* * *

Epiphany

* * *

"Ah. Right," said Otto. "Vell, I think ve had better be going--"

His voice trailed off into silence when he saw the look Lex was giving Clark.

It wasn't a look of adoration, the kind waitresses and salesgirls tended to give Clark when he interviewed them. It wasn't really even interested. It was just -- intense. Focused. It was unlike any look Otto had ever seen even a recovering a vampire give a human -- even when you had got the black ribbon, it was difficult to stop looking at humans as walking blood containers. It had been even harder for Lex, and who could blame him, with that father of his. . . .

But this look. Lex looked like he wanted to rip Clark open and taste every thought he'd ever had. He looked like he'd forgotten that anything else existed in the world.

Clark looked back, calmly.

Otto felt that events had got a bit beyond him.

"Er, I think, er, isn't it time ve, er--" He gave up. "I'll see you later, zen."

He fled.

Clark joined him a few minutes later, running easily to catch up.

"You got away?" said Otto.

Clark blinked.

"Yeah," he said.

There was a silence. Otto fiddled with his iconograph. Clark sucked his pen thoughtfully.

"So, er," Otto ventured.

Clark waited.

"Yes?"

"Lex seems to like you," Otto faltered. It was possibly the biggest understatement he had ever made.

Clark blushed, but he looked pleased.

"Yeah," he said. "He, um, we're going out. For dinner. Tonight."

"That's nice," said Otto carefully. "You're going for--"

"Steak," said Clark. "Steak is good, right?"

"Right," said Otto.

* * *

"Vat are you thinking? You know relationships with humans are not a good idea! Remember Tracy and that boy, vat vas his name, Steve? Remember their first date?"

"Tracy lost control of the situation," said Lex. "I won't have that problem."

"Steve was on iron pills for the rest of his life! Tracy's lucky his family didn't go after her viz stakes!"

"Do you object to Clark?"

"Vat? No! Clark is a nice boy," said Otto. "That's the point. He still sends money home to his parents every veek! He saves kittens up trees and girls in accidents! He is nice!"

"Yes, he is, isn't he," said Lex. He looked dreamy. "Such a good boy. All that innocence. . . ."

"--and no offence, but you are not nice. His family vill not like it."

"They'll have to deal with it," said Lex.

Otto recognised the look on his face with a sinking heart. It was the look of a vampire who had suddenly found something more interesting in life than blood.

People think vampires who are obsessed with blood are dangerous, which shows they don't know anything about vampires. It's the vampires who find something else, who focus all that energy, all that obsessive attention to detail, on a new idol . . . those are the buggers you have to look out for.

And Lex was unusually scary, even for a vampire.

"Oh brother," muttered Otto.

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