CHAPTER FOUR

Anna the ghost spread her hands on the table as if she enjoyed just feeling it. “If it pleases you, I don’t have a lot of information beyond my own experiences, but it takes a lot of work to enter a human who isn’t willing, or welcoming, or unconscious. It’s painful for me and them, and it’s not a perfect match. I mean, if we’re not welcome, we have little to no control over the body.”

“So what if I am willing. How do I let you know?” Zoë asked. “I mean if I can’t see you.”

She smiled. “That is why there aren’t a lot of possessions.”

Gwen leaned forward and fixed her eyes on Anna. “Ghost, tell me why the passenger known as Reynard would want to lie to Zoë about what ghosts are, and what they can do?”

The girl looked frightened. “I—I don’t know. I didn’t see Reynard. I don’t know who he is. He’s a citytalker like you, yes?”

Gwen slowly turned to focus on Zoë. “Citytalker? Does this mean you have the same particular gift as your addled elderly friend?”

She forced herself to look Gwen in the eye, which was like looking into a demanding starry sky. “I can trust you, right, Gwen? I mean, you feed off me and everything, but you don’t actively hunt me. You don’t view me as a sentient sandwich.”

“I thought we had well established that.”

Zoë shrugged. “I’m sorry. It’s just my one secret I’d like to keep from Phil and many of the others.”

“I knew that you’re a magical human.” Gwen’s voice was steady as always, but Zoë stared at her. A small smile crossed Gwen’s face. “I can tell by your life force. I’ve known it for a while.”

Zoë leaned back and sighed. “Can I keep nothing from you people?”

Gwen waved her hand dismissively. “Only people who have fed on you would know. As far as I understand, that includes myself and John. You haven’t let a vampire feed, and a zombie would have killed or turned you by now. So it’s only us.”

“John isn’t necessarily someone I trust,” Zoë said, remembering with discomfort the time the incubus had nearly seduced her to feed on her sexual energy.

“He has told no one about you thus far,” Gwen replied calmly.

Zoë glared at Anna. “Thanks for outing me,” she said, and the girl’s eyes went wide when she realized she’d offended. “I hadn’t planned on talking about it yet.”

“Because the more coterie know about citytalkers, the more dangerous it is for us,” Anna said quietly, looking down. She touched her neck where a vampire had savaged it—something Zoë hadn’t noticed since Anna kept that side away from people when speaking. “I was killed during a purge, Dublin didn’t tell me the assassin was coming. I don’t know why.”

“Were you killed by a vampire?” Zoë asked, and then felt stupid because it was an obvious question, but the girl shook her head.

“I don’t know what took me down, but once I was down, they were on me, tried to turn me. It was part of the second wave of attacks, if you will. The city didn’t warn us, and by the time it realized what the vampires had planned, we were too incapacitated to prepare.”

“I remember,” Gwen said. “I witnessed some. Zoë, you were right, it’s not something you want people like Kevin knowing. And if Phil knows you have this power, he will figure out a way to use you to his advantage.”

Zoë frowned. She realized she had been hoping that Gwen would deny all her fears instead of validating that she was correct to hide her secret. This made it even worse if it came out.

“OK, so you’re not mad and you’re not going to give me up. Good to know,” Zoë said. “But how come no one told me about this genocide thing? It’s a pretty big freaking deal to humans, I figured you guys would know that little bit of history ought to make a difference to me. I know lots of coterie eat people, but this is so much worse.”

Gwen sat back and closed her eyes, then licked her lips, and Zoë got an uncomfortable feeling of her remembering a specific taste. The taste of people like her, and their proximity to death. Her dark eyes opened then, and she leaned forward.

“We didn’t think you needed to know. They don’t know you’re magical, so they figured you wouldn’t be threatened, and if you’d found out, you might not have taken the job.”

“No kidding,” Zoë mumbled. “What can you tell me about any citytalkers left? Granny is the only one I’ve ever met. I barely understand what this power is, and now people exist that want to hunt me for it?”

Gwen inclined her head. “I came into being astride a black mare, galloping across a moor in pursuit of a wayward soul. Coming to terms with your sudden existence is a shock.”

“You’ll have to tell me that story sometime.” Zoë wanted to take a drink of her soda, and then remembered it had walked off to fight a bunch of fake cowboys. “So no, I don’t know where my people come from. I don’t know how I became a citytalker, and I don’t know how to control it, even. Riding on this train is bizarre as I’m getting a taste of personality from the occasional city, but we’re moving too fast for anything to solidify.”

“I don’t know if I should be the one to tell you this—” Gwen began, but Zoë interrupted her.

“I trust you, Gwen,” she said. She started to count down on her fingers. “You are not interested in eating me. You have kept my secret from Phil even though you didn’t know exactly what it was, and you have shown yourself to be concerned about my well-being despite what you say about being an impassive death goddess.”

Gwen waited for a moment, then said, “Are you going to finish counting your fingers?”

Zoë lowered her hands, feeling her face flush. “I had only three.”

“I see. And all of those things are true. I simply fear that you finding out the details will make you less interested in working with us.”

“I’ve been attacked by zombies, zoëtists, golems, and demons. One of them even swallowed me,” she reminded Gwen, shuddering at the memory. “What can you tell me that will turn me off more than those have?”

“I can tell you what we have lost.”

“What we lost?”

“What everyone lost when we lost the citytalkers. The cities.”

“But the cities are right there!” Zoë waved her hand, although only South Carolina farmland was beyond the train’s windows.

“The spirits of the cities are fractured and confused. The citytalkers not only talked to the cities, but they supported the cities, too. Obviously the buildings and bridges and infrastructure are still there, but the city itself is weakened. If no one can talk to the city, no one knows if a disaster is imminent, or if a bridge is weakened. And frankly, healthy cities are happy, and happy cities have happy people. Some cities are near death now that the talkers are all but gone. And those who are here”—she gestured to Zoë—“are not taught what they need to know.”

Zoë sat in stunned silence. Gwen patiently signaled to Anna, who rose, left the car, and hurried back, carrying a red can. She gave a soda—cold, this time—to Zoë.

“Drink something. It will ground you,” Gwen said, gently pushing the fresh drink toward Zoë.

“Dying cities? You are kidding me, right?”

Gwen frowned. “I’m very bad at kidding. Jokes were Morgen’s job.”

“Why would the coterie want the cities to die?” she asked.

“It wasn’t logic that made them hunt, it was bigotry. They didn’t want humans to have any access to magic. They saw it as offensive, heresy, what have you.”

Beside Zoë, Arthur stirred. His eyes opened briefly, and he caught sight of Gwen and, across the aisle, the dozing Eir. He spied the blood on Zoë’s shirt, and frowned in concern.

“What the hell did I miss?” he asked.

CHAPTER 18

Coterie NOLA

This city is called the unofficial coterie capital of the world, for good reason. Carnival and Mardi Gras make it easy for coterie to walk freely in the public eye no matter what their physical appearance. This city accepts, even embraces, the “weird”—aka any nonhuman.

Vampires are the dominant coterie, and have influenced much of the mythology in the city. Many of the myths are true, some are false. Visitors are encouraged to determine what is fact and what is fiction.

But don’t go searching out the more prominent celebrity vampires. They are not fond of visitors who do not bleed.

The city is famous for its food, and naturally the hedonistic partying makes it good for any deity or demon that feeds off human energy, especially the succubi and incubi. Its port status leaves it open for water-loving demons and sprites; however, the events after Hurricane Katrina have left the city in less of a welcoming mood with regard to water sprites. So keep in mind that visiting water sprites may face intolerance.

Zoëtists are encouraged to check in at Public Works, as New Orleans is the voodoo capital of the US, and zoëtism and voodoo are sister specialities.