The bartender motioned with his jaw, and the customer with the thick neck apparently wasn't a customer at all. The man turned slowly and looked at me. "Waddya want?"
"Are you Rick?"
"Sure."
"I'm looking for a job."
Rick looked me over and somehow held back his excitement. "We ain't hiring, sorry, toots."
Toots? Feeling oddly rejected, I took a gamble. "Danny told me to talk to you about a job."
"Danny, huh?"
"Yeah."
Rick took in a lot of air, which somehow made his thick neck swell out even more. He studied me some more, lingering on my chest. I took in some air and puffed it out a little. Finally, he said, "Come back tonight at eleven when Danny gets here. Then we can all talk to him. But the last I heard, we ain't hiring."
I took another shot in the dark. "But Danny said he was the owner and what he says goes."
"Look, whatever. Come back tonight and we can all have a pow wow." His gaze lingered on me some more. "Let's see your tits and see what we're working with."
I sucked in some air despite myself. I've been undercover before, but not like this. "You can see them tonight, with Danny."
He shrugged and said, "Whatever," and turned back to the bartender, and as I left, I realized that any feelings I had had for Danny, any lingering connection to the man that I had felt, had completely dried up and disappeared in that moment.
Chapter Fifty
I was sitting at a Denny's in the city of Corona, drinking a glass of iced water. There was a hot cup of black coffee sitting in front of me, too, but I didn't touch the black coffee. The coffee was there for show, and just to be ordering something.
I idly wondered how many vampires hung out at Denny's. Maybe none. Maybe most vampires were out running through graveyards or having blood orgies, or whatever the hell else real vampires do.
The waitress came by and glanced at my full cup of coffee and asked if I needed anything else. I smiled and said no. She smiled and dropped off the check and left. I smiled just for the hell of it.
I had a notebook in front of me, open to a blank page. I was loosely holding a pen near the top of the blank page. As I sat there, I remembered the grounding steps from last time, and performed them now. In my mind's eye, I saw myself securely tethered to the earth with glowing silver cords. Then I took in some air and held it for a few minutes and then let it out slowly.
A now familiar tingling appeared in my arm. The pen jerked in my hands. It jerked again, and now the tip was moving, writing. Three words appeared.
Good evening, Samantha.
I stared at them, knowing I should probably be freaked out, but I wasn't. Whatever the hell was going on, I didn't know, but I was game to go along for the ride.
I spoke by subvocalizing the words, that is, speaking them with barely a whisper, just loud enough for me to hear, and hopefully loud enough for my new friend to hear. But, of course, not so loud that I would get thrown out of Denny's.
"Good evening, Sephora," I said. "How are you?"
I'm well. And I can hear you just fine.
I smiled. "I'm sorry I haven't gotten back to you earlier."
There is no reason to feel sorry, Samantha. Remember, I'm always here.
"Yes, you said that. And where is here?"
Where do you think it is?
"Heaven?"
Close. Let's call it the 'spirit world'.
"And what's that like, the spirit world?"
Oh, you know it well.
"I do?"
Indeed, a very significant part of you still resides in the spirit world.
"You totally lost me."
You are much more than your physical body, Samantha. Do you understand the concept of a soul?
"Yes. I just don't know if I believe in the concept of a soul."
I understand. You live in this physical world of time and space. There isn't, admittedly, a lot of evidence of a soul. Then again, there isn't a lot of evidence for vampires, either. But both exist.
I nodded and sipped my ice water. The coffee had quit letting off steam. Quickly, when no one was looking, I poured a little out onto the table and then mopped it up with my napkin. Now the coffee at least appeared to have been sipped. I wrapped another napkin around the sopping wet napkin. The things I do to appear normal. Sigh.
"So some things are taken on faith, is that what you're saying?"
Something like that, Samantha.
"You can call me Sam."
I'll do that...Sam.
"So what did you mean that a significant part of me still resides in the spirit world?"
The easiest way to describe this, Sam, is to say that not all of your soul is focused in your current physical body. Some of your soul - a large portion of your soul, in fact - still resides in the spirit world.
"And what's it doing in the spirit world?"
Watching you, closely.
"This is a lot to take," I said. "And weird."
I understand. So take things slowly. There's time. There's no rush.
"And who are you, exactly?"
Just a friend, Sam.
"A good friend?"
The best.
"Okay, that makes me feel better," I said, and as I said those words quietly, I felt a slight shiver course along the entire length of my body. Oddly, it was a comforting sensation. There was a good chance I might have just been hugged.
I'm glad you feel better, Sam.
"I want to ask you more about me, about what I have become, but maybe that can wait until another night."
I'm always here, Sam.
And just like that, the electrified sensation left my body. I closed the notebook, put the pen back in my purse (along with the sopping napkin, which I had wrapped another napkin around), and paid my bill and left.
Chapter Fifty-one
The more I thought about delivering Orange County's most notorious crime boss into the hands of the mild mannered Stuart Young, the more I realized I had given my perfectly bald client a death sentence.
And so I spent a lot of that night thinking about what I could do about this dilemma. I thought long and hard, and somewhere near the break of dawn, I came up with an idea.
* * *
I spent all the next evening researching the plane crash; in particular, the victims on board. Because this was a military crash and because most of the victims were key witnesses to an important trial, getting the names wasn't easy. I used every available contact I had in the federal government until finally a list was provided to me.
And once I had the list I went to work.
* * *
Two days later, on the night of the full moon, with Kingsley howling away deep inside his safe room - I hoped - I alighted on Jerry Blum's wonderfully ornate alabaster balcony.