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And Flood is all, "She’s here"

I know I’m like, "Whaaaa?"

’Kayso, Flood sends me for coffees and says he’ll meetwith this ginor a purple silk wizard robe with silver stars and ram tattooed on it, just like I drew on Ronnie’s head with a Magic Marker I know! And he has a crystal ball on his table on a stand n that says MADAME NATASHA, FORTUNES TOLD 500, ALL PROCEEDS GO TO AIDS RESEARCH

And so I come up and Flood is all, "Madame Natasha, this is my minion, Abby Normal"

And I’ French "Most fly eye-liner, Madalitter liner out to his ears

And Madame Natasha is all, "Oh, sweet of you to say, child Your ensem is tr��s chic as well But you should have a jacket, little thing like you could freeze in the fog"

And I’m all ready to thron anti-mom you’re-not-the-boss-of-me-talk on hiet along with the Motherbot better if she were a ginoruy

And I sit down next to Madame Natasha, because Flood is, like, in the client seat, and Flood’s all, "Madame Natasha told my fortune when I first cairl, but the death card kept coure it out" Then he turns to Madaht on the irl"

And Madame’s all, "Oh my," and she pulls this little fan out of one of her chins and starts fanning herself

’Kayso, I pull out the bag of blood and squeeze a little into my coffee, then into Flood’s, and he’s all, "Abby, put that away"

And I’ toward people, who are totally not looking at us now, but like really reading or texting hard And he’s like, "They’ll freak"

And I’m like, "Oh bitch, please They all saw my eye makeup, they sa I’m dressed, they saw my dark andto freak the to pour blood inout so as to not give me the satisfaction because then they wouldn’t be sophisticated City peeps This is not oes the Madaot spunk"

And Flood is like, "Okey dokey"

And I’ ’okey dokey’ I will be forced to replace you as my Dark Lord"

And Madame is all, "It does sound a little corn-fed, love"

And Toht, Madame? You remember me?"

And the Madame is all "Oh, yes, yes, I do now You were the one who had achieved Olympic levels in masturbation, weren’t you?"

And Flood was all, "Uh, no, that part was someone else, uh-"

So, like, the master needed a hand, if you knohat I , everyone does it I’ht now just to dial the tension back a little Yes Yes Yes! Oh-zo-hakuna-as hard Then I like look up at the Mada out now, aren’t they?"

And she just kind of nodded with big eyes and whatnot So, you know, embarrassment for my Dark Lord totally diverted But this one crusty day dweller is all looking up frousted face, so I’m all, "Rawr"

And Flood looks atHe shouldn’t even be allowed out at night, using ain for eavesdropping

So we sort of drank our coffee for a while and Madame looked at her cards and then, like, looked up seemed disappointed that ere still there, but Flood was on it

He’s all, "The woether"

And the Madame holds up her hand, which e And she looks at her cards some more Then she looks at her tip jar

Then Flood looks at me and like does the tip jar nod So I pull a hundred out ofand drop it in the jar

And Flood’s like, "Abby!"

And I’ain hunt?"

And he’s all, "’Kay"

So Madaoes, "A redhead"

And we’re all, "Yeah"

And she’s all, "She’s hurt, but she’s not alone"

And we’re all, "Uh-huh"

And she lays out about six ht"

And Flood is like, "If you’re getting the dead thing again, that’s okay, we’ve worked through that"

And Madame is like, "No, it’s not that" And she shuffles the cards, not cool, like a dealer, but gentle, and every which way on the table, like she’s really trying to confuse the cards

Then she lays theoes-each card, bigger eyes-until she lays down the last in her pattern and she’s all, "Oh my"

And we’re all, "What? What?"

And she’s, "This has never happened, in thirty years of consulting the cards"

And we’re, "What? What?"

And she’s, "Look"

There were fourteen cards on the table All kinds of pictures and nuo, "’Splain, please" But then I see what she’s big eyes about They are all the same suit So I’m, "They’re all swords"

And she’s like, "Yes I’m not sure how to even interpret this"

And I’m all, "She’s hurt, she’s not alone, and all the cards came up swords?"

And she’s, "Yes, dear, that’s what I just said, but I don’t knohat it ain?" And I slap another hundred in her jar

And she’s, "’Kay"

Then she lays theain, and this time there’s a lot of swords, but also other cards And I’uration, the swords signify north, but also, the air, a sailing ship perhaps It doesn’t make sense"

And we’re like, "What? What?"

And she’s like, "A sunken ship?"

And I’m like, "It makes total sense"

And Flood is like, "It does?"

And I’ht there, Madame We may be back"

And Flood is like, "What? What?"

And I’uy with the sword"

And he’s like, "You really adjust to this ical stuff fast, Abby"

And I’ to say I’m perky? Because I’m not I’m complex"

I aht now, like we should be going Even though I a at aweso the depth out of o We’re going to run out of dark Byez

THE OLD ONES

Makeda put on the glasses and watched the bricks at the corner of the building light up They’d find the cats by behavior, because even vampire cats are cats, and they marked their territory Elijah had told them where it had started and where it was likely to lasses, combined with their vampire vision, allowed thelowing They could even see a half-life, of sorts So o

"That way," said Makeda

Rolf cocked his head toward the boarded-up loft apartment on the second floor "That’s the loft where Elijah said he turned the first cat There are people up there Sounds like two"

"That’s also where he was fried by a jacket covered with sun lights," said Makeda "I say we clean up the cats first, they’re less tricky"

Rolf nodded to Makeda, who bolted down the alley without another word They followed the trail, a mark here and there, many blocks until they reached the Mission, where the trail started to sunburst out

"I don’t knohich way to go," said Bella "We need to get a vantage point"

Rolf looked around and spotted the tallest building in the area "How about that one, the one that looks like a robot pterodactyl is perched on it? He pointed to the black glass Federal Building

Makeda said, "It’s an abomination"

"Said the aboo up solid, I need the glasses" He shrugged off his overcoat and dropped his weapons on top of it

"Well go to rip," said Makeda "I’ll catch your glasses If you fall off of that thing solid we’ll have to scrape you into a bag to get you back to the ship"

He grinned, showing his fangs, then started a steady cli

Bella pulled a pack of cigarettes fro strea more humans? He’s lied before"

When they’d retrieved the old va a blond va she was the only one She hadn’t survived the first month at sea Weak vessels, they called her type

"He didn’t ad the cat, either, until we found the news stories on the Internet"

"We need to talk to hiet back to the ship, if there’s time"

Rolf thumped to the pavement beside them "That way About six blocks There’s a sunburst pattern that’s centered there and spreads out ten blocks or so in every direction I could actually see a hundred or so cats on a roof there"

"Let’s go, then," said Makeda

"That’s not all," said Rolf "There is a group of ht of the the cats?"

"Because two of thelasses I’d be blind They’re wearing the sun jackets that Elijah warned us about"

"Well, fuck," said Makeda "That’s eight more we have to kill"

"At least," said Rolf "How ht?"

"Two and a half hours," said Bella, checking her watch "Don’t we have a sniper rifle on the ship?"

"Somewhere," said Rolf

"Well, they can’t turn on a sun jacket if they’re dead before we’re within five hundred yards"

"Messy," said Makeda "Bullets leave bodies"

"I’d rather have to dispose of a couple of bodies than get fried by a sun jacket," said Bella, taking charge now "Rolf, you and I will go after the cats Take out as many as we can Makeda, follow the hunters, keep your distance, see where they go, and ht, humans"

"I hate cats," said Makeda

"I know," said Bella

"There’s so else on the roof with the cats So’?" asked Makeda

"I don’t know," said Rolf, "but it wasn’t putting out any heat, so it’s one of us"