Felix didn't know enough to tell them. And he damn sure wasn't going to go out to the Blazer and bring Cat in to explain.
"Call Rome," he said.
"But what about your friend?" the bishop asked him. "I understand that his remains have already - "
"Call Rome," Felix repeated, then left.
It was still only late afternoon when he drove them back to the hotel. And the sunshine was bright on the great glass building and maybe that's what made it seem so like a prison.
Felix stopped the Blazer in front of the hotel entrance. The entrance to the connecting Galleria was less than one hundred yards away, with its shops and its people and... He realized he had cabin fever. Had it bad.
"Anybody want anything?" Felix asked them, suddenly.
Cat and Davette exchanged a smile.
"Sure," he said.
"Let's look," she said.
And they all grinned and Felix let the hotel park the car and they went inside and through the lobby to the mall doors and by the time they got there they were almost trotting. The mall was full of people strolling up and down, children skipping and pointing, old couples sitting on benches with their sacks between their legs. The place was four stories high and four blocks long, with the stores stacked on either side of the Great Atrium, which ran the length of it all. Topping everything was a great curved multipaneled skylight.
Retail heaven.
They almost did some actual shopping. After a few moments Davette saw something in a window that she liked, a pair of brown shoes. She asked the men what they thought of them and Cat and Felix said they were pretty, why didn't she buy them and she said she would.
But they just stood there, instead, looking into the window. Alter a few moments, they moved along down the mall toward the smell of food. Most of the restaurants were gathered in the center of the Great Atrium, on three stories overlooking a skating rink. There were steak houses and little bistros and Tex-Mex joints and Chinese food and two or three little bars.
They compromised on a bar that served food, finding a table that overlooked the skating rink.
And they sat down and had a drink and another drink and something to eat and watched the skaters and made comments about them. But they never talked about anything serious. Never. And they didn't leave. And the sun slipped slowly away.
What are we trying to prove, Felix wondered, when he realized they were going to stay.
What are we trying to deny?
An hour and a half later, with the skylight black above them, they saw the vampire.
Or noticed him, rather, which was the part that got to Felix.
That and the goddamned unfairness of it all.
Because they had been looking at him for some time before they realized what it was, before Davette's breath suddenly caught in her throat and the men looked at her, looked to where she was staring, at that same guy standing down there at that other bar...
And saw him. Really saw him for what he was.
It was a long, polished, curved wooden bar that skirted along the edge of the rink. Weary shoppers could pause, hop up on a stool, and grab a quick one without breaking stride. And then they might sit there a little longer, watching the skaters. And maybe have just one more drink before trying to find Uncle Stan's birthday present. Maybe they would just stay until closing.
The vampire was at the far end of the bar to their left, standing there alone pretending to drink something clear on the rocks. A few feet to his right, sitting alone, was a young woman in her mid-twenties with long legs and auburn hair and a stack of shopping bags piled around her stool and no one to save her.
Because we're the only ones who know, Felix thought bitterly. And we can't do anything because it's dark and...
And what? What?
The deception is what got to him. Just walking up and ordering something and spotting his prey and getting away with it. He could have sat down next to anyone - but us. Anyone could have sat down next to him.
Hell, I could go sit down next to him now!
And do what? Nothing. Die, maybe.
But I could do it. And he wouldn't recognize me, either.
Felix didn't know why that notion so intrigued him.
But then the hunt started and no one thought. They just watched.
It happened so fast. It happened so smoothly. Suddenly he