Blood Bytes.pdf

A Cerridwen Press Publication

www.cerridwenpress.com

Blood Bytes

ISBN 9781419910043

Edited by Helen Woodall.

Cover art by Croco.

Electronic book Publication August 2007

With the exception of quotes used in reviews, this book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in

part by any means existing without written permission from the publisher, Cerridwen Press, 1056 Home

Avenue, Akron, OH 44310-3502.

This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales

is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the authors’ imagination and used fictitiously.

Cerridwen Press is an imprint of Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Inc.®

B LOOD B YTES

Susan Phelan

Dedication

For Carol and Gerry, whose own happy ending was interrupted, but will continue

in another time and place.

Trademarks Acknowledgement

The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the

following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction:

BandAid: Johnson & Johnson Corporation

Barbie doll: Mattel, Incorporated

Calvin Klein: Calvin Klein Trademark Trust composed of Wilmington Trust

Company

Winston: GMB, Inc.

Blood Bytes

Prologue

New York City sometime in the future…

Friday night

Client SG1972 stood in front of the series of thin mirrors that dangled from the

ceiling studying her reflection.

Client SG1972.

That was the way she was referred to at the agency, so it would follow that it was

also the manner in which she had come to think of herself during these frequent

meetings.

No names, no shame.

Giving herself a once-over she looked at her strawberry blonde hair that fell straight

down to the center of her back, still a tad wet from her recent rinsing. A look of growing

excitement filled her large brown eyes and the freckles that were sprinkled across her

nose and cheeks seemed to positively jump out on her pale skin as if in fright.

Damn it but how she hated those little dots, she pouted, straightening her sleek

black dress that, like the flesh on her face, was flecked with tiny circles. Thanks to that

new morphing procedure—the latest rave that let you choose the tone, texture and even

the shape of your face and body to suit—she was a completely different looking

woman—well that is, different from what she had been yesterday. In actuality, she had

used the revolutionary new process to morph back to her “real” self for the date. Where

her former appearance, complete with a rich dark tan and ne’er a freckle in sight, had

been the fake version, now as she stood regarding her true look in the long skinny

mirrors that hung like icicles from the overhead beam, she wondered if she had made

the wrong decision by going au naturel . Then again, the smattering of pale dots did

make her look like she was seventeen as opposed to her actual age so they weren’t all

bad. But enough already with the obsession with her looks. After all, this wasn’t her

first time being the recipient of purchased pleasure by any stretch.

Sex for hire had long since become legalized, even commonplace, leaving the

human population eventually de-sensitized and bored with the blatant amount of

“normal” sex readily available. Starved for excitement, all sorts of sexual alternatives

were being explored, people ever in search of the ultimate experience. Advancements

galore in the field of medicine had created drugs to ensure better, faster and longer

couplings, even completely eliminating any kind of erectile dysfunction in human

males. However, it was only in the last few decades or so that the immortal equivalent

had, pardon the pun, sprung up. For the first time in history, the undead could partake

in sexual intercourse, and rumor had it mating with an immortal far exceeded any

human-on-human contact. This made the vampire lover a very, very hot commodity.

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