The Lake of Souls Read Free Page A

performing. Normally he kept the tire on a special stand in his caravan, but occasionally he’d drag it outside and sleep in the open. It was a cold night for sleeping outdoors — the middle of a wintry November — but he had a thick, fur-lined body bag to keep the chill out.
    As Alexander snored musically a young boy crept toward him, a cockroach in his right hand, with the intention of dropping it into Alexander’s mouth. Behind him, his older brother and younger sister looked on with impish glee, urging him forward with harsh hand gestures whenever he paused nervously.
    As the boy neared the tire and held up the cockroach, his mother — always alert to mischief — stuck her head out of a nearby tent, ripped her left ear off and threw it at him. It spun through the air like a boomerang and knocked the cockroach from the boy’s pudgy fingers. Yelping, he raced back to his brother and sister, while Alexander slept on, unaware of his narrow escape.
    “Urcha!” Merla snapped, catching her ear as it circled back, then reattaching it to her head. “If I catch you bothering Alexander again, I’ll lock you in with the Wolf-Man until morning!”
    “Shancus made me do it!” Urcha whined, receiving a dig in the ribs from his older brother.
    “I don’t doubt he put you up to it,” Merla growled, “but you’re old enough to know better. Don’t do it again, Shancus!” she added. The snake-boy looked at his mother innocently. “If Urcha or Lilia get into trouble tonight, I’ll hold you responsible.”
    “I didn’t do anything!” Shancus shouted. “They’re always —”
    “Enough!” Merla cut him short. She started toward her children, then saw me sitting in the shadow of the tree next to the one Alexander Ribs was hanging from. Her expression softened. “Hello, Darren,” she said. “What are you doing?”
    “Looking for cockroaches,” I said, managing a short smile. Merla and her husband, Evra Von — a snake-man and one of my oldest friends — had been very kind to me since I’d arrived a couple of weeks earlier. Though I found it hard to respond to their kindness in my miserable mood, I made as much of an effort as I could.
    “It’s cold,” Merla noted. “Shall I fetch you a blanket?”
    I shook my head. “It takes more than a slight frost to chill a half-vampire.”
    “Well, would you mind keeping an eye on these three as long as you’re outside?” she asked. “Evra’s snake is molting. If you can keep the kids out of the way, it’d be a real help.”
    “No problem,” I said, rising and dusting myself down as she went back inside the tent. I walked over to the three Von children. They gazed up at me uncertainly. I’d been unusually solemn since returning to the Cirque Du Freak, and they weren’t quite sure what to make of me. “What would you like to do?” I asked.
    “Cockroach!” Lilia squealed. She was only three years old, but looked five or six because of her rough, colored scales. Like Shancus, Lilia was half-human, half-snake. Urcha was an ordinary human, though he wished he could be like the other two, and sometimes glued painted scraps of aluminum foil to his body, driving his mother wild with exasperation.
    “No more cockroaches,” I said. “Anything else?”
    “Show us how you drink blood,” Urcha said, and Shancus hissed at him angrily.
    “What’s wrong?” I asked Shancus, who’d been named in my honor.
    “He’s not supposed to say that,” Shancus said, slicking back his yellow-green hair. “Mom told us not to say anything about vampires — it might upset you.”
    I smiled. “Moms worry about silly things. Don’t worry — you can say whatever you like. I don’t mind.”
    “Can you show us how you drink then?” Urcha asked again.
    “Sure, I said, then spread my arms, pulled a scary face, and made a deep groaning noise. The children shrieked with delight and ran away. I plodded after them, threatening to rip their stomachs open and drink all their