Page 129 of Wicked Hungry

“You need to let her go, Stanley,” Enrique says. “You really need to let her go.”

That’s when I realize that I’m still holding on to her cold, stiff body.

I let her down, slowly, to the ground. She seems light, and cold. Why won’t she get up and wink at us and tell us this is all some bad joke?

“They can’t come inside here,” Morgaine says.

“What do you want me to do?” I ask.

“Do you want to carry her?” Enrique asks. “Or we can carry her together. They’re waiting for her outside.”

“Now?” I ask.

“Now,” Jonathan says. “Come on, dude, we’ll help you.”

“No.” I shake my head. “I’ll carry her.”

I stand up and pick her up. None of this is fair. I want to shout and growl and scream and squeeze my hands into tight fists. But instead I just pick her up. She seems light as a feather. Maybe it’s just my anger. I follow Morgaine out of the room, out of her house, out into the night. I can feel Enrique and Jonathan behind me.

There are three of them just outside the house, but I can feel more all around. Waiting. Sisters of the Night. Where are the brothers, or are there none? I cradle Karen’s body in my arms. What will they do with her? I look at the three of them, staring at me, impassive, their faces as white as snow, their lips dark blue, almost black.

“My name is Sarah,” says the vampire in the front. She looks all of fourteen or fifteen, but what does that matter? Her looks, I mean. She could be a hundred for all I know.

“What are you going to do with her?” I ask.

Around me I feel anger. The two vampires behind Sarah hiss, but she raises her hand and the night is silent.

“Our rites are secret,” she says. “I’m sorry.”

“But how do I know—”

“You know she is one of us. Forever. Only we can help her on her next journey.”

“And her parents?”

“We’ll do what we can to ease the pain,” Sarah says. “Nothing’s been decided yet. This is sudden for all of us.”

“And her friends?”

“She had us,” Sarah says. “And she had you. We can still see the mark. I know she loved you, Stanley. I’m very sorry.”

“Everybody’s sorry, but that doesn’t change much. She’s still dead, isn’t she?”

“Yes,” Sarah says. “She is.”

What would Karen have wanted? She wanted me to hold her one last time, didn’t she? What now? I kiss her lightly one last time on her cold lips.

And feel... nothing. Just this black emptiness all around me.

I look up at them. They stare at me, impatient in their patience. They can move so fast or just stand immobile like that, without moving a muscle, without blinking an eye.

What are they feeling?

“What do I do, now?”

“I’ll take her, Stanley.”

My arms hold Karen up in front of me and Sarah reaches out, pulls the body to her. For a moment I want to hold on, to keep her with me. But then something breaks inside me and I let go, and there are tears in my eyes again.