Page 15 (1/2)

The soirl Well, she could have been a hundred years old for all I knew, but she looked as if she&039;d be carded for buying cigarettes Although it was quite dark in the pit, reat, and I could h cheekbones, and big dark eyes Pansy eyes, I think they&039;re called, large and pretty and fringed with beautifully sooty lashes We stood in the pit together and stared at each other She looked so young, so fresh; if she&039;d whipped out a pair of po I wouldn&039;t have been surprised

Instead, she dropped to her knees and bowed so low her forehead was scraping the pit&039;s bottoivenessI couldn&039;t help you upstairs, there were too many of them"

"Get up, don&039;t call et up? This floor is disgusting" I shifted tentatively; yup My shoes were definitely sticking It was like being in aof The Rocky Horror Picture Show "Seriously: get up" I bent, seized her arht

"Majesty-"

"Betsy"

"Queen Betsy-"

"Bet See"

She looked away frolanced back "I can&039;t Could you call Elizabeth the Second &039;Betsy&039;?"

"Well, no," I adh someone probably should And I&039;m not the queen"

"Not yet," she said mysteriously

I let that pass "Where are we? I eon?"

"If only, Majesty The Master keeps his Fiends down here Even now he is rushing to pull the lever The cage doors will go up, and the Fiends will be upon us"

"Well, that&039;s a helluva note" I was a little nervous, but not out-and-out terrified Not yet I found the cheerleader extre Why did she jump in with me? And why did she have the idea in her head that I was a queen? I wasn&039;t even a Leo "The walls are pretty steep in hereI&039; this is so we don&039;t have tiestions?"

"Yes" The cheerleader was digging in her jeans pocket and came up with a small, thickly padded envelope, the kind you mail discs in She practically threw it at et rid of it "For you Only you can wield this"

"Uhthanks Gee, I don&039;t have anything for you" I opened the envelope and peeped inside And sold chain slide into old cross on a chain so fine even I, withthe teensy clasp withit hooked around"Thanks a lot I left mine at home"

"This is why you&039;re the queen Or you will be You were foretold, you know"

"No I don&039;t knowand who are you, anyway?"

"I&039;oodness!" I said so loudly she stepped back "No silly-ass overdone nairl"

"It&039;s short for Christina Caresse Chavelle"

"Well, you did the best you could"

I heard a creaking noise just then, a really obnoxious one; it was like hinges clotted with dirt were turning in torturous slowness The sound made h No need to start losing coolness points with Tina who had, after all, juhtup The Fiends are out" Tina said this in a perfectly placid tone, but she was nibbling at her lower lip "Don&039;t be afraid"

"Are you talking to lanced up at me-boy, she was tiny Barely up to"They will coh "Thank you, Tina, but that&039;s not very Queen-ey, is it? Cowering behind soh capes, and I saw their eyes in the dark, little sullen coals I counted ten coals Clearly the pit had an entrance, other than the top But the other end was blocked, or the Fiends would be ga evil puppies If we dealt with the if), we&039;d have time to climb out, but what then?

Tina stepped in front of me just as the first fiend reached us For once I was sorry I could see so well in the dark They were vaguely hus, they scrabbled about on all fours Their hair was, to aand lank and kept flopping into their eyes Theirto contemplate Their cheeks were so hollow they&039;d be the envy of any supers, unbelievably filthy and pitiful rags, and tho&039; they were there to put the hurt on s were Nostro&039;s pets, and he wasn&039;t taking good care of the around the small walls "You don&039;t want to mess with an out-of-work secretary We&039;re real testy"

The Fiends cringed away from me, but I doubt it was because of my threat And I suddenly realized I could see a lot better than a few seconds ago

The cross The cross aroundwith a pure white light like they do in the loas feeble and yellowish and the cross wasn&039;t burning me, wasn&039;t even warm, but the Fiends couldn&039;t bear it Neither could Tina; she&039;d thrown her ar motionsthe way they were s "You attacked uys attacked me outside Kahn&039;s last fall!" I wanted to fall down I wanted to kick the idea, unbelievable, but I suddenly kne I&039;d coshad infectedcame the Aztek a few months later, and whatever the Fiends had put into my bloodstream from the scratches and nips had becos didn&039;t work on me? Because I didn&039;t die by a vampire&039;s hand, I&039;d only been infected by one? Or five?

I shookthere like a du ajar, but this wasn&039;t the ti away from me, from the cross I knehy Nostro had thrown ular newborn vamp to pieces There but for the bravery of Tina would I be kibble for the Fiends

"Get out of here," I said softly, and took a step forward They scuttled back, then turned and fled

"Co hole And I&039;ve got a few choice words for your boss"

"Nostro isn&039;t my boss," Tina said I tucked the cross into my shirt and she slowly lowered her arms "You are"

"We&039;ll talk about it later Come on"

It was short work for us to climb out of the pit The walls were made of brick, and there were plenty of vauard-Nostro was pretty confident we&039;d been chomped, then Tina knew the back way out, and I followed her I had a rather large proble way!"

"Please, Majesty-"

"Betsy, dammit!"

"-it&039;s for your safety Sinclair must knohat Nostro tried to do And what he could not do This is the chance to band together and defeat him once and for all If you join Sinclair, Nostro will be destroyed"

"I hate that creep"

"Which one?"

"Both, frankly, but especially that snooty jerkoff, Sink Lair"

"Well" I had the sense Tina was choosing her words carefully "If you help us defeat Nostro, you will be the reigning queen You could order the jerkoff to leave town"

"Now that&039;s a little h I have no queen qualifications"

"Untrue," she said quietly "I saw You were foretold"

We were driving steadily south Some fool had left his keys in a handy unlocked Lexus, so we climbed in and off ent I didn&039;t feel terribly bad-served hihborhood, anyway Probably was a vampire Besides, I&039;d leave the car in a safe place, and have Marc or Jessica call the owner After what I&039;d been through this week, it was tough to break a sweat over a little grand theft auto

"Foretold," I said, clutching the armrest as Tina took the turn nearly on theels "You said that before"

"There&039;s a book We-vampires-call it the Tabla Morto The book of the dead A thousand years ago, va &039;A Queen shall ryse, who has powyer beyond that of the vampyre The thyrst shall not consume her, and the cross never will harm her, and the beasts will befryend her, and she will rule the dead&039;" Tina nodded in satisfaction

"My!" I coughed That bit about the beastsit explained the dogs During the short walk to the car, every dog in the neighborhood had broken free and come to see me Tina ide-eyed while I swore and scolded and tried to gently boot the enthusiastically at our taillights Real subtle getaway "What a lovely story"

Tina didn&039;t crack a smile "That&039;s you, Majesty You&039;re the first vampire in a thousand years who could hold a cross without screa burned Nostro threw holy water in your face and you laughed You laughed" She said this in a tone of cos do your will-"

"The hell they do They never leave when I tell them to Just lick my ankles and slobber on my shoes My shoes!"

She quirked a little curl of a smile at me "They don&039;t leave because they know you&039;re not truly angry with theet used to it"

"Super" And here I figured I&039;d had a lot to think about in the pit! Tonight was blowing all my circuits "If that&039;s true, if I&039;m the foretold SuperVamp, how come you&039;re the only one who knows it? Why were you the only one who came in the pit with me? And thank you a thousand times, by the way That was really brave I didn&039;t knohat I was getting into, but you did, and you came down anyway" I touched her shoulder "Thanks a lot If you need a favor, sunshine, you coest s! It was the very least I could do for you! If I could have gone in the pit alone, I would have" The smile disappeared as quickly as it had shown up "As to your question, the reason I was the only one to come with you is because Nostro&039;s followers are a pack of fucking cowards"

"Tina!" Not that I&039;d never heard the F word before, but it sounded especially bad co out of that cute mouth, that sweet face Plus, the way she switched fro, to put it ht," she said stubbornly "They do only what he says Even if itinnocents Also, you&039;reof You-Know-Who"

"Christ?"

She flinched, but nodded "Yes Him Everyone knows about it, but how nize That Person if He were to return? They talk abouton water, but if I ever saw so it, I&039;d be so afraid So would a lot of people, I think Well, that&039;s like you, Majesty Every vampire knows about youbut hardly anyone believes"