My blood is singing with your voice, I want to pour it out

[priordivergence]

Before Darrow, I had never heard of vampires. If we talked about monsters, it was because we talked about what might be beyond the fence. Whatever lived in that bombed out wasteland was far more real than an undead creature that drank blood.

Darrow is different. Darrow is full of its own strange terrors that grow bolder with every month. A vampire attack used to be a signal for panic. Now it's a regular danger on the same level as a mugging or a break in. Vigilantes, my own friends among them, seek them out with a vengeance. At their behest, I carry two knives with me now. One, my Dauntless black switchblade; the other, a knife carved from wood, inlaid with a silver filigree cross. It feels strange and theatrical, yet I feel safer with it at my back.

It's Petros Park and barely after sundown, but that seems to matter very little to the vampire in front of me. I catch its reflective eyes, like a cat at night only gaunt and horrible. She has fangs outstretched and I know she means to make a meal of me.

I reach for my knives.

I am not prey.

Comments

[darganfyddwr]

I nod dumbly over my shoulder at her, her front covered in the dusty remains of the thing that she'd taken down. I'm not sure what inside can do to help, but she's got an idea of what's going on and I don't have a clue, so as much as it grates, Tris is the boss. It isn't that I can't take orders, or that I don't see sense in pragmatism like this. It's not even that I don't like following someone else's lead.

I just like to be in charge more. That's not going to happen.

What I can do is find a way inside. So I set myself to that task as my feet pound down the alley. There's a service elevator nearby that's open just enough for me to get my fingers into the gap and shove the metal door up. It's big enough for the two of us to climb into it, and then out the other side.

"This way!"

[priordivergence]

I know this building. If we ride the elevator up to the other side, we can cross through it and get to the Bramford faster and under bright street lamps. I don't know Gansey's building, but I think I've just inadvertently invited him to sleep on our couch. Or in Christina's room. That depends on the mood she's in.

"My apartment isn't far from here," I say, still keyed up with adrenaline and the very real knowledge that I've just destroyed...killed two vampires. "You can stay there until it's safe."

Which means he'll be staying there until dawn.

[darganfyddwr]

"Good," I say, maybe a little too emphatically. Because I don't know where my apartment is in Darrow yet -- which I really need to remedy by looking at maps more often -- and I don't know where I left the Pig anymore. And I definitely know that, in any event, we're extremely far away from where Ronan and I are camped out.

It's dark in the service elevator, so I grab for her shoulder. My face feels hot a second later, but it helps me keep track of her, and I'm not willing to dig my phone out of my pants pocket in case, God forbid, I drop the thing, or worse.

The buttons for the elevator glow dully -- there are only four of them. I hit the one that will take us upstairs to storage.

[priordivergence]

"You're afraid." It's an observation, not a question. Does that make him abnormal or me? My body is hot with adrenaline, ready to fight again, all while I note exits and paths home. I haven't even put away my knives in case another enemy appears.

Will I ever start treating the roads in front of me as anything but a battleground? "I live in the Bramford, with my boyfriend and my best friend. And a rabbit."