Myth-Ing Persons By Robert L Asprin

“Cheerful sort of place, isn’t it?” Massha asked, eyeing the rooftops.

“I don’t like to complain, Boss,” Guido put in, lyings blatantly, “but I’ve been in friendlier-looking graveyards.”

“Will you both keep your mouths shut!” I snarled, speaking as best I could through tightly pressed lips. “Remember our disguises.”

I had indeed turned on my disguise spell as we entered town, but in an effort to conserve magical energy, I had only turned our eyes red. If any of the others on the street, and there were lots of them, happened to spot our non-vampirish teeth, the balloon would go up once and for all. Then again, maybe not. We still hadn’t figured out why the couple we met on the road had been so afraid of me, but I wasn’t about to bank the success of our mission on anything as flimsy as a hope that the whole town would run at the sight of our undisguised features.

Fortunately, I didn’t have to do any magical tinkering’ with our wardrobe. If anything, we were a little drab compared to most of the vampires on the street. Though most of them appeared rather young, barely older than me, they came in all shapes and sizes, and were decked out in some of the most colorful and outrageous garb it has ever been my misfortune to encounter as they shouted to each other or wove their way in and out of taverns along the street.

It was night now, the clouds having cleared enough to show a star-studded night sky, and true to their billing, vampires seemed to love the night life.

“If everybody here is vampires,” Guido said, ignoring my warning, “how do they find anybody to bite for blood?”