Paint It Black Read Online Free PDF Page A

that plunks my magic twanger nowadays. Only one thing that can get me off.

    And that drug is blood.

    Yeah, the dead boy is good enough to have fooled another vampire. But he didn't

    I study my prey speculatively. I doubt I'll have any trouble taking the sucker down. I rarely do, these days. At least not the lesser-evolved undead that still lack major psionic muscle. Sure, they might have enough mesmeric ability to gull the humans in their vicinity, but little else. Compared to my own psychic abilities, the art-fag vampire might as well be packing a peashooter.
    Still, it isn't smart to get cocky. Lord Morgan dismissed me in such a high-handed manner, and now he's missing half his face.
    That's what you get for being smug.

    I shift my vision from the human to the Pretender spectrum, studying the vampire's true appearance. I wonder if the black garbed art aficionados clustered about their mandarin, their heads bobbing like puppets, would still consider his pronouncements worthy if they knew his skin was the color and texture of rotten sailcloth. Or that his lips are black and shriveled, revealing oversized fangs set in a perpetual death's-head grimace. No doubt they'd drop their little plastic cups of cheap blush and back away in horror, their surface glaze of urbanite sophistication and studied ennui replaced by honest old-fashioned monkey-brain terror.

    Humans need masks in order to live their day-to-day lives, even amongst their own kind. Little do they know that their dependence on artifice and pretense provides the perfect hiding place for a raft of predators. Predators such as the vampire

    Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer ( http://www.novapdf.com ) pretending to be an art fag. Predators such as myself.

    I tighten my grip on the switchblade in the pocket of my leather jacket. Midnight! Time to drop your masks!

    'Uh, excuse me?'

    I jerk around a little too fast startling the young man at my elbow. I was so focused on my prey I was unaware of his approaching me. Sloppy. Really sloppy.

    'Yeah, what is it?

    The young man blinks, slightly taken aback by the brusqueness in my voice. 'I, uh, was wondering if I might uh, buy you a drink?'

    I automatically scan him for signs of Pretender taint but he comes up clean. One hundred percent USDA human. He is taller than me by a couple of inches, his blond hair pulled back into a ponytail. There are three rings in his right ear and one in his left nostril. Despite the metalwork festooning his nose, he is quite handsome.

    I am at a loss for words. I'm not used to being approached by normal people. I tend to generate a low-level psychic energy field that most humans find unnerving, if not antagonistic. In layman's terms, I tend to either scare people or piss them off.

    I shoot my prey a glance out of the corner of my eye.
    Shit! The bastard is starting to make his move, hustling One of the more entranced hangers-on.

    'I realize this is going to sound like a really dumb come-on,'
    he says, shooting me an embarrassed smile. 'But I saw you from across the room, and I just had to meet you. Please let me buy you a drink.'

    'I, uh, I-'

    The vampire is escorting its prey outside, smiling widely as it continues to discourse on postmodern art.

    'There's something I have to take care of - I'll be right back!
    I promise! Don't go away!' I blurt, and dash off in pursuit of my target for the night.

    I scan the parking lot, checking for signs of the vampire's passage. I pray I'm not too late. Once a vamp isolates and seduces a human from the herd, they tend to move quickly. I know that from my own experience at the hands of Sir Morgan, the undead bastard responsible for my own transformation.

    The vampire and its prey are sitting in the back of a silver BMW
    with heavily tinted windows, their blurred silhouettes moving

    Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer ( http://www.novapdf.com ) like shadows reflected in an