Vampire State of Mind Read Online Free PDF Page B

harassed, scruffy council-employee, wishing that she’d worn a suit rather than these elephant-arse jeans. ‘Why were you looking for me?’
    He
couldn’t
be a vamp; there was something Otherworld about him – he certainly wasn’t human – but I couldn’t get a fix on him. And it felt as though he was trying to work something on me; some obscure kind of magic I didn’t recognise was washing up and down the surface of my skin like an oily psychic skincare product.
    â€˜I came to tell you about the relocation of the Dead Run, actually. Seems that I’m a bit late on that score. Still, never mind.’ He gave a smile, but it was an unsettling one. ‘Please excuse me for letting myself in, but you were concentrating on some vampire or other.’ The way he said vampire made me think he wished it rhymed with ‘turd’. ‘And I also came to invite you to attend. Well, it’s not so much of an invitation as an order, but you know what the vampires are like. They’ve heard of Free Will but to them it’s an interesting concept.’
    â€˜Sil sent you?’ There was something ‘off’ about the proportions of his face; that was what was so strange about his appearance. It was symmetrical, should have been good looking but … I inwardly berated myself for judging him for not being as stupendous as the top-notch vampires; he wasn’t exactly a gargoyle, just … odd.
    â€˜Not exactly. Anyway. Here’s your invite, I’d better not outstay my welcome.’ A thick envelope was pressed into my hands and I felt the soft motion of a velvet sleeve as it brushed against my skin. ‘Please do come.’ His head inclined my way and he was gone, leaving only the trademark magical exhaust fumes which smelled like rubber.
    â€˜Jessie?’ Liam had to shake my shoulder to attract my attention. ‘You all right?’
    â€˜That,’ I said, carefully, ‘should be on screen, putting sinister character actors out of a job.’
    â€˜But you fancy Christopher Walken,’ Liam said, mischievously. ‘You wouldn’t want
him
starving on the streets.’
    â€˜He was just …’ I rubbed my hands up and down my arms as though trying to remove any molecules that Malfaire might have touched. ‘Weird.’ The envelope contained a classy, gold-printed invitation to attend ‘The Dead Run, Thursday at 8, Hagg Baba restaurant. Jessica Grant plus One.’ ‘I wonder why Zan didn’t just post the invite. Or mention it when we were talking … oh, no, silly me, it might mean he had to sound like he was inviting me himself and that would be dangerously close to sociability for Zan.’
    â€˜Zan’s got social phobia.’ Liam brought up the tracker programme on my screen again.
    â€˜It’s a good job the Troubles are over. Can you imagine a vampire hunting on the streets who hates actually having to have contact with people? He
would
starve to death.’
    â€˜And who on earth am I going to get to come with me as my Plus One? That sort of thing always has press attending and I don’t want to be photographed standing on my own, they might give me some “comical” caption like “Liaison once again without a liaison”.’
    â€˜That really upset you, didn’t it?’
    â€˜It was a Charity Ball! I had a lovely dress on and all I got was that stupid subtitle.’
    â€˜I’ll go with you.’ He lowered his head so that his hair hid his blush and coughed a bit, then said, ‘I mean, like, as a works outing kind of thing. Not as, like, a partner, thing. It would save money – we could call it our works Christmas party. Eight months early. To beat the rush.’
    I patted his arm. ‘Nice thought. But Sarah would
kill
you, and quite rightly so – why should she get babysitting duties by default while you go off and have a night out?