| Ch. 22. Sugie makes the milk run up to Duquieu's mansion. Duquieu says Blood residents must "go into the havens" until he rounds up all the Lamprous. Countermanding his earlier orders, he requests that Clint, not Sugie, handle all future blood deliveries to the mansion.
Ch. 23. Wandering the hills, Gilda finds Charlie and "adopts" him. The two prowl for necks to suck, but can't find any Blood residents. Gilda realizes that Duquieu has done something he only does "every once in a while," which is put the townspeople in havens: five concrete fortresses, each stocked with provisions to sustain 100 people for a week, which Duquieu uses as lures for stray Lamprous. As Gilda is explaining this, Duquieu rides up dramatically astride the horse, Baron. Sam and Louise Steiner, who have been lurking behind the Pickhandle Hill haven, try to cut and run. Duquieu kills Louise with a flying wooden stake through the heart and strings the screaming Sam up in a net, which swings from a tree branch. Gilda shields Charlie, her "baby," from skewering, and the grumbling Duquieu marches them back to the mansion and locks them up in the poolroom. [This is getting funny--we're almost in Addams Family territory here.]
Ch. 24. Blood residents exit the havens after dawn to take care of business around town. Sam hangs in his net, burned by the daytime sun, waiting for Duquieu to kill him. Clint collects blood from the townspeople, then uses his Army-acquired lockpicking skills to enter Duquieu's sleeping cage. Perversely, he places the blood at the foot of the old Lamprou's bed. He returns home to find his surrogate Pap crying; it's finally dawned on Sugie that Clint's a Lamprou, albeit one who sleeps at night and wears a steel vest to protect his heart. Clint tells Sugie not to worry, because Blood is "home to everybody I love." He promises to "handle the situation," and then makes a mysterious promise that doesn't become clear 'til the last chapter: "You'll have your Lamprou to bless the fields and you'll have your jug and your friends."
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Ch. 23. Wandering the hills, Gilda finds Charlie and "adopts" him. The two prowl for necks to suck, but can't find any Blood residents. Gilda realizes that Duquieu has done something he only does "every once in a while," which is put the townspeople in havens: five concrete fortresses, each stocked with provisions to sustain 100 people for a week, which Duquieu uses as lures for stray Lamprous. As Gilda is explaining this, Duquieu rides up dramatically astride the horse, Baron. Sam and Louise Steiner, who have been lurking behind the Pickhandle Hill haven, try to cut and run. Duquieu kills Louise with a flying wooden stake through the heart and strings the screaming Sam up in a net, which swings from a tree branch. Gilda shields Charlie, her "baby," from skewering, and the grumbling Duquieu marches them back to the mansion and locks them up in the poolroom. [This is getting funny--we're almost in Addams Family territory here.]
Ch. 24. Blood residents exit the havens after dawn to take care of business around town. Sam hangs in his net, burned by the daytime sun, waiting for Duquieu to kill him. Clint collects blood from the townspeople, then uses his Army-acquired lockpicking skills to enter Duquieu's sleeping cage. Perversely, he places the blood at the foot of the old Lamprou's bed. He returns home to find his surrogate Pap crying; it's finally dawned on Sugie that Clint's a Lamprou, albeit one who sleeps at night and wears a steel vest to protect his heart. Clint tells Sugie not to worry, because Blood is "home to everybody I love." He promises to "handle the situation," and then makes a mysterious promise that doesn't become clear 'til the last chapter: "You'll have your Lamprou to bless the fields and you'll have your jug and your friends."
- tom moody 5-13-2002 9:14 pm