Frost moon by Anthony Francis

Author:Anthony Francis [Anthony Francis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: SF
ISBN: 9780984325689
Published: 2010-03-26T04:00:00+00:00

23. NEVER AGAIN

“If I wanted to maim you for life, you’d be lying there wearing a bloody pair of meat flippers. And I can have you again. You’re my bitch, anytime I want—bitch. And next time I will get creative. So never cross me again. Ever. Ev-er.”

I lay there in the hospital bed, drifting in and out.

At first all I could think of was how close to death I’d come. Not just with Transomnia—with all the monsters I had just insulted, taunted or spurned. The Bear King. The Marquis. The ‘Lady’ Saffron. Even little Cinnamon could have torn my throat out.

What was scarier is that any one of them could have done far worse—made me a werewolf, or vampire, or God forbid, a vampire’s slave. Transomnia had proved that my tattoos and all the power I drew from them would not stop a determined opponent. I shuddered. He’d let me off relatively easily, when he could have raped and drained me and made me his mindless thrall. Compared to what he could have done, he’d been a cream puff.

And nothing he had done required any vampire powers. Sure, tossing the paint bucket had been quite a feat, but any big bruiser could have done it. But a big bruiser with a tire iron would have just left me dead or close to it. What was really scary about Transomnia was not his powers, or his strength, but his mind. His… creativity.

And then my fingers started tingling and I started thinking about his threat to creatively amputate them. At first it made me even more scared. I didn’t dare cross him. Then it made me mad. How dare he cross me? And then I got scared again. The loop continued until I drifted off into a haze of anger and fear, hearing Transomnia’s warning, “Never cross me again, ev-er,” play over and over in my mind like a broken record—until my mind itself put a stop to it.

“Never again,” I said firmly, sitting up in the bed. “Ev-er.”

Davidson was sitting in his usual seat, and lifted up. “That sounded promising.”

“What day is it?” I asked.

“Monday,” Davidson replied. “Around noon. Savannah’s crashed in the waiting area.”

“Of course,” I said. “Even she can’t burn the candle at both ends forever.”

“I thought vampires ‘died’ during the day,” Davidson said, holding his fingers up in scare quotes. “I never met a real daywalker before.”

“Fishing for information from the vampire’s girlfriend?” I asked. “Wrong pond. We split after she started drinking blood.”

“I was just asking,” Davidson said. “We don’t get a lot of vampires in the black helicopter division.”

“What does your division handle then? Aliens?”

“Maybe,” Davidson said. “Fishing for information from the man in black?”

“Touche,” I said.

“No, it’s not a problem, I’ve got my flashy thing right here,” he said, fishing in his coat pocket. “I can tell you anything you want and then just erase—oh, drat. Left my flashy thing in my other coat.”

“You can flash me anytime,” I said halfheartedly.

He laughed. “Sounds like our Dakota.

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