“Wasn’t aware I had a deal.” Her chin set, and she was aware of scowling at the laptop. Her face on the screen was pale, poreless skin gleaming; go figure, now she looked okay on camera and all it took was bags of human blood bought on the black market.
Or stolen from a hospital, though her conscience pinched hard either way. Figuring out how to acquire what she craved was unsettlingly easy, pulling off the acts even more so. Her own propensity for monstrous behavior was deeply troubling. If she wanted to survive, though, there was very little choice.
For all the liberation in becoming a possibly immortal bloodsucker, her options were still distressingly narrow.
“Just listen, will you?” Barry sped up, looking to get the entire spiel out before she lost interest—or took offense. “He circled around to the offer again; he’ll pay just to meet you. Your record means that even if you’re not exactly what he’s after, he’d still like to talk?—”
“Barry.” Simone heard the bitchy little warning note to her own voice, and for once didn’t feel bad about it. “You really shouldn’t be bragging to this rich nutjob about your friend Jane and her vampirism infection.”
“We both know Jane’s not your real name.” Barry dead-eyed the camera, probably fancying his expression a variety of fearsome glare. He looked about as dangerous as a narcoleptic prairie dog. “And your, again,uniqueset of skills means you’ve cleared more bounties alone than most pro teams do without fifty percent casualties at best. But since you’re asking, I’ve keptseveral of your personal details out of it because I’m not a sleaze, for fucksake.”
“No, you’re a real prince.” Simone mulled over whether prairie dogs could indeed be considered dangerous—they were rodents, so the biting had to be taken into consideration. It was the kind of question the internet had been created to answer.
How the world had changed since her childhood. She might look younger, but inside she was creaky and dusty as an abandoned farmhouse.
“The guy’ll put down serious cash just for a meet,” Barry persisted. “That’s all, an hour of your time, anywhere in the continental US. He’s legit, and he’s looking for a cure.”
For a moment Simone couldn’t believe her new super-sharp, tinnitus-free ears had just relayed something so nonsensical. “What, he got bit too?”
“No, no, not like that. He’s a literalbillionaire, man.” His bloodshot eyes lit up—he’d probably been waiting for her call-in, poor guy, knowing she was on the trail of at least one active infestation somewhere west of the Mississippi. “Got a whole lab up in the Rockies near Aspen, hush-hush, and could be government involved.”
That sounds like a conspiracy theory. Or a really bad B movie, take your pick. Simone shook her head, hair sliding over her shoulders; getting out of her work ponytail was a wonderful event each evening. “If he’s got all this juice and government help, why isn’t there a cure yet?”
“Well, most va—ah, most bloodsuckers seem to be reallyintoit, you know? But for those, you know, like you…”
The Simone on her screen now had narrowed eyes, and she was glad her resting bitchface was holding up. In fact, it seemed to have gotten a lot better since infection, which was a blessing since she looked so much younger now. “What gave you the idea I wasn’t into being a bloodsucking monster, Barry?”
Not that she was, but so much of surviving in this line of work was putting up a fuck-you front. Showing any weakness was a no-no, even to so inoffensive a male specimen as this.
“Come on, Jane.” Barry was flat-out wheedling now. Plenty of his job was dealing with touchy male hunter egos, and it showed. “Just meet the guy, show him you’re the real deal. That’s all he’s asking.”
More than I’m willing to give for free. “And I suppose he’s paying after thirty days?”
“Nope.” A shit-eating grin stretched his lips now. And it was official, Barry Jessup looked like a cat with a tummy stuffed full of canary. “Up front, once you commit to time and place.”
“How much?” Another thing good girls weren’t supposed to do—drive a hard bargain. But being middle-aged on the inside was a goddamn blessing, Simone thought; it gave a woman that most valuable twofer, experienceandperspective. Almost a shame the magic only happened once men started finding you invisible or unfuckable.
He gave a number, and Simone laughed.
In fact, she damn near howled. A cascade of chuckles almost shook her out of the bench, the entire RV rocking a bit, candleflames shivering on their wicks. “Nice one,” she finally managed, wiping theatrically at her smooth, bone-dry cheeks. “Oh, Jesus. You really had me going for a second, Barry. Whew.”
“I’m not joking.” Now it was his turn to scowl—the canary had attempted an escape from digestion, maybe. “That’s after my commission, by the way.”
Oh, Lord. Simone’s smile stayed fixed, though she wasn’t feeling very humorous at the moment. “Yeah, and if you believe that?—”
“Avampireis gonna lecture me about believability?” The scowl was back; Barry’s forehead puckered like a piece of cloth run the wrong way through a cheap sewing machine. “I fuckingchecked this motherfucker out from tits to balls, Janie. He’sfor real, and he just wants to meet you. Maybe he gets off on talking to monsters, I dunno.”
A low blow, but she probably deserved it. And Barry hardly ever called herJanie; neither of them liked to be anything but businesslike.
It was just better that way.
“Maybe he does,” she agreed, before the silence could get awkward. “I’ll think about it, once the bounty for this most recent escapade hits my account. Clock’s ticking, my man.” And she hung up without further niceties or polite little fictions.
A dick move? Maybe. But also incredibly liberating. Closing the laptop afterward was anticlimactic. So was heading to the step for what she still thought of as a smoke break, despite shedding any and all nicotine habit when she left college—along with drive-in movie dates and reading a book per week.
She ought to get back into that last one. If vampires lived as long as folklore said, she’d have plenty of time to absorb all the literature Curt always sneered at, plus any romance novel or spy thriller which caught her fancy as well.
All she had to do was decide. Maybe even audiobooks, since plenty of her time was spent driving.