Free Vampire Miami by Philip Tucker Page A

eternity.
    “Oh. My. God,” said Maria Elena. Selah opened
her eyes as the other girl came into the room and knelt before her.
Her face was torn, half terrified, half furious. “I told you to
stay out of trouble! I told you to not do anything stupid! Oh my
god, how could you get in so much trouble so fast?”
    “I’m sorry,” said Selah, though she didn’t
really feel sorry. She didn’t feel much of anything. It had all
been too much. She just felt tired. “It was an accident.”
    “I mean, you almost cost me my job! Maybe my
life! The Resistance? Recording in the lounge? What were you
thinking?”
    “I wasn’t,” said Selah. She might as well be
honest. “I didn’t know. You didn’t tell me.”
    That checked her. Maria Elena opened her mouth
to let loose another volley of fury, but then stopped. Looked at
her, and something new came into her eyes. She took a deep breath,
and reached out to put her hands on Selah’s arms. “You’re right.
This is my fault. I didn’t think. Again. Come on. Let’s get out of
here.”
    “Your job?” asked Selah as Maria Elena hauled
her to her feet. “Are you in trouble?”
    “Not officially. Hector wants to kill me, but he
can’t do anything. Not when the freaking Dragon tells him to
leave it alone.”
    “Dragon?” Selah looked at her friend. They
stepped into the hall. “That’s his name?”
    “That’s what they call him. He’s big time,
chica. You never want to get his attention. He works for the
Big Man himself. Sawiskera, you know? How the hell did you get his
attention? You know what? Never mind. Let’s get out of here
first.”
    “My Omni?” asked Selah as they hustled down the
hall. Hector stood in the doorway, arms crossed, glaring at them
both. Maria Elena gave him a nervous smile, ducked her head, and
slipped past him and back out into the nexus. Selah felt a pang,
muffled though it was by exhaustion. Her father’s Omni. What was
she going to do without it?
    Back into the blue light and music. Out into the
entrance hall, then through the doorway, Maria Elena paused to
snatch up her jacket, and then out into the night. A large crowd
had gathered outside. Maria Elena and Selah stepped out around the
side, and then began to stride away, away from the club, away from
the sound and light and people. They crossed and went down a side
street between two large hotels. Music and the sound of people
desperately enjoying their night filtered over from behind designer
hedges that separated the hotel entrances from the street. Down a
half block, and then, miraculously, completely without warning, the
beach.
    Maria Elena pulled her over to a low retaining
wall made of stone, capped with a smooth concrete top, and sat on
it, but Selah remained standing, staring over the wall and at the
white sands. The moon had risen. It was like a blessing, a sign
that she was still alive. A promise. It painted the beach a marble
white, patterned shadows under each scalloped sand dune, and then
beyond it, the glory of the ocean. Vast and ponderous and sending
its waves up the sandy slope in whispering surges. It was a calm
night, no wind. Selah gazed at the great darkness of it, at the
sparkling, scintillating waves under the moon, and inhaled deeply,
cleaning her lungs of the smoke and replacing it with the tang of
salt.
    Remembered, then, how the vampire had breathed
only so as to be able to speak. His black eyes, locked on hers,
never blinking. The Dragon .
    “All right,” said Maria Elena, lighting a
cigarette and inhaling deeply. “Now. Start from the beginning. Tell
me everything.”
    Selah settled down next to her. Studied her
face. The sight of the moon had given her a new sense of calm.
Perhaps it was just the fatigue. Could she trust her? She was only
a couple of years older, but right now, having gone through that
experience in the club, Selah felt the more mature of the two.
Perhaps only by dint of having survived it. She reached out and
took Maria Elena’s