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17 Wide Awake in Sucker-Free

Okata scraped the last few drops of blood froirl’s ht quart containers, but it wasn’t going to be enough, he could tell, and after the fight at the butcher shop and his escape, he kneasn’t strong enough to give her anyto have to start thinking of her as so to resemble a real person now, more than a person-shaped cinder A very old, very scary dead person, to be sure, but a person nonetheless Her red hair nearly covered the pillo, and she’dher mouth after the last drops of blood went in No ash had flaked aith the s made him a little uneasy, but now she had lips, sort of

He picked up his sketch pad froet a different angle, and began drawing her, as he’d been doing every hour or so since he’d returned from the butcher He was still covered with the blood that had splashed on hi since dried and except for washing his hands so he could work, he’d forgotten it He finished the sketch, then moved to his workbench, where he transferred a refined version of the drawing to a piece of rice paper so thin it was nearly transparent He would replicate this drawing four lued to a woodblock and carved away to make the plate for a different line or color

He looked over his shoulder at her, and felt a tremor of sharandmother, but he shouldn’t leave her like that He took a bowl from the shelf above his little kitchen sink, filled it ater, and then knelt by the side of the futon and gently sponged the last patina of ash fro the blue-white skin underneath The skin was smooth, like polished rice paper, but pores and hair follicles were for as he wiped the ash away

"Sorry," he said in English Then in Japanese he said, "I have not been irl I will do better"

He went to the cabinet under his workbench and reht have been fashioned to hold a set of silverware He opened the lid and rear kimono It smelled of cedar, and perhaps of a bit of incense, but mercifully, it didn’t smell of her

He laid the kiirl, and ever so slowly, he ently worked her skeletal arms into the sleeves, then closed the robe and tied it loosely with the white obi He arranged her arms at her sides so they looked comfortable, then picked up a small flake of dried blood that had fallen from his face onto her breast She looked better now Still wraithlike and o Yuriko would be pleased that her ki"

He returned to his workbench and began the drawing for the block that would carry the yellow ink for the futon, when he heard movement behind him and wheeled around

"Well, don’t you look yummy," Jody said

TOMMY

To The Economist and Scientific A hi, and there were plenty of words in those ht before he confronted Jody He also hoped that his memory of what had happened would co He reh aand landing on the street, but between that and the time when his words returned in the basement, with the Emperor, he could re, finding shelter of darkness, snaking his way through the City in a cloud of predators gone to mist-were filed in a part of his mind that locked as soon as the ability to put words to senses returned He suspected that he may have helped Chet kill people, but if that was the case, why had he saved the Emperor?

Fortunately, he hadn’t lost the ability to turn to mist, which was how he’d obtained the outfit he earing now The whole ensemble-khaki slacks, blue Oxford-cloth shirt, leather jacket, and leather boating moccasins-had been on display in aat a men’s store on Union Square, suspended by host that was haunting other, equally stylish but substanceless marionettes around some deck chairs and artificial sand Just after the dinner hour, when the store was at its busiest, Tommy streamed in under the door, into the outfit and became solid With a quick crouch, he snapped all the monofilament line and walked out of the store fully dressed, bits of fishing line curling in his wake It would, he thought, have been the s he had ever done, if it hadn’t been for the straight pins that had fastened the shirt to the slacks But after a minor fit on the sidewalk as he yanked the pins out of his back, hips, and abdo, "Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch," he returned to the cal for He waited until he was at the library, in the stacks, before he pulled the piece of cardboard out of his collar and yanked off various tags and threads Fortunately, there had been no anti-theft tags on the display outfit

Noas ready, or as ready as he was going to get He had to go to Jody now, hold her, tell her he loved her, kiss her, shag her until all the furniture was broken and the neighbors complained (undead predator or not, he was still nineteen and horny), then figure out what they were going to do about their future

As he walked back through the Tenderloin, dressed in his "please rob me" white boy outfit, a jittery crackhead in a hoody that had once been green, but noas so dirty it was shiny, tried to rob him with a screwdriver

"Give me your money, bitch"

"That’s a screwdriver," Tommy said

"Yeah Give me your money or I’ll stab you with it"

To, s teeth, body odor, and urine on hiray aura around him His predator ed "I’et a screwdriver through it"

"You don’t know that I’ll get a running start Give me your money"

"I don’t have any o to the hospital"

"That’s it, bitch!" The crackhead thrust the screwdriver at Tommy’s stomach

Tommy stepped aside The tweaker’s movements seemed almost coht be best if he took it, and he snatched it away The robber lost his balance and tumbled forward into the street and lay there

With the flick of his wrist, Tommy threw the screwdriver onto the roof of a four-story building across the street Two guys who had been standing in an alley a few feet away, thinking about taking the robbery over fro hio see as happening on the next block

To footsteps of the crackhead co up behind him He turned and the crackhead stopped

"Giveme," said Tommy "You don’t have a weapon and I don’t have anyfor you"

"Okay, give me a dollar," said the crackhead

"Still don’t have anyhis pants pockets inside out A note from inspector 18 fluttered to the sidewalk He heard ed "Uh-oh"

"Fifty cents," said the crackhead He put his hand in the pouch pocket of his hoody and pointed his finger like it was a gun "I’ll shoot"

"You have got to be the worst armed robber ever"

The crackhead paused for a second and pulled his gun-posed hand out of his pocket "I have ht he’d left the cats behind, but the felines either still had some connection to him, or there were so many of theo where they wouldn’t be hunting He didn’t relish trying to explain the whole phenomenon to Jody "What’s your name?" he said to the crackhead

"I’ you You could turn me in"

"Okay," Tommy said "I’ll call you Bob Bob, have you ever seen a cat do that?" Tommy pointed up

The crackhead looked up the side of the building to see a dozen cats co down the bricks, face-down, toward hi you anymore," said the tweaker, his attention taken by the clutter of va"

"Sorry," said Toed up the street to put so, which only lasted a few seconds He looked back to see the crackhead gone Well, not really gone, but reduced to a pile of gray powder a

"It’s hoould have wanted to go," Toht the cats would go for the two in the alley, but now they were taking the people right out on the open street He was going to have to get Jody and talk her into leaving the City, like they should have in the first place

He jogged the twelve blocks to the loft, careful not to run so fast that he uy as just late getting hoirlfriend, which, in a way, he was He waited outside the door for ato say? What if she didn’t want to see him? He didn’t have any experience to draw on She’d been the first girl he’d had sex hile sober She was the first girl he’d ever lived with She was the first to take a shoith him, to drink his blood, to turn hih a second-storyShe was his first love, really What if she sent him away?

He listened, looked at the plywood still over the s, sniffed the air He could hear people inside, at least two, but they weren’t talking There were , the s under the door It really would have felt better if there were romance in the air, but, well, okay

He ran his fingers through his hair, snatched away the last strands of fishing line trailing from his clothes like errant crystal pubes, and pushed the button

FOO

Foo had just placed the vials of Abby’s blood in the centrifuge when the buzzer on the intercom went off He flipped the switch, then looked over at Abby, lying on the bed She looked so peaceful, undead and drugged and not talking Al a tail But the police wouldn’t understand He ran into the living rooaa fro and tiny chainsaw rhyth a kazoo inside a sealedout his earbuds

"Someone’s at the door," whispered Foo "Hide Abby"

"Hide her? Where? The closet is full of medical crap"

"Between the s She’s skinny You can mash her in there"

"Hoill she breathe?"

"She doesn’t need to breathe"

"Sweet"

Jared went for the bedroom, Foo for the interco the button He really should have installed a caot a discount at Stereo World Stupid

"Let ht for a second he h-intensity UV laser, and Abby hadn’t worn her sun jacket He was defenseless

"I can see why you ht be mad," said Foo, "but it was Abby’s idea I wanted to turn you back to huoing to kill hiuy didn’t even have an undergrad degree He was going to be lo liberal-arts tard who quoted poetry

The buzzer went off again Foo jumped and keyed the intercom

"I didn’t want to do it I told her it was cruel to put you guys in there"

"I’m not mad, Steve I need to see Jody"

"She’s not here"