Page 3

“Mine has gone to be with their God,” Faustus said. “They are spread across all the dimensions now. They will never vanish. Never.”

Betial “Brick,” the vampire king smiled.

Brick. The name had never been adequately explained to Faustus. Presumably it was some nickname that pleased the vampire well enough he’d chosen to keep it.

No last name existed, none Faustus had ever heard.

Well, apart from those names scattered across holding companies and property deeds, stock portfolios and other intangible assets. Those “family” names had been memorable only in that no two were the same, and all belonged to previously alive humans.

Betial, like most of his kind, was not alive at all.

He had no family apart from his dead brothers and sisters.

The vampire king took a step closer, his fingers deftly twisting together the ends of a seer cigarette, orhiristick, as it was known in the Old World. He finished molding it into a more or less cylindrical shape, a common adjustment after one removed ahirifrom a slightly squashed version of the traditional packet.

Staring at Faustus with those dead, colorless eyes, he smiled from a face that was large featured and handsome, with a prominent jaw and nose. His dramatic auburn hair set off his unusually large eyes with their long black lashes; it also managed to emphasize his vampire white skin.

There was something raw in that beauty.

Even as a human, an animal had lived there.

“You sound so pleased with yourself right now, Charles,” Brick observed. His Louisiana drawl again grew more pronounced. “I really am justloatheto burst those illusions of yours, old friend. Particularly now, so close to the end. Yet I feel there are a few things you reallyshouldknow before we draw the curtain on this little relationship of ours.”

Betial paused to place thehiridelicately between his lips.

Still watching Faustus’ eyes, he reached into the pocket of a forest green, retro-looking suit. Under the green jacket, the vampire wore a dark red shirt and black tie. From an inner pocket, he produced a silver flip lighter with a skull protruding from one side, likely the vampire’s idea of a joke. The lighter didn’t look like something cheap you’d pick up at a truck stop or head shop, however. It looked custom made. The three-dimensional skull screamed out of the metal base like living painting, a near work of art.

Faustus stared at the design as the vampire clicked the flint to ignite a flame.

He watched as the vampire sucked at the end of thehirito get it lit, then clicked the lighter shut, returning it to his dark green suit pocket.

He exhaled familiar, sweet-smelling smoke.

Betial looked at the end of thehirisomewhat regretfully.

“I suppose I will have to get used to going without these now,” the vampire said.

As per usual, his manner, appearance, and words lived somewhere between parody and cartoon villain.

The vampire took his time, taking another long drag of thehiricigarette, and glancing around the greenish-gray metal of the surrounding corridor. He exhaled more of the smoke, then looked back to meet Faustus’ eyes.

“I’m afraid Iamgoing to have to disappoint you, however, Charles.” The handsome, pirate-looking vampire lowered the cigarette to his side. “And disappoint those who had been looking forward to this exciting thing they had planned for you.”

He motioned vaguely around at the cell and corridor.

“Courtroom drama really is the verybestdrama, after all. Especially when it comes to a satisfying conclusion at the end.”

Betial took another sensual drag off thehiri,his eyes unmoving.

“But I’m afraid we have come to a different set of conclusions, my allies and I. We have decided… those of us who actuallyhailfrom this particular speck of dust inside the wondrous creation of the multiverse… those of us who make real decisions here… who are indigenous here…wehave decided that your presence is no longer required on this little jewel of a planet we have here, Charles.”

He made a graceful, dismissive gesture with one hand.

“I am sorry to say the decision was unanimous.”

The vampire eyes changed as Faustus watched.

Where before they had held humor, curiosity, a sultry sort of satisfaction, like a cat finally catching a bird it had stalked… now they held nothing.