Nocturnes (9 page)

Julian’s eyes remained on Isaac’s face as he continued to add to the surrealism of the moment.

“There is a great deal of sorrow within you. That is the death I sensed that night. But it is balanced by something I haven’t quite
identified…”

Isaac suddenly interrupted him with the question that he had been carrying for
weeks.

“How could you have known that all of your victims were
dying?”

“Your two questions are connected, Mr. Bloom. You asked why it was necessary to kill the old woman. And you wonder how I knew that they were dying. Finish your drink. There are things to discuss while the night is yet innocent of answers. We will walk for
awhile.”

Isaac drained his glass, keenly aware of the differences in the two brandies he had consumed this night. He had only had Cognac that good on one other occasion. It seemed a shame to drain his glass so
abruptly.

As they exited the bar, Isaac was amazed at how relaxed he felt. How matter-of-fact it all seemed. There was such an absence of concern that it almost left him
giddy.

They neared the heart of the Quarter and the music and revelry paraded around them. They were among the full strength of the tourists now. Isaac was wondering at their destination when Julian broke the
spell.

“Look around you, Isaac, and pick a club or a bar at random. There is something I want you to
see.”

Isaac stopped and turned 360 degrees in the street. On the opposite corner was an establishment with what seemed an appropriate name: The Zoo.

“Whatever you have in mind, I’m confident that we can find it
there.”

Julian frowned and led the way into the club.

Chapter Ten

“
The Zoo,” indeed. As they entered, Isaac felt almost foolish for choosing such a dive. The place was deserted except for three rather unwholesome characters, who lounged contemptuously at a littered table near the wall. But The Zoo was a two-story affair. And what was down in no way prepared Isaac for what was up.

There was muted, high-decibel music coming from above them. In looking for it, Isaac found a dark hallway that kept the staircase a secret. Julian was already there. He glanced once at Isaac and began his ascent. The stairs ended at a heavy steel door with a sliding screen that would not have been out of place in an old gangster movie. Julian rang the bell, and after several minutes the screen slid back and a pair of thickly-browed eyes peered out at them.

The door swung open and Isaac was assaulted by music, incense, and the chaos of lasers. Unimagined spectrums of light careened off the walls and mirrors. The floor itself was a kaleidoscope of color. Alice had tumbled into the looking glass.

It was one vast room. The furnishings were limited to cushions and futon mattresses thrown randomly about. Two of the four corners offered cocktails. Isaac noticed that the art on the walls was of a specifically voluptuous nature. The incense was doing a poor job of masking the unmistakable aroma of premium marijuana.

Through this carelessly-hedonistic landscape was a hungry wandering of men and women of all ages and all social backgrounds. This was a meeting place of the sensually-jaded…the envelope-pushers who had stepped beyond the boundaries of “normal” eroticism too often, and who could no longer be satisfied by less esoteric pleasures.

In the middle of the room they were dancing. At least, Isaac supposed that dancing was the proper coinage. But two was not the common pairing. More often it was three or four people together. They moved against one another with a kind of serpentine friction. The jarring acoustics served to mute the private jargon of their public voracity.

Isaac looked at Julian as if to ask, “What is this all about?” Julian was taking it all in with a serious intent that seemed out of place. He surveyed the scene with a scrutiny that Isaac felt fortunate not to be the object of.

Julian’s gaze had come to rest upon a small group of men reclining on one of the futons not far from where they stood. They surrounded a willowy, sandy-haired young woman of considerable beauty. The men took turns touching her and speaking into her ear. She seemed hardly to notice. Her attention was focused on the writhing bodies that moved all around them.

Julian touched Isaac’s arm and spoke just loudly enough to be heard above the din.

“We must be patient. Even a place such as this must eventually nod its head in the direction of the fable of Romance. They will play something slow and sentimental for these people, something to allow them to cling to one another, to whisper in a stranger’s ear of their insatiable need. In the interim, you will go and bring us two brandies, as the service here is also a
myth.”

Isaac found his way to the nearest of the bars and ordered. With the brandies, he returned to the area that he had occupied with Julian, but he was no longer there. He looked around and located him prowling among the crowd in such a deliberate manner that it made Isaac uneasy. At last he returned to Isaac’s side and took his
drink.

The better part of an hour passed with no words spoken between them. This was not a place where conversation was encouraged, or even necessary. This was the domain of the pleasure-senses. Everyone knew why they were here.

Then the predicted moment arrived, and the token slow song was cued up. Isaac couldn’t help but smile as dozens of couples took to the floor and embraced each other with a sophomoric tenderness that belied their previous gropings. Julian made his
move.

He walked to where the blonde was shaking her head at the requests from the men around her. He bent gracefully at the waist, spoke into her ear, and held forth his hand. She took it and rose to join him in the
dance.

Julian moved fluidly, leading and guiding her with an apparent familiarity. It was lovely to watch them. With some effort, Isaac fought off the warmly-intrusive memories of dancing with Lessa. This was not the place to sully those visions.

When the song ended, Julian took her hand and led her back to where Isaac stood waiting. The three of them found a cushioned corner and sat down.

“This is my acquaintance, Isaac Bloom. Isaac, I would like to introduce Erica
Nance.”

She held out her hand and Isaac shook it lightly, absorbing her beauty. His curiosity was mixed with a growing concern for the woman’s safety. What did Julian have in mind? Was Isaac going to be forced to witness something more horrible than he had in St. Louis?

But the conversation seemed normal enough, and eventually managed to ease most of Julian’s concerns. The three of them discussed the city and the music and other related trivialities. There was easy laughter, and some flirtation forming between Julian and the young woman. The question of why they were here, in this particular club, hung like an unspoken code of thieves’ honor between them. There was to be no questioning of the motives of dark need.

After about an hour Erica excused herself for the lady’s room. When she had gone, Julian looked at Isaac and spoke in his direct fashion.

“She is dying. There is little time left for
her.”

Isaac was incredulous. “Did she tell you that while you were
dancing?”

“No. I am not certain if she knows it herself, though I suspect she does. That is the likely reason she has ventured into a world such as this. She has no place here. But I would venture that she has a terrible need to know a range of experiences before she vacates this life. It cannot be an easy thing to know that you must die soon. It can only be harder to know that you never will. When she returns we will learn her
story.”

Isaac mulled it over. It was too incredible. Did the reading of minds come with the vampire tool box? How could he possibly know that this young lady was dying? Yet his previous victims bore a silent testimony to his methods.

Erica returned and smiled warmly as she resumed her place between them. Julian asked her if she had ever tasted Cognac and she shook her head. He offered his glass. She hesitated for only a moment, then took it from him, inhaled the aroma at the rim, and drank deeply. The two men looked on as she coughed and gasped in surprise.

“Wow. It doesn’t give you much warning…the smell, I mean. It has such a mellow warmth on the nose that you would never suspect the potency. It seems like it’s just going to slide right down your throat,” her eyes lingered on Julian’s as she spoke, “but it builds up this hot friction and catches fire halfway down. By then it’s too late to do anything except sputter like a rookie.”

Isaac could see that she was blushing. And the warmth in his own cheeks affirmed that he was, as well.

“Have another swallow,” Julian suggested. “There is a trick to drinking Cognac that makes for a quite pleasurable experience. But we won’t go into that right now.”

“Thank God,” Isaac thought. “There have been too many reminders already this
night.”

She drank some more and slid the tumbler back into Julian’s open hands. Now a silence fell upon their group…a solemn sense of expectation. Erica seemed to be preoccupied with her own private thoughts. After several minutes Julian spoke again, his voice a kind of caress.

“Erica. Why are you here
tonight?”

Isaac was taken aback by the abruptness of the question. He looked quickly at the woman and noticed a difference in her facial expressions. They were composed and entirely free of the tensions that had masked them earlier. Of course! She drank from Julian’s glass. There was some sort of bond between them now. Like the one that he shared with the
vampire.

She looked down at her folded hands and replied softly.

“I was lonely. I came here for some
escape.”

“Escape from what?” Julian
probed.

“From death, I suppose. I have lymphoma. They tell me I’ll be dead in six months.”

Tears welled up in her eyes and began to fall heavily, like the words from her lips.

“I’m twenty-two years old. Can you guess how unreal it is to hear myself say that I am dying? I lost both my parents two years ago in a car accident. I haven’t even recovered from that yet, but here I am. My friends still call me to join them here or there. I still read the papers and watch the news. The world is going along just fine…life continues all around me…but I am no longer a participant. I am waiting for the end. That’s all. I don’t even know what life is all about,
really…”

Isaac could hardly bear to look at her. His heart, which had lost much of its pity for the plight of strangers when compared to his own, was suddenly overwhelmed with sorrow. Her words, “I am waiting for the end…” she couldn’t imagine how they pierced him with sharp daggers of relevance. He glanced at Julian and could see that his manners, too, had changed. There was a surprising softness in the eyes that were resting upon the young woman. This man was a killer. He had taken the lives of untold hundreds of miserable human beings. But here he was, obviously moved by the tears of a woman he had just met. How could the night possibly contain any more
drama?

Isaac pulled his handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to Erica. Julian took her other hand and raised it to his lips, pressing them against the smooth palm. Then he looked into her eyes and spoke with such warmth that even Isaac felt enveloped by
peace.

“My dear. There is no permanence to suffering. There is a balance. I promise you that this is true. The terrible beauty of life is nothing more than an enduring lesson in love. Whatever else you may feel that you have missed, I can see that you have learned this single, most important thing. So rejoice, and let go of your fear. In a moment I am going to kiss your lips. When I do you will forget the anxiety that our conversation has caused you. But you will retain the sense of hope that you now feel. And tonight, when you lay down for sleep, you will dream of your parents, and you will find faith that they are waiting for
you.”

He leaned forward and lightly brushed his lips against hers. They lingered there for a moment, and Isaac was so moved by the poignancy of it all that he had to look away. He rose and walked to the bar as clouds of warm rain gathered in his throat. As he stood waiting for a fresh drink, Julian walked up beside
him.

“It’s time for us to leave, Isaac. Our little ‘experiment’ is
concluded.”

“But what about Erica?” he asked, struggling to find her among the crowd.

“She will be all right. As all right as any of us can ever
be.”

He turned and retreated quickly from the scene, leaving Isaac to follow like a reluctant employee.

Out on the street, Julian paused as if to consider. Isaac felt a tremor of dread race along his spine. Was this to be the moment his fate was decided? Julian turned to face
him.

“Return to your hotel. Dress for dinner tomorrow night and meet me at Arnoud’s at eight o’clock. Good night,
Isaac.”

Again, he walked away. Perhaps it was his secret knowledge of Julian’s true identity, but there was a noticeable difference as he made his way through the shuffling tourists. Julian carried his separateness on pressed, somber shoulders, like a burden of great weight. It was a familiar carriage. He recognized that gait as his own. He and the killer seemed to share certain characteristics. That knowledge dug at the very fabric of Isaac’s previously-ordered universe.

He turned in the direction of his hotel. He tarried for a moment, considering the dying woman, Erica. Part of him wanted to return to the carelessness of The Zoo and bring her from there. But that was no longer his role. The rescuing of hearts, the drying of tears…these were personal failures. And they were forever behind him. Besides, he had his
orders.

As he neared his hotel, he encountered another submerged emotion. One that he was sure Julian would disapprove of. It was a simmering hatred, one that Isaac had tended and stoked and looked after for some fifty years. The man was a murderer. He preyed on innocent human life. Isaac had known many such monsters in the past.

“This must be remembered,” he told himself as he climbed the stairs to his room. “I will not be seduced by his apparent concern for the dying. People have suffered at his hands. And I will not
forget…”

The night had been an epiphany. But there was too much to digest in one evening. He went straight to bed and didn’t awaken until well past noon the next
day.