting to question him. He supposed that made more sense. They saw him as the enemy, and rightly so, which gave them plenty of reason to interrogate him.
    Or maybe they’re holding you hostage, trying to trade money for your life.
    That was a possibility John had not yet considered, but it didn’t seem like something Harbinger, or even Shadow, if he was working alone, would do. While he supposed they could extract money from Omega, John didn’t think it was likely that Shadow would hand