I am his second in command.”
“Then why aren’t you Star-two?”
“Traditionally the Prime is first in the chain, followed by his Queen, then their second. Our Prime has no Queen, so Star-two is vacant.”
“What exactly is a Prime?”
She got the look of someone trying to find words to explain calculus to a hamster. “The Shadow World is divided loosely into twenty-seven territories,” she began. “Each territory is controlled by a Prime, and ideally by a paired Prime and Queen, who set the law which is enforced by their warriors—us. Everyone living within that territory is required to follow the Prime’s law on pain of death.”
“Okay, back up. Shadow World?”
The woman looked taken aback. “What?”
“I don’t get it. I’ve never heard of any of this, and your Prime guy was talking about your world like it’s this whole separate universe. Are you all nuts? You really think there’s some special kind of law just for you? Who is he? Who are you? And what the fuck is going on in this place?”
She fell back into the cushions, drained by the burst of questions, and stared at the guardswoman, who blinked at her in surprise.
Miranda waited for her to say something, her head starting to pound—normally the guard’s thoughts and feelings would tell her whatever she wanted to know. This business of having to ask questions felt strange after months of knowing too much about everyone she met. She could even look the woman in the eye, if she wanted to, without being confronted with her entire life story, which for a woman wearing a sword was probably a good thing.
“And one last thing,” Miranda said before she could help it, “if you guys are bodyguards, why don’t you have guns? What good is a sword going to do you in the twenty-first century?”
Now the woman definitely smiled. “Bullets are useless against our enemies,” she told Miranda, “but decapitation works for pretty much everyone.”
“So, what, you’re the Highlander?”
She took a deep breath and sat down on the opposite end of the sofa. “I think perhaps this explanation will take a while.”
Miranda shut her eyes a moment. “I figured.” She gestured weakly at the woman, who was sitting with absolutely perfect posture, ready at a moment’s notice to leap into action . . . whatever sort of action went on here in Bizarro World. “Why don’t we start with your name.”
“All right. My name is Faith.”
“Nice to meet you, Faith. Miranda. Now, tell me who you people are.”
She tried not to let the statement come off as a command, but Faith’s eyebrow quirked anyway. “It’s complicated. You may not believe me.”
“Then keep it simple, for now. Ten words or less.”
“I can give it to you in three.”
“Go ahead.”
Faith smiled, and the entire universe, already perilously close to spinning wildly off its axis, ground to a halt as she replied, “We are vampires.”
Three
Her name was Maria, and she spoke no English, but the halter top and leather miniskirt said all anyone at the club really wanted to know.
He led her from the dance floor up the stairs to the balcony, where the guards were holding the space, keeping the rest of the crowd away. She followed gamely, her mind full of sex and tequila.
She was young and sweet and surprisingly innocent, here with her older friends for a wild night on the town before starting another week cleaning hotel rooms. He imagined her in her maid’s uniform dancing in the hallways, a vacuum her partner, peeking in people’s suitcases. The thought made him smile.
He also had another image of her: so drunk her eyes rolled in her head, being held down and fucked by the group of frat boys he’d seen moving in on her. Maybe she would remember, maybe it would just be a haze of booze and Rohypnol, but in the morning she would wake up hung over with the vague feeling that someone had been cruel to her, and it would never occur to a poor immigrant girl to get the police
“Then why aren’t you Star-two?”
“Traditionally the Prime is first in the chain, followed by his Queen, then their second. Our Prime has no Queen, so Star-two is vacant.”
“What exactly is a Prime?”
She got the look of someone trying to find words to explain calculus to a hamster. “The Shadow World is divided loosely into twenty-seven territories,” she began. “Each territory is controlled by a Prime, and ideally by a paired Prime and Queen, who set the law which is enforced by their warriors—us. Everyone living within that territory is required to follow the Prime’s law on pain of death.”
“Okay, back up. Shadow World?”
The woman looked taken aback. “What?”
“I don’t get it. I’ve never heard of any of this, and your Prime guy was talking about your world like it’s this whole separate universe. Are you all nuts? You really think there’s some special kind of law just for you? Who is he? Who are you? And what the fuck is going on in this place?”
She fell back into the cushions, drained by the burst of questions, and stared at the guardswoman, who blinked at her in surprise.
Miranda waited for her to say something, her head starting to pound—normally the guard’s thoughts and feelings would tell her whatever she wanted to know. This business of having to ask questions felt strange after months of knowing too much about everyone she met. She could even look the woman in the eye, if she wanted to, without being confronted with her entire life story, which for a woman wearing a sword was probably a good thing.
“And one last thing,” Miranda said before she could help it, “if you guys are bodyguards, why don’t you have guns? What good is a sword going to do you in the twenty-first century?”
Now the woman definitely smiled. “Bullets are useless against our enemies,” she told Miranda, “but decapitation works for pretty much everyone.”
“So, what, you’re the Highlander?”
She took a deep breath and sat down on the opposite end of the sofa. “I think perhaps this explanation will take a while.”
Miranda shut her eyes a moment. “I figured.” She gestured weakly at the woman, who was sitting with absolutely perfect posture, ready at a moment’s notice to leap into action . . . whatever sort of action went on here in Bizarro World. “Why don’t we start with your name.”
“All right. My name is Faith.”
“Nice to meet you, Faith. Miranda. Now, tell me who you people are.”
She tried not to let the statement come off as a command, but Faith’s eyebrow quirked anyway. “It’s complicated. You may not believe me.”
“Then keep it simple, for now. Ten words or less.”
“I can give it to you in three.”
“Go ahead.”
Faith smiled, and the entire universe, already perilously close to spinning wildly off its axis, ground to a halt as she replied, “We are vampires.”
Three
Her name was Maria, and she spoke no English, but the halter top and leather miniskirt said all anyone at the club really wanted to know.
He led her from the dance floor up the stairs to the balcony, where the guards were holding the space, keeping the rest of the crowd away. She followed gamely, her mind full of sex and tequila.
She was young and sweet and surprisingly innocent, here with her older friends for a wild night on the town before starting another week cleaning hotel rooms. He imagined her in her maid’s uniform dancing in the hallways, a vacuum her partner, peeking in people’s suitcases. The thought made him smile.
He also had another image of her: so drunk her eyes rolled in her head, being held down and fucked by the group of frat boys he’d seen moving in on her. Maybe she would remember, maybe it would just be a haze of booze and Rohypnol, but in the morning she would wake up hung over with the vague feeling that someone had been cruel to her, and it would never occur to a poor immigrant girl to get the police
Similar Books
