Has "Sluggo" Snared You Yet?

Here's one from my latest e-book short, a story that manages to be both chilling and humorous in an offbeat way.

BUY "Sluggo" here: http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure/SluggoSnaresVampire.html 



SYNOPSIS

When Sluggo cruises online chat rooms, he isn’t looking for a hook-up, he’s looking for love. But love has a way of being elusive, especially when you’re not being honest. Presenting himself as “Sir Raven,” Sluggo promises his chat room cohorts he is the “master of the night.”

And then he meets someone who challenges him—someone who claims the title, “master of the night” as his own. TepesAllure’s enigmatic and flirtatious messages to Sluggo start out as fun banter, but quickly turn to eerie disquiet.
How does TepesAllure know so much about Sluggo's life? How can he know—without even a picture to go on—what Sluggo looks like? And what’s all this about an age numbering in the centuries and a curious taste for blood?

Has Sluggo snared a vampire? Or has the vampire snared him? As the night unfolds, so do the advances of TepesAllure...and even when Sluggo tries to escape, he finds that getting out is not nearly as easy as getting in.

But to make their online connection real, TepesAllure needs Sluggo to invite him in. Will Sluggo succumb to Tepes’ allure? And will the man of his dreams turn out to be a nightmare?

EXCERPT
The screen was blank. Even though Sluggo knew that this only meant he was just joining the chat, he preferred instead to imagine the whole room waiting with bated breath for him to speak. Of course, the room was full to bursting with muscular, naked Adonises whose only variation was the color of their hair and eyes. They were all oiled up and stroking cocks with a minimum of eight inches.
 
Oh stop!

Sluggo readjusted his pajama bottoms and typed, “Good evening, gentlemen,” and waited. Within moments, another message popped up, from a familiar screen name: Flshsinner.

“How you doin’, Raven?”

“Looking for love in all the wrong places.”

“LOL.”

Hmm. This one was easy to amuse. “What brings you out on this cold winter night?”

Sluggo waited for a full minute and when he got no response, typed: “I am Sir Raven, master of the night.”

There was virtual silence and Sluggo had assumed his bold statement had scared Flshsinner away.

Good riddance if he can’t handle a simple statement of fact.

A screen name Sluggo had never seen, TepesAllure, popped up. “I thought I was master of the night.”

Bitch! How dare someone try to horn in on his carefully developed persona! With trembling fingers, he typed, “I don’t know if there’s room for two masters.”

Tepes simply sent back one of those cartoon smiley faces in reply.

Sluggo typed: “Tepes, there’s not enough room. What do you care to do about it?”

Flshsinner joined in. “Uh-oh, a cat fight?”

A tiny electronic gong alerted him that he had a private instant mail message from Tepes. “Listen, sir, I have more reason to be master of the night than you could ever dream.”

Sluggo snorted and responded, “What do you know of my dreams, Tepes?”

“I know they’re the only lively thing shedding light in a bland void.”

The message chilled him, as on target as it was, with its casual cruelty. Sluggo wasn’t sure he should go on. Something about this one sent an icy glissando of fear up and down his spine. He had the odd sensation he was dealing here with someone who knew him. But that couldn’t be. His whole persona was pretty much the exact opposite of who he really was. Of course, this TepesAllure was just grasping at straws and trying to get a rise out of him, but his words cut a bit too close to the bone.

“Who knows what are dreams and what is reality?” Sluggo’s fingers rapidly caressed the keyboard. “Perhaps my reality is the color and passion-filled world you could only envy.”

“I have no envy for the walking wounded, past his prime and desperate.”

Sluggo sucked in a breath, almost wincing. The words hurt almost as much as if someone had delivered a punch to his gut. His mouth suddenly felt dry. He leaned back and rubbed his eyes. Perhaps this was the Cyber god’s way of telling him he should have circumvented his den tonight and headed for the warmth and comfort of his flannel sheets, no matter how many hours he lay awake, tracing hairline cracks in his bedroom ceiling.

“Hello? Sir Raven? I haven’t scared you away, have I?”

BUY "Sluggo" here: http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure/SluggoSnaresVampire.html