A WHISPER OF ETERNIT

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He moved through the dark of the night, silent as a shadow, more deadly than the weapon his prey carried concealed inside his jacket.

The man he pursued knew something was wrong. He turned his head this way and that constantly, his hooded gaze searching the darkness, looking for the danger he sensed but could not see. Panic rose within him and he began to walk faster and faster, until he was running down the street, his heart pounding with terror. The stink of his sweat and fear trailed behind him like smoke.

A sob rose in the man's throat as he turned down a narrow alley, only to discover it was a dead end. Turning around, his back pressed against the wall, he reached inside his jacket.

"Who's there?" He withdrew his weapon, held it out in front of him in hands that trembled. Eyes narrowed, his gaze swept the darkness, widened in terror as a dark shape materialized out of the shadows. "Go away!" He cocked the pistol in his hand. "Don't make me shoot!"

"Do as you wish." There was a hint of amusement in the deep voice, but none in the deep gray eyes that regarded him without blinking.

Beyond panic, the man fired. He knew a fleeting moment of relief as the bullet struck his pursuer full in the chest. But his pursuer did not fall, and he did not stop. Relentless as death, the other glided toward him on soundless feet.

Frozen with horror, the man made no move to resist as the other plucked the weapon from his fist and carelessly tossed it aside.

"Who… who… ?"He shrieked as the other's hand closed over his shoulder, the fingers grasping his arm in a vise-like hold. "What are you?"

"Does it matter?"

The man was shaking so badly now, he could scarcely speak. "Are you… going to… to… kill me?"

"It depends." He had not killed in years yet some perverse devil made him tease his prey, like a cat with a mouse. He smiled, revealing long white fangs. "On how thirsty I am."

Chapter 4

Tracywoke abruptly, the sound of her own scream lingering in the air. Reaching blindly for the lamp on the table beside her bed, she switched on the light with fingers that trembled.

She sat up, her heart pounding as though she had run a mile down the beach. "Only a dream," she whispered. "It was only a dream."

Clutching the blankets to her chest, she glanced around the room. Everything was as it should be. There were no monsters hiding in the corners, no slitted eyes glowing at her with a fiendish light, no fangs stained and dripping with blood.