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Chapter Thirteen

The dog leaped through the openinto Dolly’s red-leather passenger seat as if claiie bed

I’d planned to lower the pop-top for after-dark Las Vegas cruising, which it soon would be, so I unlatched the manual locks and hit the chrome control knob that had been futuristic in the fifties and Dolly was gettin’ down

The sense of freedono at fifteen-and-a-half It also recalled Father Black I tried not to think of him Not that Father Black was a problem; no, the opposite He was the priest who htly shy man in his late thirties with a kind, sometimes worried face He’d been the only one to notice that I was nearing driving license age and had no one to teachstick shift Volvo the parish had bought hi lot on weekends, andstick, but it was all I had and I got good enough to pass ly sour note, though

My dear bitchy classmates, all equipped with fathers and older brothers to teach the about Father Black and me Sarah Anderson’s mother, a hair-sprayed harridan in Prada pumps, stomped into the Mother Superior’s office one day and said the lessons must stop because of the "scandal"

I was called in soon after, and all the swearing in the world that his instructions were purely fatherly weren’t enough I’ht Mrs Anderson’s line Although she stopped the lessons, she said Mrs Anderson had to chauffeur me to my driver’s test and provide a car for oodness) sporty six-speed h the paces I’d vowed to pass the first tih water And I did Father Black and I never coain, except for nods in the hall He looked shy, worried, and now sad when I saw hies had hu rare and nice into be disowned

Mother Superior told irls had been jealous of me, but I couldn’t see why they would be, when they had everything and I had nothing

Anyway, as soon as I was on my own and could buy a car, I switched to autoant find that sheShe was bigger than a Lexus and way better looking than Mrs Anderson Her high horse-power chutzpah always liftedwith my chosen radio station, so I had tothe cost of Jiain

We stopped at a Peter Piper Pickle-Eater drive-through to load up on fast food The shtick here was that everything caers faster than I could order three more He spit out the pickles even faster

I sat and contemplated where the heck I could run and walk hiiuest Hey, the rotating lady tenants brought in soenuine one? I’d paid for the week, after all

The sun was long gone by the time we hit the Pet Palace, a pseudo-Taj Mahal affair in a strip o-pink neon thathowl even louder

"Shut up," I told him "Rescues can’t be choosers You need a non-wussy leash Don’t worry I’ll h the papers I’d signed in Sunset Park in the parking lot’s hot-pink glow Rabies shot Right I’d take care of that in the next day or tear to fix Neuter Important I eyed my boy’s silver-blue eyes A quick nip and tuck It would hurt s know?

I entered the Pet Palace’s hyper-fluorescent lit interior and spent seventy-so-boy a stainless steel bowl set, several chew-bones the size of an Easter Island head, and a short leash with a chain big enough to serve as a watch-fob for King Kong No dog bed was large enough for his big-boned fras had to sleep on tartan plaid? They weren’t all Scottish He’d just have toat the Araby Motel I had to deal with the scratchy sheets

When I ca lot was deserted for dinnertime down time I’d put up the top and locked Godzilla of the North in the Caddy with the s inched down all around

He was staring soulfully at rizzly-size teeth, and started leaping at the

Whoa! That’s lass, Toto! Built to resist iht of the Alcatraz-style chain in my hands

Or maybe it was the jerk behind uys They were all so pasty-faced I took the shoulders in plaid shirts and the plastic pocket protectors

"It is her!" cried the one who’d laid hands onto worry about unless I was a s to the paveave Geek-boy an elbow in the stomach that cracked a couple of ribs, stomped his pal’s foot in its shabby tennies, spun away froh-kicked his chin I picked up Dog’s chain leash and looped it around Bachelor Nuuy had not fallen far from the Tree and had been left for fertilizer by the snake

It was a pleasure to see that aveup a storuys were backing off, whirowl I whirled ontheir plastic-fraes of their noses

They weren’t the problerew multiple,lot, bu on my disappointed suitors

And onthere

"It’s her!" I heard an adenoidal voice whine behind ie! She’s worth a bundle, dead or alive"

Motorcycle boots scraped asphalt as the dozen asseru athan the Geek Quartet No hel sideburns into th chest and arm hair under their leather vests into hairy knuckles on handlebars

Their eyes glea Beauty’s castle thicket of snarled hair, and their teeth glealinted off the steel buckles and zippers and chains slathered stylishly over their leather pants and boots and, yeah, those muscle vests They couldn’t serve any purpose but bluff and glitter At least these guys weren’t tattooed froh skin for the job, just those hairy ape acres except they were from another animal family entirely

Werewolves!

We didn’t have those in Kansas We didn’t have much that was up-to-date in Kansas City Or even Wichita

Wait! The moon wasn’t full I looked up tothat three of them bounded off the leather seats of the Harleys and went to make Geek salad of the poor fools behindlot asphalt I raced towardhis handsodom for a remote control for a’ 56 Cadillac! But I was It My twelve-yard dash for the car made the motorcycles rev, swoop, and circlefree to be juain, his beard a wet tangle gouted with black blood and white spittle

"You ride withleather seat behind hiht I didn’t much like my chances with the Dirty Dozen, lupine division I knew that once a woman is in an attacker’s vehicle, her survival chances pluured I’d be better off eaten or offed than driven away

"I h-h-heard about h-h-her," one underling rown teeth didn’t do ? To who?"

"Aw, those porn -money collectors Whole bunch of, you know, people with money"

I waited Maybe rabbits had the best idea Freeze, then run like hell ’Course, they didn’t survive too long and had to reproduce very soon and fast, at which I was lamentably behind

The leader of the pack twisted his clawed, hairy hands paws on the Harley handlebars, revving his bike until it bucked to be off and running down so-Ric-in-the-park spike-heeled slides Not great for rabbiting in I wondered if my maybe-prince would eventually dowsewas trouncing the inside of my Caddy, to no avail

"What’s that racket?" Leader demanded of his minions

"A domestic slave"

"Worthless Balls of a wo really, really riled, but I’d locked him in and unless he could develop an opposable thumb, ere both sucked Maybe the shelter would notice the nice stainless steel bowls and leash that ca at the reasy lastoff his cycle to control or killa bit, because the two-footed strut just didn’t go with his circus-dog-on-hind-legs act

I waited until he ithin three feet

"You worth delayingwhen I kicked one rear foot out fro’s chain around his hairy neck and crossed -haired nape Then I stomped his spine with er, i for the kill-lass and gliht for the nearest Harley, which went down in a spark shower of chro took theood for snapping necks, spinning out awatch creas noall of his ani the human who’d saved his ass Which was decidedly not wombat-balled I resolved then and there to break the first rule of responsible animal ownership and not to "fix" hiured that by now he kind of owned me

Chapter Fourteen

The cops ca had taken off The scarifying biker gang had shriveled into a dazed clot of scraped, bleeding olves Apparently they’d ed to eat the Geeks, for the only victi on the site wasthe pet store and being accosted when I came out A wootfor victi ive it oods, and accepted Officer Sht up the rear

"Kinda rough welcoas," she said as we headed out, the histling through Dolly’s brokenWhere was I going to get a ’56 Caddy Eldorado Biarritzreplaced in Las Vegas? Not even Ir at the Araby?’

"I can’t afford et a job"

"Get outa there as soon as you can And collect that dog youfroht have scared off those cheap punks Maybe"

"Toray lupine shadoas pacing Dolly and the squad car At thirty-five miles an hour That’s ang We’ve been trying to put theot to fighting a themselves over you"

"Lucky," I repeated with a shudder At leastwas off the hook

The officer droppedsquad car with extreret, but I swore that I’d have new quarters soon To at the door to h, part of the shadow cast by the one parking lot light that still worked in the entire complex

As he stepped forward, I saw that his ruff was h to serve as insulation

"It’s a head-to-toe bite inspection for you,with your brand-new brush Then we’re off to see the wizard again I could use soain"

He interrupted a frenzied licking of his rowl amiably

"I need a name for you" I ran my hand over his skull, down his neck, past the wide leather collar that was now di lot light, pale and luminous, like thesilver-sheen Like moonshine

"Quicksilver," I said

He sat down, boxed at his nose with his paws and grinned up at s

Quicksilver it was

Chapter Fifteen

I was surprised the next htwine opened instantly for us and the squawk box recognized us Apparently everybody knew our names at Hector’s place Kinda like on Cheers

" Miss Street and Mr Dog," came the cultivated voice over the microphone

"Mr Quicksilver, Godfrey He has a naood Proceed to the main door and do scrape your shoes and paws on the welco with a natty coat under which not one half-were puncture or scratch lurked Of course he’d kept ht with the sound of his relentless licking and grooht awesoboat-size chain for a leash

We trotted up to the entry doors, which resembled the approach to a cathedral Godfrey was his sa the curled upper lip we knew and loved

"Is theQuicksilver’s heavy-duty leash into Godfrey’s white-gloved hand

"Mr Nightwine is in," Godfrey said carefully He eyed Quicksilver with a certain camaraderie "As to who is the ht I knew enough now to squeeze Nightwine by his carnivorous balls, and I would find out just how much shortly

The study was the saed brandy, and leather-bound books Daylight never penetrated here Maybe Nightas a vaestive and anyone could be undead these days Nowadays, playing pin the fang on the vaender preferences used to be

"I thought you’d be back" Nightwine infore Or a parole officer

"I thought you’d want that"

" Miss Street, is it? Really and truly?"

"Yes It is" As ency could be real or true

"Youa pseudony soaot hihtas silent So I spoke again

"So her name was Lilith Wasn’t Lilith the uppity woet doith the snake and queer the whole deal? And then they both blaend I deal in the present and the future The fact is, as I now see, you are a stranger to Vegas and tocopyrights here I bought all rights to Lilith’s likeness and its reproduction I have the sa or dead Lilith was unexpectedly unique Superb A horror director’s dreaenuine dissection"

"Genuine? You mean you actually kill people onscreen?"

"Certainly not, that would be murder! But some are freshly dead, yes If they wish We don’t kill them, we don’t assist thereement to be valid, theyated, just like murders And autopsies performed and "

" Miss Street, as we have established, you are new to Las Vegas You are also ignorant of its laws Let us just say that certain statutes have been passed that allow for our use of such "talent," as we call perforatory and legal procedures are followed The order of those procedures as has always accommodated the entertainhtwine Productions are located here rather than Los Angeles"

Had I mentioned I wasn’t in Kansas anymore? I wasn’t even in Southern California’s LaLa Land �C and I thought that was as weird as a place could get

"I think I understand, Mr Nightwine If your corpse is a real corpse, it is ah fresh and free of the um imperfections of death?"

"We prefer to ’dress’ our own corpses"

"So the ot in the nose was a director’s touch?"

"Lilith ht on the , and rot Etcetera Do sit down I realize our modus operandi is a shock I’ for a taste of fame, even if it’s posthumous"

I sat "But she wore nant touch it was Er, is, in your case Like a tiny bejeweled tear Exquisite" His beady black eyes actually weltered in so

"Well, Hector, I’, not to mention dead I’m from Kansas and I’m somebody else than this Lilith entirely I am not a posthumous person Get it? I live, breathe, want answers"