Fade Out: The Morganville Vampires [7] by Rachel Caine

Author:Rachel Caine
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Private Investigators, Vampires, Mystery & Detective, Horror, Documentary Films, Fantasy & Magic, University Towns, Fiction, Fantasy, Horror & Ghost Stories, Universities and Colleges, Missing Persons, General, Juvenile Fiction, Texas, Horror Tales
ISBN: 9780749007492
Publisher: Signet
Published: 2009-11-03T06:00:00+00:00

She was in the middle of doing that when Ada’s two-dimensional ghost formed in front of her. Claire’s heart rate doubled, and she wondered if she ought to just make a dash for the portal . . . but Ada made no threatening moves. In fact, Ada was being polite—she rang Claire’s cell phone. She didn’t actually have to do that before using the speaker. It was her version of knocking.

Claire swallowed an acidic mouthful of fear, and peered at the fading spine of the heavy book in her hand. German. She wasn’t sure what it said. “Do you know German?” Ada raised her chin and gave her a haughty look, smoothing down the front of her gray scale gown. “Of course,” she said. “It’s hardly a vanishing tongue.” I have to feed spidersandput up with a bitchy, homicidal computer. My job really does suck. Claire didn’t say that out loud, and as far as she knew, Ada couldn’t read minds. Yet.

“Good. Can you tell me what this means?” She held out the book, spine toward Ada. The ghost leaned forward.

“Alchemical Experiments of the Great Magister Kleiss,” she read, and the tinny voice sounded a little sad as it vibrated from Claire’s cell phone speaker. “Myrnin already has a copy. I remember buying it for him in a little market outside Frankfurt.” Claire put it aside. Ada seemed to be in an odd mood—fragile, confrontational, and oddly nostalgic. “You tried to kill me,” Claire said. “You lied to me, and tried to get me to step through the portal to get eaten. Why?”

A very odd expression fluttered over Ada’s smooth, not-quite-human face. If Claire hadn’t known better, she’d think it was . . . uncertainty? “I did not,” she said. “You are mistaken.”

“It’s not the kind of thing you get wrong,” Claire said. “I’ve got a pole lamp that got cut in half when I had to slam the portal closed for proof. Remember now?” Ada just—shut down. Not literally: her ghost still hung there in the air, bobbing ever so slightly as if gravity were just a bothersome suggestion, not the law. A flicker like static ran through her image, then another one.

Then she smiled. “You should see a doctor,” she said. “I believe you’re ill, human.”

“You don’t remember.” Claire heard the flat disbelief in her voice, but what she really was feeling was . . . fear. Pure, cold fear. Ada could lie—she had before—but this didn’tfeel like deception.

It felt like something was very, very wrong. And if something was wrong with Ada, it was wrong with Morganville.

“There’s nothing to remember,” Ada said coolly. “Do you wish more translation done, or may I get on with my duties now?”

“No, I’m good. Where’s Myrnin?”

Ada paused in the act of turning her back—stopping edge-on, almost disappearing from Claire’s perspective—and slowly rotated in place. Her dark eyes looked like burned holes in her pale face.

“That’s none of your business,” she said.

“What?”

“Myrnin is mine. And you can’t have him. I’ll kill you first!” And then she just—vanished.

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