by Tim Waggoner
Devona looked at me for a long moment, searching my eyes, trying to gauge my emotions. But my eyes are as dead as the rest of me, and they won't reveal anything I don't want them to.
When she spoke again, her tone was slightly reserved, the way it had been when we first met. "Maybe you're right."
Devona leaned forward as if she wanted to kiss me, but I held back. I couldn't bear the thought of her soft living lips touching my dead ones right then. Besides, no mere physical contact could ever compare to the link we'd experienced in the Wyldwood. After a moment she pulled away.
"You take care of yourself, Matthew Richter." Crimson tears welled in the corners of her eyes, and she fought to hold them back. If I'd been physically capable of crying… but I wasn't.
"You too."
She gave me a last long look before turning and walking toward the mirror.
I almost said it then: Don't go. Stay with me. But I gritted my teeth and held the words back.
And then she stepped through the glass and was gone. I wanted to watch her walk through the park a while, wanted to see her initial reactions to physically being on Earth for the first time since she'd been a baby. But as soon as she was through, the portal became a simple mirror again, and I was left staring at my gray-tinted face. I'd expected my expression to be completely emotionless, but the man I saw gazing sadly back at me from the mirror looked as if his undead heart was breaking.
"I thought it best if the portal closed as soon as she passed through."
I turned to see Varvara sitting on the edge of her bed. The Demon Queen was dressed in a skimpy red silk gown with a Chinese dragon embroidered in gold encircling the waist, its tail – which served as the robe's belt – clutched in its mouth.
"I should have known you couldn't pass up spying on us," I said bitterly. "I hope you enjoyed the show."
"I just teleported in this very moment, Matthew. I placed a spell on the mirror to let me know when Devona had gone through. I assure you, I know nothing of what occurred between the two of you – but I can guess. Noble idiot that you are, you let her go, didn't you?"
"She was born on Earth, Varvara. She deserves a chance to get to know her homeworld."
"You could've gone with her."
"It wouldn't have worked. I'd still need preservative spells."
"You could always come back to get them."
"Magic doesn't function as reliably on Earth as it does in Nekropolis, you know that. There's no telling how long a preservative spell would last for me there. I might decompose after only a few hours."
"Or you might not. You might be just fine. But that's not the real reason you didn't go with her, Matt, is it?"
"You may have been away from Earth for a few centuries, Varvara, but I bet you haven't forgotten what it's like. It's so much more than Nekropolis… Devona will have more opportunities, more chances, more choices than she ever could have here – especially since Galm made her an outcast among the Bloodborn. How could I deny her that?"
Varvara rose from her bed, walked over, and gave me a kiss on the cheek. For an instant, I felt her lips on my flesh just as if I'd been a living man, but the sensation quickly faded.
"I still say you're an idiot, Matt, but alive or not, you're a good man." She smiled, and the embroidered dragon around her waist winked. Her manner grew serious. "Are you going to be all right?"
"Of course. I'm a zombie; I don't have any feelings, remember?"
"Right. I forgot."
I knew Varvara didn't believe it, and for the first time in a long time, neither did I.
Lazlo was waiting for me in his cab outside the main lobby of Demon's Roost. He offered to give me a ride back to my place, but I told him I'd rather walk. If he noticed my mood, he didn't say anything. I turned away from his cab and started heading in the general direction of my apartment building.
Now that Umbriel had been renewed for another year, the Descension festival was officially over. Most of the partiers had already gone home to recover from the damage they'd done to themselves, but a few stragglers – or perhaps I should say staggerers – remained out, probably because they didn't possess enough command of their higher brain functions to remember where they lived or how to get there. The streets and sidewalks were covered with trash, most of it fairly innocuous – discarded fast-food wrappers, cigarette butts, Styrofoam cups and the like – but some of the debris was a bit more disturbing in nature and didn't bear close inspection. Already thick glutinous pseudopods were extruding from the sewer grates and stretching toward the trash, engulfing it, swiftly breaking down its molecular structure, and absorbing its mass. The Azure Slime lives beneath the streets of the Sprawl and functions as the Dominion's waste removal service. While the Slime feeds well all year, when Descension Day is over and everyone else's good times have ended, that's when the Slime's feast of feasts begins. It's usually good about not absorbing anything – or anyone – it shouldn't, but occasionally it gets so excited by the grand repast laid out before it that it forgets and devours a passed-out drunk or a barely conscious partier who's hung around on the streets just a bit too long. I was walking fast enough that I wasn't worried about being absorbed, and the one time a bluish pseudopod did slither too close to my feet, I kicked at it, and the tendril withdrew almost sulkily.
Crimson ambulances from the Fever House slowly patrolled the streets, searching for those who'd been wounded beyond their capacity to heal themselves. When the Bloodwagon medics found someone who needed to be taken to the hospital, they stopped the ambulance, got out, and rushed to put their patient in the back of the vehicle before the Azure Slime got there. Sometimes they succeeded, sometimes they didn't, and sometimes they had to pry what was left of a patient out of the Slime's fluidic clutches and hope enough remained for them to restore to some semblance of health. The Bloodwagon medics had competition, however. Midnight-black hearses from the Foundry also cruised the Sprawl, the Bonegetters looking for dead bodies, severed limbs, or misplaced organs to salvage and return to their master. Victor Baron was always in need of fresh supplies, and the raw material his assistants recovered could keep the Foundry going for another year.
I saw more than a few predators lurking in the shadows, but those who made a move toward me took one look at the expression on my face and decided it might not be a bad idea to go in search of easier prey. Wise choice.
Now that they were no longer needed for the Renewal Ceremony, Sentinels patrolled the streets again – the Azure Slime made damn sure to stay clear of them – and I found it more than a little eerie to see the impassive golems after what had happened at the Nightspire. For a few moments, I'd actually been one of the things, and I knew I'd never look at them the same way again. Still, there was no doubt they were needed. Those Darkfolk who were unconscious but not in need of medical attention would be left to lie where they'd fallen until they managed to sleep off whatever had put them down. In the meantime, they were prime targets for thieves of all sorts, those who wanted darkgems, of course, but also those desiring to steal a victim's memories, soul, and even his or her potential futures. The Sentinels were the police force of Nekropolis, and they had their beat to walk, and while the impassive creatures made me uncomfortable now, as a former cop myself, I had to respect that.
I don't know how long I wandered, but eventually I found myself in front of my building. I almost expected crazy Carl to come running up to me with his latest bizarre expose, but he was nowhere to be seen. He was probably exhausted and getting some rest, like everyone else in the city. Sometimes I really miss sleeping. When you sleep, you don't have to think. Or remember. Or regret.
I climbed the steps to the building, entered the lobby, and walked to my apartment door. As I reached for the knob, I saw the door was open and slightly ajar. My cop instincts kicked into high gear, and I silently drew my 9mm and listened. I heard nothing, so I slowly pushed open the door and stepped inside.
Devona was sitting on the couch. She put down the book she'd been
reading and smiled at me. "It's about time you got home."
I had no idea what to say, but at least I had the presence of mind to holster my gun.
"By the time I came back through Varvara's mirror and got down to the street, you were already gone. Lazlo was still there, though, and he gave me a ride here." She made a face. "Did you see what he's done to that cab? And I thought it was hideous before! When I got here and discovered you weren't home, I used the mystical lock picks Shrike found for us, and I let myself in."
I walked over to the couch and sat down next to her. "I know Cleveland isn't exactly the grandest city on Earth, but I have a hard time believing you got tired of it this fast."
"That's not why I came back. There I was, standing in the park, drinking in all these wonderful new sights, sounds, and smells, when I realized something: I'd forgotten to pay you for helping me find the Dawnstone. If I remember right, the price we settled on was three hundred darkgems."
I was surprised, and truthfully, a bit insulted. "You don't need to pay me. Dis restored my body, and I'm as good as new. Well, good as a new zombie, anyway. Besides, it's not like I really did anything to help you. We found the Dawnstone, sure, but you ended up losing your job and being cast out from your people."
"Be that as it may, we made a deal and I intend to honor my part of the bargain. And don't tell me you can't use the money. Dis may have repaired your body with his magic, but you're still a zombie, and you still need preservative spells, right?"
"Don't worry about that. I've decided to get out of the business of doing favors and start an official private investigation business. A real one, with an office and everything."
"Good for you! But from what I understand, there are a lot of expenses associated with starting a new business – which is all the more reason to let me pay you. You're going to need the money." She paused. "Of course, I don't have a job at the moment, and I can't go to Father and ask to borrow some darkgems… so it might be a while before I can scrape up what I owe you."
I couldn't help smiling. "Tell you what, let's put it on your tab, and you can get it to me whenever you can, okay?"
She smiled back. "Okay." She leaned close and laid her head on my shoulder, and I put my arm around her. It felt so natural, so right, and I would've been content to sit like that for hours. But after a few moments, Devona said, "There's something I've been thinking about trying ever since we left the Wyldwood, Matt."
"What?"
"It might be easier if I show you." She sat up, touched her fingertips to my temples, and then closed her eyes.
I experienced a dizzying lurch, and then I was tumbling through a seemingly endless void. But it did have an end, and when I reached it, the falling sensation ceased and I found myself sitting on the grass by the edge of a pond, with Devona by my side. The sky above was a gentle blue and a light spring breeze was blowing. It was daylight, and for the first time in two years I felt the sun on my face. I looked down at my hands. Instead of gray, the flesh was a healthy pink. I turned to Devona and saw that her skin was no longer pale. We were both dressed the same as we'd been in Nekropolis, except now our clothes were clean and in good repair.
"What's happening?" I asked. The breeze blew across my skin, and I trembled. "Where are we?"
Devona placed her fingers on my lips and gently stroked them. The sensation was so intense, I couldn't stop myself from moaning.
"Home," she said simply.
Then she leaned forward and pressed her lips against mine. And you know something?
She was right.
A SHORT STORY
THE MIDNIGHT WATCH
"You're really thinking about doing this, aren't you?"
Devona didn't answer me right away, and I took that as a bad sign. I knew she heard me. We'd only been together a couple months, but in that time I'd learned that not only was her halfvampire hearing sharp as hell, she rarely missed anything that went on around her. So if she wasn't answering me, it could only mean one of two things: I'd asked the wrong question or she was afraid I wasn't going to like her answer. This time, it turned out to be both.
We were standing on the sidewalk in front of a squat stone building that put me in mind of a giant toad that had looked a gorgon straight in the eye. Thick tendrils of leech vine covered most of the surface, and the stone that we could see was pitted and cracked. I wouldn't have been surprised if the damned vine was the only thing holding the ancient structure together. The building was located in the Sprawl, not all that far from my apartment… make that our apartment. Devona had moved in not long after we met, but I still sometimes had trouble wrapping my undead brain around the concept that I was part of a couple again. I'd been married back on Earth, but that was a while ago. I'd long since divorced and traveled to the other-dimensional city of Nekropolis where I'd died and been resurrected as a self-willed zombie. After that, I figured my dating days were over. I mean, really, would you want to go out with someone who's perpetually decaying? But Devona was a broad-minded woman, even for Nekropolis, and I regularly visited my houngan for periodic applications of the preservative spells that prevented me from completely rotting away to dust.
I was fairly fresh that day, with only a slight grayish-green tinge to my flesh. I wore my usual gray suit and my tie displayed images of Dahli's famous melting clocks draped limply over tree branches. If you looked closely, you could see the fabric hands of the clocks move and hear the soft ticking of gears at work. Devona wore a form-fitting black leather outfit, as she often did, and it looked damned good on her. She was a petite blonde who appeared to be in her twenties, but in truth was in her seventies. She might have been only half vampire, but that was enough to significantly slow down her aging process.
This was a relatively sedate part of the Sprawl – one of the reasons why I'd chosen to rent an apartment there – but the emphasis was most definitely on relatively. The Sprawl is the Dominion of the Demon Queen Varvara, and she believes in absolute freedom. It's rumored that the old Beast Alistair Crowley stole his infamous satanic commandant from her: Do as Thou Wilt. I wouldn't be surprised. If the Sprawl doesn't exist in a state of total anarchy, it'll do until the real thing shows up. But like I said, this neighborhood was quiet enough, with pedestrians going about their business searching for prey or trying to avoid becoming prey – often at the same time – and vehicles of various makes, models, and degrees of sentience rolling, crawling, and scuttling down the street. To the right of the stone toad building was a misfortuneteller's establishment, and on the left was a head shop (new and used, all species, original size and shrunken). Not exactly the most glamorous of neighbors, but they seemed… well, not normal, but harmless enough.
Devona finally decided to respond to my question. "Not thinking…"
A sinking feeling hit me. "Please tell me you haven't bought the place. Sight unseen, no less."
She shrugged. "All right, I won't tell you."
I suppressed a sigh. Devona was the half-human daughter of the Darklord Galm, and she'd spent most of her life living in his stronghold and serving as the caretaker of his collection of rare and powerful artifacts. So while she was chronologically older than me by several decades, in terms of actual life experience, she could be a bit naïve at times. And, as I'd been learning over the last couple months, a trifle impulsive.
"We talked about how it's not a good idea to buy real estate without a thorough inspection first, remember?"
Devona turned to me, eyes narrowed and lips pursed. I'd seen that expression before. It meant Stop patronizing me, Matt. "I remember it quite well, and perhaps you'll recall that my main motivation for purchasing the building was to acquire the name of the business associated with it more than the actual structure itself." She smiled. "Of course, now that we're here, I suppose we should go in and take a look around."
This time I didn't bother to suppress my sigh. I don't need to breathe, but I have to take in air to talk, and while strictly speaking, I don't have to sigh, sometimes a
sigh can communicate more than a dozen well-chosen words.
"Couldn't you have bought the name by itself?" I didn't ask why she wanted it so badly. That was another discussion we'd already had.
The Midnight Watch was the security firm back in its day, Devona had said. Long before your arrival in Nekropolis, Matt. If you wanted something or someone protected, you hired the Watch. Even the Darklords were known to employ its services from time to time. If I'm going to go into business on my own, that kind of name recognition will help get me established. Besides, I was caretaker of Father's collection for many years. I like things with a little history behind them.
I'd met Devona when she'd hired me to help her recover an artifact that had been stolen from Galm's collection. In the process, we'd not only found the artifact and saved the city from total an nihilation, we'd also fallen in love. Makes for a great first date story, don't you think? Unfortunately, Galm cast out Devona for losing the artifact in the first place – even though another of his children had been responsible for the theft – and so jobless and homeless, she'd moved in with me. She'd been helping me with cases ever since, and I thought we made a good team, professionally as well as personally, but Devona eventually decided she wanted to work for herself.