Free Anno Dracula Dracula Cha Cha Cha by Kim Newman Page A

didn’t like him much, which was a shame.
    Princess Asa wheeled to look at him.
    Her eyes burned through lace. Her eyelids curled like snarling lips. She flashed white teeth.
    ‘I should take him from you, your toy,’ she said, to Penelope. ‘As punishment.’
    Her dead face loomed close, eyes the size of saucers. Tom caught a whiff of grave-breath.
    ‘But such treatment would be wasted on you,’ the Princess said, wafting across the room, fluttering toward Penelope. ‘You are a stupid, unfeeling woman. You care for nothing and no one.’
    ‘As you say, Princess.’
    Princess Asa picked up a Chinese plant pot older than she was, and smashed it on the floor, skewering earthy roots with a heel.
    ‘Kneel, Englishwoman!’
    Penelope’s face tightened.
    The Princess drew herself up, shrouds gathered, and towered over Penelope. A mediaeval tyrant in a snit, a Victorian lady with steel in her spine.
    Princess Asa lifted a taloned hand in command. Her fingernails raised points in her shrouds.
    Penelope went down on one knee but didn’t lower her head.
    ‘Kneel as if you meant it, woman.’
    ‘As you say.’
    Penelope looked briefly at the carpet, then got up, brushing dirt from her knees.
    ‘Satisfied?’ she asked Princess Asa.
    ‘Eminently.’
    ‘Good. If you’ll excuse me, I have errands to run.’ She looked at the shards of china and the trampled plant. ‘I’ll find a servant to clear up this mess. That was Tang Dynasty, by the way. Ninth century. A gift to Prince Dracula from Kah of Ping Kuei Temple. The High Priest probably didn’t expect his tribute to be used as a flowerpot. Ugly object, I always thought. But apparently quite valuable.’
    Penelope withdrew with strange dignity. Tom was proud of the old girl.
    He was left alone with the Royal Fiancée.
    She growled at him, like one of her dogs. He relaxed a little. She might make great display of her wrath, but Princess Asa was far less dangerous a creature than Penelope Churchward. For Tom, the Royal Fiancée was easy, almost disappointing.
    He adjusted his collar, touching always-open bitemarks. He got his fingertips a little bloody and rolled them together.
    Princess Asa, struck by red thirst, forgot his face, and looked at his sticky fingers. Pretending to have noticed her interest only now, Tom apologised and searched for a handkerchief. Then, shyly, as if it were an afterthought, he held out his hand, fingers dangling.
    The Princess hesitated, looking around to see if they were observed. She gathered her shrouds and threw them up over her hat, tidying them behind her white shoulders. Her skin was like polished bone.
    She moved as fast as Penelope, darting close to Tom, dipping her head, licking his fingers clean, then retreating, cleaning her mouth on gauze.
    He saw how his taste affected her. Her skinny ribs rose and fell, like the legs of a contented centipede. She was shuddering with delight.
    She would never give him a thought again.

5

    GELATI
    S he looked Geneviève’s Vespa over with some trepidation. The little motor-scooter was white with red trim, aerodynamically styled like an American wireless set. A great devotee of the bicycle in her younger days, Kate hadn’t had much luck with motorised vehicles. In her experience, wonderful new contraptions had a habit of trying to kill her.
    ‘It’s the only way to get about,’ Geneviève declared. ‘I can nip in and out between stalled cars.’
    ‘I’ll bet you get honked at a lot.’
    ‘Well, yes.’
    Geneviève smiled as if Kate happened to be in town to sample the nightlife and look at the ruins.
    They hadn’t talked, really. About Charles.
    Geneviève sat forward on the long seat, telling Kate to climb up behind and hang on. The ride was swift and thrilling, affording the welcome comfort of a breeze and a few routine brushes with death. Geneviève knew her way about the narrow streets and through hidden courtyards and piazzas. She handled her trusty steed with practised expertise.