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Chapter Twenty-seven

Well, That Was Fucked Up

"Then, Lucifer Two attains the blood sword and takes Jared the White as his consort, and they hold dominion over all of the Kindred for ever and ever," said Jared White Wolf, concluding the hour-long plot synopsis of his unwritten epic vampire adventure novel "So what do you think?"

"I really liked it, but I think youhis writer muscles a little It helped hi in him

Jared looked to Jody, and raised a drawn-on eyebrow

"I think we ht now," Jody said, "and if thatyour parents and little sisters, well, you don’t make an omelet - "

"But what did you think of my novel?" Jared said

"I think it’s not a novel, it’s a sexual fantasy about you and your rat"

"It is not That’s just the characters’ names"

"Try Abby’s cell again, Jared" Jody was gritting her teeth

"Tell her to get back here," Toet craet shit reception down here" Jared took his cell and his rat and headed out the door and up the steps

When he was gone, Toer"

"Me, too"

"Should we maybe just, you know, saood idea"

"Well," Tommy said "William is in the hospital, and we don’t knohere Abby is, and I don’t see as we have that many options"

"Tommy, let’s just walk out of here What’s the worst that can happen? We shock Jared’s parents? I get the feeling they may be desensitized"

"That’s fine, but then where do we go toet the uard the door to keep the htened "Hey, ht not even be alive," Jody said, more than just irritation in her voice now "You kno Elijah was going to kill you to fuck withus, he has to know about Abby She’ll be next We should have left here right away I feel horrible for leaving her out there alone"

"She went right to him" Tommy cradled his head in hands "I hate this, Jody Why did you do this to me? It could have worked I could have looked out for you and had a real life Now I just live froer Everyone wants to kill us or take so from us I’m fro in the Midwest"

Jody slid off the bed to the floor and sat next to him, put her arm around his shoulders "It’s not like that, Toods Sure, we have to hunt, but if you let go to the predator part of you, you’ll lose that anxious feeling You have to feel the power of it"

"Power? What power? I was ready to have the rat as a snack"

"Well, you can have the rat if you need him, because that little fucker is creepy"

Toh the door then, pu his inhaler "Oh uy who is a ninja, and they’re like totally into each other And those guys you told us about, that kidnapped you, a bunch of them are vampires now And there’s a tall woman vampire, too, who tried to bite Abs And Abby totally took theht Oh my God, she’s so awesome I wish I had balls like her"

"Where is she now?" Jody asked

"She’s having a Mochaccino at Tulley’s on Market I loaned her like twenty dollars Which she’s going to payher Hey, do I get a Christht where she is," Jody said "We’re on our way"

"We are?" Toet out of here, find a - a donor!

"No, not you," Jody said "We are" She patted Jared on the shoulder, careful not to get her hand near the rat

"We are?" Jared said

"Yes, Jared, you have to come out to your parents You have to confess that you’ve had a girl in your room all day We’ll walk up and you can just introduce ht want to borrow some eyeliner and touch up your lipstick a little first, okay?"

"I will slap the glooer," Jody said with a s war life, Elijah Ben Sapir had been hunted, beaten, tortured, drowned, impaled, imprisoned, and even burned on two occasions - tolerance for those who live off the lifeblood of others being what it is - but in eight centuries, this was the first time he had been flash-fried by a tricked-out Honda Despite the novelty of it, when novelty had just becoht hundred years before it happened again, he’d be okay

Creeping down a SOMA alley, snatching rats fro theh to hunt a real victi as an abject lesson as to why he and his kind were sworn to remain concealed It was bound to happen: the application of new technology for the detection and destruction of vay to protect hi yacht with its sensors and sealed vault had served hiotten the rule - not forgotten, really, but ignored it - deciding to indulge in hope, to the point of faith, that he would always prevail So soht and unleash it upon his arrogant carcass The coould never have found the solution had the vary, and hungry, and a little sad, because he had loved his yellow tracksuit, and noas but beads of blackened polyester burned into his skin

He picked at them as he listened for prey, tucked between a Dumpster and a white step-van full of bread racks Here ca, Elijah could tell by the weight of his step The back door of the bakery opened and the rotund baker stepped out and shook a cigarette out of his pack His life aura was pink and healthy, his heart thu time if Elijah did not suck it dry Normally he only took the sick and the weak, those ere short for the grave anyway, but this was a desperate tiround, catching his screa the other to hit pressure points in his neck that had the baker unconscious in two seconds

Elijah drank, listening to his blackened skin crackle, slough, and heal, even as the baker still breathed There would be no neck snap, no body to find this time He dumped the dust from the baker’s clothes and slipped into them His white Nikes were the only survivors of his previous outfit, so he threw the baker’s clogs into the Du with his wallet, pocketed the cash, and took off, dressed in white from head to foot

The vari to the for Elijah The flash ae, had gone far enough, and noas tie control They all had to die He wouldn’t enjoy killing her Not her

After being burned up for the second ti massacre - a bloodbath - but the Ani sissy ethical reasons like

"You’re burned up!" Blue said "This is no time to develop a conscience Where was your conscience when you wereme do you a dozen times a day, huh?"

"That’s different," said Drew "You were in on it"

"Yeah," added Jeff "And we paid you"

"No one was hurt, aa," Gustavo added

Blue broke off so over the seat of the Mercedes at Gustavo, as in the passenger seat Drew dragged her back into her seat by her hips She crossed her ar out little flakes of ash in exasperation They were supposed to be doing her bidding They were supposed to be her seven - well, three - dwarves

"You shut the fuck up, bean town I was hurt I am hurt Look at me"

They didn’t look at her They were all burnt black fro on them in charred shreds The linen dress that Blue had been wearing had incinerated al only her panties and a severely singed bra Her face was still a bit lopsided froed it on the car hood

"We didn’t do this, Blue," Drew said

Blue s off most of one of his charred ears and all of the carbon strands that as left of his hair The tip of her little finger broke off in the process, at which point she sat back and growled like a beaten dog

"We need blood to heal," Blue said "Lots of it"

"I know," Jeff said The charred power foras driving "I’ood teenagers," Blue said "Where the fuck are you going?"

"Somewhere where the donors can handle our action," Jeff said

"Well, we’re broke until you getcash"

"We can’t exactly go into a bar in the financial district," Drew said "Not looking like this"

"Oh, like they’d let you dirtbags in at your best" Blue found that being burnt up put her on edgea Valiuuy, just like Drew and the other had downed handfuls of his painkillers, only to find their vampire systems rejected them with extre the Mercedes into a wide public parking lot

"You’re fucking kidding me," Blue said "The zoo?"

Tommy waited half an hour before he called Jody’s cell, only to get a dropped signal, then voice mail He called threefor Nuns Xtreet voiceto , you just had to see yourself asa muscle," she had said "Once you’ve done it once, you just kno it feels and you can do it again Like getting up on water skis"

It wasn’t that he could get out of the base in the lided, like you were in a dream It was the only reason, she said, that she hadn’t beaten hi her bronzed When you were mist, it just wasn’t all that bad Maybe if he could turn tohiot was a flatulent toot that sent hi the roo - fouler than he’d even guessed He looked for paint peeling off the walls

That was it He was not a kid hiding in his friend’s basement, he was a - what did Abby call it? - he was one of the anointed, a prince of the night He was going to walk out of here, right past the family, and if he had to take the hi her phone off How do you feel now, Red? Huh? Massacred, dismembered family? Huh? Glad you saved your anytime minutes now?!

He tramped up the steps and into Jared’s parents’ family room

"Hi," Jared’s father said

Tommy had expected a bit of a monster based on Jared’s description of his father Instead what he saas a bit of an accountant He was about forty-five, in pretty good shape, holding a little girl on his lap as coloring a picture of a pony Another little girl, who looked about the sa on the floor at his feet

"Hi," Tommy said

"You must be the va ser hide a since he had fed

"Sort of a weak ensemble, don’t you think?" Jared’s dad said

"Weak," repeated the little girl without looking up from her pony

"Huh?" Tommy inquired

"For a vampire Jeans, sneakers, and flannel?"

Tommy looked at his clothes "Black jeans," he pointed out Shouldn’t this guy be cowering in fear, hter in a sack for his vae You know that Jared and his girlfriend went up to Tulley’s on Market to ht," said Dad "Cute girl Not as s as I expected, but we’re just happy she’s a girl"