BAZ
I know that I heal faster than other people. (More proof that I’m not a person.) But I’ve never really tested my limits. No one’s ever emptied a shotgun into my chest or kicked me in the gut with steel-toed cowboy boots.…
The worst I’ve been injured before this was when the numpties took me. Ithinkmy leg healed right away even then—but it healedwrongbecause I was stuck in that coffin.
Before that, there were fights with Simon. A few black eyes over the years, a split lip. I healed fast from those injuries, but so did he. I think Simon’s magic used to heal him, even when he couldn’t cast the spells to heal himself.
Not anymore—there’s something wrong with his wing, it won’t close all the way. I’m going to try to spell it better as soon as he gets up.
I woke up before everyone else, feeling livelier than I have in days. The rest of the buckshot scrubbed out last night in the shower, and my chest has completely stopped burning. It’scovered in glossy white scars now—but those will heal, too, I think. All my other scars have.
Breakfast is cold pizza.
We pool our money on the bed. We have a few hundred dollars between us. I have my credit card, but I’m still nervous about using it.
“This isn’t even enough for gas,” Shepard says, looking at the pile.
“We’ll cast spells for gas,” Bunce says. “And we’ll make this stretch.” She holds her ring over the bills.“A penny saved is a penny earned!”The pile doubles. Bunce smiles. “I’ve always wanted to try that.…”
Shepard’s mouth drops open. “You canmakemoney?”
“Looks like it.”
“You can’t keep casting American phrases,” I say to her. “It’s too unpredictable.”
“Needs must.” Bunce shrugs. “We need food and clothes. And this one”—she points at Shepard—“needs to tell us where we’ll find the NowNext.”
“I don’t knowexactly,” he says.
Simon is eating the last of the pizza. “Tell us what you do know.”
Shepard pushes up his glasses. “That they’re a new group of vampires. Any vamps we get around here tend to be loners. Or part of a family that keeps to their own. But the Next Blood… they’re not a family. They’re more like corporate raiders. They don’t sneak around, snagging spare Normals—they just take what they want. And they’re ambitious. Even I know they’re trying to obtain magic.”
“What about the magicians?” Bunce says. “How are they letting this happen?”
Magicians don’t tolerate vampires. The fact that the Mage made a deal with the vampires was the biggest hit to his reputation back home. It’s the reason he was buried without a marker. Even the Mage’s Men, his little band of minions, spit on his memory now.
“The magicians could probably stop them,” Shepard says, “but they’d have to get organized. I don’t know what it’s like where you come from, but Speakers over here don’t really…talkto each other.”
I don’t feel like volunteering anything about where we come from. “You said these vampires were trying to learn how to speak with magic,” I say. “They can’t. You’re either born a magician or you’re not.”
Simon clears his throat.
“Is it genetic then?” Shepard asks. “I’ve always wondered.… Does that mean, if I married a Speaker, we could have a magickal baby?”
Bunce guffaws.
“How do you know that these new vampires want magic?” I ask. “If you know so little about them?”
“They’ve sent out feelers all over the country, looking for tricks and lore. They’ve contacted some of the magic enthusiasts in my network.”
“This is why!” Bunce points at him. “This is why we keep secrets! Are you going to share what you learn from us with upstart vampires?”
“No!” Shepard is adamant. “I’ve already sworn on my life.”
“Where are they?” I ask.
“I don’t know where the Next Blood is,” he says. “But I know where most of America’s vampires are. Vegas.”
