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Chapter Twenty-nine
Don’t You Hate Running into Your Ex?
As soon as she unlocked the new loft’s security door from the street, Jody smelled blood, burned flesh, and shampoo A case of the willies that felt like an electric serpent slithered up her spine She went up the stairs, light on the balls of her feet, ready She heard every tick in the aparte cat Chet snoring in the bedroohts were off He was sitting in a canvas sling-back chair, barefoot, in a pair of To his hair with a towel Jody stopped by the kitchen
"Fledgling," said the vampire "I’m always pleasantly surprised when I ae"
"Must have surprised the fuck out of you to have that Honda toast you, then, huh?" She felt herself tightening down, the electric jangle channeling itself into an awareness, an edge It wasn’t fear anymore, it was readiness
"An unpleasant one, yes I assume your little servant is safe for now"
"Well, you know, she inded for a few irl"
The vahed, and Jody couldn’t help but smile She went to the s at the front of the loft and opened theo, you know," said the va
"No, she won’t," Jody turned on her heel Faced him
"Of course she will All of the alone, little one You can come aith me, just as we planned"
Jody was stunned at his density "I was lying to you, Elijah I never intended to go aith you I was just pretending to find out how to be a vaht, then - if your pet hadn’t bronzed us, I ht I’d send you away"
"No you didn’t"
"I thought I’d let the Ani to anyway"
"No you didn’t"
"I don’t know" The edge was slipping "I don’t know" Maybe she was going to go with hiain Let’s pretend like all this unpleasantness hasn’t happened, and it’s the next night, and here we are, just the two of us The only ones of our kind What will you do, Jody?"
"But we aren’t the only ones of our kind"
"We are the only ones you need worry about You do know that you are the first new vampire in a hundred years?"
Jody tried not to show her surprise "How lucky for me," she said
"Oh, you’re not the only one I’ve turned I’ve turned e with her mind intact The others had to be, well, decommissioned"
"You killed them?"
"Yes But not you Help ether"
"Clean up?"
"There are certain rules, love Rules that I set down myself, and the first of them is make no s, and they all have to be cleaned up, including your boy pet"
"Make no more? What about me? You ht you would be an auished yourself"
"And now you want me to run off with you"
"We’ll live like royalty I have resources you couldn’t iar daddy"
"Well, yes, I will have to make my way to one of my caches"
"I have an idea," Jody said, and this was really the reason she had co that he would be here Or at least hoping "How about I give you enough et you out of town and you do that, just like we promised Rivera and Cavuto? You leave me alone, you leave Tommy alone, you just leave"
Elijah stood now, tossed the towel on the chair, and moved to her so quickly that she could barely even see him move "Art, music, literature," said Elijah "Desire, passion, power - the best of ether You would say no to that?"
He put his hand on her cheek and she let hi into his eyes - they reflected like drops of ht vision
"For fairy tales We are the stuff frohtine why you haven’t had any takers for a hundred years" Jody grabbed his wrist If he wouldn’t leave, she could take hi, but his s from pleased to predatory "So be it, then"
His hand was at her neck in an instant, she didn’t see him move or have a chance to react Suddenly she couldn’t s, and there was an intense pain behind her ear and under her jaw She screa out of a hu you’d hear from a tortured cat He clamped his other hand over her ht together, love"
She watched helplessly as he tossed his head back and his fangs unsheathed
Troy Lee squared off against Drew at the end of the dog-food aisle, two short fighting swords in hand
"Bring it, stoner," Troy Lee said He spun the swords Drew fell into a crouch by the dishwashing liquids
"I’m fast now," Drew said
"Uh-huh," Troy said He whipped the swords through the air in a deadly fanningsince he was a child; he wasn’t afraid, especially of Drew
"Hey," caht beside hiister what looked like a fulland Troy was nearly flipped over backwards when the iron skillet hit hirinned at Drew "I’ve alanted to do that"
"Housewares used to be my aisle," Drew said
"Take him," said Blue "Let him drink some of your blood before he dies" She headed toward a coot a broken nose that needs to heal"
Jody felt her own fangs extend and her kneecaps quiver as Elijah fed on her, but otherwise she couldn’t ht hundred years old - of course he hadn’t taught her everything Of course he was stronger than she was - she was stronger than Toer than he had
If she could stay conscious,she could make her move Could he reduce her to dust like a hu else? Stupid Stupid Stupid Why didn’t she know all of this? Why wasn’t she acting on instinct? Where was the predator mind when you needed it?
Her vision started to tunnel down - she was losing consciousness She could hear rapid footsteps outside, though First below, then across the street, then below again Elijah heard therip for an instant, but before she could twist away, his fingers dug into her neck and jaw again Then a black blur flew through theand she heard so thud on the floor over by the kitchen There was another loud thud and Elijah released her and she fell to the floor She tried to push herself up, but so sound She heard screa, then so her She couldn’t o, let herself float away, but the last thing she heard was a girl’s voice saying, "Did you feed Chet?"
The E the fog wash over the breakwater He’d gone against the advice of the horocery store It was his city, and it was his place to take the battle to its attackers He had cowered in fear long enough His wickedly pointed sword lay on the dock at his side Thein a fuzzy pile at his back
"Ah, gentle warriors, hoe engage in battle when our eneant stealth? Perhaps we should return to the Safeway and help defend"
Bummer’s left ear twitched, and he let out adown froht the E across the wind fro straight over the breakwater fro bank bubbled thick as it moved, tendrils reached out and then were reabsorbed like the false feet of so creature
The Emperor climbed to his feet and roused the et his bearings, and headed toward the clubhouse with Lazarus at his heels He crouched in a shadow by the entrance to the restroo bank enveloped the end of the dock, paused, then dissipated as if a fan had been turned on it, and three tall figures stood on the dock, acoats, cashht, but he couldn’t for the life of hiht know that TheyThe Eht - jawlines and cheekbones that looked as if they’d been chiseled, square shoulders, and narrow hips They ht have been brother and sisters, except one of the woht be Italian or Greek The man was a head taller than the women and looked Nordic, perhaps German, with close-cropped white hair All were as pale as bleached bone
As they passed him the Emperor pulled the hounds closer and Bu ruff
They stopped Thehave you been here?" he asked
"Forever, I think," said the Emperor
The man smiled and nodded, then turned and was on his way "I kno you feel," he said without looking back
Gustavo and Jeff found Barry hiding in the shelves aot close, Barry burst out of the TP andnapkins, alus, and plastic silverware off the shelves as he went to slow his pursuers Gustavo went down first, slipping on a package of plastic forks Jeff high-stepped through the obstacles and was right on Barry’s ass until he was al one of Barry’s spearguns
"Down!" Lash barked, and Barry hit the tile on his chest and slid
There was a pneumatic hiss and the heavy stainless spear thudded into Jeff’s sternuodda at the spear and trying to pull it out of his chest
Gustavo cli on the spear
Lash handed Barry a four-foot-long stick with a blunt un
"That the last one?" Barry asked
Lash nodded "Where’s Clint?"
Just then the tall blond wo an unconscious Clint by his collar A wide bloodstain ran fros even fro on the floor where people can trip over him"
She dropped Clint on his face, and headed up the aisle toward theht behind theh the canvas doors into the back roo hallith plastic lass dairy cases on the other They pushed stacks of heavy one-gallon milk boxes in front of the door, then leaned with their backs against the back of the cooler, watching the store through the clear cooler doors in the dairy case, over the cartons of yogurt and cottage cheese
"What’s that she’s carrying?" Barry asked
"A frying pan," Lash said
"Oh," Barry said "Sorry I let her in She was almost naked"
"How could you have known?"
"Well, when she claiured so was up"
"Your birthday’s like in March, isn’t it?"
"Yeah"
Lash slapped Barry hard once on his bare scalp, then re-aiurts
"I deserved that," Barry said
"Think that spear hit Jeff’s heart?"
"Had to It’s a foot through his sternum"
"He doesn’t seem dead"
"Guess that means head shot" Barry shook his head "You wantstick" Lash nodded at the long stick Barry was holding at port arun shell on the end of a stick, used for killing sharks You poked theun shell fired into thee
"I’ll bet she doesn’t even knohat it is"
"Get it right," Lash said "Blow her fucking brains out"
They looked at each other as they heard the refrigeration cohts went out
"We’re fucked," Lash said