Ad Eternum by Elizabeth Bear

Author:Elizabeth Bear [Bear, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: alternate history, New Amsterdam, wampyr, urban fantasy
ISBN: 9781596066069
Publisher: Subterranean Press
Published: 2013-03-17T21:00:00+00:00

A housekeeper recommended by the staff at the Hotel Aphatos arrived an hour after sunrise. The first task the wampyr set her was to find out if the household’s gas and water could be reconnected. The second was to seek out a reputable electrician for purposes of wiring the house—and for the duration of that project, the wampyr would be staying at the hotel.

There were limits to the strength of any man.

Once ensconced in his temporary quarters, the wampyr began the task of integrating himself into New Amsterdam’s undead society. It was surprisingly easy: there were still only about two dozen of the blood in New Netherlands, and not all of them came into the city with any regularity. The new openness and ease of travel meant that European wampyrs came and went with relative frequency, and the Hotel Aphatos catered to them—as well as providing a place to meet their local peers.

All he needed to do was sit in the lobby of the Aphatos with a book from the hotel’s extensive library on his knee, reading up on the Comte de St. Germain and his alleged six hundred years of history. That was a respectable age even for one of the blood, if you chose to believe he had attained it.

The wampyr was long inured to similar clubs in Europe, but this one had a kind of openness he had not anticipated. How…American, he thought, as he watched the young men and women wander in and out, all of them quite obviously knowing exactly what sort of place this was. Outside, in a cold rain, a different set of protestors had gathered.

In the Old World, the wampyr clubs were known by word of mouth among a certain select sort of people. They were not…he hesitated, seeking a phrase…tourist attractions.

To think, less than a hundred years before, this young country had been a bastion of Puritanism that had hunted him from its shores for the mere crime of existing, and destroyed one of his offspring in the bargain.

“America,” he muttered to himself.

“First time here?” someone said from the next chair over.

He’d known she sat there, of course. No fledgling of twenty or thirty years’ development was going to sneak up on someone of his age. But he’d been politely ignoring her, and had expected the same treatment in return.

Then again, he supposed he had provided the opening.

“First time since it was the Colonies,” he answered, turning on the edge of the chair.

She was a tall, rawboned brunette, the pallor of her cheeks contrasting strikingly with dark, sparkling eyes. Her cheekbones and jaw stretched the taut skin just so, giving the impression of careful engineering.

“Elizabeth,” she said.

“I am using Jack,” he answered.

“You have many names, I take it.”

It was a moment when a mortal might have saluted her with a glass. The wampyr stuck a finger in his book, instead. “And you have only one. But you do not stand on ceremony, so neither shall I.”

She smiled. “I’d heard about you. You’re the old one, from the continent.

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