“One load started, anyway.I hear your headway out there.Lots of snoring.”
“I’ve always felt that snoring is bragging, in a way,” Glenn mused.“It’s as if the person is announcing, ‘I’m having a lovely sleep!’quite loudly.”
Ross snorted in amusement.“Can’t disagree.Well, Boss, what do we do about the rest of this mess?”
“It’s well past the witching hour,” Glenn responded with a gentle smile and a sharp evaluation of Ross from head to toe.“And you look done in.”
“Stick-a-fork-in-me-done,” Ross agreed, sagging against the counter, hands braced on the edge.“Glenn, I have a need to clarify something.You mentioned in the interview that I would need to handle problems as they came, or something along those lines.Is this an example of one?”
Glenn shot him an overly bright smile.“How about I show you to that apartment?It’s a townhome, really, quite lovely and has a bed made up.”
No intention of answering that, huh?Which, really, answered the question.“How about we just negotiate hazard pay here and now?”
Sighing, Glenn slumped for a moment.“I certainly would, if I were you.”
Incident 3: The Pound Dilemma
Ross felt rather proud of himself as he strolled into his boss’s office.Nothing was on fire, no one had been almost dismembered, and that little issue with the streaking charge had been settled by a fine.(He’d solve the problem of how to get werewolves to carry spare clothes on them, or die trying.) All in all, a good start to the week.
Yes, it was Monday evening.Yes, all that had happened Monday morning.Was there a question somewhere?
Anyway, he was on top of things.Which was what Glenn expected of him.So, he had a smile on his face as he walked into the study and greeted his boss.“Good evening, Glenn.”
The vampire looked impeccable as always, wavy red hair in a casual sweep to one side, dressed in a dark blue sweater that enhanced the gold of his eyes.Not that Ross noticed.Much.
His smile was bright as he turned to greet Ross, pushing his cell phone to the side of the desk.“Good evening.And how are things going today?”
“We had a minor issue with Chloe streaking in a public park—”
Glenn groaned and rolled his eyes.“Again?”
“—which I settled for a fine.That she paid.And there was a phone call for you earlier, although he wouldn’t leave a name.A high wizard?”
Glenn canted his head, obviously thinking.“I know more than one of those.”
“Says you broke your oath and must now pay the ultimate price?”Ross paused, waiting for that to sink in.“Ringing any bells?”
Shaking his head, Glenn continued to frown for a moment.“No…did he leave a number?”
“No, he said there was no need to call him back.Then he hung up.”
Glenn shrugged it off casually.“I’m sure we’ll figure it out at some point.Anything else?”
Well, if he wasn’t worried, Ross should be.His boss didn’t always judge levels of trouble in the same way Ross did.He made a note to look into it more later.“Anyway, that was the only trouble while you were sleeping.I’ve sorted most of the paperwork to create new identities.We’ve got a batch of fifteen identities on order and coming.I expect the paperwork within the next thirty days.We also have the proper licenses in for the new cemetery.That arrived in the mail this morning.”
Glenn relaxed, a pleased smile lighting up his face briefly.“Excellent.We really need that started.I’ll have the construction crew start building our individual lots.”
Ross had followed part of this explanation when it was first given to him.In order for the various members of the clan to update their identities, it was necessary to figuratively bury the old ones.Glenn told him that in the old days, just changing cities and your name was sufficient, but of course people had gotten wiser to identity theft and such in modern times.Now there were more bases to cover.What helped to sell that a person was ‘deceased’ was to have an actual gravestone and a death certificate to show anyone who got a little too curious.It ‘proved’ things rather handily.At least most of the time.
All that made sense.Ross just had one lingering question.“Wouldn’t a gravestone suffice?”
“Ah, well, the graves actually serve two purposes.”Glenn lifted his hand to tick them off.“As a physical marker, yes, but we also need a place to store things.Some of us have possessions hundreds of years old, and with enough sentimental attachment that we don’t want to just destroy it.But after being alive that long, we can’t keep everything in a house, either.And storage units get expensive after a while.It’s far easier to build a mausoleum for each family and let them store things there.”
“I suppose that makes sense.How long does it take to build one, roughly?”
“Three to four weeks is what I’m told.They have the designs and such down to a fine art by now.We manage four cemeteries.”
Ross made a mental note to look into that, too.He was sure crews were needed to maintain the grounds.
