Free A Little Undead by Laira Evans Page B

of his head?' Stepping over to the
side of his desk revealed the secret. 'Oh, he's in charge of the
cameras. Not a wizard then, though these days maybe I can't be too
sure.'
    “ Sorry, some issues came
up with the landlord and I ran late.” I kept my lips as tightly
together as possible as I spoke, wary of showing my teeth. My
fingers tapped at his desk nervously as he continued to stare at the
computer screen. Eyes widening at my mistake I quickly pulled them
back into my pockets, thankful he hadn't seen their black, pointed
tips. 'I haven't lied this much since I got caught stealing
apples.' Lying to a cop, even if I was one myself, was doing
nothing good for my already rattled nerves.
    Tapping his pen twice he
presented me with a small stack of papers. “Let's get this over
with so I can get out of here.” 'Alright, not the warmest
greeting but he does look like death warmed over.' “I've
hardly made it home since this damned case started. Twelve murders
and it's only been a week. You'd think we lived in Old Chicago or
something.” 'Well that explains his appearance – wait,
twelve! My home town only had one confirmed murder in the past decade
and they've had twelve in a week?' Plenty
of deaths, of course, but thanks to the Animator virus murders were
harder than ever to prove.
    “ Are all twelve of them
related to this Chains person?” Twelve in a week seemed a bit
high, whether it was a serial killer or a vampire – though
maybe not if it were both combined. My bottom lip curled inwards as I
mused on the situation. Out of habit I started to bite at it before
my fangs made themselves known. 'Owe!' My lips squeezed
close just in time as Fred turned towards me.
    He slapped a pen down on top of
the stack. “Focus on the signing.”
    “ Uh, right. Will do.”
A few calls came in while I filled out the forms, but nothing too
serious. Something which, now that I was about to start working cases
rather than reading about them, I should wish for. For the forms, on
the other hand, I sincerely dreamed of something a little spicier. My
final task before officially becoming a servant of the Republic was
proving to be at least ninety percent redundant. One page echoed
another which itself asked for information I'd already given months
ago to presumably the same department. 'Maybe I should have become
a secret agent. I bet they don't have to fill out paperwork. They
probably even get to shoot the fax machine if it gets too many paper
jams.'
    Three
quarters of the way through the stack I remembered I was overdue for
my check in with Mom. She was a little excitable and the last thing
I needed was for her to call the captain to check up on me. “I'll
be right back,” I said in a rush as Fred shot me a hateful
glare. 'I really need a cell phone. Then at least I could have a
semi-legitimate excuse for skipping out on the paperwork,' I
mused. It was a shame I wasn't still dating Alex. He actually owned
his own car so a cell phone was probably chump change. It would've
been a nice gift for our one week dating anniversary.
    A telephone booth was right on
the corner. It seemed bigger than the one's I'd seen in movies, but
given that I was four inches shy of five feet that tended to be true
of a lot of things. Stepping inside the box I slid the latch shut,
marveling at the weight of it. The phone booth wasn't a leftover
from the twentieth century, but a newly-built public safety device.
The walls were double-reinforced glass and held in a steel frame as
thick as my wrist. They might not last long against a concerted
attack by a mob of undead, but with a little luck they'd stay up
until help arrived. It made me feel a little bit better about
standing out here so late in the day, but I kept a hand on the glass
to remind myself the transparent material was still there. Sunset
wasn't until after seven these days but the shadows had already grown
long enough to hint at things unseen.
    What was I thinking? I was a
police officer now, and