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MR VAMPIRE II

Charles&039;s tear still tingled on her tongue She&039;d not rief but had been unable to help herself In her old age, she was getting cranky and hard to fathom Most elders went mad Like Vlad Tepes Frorip of a thin hand, the s blood, the heat and dirt of a far country, the fierce struggle of a wos, alien pain Genevieve could not becoive birth Did that mean she was not truly alive? Not truly a woenderless, the sex of their bodies as functional as the eyes on the wings of a peacock She could take pleasure in love-

All this from a tear She sed and licked the roof of her one

&039;We&039;re nearly at Toynbee Hall,&039; Charles said

They were by Spitalfields Market, in Lamb Street, just around the corner from Commercial Street The market, open until daell-lit, and crowded The noise and smell were familiar

With a lurch, they caainst the wooden shield that fastened over the front of the hansoht her and helped her up, but she found herself on her knees in the tiny floorspace She could not see out of the cab The horse neighed in hysteria, the cabby trying to rein her in with &039;whoa&039; and a hard pull

Genevieve knew so abruptly stopped The cabby swore and bystanders yelped in terror Charles&039;s face drained of ee She&039;d been seeing that expression on the face of soon-to-be dead men for centuries Her eye-teeth extended, and she salivated, ready for attack or defence

There was a heavy thuers, nails like hooked knives, stuck through the wood They flexed like bone-jointed worms and a fist ripped away a section of the roof around the trap Through the splintered slit, she gli persecutor had returned A wrinkled face pressed close to the hole, rew, ripping into the cheeks, exposing glisteningly , sparsefrom raet flesh

Hands took hold of either side of the hole, and peeled away ing like broken violin strings

Charles had drawn his sword-cane and was looking for a point of thrust She had to carry the fight to the eneot himself butchered

Fro the edges of the tear and pulling herself up She burst through the gap, jagged edges ripping her good dress and blunting on her skin The cab was rocking under the weight of the Chinese, as balancing on the cabby&039;s box She saw the driver sprawled on the paveawkers A cold wind blew her unbound hair about her face and whipped her dress around her knees The cab wobbled under their shifting weight, anchored only by the dead horse

&039;Master,&039; she addressed herself to the vampire, &039;what is your quarrel withinto prickle-haired insect seg from his bell-shaped sleeves were several-elboith hu frotail lashing his shoulders The queue ended with a spiked ball woven into his rope of hair

So at once wispy and prickly brushed her face It was a cobwebby rope grown from the vampire&039;s face While she watched his hands, he had reached for her with his joined eyebrows Hairs like parass scratched her skin She felt a trickle on her forehead The creature was trying for her eyes She ainst the brow-snake, wrapping it about her wrist several tih her sleeve and noosed her wrist, but the vampire was off-balanced

She was yanked from her own perch as the Chinese tuh the air like a fish through water and landed perfectly on his sandals The brow-snake let go of her arm Feet-first, she slammed into a wall Then she fell on to cobblestones Her ankles jarred from the impact with the wall, she tried to stand The heel of her hand sank into a rotted half-cabbage and she skidded, sprawling again She tasted filth against her face Deliberately, she lifted herself on to her elbows, then on to her feet The elder had ed to hurt her, which was not supposed to be easy His power athered strength Her face burned as the skin tightened Her teeth and nails grew, splitting the flesh of her fingers and gums She tasted her own blood

They were in thebeef carcasses lined the concourse between the on their iron hooks The stench of dead aniathered in a circle, giving the elders rooainst the wall, she flew at the vampire He stood steady, arms apart Her hands brushed his robe as, a quarter-second before she reached him, he stepped aside As she passed, he stabbed her in the side with his pointed fingers Her dress was shredded, and her skin punctured She sla with spectators They held her up and, with a cheer, pushed her back at the Chinese It was like a bare-knuckles fight, the crowd continually throwing the pugilists at each other Until one or other refused to get up again