A sample of something I've been working on.
Her face caught his eye, pale ivory against the black December night, a still visage amidst the eddies of humanity that laughed and sang and fought and fornicated in the shadows around the Ten Bells public house.
She had paused to lean against the lamp-post, eyes closed, face slack with drink and fatigue—a moment of repose that was unlikely to last long, since the patrolman would circle around in another four minutes, and tell her to move along.
It was a younger face than he normally liked, but two things caught his attention: the stupid, intoxicated quality of her expression, and the exotic slant of her bone structure, especially around the eyes. It reminded him of old yearnings, early days when he had been a half-formed creature, surrounded by half-formed creatures, struggling through metamorphosis….
The predator in him was familiar with risk, and opportunity. He left the shadows, leisurely, swinging his cane like the gentleman he affected to be, strolled across the street and took the girl by the arm, shaking her gently alert.
She opened her eyes—less Oriental than he had supposed from the distance, but no matter—and smiled a drunken, welcoming smile. “Hallo cheri,” she said, in slurred Parisian gutter French. “’Oould you want to come ‘ome wit’ me, then?”