Page 79 of Thief of Night
She ignored him and stabbed her hand again. At least she could give him something.
The darkness rose up and fastened itself around her hand. She could feel the laving of his tongue against her wound. The press of his open mouth,drinking. And as he drew her blood, she felt something else being pulled out of her, parts of herself that she wasn’t sure she could get back.
Drowning people often killed their rescuers by pushing them under water, scrambling up their bodies for a breath. Even untethered from him as she was, she could sense the vastness of his hunger.
She recalled Vince whispering to the gloamist who’d come looking for her in Rapture.You’ve let your shadow feed for too long tonight,Vince had told the man right before he snapped his neck.There’s not much of you left. Can’t you feel the strain, like something spooling out of you?
“Enough,” Charlie snapped, trying to pull her arm free.
“I need you,” he said tightening his grip. “Please. I need—”
She yanked away, stumbling to her feet, then took three steps from him. “You’re lucky I’m helping you at all.”
Though he had a disturbing translucence, she could make out his features. He had never before so resembled a ghost.
“Can you get up?”
“There’s not much of me left,” he said.
For a moment, despair closed over Charlie. “You’ll be okay.” It wasn’t fair to lose him before she got to yell at him and make him grovel.
He couldn’t die. And with her trickster’s habit of looking for a way out, her con artist’s belief that everything, even death itself, could be swindled, she thought of a possible angle. Looking at the fine black powder on the floor, she swept a handful into her pocket.
“Not enough of you?” she asked. “Fine. Then I’ll steal some more.”
“Char,” he said in warning.
She leaned down to help him up, afraid her fingers would pass right through his skin. He was solid enough for her to pull him to his feet. He leaned against her and she was reassured by his weight though the draining of her energy left her lightheaded.
“You need more blood,” she said as they made their way to the door. “Just not mine.”
Charlie tried not to look into the living room, at the macabre sight of the corpses, sitting on the couch of their gore-covered living room like abandoned toys. They made her think of Mr. Punch and the homeowners he’d puppeted, standing on stairs with their eyes closed. For the first time, she noticed how tidy the living room was if she ignored the bloodbath, in contrast to the kitchen, where dirty dishes stuffed the sink, pots covered the stove, garbage spilled out over the tops of trash cans, and cigarette butts filled cups and plates.
Whoever had murdered those people had stayed here with their corpses, cooking food. Eating takeout. Smoking. Not just Blights, then.
Charlie led Red through the house. “Remember when I promised I’d never order you to do anything? When this is over, I am going to make you doeverything. I am going to make you pick up trash by the side of the road.”
He was stumbling like a drunk. “Whatever you want.”
“I’ve got you,” she said, pushing open the screen with her shoulder. “You asshole.” Her eyes snagged on one of the cigarette butts in the sink, gold lines on the filter.
“I didn’t kill them,” he told her.
“No shit.” They stepped onto the street, cold air making her shiver now that she had less blood to keep herself warm.
They managed the three blocks to the van. She opened the back and helped him inside where she settled him on the sleeping bags.
“I didn’t want anyone to hurt you,” he said, sounding as though he was speaking from very far away.
She knew that shadows could burn up if a gloamist forced them to use more energy than they possessed, but she’d never seen it happen. She wasn’t sure how much energy Red had left. She hoped he had enough time to get where they were going. Hoped there was enough time to save him. “No one but you, right?”
He didn’t answer.
“I can’t wait to hear your excuse for tonight.”
He still said nothing in return.
“If it boils down to you hating yourself, please hate yourself a little more, on my behalf.” Then she slammed the doors closed, hands shaking.
