I grab his arm. I’m still a little drunk, to be honest. “I don’t. I don’t know where they are. And they have my friend.”
He stops and looks at me, pouting thoughtfully. “That’s true,” he says.
“Itistrue.”
“It’s the first true thing you’ve said to me.”
“Lamb—help me.Please.”
He studies my face for another beat, without a hint of sympathy, then cuts his eyes to the side. “Not here.” He pushes my hand off his sleeve. “Tomorrow. Two o’clock. Lotus of Siam.” He’s already walking away, barely glancing back at me. “Now go get something to drink.” And then he’s disappeared into the crowd.
I stumble around for a minute, trying to remember which way we came from. I’m surrounded by landmarks, but they all feel the same. Lamb’s right. I need a drink. Something. Rats. I haven’t seen any rats.… I’ve seen a lot of little dogs riding around in handbags.…
I lean forward with my hands on my knees.Get a grip, Basil. Breathe.I close my eyes and inhale. The world smells like blood and alcohol, like milkshakes and burnt popcorn—
My head jerks up:
Simon Snow is standing half a block away from me. His wings are gone, and his hands are stuffed in his hip pockets. He isn’t smiling.
I pull my mobile out of my jacket. It’s dead.
45
SIMON
The first ten minutes of surveillance were endless. After Baz got into the party. He wasn’t talking, no one was talking. What if he’d already been rumbled? What if they’d already snapped his neck?
But then there was a voice—“Hello”—and a name—“Lamb.”And wasn’t Baz being so slick? I grinned at Penny. “He’s good,” I said.
“He’s going to be fine,” she agreed.
“We should have gotten him an invitation,” Shepard said. “Or faked one.”
Penny rolled her eyes. “Next time we infiltrate a vampire enclave, I’ll remember that.”
Shepard frowned. “Isn’t that exactly what we’re planning next?”
“Shhh,” I said. The vampire was talking to Baz about England. Raids and fires.
Penny sneered at the phone. “Oh, come off it. It’s not genocide.You’rethe genocide.”
I shushed her again.
“Baz should bring up the Next Blood now,” Shepard said. “While they’re talking about American vampires.”
But Baz didn’t bring it up.
He kept the conversation dancing—and then he left. He leftwiththe vampire.
“No,” I said to the phone.
Penny groaned. “For fuck’s sake, Basilton.”
Even Shepard was shocked. “Never go to a second location with an untrustworthy Maybe—that’s rule number one! Or maybe rule number two. It’s a top-five rule!”
“We have to trust him,” I said. “He’s there, and we’re not. He’s reading the room.”
“Maybe he left because he didn’t want to be in a room with fifty vampires,” Penny said.
