This shift was the least busy, and as a result, the owners only staffed the gas station with one person. Me. The manager wouldn’t be here until mid-morning. That meant I was flying solo and all customer complaints went through me.
Lucky me.
The woman’s face turned cruel as a self-satisfied smirk twisted her lips.“How fortunate for me.”
I stiffened, the smile slowly falling from my face. Some instinct had me switching to the othersight of my left eye.I’d gotten better at controlling it, seeing the magic overlaying the world whenIwanted, as opposed to when my eye felt like it.
Sure enough, the woman had a haze surrounding her, beautiful lights that twinkled and flared.
She definitely was not what she appeared. This was no housewife on a midnight binge or a mom desperate to get last minute supplies for a child’s party. She belonged to the same shadow world I did. A dangerous place, full of things that often posed as their more harmless counterparts.
I let my hand drop from view below the countertop and inched it toward the gun hidden by a“don’t look here” charm, even as I glanced up at the cameras pointed in our direction. Surely, she wouldn’t be so stupid as to try something in a place where normals could see and record the evidence.
There weren’t many rules in this shadow world, but one of the biggest was“don’t let the humans find out there were more things that went bump in the dark than they’d ever imagined.” It was the quickest way to earn your way onto a kill list.
Before I could do more, her hand flashed up as she threw something at me. My eye saw it as a dark blur that filled me with a sucking feeling of dread. I flinched instinctively, a shield of white flashing into existence between me and whatever it was. The dark blur struck it and boomeranged back to the woman, hitting her in the chest.
She staggered back with a grunt as the darkness slowly absorbed into her chest. She touched the spot where it had disappeared with an uneasy look on her face.
I don’t know which of us was more surprised over the turn of events. I blinked dumbly at her chest, grateful whatever she’d thrown hadn’t touched me.
Pain tightened the corners of her mouth and eyes as she glared at me over the chaos of the rebound. One of the cases of Diet Coke had exploded while the candy bars had melted into a pile of goo, escaping their wrappers to pool on the counter. The change dispenser was now on its side and the newspapers kept in a rack by the door were strewn everywhere.
“You need to go.” My voice was strong and rang with an authority I didn’t necessarily feel.“Now.”
She straightened, her back ramrod straight as she shot me a glare worthy of a grand lady from a period drama, one filled with haughty scorn and dislike.
She snatched her purse off the counter in an abrupt movement, tucking it under her arm. I watched her gather her stuff, my hand still on the gun, which was now aimed at her under the counter.
“Leave it,” I ordered when she tried to grab the donuts and the remaining intact cases of Diet Coke. My smile turned nasty.“Unless you’re planning to pay full price.”
Her expression grew livid.“You’ll get what’s coming to you, parasite.”
She lifted her gaze to the same camerasI’d glanced at earlier. Her smile turned sinister. She didn’t wait for my reply before turning and flouncing out of the gas station.
I released the breathI’d been holding and set the gun back into place. Things could have been worse. They could have been better too, but at least I was still alive.
I cast a resigned glance over the mess. I had quite a bit to clean up before dawn.
Not for the first time, I said a prayer of thanks for the charm Dahlia had given me to protect me against such unsavory encounters. I lifted the necklace with its thumb-length pendant from under my shirt.
To my left eye, it gleamed with a soft silver glow. That same glow was infused along the entirety of my own faint aura. This wasn’t the first time it had saved me from a magical attack, though it might be the last. A hairline crack ran through the middle of the stone.
I dropped it back under my shirt with a sigh. Jerry, the owner of Hermes, hadn’t been kidding when he saidI’d become the number one target in town once he withdrew his protection. Over the last two months, it had become evident how many spooks had an axe to grind with vampires.
As the youngest vampire in the area, and the only one I knew of without the benefit of a clan’s protection, I was considered an easy mark. Where they wouldn’t dare challenge the vampires who were both stronger than me and possessed the full might of a clan at their back, they seemed to think killing me would settle whatever score they had, while resulting in the least amount of danger to themselves.
I’d like to say they were wrong, but they weren’t. Not entirely. As a baby vamp, I had very little personal power, except for a strange ability to see magic and a frustrating talent for finding trouble in the least likely of places. All things considered, I was significantly weaker than the weakest of spooks and all alone with no one to watch my back or avenge me should I fall. Not a good place to be when you were part of a species both envied and hated.
I sighed and looked up at the camera again. It had caught the entire confrontation on its recording.I’d have to watch it and see if the magic had shown up. Sometimes it didn’t. Magic was tricky. It didn’t always act the way you expected. If it did show up,I’d have to figure out an explanation for why an entire night’s recording was deleted.
But, first things first, I needed to deal with the dratted sign, in a way that meant it wouldn’t come back to cause me problems later.
I groped around under the counter, pulling out a box cutter before heading to the sign. It wasn’t a pair of scissors but would hopefully get the job done.
I rounded the counter and only made it a few steps before the lights flickered, the world around me darkening as if a thundercloud had invaded the postage stamp-sized store.
The dry rustle of old paper surrounded me. I realized with a start it was laughter.“Poor little vampire. Such trials you face. What’s she going to do now, I wonder?”
