Chapter 6: Reading Minds
Helen walked through the door to the main office the second she heard Doctor Shoreditch walking back down the dusty hallway towards the elevator. “Did he seriously ask you to go talk to his class about what it’s like being a pureblood vampire?” she asked Maria as she closed the door behind her.
Maria had returned to her magazine, but glanced upwards at her co-worker. “Yep, that’s what he asked.” She said, false cheer ringing in her voice.
Helen shook her head, disgusted. “Can you believe that?” she said, taking a seat at the extra chair in front of Keith’s desk. “I mean, the nerve of him asking you to talk to a bunch of students about something perfectly natural...”
“There’s nothing natural about pureblood vampirism Helen.” Keith said dryly, sipping black coffee out of a chipped white mug. “It’s the rarest Nocturnal condition on Earth.”
“That’s completely beside the point!” Helen exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air in exasperation. “He’d be using her as some sort of lab rat; a science experiment even!”
“It’s not as big a deal as all that Helen.” Maria said, putting her magazine to one side. “My Uncle Ozzie uses his pureblood vampirism to make it big in the television and movie industry.”
“Really?” Helen’s eyes widened. “What does he do?”
“He’s a stunt double on supernatural Primetime TV shows.” Maria said. “He also works for the Discovery Channel. Makes a nice bit of money too.” She nodded, glaring at Keith, who was intentionally looking everywhere but at his partner the second the issue of money came up.
“Be that as it may,” Helen said rather imperiously. “He’s exploiting you for his own academic gains so he can tell his superiors at the university that he managed to track down and convince a pure-blooder to talk to a bunch of slack-jawed students, something that will no doubt get him a healthy shot at tenure!” she threw her hands up in the air, seemingly to emphasize the injustice of it all.
“He wouldn’t be exploiting me Helen.” Maria said, rolling her eyes. “I’d be getting a solid paycheck out of the experience.”
“Really?” Helen’s expression rapidly switched from one of self-righteous indignation to one of calm happiness. “Well, that’s okay then!”
Keith snorted, but said nothing. Maria laughed too. “So the fact that he’s paying me makes it more ethical?” she asked her co-worker.
“Absolutely!” the young secretary nodded her curly blonde head emphatically. “I mean, if he’s just getting you to come in pro bono, then you’re some sort of charity case or monstrous magical creature, but if he’s paying you good money then you’re a guest lecturer; you know, someone worthy of respect!”
Maria shrugged. “I’m still not sure if I’m going to do it Helen.”
Helen’s smile drooped a little. “Why not? A paycheck’s a paycheck, and I’m sure some of the students in that class would die to hear the stories if a true vampire!”
Maria rolled her eyes. “They’d have to talk to one of my parents.” She said. “I haven’t lived long enough to remember the parts they’d want to hear about.”
“You mean like the Blood War?” Helen asked.
Maria gave her a scathing look. “No, I’m talking about Easter Sunday. What do you think I’m talking about?”
Helen looked slightly hurt. “I dunno, I’m sure there are other major events in Vampiric history they might ask you about.”
Maria rolled her eyes yet again. “I doubt it. Most of the students are going to be up-and-coming mages who were still in diapers when the Freiburg Act got the green light, meaning most of them will be human, meaning the most significant event in my family’s history to their knowledge is the Blood War.”
“Well,” Keith chimed in tentatively. “It was the only war in the last two millennia between Vampires and Humans. So naturally they would have learned about it.”
“Don’t get me wrong,” Maria sat up a little straighter in her chair. “The Blood War is a really important part of history. Of course it is. But when it comes to history from my perspective, I learned about things a little more serious than a simple feud between us and the Sun people.”
This time it was Keith’s turn to roll his eyes. “Don’t start that historical tirade again Maria.” He said warningly. “We’ll never make it to lunch if you get going.”
Maria glared at him. “Fine,” She said. “I’m just saying that the vast majority of Dawners know next to nothing about Vampiric History.”
“So you constantly remind me.” Keith sighed, shuffling his papers into a neat pile. “Now, who’s up for lunch?”
“Not me,” Helen stood up and headed for the door. “I have class at two and I need to meet with my No-Po group about the Reinhardt Campaign.”
“’No-Po’?” Keith asked.
“Nocturnal Politics.” Helen said. “Senator Reinhardt is coming to Cade’s Bay next month and we’re trying to get him to come speak at Bay U.” she opened the door and crossed the threshold, waving back at the two of them as she left. “See you tomorrow!” she said as the door clicked shut.
Keith firmly shut his mouth and was silent for a moment, but after about ten seconds Maria scowled and threw a pencil at him from her side of the room. He jumped and threw his hands up in the air, caught off guard. The pencil had sunk three inches into the white plaster wall behind his head and was stuck there firmly.
“What the fuck was that for?” he asked, confused and mildly terrified, turning back to examine the damage the pencil had done to his office. “That’s gonna leave a permanent mark!”
“That was for broadcasting your ignorant moron thoughts loud enough for them to hear you in Greenland.” She said, glaring at him, but not angrily. “Let Helen campaign for Reinhardt if she wants to!”
“Her obsession with the election is just getting obnoxious.” He said defensively. “I don’t want any of this politics talk in my office! It gets in the way of business.”
“No, you just want it out of here because then you can think about bending Helen over your desk and making sweet, sweet love to her in peace without also picturing her holding a ‘Reinhardt ‘08’ Banner while you’re poking her.” Maria said, smirking.
Keith glared at his partner from his desk in silence. Maria laughed and stood up, picking up her pack of cigarettes and her wallet. “Don’t be such a stick-in-the-mud Keithie.” She said. “I’m allowed to mock your obsession with your pretty little secretary if you’re allowed to give me shit about drinking pig’s blood.”
Keith shrugged. “Doesn’t mean you’re not a bitch.” He said, also standing up and heading for the door.
“It also doesn’t mean you’re not a creep.” Maria said, going to the coat rack by Helen’s desk in the lobby and grabbing her jacket.
Keith grumbled, but said nothing out loud. There was silence for a brief moment as the pair grabbed their coats and weapons. Maria picked up her axe and swung it over her shoulders, securing it tightly on her back. Keith slid his gun into the holster on his belt and quickly checked a small pouch next to it, a pouch that held a half-a-dozen shining silver-colored bullets.
As the pair left the office and locked the door securely behind them Keith took a sticky note and stuck it on the door; it bore the legend ‘gone to lunch, back at 1.30 AM’ in near unintelligible scrawl. As they made it to the end of the hallway Maria laughed and gave Keith a bemused look.
“What?” he asked.
“No, it doesn’t matter that she’s twenty-one.” She said. “You’re still a dirty old man.”
“Fuck off.” Keith grumbled. “I’m only twenty-seven.”
“It’s still creepy.” She said as she prodded the dusty button to call the elevator with a pointed fingernail. “You need to get out more Keith; start dating in your own age bracket.”
Keith snorted. “You’re one to talk.” He said as the elevator ‘dinged’ and the doors slowly slid open. “Your age bracket is anyone under the age of five-hundred.”
The two entered the elevator, and it was Maria’s turn to glare at her partner and say ‘fuck you.’
*
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