Paint It Black by Nancy A. Collins

Author:Nancy A. Collins [Collins, Nancy A.]
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy, Horror
ISBN: 9781588468772
Publisher: Two Wolf Press
Published: 2005-03-01T05:00:00+00:00

11

WHEN THE DEAD DIE

Death is not the greatest of evils; it is worse to want to die, and not be able to.

- Sophocles, Electra

The fever called ‘Living’ is conquered at last.

-Edgar Allan Poe, "For Annie"

As Sonja stepped out of the limo in front of the Chelsea Hotel, the first thing she saw was a homeless person pissing in a doorway. She smiled and tossed the driver an extra twenty.

Hell, it's New York.

The limo pulled back into traffic and she shouldered her one piece of luggage - a black nylon duffel bag - and strode toward the entrance of the hotel, just in case she was being watched. She did a turn in the revolving door and was back on the streets within seconds, her hair five inches longer and the color of raw honey.

She kept a nest in Tribeca, a stone's throw from City Hall. There were a couple of holding companies and realty agencies involved in collecting rents and maintaining the property, but essentially she owned the building. She'd bought it several years ago with some of the proceeds from Ghilardi's estate. She dodged into the subway entrance on Eighth Avenue, dropping her vision into the Pretender spectrum, scanning for signs of the inhuman among the commuting hordes. In any major city there were numerous shadow races hidden amongst the bread-and-butter featherless bipeds, and New York was certainly no exception.

It was five-thirty - well into rush hour - and the subway platform swarmed with the Pretending Kind of a dozen different cultures, each having followed its traditional prey group to the New World in search of a better life. A naga wearing the skin of an elderly Pakistani gentleman flared his cobra's hood at her in ritual warning, then resumed perusing his newspaper. A garuda, cloaked in the disguise of a lowly busboy, clattered its bill nervously as it fed itself unshelled sunflower seeds. It and the naga kept exchanging glances at one another. Their respective species were ancestral enemies, but having to maintain the illusion of humanity - and catch a train - forced the necessity of coexistence. At least for the moment.

An ogre, its misshapen limbs hidden by homeboy fashion, slouched against one of the support beams. A succubus, dressed in the body of a young woman, smiled seductively at an older man wearing a London Fog raincoat and carrying a briefcase, who was fumbling for a light for her cigarette. Sonja doubted he could see the succubus' cyclopean eye or the mane of living, writhing worms she sported in place of hair.

Suddenly the smells of ozone and filth announced the A Train's arrival. It screeched to a halt and the doors opened. Stepping inside, Sonja found a vargr dressed as an investment banker, and a thick-set, clay-eyed golem serving as an escort for an extremely old Hasidic man who, according to her peripheral mind-scan, was carrying a fortune in diamonds on his person.

She rode the train to the World Trade Center, then made her way to the surface.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.