Thank God.
Sure, I had plenty of work to do. These were, after all, my working hours. I knew that most freaks like me were out partying or hunting or running through graveyards, or whatever the hell it was that vampires did together. I had a car payment due next week, not to mention the taxes on the house were due in two weeks. I didn’t have time to run through graveyards. I had to make some money.
I looked at the stack of printouts next to my computer. One of my jobs was to run background checks for various companies. I had, for instance, a deal with the Hyundai dealership down the road. When they got new prospects, they provided me with their job applications, and I checked out their criminal histories.
A stack of names. With addresses, including social security numbers, phone numbers, and all their pertinent contact info. With a little digging, I could find out if, say, they lived alone. A Google Maps search would let me know if, say, they had neighbors nearby or far away, neighbors who might hear them scream, or not.
I drummed my long nails on the stack of prospects, most of whom were probably waiting anxiously to hear if they got the job or not. Not one suspected that an honest-to-God vampire was looking a little deeper into their private lives.
I wondered how they would feel about that.
Would they be nervous? Or scared?
I suspected both. I also suspected they didn’t believe in vampires. But they would believe, oh, yes, if I showed up on their doorsteps. Then they would be very, very nervous. No, frightened.
Terrified.
Yesss, good.
I knew she was speaking to me. The devil bitch that lived inside me. She had been gaining some ground in my mind. What that meant, exactly, I didn’t know.
But I felt it.
And, for tonight, I didn’t care.
Instead, I thought again of the new hires. The thought of anyone fearing me intrigued me. No, not quite intrigued me. Excited me.
I swallowed, licked my lips.
I felt my heartbeat pick up a little. It went from beating maybe five times a minute to twenty or thirty. Yeah, I’m a freak through and through.
No, Sssamantha. You are a hunter.
Yes, I thought. A hunter.
I liked that. I would be a damn good one, too. No, I’d never hunted a living person for the express purpose of killing them, just for killing’s sake. Other vampires did this. Not me. Indeed, other vampires explored their true natures.
Not me, though.
Not until now. I needed to do something about that. I needed to hunt the living, to feel their fear, to taste their blood, and to live again. To really, truly live.
I knew it was the demon bitch inside me, encouraging me, influencing me, possessing me...but I didn’t care.
Not true, I thought suddenly, shaking my head. I do care. I care very much.
Alarmed, I sat up. I had to care. I had to. Caring was the only thing that separated me from her. And the demon was a her, too. I sensed her repressed femininity. I sensed that she had been enamored with her own good looks, too. She had been beautiful once, I felt. Interestingly, I sensed she might have been a mother once, too, but I could be wrong. Either way, more and more of her was creeping through, bubbling up from the depths. Whether or not she controlled what came through to me, I didn’t know. Perhaps the information that came through was random. Perhaps not. Perhaps the information was carefully provided, controlled, designed to do exactly what it was doing to me right now: breaking me down.
No, I thought. No, dammit. No one is breaking me down.
The bitch inside me didn’t often express herself clearly by using complete sentences or stringing together a coherent thought. I suspected she couldn’t. I suspected our connection wasn’t complete, and so, only parts of her came through. Random, stray thoughts.
More often than not, she came through via feelings. At first, I had always known it was her. At first, her bloodlust thoughts were easily distinguishable from my own. Now, not so much.
Now, her thoughts felt natural, comfortable. Even worse, they felt like my own thoughts. This should have scared me. In the least, it should have worried me. But it didn’t, not anymore.
She was a powerful entity. I would benefit from her presence in my life. She would benefit, too. She would live again, and I would have untold strength.
“Now, dammit, get the fuck out of my head.”
I stood, pacing, fighting her presence, recalling how the entity within Hanner had possessed her completely. Would that happen to me? What would it feel like to have another control my body? To speak for me? To act for me? To think for me?
I paced in the small space behind my desk, careful of power cords. Why I had so many power cords, I didn’t know. I spotted a charger for my phone, my iPad, my Kindle and even one for a Nook. I didn’t even own a Nook.
I avoided it, along with myriad of other cords that seemed to multiply behind my desk, all of which served some damned purpose.
Except the cords weren’t what was really troubling. No, my mind was on possession. On, in fact, losing my mind. Of having it being stolen by another.
“No!” I said, pacing faster and faster. Now, my foot did get caught in the Nook cord. I kicked it, and it came out. Along with all the other wires in the wall.
Cursing—but thankful I had something to distract me—I went about plugging all the wires back in, praying I got them right. A moment later, when I had successfully turned on my computer again, there was Fang’s response, waiting for me in the AOL message chatroom.
Hi, Moon Dance.
Chapter Ten
We hadn’t spoken in many months, not since Fang had shown up one night, here in my office, when he revealed to me that he had killed many.
Fang had been, of course, compelled to kill by a very old vampire, a vampire who was now dead, thanks to Kingsley. With the old vampire’s death, the connection had been severed and Fang had come instantly to my rescue, and for that I would be forever thankful to him. That he had killed many while not compelled was cause for much concern.
Now, of course, I was having a hard time remembering why the killing of innocent people had bothered me so much. After all, wasn’t killing in a vampire’s nature? Yes, it was. To kill and to feed and to grow stronger and stronger...
Yesss. Good, Sam, good.
I shook my head and ran my fingers through my thick hair. It was her, of course.
“Not me,” I said, gasping a little. “Go back to hell.”
I took a few deep, steadying breaths and looked again at the words on the laptop screen before me, framed around the AOL chat window.
Hi, Moon Dance.
I raised my fingers to the keyboard, and began typing...
* * *