“Yeah.” I nodded. “The odds are better if he leaves.”
“The odds aren’t good anywhere in this city,” Shepard said.
“Going down?”we heard Baz say.
“Good man.” I punched the bed. “Keep telling us where you’re going.”
“Going out,”Lamb replied.
After that, Baz didn’t have to tell us where he was going—because his new friend Lamb narrated every step.
Two hours later, Penelope was lying down on the bed, eating champagne-flavoured jelly babies from the minibar. “Welcome to the Vampire History Walking Tour,” she said. “Would you like an audio guide?”
Shepard was taking notes on a hotel notepad. “What?” he’d said when Penny tried to take it away. “These aren’t your secrets. They’re his.”
I was pacing. I couldn’t really process any of the interesting facts about the Luxor Casino or how vampires were key todesegregating the Strip in 1960. All I could hear was the constantflirting.The“Chaz, this”and the“Chaz, that.”Lamb’s voice was getting louder—closer—by the minute. And Baz was just letting it happen! Baz was playing along! He wasn’t saying much, but I could hear him laughing.
Penny threw a jelly baby at me. “Relax, Simon. We have to trust him, remember?”
Lamb showed Baz fountains and lights. They went up in a Ferris wheel. They had burgers and milkshakes.
“If nothing else,” Shepard said, “this is a great first date.”
Penny kicked him in the side.
Baz’s voice had got softer and mushier over the last hour, harder to hear over the music that was always playing in the background. He was on at least his third drink. (Baz never drinks with me. He says it’s boring.)
“They all smell so delicious,”he said.“Fermented. Like warm bread.”I was pretty sure he was talking about Normals.
Lamb laughed. Closer than ever.“Come on, Prince Charles, you need a drink.”
Penelope sat up.
Shepard bit his lip.
We heard people laughing, doors opening, music shifting from doo-wop to twang—then, suddenly, nothing at all.
“What’s that?” I looked at Penny’s phone. “What happened?”
“He hung up,” she said.
“Or his phone died,” Shepard said.
I stood in front of Penelope. “Spell my wings off,” I commanded.
She looked in my eyes, and I could see her deciding not to argue with me.“Every time a bell rings, an angel…”
It isn’t hard to find the ice-cream parlor—Lamb practically drew us a map—but he and Baz aren’t here anymore. And I can’t find them outside. They could be in any of these buildings, they could be in a car—I need Penelope and her “Lost and found” magic.
Then I see them: Lamb is pale, smaller than Baz, and nearly as vampire-handsome. (Nearlynearly.) He’s got one of thoseDownton Abbeyfaces. Like he’s just home from the Western Front.
Baz is holding on to his arm—clinging, really—and Lamb is leaning into him as if they’re going to kiss.
Oh…
Right…
Well…
