TALL DARK AND HUNGRY Page 0,30
from the exposure.
Two women turned the corner and walked past him, chattering happily as they headed toward the ladies' room. And that was another thing. Women of¬ten visited the bathroom in pairs. What was that all about?
The tap-tap of shoes drew his gaze to the left as the customer who had been haranguing the poor sales-clerk downstairs came around the corner into view. She was grim-faced and mean-looking, a bitter old pill. She was the type of person Bastien had always preferred biting in the past--back when feeding off living humans was necessary. Bastien had always tended toward biting people he didn't like. It just caused less guilt than feasting on someone sweet and nice and unsuspecting. He'd often chosen people who were criminals, or the selfish, but the mean-spirited were always his favorite. Bastien had taken great delight in leaving the crusty old nasties feeling weak and confused.
He smiled pleasantly as this crusty old biddy came abreast of him, and received a sneer for his trouble. Oh, yes--she was the sort he would have delighted in taking down a peg. In the past, while taking their blood, he'd often taken the opportunity to put the thought in these nasty people's heads that they should be kinder to those around them, which had always left him with a sense of satisfaction. It had felt almost like he was doing the world a favor by feeding on them.
Bastien stilled as she moved past him and he caught a whiff of her. Blood--sweet and heady. He felt his cramps intensify, and tried to ignore them by ponder¬ing the woman's blood type. She was a diabetic, he recognized from her scent. And she was a diabetic who either didn't know she was, or who didn't take care of the problem. He was guessing the latter. He was also guessing that she had an open cut some¬where, or the scent wouldn't be so strong.
He watched her walk down the hall and disappear through the bathroom door. A moment later however, she came marching back out. And march was the only word for it; the woman was obviously on the warpath.
"If you're waiting for someone, you can expect a long wait," she informed him with almost gleeful anger. "They've got half the stalls closed for cleanup, leaving a ridiculous line. Idiot women! They should be complaining, like I plan on doing. Service used to be important."
Some people just weren't happy unless they had something to bitch about, Bastien thought with a sigh. He would definitely have done the world a fa¬vor by biting her, if he was still a biter.
A whiff of the sweet scent of blood hit him again as she passed. This time, it was stronger, which could only mean the open cut was on this side of her. The concentrated scent this time caused concentrated pain, and Bastien half doubled over with it. He really needed blood. He should have stayed out of the sun. He was an idiot, and one who he very much feared was about to ruin not just the trip around the flea market, but the entire day. He was going to have to return to the penthouse early just so he could feed. The task would take only a matter of minutes, but their outing would certainly be ruined.
"What's the matter with you?"
Bastien glanced up to see the biddy staring at him with disgust.
"What are you, one of those drug addicts?" she asked, and again there was a hint of glee in her words. She was enjoying the idea of his suffering.
Bastien really wished biting was still allowed; he'd give her an attitude adjustment like-- But feeding was allowed in emergencies, he reminded himself. And judging by the cramps he was suffering, he was reaching an emergency point. He straightened slowly and offered the old crank a charming smile.
Terri sighed with relief as she closed the stall door behind her. Bastien had probably decided she'd sneaked out a bathroom window and run off or something by this point. If she hadn't had to go to the bathroom so badly, and feared losing her spot in line, she would have gone back out to explain what was taking so long. She would have told him to go shop, maybe have a coffee and she'd meet up with him somewhere in half an hour.
She would have been off on her time estimate, however, Terri thought as she took care of business, then left the stall. She was in such