Free Vamp-Hire by Gerald Dean Rice Page A

about that before he'd been released. People had strange
beliefs when it came to vampires and they had seemingly carried
over to the infected. Like believing their blood could be used as
some sort of drug to get high or that you could pulverize their
bones into a powder that would be a cure-all for any number of
diseases or that you could shoot them in the head and they wouldn’t
die.
    Then his mind raced over the events when he’d
made it to where Lucky was staying. Had he actually been shot with
an arrow? He touched his thigh where he remembered a wound. Nothing
there. He wasn’t even limping anymore. Then sleeping for four
days.
    And had he been floating?
    He’d have to ask Lucky that the next time he
saw him. With that thought, he remembered he was supposed to meet
up with him for lunch. Working on the house all day, getting
attacked by Emilio, and then getting fed dinner by Dolph had kind
of made him forget. If Lucky weren’t at the same house anymore,
Nick had no idea how to find him. He certainly wasn’t going back to
Earl’s house.
    If Dolph gave him a ride, where would he go?
He probably had enough for a motel room. Dolph seemed as
by-the-book as they came. Would he turn Nick in if he told him he
didn’t have an actual residence?
    He flushed and washed his hands. When he got
back downstairs, something was different. Randy was still eating
and it looked like he was on his second bowl.
    “Need to talk to you,” Dolph said,
matter-of-factly. “Outside.” The man looked agitated. He looked at
Phoebe, who wouldn’t meet his eyes.
    “Okay.” Nick followed him out the front door
where they sat in the same place he and Emilio had sat for
lunch.
    “The crew will be here tomorrow to finish
up.” Dolph was looking somewhere skyward. “Probably best for you
not to be here.”
    “What do you mean? Emilio can’t still
be—”
    “He’s the foreman’s brother. That particular
señor comes as part of the package.”
    “I didn’t really even do anything.” Nick
didn’t point out that Dolph had done all the knocking
unconscious.
    “They don’t see it that way. These guys have
been working tight with each other going on a few months now.
You’re the only change, and then Snoop goes down and Emilio gets
his face broken.”
    Okay, now he had to say it. “But you did
that.”
    “Yes, I did. To protect you.” Nick opened his
mouth to protest. “Don’t look for it to make sense. Some things
just… suck.”
    “So what do I do?” Nick had enjoyed the work
he had done today. There was something about working with his hands
that was rewarding. If he had stayed on it would have been a means
of supporting himself too. Also, he probably couldn’t keep up the
ruse about not living here for too much longer.
    “Don’t worry, you’ll get your pay for today.
Even though you weren’t on the books, I’ll speak to Hector and make
it right.” After a pause, Dolph said, “Would you be interested in
helping me with something?”
    “Like what?”
    “Something from my former life. I do a little
consulting for the military on occasion.”
    That intrigued Nick. He wanted to know why
this man was familiar to him. “Sure.”
    Something changed in Dolph’s body language.
He shifted his shoulders, looking uncomfortable. “That brings me to
another thing. Bunny is a bit uncomfortable with me driving at
night and I’m not comfortable with her driving you to wherever you
live. So she wanted me to ask you to stay the night. It’d be in the
basement, and there’s only the mattress that was already down
there. It’s not much, but it’s either that or the floor.”
    Ah, home again. Nick made a show of mulling
it over. He didn’t think Phoebe had a problem with her grandfather
driving Nick for his own sake, and he was grateful to be home for
the night all the same.
    “I guess I’ll take it.”
    The old man gave him a look like he’d rather
be punching something than be in this situation and nodded. They
watched the