So You Used to Be Human - Book 3 (Original Version)

Chapter 13: Fools and Liars

-34-

Sammy watched me in shock as I walked through the store directly towards her, a man on a mission, not taking shit from anyone.

This was of course, my adopted armour that I hope would get me as far as I needed to without getting my ass kicked too much.  Project calm, control and power to everyone around and walk like you have a mission to finish dammit, and anybody getting in your way is going to have mounds and mounds of paperwork to deal with, so help you god.  It was a walk that was designed to get things done with no one asking questions and had gotten me into the occasional hard-to-get-into-popular-nightclub, but it had never had to withstand the sheer force of nature that was Sammy.

"What in the name of actual fuck are you doing here Bob? Harry is going to fucking murder you."

"He's going to have to catch me first," I said, then a thought occurred tome. "He's not here is he?"

"Nope, but Lurch is around here somewhere.  Good luck escaping him.  Seriously, dude, what the fuck? You're supposed to be in motherfucking Texas."

I started to look around for the vampire Sammy had referred to as Lurch.  He was a huge slab of muscle that Harry has assigned to protect Sammy since Beatrice had decided that she was due for a little murder session.  Sammy wasn't convinced that Lurch was going to be any use since Beatrice had a habit of killing every and anything in her way, but Harry had sent Lurch to stay and if there was one thing he was good at, it was following orders.

I didn't see the big guy lurking anywhere in the aisles of the store among the porn and sex toys and for a moment I wondered what a guy like him got up to on his days off.  It had to be quite the mindset to wake up and decide, "yeah today's a good day to be a bad guy" and then go out and make sure that anyone you ran into didn't have a good time at all.  Surely he took some kind of pleasure from it, right?

I focused on Sammy as she hustled from behind the counter to intercept me.

"Look, something came up, something kinda big and kinda sorta fucked up--"

"You turned Jaime into a vampire," Sammy said and I realized in that moment that she had stopped in her tracks and was staring past me. Shock doesn't begin to describe the multitude of emotions battling for control of Sammy's face.  If this had been a movie, this would be the moment the camera does a fast tracking dolly shot as I turn to look behind me, the camera going over my shoulder and bam! stopping inches away from Sammy's shocked face.  The same face that was slowly registering that anger, no, strike that: rage, pure unadulterated rage was the acceptable emotion to be expressing to that moment.

Jaime had entered the store behind me and she was wearing the black hoodie and large sunglasses Beatrice had picked for her a a couple of days ago a part of her "care package", which had also included the fresh underwear and black t-shirt and jeans.  Jaime hadn't even taken off the sunglasses and to all intents and purposes she should have been 100% incognito, but not so Sammy.  Apparently Sammy had x-ray vision or some kind of vampire radar or some shit, because she saw right through that disguise in an instant and knew exactly what I had done.  Looking at Jaime, I couldn't even recognize her in the hoodie, so I have no idea how Sammy even knew it was Jaime, and neither did Jaime.

Jaime looked as shocked as I did at Sammy's outburst and looked up away from the display of handcuffs she supposedly found so interesting.  Caught, she gave up the game without a fight and took off her sunglasses, her pale blue vampire eyes even more startling in the reality of the store I used to work in.

"I'd duck if I were you," Jaime rolled her eyes and sighed deeply.

"You turned Jaime into a VAMPIRE?" Sammy was yelling as I turned around and oh, would you look at that: it turned out that Jaime had been right.  Sammy was in mid-swing, her hand a balled fist that would probably do more damage to her than to me if it ever connected, and for a second I considered actually letting her hit me, but by that point my vampire senses were kicking in again and I had no choice.  I easily dodged Sammy's blow and in one swift move, stepped around behind her and grabbed her shoulder so she wouldn't topple too far off balance.