[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
It’s cold out, that damnable cold that treats the thickest wool like tissue paper
.
My legs,
exposed to the chill night air, aren’t numb exactly, but they’re getting clumsy, unwieldy
.
I
wonder if they’re freezing solid
.
The neon glow from the window of Lucy’s seems like it should
provide some warmth, but that’s the thing about advertisement: it reels you in with that glow,
only to leave you stranded in the chill with watered
-
down beer
.
I
will
the stolen blood inside me
to move, to circulate, and am rewarded with a little comfort in my legs and a growing hunger
in my stomach
.
I sigh (one of my favorite affectations), which makes me feel slightly better, and am considering
going back inside when Harold inally pulls up in his ancient truck
.
One of the headlights is out,
and I take a second to appreciate that as a metaphor for the man’s entire worldview
.
Even
though he’s half an hour late, he honks his obnoxious fucking horn, and it takes everything I’ve
learned from the Dragons not to lose it and kick out the other light with one of my snow boots
.
The door opens as I reach for it, and Springsteen’s new single is on the radio
.
Harold’s already
picked up Darryl (probably why he’s late), and the latter’s sitting bitch
.
He smiles at me, that
irritatingly ingratiating smile full of promises
—
you know, that guy who always smiles like he
gets
you, like he
knows what it’s like, man.
I get in beside him, hauling my backpack into my lap
before pulling the door closed
.
“Nice place,” he says with a smirk as his bright white eyes appraise Lucy’s
.
Harold spins the
wheels on the parking lot slush when he slams it into reverse, just before the truck lurches
backwards
.
The truck’s a standard transmission, with one of those shifters that rises from the
loor
.
Darryl has to sit with his legs spread, one foot on either side of the axel well, and Harold’s
calloused hand rests lightly on the shaft that protrudes from between them
.
I smirk, glad for the
small blessing of being the last in
.
“Thanks,” I answer dryly
.
He glances at me, and he knows what I’m thanking him for
.
He
gets it
.
...
We meet up with Robyn under the El station at Madison and Wabash, just south of that stretch of
Wabash called Jeweler’s Row
.
It’s late on a Sunday, so all that shit’s closed, but the bright white
neon remains, illuminating the street, promising diamonds, rings, necklaces, the usual
.
One of
the trains rumbles overhead, sending a cascade of icy water down from the rusty buttresses
.
Robyn descends from the station like a goddess, frightened pigeons scurrying before her, an
avian honor
-
guard
.
Must be something she’s exuding, because I feel it, a tight knot in my useless
stomach
.
She’s wearing this white jacket with shoulder pads to make the Bears proud, over a top
as black as night
.
The whole thing serves to highlight every angle of her features
.
She’s a born
predator, an art deco snow leopard
.
Darryl takes a step back from her, so I know he feels it, too
.
Only Harold seems unperturbed
.
Power of faith and all that shit, I guess
.
“Knock it off,” Darryl grunts
.
Robyn smiles demurely, that false “Who? Me?” innocence, and
that riles me up again… the monster inside me, I mean
.
I take a moment, close my eyes and
chastise the unreasoning Beast until it calms
.
I realize I’m on edge tonight
.
There’s a tension
hanging in the air like snow, barely registering to my senses
.
My companions are blind to this,
of course
.
They’re blind to a great deal
.
“Showing off ain’t getting it done,” Harold mutters in his hick drawl
.
He follows it up with something
he must have heard in church: “One can exult in the monster without exalting it
.
” I wonder who told
him that
.
Those words seem ill
-
itted to his rustic tongue
.
Robyn catches it, too
.
“Oh, Harold,” she purrs
.
“If you’d stop listening to the blather of old dead men and give an ear
to your soul for once, you might ind what you’re really looking for
.
” Harold shrugs
.
“He’s a jealous God, and there ain’t no gods before him,” he answers, pushing his aviator frame
glasses up his narrow nose before brushing snow slush from his moustache
.
“We’re Damned, right?” she answers with a question
.
“Damned from birth? Why not enjoy it?”
“It’s too cold and too early for argument,” Darryl cuts in, always the mediator
.
He glances at
his watch
.
“Do you think it would kill him to be on time for once?” he says, expertly transforming
Harold and Robyn’s rivalry towards one another into annoyance with the errant member of our
little coterie
.
I watch one of the pigeons take light for an iron perch slung under the tracks
.
“If Kenneth had an appointment with the dawn, he would still manage to be ten minutes late,”
Robyn intones, imbuing her words with the heavy weight of ritual or prophecy, like Kenneth’s
incessant tardiness should be the focus of a koan or something
.
I glance at her, meeting her
eyes just as they inish giving my wardrobe a quick once over
.
She smirks slightly in disapproval
of my heavy coat and Wednesday Addams dress
.
“We all have our place in this, right Molly?”
“One man in his time plays many parts,” I answer in Shakespeare without much enthusiasm,
then nod towards Kenneth’s approaching limo
.
“We have our exits
.
And our entrances
.
” The car
stops beside the three of us, allowing us a moment to commune with our blurred relections in
the polished paint before the doors unlock with a resounding click
.
...
Kenneth’s a bit of an asshole, and he reminds me of that fact as we make the three
-
block drive
to the front entrance of the Art Institute, the Matriarch’s favored Elysium, in his stretch Lincoln
.
The car is immaculate, the wood accents polished to a shine, the leather seats cushioned
precisely enough
.
He’s somehow even managed to make it
smell
like a brand new vehicle
.
Or
maybe it
is
brand new
.
Maybe he goes out and buys one of these every month
.
I don’t
think
he’s
that rich, but with those Invictus you never know
.
Of course, the whole illusion of wealth and
power is broken every time he opens his mouth
.
“We wouldn’t have to trot out this dog and pony show every month if you kids would grow up
and get real jobs
.
It’s all about money, guys, and money’s about thinking outside the box
.
” I’m not
sure what this means
.
Kenneth has a tendency to speak in buzzwords and high
-
priced corporate
jargon
.
He looks at Harold
.
“It’s about showing up in a real car, not a rusted
-
out P
.
O
.
S
.
”
“This your
real car?
” Harold almost growls the question
.
“Good luck hauling a damn
canoe
in this
.
” I rub the bridge of my nose, surprised for a moment when my ingers bump into my
glasses
.
I don’t need them, not since the change; I only wear them for gatherings
.
Arthur, my
sire, says they make me look smart
.
Even among the dead, appearances matter
.
“It’s not meaningless ritual,” Darryl interjects before the talk can devolve into a ight about
whose car is bigger than whose
.
“It’s about solidarity
.
It’s about appearances
.
”
“Solidarity? What the fuck is solidarity, anyway?” Kenneth asks
.
“We’re dead, D
.
I’m not running
the fucking vampire Salvation Army out of my fucking limo
.
Or is this more Commie shit?” He
smirks, lashing a little fang
.
“Hey, tell me
.
Your blood as red as your politics?”
Darryl rolls his eyes
.
“Consider it enlightened self
-
interest, Ken,” he replies
.
“That’s a concept
you can respect, right?”
“How precisely is it in my best interests to give you four a ride to the big party?”
“We arrive together and we’re sending a message
.
We’re saying that we’re a coterie
.
That you
fuck with one of us, you fuck with all of us
.
” Darryl spreads his hands to indicate all four of our
little group and gets this earnest tone in his voice
.
“No, I get that, man
.
And I get how you hanging out in my shadow makes you look all cool
.
I get
that
.
What I’m trying to igure out, and maybe you can help me here, is what’s in it for me
.
”
“Not everyone respects the all
-
mighty dollar, Kenneth darling,” Robyn answers, “or even that
you’re the prim’s kid
.
” Kenneth’s expression sours, which brings the slightest smile to my own
lips
.
His sire is a bit of a sensitive spot for him
.
“But even they’ll think twice about harming you
to get back at your sire when they remember that you’ve got Harold backing you up, or that you
know a blood witch like me
.
Or like Molly, of course
.
”
I shoot her a strained smile
.
Blood witch indeed
.
Robyn thinks that the Dragons stole some
deiled version of the magic that her own religion practices
.
She doesn’t get that there’s nothing
magical about what we do
.
But vampires take even more time to adopt the new than does the
mortal herd
.
When you live for centuries, it can take a little time to adapt
.
I’ve tuned out Kenneth’s response
.
Just as well… we’re at Elysium
.
...
I’m fond of the Art Institute
.
Especially tonight, with the light snow dancing about the still,
silent lions that stand sentinel at the entrance
.
One of Shark Bostow’s boys is at the door,
checking us for Beasts and reminding us of the rules of Elysium: no weapons, no blood tricks
.
We pass the inspection easily; none of us have learned to mask our inner predators yet
.
The
rules, though
—
I shake my head as Kenneth hands over a set of knives, Robyn surrenders a
curved ritual blade and Darryl produces a
.
38 special from his waistband
.
The hound tags each
and hands them over to a breather to be taken to the coat check
.
“Better safe than sorry’s all I’m saying, toots,” Kenneth whispers in my ear as we move deeper
into the museum, past the marble stairs that lead up into the second
-
loor galleries
.
I shy away
from Ken
.
He either fed on his way or is wasting blood, because his breath is warm on my ear
.
Fucking creep
.
Lillian, Mistress of Elysium, greets us in Gunsaulus Hall, which connects the two halves of
the museum and spans the rail tracks that run between Michigan and Columbus
.
The hall also
houses the museum’s collection of European arms and armor
.
She’s like those weapons, really:
beautiful, deadly and incredibly old
.
She smiles, her fangs slightly extended, and I briely consider
leeing for my life
.
Instead, I offer my own stiff smile as Robyn bows to her
.
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]