Author: Harvey

/I am invisible/, Harvey thought to himself, /I am completely and totally invisible to the eyes of humankind./

"Hello, Mr. Pallas," said the maid in the hallway.

/Damn/, thought Harvey.

Back in his hotel room, Harvey spent another fruitless ten minutes staring at an empty pint of Haagen-Daaz, trying to make it levitate. He failed.

"I'm a vampire!" he cried, "I'm THE vampire! I'm supposed to have super- secret vampire powers! I can't fly, I can't turn invisible, I don't have telekinesis, pyrokinesis, crynokinesis or any other kinda kinesis, I can't turn into a cat, a rat, a bat or a U.S. senator! This BITES!"

For the thousandth time, he thought back to those two months in L.A., trying to remember any little detail about the monster that had made him the way he was; what had he seen her do? Was there any clue, however minor, to the kinds of powers she had?

Of course! MIND CONTROL! She had it, so she must have passed it down to him! It was just a matter of making it work.

This should be easy: Harvey had seen Firestarter fifteen times, not to mention all of the Scanners movies.

He ran out to the hallway, stood in front of the maid and stared deeply into her eyes, pressing his index finger to the side of his forehead. They always did it like that on TV. "Agnes," he said in what he hoped was an imposing monotone, "You will not clean my room today. Skip it, and go on to the next one."

She shrugged. "Sure, Mr. Pallas," she said, pushing her cart down the hall.

Eureka! It worked! Head swimming with the possibilities, Harvey decided to give it another test. He ran downstairs, to the 7-11 across the street.

"Give me," he said to the kid behind the counter, "a cherry slurpee."

"Machine's over there," the kid said, pointing to the back. Harvey poured himself an extra large, and was headed for the door when the clerk coughed loudly. Sheepish, Harvey handed him a couple of bucks and headed back to his room.

/Okay, the principle is valid, I just need to work on the execution./

After adding a little something extra to the slurpee, its color turning a dark black-cherry shade, he contemplated the source of his distraction, what had been driving his thoughts for days now. Two times in the Black Squirrel, he had seen a woman; not just any woman, but a magnificient example of womanhood. Dark, exotic and with... With an aura about her that he could not resist. She was everything he had ever dreamed of, and though they had never actually met, he knew that she would feel the same way about him. Where did she live? What did she do for a living? He was certain that it must be something adventurous and wonderful, yet something that left her strangely incomplete and lonely, yearning for a man, a special man, who had a fast-paced lifestyle to complement her own and a true lust for life. Soon, they would meet at last, and she would fall into his arms, knowing in her heart that she had found the one man who could complete her yearning soul.

Peregrine had called her "Fursa". Such a wonderful name.

"Oh, yes, my sweet," Harvey said, poking his temple with his finger and staring out the hotel window, "You WILL be mine."