Part 19 (1/2)

This was the answer to my doubts about Innocencio.

”h.e.l.lo.” A girl stood before us. She looked young but was, I hoped, over eighteen. Again I got the sense that this place was a throwback in time; her dark hair was arranged in careful waves and held off her face by a clip with a white flower on it. Her dress was dark green velvet, cut into a deep V in front and held at the waist by a black, beaded belt. ”I'm Tracy.”

Boz looked her up and down and sipped his drink.

”Hi,” Katy said shortly, and looked away.

Tracy focused on me. ”You're new here. I haven't seen you before.”

”You are correct, sir,” I said, and sipped my drink.

Tracy's sweet, old-fas.h.i.+oned face gave me a gentle smile. ”I'm not immortal.”

My eyes flared. ”Oh-kaaaay?”

”But you are.”

I almost choked on my drink and gave an awkward cough. Good Lord. ”Oh my G.o.d, can you see me? I thought I was wearing my invisibility cloak.” Yes, I'm suave. I'm mysterious. My name is Crowe-Nastasya Crowe.

Tracy looked at me with affectionate pity. ”You feel alive. Regular people feel dead.”

Okay, welcome to Creepy Territory. Here's your map.

”I have new batteries in.” I tried to take a drink, but my gla.s.s was empty, and the ice slid down and hit my nose. That happens to us suave people. I wiped it off with the back of my hand.

Tracy reached out and took my hand. ”Do you want me?”

My eyes widened again, and I glanced at Boz and Katy. They had gone, deserted me to this girl, this automaton girl.

Tracy's soft hand was stroking my arm. Her eyes were a beautiful green, like her dress. Her hair was soft and smelled like forget-me-nots. Her lips were soft and pink and smiling at me. She was... so adorable. And just like that, she had offered up her life, her power, for me to take if I wanted it.

She started to lead me to an empty couch. Could she actually be this stupid? Yes, Boz had told me what people did here, but confronted with the reality, I was still shocked. Almost without realizing it, I sank down on a soft peach-colored sofa with thick, rolled arms.

Tracy tucked one knee under her and then she was leaning against me, surrounding me with the scent of flowers. I began to pray that Katy hadn't put anything in my drink. I could trust Katy, right? Ha ha ha ha.

”What are you doing?” I murmured against Tracy's hair.

”Take me,” she breathed. ”Make me yours.”

I had to hear her say it. I just couldn't believe that she would offer her life force to an immortal like this. ”What are you talking about?” I sounded a bit more alert, and Tracy sat up and looked at me.

”You... put your hands on me,” she said. ”And, you know, sort of take me. Take my energy.”

I sat up and put my empty gla.s.s on the small table.

”And then you feel lovely.” Her coaxing voice was back. ”And I do, too.” She leaned against me again and put her hand around my waist. ”You feel... very alive. So alive. I like the way you feel.”

This place was a brothel-a dark brothel where immortals came and fed off regular people. Like vampires, if they existed. And these people, these astonis.h.i.+ngly stupid and self-destructive people, were offering themselves up. They knew about us and seemed totally down with the whole immortal gig. But how, or why? And Incy liked to come here. And Incy had learned how.

”How could you possibly feel lovely?” I asked.

Tracy blinked at me. ”I just do. It makes you feel dreamy and floaty. And sometimes I need to conk out afterward. One time I slept for three days.”

”Tracy-you-” I shook my head. ”You know this can kill you, right? Someone could literally channel enough of your life force to actually kill you. Leave you a vegetable, or worse.”

”No,” she said, looking disbelieving.

”Yes,” I a.s.sured her. ”That's how most immortals make magick: They suck it out of something else. And it can kill something, leave it dead. It's abhorrent, frankly.”

”No.” Tracy shook her head.

”Yes. Really,” I said. Now I could see clearly what was happening. The humans here looked dazed, dissolute. The immortals looked fabulous, bursting with life and energy. And that wasn't all. Besides all the life-sucking, there was big magick being made here. Dark magick. I felt it in the air, practically smelled it, like ozone before a storm. This was... a really dangerous place. A really dark, evil, dangerous, bad place. And I had to get out of here.

I hadn't seen Incy since he'd come upstairs. Katy and Boz were leaning against a column, not talking to anyone. I was a bit surprised that they hadn't leaped into this wholeheartedly. Not that they were awful people, but they were just-unseeing. Unknowing. Not worried about consequences. Like we all were. As Boz had said, he was willing to rob anyone of anything. And had done so. He'd ruined people, broken hearts. Like Incy had.

And the thing that sobered me right up, that pierced me to the core was the knowledge that two months ago, this would have been... very interesting to me. I wouldn't have known how to do it, but I would have been willing to learn. I don't think it would have bothered me to rape these people's energy, take advantage of their stupidity. I would have thought they deserved it, since they were literally asking for it. It wouldn't have given me a single sleepless night.

It was revolting that I had been like that. Shameful. Disgraceful, in the old-time sense of the word. And what was even worse? That I could now see myself so wretchedly clearly. I had changed, I recognized bitterly. I hated that I could see myself as I was. What a terrible thing to know. I would never be able to not know it, to forget it.

I didn't see how I could ever forgive River for that.

CHAPTER 22.

Having a good time, love?” Incy leaned over the back of my couch. His eyes were bright, his face flushed and happy. Earlier he'd seemed increasingly agitated, almost jumpy. Now as he sank down next to me, he seemed very, very calm, very centered.

He'd been feeding on someone. Maybe more than one. I found it so... reprehensible. And I'm not even a good person. I'm a loser and a waste, and I found it reprehensible.

”Good is a strong word,” I said, wis.h.i.+ng I had another drink.

Incy looked taken aback. ”I see you've met the lovely Tracy.”

”Yes.”

Tracy looked thrilled to see Incy and immediately abandoned unfun me to wind around him. He smiled at her and stroked her hair, and she almost purred.

”Tracy is a very giving girl,” said Incy, and Tracy's eyes gleamed. He looked at me. ”You really should try her. I'm sure they taught you how, at the witch school.”

”Witch school?” He'd called it a farm earlier. As if he hadn't known what it was.

”I'm sure they taught you all kinds of things,” he said, and I recognized the seductive tone he used on people. He was now using it on me. I had, after a hundred years, become someone he needed to subvert and seduce. Inside my chest, I felt my hard little heart crack right in two.

”How to gather eggs,” I said woodenly.

Incy laughed, stroking the back of Tracy's neck. ”They have more private rooms, in the back. Why don't the three of us go there? Tracy would probably like to be with both of us.”

Tracy's face lit up as if she'd just found a hundred dollars in the pocket of an old pair of jeans. ”Yes! I would.”