Henry Rider and the NuYu Prescription

Chapter Two

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Chapter Two

"—is New You?" Ethan demanded as we flashed back into existence again.

He blinked in surprise, the fact that we were no longer in my living room slapping him in the face like a cold fish. Now we stood in the alleyway between two buildings, alone except for an exceptionally foul smelling dumpster. I think one of those buildings was a sushi shop.

"Warn me before you do that," Ethan griped as I led the way toward the street.

I ignored him and pointed at the building across the street from us. "There. That's where it's hiding."

Ethan looked, then squinted his eyes. "Bartholomew Pumpernickel's School of Belly Dancing for Fun and Profit?"

"What?" I spun around and saw a run down, one story building with large dusty windows. Through them, I could faintly see a shirtless, overweight middle aged man wiggling around the studio like a...no, screw it. Some metaphors just shouldn't be made.

"No, you dingus!" I snapped, grabbing his head and turning it one building to the right. "That is where we're going!"

Joe's Laughing Barrel, the old neon sign above the door said, alongside the lit up image of someone's feet sticking out of a barrel. The lights alternated, making the feet kick back and forth while the word "ha" flickered on and off. The building was just as old as Bartholomew Pumpernickel's Temple of Horrible Horribleness, but judging by the amount of cars parked outside, it must have been a way more popular place.

"Is that," Ethan said slowly, "a comedy club?"

I nodded. "Exactly the kind of place a maiam could cause the most trouble."

"Well, come on! Let's go!"

He grabbed my arm and started pulling me across the street. I raised an eyebrow, but didn't complain. I could remember a time, just a couple months ago, when he would have asked to wait outside while I killed the maiam. As long as it wasn't after him, he couldn't have cared less. The fact that he was the one charging headlong into danger was enough to make my heart swell with pride.

I had done that. I was the one who had taught Ethan to give a half-eaten cheeseburger about other people. Finally, for maybe the first time in my life, I had done something good.

The fact that Ethan being assertive was hot didn't hurt either.

I ran my eyes over the building as we made our way closer. Ethan couldn't see it, but this place was practically bursting at the seams with laughter. It was all inside, but the sheer amount of it made the entire club shimmer like the bricks were made out of stained glass. The smell was like all your favorite foods mixed together into a smoothie...actually, that sounds gross. It's nothing like that.

Okay, here's a quick refresher in case you weren't paying attention during the first book (or even worse, if you skipped it entirely, you bad, bad person). Klaons like me feed on human laughter. It appears to us like a glowing rainbow cloud, and we have to breathe it in to keep from starving. But you see, that laughter has to be given freely. If a klaon steals it—like, if they vampirize it right out of some poor sap's mouth—the human will die, the laughter will be tainted, and the klaon will turn into a maiam. A monster that lives only to gorge itself on as much laughter as it can, killing everyone it feeds off of.

That's where I come in. As the Acting Hunter for the Council of Shnoob, it's my job to hunt down the maiams before they can cause any trouble.

Ethan grunted. "That's not good."