The vampire was hungry. I’d always heard that the synthetic blood the Japanese had developed kept vampires up to par as far as nutrition, but didn’t really satisfy their hunger, which was why there were ‘Unfortunate Incidents’ from time to time. (That was the vampire euphemism for the blood slaying of a human.) And here was Lee Rina, , turning her neck from side to side . . . what a .

My brother, Henry, came into the bar, then, and sauntered over to give me a hug. He knows that woman like a man who’s good to his family and also kind to the disabled, so hugging me is a double whammy of recommendation. Not that Henry need many more points than he has just by being himself. He’s handsome. He can sure be mean, too, but most women seem quite willing to overlook that.

‘Hey, sis, how’s Gran?’

‘She’s okay, about the same. Come by to see.’

‘I will. Who’s loose tonight?’

‘Look for yourself.’ I noticed that when Henry began to glance around there was a flutter of female hands to hair, blouses, lips.

‘Hey. I see Nicole. She free?’

‘She’s here with a trucker from Key. He’s in the bathroom. Watch it.’

Henry grinned at me, and I marvelled that other women could not see the selfishness of that smile. Even Victoria tucked in her T-shirt when Henry came in, and after that four husbands she should have known a little about evaluating men. The other waitress I worked with, Hyoyeon, tossed her hair and straightened her back to make her s stand out. Henry just gave her an amiable wave. She pretended to sneer. She’s on outs with Henry, but she still wants him to notice her.

I got really busy – everyone came in to Ramyeon’s (the bar) on Saturday night for some portion of the evening – so I lose track of my vampire for a while. When I next had a moment to check on him, he was talking to Rina. Sooman was looking at him with an expression so avid that I become worried.

I went closer to the table, staring at Sooman. Finally, I let down my guard and listened.

Sooman and Rina had been in jail for vampire draining.

Deeply upset, I nevertheless automatically carried a pitcher of beer and some glasses to a racous table of four. Since vampire blood was supposed to temporarily relieve symptoms of illness and increase ual potency, kind of like prednisone and rolled into one, there was huge black market for genuine, undiluted vampire blood. Where there’s a market there are suppliers; in this case, I’d just learned, the scummy Smug Couple. They’d formerly trapped vampires and drained them, selling the little vials of blood for as much as two hundred won now. Some buyers went crazy after drinking pure vampire blood, but that didn’t slow the market any.

The drained vampire didn’t last long, as a rule. The drainers left the vampires staked or simple dumped them out in the open. When the sun came up, that was all she wrote. From time to time, you read about the tables being turned when the vampire managed to get free. Then you got your dead drainers.

Now my vampire was getting up and leaving with the Smugs. Sooman met my eyes, and I saw him looking distinctly startled at the expression on my face. He turned away, shrugging me off like everyone else.

That made me mad. Really mad.

To be Continued

Waiting for my poster and background to be done. ^^