Page 46 of Smoke & Ashes
“And you wouldn’t know”—this was going to turn out even more awkward than the ritually-re-awakening-a-statue question—“where one might hypothetically start looking for it?”
“Your friend…” The professor laughed, almost cruelly “…seems to have set you a number of very peculiar tasks.”
I didn’t answer that.
“I’m afraid your guess is as good as mine. You’re straying perilously close to the world of conspiracy theory—you may as well go chasing the Templars or the Order of St Agrippina.”
That was familiar. “Hold on, order of who?”
“St Agrippina? It’s an old bit of mytho-history. Supposedly there used to be an order of nuns working out of the Vatican, dedicated to the eradication of supernatural threats. It’s got all your usual hallmarks, hidden rituals, secret initiations. They’ve been tied to a fringe end of the grail mythology for years.”
Well fuck. “You’re right,” I said. “That does sound like a dead end.”
“Sorry I couldn’t be more use.”
In a fit of uncharacteristic politeness, I got the door for her. “Don’t worry, you’ve been—it’s been helpful.”
“I’ll speak to you soon, Kate.”
“See ya, Nick.” I was way more comfortable withDoctor Bright, but it seemed rude to be formal when you’d been asked to be familiar.
The moment she left I went for my emergency scotch. Turned out I had a lead on the grail after all. Fucking Julian Saint-Ger-fucking-main.
20
Scotch & My Ex
Iprobably shouldn’t have drunk quite so much before I showed up at the Velvet. But I did. Fucking sue me.
Normally—by which I mean always—I’d have expected to find Ashriel on the door, but he wasn’t there tonight. His place had been taken by a well-muscled woman in a denim-on-denim combo that shouldn’t have worked but did. I tried skipping the queue anyway.
“Where’s Ash?” I asked.
“Gone. Been gone more than a year now.”
Well how time flies. “I need to see Julian.”
She did not look impressed.
“It’s important.”
She still did not look impressed. Ignoring me completely, she waved a couple more clubgoers into the building.
“We used to date.”
“How much d’you think that narrows it down?”
Probably not hugely. “I’m Kate,” I tried belatedly. “Kate Kane?”
“Oh, right. Then you can definitely fuck off.”
“Who even are you?” I asked.
“I’m the lady who’s minding this door.” Another few guests filed in past me. “You want to queue, you can queue.”
My mind wasn’t working its quickest right then. Blame the visions, the alcohol and—actually it was only those two things but they added up to a fair bit. I was aware that there was a good chance this person was a vampire, and that if she was, I thought I would probably be morally okay about shoving her through a plate glass window and walking in anyway. But if she wasn’t, I’d probably go to prison for malicious wounding. Also I wasn’t totally sure thatit’s okay to randomly assault people if they’re vampireswas a rule at all, morality-wise.
I queued.
