Downside Rain: Downside book one Read Online Free PDF Page A

embryonic
beasts will grow to be big beasts with a taste for flesh, dead or alive. We don’t
kill children, no matter what shape they take, but these baby monsters won’t
survive to punch through their sacs. We’ll find the nearest public phone, call
the City and let them take care of it.
    Monsters
don’t get a second chance Downside and some don’t get a first.

Chapter Three
     
    The
phone wakes me. Face down on the bed, I pull a pillow over my head and hold it
there with both hands. The gods-awful jangling changes to a muffled brrrrp .
It rings ten more times before the answering machine picks up. Someone really
wants to talk to me. I lift one corner of the pillow.
    “Rain?”
Clide says. “He wants you, darling. That means now.”
    I
sit up and throw the pillow at the phone as the line goes dead, and miss. I
don’t want the hassle of buying a new machine so am glad I didn’t knock it off
the counter.
    Clide
is Alain Sauvageau’s lieutenant and I’m supposed to get my butt over there
pronto.
    I
first met Alain when Castle introduced me and we discussed an assignment. He
had a sense of age about him which made me feel young and naïve. After a dozen
or so jobs, he asked for me alone. At first, I put it down to Castle’s flagrant
contempt for a man who closely associates with vampires. Nobody likes to be
openly sneered at. Castle detests vampires because their ability to force
physicality on a wraith gives them an advantage over us. I have no problem with
them. So far, only the Peralta vampires have touched me when I go to their
compound to see Alain, and they are performing their duty.
    Knowing
by then Alain’s reputation as a bad man to cross, I didn’t object to the solo
meetings because I became concerned he would snap and hurt Castle. I saw how close
he came a couple of times. Alain smoothly made our meetings a social occasion
before we got to the business transaction; we talked, dined a few times and I
eventually relaxed in his company. Then something changed. He started to hit on
me.
    Alain
makes me feel alive as nobody and nothing else does. He means something to me,
and I don’t want to feel this way, not for a man famous throughout Gettaholt
for his numerous affairs and jilted lovers. He is a love ‘em and leave ‘em guy.
I can never be anything more than another woman he hooks up with for a while,
then drops. And I wouldn’t be one of the beauties he parades around Gettaholt.
Oh no. Being seen with a wraith won’t enhance his reputation; ours would be a
clandestine affair.
    Reconciling
his reputation with the man I know on a personal level in the privacy of his
home is difficult when I’m with him.  But I know better; he’s merciless and
often cruel to those who stand in his way. I imagine he is as pitiless to
castoff lovers. Becoming involved with him will end with me hurting, so I won’t
give him the kind of relationship he wants. I try to distance myself.
    As
well as sending assignments our way, we keep our ears and eyes open for what
may interest Alain. Being inconspicuous when we want to does have advantages. We
hear what people would not speak of openly if they knew we listened. Some of it
is of use to him, some he dismisses, but he pays for the information
nonetheless. It must be why he wants me now, one of those times he’s decided to
pay us - or rather, me - personally instead of sending the money with Clide. I
don’t want to go, this meeting is his excuse to be alone with me again, but I
never say no to money. I suppose I should get it over with.
    Crawling
from a mess of blankets, I head for the bathroom, eyes half-closed, mouth
tasting like yesterday’s leftovers. Sure, I can lose flesh and nighttime sweat
along with it, but I enjoy standing under a pounding deluge of water, soaping up
and rinsing off.
    I
do fade out to rid my hair of moisture. Rubbing it dry takes too long when my stomach
gnaws at my backbone. I need breakfast.
    Squatting
in front of the cubes, I look over