Free Spirit Sanguine by Lou Harper

areas in both those fields, but I’ll leave it up to you to judge.”
    Augustine stood up, and, taking his cue, so did Gabe. As he shook Augustine’s offered hand, he knew he’d been dismissed.
    “Ellie will sort you out with the practical details, W2 forms and all that nonsense. It’s been a pleasure meeting you, Mr. Vadas,” Augustine said.
     
     
    They drove to Gabe’s hotel, since he wanted to change into something less formal, despite Harvey’s assurances as to how sexy he looked. In the car, Gabe related the details of his meeting. Harvey listened and made only small humming sounds in response.
    “I wish I knew how he knew about me at all and what happened with Dill and that vampire. Do you think Stan or Ray told him?”
    Harvey looked uncertain. “Well, the guys have a lot of connections, most I don’t know much about, but I don’t see why they’d go to Victor Augustine. Weird.”
    They chewed on that notion in silence on the rest of the way to the hotel.
    Once there, Harvey looked around the room. “ Très chic ,” he said in a mocking tone.
    “It’s cheap, and there are no bedbugs.” Gabe didn’t much care where he slept.
    “You could move in with me. You know, till you find an apartment,” Harvey said in an off-handed way, not even looking up.
    Gabe stared dumbstruck as Harvey dropped his ass on the bed, testing the bounciness of the mattress. “Do you think it’s a good idea?”
    Harvey finally looked at him. “Why not?”
    “I dunno, because we barely know each other?”
    “I don’t know if that’s true. You almost killed me; then you saved my life. That’s more than most couples get to in a lifetime.”
    “That’s because most couples have normal lives.”
    “Exactly. We’re not normal, don’t have to live by their boring ‘normal’ rules. Anyway, you can move out if it doesn’t work. It’s not like you’ll have to hire a moving van for all your stuff. Meanwhile, you’d save some money.”
    “You make it sound so cut and dry.”
    Harvey tilted his head sideways and gave Gabe a scrutinizing gaze. “Tell me how you became a vampire hunter.”
    Gabe knew he was ready to tell that story. He took the sole chair, spun it around and sat down facing Harvey, but it took him a few moments to collect his thoughts. Harvey waited, motionless.
    Eventually, Gabe began to talk. “My parents used to have a little grocery store over in Rogers Park. It was always assumed I would eventually take over the store. That was okay with me—I’d been helping out since I could remember. Everything was going fine, they could go on vacation for the first time of their lives and leave me to mind the business. Then one night driving home, they had an accident on the expressway and were both killed.”
    Gabe didn’t want to dwell on the ugly details and was thankful for Harvey remaining silent. He rushed on. “I got kinda depressed after that, and everything else went to shit too. The store had back taxes due, loan payments that my father had neglected to mention. I ended up selling it. Then out of the blue I got a letter from Hungary, from a man claiming to be my uncle. Another thing my father had never mentioned.”
    “Weird.”
    “Tell me about it. But he sent a plane ticket, and I badly needed a change of scenery, so I thought ‘why the hell not?’ When I met him at the airport, he looked like a fifteen-years-older version of my father—though I later learned that the age difference was only three years.”
    “Hard living?”
    “For sure. And all the pálinka he drank like water—it’s a local fruit brandy. He was extremely hospitable, took me all over the city, and Budapest is a beautiful place. Then he took me out to the country, supposedly to show me the old family stomping grounds. That’s when he told me about the whole vampire-hunting business, how it was our family duty and all that. Naturally, I thought he was mad.”
    “Naturally.”
    “Then he proved it to me. That’s when