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"Lyle?" Rafe asked "Do you remember me?"

"Rafael?" Lyle asked He reached a hand toward Rafe’s face, fingers ski his head against Lyle’s hand and sighing Time seeain and in love

"Come, Lyle," said the faery wo Rafe’s hair

"Wait," Rafe said "He knoho I am You said he would be free"

"He’s as free to coo with you," she said

Lyle looked down at Rafe "I dreamed that ent to New York and that we performed in a circus I danced with the bears and you trained fleas to juh the eyes of needles"

"I trained fleas?"

"In my dream You were famous for it" His smile was tentative, uncertain Maybe he realized that it didn’t sound like a great career

Rafe thought of the story he had told Victor about the princess in her louse-skin coat, about locks of hair and all the things he had h the eyes of needles

The faery wo back to the fading circle of dancers, becoo quite like that" Rafe stood and held out his hand "I’ll tell you what really happened"

Lyle clasped Rafe’s fingers tightly, desperately but his sht as stars "Don’t leave anything out"

Savage Design

Richard Bowes

Early one evening last Septeates of Reliquary on West Broadway at the shoddy Canal Street end of Manhattan’s Soho As she did, she muret old fast But old styles never disappear They lay waiting for a kiss or a love bite"

She trailed off Lilia’s copywriting skills had never been a big strength and she found herself groping for a punch line

A really young couple appeared wearing knock-off Louis Vuitton sunglasses and looking like they htwalker romp His jacket collar was turned up; she had a wicked, a like them, a brand nealker in the dark with eyes just a bit sensitive to sunlight They waited while she unlocked the door, came inside with her and headed for the relics table at the rear

In the last fewTwenty-five and thirty years ago, Reliquary was open all night, closing only when full daylight fell on the storefront and the customers fled

"Reliquary--Boutique Fashion--So New and SO Undead!" was the slogan in those glory days Then as now one could find capes in a variety of lengths, elegant black parasols to keep the sun at bay, tops designed for easy exposure of the neck and throat Soood years when Nightwalkers were THE fresh thing Then there were the lean years when Vampires were afraid to show themselves and Reliquary became a dusty antique store while Lilia worked part tiht to her rent controlled apart Lilia watched the boy select a red silk handkerchief displaying a black bat, the long-ago eirl slipped on a pendant with the logo of the Gate of Night, that brief legend of a blood bar on Park Avenue South three decades back Reliquary had always specialized in memorabilia of past Undead revivals

Another custo clothes and shades, entered and went over to a rack of capes A wolanced around, found a repro of a poster for Fun and Gore, a scandalous 1930’s Greenwich Village "Transylvanian Review"

As the young couple approached the register, the girl pulled the boy’s jacket and shirt off his shoulders She s her a piece of expensive white fudge

This was very young love Their teeth still looked normal; the ss and puncture wounds still lay in their future

The boy’s smile was blank He knotted the kerchief over the bites but left one showing Lilia guessed that his first blood buzz had been last night and that he’d be bitten again very shortly

The girl looked at the photo behind Lilia, raised her sunglasses and said, "That’s you!"