City of Whispers (City of Whispers #1) (14 page)

“C’mon,” I said to Scott, “let’s at least make sure he
gets the stories right.”

We convinced Seth to give Naveen a break. Seth
promised to set up an apartment in his building for the doctor and trotted away
to get to work. Most of the people from our building followed us back. I had a
feeling they wanted to talk to the doctor, to tell him their horror stories, in
spite of how offended many of them had acted. It would be therapeutic in a way.
I thought Naveen’s coming to Manhattan
could be a good thing. It was a brave move on his part, and maybe he could
convince the world that we posed no threat.

We helped Naveen get settled in and then I had a talk
with him about being sensitive. I told him about Sophie and Tony and their
children. I told him Tony’s description of Sophie’s symptoms as best as I could
remember. He kept asking me questions I couldn’t answer. I told him that Tony
would talk to him when he was good and ready.

I explained almost everything we had learned about the
vampires. We didn’t know how many there were. We suspected most kept to the
subway tunnels. I explained their appearance and the noises they made. I noted
that some sounded more human than others, but didn’t say anything about meeting
Desmond or about being bitten.

I told Naveen that the vampires seemed to dislike
garlic and that they had to be killed with stakes. I didn’t have an
explanation—that was his job. I didn’t think religion was any kind of
deterrent. They didn’t seem to have any interest in cat blood. The virus wasn’t
airborne, but everyone who had been bitten was either killed in the attack,
died from the virus, or turned into a vampire.

Naveen seemed most interested in how quickly the virus
had spread and what efforts had been made to contain it. He had dropped his cheerful
demeanor by that point in our conversation. He asked what had been done for
people at the hospitals. I didn’t know anything except that according to the
early news reports, the hospitals had been the first places to be overrun.

By the time I finished telling Naveen what I knew, the
sun was setting. I invited him to come to Beth and Kim’s, where many of us
usually gathered for dinner. I reminded him not to expect anything fancy.

Naveen became his cheerful self again at dinner. He
told everyone about our following in England. The stories he had read
about us—most of them wildly exaggerated—made everyone laugh.

After dinner, Naveen quietly asked if he could look
out the window. Beth was uncomfortable drawing attention to her apartment,
which faced the courtyard, so we went across the hall to Paulo’s apartment,
which was next door to mine and faced the street. We went into Paulo’s bedroom
and turned our flashlights off. Paulo took Naveen over to the window. There was
no fire escape at the window but it had several boards nailed across it.

Paulo pulled his curtains back a few inches and peered
out through one of the large cracks between the boards. I knew there would be
one or two vampires out there before Paulo even said anything—I could feel
them. He scanned the street and after a moment leaned back and pointed through
the crack. “Look there to the left, across the street and about halfway up the
block.”

Naveen looked through the crack and leapt backward. I
smiled. I had forgotten how shocking they looked. Maybe the moonlight had
caught one’s eyes and Naveen had been unnerved by the reflection.

Naveen looked around and smiled weakly. “Sorry,” he
whispered. Then, he leaned back over to the window and watched for a few
minutes. When he was finished looking he stepped back, and Paulo closed the
curtains. We all went into Paulo’s living room where Paulo lit a battery
powered lantern.

“What did you think?” Paulo asked.

Naveen shuddered, and his eyes looked moist. “I’d seen
pictures, you know. People sent pictures to the outside with mobiles and
computers, before you lost power and mobile service, but they were nothing like
the real thing. I can’t believe you actually
hunt
them.”

Paulo shrugged. “We do what we have to do to survive.
We try not to go looking for trouble.”

I’d had enough for one evening so I said goodnight and
headed for the door. The others came with me, but Naveen hesitated. “I don’t
mean to be rude,” he said, looking sheepish, “but that was quite a shock...”

Scott raised his eyebrows and James grinned. Paulo
just smiled and offered, “Would you like to sleep on my sofa tonight?”

Naveen looked up and smiled back. “I’d love to, mate!”

That night I dreamed I was in a hospital. In the
hospital was a locked ward where no one was allowed to go. All the doctors had
British accents.

16

I once watched a documentary about lions in Tanzania. One of the biologists was
amazed to have the opportunity to observe a lioness adopt a baby impala.
Usually, impalas are a primary food source for lions, but for whatever reason,
this lioness watched over the baby impala as if it were her own offspring.
Occasionally, she even let the mother impala come close enough to feed the baby
for a short time before running her off. This odd relationship lasted for
several days. Then, one of the male lions attacked and ate the baby impala
while the lioness wasn’t watching.

One muggy morning in late June, about a week and a half after Dr. Patel’s
arrival, we gathered as usual in Bryant Park to talk and wait for news and
supply drops from the outside. It was already getting hot so we were sitting on
some blankets under the trees, eating our rations.

Seth strolled up with a ridiculous smirk on his face,
and I thought he was about to launch into some exaggerated story about being surrounded
by vampires and fighting them off by himself, bare-handed and so forth. He had
become downright intolerable since he had found a captive audience in Dr.
Patel.

I sighed and moved closer to Scott, turning my back to
Seth and whatever story he was about to tell. Scott was reminiscing about
surfing—one of my favorite topics. Nothing seemed to take me further away from
the ugly, steamy, hot concrete of Manhattan than talking about the beach, and
Scott was talking about surfing in Maui—heaven on earth.

Scott was laughing about how after working for a
couple of years his body had deteriorated to the point where he could barely
keep himself afloat in the water. I thought he was exaggerating just a bit.

“You guys will not believe what happened last night!”
Seth said excitedly.

I wasn’t the only one who sighed then. Scott mumbled
something about a “fat head,” and continued to snack on his sunflower seeds and
talk about surfboard rashes and sunburns. I yearned for a hammock and a nice
sea breeze.

“I’m
in
with the vampires.” Seth said it
softly, intentionally I thought, so that we couldn’t be completely sure he had
said it and someone would have to ask him to repeat it. He got my attention.

“Come again,” Naveen finally said.

Seth started grinning again and then came over and
made himself at home in the middle of the group. He brushed away some grass
from the blanket Beth was sitting on and took his time arranging himself next
to her.

“Well if you schmucks weren’t always about to piss
yourselves every time you saw them we might not have anything to be afraid of
in the first place,” he said. He sounded like he was addressing a classroom of
six-year-old children.

“Look,” Scott said, “do you want to tell us what the
hell you’re talking about or not?”

“Simmer down, I’m getting to it. So while you guys
were holed up, hiding from your own shadows last night...”

I rolled my eyes and wanted more than anything to tell
him I didn’t give a shit, but I was too curious.

“...I decided to clear my head and take a stroll down

Here he paused for dramatic effect until Beth obliged
by saying, “By yourself?”

“Not by myself. Just after sunset every night this
really gorgeous brunette—she might be Latina—has
been coming around my building. I talked to her through the window a couple of
times so I knew she was okay. You wouldn’t believe how clear her voice is. I
wasn’t sure at first whether she was vampire or human.

“When I first started talking to her she told me,
‘I’ve been watching you, and I feel like I can trust you more than any of your
friends.’”

“Bullshit,” somebody coughed.

“She’d been stalking you?” Beth asked.

Seth looked irritated. “Not stalking me. Watching me.
You know they watch our buildings. They know when we come and go.” He was
right. I knew this was true. I just couldn’t wrap my head around the idea that
Seth had actually gone out by himself to meet up with a vampire at night. Had
he lost his mind? Were all the stories he had told us true? Perhaps all the
publicity and attention were getting to him and he had begun to feel
invincible, like a real super hero or something. He looked proud of himself, so
I was inclined to believe his story.

Seth went on, “She and some of her friends had been
watching me and my friends. She just wanted to communicate that not all
vampires are like the ones from the movies or the ones we saw in the streets at
the beginning of the outbreak. So after talking to her through the window for a
few nights I decided to go out and join her. It’s not like I couldn’t handle
myself if some of the bad ones showed up.”

“Jesus,” Scott interjected, “these things are evolving
to become more deceptive than we’d thought.”

“Deceptive? Who said anything about deceptive? She
never even tried to touch me, except once to try to take my hand, but I wasn’t
going to let my guard down that easily. No, she just said ‘We aren’t
cold-blooded killers, and we’d like to live at peace with you.’ And I promised
I would bring the group to meet her tonight.”

“Like hell you did.” James stood up. “Are you out of
your goddamn mind?”

Beth inched away from Seth, as if he had been infected
and she was worried he might suddenly turn on her.

“Now listen James,” Seth said defensively, “a week ago
I would have reacted the same way, but you didn’t meet her. She isn’t
threatening at all. It’s crazy to assume they all just want to kill us. It’s
basically racism is what it is.”

I groaned. “Seth, there’s a difference between being
prejudiced against someone simply because of her skin color and being
prejudiced against someone because you happen to be her primary food source. If
a chicken wants to be distrustful of me I can’t say I blame it.”

James snorted, and Seth’s face turned red. “I’m not
stupid Ailis, I can read people, and Rosario
didn’t want to kill me. She really wanted to make peace.”

“
Rosario
isn’t a person, she’s a vampire. She’s a hunter and you’re the hunted. She’s a
shark, you’re a fish.”

“You’re a bitch. You don’t know shit and you’re just
pissed because you never—”

“Watch it!” Scott stood up. “You
are
stupid
Seth. If you want to go be a pet cow to this vampire chick you go ahead, and
take anyone else who is stupid enough to join you. I know what vampires are and
I’ve seen enough of what they do to people to know I don’t want to risk my neck
trying to be buddy-buddy with something that just wants to rip out my jugular
in the end.”

Seth stood up, his face red. “I
will
go back
and anyone who wants to stop living in the dark ages can come with me.” He
paused, perhaps searching for something else to say that might make people care.
“And we’ll still expect to come back for our full share of the rations.”

Scott and James were on him in an instant. James had
Seth’s arms pinned by his side and Scott had him in a choke-hold. Seth’s eyes
looked like they were about to pop out.

“Now listen here you piece of shit egomaniac.” Scott
was speaking in a low whisper but every word he said was crystal clear. “Like I
said, you can go hang out with your vampire buddies and get yourself killed or
not killed, I don’t really care. But I have two things to say to you. One,
don’t expect me or anyone else to come rescue you when shit goes wrong. Two, if
you bring a single one of those rotten, half-dead, diseased vampires back here
to where any
humans
live I will kill every vampire friend you bring back,
and I will kill you.”

“Three,” James growled, “if you start a campaign to
bring anyone else on your suicide mission I will cut your fucking head off and
throw your body in the East River and your head in the Hudson.”

Both men released Seth at the same time and stalked
off. Seth tried to scream after them but only managed a hoarse rasp, rather
vampire-like, “You’re both sons of bitches. You’re the cold-blooded killers.
I’d rather be with the vampires. They’re more civilized.”

We all stared at him as if he’d lost his mind. Even
Naveen, who I expected to be fascinated by the subject of a friendly vampire,
seemed at a loss for words.

After James appeared to be out of earshot, Seth tried
to collect himself and said, “Anyone who wants to stop living in fear of vampires
and
humans, come with me tonight. I promise you they are not what they
seem.” He seemed to gather what little dignity he imagined he had left, and
walked away toward his apartment by the East River.
No one followed.

Beth was agitated the rest of the day. I think she may
have gone with Naveen to visit Seth to try to talk him out of his plan. I’m
sure Naveen asked him a million questions and “oohed” and “
ahhed
.”
That would have sealed the deal. Any doubts Seth may have had in whatever
reasonable part of his brain was remaining were surely erased by the attention
he received from Beth and Naveen. He was probably writing his own headlines to
send to the papers.

Scott, James, Paulo, Naveen, and I gathered at Beth
and Kim’s that evening as usual. Beth kept sighing and wondering whether
someone should have stayed with Seth to insist he stay indoors. Naveen, on the
other hand, suggested we gather a group and follow Seth. To our surprise, Beth
agreed. “We could follow in a car, that way no one would be in danger and we
can help him out if he gets in trouble.”

“You’re joking,” James replied. “I’m not stretching my
neck out for that little twit. I’m not even sure I’d do it for one of you if
you decided to go and do something that stupid.”

“Thanks James,” I grumbled.

“Well,” Scott said, “it’s not a bad idea. I was
thinking of doing it myself, but I wasn’t going to tell you all.”

“Wow, you really
are
that stupid,” James said.

“I’m not talking about rescuing the bastard, but I’d
like to follow along quietly and just see how much of what he says really is
bullshit.”

“I’m in,” I volunteered.

Scott turned to me. “Now look, we don’t need a whole
crew. Like I said, we’re not running a rescue operation.”

“Two people isn’t a crew,” I shot back. “You know it’s
not smart to go out by yourself, someone needs to watch your back.”

“James can come,” Scott said.

“Like hell I can.”

“I’m coming and that’s the end of it,” I insisted.
“Stop being ridiculous, you know you’d rather have me than James.”

“Unfortunately, that’s true,” Scott sighed. I felt
funny about the way he looked at me. I was proud that he recognized I was a
better fighter, but at the same time I somewhat envied the protective stance
everyone always took toward Beth.

“I hate both of you,” James said. “I’m going too. Just
to see that douche-bag get what’s coming to him.”

“Nice, lovely,” Beth said. “Maybe he had a point when
he called you the cold-blooded killers.” I couldn’t tell whether she was
serious or not. “It was my idea in the first place so I’m going too.”

I was shocked. Beth never went looking for trouble. I
remembered the first two weeks of the plague and how we killed our first human
and our first vampire, how we stayed perfectly quiet, perfectly still, while we
listened to a vampire tear my neighbor apart. Beth had done those things to
survive, she wasn’t a killer like I was, or some of the others for that matter.
For a moment, I wondered if in some freakish way she had some feelings for
Seth.

I didn’t like the idea of Beth going one bit, and
neither did the others. Paulo hadn’t spoken up until that point, but when Beth
volunteered, he put his foot down. She tried to insist, but then Paulo said he
would go as well and Beth blanched. My previous suspicions about her having
feelings for Seth vanished. She was just being her caring self. She couldn’t
stand to see anyone in danger, even someone as loathsome as Seth.

Beth agreed to stay in the apartment if Paulo would
stay as well. It was an awkward moment, especially for James, but then we had
to focus on forcing Naveen to stay as well. I tried to be nice about it, but
James told him flat out we didn’t want any amateurs along. Naveen didn’t seem
terribly upset. I wasn’t sure he had spent a single night in his own apartment
since he had arrived. I suspected he was couch-surfing through the guys’
apartments.

We dressed in black. We wore black boots, leather
collars, and stake packs. Scott carried a crossbow. We must have been quite a
sight. Naveen insisted on taking our picture with his digital camera before we
left, and we let him.

We made our way toward Seth’s building on the East River, but before we got there, we spotted him
walking north on

Seth ended up near a wine bar I had liked back in the
pre-vampire days. There were backhoes and other construction equipment there
from New York’s
now-abandoned attempt at a