Zero Sum (21 page)

Jules shrugged. “Should be fine. All we need ta do is keep ta ourselves. There’s no way that—“

“There is a safer installment nearby,” Rei offered.

“Not a chance. I’m not sleepin’ in some drainer crypt.”
 

Jules adjusted her puppies-and-rainbows scarf and stormed off toward the mirror.
 

“That was racist. Was that not racist?” Rei huffed. “May I kill her just a little?”

I scratched my head. “Rei, I don’t think you can do just a little of that.”

“Oh, you’d be surprised. For instance, a colleague of mine once—”

“Alumni club it is,” Dante said.

By the time Rei tried to object, Dante was already halfway there.
 

The giant pane of glass was as tall as two men. A green copper frame surrounded it, and a golden pyramid was etched into the top. I recognized the symbol immediately. It was the same creepy eyeball pyramid that was on the back of US dollar bills.

Rei arched her head and frowned. “How does this function?”

“Well, it be a pepper ghost,” Jules explained.
 

“And that is?” I asked.

“A hidden opening to an adjacent room,” Dante answered. “Watch and learn.” He placed his palm on the mirror and pushed in a bit of mana. The pyramid’s eye gave out a green glow in reply. At first I thought nothing was happening, but then I noticed some subtle changes. In the reflection, the wall lanterns were lit with gas. The boring carpet was now an expensive silk rug. Ladies lounged in oversized chairs. Two played chess in the corner. The bar inside was made of glowing yellow onyx, and there was an enormous appetizer buffet right beside it. My mouth started to water. Dante walked through the mirror as if it was made of air. As he crossed the threshold, our drab reflections returned.

“Did ya see them cookies?” Jules asked.

“Chocolate and oatmeal.”

“Ya missed the sugars. I saw three different colors of sugars. Oh, and Dieter, there’s no spell ta be cast. All ya have ta do is push in a wee bit of mana.” Jules released some of her own into the mirror. The cookies reappeared.
 

“Exclusive magic cookies…” I muttered. “Must eat exclusive magic cookies…”

“Not before me ya don’t.” Giant guidebook in hand, Jules hopped through the ghost.

Rei crossed her arms and frowned. “Why you beaters bake is beyond me. Doesn’t burning your foodstuffs like that destroy the flavor?”

“Cookies aren’t burnt, they’re browned.”

“They smell like a fireplace.”

“Really?” I raised an eyebrow. “They don’t smell burnt to me.” I shrugged. “But I don’t have super nose powers either.”

“Indeed. We are never granted more than one.” Rei gestured to the peppers ghost. “Well, go enjoy some of your vittles then. I shall rejoin the three of you later.”

“What, you’re not coming?”

“I have matters to attend to.”

I frowned. She was lying. “Are you not allowed inside?”

“It is a public establishment, Dieter.”

“So what’s the hang up?”

Rei’s jaw tightened. “I simply do not wish to visit such an insipid place.”

I frowned. That had felt like a lie. And besides, the alumni club had cookies, and little crackers with cheese, and piles of cold cuts on crusty bread, and mounds of delicious stuffed things. It didn’t look insipid at all. It looked exciting. And there were mages to talk to. Lots of mages. I had about a million and one questions to ask, and then there were the books I’d spotted lining all the walls…but none of that excited me anymore.

“I saw another place across the street,” I offered. “We could get a room over there.”

Rei blinked. “My most aggressive counterpart, are you offering to spend the night with me?”

“Sofa.” I near choked on the word. “You take the bed. I’ll sleep on the sofa.”

“But it’s the middle of the night…and I rarely take my meals to bed.”
 

I blanched.

“Relax, my buta fiú. My clan has a townhouse just across the park. Go spend some time with your fellows. I shall pay respects to my own. We can rejoin later.” Rei covered her mouth and yawned. “Besides, while your skull’s marrow was most delicious, I do require a proper meal. I’ve hardly dined properly since our little soiree in October.”
 

“You mean you’re going to…”
 

“Subsist on more than air?” Rei laughed it off as if it were another joke. “Yes, Dieter, as long as it does not upset your fine sensibilities, I do wish to keep living.” She went to straighten my collar. “Now tuck this shirt in at its bottom. You remind me of Dwight Frye.”

Rei’s cool fingers were oh-so gentle, but all I could think about was the next poor sap who was about to make their acquaintance. Would he get the same treatment?

“Rei, what is a proper meal?”

Rei’s hand paused on the button. She didn’t raise her head.
 

“I am curious, Dieter. What do you think it means?”

I took in an unsteady breath. I’d been dancing around this one a bit.

“I think that we’ve gotten past the guessing stage. I think that you should spell it out.”

Rei glanced at our reflections in the mirror. “I fail to see what purpose that would serve.”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

Rei pushed off me and turned her head to the side. She looked so small standing there alone on the cold marble floor. More delicate than I’d allowed her to be. More breakable.
 

“Dieter,” she asked, “do I disgust you?”
 

I stood there in silence for what felt like a long time. The truth was that Rei had a way of making my skin crawl. The truth was that she was a murderer. But the way she was looking at me…it made me want to ignore all that. It made me want to keep her safe. It made me want to do all the hurting so that she wouldn’t have to. And so I decided to do something much stupider. I decided to lie to a vampire.
 

“Stars above, Rei. Of course not.”

The pain crackled across her features. Her very presence seemed to fade away. I felt the wrenching in my guts. I could sense the harm I’d done. When she looked up, she looked straight past me. It was the cruelest thing she’d ever done.

“I can understand disgust. I can understand contempt. But lying to me is another matter. Another matter entirely.”

“Can we just let this go?”

“That you find my very existence revolting?” Rei’s jaw went taught with rage. Her anger struck me like a hammer. “Tell me, Dieter. How does one let such a thing go?”

“You could start by being grateful.” I could hardly believe I’d said it…but I found I was getting angry too. Unreasonably so. The way she had looked past me. I didn’t want to forgive her for that. I wasn’t the one in the wrong here. I wasn’t the one crushing windpipes. “This whole murdering people for sustenance thing is a little hard to handle. You know, them being people and all.”

Rei clenched her fists, and her voice slid out on a lethal whisper. “Dieter, only a fool judges what he does not understand. And you are being quite foolish right now.”

“Foolish?” I laughed right in her condescending face. “But isn’t foolish the way you like me?”

“Excuse me?” she snarled.

“You know exactly what I mean.” Rei was always hiding the truth, always yelling at me for not knowing, but I was starting to pick up on a pattern. Whether it was with me, or with Jules, or with Monique, or even with that poor kid Alex, Rei plain loved rubbing someone’s nostrils in their errors. Power and control, that was what it was all about. Rei relished her own dominance, and yet she had the gall to scold me on my manners? I wasn’t the one snacking on people nightly…or was it more than nightly? I’d never really pondered it. Exactly how many people did it take to keep a full-grown Nostophoros humming? One man a week…two…enough to fill a morgue? Did the pretentious bitch crack open a kid or two for starters and then kick back on the couch with a nice virgin? And speaking of which, I was still technically a virgin. So could Rei maybe like smell that? Rei had sniffed her hand after rubbing Alex’s hair…may she got off on that virgin mojo…old Liz Bathory sure seemed to, and apples didn’t tend to fall to far from the—

“Fascinating,” Rei whispered.

“Huh?” I was still kinda caught up in my internal tirade.

“So this is what I am to you.” It occurred to me that I’d been staring into Rei’s eyes this entire time. It occurred to me that’s how the weft-link worked best. It occurred to me that Rei was standing like a brittle piece of ice. It occurred to me that she might be crying.

“Rei, I’m—“

“Do you have any idea the concessions I make? The struggles I must endure?” She took a step towards me, pure murder in her eyes. “And feeding off your young…this is all your feeble mind could dredge up?” Rei’s face tightened, and I found myself against the wall. My Sight had flared—but after she had moved. “I’m not like her, you feckless pig. I shall never be like her. I am my own will to command. I live by my own rules, my own wishes, and I shall not stand to have you smear excrement all over what you know nothing about!”

The lobby was still a chaotic mess, but a petite young female pinning a man to a wall by his neck managed to catch everyone’s attention. I didn’t think a bunch of mages on hair triggers would take kindly to a raving vampire in their midst. Fighting to regain my breath, I said, “Stars above, Rei, you’re making a scene.”

Rei dropped me like a bad habit.

I coughed my brains out as she kicked me.

“A scene?” She almost started to laugh before she was overtaken by fury. “A scene is what concerns you?”

My Sight flared with a shattering blast of pain and hurt and anger. She was going to slap me, and for the first time since I’d met her, I realized I had enough time to dodge. Stars rained across my vision as the sound of the strike echoed off the walls. I hadn’t moved an inch. I’d totally deserved it.

“Get fucked,” she screamed. “Get fucked thousands of ways. Get fucked with pokers, and barbs, and…and…other sharp things.”

Two kids that had been running around the Christmas tree stopped in their tracks to giggle.
 

Turning red, I rubbed out my wounded jaw. “I thought you wanted honesty.”

Rei wiped off her hand like it was dirty.
 

“Indeed. And now I want something better than you.”
 

I’d never been hit that hard before. I stood there like a dope as she marched straight out of the lobby, men and women clearing out of her way as she passed. I was left a giant knot of pain and confusion.
 

Why had I become so angry?

Why had I said such stupid things?
 

I felt dumb. Really dumb. And then I started feeling mad again…

So my imagination had run wild. What the hell did Rei expect? She never told me anything. And she didn’t have any business poking around in my brain, either. When I’d slipped into Rei’s mind, it’d been totally on accident. But we both knew that staring into one another’s eyes held that risk now. She only had herself to blame…right? Steaming, I scooped up some mana from the leyline and threw it at the giant mirror. What did I care if Rei wanted to be a brat? I had mages to meet and cookies to eat. I nodded to myself. I wasn’t going to let Rei get to me. Tonight was going to be awesome despite her.

That’s about when I noticed that the air around me was growing warm.

In front of me, the mirror let loose a squeal like a teakettle.

Exactly how much mana had I…I glanced up to find molten metal and grimaced.
 

”Aw, shit…”

Before I even knew it, I was flying across the alumni club lobby.

Chapter 10

CHECK, PLEASE

When I came to, the first thing I processed was a bartender setting a bottle of gin down on the ceiling. The man’s upside-down beard was the size of a small hedge, and his biceps looked ready to shred his shirt. I’d seen both the insides and the outsides of two “minor” trolls in New York City, so I considered myself something of a troll expert. This guy fit the bill.

Seated at the bar were four nicely dressed gentlefolk. At first, I thought they were all smiling at me, but then I realized I was the one that was upside down. I looked up at my feet. Broken bottles were emptying their high-octane contents down my pants. I must have flown clear across the room and into the back of the bar. I tried shifting my weight, but a piece of broken glass tried to carve an entrance into my shoulder. I decided not to move anymore.

“Whatcha having, lad?” the bartender asked. His voice was tuba deep, and his jaw shifted about like a piece of marble. (Oh, and he didn’t seem fazed by my entrance in the slightest.)

“Whatever is least painful.”

“Bah! Done worse with a trip and fall.” He waved the thought away with his hand and caused a small breeze. “I meant to drink, lad. Whatcha having?”

I examined all the broken bottles all around me. I bit my lip. I tried to stay strong—and caved.
 

“Do you have any coffee?”

“Coffee? Of course.” He let out a barrel-chested laugh. “Where do you think you be, Cahokia? This is the Buck, lad. We’ve got coffee by the sack-full. All the more just to spite him.”
 

The giant barkeep grabbed my jacket with one hand and my jeans with the other. Without even a grunt, he hoisted me out of the broken glass. He gave me a good mid-air shake, and then set me down on one of the barstools with a chuckle.
 

“You’re too thin, lad. We’ve got to be getting some beef into ya tonight.”
 

Food sounded good…but I couldn’t keep my eyes off his massive hands. I’d watched a minor troll beat Rei to a pulp. This guy could pop me like a pimple.
 

“Sorry about the damage, mister.” My hand shaking, I handed him my entire wallet.
 

The giant barkeep pulled out a single twenty and tossed the sopping leather mess back.

“A cup of Joe only be fifteen dollars.” He gave me a wink. “But thanks for the tip.”

“Sure,” I said with a nod. It was the best five dollars I’d ever spent.