The Burning City (19 page)

Cindy paused sucking. “A lot of them I don’t recognize. I bet they’re with Aaron’s group. At least everyone’s being friendly.”

“Well, isn’t this whole thing about Kumbaya and brotherhood and whatnot?”

Cindy snorted.

“This is not a world I ever pictured myself in.” June stirred her straw around in her drink. “Everything I knew about Sam until now was just a concept. This has been a little hard to swallow.”

Cindy eyed her over her glasses, sucking on her straw.

June took a sip and winced. The drink was much stronger than she expected. “I guess what I’m saying is, I’m seeing who he really is now.”

“You don’t like it?”

“It’s different from my life, that’s all. Look at me. I don’t fit in here.”

Cindy folded her arms on the table. “Are you still worrying about this? Sam is a dynamo and a politician, yes, but he’s not conventional. He never has been. I think that’s what makes him so charismatic. He goes against the grain. That makes him attractive to a lot of people.”

“Yeah, but I can’t see him getting covered in tattoos and shooting whiskey in a dive bar. Or wearing leather and riding a motorcycle.”

“Sam would totally ride a motorcycle.”

June plucked the pink umbrella out of her drink. “We’re two very different people. I’m wondering how it’s supposed to work outside the context of everything we’ve been through. What about when life goes back to normal?”

“What if it never does?”

June twirled the umbrella between her fingers. “I don’t know what he sees in me. He’s shockingly the nicest, most attentive guy I’ve ever been with. I didn’t expect that coming from him.”

“Why not?”

She shrugged. “He just doesn’t seem the most affectionate person. On the surface, anyway.”

“Let me tell you something.” Cindy tapped the table. “It doesn’t surprise me at all. Sam has always had women chasing him. He’s passionate. He cares about things. I can see that translating into a relationship, and the bedroom.” She smirked. “He’s good at what he does. And I’ve been with a lot of guys, so believe me, I can compare.”

June started to take a sip of her drink and paused. “Wait, what? How do you know that?”

“Know how he is in bed?”

“Yes.”

“Well, there was this one time….”

June stared at her.

“It wasn’t like that.” Cindy held up her hands. “He was just helping me.”

“What?”

“My power, you know. Sometimes it can overwhelm me. Especially when I suppress it the way I do. It can cause damage. He saved my life, literally.”

“You possessed his cock?” She didn’t mean to speak so loudly.

“No! I didn’t put any sort of spell on him. But when that power gets turned inward, it can rip you apart. He kept me from suffering, from dying maybe. Remember on the patio of Kevin’s bar, I told you Sam is like my best friend, that he saved my life? That’s what happened. It was a crazy situation, but I was suffering when I came to him, really suffering. I didn’t know where else to turn. Everyone else would have made me feel bad about it or been scared of me.”

June continued staring at her. “He had sex with you to save your life.”

“Yes, but it wasn’t that crude. He was caring and kind, and he made sure I didn’t hate myself after. He loves his people; he really does. I honestly think I would have either gone crazy that night or killed myself. He was there for me. He was accommodating.”

Now June’s stomach started to turn, her mouth watering. She wasn’t sure if it was the drink or the conversation.

“Why do you think it was appropriate to tell me this?” June asked. “That you had sex with my boyfriend?”

Cindy reared back. “We weren’t in love. We weren’t together. It only happened once.”

June tried not to picture Cindy and Sam having sex—Cindy with all her boobs and butt, looking a thousand times more appealing than June’s stick figure.

“You said you couldn’t understand him being this good to you,” Cindy said. “I was trying to explain he’s a very good man to be in a relationship with. I think he’ll surprise you in a lot of ways.”

“Oh, I’m surprised all right.” She grabbed up her drink.

Cindy slumped. “Don’t be mad. For goodness’ sake, did you think Sam was a blushing virgin? And besides, you’ve been with Micha the past few months. How do you think he feels about that?”

June sipped her drink, her outrage retreating slightly. Cindy had a point.

“Give yourself some credit,” Cindy said. “You think Sam is smart and wonderful and attentive. So if he picked you, you must be a catch. You think a guy like him would pick a loser?”

June was silent.

“Take that hat off and let people see you’re Sam Haain’s girlfriend.” Cindy reached over and whipped June’s hat off.

“Hey!” June grabbed at it. “I turn to ashes in the sun!”

Cindy held it out of her reach. “You’re covered head-to-toe in lotion. Quit being a crybaby. Take that wrap off, too, and show off your tattoos.”

“Listen, bitch.” June stood, trying to grab her hat again. “Not all of us have huge titties to flash around like some kind of—”

A commotion rose behind them. June looked over her shoulder. Surely, people weren’t fighting already; the party hadn’t even officially started.

But it wasn’t a fight. Sam had arrived, Aaron at his side. Natalie bustled along behind them.

“Oh, good,” Cindy said. “Now we can get our cabana.”

“What?” June snatched at her hat again.

Cindy jerked it out of her reach. “Sam is renting one of the private cabanas up here. Much easier for him to hold court in.”

Sam and Aaron made their way through the crowd. Aaron wore khaki shorts and a pink-and-blue Hawaiian print shirt, sunglasses, and leather sandals. He was suave and stylish, gold watch glinting in the sun. He actually made Sam look kind of frumpy.

Cindy waved to them. Sam brightened and walked over, people trailing behind him.

“There you are,” he said. “Let me just talk to a few people, and we’ll go to the cabana.”

Cindy saluted him. June angrily sipped her drink.

Sam eyed the glass. “That looks refreshing.”

“It’s fucking terrible.”

After he left, June set her drink down. “I’m gonna go find the restroom. I’ll be right back.” She didn’t have to go, but she wanted to get away from all these people for a few minutes.

She started across the patio, weaving through the crowd. Midway, someone hooked an arm around her waist and stopped her.

“Come say hello to everyone.” Sam tugged at her.

She cringed. “I don’t think it’s me they care about….”

“I don’t think they realize who you are.”

Despite her reluctance, she let him pull her across the patio and into the thick of the crowd. All eyes were instantly on her, like a specimen in a Petri dish.

“I know there’s been a lot of speculation,” Sam said over the chatter, which immediately ceased. “So I’m going to put the rumors to rest right now. June Coffin is my girlfriend.”

June froze, holding her breath.

Sam smiled down at her. “We’ve been through a lot together. I don’t know what I would have done without her. I’m glad she decided to stick around now that it’s over.”

She smiled faintly.

“I’m hoping if I become your new mayor she’ll continue to stick around. God knows this city could use something a little less bland to look at.”

Laughter erupted.

She became the center of polite attention. People complimented her tattoos, and before she knew it, she was pulling her cover-up off. They asked her questions about them, and her pride swelled as she explained she’d done many of them herself. She even momentarily forgot her ribs were visible, or that she had a scar on her right side.

“So when are you opening a shop here?” a guy asked. He showed her his heavily tattooed arm. “’Cause I’ll be your first customer.”

Other people clamored, saying they’d come to her shop too.

Her shop. In Chicago?

She got a few questions about her power, and if she was now part of the Paranormal Alliance, but most of the questions centered on her personally: her choice of tattoos, what they meant, where she was from, what it was like there, if her tongue ring hurt to have put in. No one asked her about the past six months or the Institute.

Sam eventually backed the crowd off and pulled her away. “Let’s get out of the sun. We have a cabana. You can get a drink that’s not pink.”

“At least when I throw up later, it’ll be festive.” She looked over her shoulder as they walked away. People waved.

She waved back.

The cabanas were little more than tent pagodas filled with colorful couches and stools, but June was grateful to get some separation from the masses. Sam ordered bottles of liquor, beer, and food. His officers would be joining them later, as well as some of Aaron’s governing board.

“See, I told you,” Sam said to Aaron. “A gathering to promote solidarity was a good idea.” He sat next to June on a couch, his arm around her.

“The day is only beginning.” Aaron sat in a chair across from them. “We’ll call it a success when everything goes off without a hitch.”

“As long as no one gets drunk and starts fighting,” Cindy said. She sipped on a fresh drink. She was wearing June’s hat beneath her own hat, like some crazy hobo lady.

“Everyone will get along,” Sam said. “It’s a hallmark day for paranormal people.”

“Unless you’re a vampire.” Aaron looked out over the water. “Five hundred. That has to be nearly all the vampires in Chicago.”

Sam played with June’s bikini top strap over her shoulder. “I don’t want to talk about it today.”

“There’s going to come a time when we need to talk about it. I know you don’t keep company with vampires, and they aren’t in your group, but they are paranormal, and this is a big issue.”

“The vampires are going to do as they will.” Sam waved his other hand. “No laws of ours are going to stop them. Nothing we talk about is going to keep them from whatever they want to do; it never has.”

“No, and that’s the problem. They didn’t destroy nearly their entire population for no reason. This is the beginning of something.”

June spoke up. “They wanted to cleanse their ranks. That’s what Occam said. They only want old, powerful vampires left in the city.”

“Yes.” Aaron looked at her. “And what, I wonder, are those old, powerful vampires going to do now?”

June didn’t want to contemplate it. She wanted Jason and Diego back safe before anything else happened.

“How many can there be?” Sam said. “It sounds like a very elite club.”

“Enough to kill five hundred young ones.” Aaron adjusted his sunglasses. “I would not at all underestimate them. They’ve just proven how many people they can kill in two short days. Pray they don’t move on to other paranormal beings. Or normal ones.”

Silence fell, the sounds of the party around them continuing, adding a surreal weight to Aaron’s words.

A man stepped into the cabana then—a paunchy, spindly-legged older man, in khaki shorts and a T-shirt. He wore a floppy straw hat and dark sunglasses. He was holding one of the big pink drinks.

“I wanted to come say hello, Sam,” the man said. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”

Sam slid his sunglasses off and squinted. Aaron looked up at the man, pulled his phone out of his pocket, and started playing with it.

“Who are you?” Sam asked.

“A friend.”

“A friend indeed,” Aaron said.

The man smiled. “An admirer. I wanted to say how glad I am the Institute is finally getting what they deserve and that your innocence has been proven. I’m glad I could help in all aspects of that. I only hope everyone who deserves punishment has it coming to them.”

Sam slid his arm from around her shoulders and sat forward.

“I also wanted to assure you,” the man said, “that Eric Greerson is very much dead.”

Sam stared at him. “How…are you so sure of that?”

The man took a sip of his drink. “Because, before his funeral, my friends and I paid him a visit. We opened his casket and cut off his head.”

June blinked.

“A bit dramatic, yes. But I don’t know any vampires who can survive with their head removed.”

Sam sank back against the couch. June looked around at everyone in the cabana. Their reactions ranged from mildly surprised to bored, as if they heard this kind of shit all the time.

“Good luck with Robbie Beecher.” The man tipped the brim of his hat. “I will do what I can, but I don’t have any leverage against him. And you’re welcome. I’m glad leaking the footage to the Internet was far more advantageous than anything else we’ve done.”

He shuffled off and disappeared into the crowd.

Sam stared at Aaron. “That…that was…”

Aaron held up a finger. “No, that man is dead.”

June kept her mouth shut. She’d just met the first head of the Institute, she was sure, the man who fished out evidence to clear their names. The man who took no chances with vampires. Michael Paulson.

“I should have thanked him,” Sam said.

“He knows you’re thankful.” Aaron looked up from his phone. “Go on. Have a good time now, knowing your back is watched. Eat, drink, and be merry.”

June muttered, “For tomorrow we may die.”

June tried to have a good time. She ate a little, drank a little more, but then her stomach started acting up so she switched to water.

People drifted in and out of the cabana, visiting with Sam and Aaron. She got some attention as well, since the news had spread she was Sam Haain’s girlfriend.

Cindy grew tipsier as the day dragged on, which meant she became even louder and more annoying. She insisted on taking selfies with June, and with anyone who would stand still. June avoided getting into conversations with her lest she drunkenly confess more things June didn’t want to know.

News crews were all over the parking lot, but they weren’t allowed on the beach. Sam mused he might go out and say hello, but he didn’t seem in any hurry to do so.

“What, you don’t want to address the voters?” Aaron asked him. “I would have thought you came prepared with a speech.”

“Today is about having fun,” Sam said. “I can campaign tomorrow.”