Page 3 (1/2)

Part One THE LITTLE RED KING Chapter I:CALLAHAN AND THE VAMPIRES

ONE

Pere Don Callahan had once been the Catholic priest of a town, 'saleer existed on any map He didn't much care Concepts such as reality had ceased to matter to him

This onetime priest now held a heathen object in his hand, a scrimshaw turtle made of ivory There was a nick in its beak and a scratch in the shape of a question

Beautiful and powerful He could feel the power in his hand like volts

"How lovely it is," he whispered to the boy who stood with him "Is it the Turtle Maturin? It is, isn't it?"

The boy was Jake Cha loop in order to return al-place here in Manhattan

"I don't know," he said "She calls it the skoldpadda, and itfor us in there " He nodded toward the Dixie Pig, wondering if he meant Susannah or Mia when he used that all-purpose feminine pronoun she Once he would have said it didn't ether Noever, he thought it did matter, or would soon

"Will you?" Jake asked the Pere,Will you stand

Will you fight Will you kill

"Oh yes," Callahan said calmly He put the ivory turtle with its wise eyes and scratched back into his breast pocket with the extra shells for the gun he carried, then patted the cunninglyonce to one, and if I run out of bullets before they kill me,

I'll club theun-butt "

The pause was so slight Jake didn't even notice it But in that pause, the White spoke to Father Callahan It was a force he knew of old, even in boyhood, although there had been a few years of bad faith along the way, years when his understanding of that elerown dione, the White was his again, and he told God thankya

Jake was nodding, saying so Callahan barely heard

And what Jake said didn't

(Gan)

perhaps too great to be called God-did

The boy o on, the voice told hio on Your part in the story is almost done His is not

They walked past a sign on a chrome post (CLOSED FOR PRIVATE FUNCTION), Jake's special friend Oy trotting between therin At the top of the steps, Jake reached into the woven sack Susannah-Mio had brought out of Calla Bryn Sturgis and grabbed two of the plates-the 'Rizas He tapped the sound, and then said: "Let's see yours "

Callahan lifted the Rugerjake had brought out of Calla New York, and now back into it; life is a wheel and we all say thankya

For a ht cheek like a duelist Then he touched his breast pocket, bulging with shells, and with the turde The skoldpadda

Jake nodded "Once we're in, we stay together Always together, with Oy between On three And once we start, we never stop "

"Never stop "

"Right Are you ready?"

"Yes God's love on you, boy "

"And on you, Pere Onetwothree " Jake opened the door and together they went into the di meat