Nodding at the woman, Thalia takes out her phone and types up a storm.
Ariel checks the text and shows me the screen.
This is Edith. She’s the oldest vampire on Earth. She’s your protection. I’m just the driver.
A vampire, and the oldest on Earth to boot? Impressive. Given the woman’s wrinkles and frown lines, I never would’ve guessed her nature—though it does explain those eyes and the paleness.
Cognizant who can become vampires upon their death are called pre-vamps. Not all of them turn, though. I’ve heard that drinking blood from a more powerful vampire helps their odds—with the side-effect being that they become sire-bonded to the donor vampire and have to do their bidding for a while. Living on Gomorrah hurts those turning odds, so you never meet pre-vamps there, only full vampires. Before they turn, pre-vamps are extremely long-lived, so Edith must’ve been ancient before her “death.”
“You must be Felix, Ariel, and Bailey,” she says with a slight German accent.
Felix and I reply that it’s very nice to meet her, and Ariel just mumbles something unintelligible. Though she’s kicked her vampire blood addiction, she doesn’t feel comfortable around walking, talking sources of her drug of choice.
Getting into the limo, we pull out of the airport and promptly get stuck in traffic—New York at its finest. After a few minutes of the car alternating between crawling along and standing still, Edith stiffens and sits up straighter.
What the puck?
A woman in a nightgown steps onto the road. Then a man in silk boxers. Then more and more people in sleepwear.
My heartbeat picks up speed.
Their eyes are fiery, just like the Overtaken on Gomorrah.
This group is better armed, though.
As one, they raise their guns and fire at us.
Chapter Eight
I cringe, my eyes squeezing shut as the bullets slam into the limo, the deafening noise of gunfire blending with Felix’s shrill screams.
Silence falls, followed by another round of gunshots.
By all rights, I should be holey, but I feel okay.
I open my eyes.
There isn’t even a crack in the windshield.
“Bulletproof,” Felix explains hoarsely, wiping the sweat from his brow.
To the side of me, Ariel is holding a gun. I have no idea where she pulled it from.
Thalia sets the car in “park” and reaches for the door handle.
“No,” Edith says, her fangs extending. With a lisp, she orders, “Stay!”
Before we can argue, the vampire whirls into too-fast-to-track motion. I assume she opens the limo door, exits, and closes the door behind herself, but it’s done with such speed I barely catch it—and not a single bullet has the chance to fly in.
Oblivious to the spray of bullets, she lunges at the nearest attacker.
The Overtaken fire again.
Edith doesn’t seem to care.
An eyeblink later, the first Overtaken is a pile of gore.
A millisecond after that, another one is ripped apart. Then the next.
Two heartbeats later, all that’s left are assorted body parts.
Edith turns away from her victims, her face taking on a strained, constipated look. Before I can wonder about vampire digestion, a bullet emerges from a bleeding hole in her neck and clanks onto the pavement.
Edith relaxes, and the hole heals right away.
“Wow,” Felix mutters.
You can say that again. I knew that older vampires were powerful, but this is scary.
Edith’s eyes take on the mirrored look of glamour, and she flashes to the nearest bystander car. She performs her vampire mind trick on everyone inside, then glamours all the rest of the bystanders as far as the nearest exit.
The glamoured drivers start their engines and head straight into the ditch by the side of the road, clearing it for us.
Edith whooshes back into the limo and orders Thalia to drive.
The nun floors the gas, and we leave the highway before anyone can say “dial 911.” Edith takes out a phone and orders someone to “clean up” near the exit we’ve just left.
At triple the speed limit, we fly through the city streets until a police officer stops us—which is when Edith glamours him to be our escort. The cop gets back into his car, starts the siren, and clears the way for us until we turn onto the Brooklyn Bridge.
From there, the ride to Felix and Ariel’s downtown building is uneventful. Leaving Thalia in the car, we step into the lobby. I half expect more Overtaken to attack again, but none do.
An elevator ride later, we reach the bulletproof front door of the apartment, and Edith says, “I’ll wait outside.”
Felix and I shrug while Ariel looks relieved.
As we step inside, two familiar furry creatures come to greet us: a chinchilla and a cat.
Hi, the chinchilla—Fluffster, who’s really a type of Cognizant called domovoi—says in my head. Good to see you again.
The cat gives me and everyone else a once-over, then pretends she happened to check on the front door by accident. Her attitude seems to say, “A purebred Persian with a face as flat as mine doesn’t really care if plebeians such as you exist.”