chapter 9
‘Employees Only’ screamed in dark red lettering across the double doors painted in black and Ryder placed a hand on one door, then paused. “Look…Ran?”
It was hard, not to keep jumping from foot to foot. “What?”
If my harsh tone bothered him, it didn’t show on his suddenly worried face. “If anyone asks, you’re my blood for the night, okay?”
I couldn’t stop a shiver from running through my body. Over my dead body. “Yes. Okay. I don’t care. Can we go now?”
He pushed the door open and stood to one side, hand still on the door. “After you, Madam.”
Walk in front of a vampire? No matter if the vampire said he was a friend. “I’m…not entirely comfortable walking in front. I wouldn’t know where to go. Perhaps you should go first.”
He quirked a brow. “So much for chivalry.”
But he took point and I shivered as the doors closed behind us. The doors were heavy and it was cold in the fluorescent lit hallway. Of course, it was below freezing outside, but there was no warmth here. “It’s cold.”
Ryder spared a glance over his shoulder. “Yeah. We’re not really into heating. Hope you don’t mind.”
It was hardly worth complaining about. “Never mind that. Keep walking.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
The hallway was long, with several doors on either sides. All of them were locked.
“Look, do you mind not opening every single door you come across?” he said, starting to sound a little annoyed.
Good. At least, I wasn’t alone in my general frustration. “It’s worth a shot.”
“Just…let me handle everything, okay?”
The hallway forked into two, both of them with a flight of stairs going down and Vincent’s human emissary was climbing the one on the right.
“Ryder!” Her eyes flicked in my direction and then narrowed. “Oh. She needs to leave. Now.”
He put an arm around my shoulder and I struggled not to put up a fight. This close to a vampire, I was almost gasping to get away. On the inside, of course. Outside, I was all smiles and good cheer. Look at me. I promise I’m not a threat. Yeah right.
“She’s my blood for the night,” he said, sounding almost defensive.
She crossed her arms, one foot tapping on the rich crimson carpet. I couldn’t help but think it would mask the color of blood incredibly well. Was that the intention? I believed it. “Really?”
“Yeah, really.”
“You expect me to believe that kind of bullshit?” she asked, derision clear in that low, husky voice. “Are you an idiot? Wait, never mind. I already know the answer to that.”
He lifted his chin, just a little bit. “What’s wrong with my donor? She wants to share some blood. We’ll have some fun. What’s wrong with that? I might have feelings for you, but since you’ve so kindly put me down, I think I’m entitled to a little fun.”
I kept my mouth shut. Seemed like the best course of action.
“A little fun?” She stabbed a finger in my direction. “Does she look like she wants to have a little fun?”
I cleared my throat. “I wouldn’t be entirely adverse to it.”
That was all she needed to know.
“See?” Ryder’s arm tightened almost painfully. “So what’s wrong with that?”
She was quiet for a moment and then shook her head. “Nothing. Never mind.”
“So we can go then?”
“Yeah,” she replied. “Yeah, go ahead.”
We brushed past her and the back of my neck prickled almost uncontrollably. I knew she was still there, standing at the head of the staircase as we took the one opposite the direction she’d come from. “Hey. Ailward.”
Ryder stiffened as I stopped, head down, not entirely trusting myself to turn around. I couldn’t trust myself to keep a straight face.“Yes, Emissary.”
There was a dull thud on the metal railing, almost as if she leaned her hip against it. “Why don’t you tell me the real reason you’ve badgered Ryder into taking you down?”
He drew in a short burst of breath. “Eve, that’s not —”
I touched his arm dangling over my left shoulder, stopping him from making a complete liar out of himself. “I’m looking for…something.”
“That seems suitable vague,” she said with a short laugh. “I hope you find what you’re looking for, Ailward.”
I wished she’d stop calling me that. As if I needed a constant reminder of something I dreaded. “I hope so, too.”
Ryder’s arm forced me down the rest of the stairs and all the way down, I felt her thoughtful gaze on my back like a searing hot brand that wouldn’t dissipate.
The staircase went down several more levels lit by harsh lights that seemed to flicker at odd intervals, but Ryder led me down the first hallway, with the thick crimson carpet and soft green wallpaper. Were it not for the lack of windows and the terrible lighting, I thought it might have looked the same as the inside of an upscale apartment building.
The spacing between the doors made me think perhaps the rooms that laid beyond were quite palatial…insofar as underground suites could be. “Do you live here?”
“As does most every nonhuman who works for Vincent,” he said and coughed nervously at my expression. “Look, it’s just convenient. I mean, you could go live elsewhere if you wanted to, but then there’s rent to pay, security to worry about, the fact you’re going to have to feed yourself if you want to be fed at all…here, at least we’re with people we know and around familiar surroundings. I mean, Vincent’s not bad, as far as Lords go. He doesn’t ask us to pay him a tithe, unless that’s what taxes are for. He’s really not that bad. Trust me. I know.”
Interesting. A useful fact I could carry back to the Elders. Assuming I was still alive when the time came to make my report. “You are very open about this. I don’t think this is a known fact, is it?”
He shrugged. “You’re an Ailward. You’d find out sooner or later.”
Surely someone couldn’t be this harebrained. “Sooner or later? Are you this willing to talk about your brethren stronghold in such a lackadaisical manner?”
His eyes widened in incredulity. “Are you kidding me? You honestly think I’m worried about this place getting targeted by some group like the Fellows or whatever the f*ck they’re called? Lady, this place is safer than a f*cking Cold-War bunker.”
“Hypothetically speaking,” because I didn’t need him to start suspecting me, “I could come down with a flamethrower and burn the place down.”
The vampire laughed so hard he almost fell over. The reason most of the doors were locked and no one kicked open their door to yell at him I attributed to the general middle of the night. Most, if not all of them, would be upstairs or out doing whatever it was they did. I liked that. Made finding Jason easier. In a way. “A flamethrower? Here? You’re really something you know that? Just because we’re down here doesn’t mean a damn thing except we’re here. You think we sleep when the sun rises? You really think you’re going to make it past the front door of the club? Don’t think so. Two things. One, we’ve got just as much of a right to live as you do. You try to burn this place down, even if you don’t actually go through with it, you’ll be in jail for a very long time. Vincent’s got more power in his little finger than your so-called Supreme Court. And I mean that both literally and figuratively.”
A valid point. Still, it didn’t stop me from contemplating. “I believe it.”
His lips twisted in a parody of a smile. “Besides, good luck trying to burn stone. He dug a damn pit in the ground and lined it up with concrete and brick. Minimal steel. He knew what he was doing. ”
“So he had considered the possibility of fire, then.” Not really a question, but he answered it as though it was.
“Let’s just say that what he doesn’t already know, he makes it his business to learn. Fast.”
I was running out of doors to check, but gamely continued on. If we couldn’t find Jason upstairs, then he had to be here. Had to. “He’s a Lord. I would expect no less. How many more rooms below?”
“At least two hundred,” he said thoughtfully and I fought the urge to bash my head against the stone walls, artfully covered by the luxurious wallpaper that felt like silk underneath my fingertips. “It’s like he built a hotel underground.”
“And each vampire gets their own room?”
He shrugged. “If they want. Some of them bunk up, and they’re usually given larger rooms.”
I tried the last door at the hallway which ended in a rather dreary seascape watercolor hung over a white end table with a potted white orchid perched on top.
The knob turned under my hand. “Oh.”
Ryder drew in a quick breath. “Let…go of that doorknob, Ran. You…you really don’t want to just walk in.”
With only a tiny bi-su, I was apt to agree with him. “I need to find him.”
“I understand that, but you can’t just walk into someone’s room,” he explained slowly, as though I were a child (in retrospect, I suppose I was, compared to him), and pried my hand off the brass doorknob. “Now, stop back and watch how a pro does it. Ready?”
I stepped back and crossed my arms. “Do your best.”
He cleared his throat.
And then knocked on the door. “See what I did here?”
Needless to say, I was not impressed. “Great. Wonderful. Can you get a move on with it?”
Someone jerked the door open, a tall, almost painfully skinny man with inky hair and a pasty, almost floury complexion. Pale, sometimes, was quite eye-catching, but his deathly white chalky face just made me think he was dead. Which, he was, so it was a silly thought to begin with. “What do you want?”
“Sorry to bug you, Alec. Was wondering if I could get some information from you.”
“That would depend. What sort of information are we talking about?” His pale gray eyes flicked in my direction, but for the most part, they stayed on the man, er, vampire in front of him smiling with such good camaraderie, it was hard to see him as a threat.
Ryder stuck a thumb over his shoulder in my general direction. “We’re looking for a friend of hers. He was upstairs, but he’s not anymore. Was wondering if you might’ve heard or seen something suspicious.”
The dark haired vampire’s eyes narrowed into slits as they focused on me. “She’s no vamp.”
“No,” I said. “I’m not.”
Ryder coughed again, delicately. “Which…really has nothing to do with my question. Have you and haven’t you seen or heard anything suspicious?”
Alec’s eyes came back to me and his lips curved up in a wide smile, exposing his sharpened canines. “Depends on what you classify as suspicious. You look like you’d taste good.”
I chose not to answer, only smiling at the thought of plunging the dagger into his throat and watching that black vampire blood wash like a waterfall down the front of his bare chest.
“Hey, eyes on me, man.” Ryder smacked him on the shoulder. “Trust me when I say you don’t want to mess with her. She’ll rip your head off before you even think about saying uncle. Okay?”
Far from discouraging Alex, it only seemed to whet his appetite more and he ran his tongue along his lower lip, a strangely perverted motion that made me cringe in disgust. The very idea of that tongue running along my skin made bile rise in the back of my throat and I swallowed it down. Vomiting in front of a vampire in a place where I was not supposed to be…it certainly seemed like the worst possible calling card. “You sure about that?”
The blond vampire sighed heavily and shook his head. “She’s an Ailward, you idiot.”
The tongue stopped in mid-motion, halfway across his lip and slipped back into his mouth like a disturbed snail. “Well, why didn’t you say so, you stupid f*ck?” He smiled at me, all oil and grease, and I felt sick again, although this was for another reason. “My apologies, Ailward. I was not aware of your…status.”
“Mm,” I said, opting to keep my mouth shut just in case I really did lose it.
He turned to Ryder, leaning against the doorway, arms crossed. “As a matter of fact, I did hear someone screaming.”
I almost choked as my heart leapt up to my throat. “Man?”
He shook his head. “No. Woman. Why?”
So…not Jason. Damn it. “Never mind.” I pushed off the wall.
No point staying there anymore. Jason was not here.
“Well, why the hell didn’t you say so from the beginning?” Ryder asked, scratching the back of his neck. “We could’ve been halfway through the place by now.”
The other vampire grinned. “Then you should’ve worded your question more precisely. You know as much as I do how people tend to…scream.”
Ryder sighed and rubbed a hand down his face. “Fine, fine, whatever. Sorry to bother you. Thanks for the tip, Alec.”
The only response he got was a look of pity and a door in his face.
“That…turned out rather well,” he said and then looked at me. “Ready?”
I’d been ready to leave since Alec mentioned it had been a female scream, but saw no point in saying so. “Let’s go.”
The next underground level was just as elegant, just as subdued as the previous, although no one responded to Ryder’s knocking. He tried the doorknobs, but none of them turned and the ugly, metallic taste of desperation was starting to make me queasy.
“This is not good,” I said.
“I’d say something about that being an understatement, but I don’t really feel like kicking a dead donkey,” he replied and sighed. “Look, have you considered the fact he might’ve just walked out?”
I had considered it, yes. “He wouldn’t have. Not without telling me. He’s under my protection. He’s not foolish enough to just leave me and walk out on his own.”
Our footsteps rattled on the metal staircase as we came to the final landing. There was another flight of stairs, but even from where I stood, it only led to a dimly lit door firmly chained close with a rusted padlock that looked like it hadn’t been open in a century. “I suppose there’s no point in asking you what’s down there?”
“Dunno,” he said. “And even if I did, not sure if it’s worth my skin to tell you.”
“Figured as much.”
This hallway was larger, with a large, common room and sofas scattered artfully here and there. It looked like the lounge to a very expensive hotel. Then again, wasn’t this just what it was? “How many rooms on this floor?”
“I wish I knew,” he said with a sideways glance, almost as though he were embarrassed to admit to such a failure. “Look, a lot of people…they kind of come and go. While they’re here, they’ve got everything, anything they’d want. But…but we’re not really the kind of people to settle down in one place for too long. So Vincent arranged a sort of…safe house. Some people stay.”
“Like you?”
He shrugged. “Don’t really know where else I would go, to be honest.”
A hand on my wrist stopped me from walking any further. Thankfully, it was the wrist with nothing strapped to it. “I think we need another strategy.”
I stared at the hand until he grew uncomfortable enough to withdraw it. “I am, as always, open to suggestion.”
This far down, the quiet reigned supreme. That there was a dance club three stories above with hundreds of people dancing, laughing, shouting, bleeding…it was unthinkable.
And yet, it was true.
He let out a heavy breath, ran a hand through his thick, unruly blond hair that glimmered like gold under the lights. “Just…just let me think about this for a second, okay? If Vincent finds out I let you down here, he’s going to go spare. I just got to think about this for a second.”
A high pitched scream shattered the stillness, the quietness and I bit my tongue in surprise.
He quirked a brow. “Well, it’s not your man, but on second thought, perhaps we should investigate this, after all?”
The cry had come down the right wing and Ryder ran ahead, arms pumping effortlessly at his sides. I followed him, considerably less graceful, but no less faster. I am not a vampire, will never be, but if I tried, I could attempt to keep up with them.
“Do you think it’s the same one Alec was talking about?”
“We’ll find out soon enough,” he answered, voice terse.
A door halfway down the wing gapped open, the door blocking our view from the inside of the room and Ryder stopped a couple of meters away, not even breathing heavily. “Get behind me.”
I did. There were times to argue, but this was not one of them.
He knocked at the door, still standing behind it. Perhaps he was giving whoever it was in the room a modicum of privacy. Or the illusion of it, in any case. “Hello? Is everything all right there?”
And in the quiet of the gently air-conditioned hallway, I heard it.
A terribly organic, almost obscene sound.
A woman whimpered, a slow, pain-filled rattle that made me think she did not have very long.
Neither did we.
Ryder gave me a sideways glance and nodded wordlessly.
I just stared back.
He rolled his eyes up and then sighed.
“You’re no fun,” he whispered.
I ignored that. “Open the door. Or I will.”
“Aw, for f*ck’s sake…”
He jerked the door wider, made it easier to see, made it easier to see the splotches of crimson, as though someone had tossed a can of paint onto the walls and furniture.
But it was not paint.
Next to me, Ryder drew in a quick breath, as though someone had punched him in the gut.
If he said anything, I could not hear.
If he moved anything, I could not see.
Could only see the auburn-haired beautiful woman, with the perfect features contorted in pain, hand out to us, entreating, pleading, begging…
Could only see the dark-haired beautiful man, with the perfect features contorted in pleasure, lips on her throat, licking, sucking, drinking…
In my years of fighting the unnameable creatures of the dark, in my years of training with my harsh mother, in my years of watching my father subject my mother to brutality and shame, I had never stopped thinking, had never stopped knowing what to do next.
But this…
Nothing could have prepared me for this.
Jason was gone, completely gone. Replaced by a monster that would stop at nothing to quench its thirst.
I’m going to kill the motherf*cker who took Shannon.
I think I am glad you are to be my Ailward.
Perhaps I stepped towards him, mind completely blank, white as newly fallen snow, but I was not aware of it.
Jason’s eyes opened and rolled up, focusing on me. No. The vampire.
He was a vampire.
Why was it so easy to forget?
The vampire reared back, his mouth ringed with red. “Ran. This…it’s not.”
Drip, drip with blood.
"F*cking hell!" Ryder shouted. “Vincent’s going to kill me. Holy f*ck, he’s going to put my head on a goddamn stake!”
So much blood.
I opened my mouth to speak, but my throat seized up. I watched the redhead crawl towards us on her knees, one hand on her ravaged throat, one scrabbling on the sleek marble floors.
She was not human. A human wouldn’t have been able to survive such an injury.
Ryder reached out for her and she screamed again, a high keening sound that made my knees weak, as his hands wrapped about on her upper arms, bringing her to her feet.
My master staggered to his feet, swaying slightly, one hand on the wall to keep him upright. He left a near perfect hand print on the gilded gold wallpaper. “Ran, I’m sorry. I just…I didn’t think —”
That I could protect such a monster made me feel slightly ill and I cast a glance at Ryder. “Take her with you. Leave us.”
He opened his mouth, as if to refuse, but perhaps he had seen the expression on my face. Merely opting to mutter under his breath, he carefully hefted the weeping woman into his arms and left the room, his footsteps clipped and quick.
I waited until I couldn’t hear his footsteps or her crying anymore.
Jason sat down heavily on the floor, dangerously close to the rapidly cooling pool of dark, viscous blood. Vampire blood looked no different from human blood although I hadn’t known vampires fed on another vampires. Of course, there was the initial Turning, but Reiko had told me vampires preferred not feeding off other vampires, due to the taste…or something to that effect.
“Why did you do it?”
It seemed a silly, yet a question I could not afford to not ask.
He stared down at his hands, the blood already beginning to dry and flake. “I don’t…I don’t know. She was dancing and she kissed me. She brought me down here…I thought —”
“Didn’t you know she’s a vampire?”
He cast his eyes down, almost as though he were ashamed. I didn’t think so. “I knew. I tried to tell her, I tried to tell her I was thirsty…that I just wanted a meal. She laughed and said she would teach me…”
It was hard to keep my face still, to keep the emotions from running across my face. This was just a job, nothing but a job. Once Noir was dead, I would return to my everyday routine that suddenly seemed very palatable. “I was under the impression vampires will not feed on other vampires unless they are driven to it, unless there is no other alternative. Like vermin. Livestock.”
He shook, almost uncontrollably and I heard his teeth chatter. “That would be correct.”
“You’ve tasted human blood before, haven’t you.” It was not a question and Jason closed his eyes, tilted his head back to rest on the crimson-splattered walls.
“I have.”
I swallowed my dry throat. “Why did you drink from her, then? There are hundreds of humans up there, dancing, half drunk, all of them more than willing, more than ready to split their vein open for you. Why her?”
My voice got higher at the last syllable and I realized I was angry. More than angry. Confused. Upset. Unsure. I unclenched my fists slowly and let out a slow breath, trying to keep the anger from swelling to uncontrollable proportions.
His eyes opened, his dark unfathomable eyes and for once, he met my gaze.
“She tasted better.”
The bottom dropped out of my stomach and I felt the almost uncontrollable urge to laugh. “You know this is quite…unorthodox.”
“I know.”
I shook my head. “Enough. We have to leave. If anyone finds out it was you…”
He swallowed, hands trembling as though he had palsy. It took him several tries to lever himself to his feet and I fought the initial urge to help him. He wouldn’t have appreciated it. “What about Reiko?”
I didn’t even want to think about what she would say or do once she found out about Jason’s…interesting tastes. “We’ll have to leave her. She has Marcus with her. We can’t afford to go up there. Too many eyes.”
“And that blond vampire you were with?”
Ryder…I bit the corner of my lip. Indeed, he was a complication, a complication I prayed would not grow to a problem. “I don’t know. We’ll have to see. Let’s go.”
With a minimal amount of help, Jason and I managed to make it to out of the dance floor, mostly staying to the shadows. I couldn’t stop fidgeting when I retrieve my sword from the coat check girl and when the cold, crisp air hit us, his hands hidden into his coat, I was finally able to relax my shoulders and arms.
There were a line of taxis waiting across the street and by the time, we walked through the front door of his townhome, having locked it securely behind me, I felt my pulse slow down to a somewhat normal rate. “Go take a shower.”
Without answering, he went up the flight of stairs, where I hoped he would take a shower and get the last remnants of blood off his clothes and body.
The sofa, large and plush with a covering of velvet, never looked so inviting and I sat to wait for Reiko. Jason would most likely be completely incapacitated for the rest of the night, judging from the deep furrows bracketing his lips.
I did not have long to wait.
The door unlocked and opened, the sound of high heels clicking on the hardwood floors and Reiko stared at me from the doorway, hands on her almost nonexistent hips.
“Jason.” Her face seemed paler.
It was not a question.
I pointed at the ceiling, where I had heard the shower stop a little less than ten minutes ago. “I think he’s resting. Where’s Marcus?”
She waved a hand, as if to say just how little he rated on her importance scale. “I heard what happened.”
I had no idea what sort of expression to give her. “I see.”
“The girl will heal,” she said, voice still in that harsh, discordant tone. “Did she attack him?”
I watched her intently. “She invited him to her room.”
A toe began to tap on the floor. “And?”
What more was there to say? “He bit her.”
Her eyes fluttered close and I wondered if she was going to faint. “Did she provoke him?”
“No. According to him, she kissed him.”
She leaned against the doorway, shoulders slumped down like a marionette laid to rest. “Do you know what they call a vampire that hunts his own?”
“I never heard of one,” I said honestly.
“That’s because we hunt them down,” she whispered, eyes distant and wide. “The moment we learn of one’s existence, we find them. We tear them from limb to limb. And then we burn the remains. It’s the only way to get rid of them in a reliable fashion.”
“No stake through the heart?” My rather clumsy attempt at humor got me nothing but a blank look.
“No. It failed to work with several of…them.”
Vampires that preyed on other vampires. A strange idea, and yet, not one that was entirely unfeasible. “What creates them?”
“Well, if we knew that, we wouldn’t make them, now would we?” she snapped and then sighed. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have snipped at you like that. You got him out before any more damage could be done. That is something, I suppose. Had Vincent found him before you did, I don’t think Jason would still be…alive.”
“But Vincent knows of his presence?”
She raised a shaky hand to her red lips and bit down on the knuckles. “He knows a tall, dark haired vampire attacked one under his protection. He knows you and Jason left without me. He knows this is the first he’s heard of such an attack in Centennial. Luckily, Jason didn’t tell her his name. With that, Vincent would be well within his rights to come here and kill him.”
“That’s murder,” I said. “Things must be done…diplomatically now.”
Her eyes widened and she laughed hysterically, head thrown back in complete abandon. “Diplomatic? Vampires? Oh my dear, sweet, girl. You think we are diplomatic? That is simply a facade we show to the human world. Otherwise, we’d be hunted down like wolves and we’d never survive. We might be strong, but you humans are annoyingly persistent. And it is this persistence that spells our doom.Yes, it’s true we follow the rules, but we only follow the rules when it suits our purpose. Surely you know this?”
So much to learn. It was a humbling experience to come to the conclusion that when it came to vampires and their culture, I really knew nothing at all. “There was a vampire with me when I found Jason.”
“Which one?” she asked, voice sharp.
“Ryder.”
She let out a sigh of relief. “A better one we could not ask for. He respects Vincent, but he was not created by him. Ryder will give him information but only when it suits his purpose.”
“Vincent’s human emissary saw us going downstairs. I told her I was looking for…something.”
Reiko looked thoughtful. “But she has not said anything. She is cautious. That is a good sign,” she said and then shook her head. “Still. Too much at stake. Vincent will come here, eventually. Jason cannot be here. Vincent will want to examine him…and he will find out the truth.”
I tried to choose my words with care. “You must care for him greatly.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Who?”
“Jason.”
She looked at me, her age so very apparent in the deep pools of black, and it was all I could do to stay still and relaxed when I wanted to throw myself behind the sofa, just to get away from the gaze that peeled away everything in me, exposed myself to the very core of my being.
“Don’t mistake my care for such a paltry emotion like love. If we were both hanging from a precipice, I would think nothing of kicking him to save myself. However, if word were to get out that my Turning has given fruit to…him, my House will suffer greatly, and that I will not allow.”
“Then why not kill him?”
Was that fear in her eyes? “I…cannot. He is of my blood. To hurt him would be to hurt me. I would prefer to postpone that pain for as long as possible.”
An interesting idea and one I had never come across. “So to kill the offspring would be to harm the maker?”
She nodded, warily. “I can see you are thinking. Have you killed many vampires?”
I shrugged, stared at the hands on my knees. “A few. They were all quite young. I can’t imagine the pain to be more than fleeting.”
“Be that as it may, the maker will feel it. Every time,” she said and looked up. “You can’t stay here, you know. You and Jason will have to flee. Vincent cannot prosecute my House if he cannot find evidence.”
I stood up slowly, stretched, but my muscles refused to relax. “Where do we go?”
She rubbed a hand along her lower lip, spreading lipstick like paint across her gently curved chin. “I’m sure there’s some place for you to hide. Jason seems to enjoy accumulating real estate. There will be a place for you to go.”
She sounded so sure of herself. “We will leave now?”
Jason appeared behind her, damp hair slicked back, dressed in a simple white button-down shirt and khakis, a duffel bag over one shoulder, mine hanging from his hand.
“Yes. We leave now.”