The Night Shifters (20 page)

Yeah, right,
some
other
Hazel was running around the City
of Night in an eleven-year-old body. No, the more I heard of this
conversation, the more I felt certain it was about me and the less
happy I felt about it. Yet I couldn’t help wanting to hear more. I
went through the new gate, only to find myself in another tangled
little passageway.

“ – goddess – age –
meaningless – “ said Miss Celestial Voice, but this time the words
were tinged with peevishness. How had he ticked her off?

“
You
are the one – “
said the Masked Man, and I thought I detected passion in his voice.
So what one was she? The one for him?

Tears stung my eyes
as I leaned through the gate, straining to hear even one more word
that would clarify the conversation and set my fears to rest – but
the silence stretched and stretched, until someone behind me said,
“How come you always get us lost?”

I whirled and saw
Blue. She stood just inside a gate that gleamed like pure onyx, her
hands resting on either post, one lovely, booted foot crossed over
the other, looking just like a supermodel on a fashion shoot.

“
Get
us
lost?” I asked. “How did we become an
us
?”

She looked
genuinely surprised. “Well
that
’s a
snotty attitude.”

“
Listen, wise
guy – the last time I saw you, you were hanging out with a couple
of snobs who didn’t want me around, and that’s when we stopped
being
us
.”

She sniffed.
“
Those
losers. Can you believe they
actually chase after that over-ripe bloodsucker? What a waste of my
time!”

I wasn’t really
that angry at her insensitivity, just amazed. “So now you think you
can look me up again like nothing happened?”

A little line
appeared between her brows, then vanished, as if no amount of
trouble could permanently dent that perfect skin. “You don’t have
to be mean. I’ve been looking all over for you, I was worried.”

Probably my own
brow developed a few wrinkles for that one, and somehow I doubt it
completely smoothed out again afterward. “You laughed at me when
Two pushed me. You seemed to get quite a kick out of my
predicament.”

She waved that
away. “That was just a reflex. You looked funny, anyone would have
laughed.”

“Nice people
wouldn’t laugh!”

She cast me a
pitying look. “Nice people?
Here
? How
long do you think nice people last, Hazel?”

I could have
objected that
I’m
a nice person. But
that wasn’t really for me to say, and I didn’t actually know how
long I would last. I had thought I was making some progress, making
a place for myself – but lately the challenges had piled up, and I
felt like I was falling behind again.She could see that.

In fact, her
observation was fairly sophisticated. This time around, she didn’t
sound like the girl she appeared to be, any more than I did.
“You’re not really eleven,” I guessed. “Who are you? What were you
before you got here?”

She flashed
me a pretty smile. “Who were
you
?”

“Hazel. I worked at
a bookstore.”

“Yes,” she sighed,
“poor thing. Well, you’re the one who named me Blue, and that name
has stuck. Before I woke up here, I was a fashion model. I did
VOGUE, ELLE, you name it. I started working when I was eleven,
that’s probably why I appear to be that age now.”

Somehow, I
found that a little hard to believe. Not because she didn’t look
the part – maybe
because
she did. In
the City of Night, appearances could be so deceptive. A truth
loomed behind Blue’s story, one that teased my memory. I gazed at
her, trying to pin it down, and then it hit me.

“Wait a minute –
you’re not a model, you’re the ballet dancer! The one who took over
for me after I flubbed One’s great performance!”

“
Actually,”
she replied cheerfully, “I’m both a supermodel
and
a ballet dancer. So sue me. Someone had to salvage
that night!”

I couldn’t
actually argue with that. And I didn’t feel like pointing out that
the whole mess had been Camilla’s fault, not when Blue was already
so down on Camilla. Jeez,
overblown bloodsucker?
It didn’t seem right to add fodder to that
fire.

“And I’ll tell you
something else.” Blue looked right into my eyes. “I prefer being
eleven. Models look our best at this age. By the time you’re
eighteen, people think you’re over the hill. And in a way, they’re
right, don’t you think?”

I shook my head.
“In what way are they right, Blue?”

Her filmy dress
swirled as she executed a perfect pirouette for me. “Gravity,” she
said. “That’s my enemy. At this size, at this height, at this level
of energy and health and flexibility, I’m like a cloud. I can leap
like a gazelle, I feel no pain. And when women look at photographs
of me wearing beautiful clothes and expensive jewels, they see the
eternal girl in themselves, the one who never ages, never loses her
dreams. You know what I mean, Hazel! Don’t tell me you don’t.”

“Yeah,” I admitted,
“I guess I do.”

“And now!” she
declared, walking back and forth along the little lane as if it
were a new house she had moved into and was planning to remodel,
“the Night offers me a chance to have the mind, the experience, and
the wisdom of a woman – yet also the body of a young girl. How
perfect is that?”

“
I’ll tell
you how perfect it’s
not
.” I had to move
out of her way as she paced. “I think you’re dragging me along with
you into this kid mode. And I
don’t
like
it, I
don’t
think it’s
perfect.”

She shrugged.
“You’ll get over it. Sooner or later something will happen to set
your clock right, and you’ll be nice and old again.”

I laughed. “Old?
Twenty-six is old?”

She stopped pacing
and leveled another look between my eyes. “It’s ancient, in my
business.”

“But you’re not in
that business anymore, are you? You said it yourself, the Night is
full of possibilities, you’re not limited by gravity unless you
want to be. Why don’t you try being twenty, or twenty-five for a
little while? Would that really be so terrible?”

She actually
shuddered. “Yes. It would.”

“But you must have
been that age at least once, you come from One’s past – “

“Don’t assume you
know everything about me. It’s very annoying.” She turned her back
on me and surveilled the maze. “Now. Once again you’ve let the
Night fool you into a trap, Hazel. And I’m the one who’s going to
have to get us out of it, that’s obvious.”

“
Get
yourself
out of it, if that’s what you want,
Blue. I’m not that eager to leave, yet.”

Her pout would have
looked perfect on the cover of MADEMOISELLE. “Stop being
stubborn.”

I shook my head. “I
don’t like the tone you’re setting, and I’m not putting up with it.
I’m not really eleven, either. And I’m not your minion.”

“
Minion
. There’s a
pleasant image. Maybe I should fasten a chain around your neck and
call you Igor.”

“Don’t try it,
Blue. The more you push, the less cooperative I’m going to be.” I
took my eyes off her long enough to study the maze of gates. “I
admit – I don’t know where I’m going in here. But this place is
beautiful, it’s mysterious, and sometimes wandering is half the fun
in the City of Night.”

When I looked at
her again, she was studying me so hard her regard felt like a
slap.

“You think this
place is beautiful?” Which might have been insulting, except that
she really seemed to wonder what my answer would be.

“Yes,” I said,
without hesitation.

“Its beauty is
subtle,” she warned. “Not flashy.”

“Flashy is cheap,”
I said. “Flashy is phoney.”

She placed her
hands on her slim hips. “How do you know? You worked in a
bookstore, you lived in a cheap little tract house. Did you learn
beauty on TV? Did you read about it at the public library?”

“
Beauty can
be found in all of those places if you know how to look,” I said.
“Blue – either you agree with me about this place or you don’t.
That’s not the point.
I’m
going to decide
where to go from here. I’m a Wild Card, a free agent, and I’m done
following you around. You’re not a kid, you can take care of
yourself.”

“You’re so sure of
that?”

I opened my
mouth to say,
Yes.
But I closed it
again, because I had to admit I
wasn’t
sure.
“What you really mean,” she said, “is that you don’t
want
to take care of me. You don’t want to be
responsible for anyone but yourself.”

That remark
seemed like more of a trap than the maze she insisted we were lost
in. “I just
said
what I meant,
Blue. Stop brow-beating me.”

She smiled again. I
would like to say that her smile revealed new respect, but it did
nothing of the kind. “Fine. Do what you want. And I’ll do what I
want. But if we run into trouble, don’t blame me.”

I really hoped she
would stroll away at that point, and I could simply wait for her to
disappear around a corner before deciding what to do. But instead,
she waited to see what I decided.

Rats! Because I had
no idea. And I couldn’t roll my eyes and sigh with exasperation;
that would just let her know she was getting under my skin again.
So I walked past her, up the little twisting passage that was
barely wide enough for both of us, and she fell in beside me. Our
shoes tapped in unison, throwing muted echoes on the patio walls as
we passed open windows that were too high to see into. It really
did seem a place where one could easily get lost, but I didn’t
care. It charmed me. Each gate and window possessed a unique
character, yet somehow they belonged in the same place. Once again
I couldn’t help thinking about Nostradamus and his disdain for
places that weren’t sprawling mansions full of Renaissance art. Did
people actually live in places like that? How could a place truly
be yours if you needed an army of housekeepers, cooks, and
gardeners to take care of it?

“Where do you
live?” Blue asked, casually.

“I have a room in
the Masked Man’s house.”

“
That’s
his
house. Where
is
yours
?”

There was no point
in lying about it. “I don’t have one, yet.”

“
Well – “ she
said, thoughtfully, “where do you
think
it ought to be? Where do you want it to be?”

“
I haven’t
made up my mind.
This
place is rather
nice. I’ve seen a few others I liked, too.”

I half expected her
to say she thought this little maze of patio apartments wasn’t up
to her high standards, but if she really felt that way, she kept it
to herself. Likewise, I didn’t tell her I wasn’t sure if I could
have my own home here, or if I really would have to rely on the
charity of Night Shifters, like Serena had said in her last letter.
Much as I liked certain charming places, so far all of the doors
had been closed, all the windows out of reach.

Maybe because this
was just the City of Night 2.0. Maybe you couldn’t have your own
house until you worked your way up to the City of Night 3.0, or
even 4.0. Besides – the people here were Night shifters, so
technically no one could have a house in just one place. The house
would shift, too. You might shift it yourself, or someone else
could shift it and you would just have to go with the flow.

“I wish Sir John
were here,” I said, wistfully. “He would give me good advice, I’m
sure.”

“
Sir John?”
she said, incredulously. “He’s so
old
!”

“He is not! At
least, not the last time I saw him. But even if he was – so what?
He’s one of my favorite people.”

She shuddered. “Old
people are disgusting.”

I shook my head. “I
understand why you don’t want to be old. But why should you hold it
against anyone else?”

“
Would
you
rather be old?”

“
Right now
I’d rather be what I really am. But I’m not going to tell anyone
else what
they
should
be.”

“Of course not,”
said Blue. “You’re not a Night Shifter.”

“And you are?” I
stopped and stared at her. “Already?”

Her expression was
bland. “Sure, why not? I’m here, aren’t I?”

“So am I. And I
can’t shift the Night.”

“Maybe you can and
you just don’t know it.”

Another good point.
How did I really know I couldn’t?

You’ll just have to play it by ear
, Sir John had advised. And,
I think the Night likes
you
. Sometimes I doubted
that last part. I felt sure of it when I confronted the Night
tornado, and absolutely sure of it when I visited the Masked Man in
his house, but I was sort of back to doubting again. Probably Blue
could claim the credit for that, she always seemed to shake my
confidence.

“Do you like these
little apartments?” I asked her.