"The World in Play: Chapter 4.1" by Lynn K Hollander

Julia, part two

Chapter 4.1

***

           Early the next evening, Martin stopped in Julia's doorway.  



           Julia and a strange Oriental boy were watching Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, without subtitles, on a small combination TV/DVD system.  Martin knocked.



           Julia looked up and smiled, speaking a gliding trill of what Martin assumed was Chinese.  It sounded just like what was coming out of the TV.  



           The boy switched off the set and stood up as Martin came in.  He was as good-looking as Jan, but in a totally different style.  Lean and graceful, he was nearly two inches taller than the vampire, had black eyes with silver flecks, and very short black hair.  He turned to Julia:  "And it's important to be able to switch languages, smoothly and quickly.  How do you do, sir.  I'm Taz Long, Jingwu's foster son."



           And you're currently imitating an old-fashioned, well-mannered prep school boy,  Martin thought.  I didn't trust them when I was one of them.  I know what goes on inside their heads.



           "Oh, right,"  Julia said.  



           "Jingwu?"  Martin asked.



           "Ann's other name,"  Julia explained.



           One of three names, Martin thought.  And that's probably not all, by any means.  "I hear you're going to Stanford, Taz,"  he said.  "So how old are you now?"



           The boy smiled.  "Younger than Jingwu, sir.  If I were human, I'd be almost twenty-one."



           Martin laughed:  "Do the two of you practice that routine?"



           "When I was younger, yeah, we did."



           "Right.  I'm Martin.  So where's Ann?"



           "Litter patrol,"  the boy said.  "I took over at noon, and escorted Júlì to a dim sum lunch."



           "Some things were weird,"  Julia said.  "Some things were really good."



           "And then there were the salt roasted shrimp,"  Taz said.



           "Which were weird and good and really, really, messy."



           "Juli?"



           "Jingwu suggested it.  She said there was no sense making Julia learn two new names.  It means 'Upright Chrysanthemum', or possibly 'Iron Yak'.  The sounds are the same, it's just the tones that are different.  Júlì."  the boy repeated.



           "What did I say?"  Martin asked.



           "It was more like Jùlí.  Iron Yak, could be."



           "That's fine,"  Julia said.  "It's no sillier than Upright Chrysanthemum."  She thought for a moment:  "And I like yaks more than I like chrysanthemums, anyway."



           "Jùlí, then,"  Taz agreed.  "That's written like this."  He drew two characters on a pad while Juli watched over his shoulder.



           "All set."



           Martin turned.  



           A stranger, as tall as Martin, male, probably human, with wild black hair and full beard, wearing bib overalls, work boots and a cambric shirt, and carrying a tool kit, walked in the outside door.  Casually, he gestured the door shut and all the locks engaged.  "New circuit and a wireless router.  Dai said he'd have the computer and the notebook ready tomorrow afternoon."



           "This is Rens,"  Taz said.  "He's helping with Julia's computer.  This is Martin Stevenson."



           "Hi,"  Rens said.  "When did you have this place fixed up last?"



           "He's not critiquing your decor, he means the wiring,"  Taz said.



           "Twenty years ago,"  Martin said.



           "You're way out of date.  Pick a day, or two at the most, and I'll come back and do it right."



           "He'll call you,"  Taz said.  "Thanks, Rens."

***

           Ann and Madame Rui exchanged polite bows, Ann caught Martin's eye, and the Headmistress's office faded out and Julia's room in the No Mirrors Lounge grew into focus around them.  



           "Well, that was interesting,"  Martin said.



           "I thought it went well,"  Ann said.  "Here?"  she asked Julia.



           The girl nodded.



           Ann waved one hand at the round table, where the former tenant had had a hot plate.  A computer setup appeared on and beneath the table.  Ann bent to insert plugs in appropriate outlets.



           "I guess so,"  the vampire said.  "It's just that I've never been on the parent side of a teacher-parent interview before.  I always sat quietly and spoke only when spoken to.  I have a great deal more sympathy for my own parents right now."



           "Oh,"  Ann laughed, coming upright again.  "There's nothing like a child to expand your experiences."



           "I'm not too sure about this on-line class idea,"  he said, waving at the computer.



           "There are some colleges that exist only on-line,"  Ann said.  "It's a reasonable budgetary compromise, at least for non-laboratory subjects.  It's also handy for shut-ins, of various sorts."



           "Not what I'm used to,"  Martin said.  He picked up a wireless mouse and put back it down.



           "For language or literature, either composition or reading, it works well."



           "But you can't say that the dog ate your homework."



           "Did you ever use that excuse, Martin?"



           The vampire grinned at her.



           "Thank you for my computer,"  Julia said.



           "I think Martin and I want the usual limits and restrictions on e-mail and an absolute veto on meeting anyone you meet on line,"  Ann said.



           "There are some real weirdoes out there,"  Martin said.



           "I know.  My stepfather for one,"  Julia said.



           Ann regarded the girl.  "Are you tempted to leave a message for your mother?"



           "Sometimes, but I know how easy it is to trace the originating address."



           Martin glanced at Ann, who nodded.



           "If you want to reassure her, we can visit an Internet café and use their equipment."



           "Maybe."



           "Just ask.  There are some huge cafés down in San Jose, and we could just port down."



           "Maybe not San Jose,"  Julia suggested.



           "Um.  There will be some safe way, anytime you want.  I can easily arrange a New York or a Los Angeles postmark on a paper letter.  Just ask.  So,"  Ann said,  "no personal data, not your real name, either of your use names, your age, your sex, or your address.  Right?"



           "Or where I go to school.  Right."



           "Good."



           "And exactly where do they keep the soccer field?"  Martin asked



           "On the other side of a dimensional portal.  Land in San Francisco is limited."



           "And they use it for sports?"



           "It's a sports field."



           "I meant the dimensional portal."



           "Why couldn't you come look at it, Ann?"  Julia asked.



           "At the moment, I can't go through portals,"  Ann said.  "Anyway, I saw it back in the nineteenth century, when they set it up."



           "How do they set up a portal?"  the vampire asked.



           "There are some human analyses of portals, Martin.  Most of them are probably too mystical to interest you, but some of the papers have a mathematical approach.  Use Julia's computer to access Ganesha.  I didn't limit the number of users."



           "Ganesha?"



           "Patron of categories and libraries.  Also creator and remover of obstacles.  It's the name of a heavily firewalled special interest website.  I have access and I had Dai put a bookmark for it in Julia's copy of Netscape.  The password is automatic and very heavily encrypted.  Once the site has accepted you, navigation is easy.  I suggest searching on 'portal' plus 'theory'."



           "And school starts next week, on the new moon?"  



 "Just before the first quarter.  Their astrologer decided that that was the most auspicious time.  For the first four weeks, until mid-September, only Chinese is spoken and only Chinese cultural traditions are taught.  Calligraphy, literature, art, poetry, embroidery, domestic rituals and cooking.  Also Tai Chi, which was included again this year after the usual debate."



           "It sounds a little bit like summer camp.  Uniforms and everything."  



           "Right,"  Ann said, and waved one hand at the cot.  Two brown paper packages, one big, one thin, appeared.  "Uniforms, school, fourteen, and uniforms, gym, six; each complete with name tag, in English and two forms of Chinese.  You studied domestic rituals at summer camp?"  she asked the vampire.



           "Sure, and even more of them at dancing class."



           "Martin?"  Julia asked.



           "Yes?"



           "I can take sports?  Right?  Not just embroidery?"



           "Absolutely.  Soccer, basketball, tennis, anything active.  The last few years, you were kept too sedentary for someone your age.  It's not healthy.  My mother always insisted we all get some exercise every day."



           "Start with the Tai Chi class for now.  During the regular term, you could also elect gymnastics or fencing or self-defense,"  Ann said.  "They're active too.  And on Saturdays during term, we can continue exploring San Francisco, if you like."



           "Oh, yes."  



           "And we'll go out in the evenings for the occasional ice cream,"  Martin said.

***

           "There is a new pattern," one Huruvian said.



           "Yes," another Huruvian answered.



           "We will report it."

***

           On Julia's first Thursday of school, she and the vampire were having breakfast and dinner, respectively.  Julia, wearing her black trousers and blue and black tunic, had oatmeal, scrambled eggs, juice and milk;  Martin had Cambells.



           "I sort of have homework,"  Julia said.



           "Well, it is school, so that's not surprising,"  the vampire said.



           "It was to me."



           Martin laughed.  "What kind of homework?"



           "For art appreciation."



           "And it involves?"



           "Madame Feng said we should go to the Mustard Seed Annex, and look at the portraits."



           "Where is this place?"  Martin asked.



           "It's towards the Mission, but then north.  Here."  



           Martin glanced at the address.  "OK, this evening we'll go."



           "I was meeting some girls from school,"  Julia said.



           "That's fine, you can introduce them to me,"  the vampire said.  



           Julia looked a little worried.  Martin grinned.  "Hey, you're not going there alone, not for the first time.  Anyway, I'm part of your cover story.  I'm your eccentric guardian."



           "I guess."



           "And while I may think they're very silly, I won't yell at them, or whatever your stepfather did."



           "OK."

***

           George Coubertin answered his traveling mirror.  Only his servants used this one, so he didn't bother with civility:  "What now!"



           "Sir, it appears the offering is attending a school."



           "What?"



           "She boards a bus and is carried to a building.  Other girls, both bigger and smaller, and adults also enter."



           "It's August,"  George muttered.  "Summer school?  Is she stupid or making up a grade?  She can't be stupid, not with her genetics."



           "Sir, we do not know."



           "Well, keep watching.  I will arrive on the third, and I want to procure the offering before the sixth.  Keep track of her."

***

           "This is Martin, my guardian.  This is Zhai Shaowei and Hu Miyi,"  Julia said.  "Miyi rides the bus with me.  Oh, and this is Shaowei's mother."



           "Martin Stevenson, Mrs. Zhai,"  Martin said, making a note to explain proper introductions, which he acknowledged could get complex when adults and young people of both sexes were involved.  "How do you do?"



           Mrs. Zhai and her daughter were American Chinese, while Miyi, who was a couple of years younger than Shaowei and Julia, appeared to be a blend, with slanted green eyes, wavy dark red hair and a scattering of freckles across a slightly Roman nose.  Zhai Shaowei wore hip-hugger jeans with the knees ripped out and a cropped T-shirt.  Hu Miyi wore her school uniform.



           He smiled briefly at the girls, but made no objection as the three of them moved away and put their heads together.  Martin and Mrs. Zhai moved slowly after them.  It had been years since his parents had embarrassed him in front of his peers, and while he avoided all their mistakes, he was sure he was making new ones.   

***

           "Martin?"



           "Yes?"  the vampire answered.



           "Can Miyi come home with me tonight?"



           "It's a school night,"  Martin said.



           "It's Thursday,"  Julia said.  "And it's late opening night at the Annex.  Miyi and I need to go look at the display of interior scenes and her grandmother doesn't want her walking there alone."



           "And afterwards?  Do we walk her home?"



           "Yes, she doesn't live that far from the bus stop and we should try to get her home before 9:30."



           "OK, fine with me.  Remember to order dinner for two humans.  This is working out pretty well:  a cultural outing, followed by a late night shift as bartender."



           "Edward said you were having trouble finding another bartender?  Is it because I'm in the apartment?  You said it was for your helper."



           "No, it is not because you're in the apartment.  Dean never used it.  We just need to pick a person who can adapt to our somewhat exacting life-style."



           "The vigilantes, the vampires and everything?"



           "Yes, that's what I mean.  We're being careful.  That may take a little time, but it has nothing to do with you or the apartment.  Are you and Ann doing something this weekend?"



           "Saturday I'm going to the library on my own and Sunday she and I are going on a tree walk in the Presidio forest.  She says it's an artificial forest?  Really?"



           "The US Army planted it.  It's artificial that way, with all imported trees, all about the same age."



           "Ann says the gardeners are renewing it by cutting down some trees and planting baby ones.  Why and what's wrong with eucalyptus anyway?"



           "If all the trees of the same kind are the same age, they can all die of old age at the same time.  Then the whole place would be one huge sand dune again.  Messy."



           "Were you here when the trees were planted?"



           "No, that was long before I arrived here."

***

           Martin climbed the steep interior stairs from the basement to the hallway between the employees' lounge, the ready room and the back door to his office.  Wednesdays weren't very busy and he used the free time to keep up the running inventory of his stock and move supplies for the weekend into the ready room.  He unloaded the dumbwaiter and inspected the ice machine.  It had whined last night, but seemed to be running smoothly now.  



           That done, he checked his mail and knocked on Julia's open door.



           "Hi."



           "Hi,"  the girl said.  She blanked her screen, shoved her chair back from the table and stretched.



           "So how was school?"  Martin asked.  



           "We're doing two stroke radicals,"  Julia said.  "Now, besides writing 'seven servants ascended the small hill,' I can write 'two men sat by the well.'"



           "I can see some of that may be useful,"  Martin said.  



           "At least I can remember everything I write or look up.  I think it must be part of the way Ann taught me Chinese.  Some of the other girls seem to be having problems, even the ones who can write nicer than I can."



           "Well, there's no real point in being illiterate, is there?  Homework finished?"



           "Yes."



           "Good.  What did you order for dinner?"



           "From the fish place, with fries."



           "Call and add a salad."



           "I did, I knew you'd nag.  Ice cream tonight, though."



           "Bookstore first, then ice cream,"  the vampire agreed.  



           "Oh, I'm supposed to visit the Annex again.  They've switched the scrolls, and I'm supposed to look at the landscapes before art class Friday."



           "Tomorrow all right for that?"



           "Yes.  Can Miyi come with us again?"



           "Certainly.  Am I going to meet her parents sometime?"



           "I don't think so, not any time soon.  Her mom is dead, just this spring, and her father is busy.  He travels and now she lives with her grandmother, which is why she's going to Hanyu-Yingyu."



           Martin didn't follow all that, but Julia delivered it with an air of complete assurance, as if it explained everything.  He wondered if he mirrored his uncle's habitual confused expression after a conversation with his daughter.  Martin's young cousin could always bewilder her father, even when she wasn't deliberately trying to do so.  

***

           George Coubertin gave the appropriated house a quick inspection.  It was small, but it was isolated.  It would do.  He selected a room and installed his traveling library.  He gave orders to his domestic servants for his comfort and security, then summoned the four servants who had been keeping watch on Emily Hughes.



           "Sir, there has been a break in the offering's routine.  Recently, she did not attend her school for three days in succession," a Huruvian said.



           "Labor Day weekend,"  George said.  "Did she resume attendance yesterday, Tuesday?"



           "Yes, sir."



           "That's normal.  Now.  Describe her school day routine."



           "Yes, sir."







           "A dimensional portal?  She regularly goes through a dimensional portal and you don't know where it leads?"



           "No, sir.  We do not.  The portal in question is a private door.  The access is through the school the offering attends.  She is accompanied by other human children and teachers."



           "Why?"



           "We cannot know that, sir.  Of the first of five sequential days of a human seven day week on which she attends school, she passes and returns through the portal on the first day, the third and the fifth.  Her absence is always approximately two hours."



           "And the school itself?"



           "Our surveillance is perforce limited."



           "Why?"



           "The school is warded."



           "By whom?"



           "By spells."



           "Cast by the teachers?"



           "We do not know.  The spells were in place when we began watching."



           "Are the teachers talented?"



           "Yes."



           George nodded, then departed.







           "You did not mention that some of the teachers are not human."



           "I was not asked."



           "Some of them are quite powerful."



           "I am aware of this."



           "In which case we may be free."



           "Patience,"  the senior surviving servant said.  "Eventually, we will be free.  He may die, and we will be totally free.  He may make a mistake in our instructions, and we will be free of his restraints.  In which case, we can rip him limb from limb and be totally free.  Soon or late, we will be free and possibly we will have the satisfaction of ripping him asunder."



           "That would be most enjoyable."



           "That's a little blood-thirsty."



           "This world is corrupting me.  I just want to go home."



           "Patience."







           "The school is impenetrable,"  George announced.



           "Yes, sir."



           "Report on her living conditions."



           "We are hampered in visually inspected the dwelling."



           "Why?  Are there warding spells there, too?"   



           "Not wards exactly, sir, but we are detected."



           "When is she free of the school's wards and of the domestic wards?"



           "Occasionally in the evenings, she walks out near her home."



           "Describe the last occasion."



           "She, another human girl and a vampire..."



           "A vampire?  Why a vampire?"



           "Sir, we do not know."



           "Continue."



           "The three walked to a building and remained slightly less three hours.  They exited, and walked..."



           "Have they done this before?"



           "Yes, sir."



           "Good!  Show me the building."







           "Thursday.  Noon to ten,"  George read.  "Aren't vampires nocturnal?"



           "Sir, we do not know."



           "Very well,"  George decided.  "Attend me.  On Thursday, tomorrow, you will watch the offering, beginning, as usual, soon after dawn.  You will follow her to school.  You will follow her home.  If she comes here, to the Mustard Annex, you will seize her and bring her to me."



           "Yes, sir.  And the vampire?"



           "What about him?"



           "If he objects to our seizure of the girl."



           "Kill him."



           "Sir?  How do we fight a vampire?"



           George started to speak, then frowned.  "One moment."   He moved himself and his servants to his temporary abode, where he retired to the room where he had installed his traveling library.  He checked the catalogue. Nothing specifically about vampires, but maybe there would be something in the Expanded Modern Bestiary.  Yes, there was an entry.  Excellent.  He returned to the servants.  "What kills vampires is a wooden stake in the heart, sunlight, holy water, fire and decapitation.  Take stout wooden stakes and swords.  The stake goes in the heart and the sword takes off the head.  Once you have possession of the offering, bring her to the warehouse."

***

           "We're not warriors."



           "We're civilized!"



           "I mean swords?"



           "At least we can get swords."



           "From the armory."



           "But wooden stakes?"



           "A chair leg might be adequate."



           "Impossible.  That would involve destruction of the master's property."



           All the servants shuddered.



           "Forbidden."



           "Yes."



           "There is that park."



           "With all those trees."



           "We could cut off branches..."



           "There are all those police, who may object."



           "Gardeners use them.  Stakes are also for grapes, and other plants.  Trees, even."



           "We're certainly not gardeners."



           "How do you know that?  About the stakes?"



           "Well, I sometimes talked to the gardeners, the ones in the outside staff, back at the big house,"  the servant who had mentioned grapes said.



           The other three servants looked at it.



           "Outside staff?"



           "Just small talk,"  it mumbled.



           "Where did they get stakes?"



           "They called it a 'nursery', but I don't know what they're called in English."



           "We will consult first the Huruvian/English dictionary and then the directory and either locate a nursery or discover a gardener we can ask."

***

           "And how big a stake to you need?"  the clerk asked.



           The nearly identical men looked at each other.  "Please excuse us a moment."



           "Sure."



           After a brief, and to the clerk, unintelligible, consultation, involving a fair amount of hand waving, they returned



           "Stout,"  one said.



           "Large,"  another said.



           "Wood," the third said.



           "Definitely wood,"  the fourth said.



           "Let me show you what we have."  the clerk said.  "How many do you need?"



           "Please excuse us a moment."



           "OK."



           The strange conference was repeated, then:  "One for each of us,"  a man said.



           The rest nodded.

***

           "How are we going to start this?"



           "Possibly we just walk up, take the offering and run away?"



           "The run away part is excellent."



           "I think we must be prepared to use these stakes."



           "I know."



           "And then what?  Has anyone ever staked a vampire?"



           "No."  "No."  "No."



           "And I certainly haven't."



           "But you are right, we must be prepared."



           "Have we any sort of plan, beyond walking up, grabbing the girl and running away?"



           "I suggest a privacy spell, to keep the vampire from following us, in case we fail to kill him."



           "We are going to be running."



           "So the spell will not be of long duration."



           "We might have to recast it, possibly more than once."



           "Does this sound reasonable?  We walk up, wearing the strongest spell we can cast, one of us takes the offering and runs away."



           "And the other three?"



           "That depends on whether the privacy spell will work on vampires."



           "Oh."



           "Right."



           "Because if it doesn't, we will have to use the stakes."



           "And if we don't deliver the offering, we'll all burn."



           "Oh, dear, oh, dear.  I never should have opened that casket."



           "None of us should have.  And if we get free, none of us will ever again."



           "If it does work, the remaining three will be able to run away immediately."



           "Well, that remotely resembles a plan, I guess."

***

           George turned to his remaining slaves:  "Arrange for a pyre.  It should measure five feet wide by seven feet long by four feet high.  Order enough wood, discreetly transport the wood to the warehouse and wait there until I arrive to decide the exact location.  Go."

***

           "Madame Feng says Northern Sung landscapes tend to be large,"  Miyi said.



           "Palace sized,"  Julia said.  "I liked the smaller handscrolls and the album leaves, especially the one I showed you.  That looked like a real flower, with a real dragon fly on it."



           "Emily Hughes, come with us."



           Martin saw an extremely anorexic male, with pale tea-colored skin and a nearly spherical head.  He had deep-set, slightly narrow, heavy lidded, very dark eyes.  His ears, pushed out from his skull by a billed cap, were strange, with very few, very shallow convolutions, as if the cartilage had melted and flattened into a nearly smooth expanse.  The lobes came down well below the jawline and were not attached.  No hair, not even eyebrows or lashes, showed on any of the visible parts of his head.  



           The most arresting feature was the nose:  It looked as if it had been intended for a much larger head, and had been trimmed to fit by docking its lower third, leaving truncated, wide and very open nostrils and an abrupt smooth tip.  Under the nose were a long upper lip, a wide thin mouth and a knobby chin.  Behind him were three others, very similar in appearance.  They all wore blue jeans, dark T-shirts and billed caps and carried stakes.  These weren't the discreet stakes the Folsom Street Irregulars carried, these stakes were about five feet long and sufficiently thick that each could either support full growth kudzu or stake a vampire King Kong.    



           Emily? Miyi?  "Leave the girl alone,"  Martin said, stepping in front of Miyi.



           "He can see us!"



           "Please do not interfere,"  the speaker said.  "We really do not wish to use violence."



           "Get away now,"  the vampire said.  Martin didn't notice, but he had slipped into full vampire display.







           It's not me!  I am not Emily!  she thought.  







           "Take her and go."







           Helen flinched at the name.  It had been so long since anyone had used it, she had hoped she had been successful.  But if she could find Emily, so could her father; and demons searching for Emily, not just a random child, but Emily, confirmed her worst fears.







           The rightmost skinhead grabbed Julia and ran off.    



           Julia screamed and struggled; Martin, hearing, turned his head.



           The speaker stabbed at Martin with his outsize stake.  



           Martin pushed Miyi back into the doorway as he turned in place, letting the stake scrape across his chest.  He grabbed the stake and guided it into the chest of the demon on his left, using his first attacker's force against his second.



           Flesh tore, with a sensation that was subtly different from stabbing a human or even another vampire.  



           Martin yanked the stake out.  The reek of  blood, hot and alien, filled the air.  What are these guys, beyond not human at all?  Martin stepped forward, gripped the stake with both hands and shoved the blunt end back into the stomach of the first attacker, who doubled over and met Martin's elbow as it came up to strike his chin.  Martin changed his hold on the stake, moving his hands down its length to the pointed end.  He swung it like a bat, not quite parallel to the ground but rising a little at the end, stepping into the hit, and caught the third demon across what in a human would have been the lower rib cage.  Behind him, the first demon helped the wounded demon escape.



           Instead of collapsing with a flail chest or a punctured lung, the demon flew off the bat and landed against a recycling bin, which tumbled over and spilled aluminum cans across the fight ground.  These guys may be lightweights, but they have really strong bones, Martin thought.



           The third demon rolled over to its knees and gestured at the scattered cans, which all skittered straight towards the vampire.  



           Martin stepped on one, skidded, flipped over as he regained his footing.   



           The last demon turned and ran, following fast behind the first two.  



           Martin took one step after it, then checked.  If the son of a bitch could keep up that pace, he'd do a three minute mile, he thought.  Those fleet-footed demons would easily outdistance him.  He needed transport, and he couldn't leave Miyi here on the street, not in this neighborhood.  He scooped up the girl and ran back to the No Mirrors Lounge.







           "Miyi,"  he said as gently as he could.  "Is your English name Emily?"



           "No, I'm Kathleen."



           So either Julia's real name was Emily and the demons were after her or they had made a mistake.  If they were after her, why?  If they had erred, who did they think she was?



           None of that mattered,  Martin thought, he was going to get her back.  The only person Julia had worried about had been her step-father, who had sounded like a Christian fundamentalist terrorist.  Now that was not the sort of person Martin would expect to employ demons, but then fanatics, especially religious fanatics, were never logical or consistent and were always unpleasant to know.  



           He ran up the stairs and into the No Mirrors Lounge.



 



           "Martin?"  Karelle asked.  Her nostrils flared as she took in the scent of the demon blood.



           "I need Jan's bike and your gun."



           "Here,"  Karelle put the spare keys and a nine millimeter automatic on the counter.  "And if he asks why?  If I ask why, for that matter?"



           "I need the holster, too.  Skinhead demons took Julia, I'm going after her.  Miyi needs to be taken home.  Miyi, let go, please, I have to go."  He sat the girl on the check room counter beside the gun and the keys.  "Let go."  He gently pulled at the girl's hands.  



           Karelle looked under the counter.  She offered Martin a clip-on clamshell holster.



           "Juli,"  the girl said.  



           "I'm going after her, Karelle will walk you home."



           "Let go, Miyi,"  Karelle said, helping the vampire remove the girl's grip on his neck.  "Skinheads?"



           "Demons, maybe sent by her step-father.  Take care of Miyi."  Martin put the holster on his belt, put the gun in the holster, took the keys and ran out the door and down the steps.

***