New York suited Robert, Nathan Roulan thought as he watched his friend directing the servants who were filling Robert's closets with his many, many clothes. Nathan had bought up a few little theaters, a hotel at Times Square in which they were currently ensconced, several other little businesses that would get him slowly started in taking over this town. Nathan was glad to be out of Las Vegas, and he knew Robert was, too.

They had lived in Vegas for only two years, a brief time in the immortal span of a vampire, but it had been enough. Vegas had too many bad memories. New York would give them a fresh start, a new challenge, and it was closer to Arcadia, the Victorian home in Connecticut that had been purchased for Julian.

The hotel Nathan had purchased had an intimate, elegant little bar in the lobby, which Robert had already claimed for his own. Club le Robert would be there now, the Doctor's cabaret act. Broadway would never be the same, Nathan mused to himself, smiling. He looked over at his old friend, who hadn't aged in the five hundred years during which they had known each other. Dr. Robert was still young and beautiful, looking no more than his physical age of twenty-three.

Still, he had the command of one much older, someone spoiled and used to having his way. Someone used to great riches, riches that belonged to Nathan but had always been at Robert's command. Nathan had more money than God and didn't mind Robert spending it. There really wasn't anything in the world so expensive that he couldn't afford it. Most of Robert's expenditures were on clothing, in any event. Nathan himself was given to plain, dark suits. Robert's wardrobe could rival most film studios.

Yes, New York would be good for both of them. Nathan wondered vaguely how Robert really felt about it. The younger vampire was good at concealing his true emotions, so much so that on occasion, Nathan wondered if Robert even had any. Robert was selfish and ruthless, though he had a generous nature. Of course, even that generosity was suspect. Money that Robert lavished on those who caught his attention belonged to Nathan, and giving of his body meant nothing to Robert.

He was a whore, Nathan thought fondly, but it only made him all the more lovable. Lovable? Did Nathan love him? Well, he was very fond of the outlandish freak boy, but Nathan didn't love any more than Robert did. Love was not for vampires. Love died with humanity. Yet if down to the wire, Nathan would have to admit that Robert was the only person he could tolerate for any amount of time…or at very least, the only vampire. As for mortal love, that was a whole different story.

Nathan thought of Julian, then shook his head. No time for that now.

Dr. Robert was dressed in tight hot pink pinstriped trousers, a silver t-shirt, and a pink suede jacket with a pink pile-fur collar and cuffs that matched his pants. His black hair gleamed, as shiny as the shirt, and he wore sunglasses strictly for effect. His movements as he ordered the silent servants about were exaggerated and fey, but somehow graceful.

"No, no, no, dahling!" he shrieked in his British accent at a cowering maid who could scarcely have been out of her teens. "We're sorting this by color, not style. Don't you know the different between eggplant and aubergine? Really! Nathan, I am going to have to start a fashion school for these people."

"Perhaps you might consider training one or two of my staff members to help, but no more than that," Nathan said. If he let Robert run wild with this idea, there would soon be no one available for his own needs. "In any event, perhaps you ought to let them finish this project on their own. If you're not satisfied with the result when we return, you can send the offending parties to the new Punishment Room. I've been meaning to give it a test drive."

Nathan enjoyed watching the servants tremble at his words. The Punishment Room was a deluxe modern torture chamber, with every instrument of pain known to man at his disposal. He liked to play with his food…and he liked to keep his servants in line. They were truly slaves, people who had disappeared from the world, or never been introduced into it. He smiled, wondering what the average human would think if they knew about the underground vampire market for their kind.

Nathan was over two thousand years old, and had long since passed the point where he needed blood on a nightly basis. However, in his more candid moments he admitted to himself that he was a glutton. He enjoyed killing. The more senseless and wasteful the death, the better. This was why he enjoyed preying on youth. This was why The Larder existed. It was always stocked with two dozen ripe pigeons ready for his plucking.

Once upon a time, Robert had focused his hunting on the descendants of those who had abused him when he had been human, but all of their lines had been virtually extinguished and so he had come to emulate Nathan in his chosen perversion -- in both respects. Nathan's greed had not been satisfied with consumption of blood, the vampire's wine. He had trained himself to be able to consume the bodies of his victims as well. It pleased him to look on mortals as meat -- but only those young enough to be well-flavored.

They were not the only ones. Every year, at New Year's Eve, Nathan threw a small party at which a dozen vampires feasted on the entire stock of his larder. These ancients were bound to each other though their atrocities, which served business very well as each was an international multi-billionaire…except, of course, for Dr. Robert. The parties were Bacchanalian, extreme.

And so was Robert, when it came down to it, Nathan thought. The younger vampire's eyes were glittering at the thought of using the Punishment Room. There was something satisfying about seeing that lust in him.

"Nathan, you're genius -- just as I am," Dr. Robert drawled, throwing an arm around Nathan and kissing him on the mouth. It might have been pleasant aside from the pink shag cuffs on Robert's coat. Nathan permitted the brief embrace, then skillfully disentangled himself.

"Let's go," Nathan said simply.

"Yes," Dr. Robert agreed. "I'm hungry, and the city awaits…" A new city, a new chapter in a story that would never end, and a new life for those who walked among the dead.

A bullet in the brain
Never done any harm, you claim...