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Chapter Six

Do Animals Get the Blues?

Clint was the only one of the Animals still left at the Marina Safeway He was tall, with a wild lasses that were held together with medical tape, and he had a look of deep panic on his face He’d been trying to keep the store together for nearly a ith only a couple of stock boys from the day crew, and a porter from a temp service (even Gustavo, the Mexican porter with five kids, had taken off with the Anie order had come in on the truck and he knew he needed professionals He dialed Toht It was four in the , but Tommy was their leader - and perhaps the best frozen-turkey bowler the world had ever known He knehat it meant to be an Animal; he would be awake

The one I need your help It’s just ht" Clint had been recently reborn after five years in a drug-induced haze He swore that the Lord would forever be on his night crew "The guys took off for Vegas Callyour box cutter and co, the Anie of twenty-five, left alone in a grocery store for eight hours with only Toiven their na to find theiant Safeway letters on the front of store, pelting one another with ht the old va inside a vault on his yacht, and they had also found his art collection After selling it for ten cents on the dollar, each of them had netted a hundred thousand dollars Tommy went home with Jody, Clint went home to pray for the vampire’s soul Sias

Clint hung up the phone, then sat down hard in the ht of it would drive hi in his head

"Front door," the teht porter called over the half wall of the office

Clint stood up to see the Erabbed the keys, disarmed the alarm, and opened the door The Boston terrier shot by hi for the beef-jerky display

"Your Majesty," Clint said "You’re out of breath"

The bigfiend Gather your weapons, we ain into the breach"

"It’s just me and noobs," Clint said "Did you say that Too As pale as death"

"Well, that’s not good"

"Your talent for stating the obvious is unprecedented, young oing to need to pray on this"

"Well, there’s a start," said the Emperor

"Then I need to call To to work," Clint said

"Splendid," said the Emperor, without a hint of sarcasm "I believe we’ve achieved a new level of dooood toup the narrow stairway to their loft She was slung over his shoulder, her forehead bounced off his belt with every step She seeth He’d carried her ten blocks already and he wasn’t even feeling it Well, he was a little tired of listening to her, but physically he wasn’t fatigued at all

"I can be such a bitch sometimes"

"That’s not true," Tommy said Yes, it was

"Yes it is, yes it is Yes I am I am a total bitch so in his pocket for his keys

"Well,I’ to come up?"

"Listen, you’re lucky to have me, you wuss"

"Yes I a her over to her feet, then caught her before she went over backwards into the wall She had a big goofy s, blood had dripped down the front of her blouse and there was some smeared on her lip She looked a little like she’d been punched out Tommy tried to rub away the blood with his thuo on him made hiht back at you, Jody"

"I’ to harness my powers, you know"

"That’s okay"

"And called you a wuss"

"No problem"

She licked the side of his neck, nipped at him "Let’s make love before the sun comes up"

Toht on the loft the last tiht he would hear coh for tonight Maybe we should just lock down"

"You think I’m fat, don’t you?"

"No, you’re perfect"

"It’s because I’m fat" She pushed him away and stumbled into the bedroom, then tripped and tumbled face-first into the shredded reh it was only through his acute va that To directly into the et whiplash fros, Red," Tommy said quietly as he climbed into bed with his clothes on

Then he lay there beside her thinking about all that they had to do, about how they were going to have to find a place andthe day, and beyond that, just exactly hoere they going to survive and stay hidden? The Emperor could tell Tommy could tell he could tell And as n And so even as he worried, and listened to his girlfriend yell at him, C Thomas Flood became the first vampire in history to actually pray for the sun to come up

A few minutes later, his prayers were answered, and the two of the a vampire, Jody had always hated the way consciousness caroggy twilight between sleep and wakefulness, just "baht, here’s your to-do list" Not tonight Tonight she got her twilight, her grogginess, and a headache as well She sat upright in bed so fast she nearly somersaulted off the end, then, when her head didn’t seem to follow her, she lay back doith such force that her pillow exploded, sending out a snowstorm of feathers to whirl around the roo into the roo her forehead with both hands as if to hold her brains in

"That’s new, huh? Vaover?" Tommy waved some feathers out of the air in front of him

"I feel like death war coffee right now"

"And aspirin I’ve fed off of you when you’d been drinking Why did it affect uy had a little more in his blood than I did Anyway, I have a theory about that We can test it later, when you feel better, but right noe have a ton of stuff we have to do We’ve got to figure out theI shouldn’t coe for her Twice

"He knows," Jody said

"Yeah, but how does he know?"

"Doesn’t matter He knows"

"Fuck!"

"Little bit softer now," Jody said, holding her hair like it was hurting her

"Too loud?"

Jody nodded "You know, for your notebook, Toood"

"Really? That bad?"

"Your breath is nauseating me from across the room"

"Yeah, we need toothpaste"

"There’s someone at the door?" Jody covered her ears She could hear sneakers scraping the sidewalk from all the way downstairs

"There is?"

The door buzzer sounded

"Yep," she said

Tommy ran to the front s and looked down to the street

"There’s a Hu"

"You’d better answer it," Jody said

"Maybe we should just hide Pretend we re not hoet it," Jody said She could hear the shuffling at the door, the rock and roll playing in the li chopped on a CD case, and athe phrase "sweet blue titties" over and over like a rabbed the pillow from Tommy’s side of the bed and pulled it over her head "Answer it, To Animals"

"Dude," said Lash Jefferson, a wiry blacked his "We are so fucked, dude," Lash continued

Tolad to see his friend with the fact that Lash sht you guys went to Vegas," Tommy said