Free Boys That Bite by Mari Mancusi Page A

world from this vampire or that demon. But it's not like that in real life. The real-life Slayer is a vindictive ugly bitch with no compassion." He stares up at the dark ceiling. "And now she's killed Lucifent. This is a sad day for vampire kind indeed." "For Sunny kind, as well," I add, frowning. "Seeing as he was just about to tell me how I could reverse the whole vampire transformation thing. Does this mean I'm going to be stuck as a bloodsucker for eternity? Or until I get dusted by some Slayer?" Magnus shrugs. "Maybe not," he says. "Lucifent has a whole library of ancient texts. Certainly one of them will have the answer. Once we get out of here, we can take a look." Okay, that makes me feel a tad better. Maybe there's hope after all. "Oh, Lucifent," Magnus moans suddenly, banging the back of his head against the titanium wall. That's gotta hurt, even for a vamp. "Why did it have to be you?" "You seem awfully upset about a guy who was screaming and calling you mean names just a minute ago," I venture, not quite sure how to react to this sudden display of emotion. Magnus turns to look at me, his eyes filled with bloody tears, which is kind of gross, actually. I wonder if he sweats blood, too. That sure would make for some interesting gym habits. "Lucifent was my sire," he explains in a slow voice. "My original blood mate, though we didn't call them that back then. He was the one to turn me into a vampire." "Ah." It's starting to make sense now. I feel an unwilling pang of pity for poor Magnus. Seeing Lucifent, his vampire daddy, go up in a puff of smoke must be pretty traumatizing for the guy. In fact, I'm amazed he had the wherewithal to make sure I got out alive as well. "So why did you want to become a vampire?" I ask curiously. "Was it the riches and power, like Rayne wants?" Magnus shakes his head. "Hardly," he says. "Things were a lot different back when I was turned." He straightens his legs out along the floor and stretches his hands above his head in a yawn. I refuse to notice how this stretched-out position accentuates his washboard abs. Nope, they're not even a blip on my radar. "Different how?" "It's a long story, actually." I shrug. "We've got nothing but time." "Too right." He grins, ruefully. "Well, it all started about a thousand years ago. When I served as one of King Arthur's Knights of the Round Table." I do a double take. "King Arthur? So he really did exist?" Magnus scowls and gives me one of his famous 'are you kidding me, you babe in the woods?' looks. "Of course he existed," he says, with mondo indignation. "Oh. Okay. But I thought—" "Uh, up until yesterday you also thought there was no such thing as vampires." He has a point there. "So you worked for the guy? Sat at the Round Table? Hung out in Camelot?" I try to picture Magnus in shining armor instead of his typical shining Armani. I bet he was pretty sexy as a knight. All the damsels probably went crazy over him. I wonder if he had a wife. Kids. Ugh. Why does the thought of him having kids scar me so much? I mean, who cares? So he had a life a thousand years before I was born. Big whoop. "Did you know Lancelot?" I ask, to get my mind off the scarring kids thing. "Lancelot," Magnus snorts disgustedly. "Why is it that everyone always asks about that pansy? I just love how all the legends have been twisted to make him seem like some kind of hero. The guy hardly ever showed up to fight. He was too busy shagging Queen Guinevere behind the king's back. I mean, thanks to him, poor Arthur lost his throne and Camelot was destroyed. So yeah," he says, sarcastically. "Not my favorite person, let me tell you." There goes one childhood fantasy flushed down the toilet. "Never mind about Lancelot. How did you get turned into a vampire? Was it by Merlin? The Lady of the Lake? Ooh, I know. Morgan le Fay, the witch. She did it, right?" I'd paid attention in our Arthurian legends unit in history class last year. The stories were too juicy to resist. "As I was