pathetic.”
I was actually now wearing plain white coveralls over my Spider-Man T-shirt. We were all wearing coveralls. We also had those fabric mask filters that doctors and nurses wear hanging around our necks. One thing most people don’t get is that it’s their breath that animals smell first because their breath is airborne. Keeping your scent from being forcibly expelled on air particles in front of you isn’t that big a defense—it might add a few seconds to the amount of time it takes a vampire to sniff you—but when you’re hunting a creature with preternaturally fast reflexes, seconds matter. If you wind up in a situation where you’re stationary and hiding, not announcing your location by generating your own private wind makes a small difference. It was also good that we were all wearing uniforms that had been freshly washed in the same load of laundry. The overpowering detergent smells would be the same, and there’s no point making it easy for a vampire you’re hunting to identify how many of you there are with a nose count.
“I dress the way a twentysomething American bartender would dress,” I said mildly, turning around to face them again. “If I want to dress like some grumpy-ass refugee from the old country, I’ll turn to you for fashion advice.”
“Come on, you two.” Sig had her hand on Dvornik’s forearm but was looking at me when she said this.
“Letting things slide doesn’t seem to be working,” I said, meeting her gaze.
“I don’t care if—” Dvornik began angrily.
“Stanislav is dealing with things you’ve never—” Sig started to say.
Dvornik turned on her and roared, “YOU DON’T APOLOGIZE FOR ME TO THIS FREAK!”
Sig turned angrily on him. “IF HE’S A FREAK, I’M A FREAK!”
“BULLSHIT!” Dvornik barked. “Your ancestors healed fallen warriors! He turns into a filthy animal!”
Actually I didn’t, but it didn’t seem like the right time to bring that up.
“Oh, right,” Sig said sarcastically. “That doesn’t sound like irrational prejudice at all! What about Kasia? How is he any different from her?”
Dvornik’s face had gone beet-red at the mention of “Kasia,” whoever or whatever that was. Sig must have scored a hell of a point, because he didn’t pursue it. “
You
are not the enemy,” he said quietly.
“Then neither is he,” Sig retorted. “Have I ever been wrong about something like that before? Ever? Give me one example. Just one.”
Dvornik glared at her and worked his jaw. “He doesn’t need you to protect him, and I don’t need you to protect me,” he said finally. “Stay out of it.”
“Fine!” Sig said angrily. “To hell with both of you infants!”
“We’re here,” Choo announced. He turned his head as if looking out the side window and added, so quietly that no one but me could possibly have heard him. “Thank you, Jesus.”
Steve Ellison’s neighborhood was poor and mostly white, although a lot of the kids running around—and there were more kids outside than there would have been in a presumably safer middle-class area—were interracial. There were no women walking their retrievers here, though I did see a woman mowing her lawn with a push mower, watched by a few elderly neighbors sitting on their stoops. The houses almost all needed some routine maintenance, but the cars went to extremes: they were either flashier and more expensive than you’d see in theburbs, or they were much older. There were as many vans as SUVs, and pit bulls behind fences were more common than terriers or retrievers. Mutts, of course, are everywhere. Go team.
According to the plan, Dvornik was going to go into a meditative trance so that his spirit—technically his astral projection—could step out of his body and go check the house for hostiles. His spirit form was the presence I had sensed on the rooftops the other night.
For my part, I was going to sniff around the outside of the house for any vampire scents. If we
I was actually now wearing plain white coveralls over my Spider-Man T-shirt. We were all wearing coveralls. We also had those fabric mask filters that doctors and nurses wear hanging around our necks. One thing most people don’t get is that it’s their breath that animals smell first because their breath is airborne. Keeping your scent from being forcibly expelled on air particles in front of you isn’t that big a defense—it might add a few seconds to the amount of time it takes a vampire to sniff you—but when you’re hunting a creature with preternaturally fast reflexes, seconds matter. If you wind up in a situation where you’re stationary and hiding, not announcing your location by generating your own private wind makes a small difference. It was also good that we were all wearing uniforms that had been freshly washed in the same load of laundry. The overpowering detergent smells would be the same, and there’s no point making it easy for a vampire you’re hunting to identify how many of you there are with a nose count.
“I dress the way a twentysomething American bartender would dress,” I said mildly, turning around to face them again. “If I want to dress like some grumpy-ass refugee from the old country, I’ll turn to you for fashion advice.”
“Come on, you two.” Sig had her hand on Dvornik’s forearm but was looking at me when she said this.
“Letting things slide doesn’t seem to be working,” I said, meeting her gaze.
“I don’t care if—” Dvornik began angrily.
“Stanislav is dealing with things you’ve never—” Sig started to say.
Dvornik turned on her and roared, “YOU DON’T APOLOGIZE FOR ME TO THIS FREAK!”
Sig turned angrily on him. “IF HE’S A FREAK, I’M A FREAK!”
“BULLSHIT!” Dvornik barked. “Your ancestors healed fallen warriors! He turns into a filthy animal!”
Actually I didn’t, but it didn’t seem like the right time to bring that up.
“Oh, right,” Sig said sarcastically. “That doesn’t sound like irrational prejudice at all! What about Kasia? How is he any different from her?”
Dvornik’s face had gone beet-red at the mention of “Kasia,” whoever or whatever that was. Sig must have scored a hell of a point, because he didn’t pursue it. “
You
are not the enemy,” he said quietly.
“Then neither is he,” Sig retorted. “Have I ever been wrong about something like that before? Ever? Give me one example. Just one.”
Dvornik glared at her and worked his jaw. “He doesn’t need you to protect him, and I don’t need you to protect me,” he said finally. “Stay out of it.”
“Fine!” Sig said angrily. “To hell with both of you infants!”
“We’re here,” Choo announced. He turned his head as if looking out the side window and added, so quietly that no one but me could possibly have heard him. “Thank you, Jesus.”
Steve Ellison’s neighborhood was poor and mostly white, although a lot of the kids running around—and there were more kids outside than there would have been in a presumably safer middle-class area—were interracial. There were no women walking their retrievers here, though I did see a woman mowing her lawn with a push mower, watched by a few elderly neighbors sitting on their stoops. The houses almost all needed some routine maintenance, but the cars went to extremes: they were either flashier and more expensive than you’d see in theburbs, or they were much older. There were as many vans as SUVs, and pit bulls behind fences were more common than terriers or retrievers. Mutts, of course, are everywhere. Go team.
According to the plan, Dvornik was going to go into a meditative trance so that his spirit—technically his astral projection—could step out of his body and go check the house for hostiles. His spirit form was the presence I had sensed on the rooftops the other night.
For my part, I was going to sniff around the outside of the house for any vampire scents. If we
Similar Books
