Vampire High Sophomore Year - By Douglas Rees Page 0,67

tonight we were all angels. Why not? Halloween was all about becoming something different.

Justin came over to us and stood waiting to be introduced.

Pestilence looked down at Justin. She was maybe half a head taller.

“Who’s this? Nijinsky?” she said.

“Pestilence DiAngelo, my friend Justin Warrener. Justin, Angela,” I said.

“Heard some of your poetry,” Justin said. “Pretty good.”

“Thanks,” Pestilence said.

“Heard you once or twice down at the Screaming Bean, too,” Justin went on.

“Oh, yeah. That stuff. I’m doing better work now,” Pestilence said.

“Think you might have some time to take a look at some things of mine? Tell me what you think?”

Justin was blushing.

“Sure,” Pestilence said. “What kind of things do you do?”

“Sort of like yours,” Justin said. “Only I usually try to work with forms. Villanelles, pantoums, stuff like that.”

“You can write a villanelle?” Pestilence said. “Damn. You’d better take a look at my stuff. I’ve never been able to finish a villanelle.”

“They’re tough,” Justin allowed.

“Justin Warrener, huh?” Pestilence said.

“Justin Warrener,” Justin agreed.

“And you’re a friend of Diaghilev here,” Pestilence said.

“My best friend,” I said.

“And you’re jenti,” Pestilence said.

“All my life,” Justin said.

“Come on,” Pestilence said. “I want to see some of the stuff upstairs.”

“Sure,” Justin said.

They went up the stairs ahead of me.

I had a feeling I’d had my last kiss from Pestilence DiAngelo.

Villanelles? I’d heard of them. But I’d thought they were musical instruments. Or something you could only see under a microscope. And Justin wrote them. He wrote poetry. Justin.

“Boy,” I thought. “You think you know a jenti and it turns out there’s whole rooms in them that you never had a clue about.”

I figured I might as well go up and check out the second floor art. I hadn’t really paid attention to it so far.

A lot of it was a series of plywood sheets painted black and gouged with a chisel. They were called scars. Scar #1, Scar #2, Scar #3, all around the walls on one side. The tall windows between them were black, too. They looked like they belonged with the paintings.

And then coming up the stairs was the one person I never thought I’d see there, that night or any night.

Ileana. And with her were her father and her mother, the Queen of the Burgundians. And with them was a gray, wispy, elegant little man I didn’t know, but he had to be a Mercian. He was wearing the silver eagle on his lapel.

Ileana and her mother came over to me with the little man between them.

“Good evening, Cody,” Ileana said. “May I present Captain Ethan Prentiss of the Order of the Mercians? Captain Prentiss, this is Mr. Cody Elliot.”

“Good evening, Mr. Elliot,” Captain Prentiss said in a sad little voice.

“Are you one of the thugs who beat me and my cousin up?” I said. “’Cause if you are, I’ve got someone I’d like you to meet. Name’s Gregor Dimitru. I think he’ll have a lot to say to you. I don’t.”

I started to go, but Ileana’s mom put her hand on my shoulder.

“One minute please, Cody,” she said.

“Her Majesty was good enough to give me her protection tonight,” the captain said. “Mr. Elliot, I came to tell you that you have won. I have informed the Mercian Order of my decision to surrender to the forces of Burgundy. And I have given the police the names of those whom I believe participated in the crime against you and Miss Stone. Nothing I can say or do will make up for what was done to you. But I want you to know that the honor of the Mercians, to say nothing of my personal honor, has been smirched beyond restoration by what was done to you both. For any of us to attack a marked gadje is beneath contempt. Therefore, I have informed Her Majesty that we are laying down our arms. I have given the Order my personal opinion that the appropriate course now is for us to disband permanently.”

“Gregor is disarming his men,” Ileana said at my elbow.

“So that’s it?” I said. “War called on account of dishonor?”

“I hope so,” Captain Prentiss said. “Frankly, I cannot be sure that everyone will follow my orders. That is why I am here. To be present in the event of an attack.”

“So there’s still a chance of that,” I said.

“Unfortunately, yes,” Captain Prentiss said.

“Then I don’t think Gregor should disarm anybody,” I said. “Not that what I think matters in the wonderful world of the jenti. ’Scuse me.” I turned back at the foot