Death's Excellent Vacation (Sookie Stackhouse 9.5)

HE takes everyone back to Japan in his invisible force-field UFO. They're quiet on the trip. Over Japan, the trees are pink and green with springtime. At the big Tokyo train station, the kids and the older men shake hands with him and Lan. Then the Japanese Talents wander away, down escalators. The station is a big mall, open in the center. Green and Lan can still see the group, past the escalator, two levels below them. The kids stand in front of a game store, huddling together. "Guess they thought they'd be happier when the heroics happened, " Green says. "Guess they thought they'd figure something out. " "They've seen monsters, " Lan says. He nods. "We went fishing, " he says. "Four of us. We were so jazzed about being Talents. That was the age of Talents. We thought we had it made. We were kings of the world. We were like each other. But Atom got sick, Astounding was going to get himself blown up someday and he did, I stole my wife from Iguana and pretended to be human. We went fishing and we caught loneliness. I can't help the kids, Lan. Badgers and cats don't live more than a few years. Someday there'll be only one of them left. And it'll see something it thinks is like itself or its friends, but the smell will be wrong and the taste will be wrong, and it'll know it's the only one of itself in the world. Being the one there's only one of, that's being a monster. "

"I'll buy you a present, " Lan says. She makes him wait outside a shop full of statues of every description, from Buddha to the Virgin Mary. Here in Planet Tokyo you buy Buddhas in a train station. She comes out with a little box. Not far away from them there's something like a food court with little tables. They take a table with pink plastic flowers embedded in its top. "Open your present now. " She goes away and comes back with two drinks, something chewy and sweet with barley in it. Green's present is eight little plastic statues in a row on a plastic base. "The Eight Immortals. " She touches their small heads one by one. "Immortal Woman He, whose lotus flower gives health. Royal Uncle Cao, whose jade tablet purifies the world. Iron- Crutch Li, who protects the needy. " She takes the next one off the stand, a slim Chinese boy or girl with a woven basket and a flute, and stands it by her purse. Through the woven material of the purse he can see the outline of that long flute. "Lu Dongbin, whose sword dispels evil spirits. Philosopher Han Xiang, whose flute gives life. Elder Zhang Guo, master of clowns, winemaking, and Qigong kung fu. Zhongli Quan, whose fan revives the dead. " Green picks up the statue with the basket and flute, and looks a question at her. "Immortal Woman runs a health food store in New Jersey. The Philosopher and Quan are dead, I think. The Philosopher's flute came to me in the mail one day. I saw Zhang Guo on the beach in Monterey but he wouldn't talk to me. Lu, Li, Cao, I don't know. Immortal Woman frightens me most. She didn't want to be a monster. She wanted friends and neighbors. She made herself forget she was immortal. I go in there once a year or so, and she says nothing but trivial things, How do you like those Dodgers? She never stops talking. She bores everyone and forgets to charge for newspapers. But she isn't a monster. " "You want to be lonely?" Green says.

"You want to be alone?" She touches the statue he has picked up, which means she touches his hand. "Lan Caixe. The shape-changer, the mysterious one. The minstrel whose songs foretell the future. No, " Lan says, "I didn't want to be a monster. So I made other shape-changers, and I thought they would be like me. " "Yeah, " Green says. "Which made me a monster. " He doesn't move his hand, though he agrees with her. Her fingers stay lightly on his, ready to be rejected. "I thought you could help, " she says. "You would make me not a monster anymore. " "Wish I could have. " Still their hands touch, in midair, but he doesn't pull away, until it's awkward, or meaningful, or something, but neither of them pulls away. "What are we if we aren't humans or heroes? Are we always monsters?" she asks. No. We are, he thinks. We just are. Immortal? Enduring. Like a rock, like an old man fishing--? "Organized, maybe, " he says to her. "Not very. " But she smiles. "You more than me. "

"It's a talent. " The kids could use help. Not that he can give it. He has failed at being a Protector and failed at being a man. But maybe she can think of something he can do. Maybe together they can-- He wonders if she's foreseeing he'll think that. He wonders what she's foreseeing. That might bother him, her foreseeing him. "I owe them, " she says. "Thanks. " But maybe it won't bother him much. "S'pose we go back to my place; we can have some coffee and talk about stuff. " "You don't have any tea?" says his red-haired Chinese immortal hopefully. Nope, he's about to say; but here he is in Shinjuku Station, in Japan, on another planet, and it is spring. Nothing will bring back Mutti and Dadu, nothing will bring back his lost wife or his old friends. Even if Lan is one of the Eight Immortals, there are no guarantees. And nothing will make him a man. But perhaps to be superhuman you need to have been human once, and failed. Here is what I'd say to you, he thinks to those little Japanese kids he will probably meet again, here's the advice I'd give. You little bits of frost, you falling leaves, you mortals? You're doing the important thing right. Keep hold of each other as long as you can. Hug each other and hang around together. Nothing lasts forever. But Atom and Astounding and the Iguana and me? We had a great time fishing. "This is Japan. I bet we can buy us some tea. " One for the Money.

Chapter Seven

JEANIENE FROST

Jeaniene Frost lives with her husband and their very spoiled dog in Florida. Although not a vampire herself, she confesses to having pale skin, wearing a lot of black, and sleeping in late whenever possible. And although she can't see ghosts, she loves to walk through old cemeteries. Jeaniene also loves poetry and animals but fears children and hates to cook. She is currently at work on the next novel in her bestselling Night Huntress series.

One

I squinted in the morning sunlight. At this hour, I should have been in bed, but thanks to my uncle Don, I was traipsing across the NCSU campus instead. I strode up to Harrelson Hall, then climbed to the third floor to the class I was looking for. When I walked in, most of the students ignored me, either chatting with each other or rifling through their bags as they waited for class to start. The room had stadium-style seating, with the entrance down by the professor's lectern. My lower vantage point gave me the same sweeping view of the students the professor would have. I scanned every face, seeking the one that matched the jpeg I'd been sent. No, no, no . . . Ah. There you are. A pretty blonde stared back at me with barely concealed suspicion. I smiled in a friendly way and threaded up the aisle toward her. My smile didn't soothe her; she flicked her gaze around the room as if debating whether to make a run for it. Tammy Winslow I thought coolly. You should be scared, , because you're worth a lot of money dead. The air felt charged with invisible currents moments before a ghost burst into the room. Of course, I was the only one who could see him. "Trouble, " the ghost said. Sounds of heavy footsteps came down the hall while the air thickened with greater supernatural energy. So much for doing this the quiet way. "Get Bones, " I told the ghost. "Tell him to be ready at the window. " That turned a few heads, but I didn't care about my college-student ruse anymore. I had to get those people out of here. "I've got a bomb, " I called out loudly.