Chapter 1

Christmas Eve sees our vampire Tobias Esque sleeping in a subway station only to be rudely awakened by the changing bell of Waldo, a dark skinned, charity collecting Santa. Recognizing each other Waldo smiles at the angry Esque who shouts he's going to kill him. Waldo lucks out and jumps onto a train making good his escape. Esque starts to reminiss about their first encounter.

While killing a wino Waldo had stumbled on the scene and nonchalantly said he had it coming and walked away and for the first time Esque failed to kill someone who saw him feeding.

His mind wanders to the last time he fed. It was the night before thanksgiving and he came across a beautiful blonde woman drinking herself into a state of oblivion looking for self-destructive revenge on the man who was keeping her as his mistress while spending thanksgiving with his family. She takes him back to her flat and instead of sleeping with her he slits her throat and drains her body in an ecstasy of feeding that, like a drug, sends him on a flight of fancy with the blood angel.

With the bars crowded at Christmas Esque stalks the clubs till he finds a suitable location and victim. A girl he singles out a likely target with practiced skill he waits for her to use the bathroom where he will seduce, attack and leave her and make good his escape. She takes so long to use the bathroom Esque has to go himself and on returning finds she has company and is therefore a bad choice.

He then tries a department store and waits in the bathroom but no one shows as they are in too much of a hurry to pay for their consumer items and leave.

Frustrated Esque attends mass at a cathedral and forms a new plan to slake his thirst.

Chapter 2

Esque arrives at Sally's home. Sally is a slightly plump goth girl he met in a club 9 months ago, who took him home, and bit her drinking her blood which made her orgasm over and over.

She opens the door and is overjoyed he remembered her party, much to his dismay, she introduces him has her boyfriend. He takes her aside and tries to get her to goto the bedroom with him so he can feed but she wants the party to end first. He laments he cannot kill her now as her friends have seen him and she even knows his first name.

He thinks back to his favorite Christmas gift as a boy. His mother bought him the Beatles White Album which caused an argument that lasted all day between his parents so he spent the day reading the lyrics and studying the artwork instead.

In the flats kitchen his line of thought is interrupted when Dark Ivory enters and asks if his or thinks he is a vampire. He says he is and she continues to ask him about his biting and non-love making with Sally. Sally enters and Esque takes her to the bedroom in a hurry where she demands he make love to her and not just bite her. Unfortunately Esque is heterosexual but impotent and sex has little meaning for him anymore.

He makes an excuse that he has to go out and will be back. Before he leaves he notices Sally has a gift for him under her tree. His first gift since he was bitten 26 years ago. He laments the fact he will never see her again as Sally watches him leave with a hopeful face.

Chapter 3

Esque finds hims self back in the underground now dejected and hoping for anything to come by that he can feed on with safety. As the station quiets down he recognizes a voice and sees Waldo leading a boy he found at a hospital down into the tunnels. Esque follows and just as Waldo is about to pounce on his prey Esque steps out with knife in hand. Waldo offers Esque the boy before dashing onto the tracks and is killed by a passing train. He briefly considers killing the kid but decides its Christmas and ends up taking the kid back to the hospital.

He skulks the corridors of the hospital looking for a victim when he happens on a plasma storage fridge. He bags up the packs and runs from the hospital and down to the track again where he sups on fresh bagged blood until the blood angel comes to him.