time. But look who I’m telling. Oh, oh, man, do they always do that?
I watch as the Enclave that has placed the bucket under Daniel’s hanging corpse slits its throat. Nothing comes out of the gash.
I pat my pockets. Find my cigarettes. I put one in my mouth and try to find my lighter. Stop looking. Watch as the Enclave begins to cut Daniel open from crotch to neck.
The Count leans over and snaps a Bic in front of my face.
I flinch. Blink. Lean in and light my smoke.
He takes the lighter away.
– Are your hands shaking, Joe?
I put the cigarette in my mouth and tuck my hands into my armpits.
– I’m cold.
He feels his own skin.
– Tell me about it. Like an icebox in here.
The Enclave begins pulling viscera from the corpse.
The Count turns his head and whistles.
– Oh, man, that is rude. I mean, who needs to see that shit? Nasty.
He takes a seat on the floor next to me.
– But that’s the way they rock it here. One of them dies, doesn’t matter what they were before they went out, they get gutted and nailed to the wall. Some kind of lesson thing. That’s what the guy told me when I asked.
– They’ll boil his bones and eat the marrow.
He looks at me.
– No shit?
I pull a hand from my armpit. It’s stopped shaking. I take the smoke from my mouth.
– Yeah. That’s the deal.
– Whoa. Man. Can’t say I’m looking forward to that.
He nudges me with his shoulder.
– Then again, check this out. You know the bones, that’s where blood gets made. In the marrow. Like, by the time we’re adults, it’s only made in a few places. Your spine, sternum, pelvis, some little patches in your upper arms and legs. That’s where you get your good old, controversial pluripotential hematopoietic stem cells. Try saying that shit five times fast. Stem cells manufacture blood cells, determine that they will be blood cells. So think about this. Drink another Vampyre’s blood and get sick as hell. Unless it’s super freshly infected and has been made into anathema. In which case you get high as hell. So what happens when you eat a dead Vampyre’s marrow, man? His stem-cell factories?
He licks his lips.
– I’m guessing you get some weird deep Amazonian Carlos Castaneda shaman fungus high.
He shakes his head.
– I’m not saying I’m gonna be thinking about where that shit came from, but I’m dying to try me some of that soup.
The Enclave pulls a wad of tumors from Daniel’s body.
The Count turns his head again.
– What say we move this conversation?
He stands.
I watch pieces of Daniel hit the floor.
I stand. The Count reaches to help me and I pull away and stumble, but I keep my feet.
He raises his hands.
– As you wish, man. Just trying to help.
I follow him.
He limps on that foot I ruined for him. I limp on the knee Daniel tried to fix for me.
– Wanted to thank you, by the way. I don’t remember too much about what went down at my place. But from what I can put together, probably would have been easiest thing just to waste me.
He grins.
– ’Course, knowing I still hold the purse strings on my trust fund, that was unlikely. I mean, experience has taught me you can knock me around if it amuses you, but Terry would be steamed if you ever kacked my ass before he can get his hands on those accounts.
He stops, blinks a few times, takes a couple deep breaths.
– Sorry. Whew. Shit I went through the last twelve hours, wrung me out, man. Going cold turkey on the anathema. Bleeding the Vyrus dry. That was some extreme shit. I mean, I knew I was asking for trouble, but damn.
He snaps his head from side to side.
– Whammywhammywhammy! Shit had me on the ropes. Oh, check this out.
Ahead of us two Enclave are sparring.
A whirl of blurred white limbs.
Crack of bone on bone.
The Count makes karate hands and chops the air.
– That’s the shit I’m really looking forward to. Getting my kung fu on. I know I’m not the kind of guy you expect extreme patience and discipline from, but if it means coming out the other side with moves like these guys, I will meditate until my ass bleeds. I mean, whoa that shit is badass.
The stairs are close by. I turn and look at them.
The Count comes over.
– Me, I’m a little surprised they can get it up to do that shit. Losing Daniel, way I gather it, that’s like a major setback, yeah?
– I guess.
– Guess nothing, man. You’ve been hanging out at this place for a few years now, right?
– I come by sometimes.
– Sure. So he was the man. I mean, I only spent a couple hours with the guy while he was helping me get straight last night, but even I could see he was righteous beyond the ken of normal men. If you follow.
– I follow.
– So now, the way he laid it out, one of them is always on point, leading the way toward what he tried to do. Toward the whole transmutation thing they’re into.
– Something like that.
– And he was way ahead of the pack. He was, like, the best hope they’d have for, like, forever. Now, man, it’s like they are at square one or something. Got to pick up with whoever’s been fasting the longest. What I hear, the dude in second place is way back from where Daniel was. But here they are, carrying on, doing their thing. And on top of that, they’re getting ready to eat their Dalai Lama’s marrow. Telling you, these are some well-adjusted citizens.
– Count.
– Yeah.
– You’re talking a lot.
– Well, I do do that, don’t I?
I face him.
– I have something I need to do. So get to the point.
He scratches his head.
– The girl. Right.
He points at the stairs.
– Come on, I’ll show you where.
He starts. I don’t move. He looks back.
– C’mon, man. Not like it’s a secret or anything. Place isn’t that huge. There’s a sick girl in the house. Everyone knows it. So come on up.
He leads me up.
