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And then I blundered into a small bright hotel.
I paid for the room in cash, extra tip, don't disturb me for twenty-four hours, went upstairs, bolted the door, pulled the curtains, shutoff the bothersome stinking heat, and crawled under the bed andwent to sleep,The last strange thought that passed through my mind before Iwent into mortal slumber梚t was hours before sunrise, and plentyof time for dreaming梬as that David was going to be angry aboutall this somehow, but that Dora, Dora might believe and understand ...
I must have slept a few hours at least. I could hear the nightsounds outside.
When I woke, the sky was lightening. The night was almost up.
Now would come oblivion. I was glad. Too late to think. Go backinto the deep vampire sleep. Dead with all the other Undeadwherever they were, covering themselves against the coming light.
A voice startled me. It spoke to me very distinctly:
"It's not going to be that simple."I rose up in one motion, overturning the bed, on my feet, staringin the direction from which the voice had come. The little hotelroom was like a tawdry trap.
A man stood in the corner, a simple man. Not particularly tall, orsmall, or beautiful like Roger, or flashy like me, not even very young,not even very old, just a man. A rather nice-looking man, with armsfolded and one foot crossed over the other.
The sun had just come up over the buildings. The fire hit thewindows. I was blinded. I couldn't see anything.
I went down towards the floor, just a little burnt and hurt, the bedfalling down upon me to protect me.
Nothing else. Whoever or whatever it was, I was powerless oncethe sun had come into the sky, no matter how white and thick the veilof winter morning.
5VERY well," said David. "Sit down. Stop pacing. And I wantyou to go over every detail again. If you need to feed beforeyou do this, then we'll go out and?
"I have told you! I am past that. I don't need to feed. I don't needblood. I crave it. I love it. And I don't want any now! I feasted onRoger last night like a gluttonous demon. Stop talking about blood.""Would you take your place there at the table?"Across from him, he meant.
I was standing at the glass wall, looking right down on the roof ofSt. Patrick's.
He'd gotten us perfect rooms in the Olympic Tower and we wereonly just above the spires. An immense apartment far in excess of ourneeds but a perfect domicile nevertheless. The intimacy with thecathedral seemed essential. I could see the cruciform of the roof, thehigh piercing towers. They looked as if they could impale you, theyseemed so sharply pointed at heaven. And heaven as it had been thenight before was a soft soundless drift of snow.
I sighed.
"Look, I'm sorry. But I don't want to go all over it again. I can't.
Either you accept it as I told you, or I... I... go out of my mind."He remained sitting calmly at the table. The place had come"turnkey," or furnished. It was the snazzy substantial style of thecorporate world條ots of mahogany and leather and shades of beige andtan and gold that could offend no one, conceivably. And flowers. Hehad seen to flowers. We had the perfume of flowers.
The table and chairs were harmoniously Oriental, the fashionableinfusion of Chinese. I think there was a painted urn or two also.
And below we had the Fifty-first Street side of St. Patrick's, andpeople down there on Fifth going and coming on the snowy steps,The quiet vision of the snow.
"We don't have that much time," I said. "We have to get uptown,and I have to secure that place or move all of those precious objects.
I'm not allowing some accident to happen to Dora's inheritance.""We can do that, but before we go, try this for me. Describe theman again . . . not Roger's ghost, or the living statue, or the wingedone, but the man you saw standing in the corner of the hotel room,when the sun came up.v"Ordinary, I told you, very ordinary. Anglo-Saxon? Yes, probably.
Distinctly Irish or Nordic? No. Just a man. Not a Frenchman, Idon't think. No, a routine flavor of American. A man of good height,my height, but not overwhelmingly tall like you. I couldn't have seenhim for more than five seconds. It was sunrise. He had me trappedthere. I couldn't flee, I went blank. The mattress covered me, andwhen I woke, no man. Gone, as if I'd imagined it. But I didn'timagine it!""Thank you. The hair?""Ash blond, almost gray. You know how ash blond can fade towhere it's really truly a ... a graying brown color, or colorless almost,just sort of deep gray."He gave a little gesture that he understood.
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