Strange City

by Anth

  Emily pressed her Hunger back down. He was right. She relaxed. "Let me go." He did She walked purpose­fully over to the drawer and slid it shut with a resound­ing slam, then looked upattheSetite. "Thank you "

  "It would have been foolish to destroy such a resource."

  "As foolish as attacking him prematurely? You were only supposed to close the door and lock it from out­side."

  "He knew something was wrong."

  "I could have dealt with it—the bodies in the room unnerved him. I could Have had him staked before he did anything." She sighed and wiped the back of her hand across her mouth. The blood was hers and not Doc Michaels' Somehow she had split her lip in the struggle. "It doesn't matter now anyway Did you get your followers and servants gathered back together?"

  "Yes. I was fortunate."

  "Take your people back to his haven Make it look like it was broken into. Make it look like a Sabbat raid. That should keep everyone paranoid for a while. It will take the heat off us. Take care of anybody in his car too And remember, [ean-Claude, you owe me very big,"

  "What if someone comes looking for him?" Jean-Claude indicated the drawer that contained Doc Michaels.

  Emily pulled a ring of keys from her pocket and locked it Then, with a grunt, she broke the key off in the iock. The drawer was officially empty and they had no shortage of other drawers for real bodies. No one would worry about fixing that lock fora long, longtime.

  Emily picked up the telephone before the second ring. "Morgue."

  "Congratulations! I understand the Prince has just confirmed you as guardian of Doc Michaels' affairs "

  "That's the easy way of saying he doesn't under­stand which end of a hospital the patient goes in. Jean-Claude But thank you. It's actually going to take several weeks before I have complete control."

  "What are you doing now?"

  "Paperwork. They just brought in the body of a sui­cide from earlier tonight on Montgomery. He jumped from halfway up the Russ Building. Very messy."

  "Still hard at work. You don't have to do that anymore."

  She laughed. "I'll let the day crew handle this one, but I do enjoy my work sometimes. And so do you. What do you want?"

  "You know me too well. There are five coffins on a boat coming into harbor the day after tomorrow. Can you arrange to have them taken past customs without being opened?"

  "You're racking up favors-owed, [ean-Claude. And you're not the only one now."

  "lust the first. It's good to have friends in high places"

  "Consider it done."

  "Thank you, Emily, i owe you."

  "You owe me a lot."

  "Good night, Emily." Jean-Ctaude hung up the phone and leaned back in his chair A slow, evit smile spread across his face as he picked up a serpent-head ring from his desk. He had sent flowers to Constable Long's funeral. He always liked to reward his followers for their loyalty, and Long's fatal self-sacrifice in shooting him right on cue had been invaluable, It lent an air of truth to his story about the "surprise raid' He wondered if poor, innocent Doc Michaels felt the same oblivion as Long. The old Ventrue had almost given away his ignorance before iean-Claude had been able to silence him in the morgue. He kissed the ring, then addressed it as if he were addressing the follower who had so recently worn it.

  "We have her, Long. We have her."