Part 27 (1/2)
Asher bade me look away ”Once we have seen we cannot unsee,” he said ”Lennox s about him”
But I couldn't
”He told me once,” I said ”Lennox told me that he used to kill people It was in his nature back then”
I watched as Lennox took the prostitute What I couldn't have known, and was unprepared for, was how brutally cruel he was, and nonchalant in his cruelty He played with her as a cat does a mouse
”You want me?” he said to her
”I want to be you,” she said
She clung to him, half drenched in her own blood; it ran down her front in a great sash A torrent of blood that coated her naked body
”You will be, I daresay,” said Lennoxlove, ”quite soon enough Say hello to death, ed at her before she could speak There was a powerful exhalation of breath He left her there on the banks of the Seine And I watched, in horror, as he disappeared into the night
The next night orse; I ain, and we rushed into Lennox's dreahtmares Into his very soul!
By then, I was addicted I didn't care that it was rude I needed ithad to see Lux's speeches about the ethics of poere so much hot air Besides, I had that sense that Lennox, for want of a better word, could almost feel me there I had his permission I had permission of Caht onies weren't a penance, were they?
Lennox was soht We were at another day, another memory
He looked like a million French francs His coat and top hat from a fine French house of fashi+on One could tell His luxurious necktie spilled out fro The horse and buggies were interspersed with carriage-shaped autos I was quickly treated to a surprising succession of very rapid murders He particularly liked the attentions of womenlate-teens, early-twenties He killed a number of those
It was always his practice to let the, before he took theo, the part of my brain which should have recoiled made excuses for Lennox instead
I appreciated for the first ti and in Paris And a killer
Clutching Rimbaud's poems, or somebody else's, he would utter into the susceptible ears of his victiirls, besotted after two seconds, never wavered in their devotion to him, not even when he drank the rose honey of their blood, or stared into the very ht of their eyes was like two false beaconsbegging him to crash upon the tumult of their shores
He took from them their very lives, as well as their blood And always, always their money His existence, for all of its finery, was rather mean
I also noticed that he tried on various personas As if he was entranced by theenius, the Don Juan
He would whisper his words so sweetly to theer, of allure, he could proht!
It got so that Asher and I couldn't look away I rooted for Lennox I hated him And I was attracted to him But this Lennox was not my Lennox I knew that now It was sos, yes, but that he was noabout the present-day Lennoxthan I would have been, if the tables were turned, and Lennox had been judging my faults, my past
The truth was, Lennox was a va facts of that Of him Lennox's faults were laid bare to ht a madman was on the loose
We heard him come, eventually The footsteps When Lennox killed When he raced aith his prize, or without it When he stalked so woman whom it was his dearest ambition to annihilate in some petty, tortuousbut always sexymanner At these times it was like there was another observer there with us
And so it was, one night, that he, whoever he was, finally ain This tilover; she had lovely auburn hair and skin that set one's envy loves Lennox had purchased were fetched from his pockets He paused as if to memorize her body The way her hair spread out in the pool of blood, etc
He bit theroin; and as they moaned, the heat spread fro which let the
Lennox savored them only briefly It was his pleasure to do this as alover's daughter, it had been, he had been char her splayed, lifeless body there Her essence had all but flowed out
He turned, because so there He had been watching Lennox froht co Marek's hands mocked Lennox, whose face hardened ”Who are you?” de Lennox speak He didn't usually Usually he just thralled
”Someone like you A vampire,” said Marek
”You lie,” hissed Lennox
”I stalk the night, killing, devouring With an appetite al friend Or should I say ed at Marek, who sidestepped him quite easily
”I suspect this is your first run-in with someone like meexcept for whoever sired you,” said Marek
”I don't knohat you're talking about,” said Lennox, who nevertheless continued to crouch, and eye Marek, hoping for soh which he could attack
”So I will give you a piece of advice,” said Marek ”Coive you a permanent reminder of who I am I am older than you Perhaps you do not realize this now, but ht has probably saved your life If you call this living” He nudged the corpse with his boot tip ”My name is Marek, by the way”
Lennox did not kno to respond It had been too long since he had faced anyone equal to him or better ”Lennoxlove,” he said
Marek nodded And then smiled ”I can teach you how to become more powerful, if that is what you wish,” he said ”But first you irl on the ground again ”You must curb such appetites, my friend, if you are to fit in with the Lenoir They run this place, you see No, do not try to run They ish to see you Neither shall you hide Within return”
”What?” said Lennox
”Later perhaps Come with me now,” said Marek ”And remember The eyes of your masters are not upon you all of the tilinted in the light
I couldn't leave; I didn't want to ht
Wherever Lennox was noas thinking about his pastwith a vengeance
Marek led hiht Paris was another world It was different than I had ever seen it, more real But so old This must've been just after Lennox had been sired So on the continent?