Body Surfing

contemplating her next move. Finally, with a contemptuous lift of her shoulder, she turned her back on the doctor and looked at Q.
    “The legends of vampires originated with a demon called Varius, a former Roman centurion. Interestingly, he never visited Transylvania or possessed the famous Vlad the Impaler, but haunted Paris for two decades in the mid-sixteenth century, only coming out at night, and biting people on the neck. He would implant neurosynaptic suggestions in his hosts—what you might think of as hypnosis from the inside—so that when he left they were consumed by a thirst for human blood. He also gave them such an acute photosensitivity thatprolonged exposure to sunlight actually caused them to die. They were otherwise quite difficult to kill—hence the stake through the heart, which wasn’t Varius’s idea at all, but sprang up of its own accord. As practical jokes go,” she finished up, “it has proven itself rather long-lasting.”
    “Thanks for the history lesson,” Q. said dryly.
    “Varius also spread the rumor that a bite from an existing vampire was all it took to create another. From this we can deduce that Varius was at least aware of the legends about how his own kind are created. Nevertheless, he seems never to have put it to the test. Leo, however, appears to have overcome his predecessor’s hesitance. And if he has in fact turned Jasper into a Mogran,” the huntress raised her voice over Q.’s protest, “he is as lost to you as any vampire. You must accept that, Q.”
    Q. didn’t say anything, but his expression apparently didn’t satisfy the huntress.
    “I’m going to bed. In the morning we will travel to Q.’s friend’s house. We will look around until we find him. I suspect Leo will not be far behind. We’ll see how close the two of you remain, when your friend is inside you. When he uses you as Leo did, for his own ends.”
    “You’re out of your mind! Jasper wouldn’t—he couldn’t do that to me.”
    The huntress curled her lip. She picked up the shotgun as she left the room. “I think I’ll take this to bed with me. It might as well be with someone who knows how to use it.”
    “Do you want it for protection?” Dr. Thomas said.
    “Is that what they’re calling it these days?” Lana sniffed the gun’s muzzle. “Sure. That’s what I want it for. Protection .”

25
    S o you live around here?”
    Shawna’s silver bracelets jangled as she pushed a rag over the same six inches of bartop.
    “Um, yeah. Dutch Village.”
    “That trailer park on 66?”
    “Yeah.”
    “That’s cool.”
    No two ways about it: Shawna was hot. Hot, and a little intimidating. In Jasper’s head, he was still seventeen years old, and Shawna was at least twenty-five, and, to him anyway, possessed an older woman’s air of worldliness and confidence.
    “So your friend is—”
    “Crooked?”
    Shawna smiled, stuck out her tongue. A bit of metal glinted. Ouch, Jasper thought. But then he imagined how that stud might feel running over certain parts of his body, and the ouch turned to hmmm …
    “I was going to say tall. But yeah, he’s a little crooked.” She pushed the rag back and forth. Jangle jangle jangle . She glanced over at the paramedic, who seemed to have put Nurse Gwen into some kind of giddy, giggling trance. “Apparently he likes blonds too. Sigh .”
    Jasper glanced over at the booth. Gwen was literally holding upone of her breasts inside her smock, as if offering it to Leo the way Eve had offered Adam the apple.
    “Apparently they like him too.”
    Jangle jangle jangle .
    Jasper realized this could go on all night. It’s not like she was going to jump on this particular body. Two days wasn’t enough to knock off the seventy-five extra pounds Jarhead was carrying. He was going to have to work a little harder to make this happen.
    What had Leo said? It’s all in the eyes…
    He took a deep breath, put the broadest smile he could on Jarhead’s wide face. He touched the tattoo on the back of her hand. A gold crown, under which was written “Croesus” in Gothic script.
    “Nice ink.”
    “Thanks. My family’s Turkish. Just trying to keep it real.”
    Jasper ignored this arcane reference, instead reached out and touched her chin. Used his finger to angle it up so that she had to meet his gaze. He opened his eyes wide, tried to imagine his pupils expanding, contracting. He knew what this would look like. Like lights were shining in his eyes. Swimming in