5,4,3,2,1

I’m resisting the urge to pun right now. Have a bloody good New Year, or something to that effect.

Anyhow, in honor of the New Year, I’ve decided to post the entire scene of Walter & Co. ringing in the year 2000 in

Here it is:

Iris stood at the center with two only two other Vampires. A circle of twelve stood around the trio. A circle of twenty-three stood around them. And so on, and so on. I stood on the outermost circle along with The Fool, and two hundred and five other Vampires; those of us who were turned in the nineteen hundreds.

We waited. At eleven seconds to midnight, Iris and her two companions dropped fang and began a long, low roar that sounded to me like a soft rumble. A second later, they were joined by the next circle out; those who were turned in the ten hundreds. The second after that, the Vampires of the eleven hundreds joined in. The rumble grew stronger with each second, but stayed low, as each concentric circle joined in. Then, just as the countdown reached me, the city’s fireworks burst to life in the distant skyline. On that cue, all of us threw back our heads in a full-throated, unfettered roar. My insides shook as though I were standing in the center of an orchestra pit as every instrument struck it’s loudest note.

This was the sound of a thousand years ending.

There you have it. My version of a Vampire New Year’s celebration.

And now for our traditional link-to-whole-book (we like to think of ‘obnoxious’ as part of our brand). Pop Culture Sucks, Manifesto of a Vampire. Buy, read, love. Do your par to support Team Pop Culture! . . . Was that obnoxious enough, or do I need to ramp it up a notch?