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"I’ll bet it smells like peppermint," Tommy said

"What?"

"Elf sex"

"Would you please put uy"

"I’store in five minutes This had better work"

"Five minutes," Tommy said "Cinnamon Maybe it smells like cinnareens, having a great tieois A at all the conventions of traditional culture They were elite, after all Special Chosen - if you will - if only by the nature of their heightened sensitivities and superior sensibilities They both claimed the ability to look past the façade put on by e, then, that they didn’t see it couy in a flannel shirt popped around the corner in front of theuys," Flannel said "They look like heroin addicts"

Jared White Wolf and Abby Normal backpedaled fro for so all night, causing herherfor

Jared hid behind Abby, just a little, which ard, since he was nearly a foot taller than she The guy in flannel was joined by a beautiful, pale redhead, carrying an ar at the long red tresses I’d give anything for hair like that

"Tommy, leave these poor people alone," said the redhead

"No, wait" Flannel turned to Abby and ses?"

Abby looked at Jared, who looked at the guy in flannel "Well, you can’t just buy the with the leather straps on his bondage pants, looking coy Abby slapped his hand

"You need a prescription to buy syringes," Abby said

"Do you really think I look like a heroin addict?" Jared threw his bangs out of his face dras, which reached to his chin, specifically so he could throw the that maybe I should bulk up You know, eat and stuff, but - "

"Well, thanks," said Flannel Shirt The redheadto try soo See you guys Nice shirt, by the way"

Abby looked down at her T-shirt, black, of course, with the i "Like you even knoho it is"

" ’She walks in beauty, like the night, " quoted the flannel-shirt guy He winked at her, then grinned "Byron’s a hero of mine See ya"

He turned and started to walk away Abby reached out and snagged his sleeve "Hey, there are needle exchange programs all over town They’re listed in the Bay Guardian"

"Thanks," said flannel He turned and Abby grabbed hi to be at the Glas Kat There’s a Goth club tonight Five-hundred block of Fourth Street I know a dealer there You know, for your heroin"

The flannel-shirt guy nodded, and looked at Byron’s picture on her shirt again, then at her face Fucksocks He’s so looking ateye one, off over the dark moors of the tampon aisle

"What was that about?" whined Jared "He’s so, so Happy Days" Jared White Wolf spent a lot of ti or fussing with his appearance

Abby walked into the flap of Jared’s black duster and pounded his slight chest with her palms "Didn’t you see Didn’t you see?"

"What, you acting like a cos," Abby said

"Well, so do I," Jared said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a pair of perfect, dentistry-quality varew! I saw thereat bat-wing lapels "I have to change into soet some Halls My throat is raw froht"

"Hurry" The buckles of Abby’s black platfored her friend past the lipsticks and hair products before he could get interested

"Okay," said Jared, "but if I don’t ht and hold me while I cry"

"You should try black lipstick so, their ar about the kids at the drugstore It was the first tie of Ro hi clench-jawed off into space as he co to appear tragic in Incontinence, Indiana, was redundant, and his et his rhy your teeth like that, they’ll wear away and you’ll have to have dentures like Aunt Ester" Tommy only wished his beard was as heavy as Aunt Ester’s - then he could stare out over the moors while he stroked it pensively

"Yeah," Jody said, "because I need to make it more obvious that I’"

"You make it sound so sordid"

"No, I meant it in a nice way"

"Oh"

"Because it’s not like people wouldn’t understand if they found out ere vampires, because we slipped up and, oh, I don’t know, UNSHEATHED OUR FANGS IN THE FUCKING DRUGSTORE!"

Toes She hadn’t said a word about that all night He’d hoped she hadn’t noticed "It was an accident"

"You called that girl ’milady "

"She was impressed without a little, too, wasn’t he?"

"It wasn’t like that"

"You drooled" Jody paused at their security door and dug into her jacket for her key

Tommy stepped around her "I’hastly pallor obviously ie" He reached into his bag and fanned out a handful of sterile-wrapped and capped syringes

"Congratulations, you can now pass as an HIV-positive heroin addict"

"Tr��s chic" He grinned like he iht

"Who drools in public," Jody said

Darin, Toht He said, "Be nice, I’s are out"

She turned the key and swung the door open There, passed out on the landing, was Williae cat

"I told you it would work," Tommy said

Jody stepped into the stairwell and closed the door behind her "You go first"

Fifteen es full of blood in their refrigerator, Toreat"

He’d had aover the idea of being that close so close to anotherWilliaotten fro himself that most literary vaer pushed hi more relaxed, now that they had the food problem solved - for a while, anyway If his friends didn’t kill theht even enjoy life as a vampire Then he turned to Jody and frowned "But I can’t help but think that it e of a homeless alcoholic"

"We could just hunt and kill people," Jody said cheerfully She had a little crust of William’s blood in the corner of her ive hie shaved cat," Toiving hi onto To pile

"And if we only take a little bit each day, he’ll actually feel better I know I did"

"And on’t beco, by the way?" To You?"

"Two-beer buzz, max I’ll be fine You want to try the experiment?"

Jody checked her watch "No tiht So, on to the list Looks like hot monkey love"

"Tommy, we need to find a daytime person to help us We have toabout Alaska"

"Okay, good for you, but we still need to find a place to live where the Animals and Inspector Rivera can’t find us"

"No, I’, in the winter, it’s dark for like twenty hours a day, so we’d have plenty of time And I read somewhere that Eskimos put their old people out on the ice when they are ready to die It would be like people were leaving snacks out for us"

"You’re kidding"

"Eskirinned

Jody put her hand on her hip and looked at hi for so oing to change"

"Into a wolf?"

"Clothes, cadaver breath"

"I didn’t know I thought reat idea Just because she was a few years older, she always acted like his ideas were stupid "The thing with William worked," he said defensively as he put away the supplies they’d bought at the drugstore

"That was a good idea," Jody said from inside the closet

Nohat? "Well, Alaska isn’t a bad idea"

"Tommy, there’s like nine people in all of Alaska We’ll stand out, don’t you think?"

"No, everyone is pale there They don’t have sun forher little black cocktail dress and her strappy come-fuck-me pumps "I’otten what they were talking about

"You think the Ferrari-red lipstick would be too much?"

"No, I love the Ferrari-red lipstick on you" Hot, sweet ht This was exactly why he loved her In the er, really - she still took tis

She lifted her breasts until they threatened to spill out of the plunging neckline of the dress "Tootoward her with his hands out "Gimme"

She breezed past hi"

"No, no, no," Tommy said "Hot monkey love"

While Tommy watched from the doorway, Jody applied the Ferrari-red lipstick, checked it, then frowned and wiped it off, then grabbed a different tube off the vanity "When I get back"

"Where?" Tole syllables

She turned to hiet your minion"

"Not like that, you’re not," Toot you"

"Nuh-uh, you weren’t wearing that when I met you"

"No, but the reason you pursued me is because you were interested in me sexually, wasn’t it?"

"Well, that’s how it started, but it’s more than that now" And it was more, but that was no reason to leave him here all aroused and stuff

She walked over to him and put her arms around him He let his hands slip inside the low back of her dress His pants were getting tight and he could feel the pressure of his fangs coet back," she said "I prouy, forever I’s for us in the dayti to want to bone you, and when you don’t do them, they’ll turn on you"

"Not necessarily"

"Of course they will Look at you"

"I’ll figure it out, okay I don’t kno else to go about it"

"We could put an ad on Craig’s List" (Craig’s List was a classified Web site that had started in the Bay Area and was now the first place people checked for jobs, apart an ad on Craig’s List Look, Tos to do than we have tiet the laundry done and I’ll get us an onion"

"Minion," he corrected

"Whatever I love you," she said

Bitch! He was vanquished Unfair "I love you, too"

"I’ll take one of the disposable cell phones you bought You can call me anytiet on that, buddy The sooner I get out there and find soet back here for some hot monkey love"

She has absolutely no sense of ethics, he thought She’s a monster And yet, there she is, only a few dress straps froe cat on the way out"

Jody had only been gone twentyand laundry sucked and that he could find a minion as well as she could, even if he didn’t look as hot in a little black dress He was careful not to wake Chet and William on his way out