'I was surprised when you called,' Kate told Eric DeBoys. 'I didn't think a new-made blood like you would be interested in an old stick like me.'
DeBoys grinned, showing off his chin dimple as well as his teeth. 'I'm at St Bartolph's to learn from my elders.'
'I'm not a teacher. And I'm not an elder.'
'No, but you're an example.'
The School of Vampirism had its own dusk till dawn student bar, The Deconsecrated Chapel. Pampered vermin nestled in straw-filled cages hung from the vaulted ceiling. Mice, rats, piglets. Movie posters hung in alcoves, replacing sacred images. Someone had magic-markered red eyes and fangs onto Rudolf Valentino in The Count, W.C. Fields in Never Give a Sucker an Even Break and Orlon Kronsteen in London Screams and lipstick-kissed heart-shaped wounds on the necks o f J ean Harlow in Red Dust, Jane Fonda in Cat Garou and Mavis Weld in Clara Croft. She'd seen that before, at Thomas Nolan's studio - the work of the same alteration artist, or just a trend she'd not noticed till now?
Just in case this date was more than social or - perish the thought! - romantic, she had let Nezumi come along and sit in the corner. Not that Kate could have stopped her bodyguard. The underage elder drank sugared blood through a straw. The high glucose content was added artificially, not because the donors were diabetic. She shooed away a couple of warm boys who tried to chat her up.
Most of DeBoys' fellow Black Monks were in the bar. Armstrong and Anna were having a quiet argument while Keith and Withnail posed in the dark at the edge of the dance-floor.
Dru, the vampire girl she'd seen with a warm crowd a few days ago, was here, alone. She sported a black eye and a simmering, angry attitude. Grabbing one of Nezumi's cast-offs, she nuzzled his neck with alarming attack.
Things were changing on campus, as folk found out who their real friends - or real enemies - were. In the pulpit, Mo?se King played records. The Zombies' 'Time of the Season', The Crazy World of Arthur Brown's 'Blood', Question Mark and the Mysterians' '96 Tears'. Cathy and Pony go-goed in perfect sync on a chessboard floor with lit-up white squares. Scruffy guys watched the twins, fascinated.
No sign of James Eastman. She supposed this wasn't his scene.
King spun The Royal Guardsmen's 'Snoopy vs the Red Baron' - not a favourite pop pick of Kate's. Responding to the song, Nezumi finished her drink and started dancing with the French girls. They responded aggressively, like basketball players marking a star shooter. Noticing Nezumi, King gave her a Japanese theme, playing Biff Bailey and His Jazzmen's 'Sukiyaki'. She sang to the instrumental, in a clear soprano. 'Ue o muite aruk
10
