looking for this?” Lucy asked, holding her money up. When he attempted to snatch the money from her, she squeezed his hand so hard that he gasped in pain. It was then that he realised her strength and struggled to free his hand but Lucy kept a tight hold. Lucy only released his hand when she felt the bones begin to crack.
“How did you do that?” the guy asked but Lucy ignored his question.
“Let that be a warning,” she said. “If I see you around here again, I will do worse.” The guy stood up and almost tripped over in his haste to get to the door.
Lucy had told Conor that she’d meet him at a pub across town. It was an easy twenty minute journey, which she made quickly. Lucy had no desire to prolong her meeting with Conor and it was almost eleven o’clock. Conor was sitting alone and she easily spotted him as she arrived. Heads turned as Lucy walked over to him and dropped the wallet on the table.
“Prompt as ever, Lucy,” Conor said.
“Let’s hurry this along,” Lucy said. “I would like to get some sleep before I have to go to work.” As most of the money that Lucy made working for Conor went toward paying her father’s debt, she’d got a day job at the library.
“Very well,” Conor pulled the cash from the wallet and quickly counted it. “Five hundred.” He pulled a small book out of a bag beside him and turned to a page with Lucy’s father’s name. The page was covered in numbers that had been striken through. Conor ran his finger down to the last figure, the only one without a line through it. He subtracted two hundred and fifty from the existing number before crossing it out.
“How much is left?” Lucy asked as Conor wrote the new amount.
“Two hundred,” he said and Lucy smiled. As Conor started to pack everything into his bag, he glanced at Lucy. “Why the smile?”
“I only owe you another two hundred, and I can make that easily in one job. Then I can go back to living a normal life,” she said. This time it was Conor’s turn to smile.
“Is that what you think?” he said.
“That’s what I know,” Lucy answered but her voice held uncertainty. Conor laughed.
“Did you really think it would end when you finished paying?” he said.
“You said that as soon as I paid off my father’s debt, I’d be free,” Lucy growled. Conor shrugged.
“I say a lot of things but. I never realised when I gave the order for you to be brought in exactly how useful you would be. I mean you’d only been a vampire for six months” he said as Lucy stood up.
“I’ll make you regret that decision if it’s the last thing I do,” she vowed as she turned and stormed out, gritting her teeth as she heard Conor laughing.
It was only a ten minute journey from the pub to the apartment she shared with her best friend, Cassandra Riley and Cassandra’s older brother Louis. After she’d been turned she’d chosen to leave her home rather than rick her mother’s safety. However, she was stuck at the age of sixteen and Cassandra was a year younger at fifteen. Cassandra’s brother had been planning to leave the family home to live on his own. He allowed the two girls to move in with him with two conditions. Lucy had to get a job to help with the rent and Cassandra had to stay in school. Sharing with a guy six years her senior had been strange at first but Lucy had grown used to it. The only problem they’d encountered was when Conor’s employees had trashed the apartment looking for Lucy.
“I’m home,” Lucy called as she walked into the apartment. Slipping her keys into the pocket of her jacket, Lucy slid the coat off. It was July and although Lucy no longer felt the cold, she wore the coat out of habit. As she walked into the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water, Lucy was surprised to hear a “hello” come from the lounge room. She walked in to find Louis sprawled on the couch, the TV was turned on but the sound muted. His laptop was open on his lap and as she sat next to him, she saw that he had a word document open.
“Working on the next Harry Potter?” she joked.
“Ha ha,” Louis said, automatically saving and closing the document. For as long as Lucy had known Cassandra and her family, Louis’ dream had been to be an author. He worked at the library with Lucy for two reasons. Firstly, he loved being surrounded by books and the second reason was that his job helped him to save the money he needed to have his book published. Over the year he’d been working at the library he had managed to save a thousand dollars but he’d need at least another thousand.
“One day you’re going to have to show me your stuff,” Lucy said as she got to her feet. “You can’t hide it when you’re a published author.” Louis grinned.
“You wouldn’t want to read that one,” he said. “I’m only writing it for fun. I don’t plan on having it published.” Lucy headed toward the door that led to the hall.
“Night,” she said. “I’m off to bed. Don’t stay up too late; we’ve got that meeting in the morning.”
“I just want to finish this paragraph,” Louis informed her. Lucy collapsed on her bed without bothering to get changed and was asleep minutes later.
“Please tell me someone made coffee,” Lucy muttered as she walked into the kitchen the next morning.
“Good morning to you too,” Cassandra said cheerfully as she handed Lucy a mug of coffee. For the first couple of months Lucy had refused to talk to Cassandra. She was furious that for years her best friend had kept secret her half vampire status.
“How can you be cheerful at this hour?” Lucy asked.
“I wasn’t up till midnight,” Cassandra said.
“My dad should be glad he disappeared,” Lucy muttered. “What on earth was he thinking to get involved with Conor?” Cassandra’s family had long had dealings with Conor and so Lucy was aware of how evil he was. Conor was particularly interested in the Riley’s as they were the only known half-vampire family.
“Your guess is as good as mine,” Cassandra replied as Louis stumbled into the kitchen and flopped into a chair. He took the mug of coffee Cassandra handed him and drained half of it in one gulp.
“You were up all night again weren’t you,” Lucy scolded. “I’m not covering for you in the meeting, not after what happened last time.” Louis was in the habit of pulling all nighters and as a result he had fallen asleep during the last monthly meeting. So, it had been left to Lucy provide the brief and cover for Louis.
“I was on a roll,” Louis muttered. “I wrote almost ten pages.” Lucy drained the last of her coffee and carried her cup over to the sink.
“I’m going to have a shower,” she said. “You’re on your own for the meeting.” Hopping into the shower, she only used the hot water; a hot shower woke her more effectively than coffee. Back in her room, Lucy surveyed her wardrobe and chose a blue shirt and black pants.
“I’m off,” she said she walked into the kitchen.
“Have fun at the meeting and I’ll see you after work.” Cassandra said. Lucy patted her pocket to ensure her keys were there before slipping her jacket on ready for the short walk to work.
“We’ve also had an increase in borrowers,” Lucy said four hours later. Since she’d changed to a vampire she could pass for eighteen easily, so she had lied about her age when she applied for her job. Cassandra had explained to Lucy that she would continue to age physically until she reached eighteen and then she would never look any older. Half-vampires were similar but they stopped ageing at twenty and a human who was over their eighteenth birthday and bitten by a vampire would stop ageing immediately. Lucy blinked, suddenly aware that she had been staring into space.
“Do you have anything else to report, Miss Wilson,” her supervisor asked and Lucy shook her head. “Ok, we will hear from Mr Riley now.” Louis was sitting three seats down from Lucy, a huge travel cup of coffee on the table in front of him. He stood up and walked to the front of the room.
“There’s nothing major to report in my department,” he said. Louis repaired books but he also dabbled in end processing when needed. Louis had the steady, sure hands needed for both jobs due to his vampire blood. Lucy found hers
elf tuning out of the meeting and daydreaming again. She was thinking about what to have for lunch when the idea hit her. She knew how to remove Conor from her life once and for all.
“We have had more damaged books,” Louis said, cutting through Lucy’s thoughts. “But if we’ve had more borrowers, that makes sense.” Lucy nodded in agreement.
“The number of damaged books has increased with the influx of new borrowers,” she said.
“Perhaps we should hand out a pamphlet with the library rules,” the supervisor mused as she made a note on her pad. “I’ll see if I can find one.”
“That’s all I have to report,” Louis said. He sat back down as their supervisor checked her list.
“Well that’s all of us,” she said. She checked her watch. “It’s eleven o’clock. How about we have an early lunch and re-open the library by twelve?” Lucy and the girl who worked on the front counter nodded. Slowly everyone filtered out of the room until only Lucy and Louis remained.
“Your family are friends with the vampire council, right?” she murmured, moving into the chair next to Louis. He nodded.
“Yeah, why?” he asked. Lucy smiled.
“Well, I have a plan to get rid of Conor,” she said. “The council want him, right?” He nodded.
“Conor had caused a lot of problems for them,” he replied. “He’s almost exposed us a half dozen