“Simon”—Penny’s being fierce—“get back in. We’ll follow them.”
The Prius is leaving the parking lot. I suppose I don’t need wings. I start running after it.
After a few seconds, my wings burst out of my back. And then—Idisappear.
I mean, I’m still here. I’m flying above the Prius, I can see it below me. But I can’t see my own hands.
I wonder what spell Penny has cast, and when it will wear off. I don’t take my eyes off Lamb’s car.
52
BAZ
I know I promised Snow that I wouldn’t leave with Lamb. But I think I might have finally broken through with him. (Lamb.) What was I supposed to do—insist that we continue our conversation next to the skip?
I assume Simon and Penelope are right behind me. I’ll call them again as soon as I get a chance.
Lamb’s got his sunglasses back on. He cuts his eyes towards me without turning away from the road. “Have you always been…”
I raise an eyebrow. “A picky eater?”
He laughs. “Yes.”
“Yes,” I answer.
He grimaces. “Butwhy?”
Because I didn’t want to kill anyone,I think. But that argument won’t work with him. Instead I say, “Because I didn’t enjoy being bitten.”
He glances over at me, turning his head this time. “Then someone was doing it wrong.”
I shuffle in my seat. “It just feels barbaric to me. Why should I turn on humanity? I was born one of them.”
“It’s the natural way of things,” he says. “It’s the circle of life.”
“There’s no circle,” I say. “We don’t die. We aren’t born. We don’t reproduce.”
“We do,” Lamb insists. “We were. We can.”
It’s my turn to be put off. “Vampires have children?”
“Someone made you.”
“My parents made me. A vampire killed me.”
He sighs. “Then allow me to say how much I enjoy the company of your ghost.”
I look out the window. I don’t see Shepard’s truck in the mirror.
“It might not be the circle of life,” Lamb says. “But it is the food chain. I didn’t see you feeling sorry for that pig we had for lunch. Or the rabbit you had for dessert. Everything eats something else.”
I swing my head towards him. “What eats you?”
He raises an eyebrow, giving me a taste of my own medicine. “Existential despair.”
I laugh out loud.
His eyes rest on me for a moment before turning back to the road. And when he speaks again, his voice is soft. “You won’t feel so close to them, the Normals, once you’ve outlived your ties to mortality.… Someday, your parents will be gone. Your lovers will be gone. Everything left from the time when you bled will fade… and fall… and disappear. And then you’ll realize that you’re something different. There’s no unbecoming, Baz. There’s no sidestepping your true identity. All the rabbits in the world won’t change you back. They’ll just leave you thirsty.”
