Part 8 (2/2)
”I'm supposed to ask you you questions.” questions.”
”Hardly seems fair.”
”Your question sounded a h.e.l.l of a lot like an accusation.” He stood up, holding his hands out before her. ”Without you Mia, there's no project. You're the key to the door to immortality.”
”The child I aborted was immortality.”
”That's not what we're here to discuss.”
Her voice hit a dangerously low note, ”Get the f.u.c.k out.”
”No.” Joe stood his ground awaiting attack as sweat beaded alarmingly on his forehead. She crouched on the chair, a bobcat ready to pounce. Instinct told him to show no fear. It turned out to be the best course of action.
She suddenly shrugged, as if killing him wasn't worth the trouble, and sank back down into the chair. ”You're just as much of a monster as I am. Just look around you- at the b.e.s.t.i.a.lity of the human race.”
”That's what you see.”
”Until you convince me otherwise- get out- I'm sick of you poking around in my soul! f.u.c.king men, always trying to penetrate me in one way or another... ”
”Then why are you here exactly, Mia?”
She threw her head back, laughing like Garbo. ”I want to walk in the sun, and laugh as the old demons destruct all around me.”
”Don't bulls.h.i.+t me.”
She merely shook her head. Disgusted, Joe packed up his bag to leave. She crossed the room to the desk, opening the drawer and took out an envelope, extending it imperiously toward him. Annoyed, Joe took it and left, making his way to Kurt's cell.
Kurt's small figure stood before the immense piano, not playing it, just staring at his hands on the keys. He looked as if he had just came from the shower, in jeans but s.h.i.+rtless, hair a ma.s.s of damp ringlets, the scent of herbal soap clinging to him, skin flushed. Once again, the light was dim, casting long Citizen Kane-like shadows across the room. Joe cleared his throat. ”I'm not disturbing you?”
Kurt looked up. ”What can I do for you, Doctor?”
”A letter for you.”
The vampire approached, fluidly with dignified grace, distant and cool in manner. Joe towered over him, but it still didn't make him feel any safer.
Kurt extended his hand languidly for the letter. As he did, Joe saw in a flash something that made his skin crawl. There on the paleness of Kurt's slender forearm were numbers tattooed in blue ink. Joe couldn't help but gawk.
”Why do you stare?” Kurt snapped.
”I had no idea... ”
”Well, now you know.”
”You must've been just a kid.”
Kurt's voice grew hard-edged, as he turned away and reached for his s.h.i.+rt, ”One grows up fast.”
Joe suspected Kurt had a history, but this wasn't quite what he'd imagined. In a concentration camp- and for how long before this happened to him? It explained the frail appearance he'd carry with him for eternity. What complicated memories motivated him? What demons haunted him and did he wear them tattooed on his brain like the horrifying numbers on his skin?
”I'm sorry.”
”I don't need your pity.”
”I expect you don't.”
”Mia will fill you in.” Kurt began to b.u.t.ton his s.h.i.+rt.
”I need you to answer a question for me. She's driven me crazy with it.”
Kurt looked up at him, white face frozen into a polite mask. ”Mia may be often infuriating, but never dull.”
”She says she sees certain... potential in me. Can you see it, too?”
Kurt looked deeply into Joe's eyes, and then abruptly pushed up the cuff of his s.h.i.+rt. ”You saw this?”
The inky blue numbers stood out in sharp contrast to the vampire's white skin.
”Yes,” he answered, not really wanting to meet Kurt's eyes. Another level of tension zapped their encounter, as a long-buried ancestral demon raised its head.
”I've seen such potential in mortals.” Kurt looked hard at Joe, boundless rage blazing in his eyes. Joe knew better than to flinch and held his ground, staring back. Kurt slid his sleeve back over his arm. ”It's there. However, I see it in them all all.”
”Am I somehow destined to become- a monster?”
Kurt shrugged, turning back to the piano. ”That's up to you.” He began tapping out a melody with one finger. ”There's a letter on the table, Doctor.”
”About Mia... ”
Kurt's voice scaled up boyishly with tension, ”Mia can be difficult.”
”She claims to want to walk in the sun and watch the old demons destruct around her.”
”Our culture is older than any existing nation of men and our customs aren't enlightened. We're slaves. Of course she wants to see them fall.”
”And this project will hasten that?”
”Perhaps, we'll all all be worse off, but we can never go back to that world.” be worse off, but we can never go back to that world.”
”Who's hunting you?”
”We don't know- only that there's a bounty on our heads.”
”I'm doing my best to make it more tolerable for you here.”
”Mia is the only thing that could possibly make it tolerable.” His voice filled with longing, ”How is she?”
”Well, we had an argument. She's p.i.s.sed.”
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