Part 23 (1/2)

”I'm ent.i.tled to rights?”

He grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. ”Snap out of it Mia!” She looked up surprised. ”We won't get anywhere this way.”

”They all think I'm a monster!”

”You feed on human beings. How else can they see you, from a purely biological point of view?”

She went to sit down in front of the mirror, staring. ”I'm just a freak of nature, something to be poked and prodded and experimented upon... ”

”No Mia. You're much more to me than that.”

She peered off somewhere in the distance. ”Ethan taught me humanity was an unending banquet, to be devoured and cast aside, but I can't see you that way. You burn- a star in the void.” Mia suddenly turned, looking on him with troubled eyes. ”What if I told you, my one and only wish is to be human again, not necessarily mortal, but human?”

”You have a selfless reason to be here. No one would risk everything to do this if they didn't. Not many human beings have your courage, or Kurt's. Lee Brooks is coming here in less than seven days. I need to get finished with this profile before she gets here. I'm under the gun here, and someone someone out there is hunting you. I really want to help, Mia. I swear to you, I'm not backing down. You and Kurt deserve better treatment.” out there is hunting you. I really want to help, Mia. I swear to you, I'm not backing down. You and Kurt deserve better treatment.”

”I'm sorry I've been so snappish. You're the only one who's stood up for us.”

”As long as you remain so in a figurative sense, I can deal.”

A small smile curled her mouth. ”Those days are behind me forever- strictly bottled blood. I suppose you should know everything- but until Kurt and I are together, we won't give them any hard data.”

”I understand. Tell me everything that's happened up until this point.”

”For many years Brovik made no real headway. Ethan and I went back to relative seclusion in Virginia, but by the eighties, he'd made enough progress to send us to New York to woo drug companies with possibilities for treating immune disorders, like AIDS. Of course, all was still theoretical at this point, but, Ethan, with my a.s.sistance turned them on, and the money started to flow. He got a nice percentage of everything we raised and of course, now that he was really really rich he started shopping for a new toy... rich he started shopping for a new toy...

This wasn't the New York I remembered. I'd seen movies and television, so I knew it wouldn't be the same as in the fifties but nothing prepared me for the shock of seeing it thirty-six years after I'd left it a newborn vampire. It was filthy. The crumbling subway stations smelled of human waste. The streets were home to a host of lost humanity. Glittering gla.s.s boxes and granite walled fortresses entombed a corporate Netherworld, of dark suited men and women, who'd arise nightly from coffin-like cubicles. It was like a city of vampires, from the pale and elegant creatures dressed in black in Soho galleries, to the beautiful wraiths stalking runways.

December the twenty-fifth, nineteen-eighty six, was as usual marked by silence. The room in which I sat pondering my existence was a darkened, damask boudoir in Ethan's Victorian townhouse. He moved around his own room across the hall. Nights went by without a single word. I crossed to the window, pulling back the drape. Just past sunset, workers were waiting for busses or running to subways. Horns blared and auto exhaust worked its way into the house, bringing along a whiff of charcoal.

The first snowfall had come early. By the time I awakened, the street below my window was blanketed in white. I placed my hands flat against the windowpane to feel the cold. Placing my lips up to the gla.s.s I left a frosty kiss etched there.

He opened his door and crossed the hall to mine. There was a soft knock. I sighed, and then crossed the room to admit him. He hadn't sought me out in a while.

After it was done, he left me without so much as a thank you, and went out. I watched as he left, wondering how it would be to never touch the satin texture of his skin again, to feel the hardness of his muscle against me, or bury my nose in the perfumed darkness of his hair.

Female scent mingled with Chanel Number Five clung to Ethan's clothes when he returned mornings. He said he was f.u.c.king some attorney, who, he took great pleasure in informing me, was like a super model in a magazine, beautiful and and brilliant. He'd retained her firm's services to handle the acquisition of some biotech companies for Brovik. brilliant. He'd retained her firm's services to handle the acquisition of some biotech companies for Brovik.

I whispered under my breath as the door closed, ”Maybe tonight I'll actually leave you.”

I rose from the bed and went to the bathroom, turning on the hot water full blast to let the room steam up before I went in. I poured in some bath oil. The tiny room filled with the aroma of jasmine. I slipped into the tub imagining myself in the garden in Virginia, lying on the gra.s.s on a summer's night long ago staring at the stars.

I picked up the old fas.h.i.+oned straight razor I'd taken from Ethan's bathroom, running its cold edge against my wrist to watch the blood well up. I ran my tongue over and tasted the salt-iron flavor. The wound immediately clotted. It would take a much larger cut to kill me. I touched the sharp edge to my throat and closed my eyes. There was his face. I pressed the edge of the blade harder against my carotid artery. It would make a big spray, all over the pristine white marble and he'd be so furious. I pressed it harder, breaking out in a sweat. Couldn't do it. Chicken s.h.i.+t Chicken s.h.i.+t. Still, I wanted to wound him in some way. I lay in the water for an hour trying to think of something.

As steam evaporated from the mirror, my face appeared, engulfed in ma.s.ses of dark hair. I c.o.c.ked my head to the side and held out a long lock. It was almost as hard as cutting my throat, but this would annoy him about as much as finding the bathroom covered in my blood. I took a deep breath, and then began hacking with the razor. My boyish reflection, sans make-up and spiky hair pleased me immensely.

What to do to amuse myself? I'd tired of television, even with all the cable channels, and the only books in the place I hadn't already read were Ethan's tomes. What could be more fascinating than the snow itself, each unique flake a study of hexagonal perfection? I wanted to catch them and feel them on my face.

The grandfather's clock in the hall chimed eight. I dressed in the jeans and leather jacket I'd bought from a catalogue with Ethan's credit card. At the last moment, I spied my art nouveau b.u.t.terfly pendant on the dressing table and picked it up, twirling it in my fingers. It was the first and prettiest thing Ethan ever gave me. I couldn't resist putting it on.

As I descended the stairs, the door opened and Ethan came in. He wasn't alone. I caught the scent, female Immortyl with a hint of Chanel Number Five. He'd gone and done it! He'd gone and done it!

Her huge, amber eyes were shocked when she saw me. Not as shocked as I was. She stood at least six two, with strong, broad shoulders under her camel coat. Her sculpted face, with cheekbones Nefert.i.ti would envy, was surrounded by ma.s.ses of deep copper curls, but her skin wasn't like any Immortyl that I'd yet seen, not palest white or even faintly gold, but a warm gold-brown.

She spoke in a velvety, husky voice, ”You'd better say this is your little sister, Ethan.”

I almost felt sorry for her. She looked so bewildered by it all, but this was still my territory and I wasn't giving up without a fight. ”Who the f.u.c.k are you?”

She didn't bat an eye. ”Leisha Brookings.”

I knew that name. ”The lawyer? He has more b.a.l.l.s than I give him credit for.”

Ethan set down an expensive set of imported luggage. ”Leisha will live with us from now on, Mia.”

I had to lob a dart his way. ”I'm surprised. What will your darling Brovik say?”

Her eyebrows went up. ”Who?”

”Let's just say he's the prince of darkness, and Ethan's his princess.”

He twisted my arm. ”Shut up!”

I pulled away. ”Have you taken leave of your senses? Does she know what you are?”

Leisha's amber eyes perked up. ”What's she talking about?”

Was I a fool? But oh, it felt so good. I turned to her. ”Ethan has some very colorful skeletons in the family closet. Did he tell you how old he is, or where he comes from?”

”Go to your room, Mia,” he rumbled low in his chest. ”We'll talk later.”

”Actually, I'm going out.” I grabbed my gloves from the sideboard and shoving them in my pocket.

Leisha cut me off at the door. ”He's told me nothing. You'd better, because he won't.”

Outrage worked in her face, not one shred of the wors.h.i.+p I'd felt for him. Now I saw the state of things. I stared at Ethan in disbelief. ”Did she choose?”

He couldn't answer. Leisha's eyes flared again. She grabbed my shoulders and began to shake. I winced. She was really really strong. ”I didn't ask for this! Did you?” strong. ”I didn't ask for this! Did you?”

Disgusted, I broke free. I wasn't quite sure I liked her. She was hard, brusque and grim, and I didn't have to, in view of things.

”Oh, come now Leisha, you weren't entirely unwilling,” Ethan sneered, taking her in his arms. Surprisingly, she didn't protest- animal l.u.s.t, nothing more. ”What do you think of your new sister, Mia? Amazing, yes? I told you I could improve on the prototype. This one isn't bothered by scruples- pure unadulterated avarice- with a law degree from Harvard to boot.”

I took in her magnificence. Ouch. Ouch. ”You'll never keep this one on a leash.” ”You'll never keep this one on a leash.”

”What the f.u.c.k are you two talking about!”

I didn't like her after all. Strong, yes, smart, obviously, but really pushy pushy. Woe to anyone standing in her way. She was was admirable, but likable? h.e.l.l no. The imp dancing in my head tumbled out of my mouth before I could stop her. ”Tell her about life down on the ol' plantation Ethan, circa eighteen sixty. There's way too much historical baggage here. I'll pity you when she's finished.” admirable, but likable? h.e.l.l no. The imp dancing in my head tumbled out of my mouth before I could stop her. ”Tell her about life down on the ol' plantation Ethan, circa eighteen sixty. There's way too much historical baggage here. I'll pity you when she's finished.”