Certain Dark Things(47)

“Sure.”

The woman handed him a pamphlet with an address and information printed on it, then bade him goodbye. Domingo locked the door, sat on the floor, and waited. He could have sworn it took forever, and he was about to run to the roof when Atl simply flew back into the apartment. Okay, she didn’t technically fly, but she jumped inside with a certain grace and flexibility that was definitely birdlike.

Atl looked at him, and her face was not really human; it was a bird’s face, though it lacked a beak. Instead of hair she had lustrous feathers. She shook her head and the feathers disappeared, leaving only pitch-black hair behind and a face that was so thin and sunken it seemed positively emaciated.

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Sugar,” she said, hurrying toward the kitchen.

“Do you wa—”

He had no time to ask more because she had grabbed the whole box with the sugar cubes, which had been left on a kitchen counter, and was eating like a wild animal, stuffing cubes into her mouth. When she was done, she rested her back against the refrigerator and chuckled.

“It’s not good,” she said.

“What’s not good?”

“The hunger.”

“You can bite me. It’s cool.”

“Conservation, Domingo,” she said. “I can’t squander … damn it.”

“You should just take … um … a bite,” he said.

Atl looked amused. She patted his arm. “You’re too generous.”

“I know what it’s like to be hungry.”

She looked at him in this strange way, like he’d said something really nasty, only Domingo didn’t think he’d said nothing bad. He hoped not. He didn’t want to be mean. And then her face twisted and changed, like she was hurt, and she glanced away.

“Hey, it’s cool,” he said. “Look, it’s fine.” He showed her his wrist, holding it up for her.

Atl looked at him again, at his wrist, and slowly pressed her lips against it. He felt her tongue flick against his skin, and then the sensation, like a needle had gone through his body. When she pushed herself away from him, only a few minutes later, he caught a flicker of something in her mouth. A long tube that coiled away.

“What do you call that?” he said, rubbing his wrist. “In your mouth.”

“It’s a proboscis. Some people call it the stinger. It’s similar to the feeding mechanism of butterflies.”

“That’s how vampires eat, as if they were butterflies?”

“My subspecies does.”

“Can you show the stinger to me?”

“Can you show me your penis?” she shot back.

Domingo flushed and dipped his head. “Sorry. I’m just curious. I don’t mean to be an ass,” he mumbled.

“It’s an idiotic thing to ask.”

“I won’t ask anymore.” Domingo stared at his shoelaces. He shifted his position and ran his hand over the old kitchen counter. His fingers brushed against a single sugar cube that had been left behind, and he handed it to Atl. She took it with a sigh.

“I know you’re curious,” she said. “It’s not … it’s weird hearing those questions. Look, you can ask stuff, sometimes I’m just not going to like it, all right? And I won’t answer everything you ask.”

“Okay,” he said. “It’s just you’re very interesting.” She smiled; her expression was one of amusement, perhaps approval, though he could not tell for sure.

“Drink some water,” she said, suddenly grabbing a glass and opening the tap. “I don’t want you fainting.”

Domingo drank the water in a few gulps, then held on to the glass with both hands. “You’re looking better,” he said.

Her face did not seem so hollow, her eyes were not so red, and there was a vivacity about her.

“I feel better,” she said, flexing her fingers.

Talons, he thought. She has talons. Dark and sharp and deadly looking, and yet, her hands were beautiful.

“Can I ask something?” he said.

She inclined her head, raising an eyebrow at him. “What?”

“How’d you do that? The bird thing. Changing.”

“It’s natural to me. It’s like walking. You just learn to do it one day.”

“Does it hurt?”

“No.”

He tried to picture what it might be to have feathers growing from his head, to have talons instead of fingers. He could not, and remained puzzled.

“It’s not that odd. Not for us,” Atl said with a shrug. “There are some who can turn into … Hmm. ‘Wolves,’ I guess, would be the right word.”

“Have you seen a vampire become a wolf?”

“That I’ve seen, yes.”

“It sounds neat. Though I still think turning into mist would be cooler. Kind of sucks nobody does that.”

“You can’t have everything,” she said.

Domingo wondered if she could fly. He’d ask her another time. He didn’t want her to get mad again.

“You did well, by the way,” she said.

“Yeah?”

She smiled at him. “Yeah.”

“They’ll come back in ten days if I don’t go to the health unit, but I figure that doesn’t matter, right? We should be gone by then,” he said.