I shrug.
“Well, it’s like I told you, the Speakers largely ignore us. They seem to ignore each other, too; I’m not sure they even know what’s happening—though they’ll find out if the Next Blood get their way. They’re intent on acquiring magic next.”
“You can’t acquire magic,” I say. “You have to be born with it.”
He rolls his eyes again. “The members of the Next Blood see it as a genetic challenge. These people are craven, they’re already injecting themselves with placental blood—they were doing it before they were Turned!”
He leans in. “That’s the worst of it for me. They don’t evendrink,Baz—theytransfuse.They won’t touch anything thathasn’t been tested, frozen, and stored. I’ve heard they’ve startedpasteurizing.…”Lamb’s voice has got less gentle. His eyes have taken on a steely glint. He’s sneering at me like—
“Nicks and Slick,” I swear. (Bunce is a terrible influence.) “You think I’m one of them!”
Lamb lowers his chin. It’s a challenge.
I start laughing. I can’t stop. “Seven snakes!” I choke out. “Eight snakes and a dragon!”
“What is this,” he asks, “are you stalling? Or hysterical? You know the terms of our treaty, the punishment is severe—”
“Lamb, no! I am hapless and ignorant and out of my depth, but I am notthat.”
He narrows his eyes to slits.
I stand up. “Take a walk with me?”
I saw it on my way in. A pet shop, in the same strip mall as the restaurant. I know that Simon and Penny must be watching me. I hope they notice that I’m holding my hand in the thumbs-up position at my side. (That’s their idiot sign for “all’s well.”)
I buy a rabbit. I tell the shop owner that I have one at home, and I’m familiar with them. And then I walk with Lamb around the corner, behind a skip.
“Anyone could be watching,” he says. “It’s broad daylight.” Lamb caught on to my game as soon as we walked into the pet shop. He looks disgusted with me—but also a little curious. I used to share a room with that look.
“Block me,” I say.
He stands closer.
I break the rabbit’s neck in my hands and suck it completelydry. (I don’t spill a drop on its white fur or my cuffs.) Then I toss it into the skip.
Lamb looks utterly put off. “Oh, Baz,” he says in dismay. “No wonder you’re so pale. You’re malnourished.”
I laugh. “But I’m not one of them.”
“No,” he says, eyeing me with one brow aloft. “You’re a starving child from an oppressed nation who has barely met himself. But you are not one of them.”
Lamb’s still blocking me from view. Crowding me against the wall and the bin. I feel the rabbit’s blood rising in my cheeks. My fangs haven’t quite retracted.
He’s close enough to make me feel my height advantage.
“Help me,” I whisper. “Tell me where to find them. They have my friend.”
51
SIMON
“He’s getting in the vampire’s car,” I say. “We have to stop this.”
Penny grabs my arm. “He gave us the thumbs-up signal, Simon. We have to let him go.”
“I wouldn’t expect a vampire to drive a Prius,” Shepard says. Like we have time for aimless musing.
I open the truck door and jump out. “Give me my wings back!”
