Page 64 of Dead Beat

“I have power too, Nell,” Alex said. “I could share it with you.”

Even if she could, she wouldn’t, but Reiter’s lie was easy enough to parrot.

Nell glanced at her, back at the road, then glanced at her again. Good. She was distracted, intrigued.

“What are you?”

“Someone who doesn’t want to drink your blood.”

“Is this why he’s so fascinated by you?” Nell asked.

“Are you actually jealous?”

“No!”

Nell’s teeth worried her lower lip. In this moment, by the blue light, she looked almost like Dawes, and Alex felt a pang move through her. She hadn’t faced a fight on her own since the first time she’d tried to deal with Reiter. This was like being a child again, crying out for help. Save me. I can’t do this alone. But no one had heard her then. Who would come to her rescue now?

Nell shook her head. “He is ancient.”

“He’s not even two hundred years old. He was in Skull and Bones, for fuck’s sake. He drank cups at Mory’s and palled around with guys called Punter.” None of this was precisely true. The creature Nell knew was the demon who had devoured a boy named Lionel Reiter, who had taken his form, then stolen his life, his name, his beautiful home.

“You’re ridiculous. He’s a vampire, an immortal. And I will be too.”

“I read the same books and saw the same movies. He is not what you want him to be.”

But the power of those myths was too strong, too old, built into the fabric of the world. Free me from pain, from time, from age. Make me beautiful. Make me fearsome. Make me a predator instead of prey.

“He told me you were clever,” Nell said, maybe not with the pure conviction she’d had before, but Alex could tell this was a lost cause.

She let the fire bank. “I don’t actually care what happens to you, Nell. I just don’t want Reiter to win.”

Nell looked baffled. “He will, though.”

No false bravado. No smug sneer. Just certainty. And Alex had to wonder if she wasn’t right.

She thought of telling Nell she could talk to the dead. Maybe Nell had a friend or a relative on the other side. But it wasn’t like she could call someone up on demand. She could try to cold read her, but there wasn’t much time. And Alex didn’t think Nell would be swayed. She believed completely in the dark gift Reiter had promised her, and more importantly, she was certain that Reiter would best Alex. Who didn’t want to be on the winning side?

“What exit is this?” Alex asked as they pulled off the highway. “Kimberly?”

Nell cast her a puzzled glance. “Yes. That’s what the sign says?”

“I just want to make sure there aren’t any surprises.”

They were headed through a residential neighborhood now, the houses wedged close, anonymous in the dark. Alex wondered if people were eating dinner together in those houses or gathering around the television. Did families still do that? She looked up at the lights in what had to be bedroom windows. She could picture some kid sitting down at a desk to do his homework, distracted by the traffic below. If she cried out, he might hear her as they passed. He might look up from math or social sciences or a map of the world. He would forget in the next moment.

“Center Street,” she said, reading the name off one of the signs. “Center and Washington.”

“So?”

“You’re not talking and I’m scared out of my mind. How about you cut me some slack?”

Nell shrugged, then said, “You don’t seem scared.”

“Would it help if I cried?”

Nell shifted uncomfortably, as if the idea of Alex’s fear troubled her.

“Does it bother you?” Alex asked. “That you’re leading me to my death?”