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.Finding another vampire would be difficult.Convincing that vampire, or any other, to bring her back into the world that she longed to inhabit might well prove impossible.When she returned from Ohio she began her search in earnest, and in the following weeks, as the last vestiges of hope faded and the icy despair within her grew, Two began to withdraw.She did it intentionally, to protect her friends and herself.She could see that she was hurting them, and this saddened her, but she couldn’t lift the grey veil, couldn’t shake the grief or erase the pain.She couldn’t bring back what she had lost, and her friends’ attempts at consolation seemed only to drive this home all the more clearly.So she had established distance, losing herself in the cold and the grey, giving in to the apathy that her brain had begun to produce in a last attempt to counteract the sadness and hopelessness that threatened to overtake her completely.The tile was growing cool against her skin as the warmth from the shower dispersed, and goosebumps were prickling up on her arms.Two sighed, opened her eyes, and began to dry herself off.* * *The light on her phone was blinking.Voicemail, probably Rhes again.Two ignored it, not wanting to deal with him.Rhes had managed to hurt her, a little, the first real emotion she’d felt in some time.She had thought she’d inured herself to everything at this point, but when he brought up Molly there had been a few seconds where the pain had resurfaced, bright and clear, like sunlight shining through good crystal.Two had sighed and forced herself to shut it out, and shortly thereafter the conversation had ended.She had sat for a time on her balcony, as she often did during the afternoons, smoking cigarettes and sipping on a glass of bourbon, and then had taken her shower.Tonight she would walk, as she did every night, with no real hope of finding the thing she was looking for, but with nothing else to do, and no real reason to do anything else even if there had been.At last the sun was setting, and she could begin.Two had to wait for it before starting her search because of the nature of what she was hunting.Theroen had told her that only some vampires could abide the sun, and that of those, few preferred to spend any significant time underneath it.When the last sliver of red had dipped below the horizon and dusk covered Manhattan, Two would begin her walk.She never planned, never mapped out a route or decided on a path.She let her feet move her according to random whim, the timing of the street lights, the movement of the crowds.Two leaned back and glanced at the clock sitting by her phone, noting that the sun should fully set in another thirty minutes.The light on her phone blinked and blinked, as if chiding her for not checking her messages.She thought about listening to Rhes apologizing for upsetting her and grimaced, then got up, crossed the room, picked up the phone and hit the button.The moment the automated voice broke into its scripted greeting, Two quickly pressed the series of keys that would clear the mailbox, waited for confirmation that this was done, and slammed the phone back into its cradle.She walked out onto her balcony again, lit a cigarette, and stood watching the traffic down below turn fuzzy and indistinct in the dimming light.Time crawled.Two smoked.“I hate you,” she said to the crowds of people on the sidewalk below, to the cars and trucks and limousines that crawled along Sixth Avenue towards the theatres to the north.It wasn’t true, of course; there was nothing left anymore but the ghost of this feeling, and of countless others.She didn’t hate these people, nor envy them, because she didn’t care.Her body survived, even as she drove it into the ground, subsisting for the most part on cigarettes, bourbon, and water.She waited for the sun to set, thinking of Theroen.“There are vampires in Manhattan,” he had told her once.“I know few of them, unfortunately.Abraham keeps me from interacting with them any more than is absolutely necessary, but I have met three or four of them.There is a council that he sits on … lords over, I imagine.He’s the oldest vampire in this country by hundreds of years.”“What does the council do?” Two had asked.“According to Abraham, most of what they do is pointless deliberation and setting meaningless laws.It does seem a bit absurd.Abraham is their chief, yet he follows no law but his own, and never has.Of course, it’s to his advantage to be the head of the council.If nothing else, it allows him insight into any plotting that might be done against him.”“Are most of the vampires like you, or like him?”“Neither, really.They are individuals, people like you and I, though shaped somewhat by their bloodlines.There are four types of vampires: Eresh, Ashayt, Ay’Araf, and Burilgi.The basic mechanics are the same … we drink blood to survive and use blood to reproduce, but there are substantial differences in physiology and psychological makeup.”“You and Abraham are both Eresh, right?”“We are.He is, so I am, so shall you be.Obviously, given the differences between Abraham and I, it would be a mistake to say that the blood within a given vampire determines who that person is.Still, it has some effect.Ashayt vampires are often spiritual or creative, and can be prone to depression.The Ay’Araf are warriors, for the most part, people who not only excel at conflict but actively seek it out.They value strength and speed, mastery of fighting skills, and are often callous or abrupt, uninterested in politics or self-expression.Amusing, really … Ay’Araf himself was a priest and a poet [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]