Free Mercy's Debt (Montgomery's Vampires Series Book One) by Sloan Archer Page B

weeks- you’ll start to sound just like one of them!” she said, fluttering her doll-like hands in the air. “I’ll try to explain the best way that I can… Okay, you know how in human society, we have old money and new money, and those with old money sometimes tend to look down on the nouveau riche with distain?”
    “Sure.” I was so familiar with the notion that I could have taught a class called Dewhurst Snobbery 101. The whole old and new wealth bias was something I’d never understood. Who the hell cares how long a person has had their fortune? As far as I was concerned, rich is rich. No business would ever turn away money simply because it wasn’t old enough.
    “ It’s the same in vampire society, except their version of affluence is age.”
    “I d on’t understand the correlation,” I said.
    “ Well, just like those with old money, old vampires typically behave in a more refined manner. They’ve been vampire for so long that it’s the only thing they know, so it’s no longer a novelty to them. New vampires, however, tend to revel in their recent transformations. They frequently flaunt their fangs, hiss, melodramatically sulk about how much they miss the sun, and are always whining about being hungry. They’re almost like parodies of themselves, of real vampires. Old vampires regard them as hormonal teenagers.”
    “ That is so odd,” I smiled. “I can’t wait to start chaperoning. Vampires sound so interesting!”
    “They are. We’re very lucky,” she said, studying me.
    “ Why do you keep looking at me like that? Do I have something on my face?” I asked, wiping at my cheek.
    “Was I? Sorry. No, i t’s just that something about you reminds me of Penelope, the last girl who worked here.”
    “The one who disappeared?” I asked cagily.
    “Yes. She was such a nice girl. I don’t know what it is, but you just sort of remind me of her. You look a lot like her, but it’s more about the way you speak. You sound just like Penelope. You could be sisters.”
    “Did you know her well?”
    “Very well. I miss her tons,” she said gloomily. “Her disappearance was especially tragic because she’d just fallen in love. He was a vampire named Lewis, and he loved her just as much as she loved him. They even talked about eloping.”
    “That’s so sad.”
    “It is. I just know that she’s dead. I don’t have any proof, but I can feel it. She’d never skip town on her friends and Lewis like that. Penelope was no scaredy-cat; she’d never run away from any problem, no matter how great.”
    “Did she have problems? I hope that I’m not prying,” I said quickly.
    “No, it’s okay. She didn’t have any problems per say, but she did mention that she felt like she was always being watched, like someone was stalking her. She kept getting phone calls in the middle of the night from a blocked number, always hang-ups. She mentioned that she’d come home from chaperoning a few times and found her apartment rearranged. It was just little things- paperwork moved around, lights left on, closet doors sitting open- the kind of stuff that makes a person believe that they’re just imagining things.”
    “Why didn’t she go to the police?”
    “I once asked her the same thing. She said that she couldn’t go to the authorities because she didn’t have any real proof, and that she didn’t want to come off like a crazy fool. She was a very proud person, but she did have a point. She couldn’t exactly file a police report for feeling creeped out, could she?”
    “Why didn’t she just move in with Lewis?”
    “Penelope was surprisingly old-fashioned. She said she wouldn’t even consider moving in with her boyfriend unless she was engaged.” Erika shrugged unhappily. “It’s all in the past. What can you do, right?”
    I didn’t know what to say, so I opted for, “ I thought we weren’t supposed to date vampires.”
    “What? Because of Marlena? ” she scoffed.
    “Yes. She made her