Free Origins (A Demonkin Novel) by Sean Hayden Page A

expected to get a hand cramp by the time I reached the middle of the pile, but didn't.
    I did get a nice surprise though. I found myself rewarded with a social security card at the midpoint. How they had arranged it so quickly surprised me. I stared at the little card and its shades of blue and felt a wave of sentimentality wash over me. I pulled the card from its tiny paperclip and set it aside. I looked up and saw the doctor had sat down on one of two chairs I hadn't noticed where there. He stared up at the acoustic ceiling tiles lost in thought. The good doctor piqued my interest. I thought about asking him if he needed to get back to work, but I appreciated his company. I'm sure if he had more pressing issues to attend to, he would leave.
    I returned my attention back to my task. I resumed filling out forms I had never heard of such as I-9's and other various forms with alpha numeric titles. I found two other interesting things as well, one of them being a State of Virginia Identification Card. I signed the acceptance form and set the card on top of my Social Security card. I remembered the fake ID in my pocket and glanced around for a pair of scissors. I saw a shining metal handled pair in the desk organizer on Ester's side of the desk. I reached over and grabbed them and pulled the card from my pocket. My hands became a blur as I snipped the card piece by piece into a small pile of plastic bits. I doubted the doctor even noticed what I held in my hand before I destroyed it.
    I swept the pile into the palm of my hand and looked around for a waste receptacle but didn't see one. I guess recruits weren't allowed to create trash on this side of the counter. I opened my front jeans pocket with my other hand and poured the remains in. I figured on the way to the dorm I could scatter them on the grass. I returned to my task yet once again and finished signing my life away to Uncle Sam.
    Just as I had finished, Ester walked back with a youngish man in blue sweatpants and a white FBI T-shirt. "Gorgeous," I thought. He stood about five ten or eleven and if I had to guess I would say he weighed about a hundred and ninety pounds. Muscular arms extended from the slightly tight cuffs of his shirt, with beautifully dark skin. I don't mean olive skinned or of African heritage, I meant tan. He looked like he had spent a fair amount of time at the beach. He confirmed my guess when I looked at his hair. Most of it gleamed in a natural chestnut color, but I could see how the outer most layers had been streaked from the sun. Most surfer dudes you see on television have a stereotypical "dumb and stoned" look on their faces. When he looked at me I could see the intelligence behind his eyes. I was staring at his eyes when I caught his smell.
    The blood the Doctor had fed me earlier probably saved Ester's companion from me jumping over the counter and chewing a large gaping blood filled hole in the side of his neck. He smelled delicious. I could smell several different spices, but couldn't name a single one of them. I had just eaten, yet I still had to curl my fingers into a fist to stop myself from making him dessert.
    "Are you all done, dearie?" Ester's voice snapped me out of my reverie.
    "Yes I am, ma'am. Here you go," I said as I handed her back the pile.
    While she flipped through the pages one by one to check if I missed anything, I focused my gaze back to the hunk of Manwich behind her. His focus lay on the pile of papers before Ester. I had no way to tell if he was a fellow recruit or an instructor. Personally I hoped for the former. If he held recruit status, I could daydream about him being my roommate. I doubted it, but a girl can dream if she wants right?
    "Thanks for staying with her, Doctor. We'll get her settled from here," Ester said. The doctor shifted his attention to her. He stood and nodded to me and gave me another brief smile.
    "Good luck, Ashlyn. I'll have someone contact you about the follow up to your exam. Have a good