Wicked as They Come Read Online Free PDF Page A

Bludman who meant no offense?”
    “We shouldn’t,” said the first man gruffly, but the second man reached down to accept the flier.
    “I haven’t seen a caravan in ten years,” he said, longing clear in his voice. “They never come to town anymore. Surely it can’t hurt? His question was innocent, I’ll wager. And if there are Strangers about, we’d have found them by now. The bludmares are never wrong.”
    Did he say bloodmares? Did that mean that these nightmare horses were like the bloodthirsty bunnies? Were there actually fangs under their metal muzzles? And, more important, could they smell me? I scooted behind Criminy’s legs, as far away from the bludmares as possible. His hand briefly caressed my invisible head.
    “Something’s strange, Ferling,” said the first man. “I can feel it.”
    He pulled a brass tube from his pocket and pushed a button, and it extended into a spyglass. A softly whirring spyglass with a blinking green light. He scanned the horizon and frowned.
    There was a charged silence broken only by the pawing and snorting of the horses. Criminy’s grin grew strained as the men had an argument with their eyes.
    Finally, the second man said, “I think we can let thequestion go, Rodvey. He didn’t mean any disrespect, I’m sure. And he’s right—I’ve never seen so many bludbunnies about. A Stranger wouldn’t last till breakfast.”
    The first man, Rodvey, wasn’t happy as he glared at Ferling. His waxed mustache trembled with anger as he yanked back on his reins and barked, “Fine! But we keep searching until we find a Stranger or bones. You’re lucky, Bluddy. You’re awfully lucky.”
    He turned his horse and galloped away, and the second man gave a little salute and followed him. Criminy watched them go, his face frozen with rage.
    “Blasted Coppers,” he said. “All the skin in the world doesn’t make me half as bloodthirsty as those bastards.”
    “Can you hear me?” I said from the ground. “Am I still invisible?”
    “Sorry, love,” he said, waving a hand over me and muttering something.
    A warm, melty sensation trickled over me, and then I was visible again.
    He reached down a hand to help me up, saying, “Sorry, where were we?”
    “But you have to explain that. Those were Coppers? And the Stranger—that’s me, right? They’re looking for me? How do they know I’m here? And they said their horses were bloodmares? So horses can drink blood, and those guys are looking for me, and you invited them to the carnival? Because that sounds a little insane.”
    “You’re a quick study,” he said with approval. He spun me around in an odd little dance step and helped me back onto the stump. “That’s all quite true. But we were talking about us. About how you think this is all a dream. That’s the important bit.”
    “The weirder it gets, the more it seems like a dream,” I admitted.
    “How do you know that it’s not the other way around, pet?”
    “What—that my other life is the dream, and this is my real life?” I asked.
    “Makes as much sense as the contrary,” he said, gracefully slipping to the ground and reclining to look up at me.
    “Aren’t you worried about the bunnies?” I asked.
    “Oh, no. They won’t bother me,” he said.
    “Why not? They just like naked women?”
    “They like naked anybody. But I’m not to their taste.”
    Looking down at him in the watery morning sun, I began to notice little details that I’d overlooked on our walk. He seemed to be in his early thirties, but his skin was unusually smooth. His dark, glossy hair didn’t have a single strand of gray. And no stubble. He smiled brightly then, showing me his teeth.
    They were very pointy.
    “What are you?” I asked, my voice low. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.
    “What do you think I am?” he asked, still smiling.
    “A vampire,” I said.
    “What’s that?” he asked. As if he’d never heard the word and couldn’t decide if it was an insult or