a vampire to assist him, the obvious choice would be to pick someone strong, an intelligent and resilient fighter. But he could not bring himself to do this. No, he would have to pick someone who could be controlled and easily dispatched if necessary, but also someone who yearned for more than what he had, someone who could be used and tempted.
Julian would need to find the right type. But he was not telepathic, and he was not a good judge of mortals by simply studying their faces, especially Americans. They all looked the same to him.
He glanced around the room. “Mary, are you still here?”
She materialized by the fireplace, seeming somewhat put out. “Yeah, I’m here. You give up on staring into space?”
“I need you to find someone.”
“What? Again? I told you. I know right where they are.”
“No, I need you to find a mortal.”
“Someone still alive? How am supposed to do that? Even if I had the right name, I can’t exactly turn pages in a phone book. . . . Well, I guess you could turn them for me and—”
“Quiet!” he ordered, wishing he could strike her. “Listen to me. I need you to find a specific type of mortal.” He closed his eyes, visualizing. “A man in his late teens or early twenties. He lives in near squalor, not homeless, but in some shabby apartment where he watches TV at night. He has a job but makes just enough to scrape by. He has failed in relationships with women, but he believes success is a matter of luck, and that if only he had wealth and drove a BMW, then all his problems would be solved.”
When he opened his eyes, Mary was floating right in front of him. “Geez, Julian.”
“Can you find someone like this?”
“Here? Sure, the city’s full of guys like that. You probably couldn’t swing a Barbie doll by her hair without hitting one. I just can’t believe you know that much about people.”
“Find one,” he said coldly. “Tonight. And come back with his address.”
Mary materialized inside a darkened doorway near the mouth of an alley. She’d already been looking around the city for an hour.
In spite of her flippant words to Julian, Mary was having a tough time locating the right man. Although she’d never paid attention at school, she wasn’t stupid, and she knew exactly what kind of guy Julian was looking for.
She would never admit it, but in the past few nights, she’d felt more satisfaction with herself than she had in all of her previous life. There was something satisfying about tracking Eleisha in secret and always finding her, about traveling wherever she chose with a freedom that no other ghosts seemed to enjoy.
Mary was unique.
She hadn’t even thought about her parents in several days. Even though Julian was a cold-blooded bastard, she was starting to kind of . . . well, like the tasks he gave her. Weird.
Focusing on the task at hand, she spotted a FOR LEASE sign on an empty shop next to a video store, and she got an idea.
Blinking out, she blinked into the empty shop and moved up alongside the window to peer into the street. She could tell a lot about people by the movies they rented.
She started to study everyone who came out of the video store and walked past her.
The first guy was bald and weighed about three hundred pounds, and he was stuffing movies inside his coat like he was ashamed. The films were probably porn.
Nope. Too perverted, she thought.
Next, a couple came out arguing loudly because she’d wanted to see Fried Green Tomatoes again, and he’d wanted to rent The Fast and the Furious with Vin Diesel. They weren’t carrying any movies, just arguing.
Nope. Too married.
The next guy was tall and good-looking, wearing tight pants and a tank top. His hair was perfectly gelled, and he had a movie in each hand: The English Patient and A Room with a View.
Nope. Too gay.
Then a slender man of about twenty, with shaggy brown hair, came out of the video store alone. He was wearing jeans, a leather jacket, a backpack, and a pair of ancient Adidas athletic shoes that must have once been white. His shoulders were hunched forward, like he was closed off to everyone else.
Mary looked down at his right hand. He was carrying two movies. The one on top was Spider-Man with Tobey Maguire. When the film slipped slightly, she saw the one behind it: Spider-Man 2.
This