Charlie Huston - Every Last Drop (Excerpt)

About a year ago I read Charlie Huston's excellent noir vampire novels Already Dead and No Dominion. I also enjoyed (but didn't review) the third book in the series, Half the Blood of Brooklyn, and now the fourth book of a planned five has come out, Every Last Drop. Unsurprisingly, I'm really digging it. But instead of writing a full review (you should just go buy the whole series from Amazon right now) I'm going to post a passage that I read today and really enjoyed.

Don't worry, I omitted a few lines to avoid spoilers.

This won't have the same impact as if you'd read the series up until this point, but in this passage the main character has just experienced a revelation that answers a huge question that the series has been building to up to from the beginning. Kind of a "Luke, I am your father" moment. Joe is notorious for being a loner who cares about very little in life, if anything (obviously ... it is noir, after all), which makes the transition in this passage all the more powerful. Hope you like it.

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I don't see him anymore. I see the room behind him. I see the [huge spoiler].

The Bronx kid pokes me with his truncheon.

I look at him.

Something crosses his eyes. He looks down. Sees my bare feet.

My hands are on the back of his head and my knee is pushing the bones of his nose back through his brain and I twist his neck and it breaks and I think I start crying.

But it's not why you think.

It's not why you think.

It's not why you think.

I'm simply angry at myself for killing him so fast, so easy. I'd have liked to take my time.

But in the whole universe there is not enough time. There are not enough minutes and seconds for what I'd like to do. For the things I could dream up if I had more time.

The things I could do to this world to make it pay for being the way it is.

I look at the dead body I'm still holding. I drop it. There's a sound when I drop it, metal on stone. I kneel and find the gun under the kid's arm. I take it.

This gun. I love this gun. There are so many wonderful things I can do with this gun. So many people I can kill.

I turn and leave, eager to begin.