Business Makes Strange Bedfellows by E. E. Ottoman Read Free Book Online Page A

looked up at Vanessa.
    "Here." Vanessa said and handed her a porcelain doll. The doll was dressed in a faded satin dresses and bonnet with eyes that blinked open and shut as it was rocked. "For the girl," Vanessa said. "Don't worry about paying for it. It's a gift, for her."
    "What…?"
    But Vanessa had already turned away, counting the bills Vi had left on the countertop, and Vi tugged at Gert's sleeve.
    "She gave me a doll," She said when they were back in the cab. She looked down at the toy in her hands. "I don't understand."
    Vi just shrugged, seemingly unconcerned. "We should go see about this sewer."
    "Shouldn't we have weapons? If we intend to meet this creature in its lair, as it were?" She thought of the revolver she kept in the drawer of her desk. She'd hardly thought to bring it, though.
    Reaching into one of the inner pockets of her coat, Vi pulled out a long knife. The sight of it did not make Gert feel much better.
    "Here should do nicely." Vi was looking out of the window and rapped on the roof of the cab to signal the driver to stop. They climbed out and Vi strolled down the street and then around the corner onto another one, her pace unhurried. She wanted to ask what they were going or looking for, but before she could, Vi ducked into a narrow side street and knelt on the dirty stones around a metal manhole cover.
    "Aren't we going to need a crowbar—" Gert started, and Vi reached down forcing her fingers into the groove between the metal and stone and pried the cover off with one smooth, inhuman motion.
    "Shall we?" Vi gestured to the darkness of the gaping hole. The stench rising from the hole was noxious in the extreme.
    "There are probably rats down there." Not that she was afraid of rats per se, but she didn't enjoy them, especially not in large numbers.
    "I hope so," Vi said, tone cheerful, and swung herself down into the hole.
    Iron spikes that had been hammered between the bricks of the wall allowed them to descend into the sewage tunnel. Finally her feet sunk into frigid liquid up to the ankles. She tried not to think about it and searched her pockets until she found her lighter. The lighter's tiny flame wasn't all that useful, but it was better than nothing.
    In the flicker of the flame held in her hand, Vi's eyes seemed to glow with a silver sheen like that of an animal's, and she looked away. She was very aware that they were alone together in this dark space and Vi was far from human, but she shoved such thoughts aside. She trusted Vi, cared about her—she would not think of her in such a away.
    "Where do you propose we even begin to look for the creature?" she said, and Vi's lips pulled back from her too-sharp teeth in a smile.
    She bent slightly murmuring low. "Get behind me," Vi said when she straightened, and Grert scrambled to do so.
    There was a rushing noise, far off but coming closer along with a high, chattering sound. Instinctively, she pressed closer to Vi, still clutching her lighter in one hand. She couldn't see what was coming towards them from the dark, but the cold water around her ankles began to slosh as if there was something large pushing its way through the water towards them.
    "What is it? What's that sound?" She didn't like how strained her voice sounded. She could deal with anything, she thought, as long as she could see it.
    "The rats," Vi said. "I am calling the rats. They will be able to lead us to the creature's last victim."
    "Rat?" Gert echoed, trying to understand what Vi had told her. The noise was still far off but by the sound of it there must be hundreds.
    "In truth I don't fully understand why they respond to me, to my power, my nature, my stolen blood, but I have always had control over them," Vi said. The rushing noise, along with the high squeaking from hundreds of tiny throats, was closer now. She swallowed hard and pressed her front even closer to Vi's back. She was now almost grateful she could not see the wave of rats bearing down on them.
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