Free City of Whispers (City of Whispers #1) by Katherine Sorin Page A

too much of a spin
on our situation.
    Either way, we were celebrities. As much as it annoyed
me that we were being exploited by the media and possibly the government, I felt
better knowing that the outside world knew we were still alive and stuck in Manhattan. If nothing
else, maybe public sympathy could get us out of New York.

9
    As planned, we saved the basement of my apartment building for last. It seemed
like the most logical place for vampires to hide, if they were going to hide in
my building at all.
    After we finished going through and clearing out the
apartments, we waited another day before going into the basement so that we
were fresh and well rested. I had almost become used to breaking into
apartments and looking for vampires and bodies, careless even, but I knew that
the basement would not be routine. I had never been in the basement, but I
shuddered when I imagined the dark corners, hot water heater, the furnace, and
other basement items behind which vampires could hide.
    It might sound silly, but I was also worried about the
cats. I’m a cat person, and before the plague, my building’s super kept cats in
the basement to kill bugs and rodents. Were the cats still down there? Were
their corpses down there? It made me uncomfortable to consider what had
happened to them. I didn’t know if vampires only drank human blood, or if they
drank the blood of other animals too.
    If pre-vampire New
York hadn’t already made me desensitized to human
life, the events of the past month certainly had. Still, the thought of coming
across mangled cat bodies bothered me. For that reason, even though I wanted to
play tough again and volunteer to go first, I let Scott be the first one in. I
didn’t bring it up, but I was concerned that seeing the body of a cat might
distract me and put the whole group in danger. With that in mind, I did,
however, volunteer to go second.
    Beth was gray in the face. I asked her if she wanted
to sit this one out. She didn’t say anything, but shook her head. James started
insisting she stay upstairs, but Beth kept shaking her head, she didn’t want to
let us down.
    Paulo came up with the solution. “We really need
someone to stay upstairs. We don’t want the basement door to slam on us and God
forbid we get locked downstairs.” Beth blanched and Paulo continued. “Please
stay up here and watch the door so it doesn’t close. Anyway, if we get into
trouble we can shout and you’ll be close to the outside door so you can get
help.” Beth agreed, looking relieved.
    The door to the basement was in the building foyer so
Beth would stay upstairs between the basement and the outside door. The door to
the basement was locked.
    Maybe there wouldn’t be any vampires at all down there.
The lock on the basement door took Dwayne a little more time than usual. When
he was finished he patted Scott on the back, as he usually did when one of us
was about to lead the way into the unknown, and said, “Good luck, man.”
    “Thanks,” Scott replied. He held his stake up and I
gave him plenty of space, not wanting to be elbowed in the face.
    I felt as I had the first day we started clearing out
my building. In one sense, I hoped the locked door had kept out the vampires,
in another, I wanted to kill a few more.
    It was mid-May by that time and the building was very
warm, but not yet hot. Scott’s skin was shiny, but not quite sweaty. I wondered
whether his sheen was on account of the warm weather or nerves.
    Scott took a deep breath, let it out, and opened the
door. Three pairs of glowing eyes bounded up the stairs. Scott jumped back and
three skinny cats dashed out the door, through the foyer, and out into the
street.
    Scott gasped. “Shit.”
    I started to giggle. “Sorry, I should have warned you,
but I thought every building kept cats in the basement.”
    “Yeah I know, I know, but don’t act like you weren’t a
little scared,” Scott replied.
    “Whatever, let’s try that again.” I was happy