Pomegranates full and fine by Unknown Author Read Free Book Online

had taken on a shape very much like that of the lamppost itself: tall, and almost cylindrically thin. His face, translucent pale skin framed by long, fine, blond hair, almost glowed with reflected light. The Embrace might bring strange and powerful abilities, but it could also bring madness, sometimes hand in hand; Tolly’s body had a tendency to shift and reshape itself, reflecting the vampire’s moods or surroundings. All totally unconsciously. Occasionally he would wander off and reappear with a new tattoo or a body piercing, as if his body’s own unnatural abilities weren’t enough to satisfy it. The artificial modifications lasted no longer than his ow'n reshapings, healed, erased or plucked away by Tolly’s wandering hands. Sometimes Tolly scarcely seemed aware that he still had a body and that he wasn’t some disembodied spirit. It was eerie to watch him as his face and limbs distorted while he chatted or walked or sat, blissfully ignorant. His lack of control fascinated Miranda — almost as much as it disturbed her.
    But Tolly could also be frighteningly competent in the midst of his madness. One impossibly thin arm, like the crossbar on the lamppost, came up and gestured toward a cafe. “He’s in there.”
    “Good.” Miranda walked toward the cafe. The others followed her, Tolly still as tall and thin as the lamppost, though he shrank down with every step he took. No one passing on the street seemed to notice. If they did, they were too polite to say anything. By the time the vampires entered the cafe, he was still tall and scrawny, but at least he looked human again.
    The server behind the glass case of cakes and pies at the front of the cafe ignored them. No one stopped them as they made their way to a table in the back comer of the restaurant. A man — another vampire — sat there, a cup of coffee untouched in front of him. He smiled at a pretty girl and whispered words that were as sweet as the cake she ate. Miranda dropped down beside him and caught the girl’s eye. Her will was like candy floss. “Go home,” Miranda commanded.
    “Shit!” The Camarilla vampire started, his chair squealing on the floor as he pushed away from the table and tried to escape. Blue’s big hands came down on his shoulders and held him in his seat. The girl stood without a word, picked up her purse, and left. Tolly sat down in her place and began playing with her cake.
    “Keep quiet, Camarilla,” whispered Miranda with a smile on her face. “There are a lot of nice, normal people here. You wouldn’t want them to know what lurks in the shadows of their little paradise, would you?” The vampire’s eyes were wide with panic as he looked from Miranda with her smile to Tolly, mashing the cake into a brown goo with a fork, to Matt, casually standing with his back to the rest of the cafe and blocking the table from view. “You’re Sabbat,” he croaked. “You’re not supposed to be here. The Settlement...”
    “You’re Camarilla, and the Settlement applies to you, too. It’s time for a little geography lesson, I think. What’s your name, Camarilla?”
    “Listen.” The vampire licked his lips nervously. “I know what this is about.... Earlier tonight, right?” He glanced around again, searching for sympathy. “I didn’t know she was going to drive out of the Box. And I was hungry. It’s not my fault.” He reached out to Miranda.
    Tolly grabbed the vampire’s hand and slapped it down, palm up, on the tabletop. Then he drove his fork through the undead flesh and into the wood of the table. Blue wrapped one hand around their captive’s mouth, muffling his shriek of pain.
    Miranda held up her hand. Her fingernails lengthened, growing into long talons. Shadows stretched and shifted around her, around the table, shrouding them in gloom, hiding what was about to happen from the humans in the cafe. The ability to grow claws was something she had learned from Blue, but the ability to manipulate shadows was her