“Past ten thirty.” Nikos started throwing on clothes, not his usual suit and tie but black jeans and sweater. Somehow he made even the casual clothes look severe.
Or maybe it was the long leather coat he used to cover the three-foot kopis that made him look so deadly.
I dressed too. “I read up on the New Year’s celebration because I planned to go. People start arriving before sunset, whole blocks of them. By ten thirty the area from Thirty-eighth Street to Fifty-ninth is filled. The entertainment has to reach all of them, so there’s a huge sound system. Then when the Ball drops, everything stops except for the beat marking the seconds. The whole square counts off the last ten seconds. A million people, chanting together.”
“You’ve mentioned the Ball Drop before. What is it?”
I stared at him. “How can you have missed the most important New Year’s fixture of the last hundred years? Nearly six tons of crystal and LEDs starts at the top of a flagpole at eleven fifty-nine and descends to the bottom in exactly one minute, flashing a huge light show. We’ve gotta hurry, Nikos.”
“First we must gather information and allies.” Nikos flipped out his phone, hit a speed dial. “Julian. There’s a problem.” He spoke rapidly and to the point.
While he talked I picked up the switchblade xiphos, tested the feel and weight. It was built for gigantic Nikos, thick and heavy in my hand. Although I wanted to be useful if it came down to a battle, I’d be more likely to hurt myself with this than help. Reluctantly, I set it back down.
“Julian said the hypnosis device was destroyed.” Nikos slipped his phone back into his pocket, his face grim. “Tonight we are dealing with the unknown.”
I started for the door. “All the more reason to hurry.”
“No. We can’t go into battle blind-” His fangs shot out full-length. He pulled me from the door with a low growl.
A rich voice sounded from the hallway. “Pax.”
It was Klaus. Nikos growled louder and, pushing me behind him, drew his sword from under his coat.
“I need to talk to you, Nikos. I demand pax.”
“We don’t have time.”
“Make time. Would I risk crossing you if it weren’t important?”
“Fine.” Nikos yanked open the door and pointed his sword at Klaus’s throat. “Make it good. And fast.”
Klaus raised both hands. “Somebody’s going to fuck over vampires tonight at Times Square. I need your help to stop him.”
Chapter Five
The limo threaded through traffic with agonizing slowness. Twelve city blocks normally takes about two minutes. We left the hotel at ten fifty and when I checked my phone again at eleven we had gone all of one block. At that rate we’d hit Times Square just in time to throw kitty litter on the blood.
“We’ve been hearing rumors of a vampire terrorist in New York for the last year.” Klaus acted as cool as the refrigerated dill of similar name. Only a slight whitening around his nostrils betrayed he was as tense as me. “We traced the rumors to Aylmer Tafel. He was already using a shadow company of mine, eMailnXpress, for his business, which made his apartment ridiculously easy to infiltrate. Unfortunately Aylmer ’s cohort and Bujný a Zvuk were not so easy. So when we heard the charming cousin Twyla was coming to New York, I was sent to escort her. We hoped to learn more.”
Nikos, splayed like a roadblock between me and Klaus, started growling.
“Who’s we?” I asked before Nikos could do something we’d all regret (but mostly Klaus).
“ New York ’s ruling vampires, the Cadre. We’re the equivalent of your Chicago Coterie.”
I looked to Nikos. His closed eyes said “long story”. Five minutes and another half block went by. I poked him. “We have time. Give me the MTV version.”
Nikos shot Klaus an irritated glance, like my curiosity was his fault, and said, “The Coterie runs businesses, vampires and blood in Chicago.”
I did a mental translation to v-Mafia. Not that I knew anything about La Cosa Nostra beyond film and TV, but that was my main source for info on vampires too.
“My alliance stands against them.” Nikos gave Klaus another glare, this one pointed. “And so against the Cadre.”
“I am not the enemy here.” Klaus sneered at Nikos down his nose. “I do not work with Aylmer or his unknown associate. Our goal is the same as yours, to keep vampires from going feral tonight.”
“Not the same.” Nikos advanced to glowering. “I want to keep humans from dying.”
“Well, pardon me for not thinking of a few humans when our very existence is at stake.”
“We would not die. Humans would, and more than a few.” Nikos leaned over Klaus until they were practically smashing noses.
“A drop in the bucket compared to all vampire kind.”
The testosterone being flung around was giving me chest hairs. “Hey guys. Enough. Stopping this plot will save both human and vampire lives.”
They both humphed back and sat in stony silence for another eight blocks. By then it was eleven twenty. “This is ridiculous. We’d make better time walking.”
“Not tonight.” Klaus darted a glance at Nikos. “Not with all the foot traffic.”
“Are there really that many people? A million?”
“Let me put it this way. The city removes all trash cans, mailboxes and newspaper machines for the event.”
“For room?”
“And to reduce the potential for terrorism.”
We fell silent again, thinking about terrorists, about Aylmer and his unknown associate. I really hoped my cousin was okay. But at that moment I might have shot him myself for getting us into this mess in the first place.
At eleven thirty-five the intercom switched on. “The streets are closed to Thirty-eighth Street. This is as close as I can get, sir.” The limo pulled to a stop.
When I jumped out cold air smacked me in the face. But that wasn’t the only shock. Light slashed my eyes, radiant as the day.
Some cities are a river valley of skyscrapers cut by streets. Manhattan was more like the floor of an ocean, rising tides of multihued neon and LED fish spiraling up for miles. The pervasive intense light, the overwhelming abundance of swirling blinking color was more deafening to me than the blast of sound from the several stages and million people.
Nikos slid out behind me. His reaction was even more pronounced. His nostrils flared, and his eyes burned bright. Tyger Tyger, all that warm blood. He pulled back, his hands and jaw clenching rhythmically. “I hate crowds.”
“Nikos, we only have twenty-five minutes. We need to hurry.” I grabbed his hand and tried to pull him forward. It was like dragging a cliff.
“Wait. I have a call.” He tapped his pocket. I couldn’t hear anything above the crowd noise.
“Sounds like an excuse to me.” I tugged again.
“It may be important.” He reached into his coat.
Twenty-four minutes. I tried to grab his wrist but he played arm double-dutch and I ended up with my hands twisted and him with his phone out.
But he just stared at it. “Damn. Missed call.”
“And excuse gone. Come on.”
“No. Not yet.” His eyes were a little wild, gazing at the thousands upon thousands of people, thick even here on the back side of things. North of One Times Square was where all the action was. I couldn’t imagine how hard it would be for him if we had to go there.
“This is not getting us anywhere.” Klaus emerged from the limo. He pushed past Nikos, grabbed my hand and marched off.
Nikos stared after us, outrage on his face. “Wait. We don’t know where we’re going.”
Klaus shot him a triumphant look over his shoulder. “The center of things, of course.”