something about setting
us up. She said you were lusting after my hot body and couldn’t wait to take a
stab at it. I assumed she meant with your, um…” She glanced around and winked.
“Right, this is a family place. So, did you come to see the sights?”
She sort
of expected more of a story than that. Something about coming to shop, perhaps,
but he just nodded.
“I heard
some stuff on the web, that this place is, you know, a Vampire front operation.
Like an embassy from Node Rulez? Not that that’s all real, but if Vampires can
exist… Why not everything else? I was going to go around and see if I could see
anything strange at the other places, if this one turned out to be real. Which…
I guess it is. Vampires… Even if they really exist, I wouldn’t have thought
that I’ve ever meet one, in real life. What are the odds of that happening
anyway?”
Eve
shrugged.
“Yeah,
it’s pretty intense, isn’t it? But, just so you aren’t shocked later, you know
like… Ten percent of the Vampires in the local area. From your club thing?
Well, if you count me and Barb, too. Luckily for you we’re all incredibly cool. Drinking our bottled cow blood, and playing nice with almost everyone.”
She hefted her cup and took a sip of it. The flavor wasn’t bad, and all the
links were still active. Ten in this batch, but the bottle was unique, not
sharing cows with any of the others. Kind of a premium blend. The Human blood
mixed between different donors, so that each one of them could have links to as
many as four Vamps at once.
This was
better, but harder to manage.
Ben
looked at her like she was insane and then took a bite of the dessert. When his
mouth was empty he shook his head a little.
“I… No.
Who? You, and Barb, who wrote the guidebooks? I guess I can see that. Can you…
Do you have teeth, or are you a New Vampire? Or do they not really call them
that?”
“The
books are close that way. For now… Hold off on mentioning anything else? If all
us Vampires are killed we don’t need to take down everyone else. Anyway, um…”
She popped her fangs and smiled big, her finger almost in her mouth. “Shee?
Fangsh?”
Then she
put them away and giggled.
The man
actually just nodded, his face going considering, instead of scared. Then, even
with fangs out, she was kind of good looking. Possibly stuck on herself,
too, but guys were going to notice her in the main. Ben was, and not just
because of her nifty white teeth.
“I can
see that then, I suppose. I know others too? I… Not Marcus. I kind of kicked
his ass last week, and that wouldn’t have worked if he wasn’t Human.” She
looked around and then nodded, since it was kind of true. It really wouldn’t
have worked on most people, actually, since it hadn’t been much of a fight,
mainly Ben kind of flailing at the other nerd, but if he had been undead, even
a relatively weak new Vamp, then it wouldn’t have worked at all.
Eve
nodded.
“Right.
Not him. I’m not giving any names though as for the others. That’s up to them, if they want to do it. Just to set your mind at ease though, they haven’t been
harvesting from the game for a long time. Well, not all of them. I think a few
are sneaking a bite now and then, even if it’s against the Council rules,
strictly speaking. So… For right now? I think you should go and see about
getting a job at Hartley and Co. Where are you working now?” She assumed he had
a job, since he was decently well collected.
He
seemed embarrassed though.
“Um,
Burgerville. I’m a shift manager. I know that it isn’t some huge thing, but
it’s been hard to get anything for a while. I wouldn’t even have that if Maggie
wasn’t a manager there. I also go to school, part time. Community College, you
know?”
She did
know, and nodded at him, actually impressed. She’d never even seriously
considered doing that. If she hadn’t had her career track as a Vampire laid out
for her, she probably would have gone into the
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