She tensed, kicked a few more times. “Then when?”
“After a few loose ends are arranged, perhaps.” Lukas was entirely aware a reminder of any escape attempt’s inevitable end would certainly distort if not shatter this momentary accord—especially if she lacked plans in that direction at this moment. Best not to mention it, and also best to restrain the urge to answer her challenge with a different game. The thrall was a sleepy murmur, ever and always ready to be roused. “Allow me the honor of making our travel arrangements tonight. Please.”
“Fine.” Sudden watchfulness. “Can I at least ask where we’re going?”
“Into the city.” Perhaps it was old-fashioned to refer to it that way, but he found the tradition pleasing. “There is a meeting tonight, one better handled sooner than later. I could obtain only two coats in your size; choose one, and we shall leave.”
At least he had not calcified to the point of eschewing modern electronics; the things were so utterly useful. Still, he missed the days of private railway cars. Leaving last night’s vehicle at the station was a relief; the upholstery was still slightly damp, and the scent of dead greiben unpleasant at best.
A calculated risk, to take her among mortals—if she suffered an attack of sudden mistrust or attempted to interest them in what she might view as a predicament, he would be forced to far less comfortable measures. Yet this was a mode of transport his current prey would not suspect, and his leman surprised him once more with cheerful semi-docility.
She walked under his protective arm at the station, and her furtive glances at the mortals hurrying to their own destinations paralleled a rise in the soft thunder of her pulse. No doubt the sudden noise and relatively bright lights were overwhelming to newly fledgling senses; at least his timing was sound and they did not have to wait for boarding. Nowadays first-class was called business and ‘first’ meant something else, but he had taken the precaution of purchasing several other seats in the same car and thus there were only a few scattered travelers.
She gazed out the window, worrying gently at her lower lip. No sign of true teeth yet, though everything else about her shouted of the Gift. Tiny dots of melted snow jeweled her mane, dusted the shoulders of the red woolen peacoat she had chosen, and she perched with every evidence of enjoyment as the train accelerated.
His prize gave him many a curious, lingering look, holding her peace for quite some while. The night would be in its deepest part when they arrived; half an hour into the journey a buzz from one of his pockets intimated his orders had been received, if not quite honestly answered. The last part of his trap was set.
There was some question as to exactly how deep and far the rot extended; it was possible, though not very likely, that a few among those present tonight would be innocent of wrongdoing.
Nevertheless, this would be a violent lesson. His leman would not enjoy some aspects, certainly...but perhaps she would be comforted in some measure by its rationale.
Settled in a reasonably comfortable seat, the linchpin of the universe at his side, Lukas let his eyelids drop to half-mast, and contemplated each likely scenario in turn.
CHAPTER 33
Jared had gone to New York a few times for meetings with his agent or a potential publisher, but Bea never had despite the relatively short distance. Now, headed that direction—even if only to New Jersey—she couldn’t even feel excited. The urge to fidget crested and receded, rose again.
You could start screaming. Flag down the conductor. You could’ve done something at the station. She could even, she supposed, claim she had to visit the bathroom—though it was anyone’s guess if he’d buy the lie—and try to throw herself off the train.
Into a developing snowstorm, though that was the absolute least of her problems. Even dimmed for night travel the lights were too bright, and the human heartbeats were distracting. It was better when she focused on the absurdly slow, steady sound of Lukas’s pulse, and she wasn’t sure how to feel about that, or about the fact that she was quietly going along with the program.
Whatever the damn program was, at this point.
The sky was an orangish sheet speckled with small multicolored jewels. She peered out the window, wondering if it was a leftover hallucination from a monster-blood high—except he hadn’t ‘fed’ her tonight, just bit her in the shower. The place at the back of her throat where the thirst had settled wasn’t aching just yet, though she was very aware of its existence.
And her teeth felt odd. Not quite painful, but certainly sensitive, as if invisible braces had been tightened after a cleaning.
Lukas lounged catlike in the big, comfy aisle seat, dark eyes half-closed and his legs stretched out. What ‘identity’ was he inhabiting now? Unshaven, tieless, and slightly rumpled, though the black wool coat was high quality and the eternal three-piece suit was charcoal as well—he looked like he’d had a hard weekend, and she wondered what others would assume about her own quasi-dishevelment.
Nobody would guess the truth. Or would they? She’d sat on hundreds of buses, carrying around the loaded secret of Jared’s death and her own planned vengeance as well as the terrible, much larger consciousness of weird paranormal shit lurking in the dark cracks of the world’s foundations.
Nobody had ever looked twice.
How could she even begin to explain? Hi there! This guy’s an immortal bloodsucker and I’m...What exactly was she? A pet? An emotional support sex kitten? Plenty of the stories and movies made being a vampire look pretty cool—papering over all the onscreen murders, sure, but action movies had a higher body count and everyone loved those, too.
The reality of bloodsucking, at least as described by the guy next to her, sounded more like a curse than anything else. Was she actually pitying a monster?
Go figure.
Multicolored sky-lights shimmered, and she finally realized what they were. Bea shifted, damn near pressing her nose to the glass. “Stars,” she blurted, helpless to keep quiet. She was seeing right through heavy, snow-pregnant cover. “But it’s snowing.”
Lukas stirred. “Hm? Oh, yes. You’ll enjoy the next full moon, I think. Quite the sight.”
Wow. That is something. It was bright as noon outside, between the glare of a huge city, the sky’s cloud-dome reflecting, and the snowflakes getting thicker. Up north they were probably having a real howler; it hurt a little bit to think of Jared’s abandoned house, a hole where the front door used to be. And the afghan, discarded at the other place as if it didn’t matter.
It was probably better to take nothing with her, ever. If she dropped the necklace under her seat, would whoever found it pawn the thing, thinking themselves lucky? Or maybe they’d turn it into the lost and found, and it could be auctioned off in a few years.
Train-rhythm was absurdly soothing, a metal heartbeat partially drowning out the human ones.
