Under New Management
He was perfectly solid, and Jasper felt nothing from him at all.
“Excuse me,” the man said. He had a soft voice, educated, with something of the old West in its vowels. “I’m sorry to trouble you, sir.”
“No trouble,” Jasper heard himself say.
The man studied his face a moment longer. Then he asked, quite courteously, as if he were asking the time, “Did you shoot me?”
“You’re very cold, sir,” he said. “Colder than I am.”
Jasper said nothing.
“I wonder,” the young man said thoughtfully, “which of us is the ghost.”
I chose this one because it sets up the premise in a few lines: vampires meet a ghost who isn’t impressed, and the book’s running question comes in early. The ellipsis marks where I cut Jasper’s answer, so readers have to come to the story for it.










