Page 69 of Installment Immortality

Clearly regretful, he released her waist, and Benedita turned fully toward me. “Oh, hey, Mary,” she said, concealing her own flicker of surprise. “I thought you were busy tonight.”

“I was. Am. I found what I was looking for, and figured I’d come and check in on you, see how you were doing. Glad I did, since it seems like you forgot all the way about your homework, and that’s no way to get a passing grade.”

“Are you here to nag me about homework or a test? Get your story straight,” she said, a thin line of hostility creeping into her tone.

Midnight beauties aren’t just drawn to party: theyhaveto party if they want to stay coherent. Keep them away from the dance floor for too long and they start coming undone at the seams, which is great. For Benedita, I was getting in the way of what might have been her first solid meal of the week.

And I couldn’t worry too much about that right now, because I needed to get her someplace where we could have a reasonable conversation. That wasn’t here.

“Both,” I said, and took a step back, tugging her with me. “Come on, you’re the one who made me promise.”

“Right. Sorry, Chuck. See you tomorrow night?”

“If I’m here, I’m yours,” he said, with what sounded like true sincerity.

He seemed like a nice guy. I hoped she wasn’t going to break his heart. But if she did, it would be after my kids and I were long gone, and they were what mattered right now, not some frat boy I didn’t know, no matter how nice he seemed.

Switching my grip to Benedita’s wrist, I pulled her off thedance floor and through the crowd to the door, where we were able to exit for the street. The dull-eyed bouncer was still on duty. He blinked, looking at the pair of us.

“Hey, it’s optical-illusion girl and… a friend?” He squinted. “I hope you brought better shoes, lady, or you’re going to hurt yourself.”

“I’ll be fine,” said Benedita. Then she frowned, looking closer. “You might not be, though. Do you know what you took?”

The bouncer shrugged.

Benedita stepped closer. “May I?” she asked, reaching out with one hand, like she was about to touch something precious.

The bouncer looked bemused but nodded, and she leaned closer, caressing his cheek. The blurriness cleared from his eyes and he staggered back, catching himself against the wall.

“What the hell just…?”

“Let’s go.” Benedita turned back to me and then kept walking, motioning for me to follow her down the street. She didn’t pause or look back.

I scurried after her. “What was that?”

“What was what?”

“What did you do to that man?”

“Purged his system. What?” She looked amused. “You thought the clubs in Brazil encouraged the midnight beauties because we look cute on the dance floor? We do, but we don’t drink, and that means we pull down the club’s profit margin. We make up for it by protecting the people we party with from the worst effects of excess. No hangovers, no overdoses. A club haunted by a midnight beauty is a safer place for everyone. And before you ask, no, we don’t advertise what we can do for the living, because we don’t want to be jarred and sold as panaceas to rich bastards without scruples.”

I wanted to tell her that wouldn’t happen. I wanted to tell her not enough people believed in ghosts.

I couldn’t do that. Since Verity’s appearance onDance or Die,and the subsequent disappearance of an entire university in Iowa, people had been paying more attention to the world around them. I’m not saying the supernatural and preternatural aspects of the universe were in danger of full unveiling, but they were definitely under more scrutiny than they’d been not all that long ago. With as much as some humans wanted to live forever without ever facing the consequences of their choices, I could absolutely see a black market in midnight beauties springing up, and the poor, beautiful ghosts finding themselves tethered to new masters, with no way of ever breaking free.

We turned a corner, moving into a dark alley, where Benedita stopped, folding her arms, and looked at me. “Well?”

“Well, what?” I allowed myself to flicker, exchanging my too-short dress for the sweater and skirt I’d been wearing on and off all night. All my clothes were illusions, pieces of the twilight snatched and asked to behave like fabric for a little while, but I felt better with less skin on display.

“Well, why did you come and pull me away from Chuck? He’s very young and enthusiastic, and I’m worried he’ll get hurt if I leave him to dance with the living.” She raised an eyebrow. “Also, did you just change your clothes because you’re calling me a skank, or is that a convenient side effect?”

“What? No!” I shook my head in hard negation. “I’m more comfortable like this, that’s all. You wear whatever you want. I think your shoes should qualify you for some kind of physics degree, just because you know how to walk in them.”

“My shoes?” Benedita glanced down. “I was wearing higher heels than this the night I died.”

“How did you die?”

“Oh, it’s story time? Fine. I was out clubbing, I met a guy. He was tall and handsome and sweet and about as clever as a brick. Turned out that was because he’d been dead for about a decade. Hewas a haunt—the classic kind, not the generic term for ghosts. He thought I was beautiful, and he courted me for months before he kissed me, and my heart stopped.”

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