Page 4 of Smokescreen (Knight & Daywalker)
Sure, we were sort of two sides of the same coin, career-wise, but...opposite sides. I made money only when his profession failed.
“It would be a regular living,” Mother added, starting to sound exasperated. “Not all this waiting for a job to appear and subsisting on starvation rations when it doesn’t come soon enough. Security companies charge people monthly fees, dear. And Davin can certainly set them up, but you’re...” She stopped, frowning, and took a breath, but didn’t speak again.
Odd. I’d never seen her at a loss for words.
“I would imagine he’d make a better go-between with vampires,” Davin said, his voice going a little soft. When I looked at him, he was once again staring at the table.
That was when the butler, Evans, came bustling in with a tray.
Before I could even begin to try to figure out what was going on with Davin’s odd attitude, Evans set a bowl down in front of him. A bowl. With what looked like some kind of light golden cream soup.
Then in the center of the table, a basket of dinner rolls.
Then another bowl that looked identical to Davin’s in front of me, before setting a glass in front of Mother and bustling right back out.
For a moment, all I could do was stare at the bowl in front of the vampire. The man? The Dublin region, Mother had said, not “from Dublin.” I wasn’t wrong. That meant he was a vampire. But even as I watched, Davin picked up the proper spoon, dipped it into the creamy steaming soup, and took a bite.
“Close your mouth, dear, you’ll gather flies,” Mother told me.
I snapped it shut and focused on my own food. Curried crab soup. Absolute perfection, and I could have eaten it for every meal for a month. Meg was a wonder. A vampire who still loved to cook, even though she couldn’t eat anymore.
Okay, that wasn’t quite true. Vampires were capable of eating, but there was no purpose to it. They didn’t get sustenance from it. Then there was the unpleasant side effect of having to...get rid of that consumed food later on. And worst of all, their taste buds were different, and food no longer tasted like food. They didn’t want it, in my experience.
Meg had once sadly likened it to eating bowls of sawdust, while staring at her perfect chocolate torte with longing.
But there Davin was, eating Meg’s soup. And from the blissful smile on his face when he took a bite, enjoying the hell out of it.
“Now then,” Mother said, leaning back in her seat at the end of the table and looking at me until I had to wrench my eyes away from the spectacle of a vampire eating soup and turn to her. “The tax payment on the building was about eighty thousand dollars last year, so I expect it will be similar this year.”
I blinked at her, uncomprehending. That did follow with how much I knew the building was worth, but why was she telling me?
She slow-blinked at me, unimpressed, like I was the slowest student in class. “You own the building, dear. I covered you for the last few years, but you’re going to have to start paying it yourself.”
Holy. Fucking. Shit.
My mother wanted me to raise eighty grand? On my own? Just to continue to stay in the building she’d given me?
“So you see, getting down to business and starting that security company simply makes sense. Don’t you think?” She waved at Davin, who was still eating the fucking soup, and I started to wonder if I was dreaming.
This was all entirely surreal. Vampires eating curried crab soup, my mother acting like I was suddenly going to become a productive member of society, and eighty thousand dollars I was going to owe to the government of California in like...ten months?
This couldn’t be real.
Still, there was my mother, talking again. “You and Davin have perfectly complementary skillsets, and you should get started right away. I’ll let the others know you’ll be available to install security systems, and send someone down to take care of the office.”
“I’ll need a week or so before I can start doing installations,” Davin said, pausing his eating to bite his lip a moment. “I’ll need to order things, and?—”
“Of course, dear. I’m sure they’ll all be very understanding.” She waved a hand behind her. “And Klaus will extend you a line of credit, of course, to make sure you have all the stock you need to get started. I’ll send everything down in the morning.”
And just like that, I was in business with Davin Byrne, vampire who ate soup and apparently, installed security systems.
What the hell was my life?
CHAPTER 2
The drive down from the hills into Avalon proper was always nice. It was heavily wooded, with beautiful multi-million-dollar homes and stunning landscaping and best of all, glimpses of the ocean along the way.
Relaxing.
