Nightlord: Sunset Read Online Free PDF Page B

day-to-day living?  The whole alterations thing is nice to know, but have you any practical advice?”
    “When the sun rises or sets, be indoors and away from the light; you’ll react badly to it.  Find a quiet spot, preferably without witnesses, because you will have a period of illness.  They are bad, at first, but they become easier to bear after a week or so, and you grow used to them, eventually—rather like sneezing; you do it, it’s over.  You will also want to stop by here every night for a drink.”
    I glanced at the now-empty bottle.  “What is this stuff, anyway?”
    She bit her lip.
    “It’s blood.”

 
     
     
     
    MONDAY, JUNE 13 TH
     
    I f you’ve ever gone for a walk in a city at night—especially after midnight on a Sunday night—you know that no city really sleeps.  Some of them doze fitfully; some lie in a great drowse.  Others merely get another cup of coffee and go right on being wired and half-mad—the half that isn’t the sane half.
    So I was walking through the city, feeling sorry for myself, and noticing that as much as I had changed, the world seemed to have changed even more.
    Traffic was a constant rush of sound.  Lights were blazes of brilliance.  The smells of the city were like hammers to the nose.  Someone had turned up the volume on all my senses and I couldn’t find the knob.
    But I couldn’t have stayed with The Crazy Lady for another minute.  I needed this walk to sort things out—to sort me out. 
    Good gods and little fishes!  How do you go about coming to grips with being some sort of vampire?  I mean, really.   I couldn’t argue I was feeling… well… different.  I couldn’t find a pulse, for example.  I tried holding my breath.  After about ten minutes I gave up because I’d proved some sort of point.  I hadn’t actually cut myself to see if I bled, but I didn’t really think I would.
    So I walked, and I thought, and I wallowed in self-pity and misery.
    Part of it, I realized, was I liked Sasha.  But, like her or not, I felt she had done something horrible.  By her lights, she was being kind and helpful.  Even to the point of giving me a fantastic gift, I suppose.  Who wouldn’t want to be super-strong, super-fast, and immortal?  But to me it was an assault on my person, a betrayal of trust, a rape of my being.  Maybe I’m just ungrateful.  Would it have been so bad if a stranger had just done this and left me?  Probably not; then I could have hated and blamed someone.  I can’t hate her for it, and I don’t really want to blame her for it.  She’s just a little crazy. 
    Still… I was hacked.
    What really bothered me about this was… who was I going to tell?  When I have a lot of nasty problems, I generally find one of my friends and we have a talk.  I feel better, and I get on with life.  Everybody does this to some degree or another; shared pain is diminished.
    Who do you trust?  In my shoes, do you have someone you could tell?
    I wallowed in self-pity for a while longer and tried not to think about it.
     
    There’s only so long I can wallow in self-pity.  That’s generally about a day or so—Terri being a notable exception—and I’d had a head start on this one.  So when morning came, I made sure to avoid the sunlight.
    Yes, she was right.  I had a bout of illness much like the one that came with the sunset.  It was like having a foot go to sleep and then wake up, except it was my entire body… and there was no numbness.  Then it was like being set on fire… and the shivering and convulsing started.  I could feel my heart starting, moving the cold, sluggish blood.  I gasped, suddenly out of breath.  I sweated a nasty, vile secretion that stank like a dead thing.
    When it stopped, I was wrung-out and gasping, but otherwise just fine.
    I hate this, was the first thought through my mind.  I need a shower, was the second.
    I took care of the clothes I wore, showered, and found the hot water was hot again.