I Hunt Killers Blood Boy Read Free Page B

also Billy Dent's kid, so, yeah, you could say I know Billy.
    He had a sudden blast of memory, almost overwhelming: The last time he'd seen Billy as a free man. He'd gone over to Jazz's house to collaborate on a homework project. And by collaborate, he meant crack jokes while Jazz did most of the work . Billy had answered the door, his eyes lighting up when he saw Howie.
    C'mon in, Howie, Billy had chortled. You eaten dinner yet? I figure all stretched out like that, your belly probably don't know your mouth's eaten for an hour or so. Want some barbecue? Just grilled up some for me'n'Jasper and there's plenty left over. Got rolls on the kitchen counter.
    And, yeah, Howie had been hungry, and he'd eaten Billy's barbecue which was, to this day, the best he'd ever eaten. And a week later, Jazz hadn't come to school one day and in the middle of third period cellphones had started buzzing with the news that Billy Dent was under arrest.
    It was a total memory. A full-body memory. The fill of the barbecue. Billy's strong hand on Howie's side, guiding him into the house, to the kitchen, gentle, always remembering Howie's hemophilia. The buzz of the cell in his pocket.
    "I saw him around," Howie said, shaking himself back into the present, the girl's eyes still searching him. "Spoke to him a few times."
    "Wow." She shivered. "Could you tell? Could you tell there was something wrong with him?"
    The truth? The truth was no way in hell . Billy Dent's human disguise was the best Halloween costume of all time. He wore it year-round and no one ever figured out who and what lurked beneath the mask until it was way too late.
    "Totally," Howie said. "I could tell. There was always just something off about him, you know?"
    She nodded as though she, too, had brushed up against the lunacy that walked like a man.
    "So," he said, pressing his advantage, "what are you dressed as? Or not dressed as, as the case may be."
    "I'm a sexy kid."
    "That you are, but what are you dressed as?"
    She laughed and shoved him, hard, in his ribs. Contact. According to all the men’s dating advice web sites, that was a buy sign. Joy.
    "A kid . Like, a baby goat." She gestured down her body, an invitation Howie was glad to accept. Indeed, her skimpy bra was fringed with fur, as were her tiny, tight shorts, and the tops of her thigh-high boots. Those same boots had been modified with blunt hooves and there were those horns in her hair.
    "I get it now," he said. "You're the sexiest sexy kid I've ever seen. Well done. I applaud you.” He slapped his ginormous hands together. No little golf clap, either — he gave her a full-on ovation.
    She giggled and smacked his arm playfully. More contact. Nice.
    "Are you, like, a zombie or something?" she asked.
    "More like 'or something,' like," he said, mimicking her tone. "Zombies are so over, you know? Dead both literally and figuratively."
    She gazed up at him for a long moment. “Then what are you?”
    "I'm Blood Boy," Howie announced, planting his fists on his hips and striking a super-hero pose. "My power is to bleed on you."
    She tittered. "Okay, now I get it."
    "That makes one of us," he said. "Can I get you a drink?"
    She looked down at the drink in her hand. "I already have one."
    "I could get you another one," he pointed out.
    With a sly grin, she shook her head. "How do I know you wouldn't put something in it?"
    Howie snorted at the very idea. "Please. Roofies are for amateurs. For men who have not mastered the art of seduction. I'm all about the consensual action. Emphasis on sensual ."
    She licked her lips and Howie knew -- based on what he'd read on the Internet -- that he had her.
    "Well, maybe one drink."
    "Excellent. And just so you know," he said gravely, gesturing down toward his groin, "everything is in proportion."
    "Gross."
    "Maybe so," he conceded. "Not all women can handle it."
    Maybe he'd gone too far...but maybe not. She showed no signs of leaving, and she was touching her hair, which he was pretty