Holly Black - The Coldest Girl in Coldtown

The girl shook her head. “No, wait. It was Aidan who found her.”

“Aidan?” Tana looked up at him, disbelieving.

“I spotted her not far from the gates,” Aidan said. “She was pretty freaked out.”

Pearl gave him a look of deep betrayal. “I had a plan—”

“Aidan was the only one of us who knew what she looked like in person,” Valentina put in. “And the only one who wasn’t a stranger.”

Tana nodded, reaching for Pearl and staring at Aidan. “Thank you.”

“When Pauline called me, I figured I owed you one. Maybe more than one.” Aidan bent down, so Pearl could climb off his shoulders. She came into Tana’s arms, hugging her tight. Tana could hear the bird-wing beat of her heart and smell the sweetness of the blood under her skin, but if Aidan could bear it then so could she. She pressed her mouth to Pearl’s hair and drank in the scent of her, memorizing it.

“I just wanted to be here with you,” Pearl said. Her thin shoulders shook. “I wanted to help. I didn’t know—”

“It’s okay,” Tana whispered, hugging her even more tightly. “It’s going to be okay.”

“We saw you,” Aidan said, pointing to one of the screens suspended from metal girders. “I mean, not all of it, probably, but—with Lucien, at the end.”

She looked over at them. “You saw what happened?”

“Lucien Moreau’s dead,” said Valentina, over the music. “We saw that . We couldn’t hear everything, but it looked like he went crazy.”

“ You looked awesome, though,” Aidan said, and for the first time, when he smiled, his red eyes and sharp teeth seemed like a normal part of him. “Nice dress.”

“I’m sorry, Tana,” Pearl said, her fingers digging into Tana’s arm. “I thought he—I really didn’t know.”

“Of course you didn’t.” Tana pulled her sister off to one side so she could talk to her with some privacy. “I didn’t know, either. And that’s why you have to leave Coldtown. I can get you out, but you have to promise never to come back. Never ever.”

“But no one leaves,” Pearl said wonderingly.

“Well, you’re going to,” Tana said. “Right now.”

Pearl gave her a long look. “Aidan promised we could have fun tonight. If I can leave, can I still leave in the morning?”

Tana flashed Aidan her most vicious look. He shrugged elaborately.

“What could I do?” he asked, as though he was something other than a fearsome vampire. “Anyway, don’t you think it’s a bit unfair for her to come all this way and not have a story to tell all her little friends? You know I’m a pushover for a cute girl with big, begging eyes.”

Pearl snickered.

Tana didn’t quite trust herself to speak. For a long moment, she looked at the swings where brightly painted girls and boys dangled above the crowd, at the flashing lights, and at the cracked dome far above them. It was beautiful, in its way.

“Fine,” Tana said. “But you go back to the gate just before dawn. Promise? We’ll walk you there.”

Pearl nodded. “Can I dance with Aidan some more? He’ll protect me from any other vampires.”

He smiled his charming smile. A face like a wicked cherub, that’s what she’d thought before he’d ever turned, and it was even more true now. He might be a monster, but he was Aidan, too, and Aidan wouldn’t hurt Pearl. “Sure,” she said. “Just don’t tire him out.”

“I am the undead,” he informed her. “I am indefatigable.”

Tana watched them spin off into the crowd, Pearl’s hair flying behind her like a dark banner.

“You okay?” Valentina asked.

Tana shook her head, trying to smile to take the sting out of it, but the smile felt as if it came out a bit sickly. It was odd for everything to be over and to be both the same as before and utterly changed.

It was odd to think that, like it or not, this was her new home.

“I’m going to go to the bar,” Tana said. “See if I can wipe off my face with a wet napkin or something. That’ll make me feel a little more human.”

Valentina nodded, and Tana pushed her way through the crowd. Twice, someone stopped her to give her a high-five or to offer a round of drinks in her honor. Once, someone stopped her to offer a drink from their shunt. She pushed away from them dizzily. She supposed that Lucien wasn’t nearly as popular in Coldtown as he’d been on television.

Spotting Jameson sitting at one end of the bar, she headed in his direction. He saluted her with his cup when she got close enough to lean against the concrete top.

“Congratulations,” he said, signaling to the bartender. A moment later, Tana had another mug set in front of her, handed over by a woman with candy-apple-red dreads who clearly didn’t care about ID.

Tana hopped up on a stool.

He clinked his glass against hers and announced, “You’re famous. You know that, right? And you’re going to be even more famous after tonight.”

She downed most of the contents of the cup, wincing. Then she poured the rest over her face. It stung, but she figured that meant the alcohol was disinfecting as it was supposed to. “You have any kind of tissue?” she asked.

He reached into his pockets and came up with an old-fashioned folded-up men’s handkerchief. She took it and wiped her face, turning it a very dark red. “Sorry about ruining this thing.”

“That’s what it’s for. Look, I’m serious about you being famous. One of only two survivors of what they’re calling the Sundown Tragedy,” he said, not sounding very sober. “The girl who drove an infected friend and a vampire all the way to Coldtown and turned them in. The girl who killed a vampire on camera. Oh, yeah, video of you has been all over the news and the blogs—the footage of you wrestling around in the dirt next to the garbage cans with that girl, Midnight, is particularly popular. And now—you killed Lucien Moreau. You should charge for interviews.”

“I was worried Pearl was going to be mad,” Tana said. “She loved Lucien’s show.”

Jameson laughed.

“You’ve got to lock me up,” she said. Lock me up and throw away the key.

“What about your sister?” he asked.

“She’s going home, and if I ever want to see her again, I know what I’ve got to do.”

He gave her an appraising look that reminded her alarmingly of his mother. “I know a place. We can go in the morning.” Then he hesitated. “Are you sure about this? You sure you don’t want to be a vampire? You’re here in a sea of people who’ll give you their blood. Hell, I’ll give you mine if you want to turn.”

“You think I should?” she asked, resting her head on the bar top. The air was hot with the heat of pumping hearts and racing blood, rising up off human skin. Just inhaling made her feel dizzy. It was tempting. Give in. Give up.

“It’s hard not to want that around here. They’re the top of the food chain. Apex predators.”

“So why don’t you turn? Get your mom to bring you over?”

“I’m contrary,” he said with a snort, looking out onto the dance floor. She followed his gaze and saw that he was watching Valentina as she talked with a boy in a long leather coat. Aidan and Pearl were still spinning in mad circles. “Sometimes I don’t know what I want.”

Tana liked the feeling of the cool concrete under her cheek. It was rough and smooth at the same time, like the way she imagined a dragon’s scales might feel. “She’s pretty.”

He sighed. “Yeah.”

“She told me how great you were—saving her and her friend and all.”

Now he grinned a rueful grin and shook his head. “Oh, now I see where you’re going with this. Save your breath.”

“You don’t like her?” Tana asked and then wished she hadn’t, because if he said something awful about Valentina, she was going to hate him.