(eng) Mike Resnick - Fable of Tonight 03 by Stalking the Vampire

Author:Stalking the Vampire [Vampire, Stalking the]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

They caught a bus that took them south. Mallory sat down on a seat with a torn cushion. Felina stood on the adjacent seat, studying the pornographic graffiti with a mystified expression on her catlike face. Nathan, whose wings prevented him from sitting, stood stoically on one foot, leaning on his spear.

“You look like you're going to fall over, Scaly Jim,” offered McGuire, who was seated across the aisle from Mallory.

“I saw this in a book,” answered the dragon. “The Maasai do it all the time.”

“Must be an obscure book,” said McGuire. “This is the first I've seen of it.”

“You ought to read more about the Maasai. They were drinking blood long before Aristotle Draconis was born.”

“But not before Vlad Drachma, if we're to believe what we're told,” shot back the little vampire.

“Do you?” persisted Nathan. “Believe it, I mean?”

“Absolutely. As old as the hills are, he's older.”

“You sound terrified of him.”

“I am.”

“Then why are you still with us?” asked the dragon.

“I just hate questions like that,” muttered McGuire.

“He's here because he said he'd help,” interjected Mallory, “and he's a man of his word.”

“But is he a bat of his word?” asked Nathan.

“So far.”

Nathan shrugged, and his posture made it clear that he didn't have much use for any vampire, even undersized balding ones.

The bus slowed down, caught in traffic. Cars started honking, which didn't make the traffic any faster but did make it appreciably louder.

“Where the hell do they all come from?” muttered Mallory. “There's eight zillion cars out tonight, and I don't know a single New Yorker who drives.”

The bus made slow headway, but after another few minutes it let them off in the Battery, the area at the southern end of Manhattan where the city was first settled.

“Maybe this wasn't the greatest idea in the world,” said Mallory. “We could do a house-to-house search and not finish by Memorial Day.”

“I smell him,” said Felina.

“Where?” asked Mallory, suddenly alert.

She pointed to her left. “That way.”

“That's Battery Park,” said Nathan.

“Figures,” said Mallory. “Let's go. Felina, don't get too far ahead of us. This is a dangerous customer.”

“It makes sense,” said McGuire thoughtfully.

“What does?” asked the dragon.

“Battery Park,” replied McGuire. “The Battery itself is filled with apartments and offices, but no one enters the park at night. Well, no one but bats and a few small animals,” he amended.

“That doesn't make as much sense as you think,” said Mallory.

“Why not?” asked McGuire, puzzled.

“I thought he had to have his native soil. He's not going to find it in a New York park, and I doubt that he's parked his coffin here.”

McGuire shook his head. “He won't be sleeping here. Don't forget—he sleeps by day.”

“Okay, what is he doing here?” asked Mallory.

“Luring victims, having romantic assignations with your kind or mine, or maybe just relaxing among his own species.”

“But by dawn he's got to be back in his coffin?”

“Well, in his soil,” answered McGuire. “The coffin's just a container, so to speak.”

“Wings O'Bannon wouldn't depend on a cat creature to track his prey,” offered Nathan.

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