(eng) Nancy A. Collins - Sonja Blue 05 by Darkest Heart

Author:Darkest Heart [Heart, Darkest]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

PART THREE

* * *

R

age in the cage

A

nd piss upon the stage

T

here's only one sure way

T

o bring the giant down

D

efunct the strings

O

f cemetery things

W

ith one flat foot

O

n the devil's wings

Living Dead Girl,

Rob Zombie

8

W

ith its Kennedy-era strip malls, yuppie boutiques, and gentlemen's clubs, Atlanta's Cheshire Bridge Road presented an overall picture of prosperous, well-scrubbed depravity. The numerous strip joints, triple-X boutiques and jack shacks that lined the busy street were nondescript ranch-style buildings lacking visible windows and with little to distinguish one establishment from another, save for their signage. In the case of Dolly Dagger's, the roof boasted a blood-red heart pierced by a glowing pink dagger.

"

Are you sure this is the place?" Estes asked, squinting through the windshield at the stuttering neon.

"

What did you expect? A gothic castle with a drawbridge and a giant spider's web spun across the entrance?"

E

stes flinched. Although he tried hard to avoid looking foolish in Sonja's eyes, it seemed he managed to say something stupid every time he opened his mouth.

"

Have you ever dealt with a brood before?"

E

stes shifted uneasily. He could tell from her tone of voice that she was about to unveil another hither-to unseen portion of the world he thought he knew.

"

What's a brood?" He didn't want to ask the question, but at the same time he knew he needed to know the answer. As much as these glimpses of what Sonja called the "Real World" intrigued him, they also made him extremely anxious. He had thought his view of the universe was jaundiced, but listening to Sonja made him feel like a sleepwalker wandering a minefield.

"

They're a collection of undead Made by the same vampire. His posse, if you will. That's not counting whatever other hired muscle he might have working for him."

"

Why would vampires need paid assassins?"

"

I'm not talking thugs. Usually vampires as old and as powerful as this Noir have a couple of non-humans on the payroll, to provide back up in case of daylight attack. Mostly they use ogres."

E

stes thought of the monstrosities he had glimpsed in New Orleans and did his best to suppress a shudder. "What about werewolves?"

"

What about them?"

"

Don't they work for vampires as servants?"

S

onja made a snorting noise. "Vampires and werewolves get along about as well as lions and hyenas. Vargr and enkidu are both very efficient predators of humans, which makes them rivals, not comrades in arms. But since our man's strega, there's no telling who or what he might have in his employ."

E

stes frowned. "I thought you said he was a vampire."

"

He is. But strega are a certain kind of vampire. I guess you could call them a subspecies. You see, most undead are created when a vampire drains a human enough to kill them. Vampires themselves call the process Making or being Made. But that's not the only way to become undead-it's merely the most common.

"

Strega are those who've chosen to become vampires via damnation. They embrace the ways of the vampire while still alive, voluntarily surrendering their humanity by

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