Paint It Black (20 page)

'Neither do I,' I sigh, slipping free of the older cop's hold and ramming my elbow into the middle of his face. He falls like a bag of suet.

The younger cop's exhausted his clip, but he keeps on firing anyway. His face is rigid with terror as he backs away from the platform. The vampire - or what's left of it - has finally succeeded in dragging itself off the tracks.

The train has cut him in two as neatly as a magician's saw, chopping him off at the waist. The viscera dangling from his ruined torso look like party streamers dipped in transmission fluid. Eyes glowing with an inhuman hate, he lifts his truncated torso on his arms, using clawed hands as feet.

I relieve the unconscious cop of his gun, shaking my head in Amazement. 'Buddy, you just don't know when to call it quits, do you?'

The vampire swings his right arm forward, then his left, dragging a length of intestine behind him like a gory bridal train.

'Any last words, butt-munch?'

The vampire bares his fangs at me and hisses.

The policeman's gun takes off the top of his head, dropping

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) the vampire as effectively as it would any garden-variety criminal. The younger cop stares at me for a second, his face the color of new cheese. I smile at him. His eyes get even bigger and he runs for the stairs.

There are more sirens up top. The flashing lights from arriving cop cars and ambulances leak through the cracks in the ceiling. I hear the thunder of city-issued shoe leather on pavement Within seconds the platform will be swarming with police. It's time for me to kiss this scene goodbye.

I toss the cop's gun off the platform like I would a spent wad of chewing gum and shift back into high gear. I speed up the platform, in the direction of the Second Avenue exits, away from the arriving cops. Because the Second Avenue exits are near the Sara Delano Roosevelt Park, a favorite spot for the neighborhood derelicts, the gateways are kept chained shut from nine in the evening until six in the morning. Not that I care. I push against the gates and the chain shatters, sending the lock flying.

I ghost up the stairs on the Chrystie Street side of the intersection, gliding over an elderly black man sitting in a pool of his own waste, a bottle of malt liquor clutched to his chest like a beloved child. He starts awake, flailing at the air with a grimy claw.

'Awgeddofmutherfuckerdontocuhmahshitsparequatah?'

His voice joins the inchoate roar of the city, and it echoes in my ears as I race through the shadows, along with the screams of police sirens fading into the coming dawn.

From the diaries ofSonja Blue.

12.

Ankwei Province, the People's Republic of China: Qi You Wu and his wife, Mei Li, were simple workers who lived in a two-room house on the outskirts of the town of Pang pu. Both Qi You and Mei Li liked to think of themselves as

'modern'. They had married out of love, not family obligation, having met while working side by side on the assembly line at

the tractor factory. Being modern young workers, Qi You and Mei Li understood the importance of population control to their country and the Party. When Mei Li became pregnant earlier that year, they had signed a document declaring that upon the birth of their child they would both undergo sterilization procedures. They would be rewarded for their selflessness by being given special consideration for promotion at work and recognized by the local Party officials as dedicated workers.

Mei Li had been a little apprehensive at first - what if their baby was a girl? Even though she was modern, it was hard

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) to ignore centuries of ingrained Chinese culture. Boy children have always been far more valuable than girl children. To have many sons is the definition of Chinese luck and happiness. She worried and worried about what might happen if the baby was a daughter. However, when she was finally brought to the midwife's station, she delivered a boy, whom they named Qui En. Three days later, Mei Li and her husband underwent the sterilization procedures they'd agreed to. But now, two weeks later, Mei Li was beginning to wonder if they had not made the biggest mistake of their lives.

The Wu house was a concrete box with a red tile roof, identical to the hundreds of other low-ranking industrial workers'

homes lining Pang-pu's streets. The two rooms consisted of a combination kitchen and living area, and a smaller sleeping room. The house was drafty in the winter and hot in the summer and the Wus shared a communal toilet with the household next door. Mei Li and Qi You dreamed of someday making good and moving to more spacious and pleasant surroundings. But for now, Mei Li had been forced to keep the baby's cradle next to the oil stove that provided them with heat and food. It was close to midnight and Mei Li was still sitting next to the stove, watching her baby and worrying.

'Mei Li, when are you coming to bed?' Qi You was standing in the door to their bedroom, his hair tousled and eyes puffy.

'You have to be at the factory the same time as I do - how can you make your quota if you don't get any sleep? The line supervisor is sure to notice--'

'Something is wrong with Qui En. He wouldn't take his bottle.'

'It's probably just a cold. All the babies at the creche have colds.'

Mei Li frowned and leaned forward, fussing with the blanket around the baby's feet. 'I should not have placed him in the creche so soon. He's so little--'

'Mei Li, we've already discussed this. We agreed that leaving Qui En at the daycare center was the only logical answer.

Your mother lives too far away and we cannot afford for you to stay home with the baby--'

'You are right, Qi You. I know you're speaking the truth.

But I still can't help but worry. He's our only child. The only one we'll ever have.'

Qi You smiled despite his weariness and kissed the top of his wife's head. 'It is good that you worry for your son. It means you are a good mother. I worry, too. But I will be even more worried if I do not get my promotion.'

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) Mei Li held her husband's hand tightly for a long moment, her eyes never leaving the cradle. 'Go and get some sleep. I'll join you in a little while. I won't be up much longer, I promise.'

Qi You sighed and went back to bed alone, while Mei Li remained perched on a stool beside the stove, rocking her son's cradle and singing lullabies. She could hear her husband snoring in the other room. The sound reminded her just how tired she was. Suddenly her eyelids grew heavy and her head began to nod. Within ten minutes of his mother falling asleep, Qui En stopped breathing.

A golden light filled the front windows of the Wu house and the door opened inward, as if unlatched by a phantom hand.

Standing on the threshold was a naked woman with long hair that fluttered about as if blown by gentle winds. In her arms was a baby boy with dark hair and Oriental eyes. The stranger hovered beside the sleeping woman for a moment, then took the body of little Qui En from the cradle, leaving the living baby in its place. Then, as quickly and silently as she arrived, the glowing woman floated out the door.

Mei Li awoke with a start, blinking in confusion. She must have fallen asleep. She looked into the cradle to check on Qui En and was both surprised and relieved to find that whatever had been bothering her son had passed. Qui En gurgled happily, waving his little hands at her as if in greeting.

13.

New York City:

Two voices on a telephone line:

'She's here.'

'Are you sure it's her?'

'I'm positive. It's her, of that you can be certain.'

'Good. I knew she'd come once she got the clippings. But be careful. She's deadlier by far than any other you've ever crossed, my boy.'

'I know. That's why she fascinates me so.'

Something's in the room.

It wasn't even a thought. More a feeling. A sensation picked up by slumbering sensory apparatus and fed into an unconscious mind. Is it the real thing or merely a dream of intrusion?

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) Wake up, you stupid bitch! the Other shrieked, answering the reality-dream issue once and for all. We've got company!

Sonja came off the loft bed in three seconds flat, fangs extended, hair bristling like a cat's back. There was no time for her to wonder how they managed to find her. No time to try and figure out how they got past the booby traps. She hit the ground in a low crouch, hissing a warning at the intruder seated in the leather easy chair.

'No need for such theatrics, milady,'Jen purred. There was no fear in his eyes. Caution, yes - but no fear. 'I intend you no harm.'

'If that's the case, what are you doing here?'

'My employers wanted to know where you're keeping your nest. They told me to assign a shadow to you. I'm sure you remember him. However, you needn't fear me. I won't tell them that I know where you spend your daylight hours.'

'What are you getting at, renfield?'

Jen's spine stiffened and indignation flickered in his eyes.

'I am not a renfield.'

'You couldn't prove it by me. You're a human working for vampires - that makes you a renfield in my book. Theirs, too, I'd say.'

This seemed to make him bridle even more. 'I am my own man, damn you! I work for Luxor and Nuit because it suits my needs, not because they've got a slave collar snapped around my mind!'

'All the more reason for me not to trust you. At least renfields don't have much control in what they do. After all, they're addicts. You... you, on the other hand... you're one of their bellwethers. You lure your fellow humans to their doom to benefit your vampiric partners and line your own pockets!'

The pale blue of Jen's eyes seemed to intensify as he glowered at Sonja. 'I am not a renfield, nor am I a bellwether.

I am like you.'

'You are nothing like me!'

'Perhaps. Perhaps not. But you're wrong about my species.

I am not human. I am dhampire.'

Sonja turned to stare at him. 'Dhampire? I've heard rumours of such things - the supposed by-product of vampire-human matings.'

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) Jen smoothed his braided coils like Medusa calming her snakes. 'There are very few of my kind in this world. As I said, I am dhampire. My mother was human--'

'And your father a vampire? Impossible! Vampires are dead things, their sperm inert. They may very well be capable of erection, even ejaculation, but they are incapable of reproducing.'

'I am very well aware of the procreative failings of the living dead,' Jen sniffed. 'If you would allow me to continue, I'll explain. My biological father was human enough, although I have no clue as to his identity. Not that it matters.

My mother was a streetwalker. Whitechapel, in fact. No doubt my father was a drunken sot with tuppence in his pocket and a hard-on in his pants. She was only fourteen when she had me, mind you. However, shortly after becoming pregnant, my mother fell in with a certain gentleman of Noble mien, if you understand me.

'She was his favorite for a couple of months, until she began to show her condition. Such things are anathema to vampires - they are forever frozen in time, changeless and unchanging. The withering and dying of their human consorts is one thing - entropy, after all, is the vampire's handmaiden

- but the creation of new life! Ah, that reminds them that they are, indeed, outside the chain of nature. They pretend to have disdain for how humans reproduce, but they are secretly envious and jealous to the point of mania.

'As I said, my mother's lover may have cast her aside, but it was too late. I was already affected by the venom he released into her each time he fed from her. When I was born my mother placed me in a foundling home and went in search of similar lovers. I was always... strange. Underweight, anemic, and of a morbid turn, my life was made a living hell by my warders and fellow inmates. Then, when I was eight years old, my mother reappeared and took me to live with her.

'Over the years my mother developed into a courtesan for those of Noble make.' She'd become quite wealthy and bought a fashionable house in London, which she turned into a salon of sorts, where she entertained her clients. She even had a few lovers outside the vampire race - the occasional vargr prince, kitsune diplomat, or ogre businessman. Compared

to the brutality and indifference of the foundling home, it seemed perfectly normal to me.

'It wasn't until I was twelve years old that I realized that I was far from human. While I lay curled deep within my mother's womb, her lover's tainted seed had worked its way into my system. While I was hardly a vampire, I could walk the streets of London and actually see the Pretenders for what they were. I also benefited from heightened senses

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) and an intuition for what those around me truly desired.

In no time I was serving as my mother's pimp, searching the streets and back alleys for eager clients.

'But, by far, my surrogate father's most lasting contribution was in the realm of longevity. How old do you think I am?'

'I don't know.' Sonja shrugged. 'Forty? Forty-five?'

'I'll be one hundred and twenty-seven come next June!'

he cackled, clapping his hands. 'Bet you didn't guess that, milady.'

'You're right on that count. But it still doesn't answer why you're here, and why I shouldn't kill you where you sit.'

Jen held up one hand, begging her indulgence. 'My employers are just that - employers. They are not my liege and lady. I came of age in the very breast of monstrosity, if you will. I feel no kinship for humans - yet, nor do I consider myself a vampire. I am a nation unto myself. A member of a solitary race. I serve many masters, yet I am slave to none. And I am not here to see Luxor's petty blood vendetta carried out. I am here on behalf of one known to you, one who considers himself more friend than foe.'