Tales of the Otherworld Read Free

from dawn until dusk and eat when he had time. But now he was at the mercy of his appetite. If he was but an hour or two late, his whole body revolted, turning sluggish and slow, leaving him stumbling through back roads looking for food.
    As he walked, a cry came from the dark end of an adjoining alley. He went still, the old urge taking over, homing in on the sound like a cow hearing the bawl of her calf.
Though these days, it was more like a hawk hearingthe squeal of a mouse
, he thought. From savior to predator. A blessing indeed. He kicked a stone into the wall and watched a rat scurry off. Then the cry came again. His head lifted, the old instinct refusing to buckle under the new order.
    He stopped in midstep and tilted his head. And why should it buckle? Was he not impervious to harm? So his mother had claimed. Perhaps the time had come to test that. What was the worst that could happen? He’d get another blade between the ribs and be free. But if he couldn’t die, then there was nothing to keep him from doing the same thing he would have done a month ago…and, this time, claim a blood bounty from the would-be predator.
    The thug snarled something to the woman in his grasp, and Aaron’s lips parted, canines lengthening. He ran his tongue over them. This was one meal he wouldn’t mind taking.
    Six months later, Aaron slid along the darkened road, his feet making no sound. He’d learned that his new body came custom-made for hunting. Ahead of him swaggered a man.
Proud of yourself, aren’t you
, Aaron thought.
It takes a brave man to beat a whore.
    The world was full of predators. If you knew where to look, you could find one any day of the week, and with very little effort. Aaron no longer worried about the effects of his blood-taking. If one of his victims suffered a bruised neck or a day or two of weakness, he wouldn’t feel guilty. It was a world of difference from slinking through alleys. He had his power back, and his pride.
    His mother had noticed the change almost immediately.
    “See,” she said, when he visited her. “You are adjusting. You are
living.
”
    And he would continue to live, for another half-year. He’d already begun hinting about traveling to the New World, and his mother was pleased, seeing this as a sign that he was planning for his future.
    A couple rounded the corner and headed Aaron’s way, and his bearing changed, shoulders lifting, stride shortening, the smooth glide vanishing. A friendly smile and tip of his head as the couple passed. He walked another half-dozen steps, glanced over his shoulder at them, then swung his gaze around, slow and careful. When he was certain he was alone, the predator returned.
    As Aaron drew close enough to hear the clomp of the man’s boots, his fangs began to extend. An automatic reaction, like salivating. He forced himself to think of something else—of where he’d spend the night—and the canines retracted.
    When his quarry hit a T-intersection at the end of the lane, Aaron closed his eyes to test yet another developing skill. He counted to twenty, then looked. The man was gone.
He turned left
, his gut said. He hurried to the crossroad and looked each way. There, ten yards to the left, was the man.
    Aaron smiled. It’d been weeks since he’d guessed wrong. He hadn’t figured out how he could track people. It seemed like a sixth sense, being able to “feel” a presence, as if the pulse of life were vibrating through the air. Lately he’d even begun to be able to separate presences, and could track a target through a small group.
    As he drew closer to his quarry, he slid into the shadows. No real need to hide. He was, after all, impervious to harm. Still, there was no sense in calling attention to himself. A slow glide through the shadows, then, once he was close enough to smell the man’s unwashed body, he’d swoop out and snatch him up, and his victim would be unconscious before he was even sure he’d been attacked.
Like a hawk