Page 23 (1/2)

24 A Love Story?

JODY

It wasn’t the first tiuy’s apartht with her shoes in her hand, but it was the first time where the decision had been because she didn’t want to kill the guy He was so little, so frail, so lonely She had taken people before who had the black ring in their life aura like Okata’s, and they had thanked her It had been mercy, relief, the end of pain, yet she couldn’t make herself do it She’d left hih he probably would, and not because he had been so kind to her, saving her, which he had, but because the prints weren’t finished He was a strange little reat pain in him, but above all that, he was an artist, and she couldn’t bear to stop that So she’d left

Now she was back

He sheathed his sword and tried to lift her to her feet Her limbs still felt like they were on fire, and she could ht arm on her own She nodded toward Bella’s pellet weapon "Give it toainst the wrought-iron railing that surrounded the steps to his apartment, then retrieved the weapon and fit it into her hand Then he held the barrel firoing to off o of the barrel of the gun and she sprayed Bella’s corpse with pellets until the gun stopped firing, then she threw the gun over the rail and motioned for Okata to help her into his apart ot her through the door In the , when the sun hit it, there would be only a charred stain on the sideith burned gobs of plastic that had been a Kevlar suit, shoes, and sunglasses

Okata helped her to the shohere he rinsed out her wounds, then dried her off and retrieved the last bit of the pig’s blood, which he’d kept in the refrigerator

Jody felt a horrible twinge of guilt He’d been waiting for her, probably had been outside looking for her when Bella had chased her around the corner

After she drank the blood, and her legs had healed enough to hold her weight, she went to his workbench and turned on the light The last print was there Not finished, but two of the woodblocks had been finished, the black and the red There she was, in the shower, her red hair strea at her feet

Okata was beside her, looking at the print critically, as if there was soht have to fix at any second She bent down and looked back frole of the print into his face

"Hey," she said "Thank you"

"Okay," he said

"Sorry," she said

FOO DOG

Abby lay on the futon in the loft’s great rooes were stacked in the corner of the room and Foo had unscrewed one of the plywood panels over the s to let sons since six in the ns She hadn’t even started with those At noon, she opened her eyes

"Foo, you dick, I’m mortal"

"You’re okay!" He threw his arms around her

She pushed him away "Where’s Tommy? Where’s the Countess?"

"Tommy’s in the bedroom I don’t knohere Jody is"

"She didn’t call?"

"No"

"Fucksocks! Did you turn To his seru until they take care of the other vaer if we don’t"

"I know The pirate Rasta guy on the black ship told us Other vampire? Only one?"

"Rivera called while you were unconscious The Animals took one of them down at the Safeway"

"Did you tell him to stay off the black ship?"

"Tommy did"

"What about Chet?"

"I don’t know"

"He could be-Hey, where’s my tail?"

"It sort of fell off when you turned back to human"

"Did you save it?"

"Well, no I left it on the coffee table and when the sun came up, well, it sort of burned up"

"You burned uppart of you"

"You’re such a racist, Foo I’ to, weren’t we? Wasn’t that what you wanted to talk about? About how I’m way too complex and mysterious for you and you need to return to your traditional science-nerd values and live in the Sunset with your parents, instead of the awesoirlfriend, ill never do you again, even when you beg, even out of pity, no a hair is? Isn’t that what you were going to say?"

"Not in soto move to Berkeley It’s hard, Abby-"

"Well, save your breath, s’il vous plaît, I’m over you I will not be further abused by your toady banalities and whatnot"

"Your oing to happen Oh, what’s this,out of my tailless butt?"

"She said they sent your report card You passed Mr Snavely’s biology class"

"I did?"

"She said she almost fainted Jared said it was your extra-credit project that did it Why didn’t you tell me you took one of the rats to school with you?"

"Well, I didn’t think it worked out that well I mean, the rat was already vamped, so when I took him out of the shoe box, he just looked kind of dead And Mr Snavely was all, "’Oh, that’s lovely, Allison, a dead rat’" But it was sunny in biology lab, and all of a sudden my rat just spontaneously combusts, and I’m all, ’Check it, bitches, spontaneous rodent combustion, it’s the wave of the future’"

"Well, because he couldn’t figure out how you did it, he passed you"

"I ay One-oh-two Fear me Rawr!" she said Then she kissed him hard, but not as hard as she had when she was a vampire, which was a relief, but then she pushed him away and slapped him

"Ouch I didn’t think you were a slut"

"I know, that’s was our bittersweet break-up kiss I will go grieve now until Lord Flood awakes and we resu Do you want to go get a saer"

THE LOVE LAIR

He awoke at sundoith her face in hisup his spine He bolted out of the bedroo up the phone

"That was the Countess," Abby said "She’s okay She’ll be here in a few minutes"

"And you’re okay? You’re alive You have heat" He could see the heat co off her and the healthy life aura around her

"Yeah, thanks Foo destroyed my tail" She turned and looked to the kitchen "The traitorous racist heartbreaking fucktard!"

"Little harsh," To Inconsolable Tail’s gone Going to have to get totally repierced and tattooed"

"But you showered and your eye makeup isn’t all racoony anymore"

"Thanks I like the blood splatters on your pants"

"Hi," said Foo Dog froe hat looked like blood "I have your serum ready, whenever you’re ready"

"I’m not ready"

"You have to, you know"

The doorbell buzzed Tommy keyed the intercom

"It’s me," Jody said

He buzzed her in and she was at the top of the steps in an instant, then kissing him He pushed her back and looked at her clothes, shredded at the elbows and knees, stained with blood

"What happened to you? Where were you?"

"One of the old vampires? She ambushed me on a roof across from the black ship That weapon they have did this It’s horrible We can’t let theet away?"

"I was hiding at the bottoure out what to do, when Chet ju her"

"Yeah Go Chet!" said Abby

"Abby!" Jody ran to Abby and hugged her, kissed her on the forehead "I was so worried about you You’re alive Really alive"

"Yeah Foo changed ain"