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Jody screa

She sighed, realizing that he’d been goofing on her "Get dressed, cat breath, we don’t want to run out of dark We’re going to need soreat rooure out exactly as going on around him He knew he had been constrained - bound inside a vessel, and whatever held him was immovable He’d even turned to mist, which relieved his anxiety somewhat - there was an ethereal mind-set that accompanied the form, it took concentration to not let yourself just float off in a daze - but the bronze shell was airtight He could hear the, but their co had betrayed him He smiled to himself What a foolishly human mistake to let hope triumph over reason He should have known better

It would be days before the hunger was on hiain, and even then, without any movement, he could last indefinitely without blood He could live a very, very long time constrained like this, he realized - it was his sanity that would suffer He decided to stay in ht, sleep like the dead during the day This way, he would wait, and when the tiht hundred years had taught him patience), he would make his move

Chapter Five

The E Normally, the Emperor of San Francisco would have been tucked in behind a Duled around hiht he had been undone by the generosity of a Starbucks froth slave in Union Square who had donated a bucket-sized Holiday Spice Mochaccino to the cause of royal coled, wandering the wee hours on a nearly deserted Market Street, waiting for breakfast time to roll around

"Like crack with cinnareat, boiler tank of ameat locomotive in a wool overcoat, his face a firebox of intensity, fraray teods and lunatics

Bummer, the smaller of the troops, a Boston terrier, snorted and tossed his head He’d lapped up some of the rich coffee broth himself, and felt ready to tear ass out of any rodent or pastraht cross his path Lazarus, norolden retriever, pranced and leapt at the E ducks any ents," the Emperor chided "Lets us use this inopportune alertness to inspect a less frantic city than we find in the day, and deterht be of service" The Emperor believed that the first duty of any leader was to serve the weakest of his people, and he made an effort to pay attention to the city around hih the cracks and be lost Clearly he was a loon "Cal The smell of cat was tall in the air and the men were jacked on Java Lazarus barked once and bolted down the sidewalk, followed closely by his bug-eyed brother-in-arure that lay curled up around a cardboard sign on the traffic island at Battery Street, beneath aa uysa stapler

Bummer and Lazarus sniffed the man beneath the statue, sure that he had to have a cat concealed as somewhere When a cold nose hit a hand, the Eh of relief With a closer look, the Ee Cat They knew each other to nod hello, but because of racial tensions between their respective canine and feline companions, the two had never becon and jostled hiroaned and an empty Johnny Walker Black bottle slid out of his overcoat

"Dead drunk, perhaps," said the Emperor, "but fortunately, not dead"

Bummer whiainst the concrete base of the statue Williaone Gone Gone Gone"

The Emperor picked up the empty scotch bottle and sniffed it Yes, it had recently held scotch "Willian off the sidewalk and propped it in his lap "Gone," he said The sign read I AM POOR AND SOMEONE STOLE MY HUGE CAT

"My deepest sympathies," said the Eed to procure a fifth of top-shelf scotch, when he heard a long, feline yowl echo down the street, and looked up to see a huge shaved cat, in a red sweater, heading their way He ed to catch hold of Bummer and Lazarus’s collars before they darted after the cat, and dragged thee cat leapt into William’s lap and the two commenced a drunken reunion e, baby talk, and drool, enough that the Eht of it

Even the royal hounds had to look away, the two realizing instinctively that a maudlin and shaved, thirty-five-pound cat in a red sweater was clearly above their pay grade There was just no doggy protocol for it, and presently they began to turn in circles on the sidewalk, as if looking for a good place to feign a nap

"William, I believe someone has shaved your cat," said the Emperor

"That would be me," said Tommy Flood as he ca the bejeezus out of everyone there A pale and delicate hand reached out frorabbed the collar of Tommy’s coat, and snatched hi doll

"To man stalked around the concrete art bunker Bummer and Lazarus had headed back down the street toward the waterfront, as if they had just seen a particularly fetching porterhouse steak hopping around down there that needed to be investigated The Eht in the clutches of his girlfriend, Jody Stroud, the vahtly over Toies with the knuckle of her other hand There was a hollow popping each time she connected, and muted cries fro man," insisted the Erasp

"Ow!" To his head

"Sorry," Jody said "Couldn’t be helped"

"I thought you were going to leave the city with that fiend," said the Emperor He had been there, with the royal hounds and Tommy’s crew from the Safehen they’d done battle with the old vampire at the St Francis Yacht Club

"Well, yes, of course He left already and I’ to join him," Jody said "Just like I promised Inspector Rivera But I wanted to ht before I left"

The Emperor liked Jody, and had been a little disappointed when he found that she was a bloodsucking fiend, but she was a pleasant girl nonetheless, and had always been generous with treats for thefits in her presence "Well then, I suppose that will have to do," said the E writer does require so set loose on the City"

"Hey, I do okay," To a wild eyebrow that looked like a gray squirrel with a Mohawk

"I - uh, ere testing hiet a cat to keep me company after Jody leaves" He looked at Jody, who nodded enthusiastically while trying to look wide-eyed and sincere

"And and," Tou bubbles with - well, long story short, before I knew it, Chet had lunged at one of u and just stared at him

"So you shaved him," the Emperor added

Noas Torettably"

Jody was nodding again, too "Regrettably," she echoed

"I see," said the Emperor They certainly seemed sincere "Well, the sweater was considerate"

"My idea," Jody said "You know so he doesn’t get chilled It’s actually my sweater Tommy washed it and put it in the dryer, so it’s a little too s a cat that size into a sweater," To to dress a ball of razor wire I’m cut to ribbons" He pushed his sleeves up to expose his forearms, which were distinctly not cut to ribbons They were, in fact, unood show, then," the E away "The uys need anything, Your Majesty?" Jody asked

"No, no, we have beenMost fortunate indeed"

"Well, take care, then," Jody said, even as the Emperor backed around the corner and headed up the street

She can be deceptively pleasant for a blood-drinking agent of evil, the Eht, four blocks ahead They had known, the rascals The E William there like that, at the ht do, the two of the his spine and he couldn’t make himself turn around Perhaps they wouldn’t hurt poor William After all, they had been sweet children in life, both of them And even in her current state, Jody had shown a certain quality ofuntil now to turn Tommy Still, he had a city he was responsible for, and he could not shirk that responsibility

It was a long walk to the Marina Safeway, but he had to reach it before the night crew left As knavish as they ht be, they were the only people in his city who actually had experience hunting vae cat guy, who had passed out again under the statue

Jody shook her head and shuddered "He’s filthy Don’t tell me you can’t smell that" Since she’d become a vampire, she’d only experienced nausea when she tried to eat real food, but she was nauseated now, despite the hunger grating in her core

"Here, I’ll clean off a spot" Tommy fished a tissue out of his coat pocket, licked it, and cleaned a spot on William’s neck "There Go for it"

"Yuck"

"I bit the cat," To"

"But he’s ha little steps in place like a little kid who has to pee

"Bite hi ’bite him I don’t think of it like that"

"How do you think of it?"

"I don’t really think of it It’s sort of an ani"

"Oh, I see," To and take him away and youbeside Williae cat looked up at her from William’s lap, then put his head down and closed his eyes (Blood loss had mellowed him) Jody pushed William’s head aside and reared back with her s extended She closed her eyes and bit

"See how easy that was," Too, her breath rasping through her nose as she fed She thought, I should have hit him harder when I had the chance Finally, when she felt she’d taken enough to sustain her, but not enough to hurt the huge cat guy, she pulled away, sat down, and looked up at Toestured to the corner of her mouth

She wiped her mouth with her hand, came aith a little lipstick and a little blood She looked at Williaray color, with a white spot ris had already healed, but the lipstick sort of stood out like a target She reached over and wiped the lipstick off with her pale cat’s sweater Chet purred William snored Jody climbed to her feet

"Hoas it?" Tommy asked

"How do you think it was? It was necessary"

"Well, I "

"Oh, right," Jody snapped "I planned all this because I wanted to fuck the huge cat guy" She was feeling a little light-headed for soet hiets robbed or arrested He’s got to have some of the money left That much alcohol would have killed him"

"The hell do you care, writer boy? You shaved and ate his cat Or was that a sexual thing?" She was definitely feeling light-headed

"That was a mutual - "

"Oh, bullshit Bite him See how sexual it is Get a taste of that down-hooodness, To a wuss

To a wuss," Jody said "Wuss, wuss, wuss"

"Help me Take his feet There’s a sheltered alcove over by the Federal Reserve building across the street He can sleep it off there"

Jody bent to take the guy’s feet, but they seemed to move as she reached for them, and when she corrected, sheherself so that she was on all fours with her ass in the air

"Yeah, that worked," Toe cat guy?"

"Whadever, Mr Wussyman," Jody said Maybe she was a little tipsy In the old days, prevampire days, she’d tried to stay away from alcohol, because it turned out that she was sort of an obnoxious drunk Or that’s what her ex-friends had told her

Toe cat, who squirmed as he held him out to Jody "Take him"

"You are not the head va Chet under his aruy and threw hi the street," Tommy called back to her as he crossed

"Ha!" Jody said "I a I - " And at that point she bounced her forehead off a light pole with a dull twang and was suddenly lying on her back looking at the streetlights above her, which kept going out of focus, the bastards

"I’ll be back to get you," Toht