Page 19 (1/2)

Chapter 33

It was an hour before dawn When all the Whos down in Whoville were asnooze in their beds without care Sorry, wrong book If I get to stay awake until dawn, I get just a tad slaphappy I&039;d been up all night teaching Larry how to be a good, law-abiding animator I wasn&039;t sure Bert would appreciate the last, but I kneould

The cemetery was small A family plot with pretensions A narroo-lane road rounded a hill, and suddenly there it was, a swathe of gravel beside the road You had seconds to decide to turn in, that this was it Tole was so steep, it looked like the coffins should have slid downhill

We stood in the dark with a canopy of trees whispering overhead The woods were thick on either side of the road The little plot was just a narrow space beside the road, but it ell cared for There were still-living family ine how they mowed the hillside Maybe a rope-and-pulley system to make sure the mower didn&039;t roll over and add another corpse

Our last clients of the night had just driven away back to civilization I&039;d raised five zombies Larry had raised one Yeah, he could have raised two, but we just ran out of darkness It doesn&039;t take that long to raise a zombie, at least for me, but there&039;s travel time included In four years I&039;d only had two zoht Most of the ti like a maniac to make all the appointments

My poor car had been towed to a service station, but the insurance people hadn&039;t seen it yet It would take days or weeks for them to tell me it was totaled There hadn&039;t been ti He&039;d have been withabout not having enough help, so I got to train hiuessed

The wind rushed through the trees Dry leaves scurried across the road The night was full of s, towards what? All Hallows Eve You could feel Halloween on the air

"I love nights like this," Larry said

I glanced over at hi out into the darkness Enjoying the evening We were also both covered in dried chicken blood Just a nice, norh-pitched beep sounded very wrong in the quiet, ept night I hit the button Mercifully, the noise stopped The little light flashed a phone nunize the number I hoped it wasn&039;t Dolph, because an unfa, meant another et to a phone"

"Who is it?"

"I&039;m not sure" I started down the hill

He followed me and asked, "Who do you think it is?"

"Maybe the police"

"The lanced back at him and rammed my knee into a to h

"Are you all right?" Larry touched my arm

I dreay from his hand, and he let his hand drop I wasn&039;t"I&039;m fine" Truth was, it still hurt, but what the hell? I needed to get to a phone, and the pain would get better the more I walked on it Honest

I stared carefully ahead to avoid other hard objects "What do you know about thethe police on a preternatural cri jobs"

"Bert told you that"

"Mr Vaughn, yes"

We were at the car "Look, Larry, if you&039;re going to work for Aniot to drop all this Mr and Ms stuff We aren&039;t your professors We&039;re coworkers"

He sht, Ms Anita"

"That&039;s better Now let&039;s go find a phone"

We drove into Chesterfield on the theory that, as the closest town, it would have the closest phone We ended up at a bank of pay phones in the parking lot of a closed service station The station glowed softly in the dark, but a halogen streetlight beaht into day Insects andshapes of bats swa the insects

I dialed the number while Larry waited in the car Give hi twice; then a voice said, "Anita, is that you?"

It was Irving Griswold, reporter and friend "Irving, what in blazes are you doing paging me at this hour?"

"Jean-Claude wants to see you tonight, now" His voice sounded rushed and uncertain

"Why are you delivering theto like the answer

"I&039;ot to do with anything?"

"You didn&039;t know" He sounded surprised

"Knohat?" I was getting angry I hate twenty questions

"Jean-Claude&039;s animal is a wolf"

That explained Stephen the Werewolf and the black wo? Did he let you off your leash?"

"That&039;s not fair"

He was right It wasn&039;t "I&039;uilty because I introduced the two of you"

"I wanted to interview the Master of the City I got my interview"

"Was it worth the price?" I said

"No comment"

"That&039;s hed "Can you come to the Circus of the Damned? Jean-Claude has some information on the master vampire that jumped you"

"Alejandro?"

"That&039;s the one"

"We&039;ll be there as soon as we can, but it&039;s going to be daet to the Riverfront"

"Who&039;s we?"

"A new ani" I hesitated "Tell Jean-Claude no rough stuff tonight"

"Tell him yourself"

"Coward"

"Yes, et here Bye"

"Bye, Irving" I held the buzzing receiver for a few seconds, then hung up Irving was Jean-Claude&039;s creature Jean-Claude could call wolves the way Mr Oliver called snakes The way Nikolaos had called rats, and wererats They were all monsters It was just a choice of flavors

I slid back into the car "You wanted ht?" I buckled the seat belt

"Of course," Larry said

"Well, you&039;re going to get it tonight"

"What do you mean?"

"I&039;ll explain while you drive We don&039;t have ear and peeled out of the parking lot He looked eager in the di

Chapter 34

The Circus of the Da? It was still dark, but there was a wash of lightness to the east as we parked in front of the warehouse An hour earlier, and there wouldn&039;t have been a parking place even close to the Circus But the tourists leave as the valanced at Larry His face was smeared with dried blood So was mine It hadn&039;t occurred to lanced up at the eastern sky and shook

The toothed clowns still glowed and twirled atop the marquee, but it was a tired dance Or maybe I was the one as tired