Eliana said after a while, "Do you think the creature eats blood?"A long pause. "The idea seems absurd at first, doesn't it? We're such different life...forms."Eliana sighed. "And yet, a fungus is a very different life-form than us, and we can eat mushrooms, and fungi can thrive on our decomposing bodies."Basel nodded and shuddered. "Somehow I got a vague impression of the puddle as a feeding pool. I don't know why." He frowned. Somehow a feeding puddle sounded close to but not quite the right. Jake tore out the rings around both of her amygdalas and glanced back at Jan, proud that he had handled the problem so quickly.Kate’s bellowing scream surprised him. She launched herself. One bound took her to the foot of the bed. The next one closed half the remaining distance between her and Jake. She radiated white-hot rage, every bit as intense as the fear she had been feeling a moment earlier.Jake quickly stimulated the three sleep-inducing nerves in her prefrontal cortex. She staggered. It was weird she didn’t even seem fazed that I was standing there. As she proceeded to take a quick intense hit off the pipe, Carrie said “Steve this is my mom Traci, mom this is Steve he’s staying next door and we were just doing a hoot.” Traci, exhaled a large plume of crack smoke took another intense short hit and then grabbed Carrie’s cigarette and took a couple of quick hard drags. As she exhaled she said “Nice to meet you I’ll talk more when my guest leaves, I gotta go” and turned and. I sat still as a statue, uncomfortably. Ming was of course lovely and a chatterbox. Not by nature, but, mostly by the tension of the moment. Like everyone else, Ms Ming was dressed to nines, in very high heels, though lower than mine, I thought, a mini-dress, and nothing else. But as an Asian woman, she didn't need anything else. Raven hair and slanted eyes, and dark complexioned, she was naturally beautiful. It took me a moment to wonder how such a naturally attractive woman would know how to.