Free An Erie Operetta by V.L. Locey

depressing, but a striper who was trying to keep his stripes a secret couldn’t have asked for a better locale. After getting my glasses dried on some tissues, I fired up my work computer. There it sat. That damned website with all the damned names. I wiped my the last clinging droplets of snow from my cheeks with the tissues, tossed the tiny wad of Kleenex into my waste bin, and started adding more names to the database.
    Two hours crept past. My cell vibrating in my front pocket startled me slightly. I left the website page to check the incoming text.
    “Damn it,” I groaned when I saw the short message from Mikel.
    Tracking rogues. Headed 2 Canada. Don’t know when home. Love U. Miss U. M
    So much for the opera. I shoved the cell back into my pocket and continued working on building this far-too-sad webpage.
    Eight
    “Master Reed, there are a couple... things that require your immediate attention.”
    I stepped into the foyer and closed the front door behind me. Facing Rugby, I started unwrapping my scarf from around my neck.
    “It’s been an incredibly long, bad day, Rugby,” I said as I handed him my gold and black scarf. “Can these things wait until tomorrow? Perhaps Mikel will be back from the wilds of the north and he can handle whatever--”
    “There’s our own nearsighted version of Pepe LePew,” Vincente said as he came down the stairs with his thrall a neat step behind him. Rugby’s lips flattened. “I’m well aware of what you’re thinking, Elfling, so you may as well continue whispering about your discontent to the tiny man with the large odor problem.”
    “Vincente, you’re being rude,” Akio snapped. The vampire stalled momentarily. His eyes darted to me and then grew distant. “He’s always crabby before he eats.”
    With that pronouncement, poor Rugby turned a fine shade of puce then exited the foyer. I watched him go with some concern, then I turned on the pair in designer suits stepping off the last stair.
    “I hope you’re not going to join me for your meal?”
    “As if I would sully my snack by taking his vein while inhaling the smell of garlic and clam. Go have your dinner. When we’re done we’ll join you.” And thusly was I dismissed by Agent Elysian. In my own home. The nerve of the undead prick. I stalked into the dining room, my snowy shoes slapping wetly on the hardwood floors, then screamed in surprise, arms flying over my head, when the majordomo appeared out of a dark corner.
    “Rugby!” I squeaked, “You must stop doing that. Cough or something,” I panted before dropping down into a chair to work on slowing my heart rate.
    “My apologies, Master Reed.” He moved around the long table to stand at my side. I looked up at him.
    “Did you have something you wished to say?”
    “That... unholy creature and his slave were in the master’s library.”
    “And this is a problem how? Oh, thank you so much, Eru. This clam chowder will certainly hit the spot.” I took the bowl from the serving girl then dribbled a handful of hard, round crackers into the soup. The aroma of thyme and onions wafting up from the red broth made my mouth water. Eru scurried back into the kitchen. The fire in the hearth snapped. I took a small sip, closed my eyes, then opened them when a certain manservant remained obtrusively at my side.”What is it, Rugby?”
    The wrinkles at the corners of his eyes grew deeper when he scowled. “I think they may have been doing things in the library.”
    “More than likely reading,” I commented, spooning up a big chunk of clam. “Rugby, they’re grown men. They can do ‘things’ if they want to. Far be it for me to cast stones. Have you had any of this soup? I really think Mrs. Dunrite has outdone--”
    “Master Reed! They were doing... unnatural things, I fear.” I placed my spoon, and my fat clam, back into the bowl.
    “Rugby, you do realize that Mikel and I do things that the majority of our mystical brethren would term ‘unnatural’