19)

She hesitated for a moment, I must have given he a odd look, until I spoke up. “Please go on.”

She gave me a little smile and brushed her hair back. “The old sheriff was plain old human, but grew up with the locals and had known all about them, which saved us a lot of headaches over the years, so when he felt ready to retire, people started talking about me taking over”

She looked a little sad for a moment. “Since my Arthur had passed and the last of our kids were all grown up I had a lot of time on my hands so I decided to at least try out working as a deputy for a few years while old Abe started dumping more and more of his work on me until it just seemed natural to take over for him, and the people around here had gotten used to me enough to elect me in officially.’

She leaned back and crossed her arms, starring me right in the face, guess she felt like she had a good enough of a measure of me now to at least not worry about me misbehaving in public.

“So now I shared, your turn.”

Hmph. “Joined the army, didn’t like it but it paid for college, joined the police, didn’t like it but it looked good on a resume and got me a job in security that paid well enough without having a boss constantly on my back. Worked it until I ended up winning the lotto, and now I really think it’s time to circle back to the part where you tell me what all I need to worry about living around a bunch of people like us.”

She held up her hands in mock surrender. “All right, all right, I give, no more prying.”

“I don’t know how it’s been when you’ve dealt with other walkers, but around here you just live your life like a normal person, just try not be so blatant about the rest of it that the regular people get scared.”

“So only put on your fur coat in private, try not to be seen, and above all else, don’t bite anyone, you never know who will turn and who won’t.”

Wait, the bites don’t always infect people? Well lucky me...no I guess lucky me in a good way, so far this has been a good thing...and since something good is always followed by something bad, I'm stuck waiting for the other shoe to drop.

“Some of the older people like to get together to complain about the younger ones, but now a days they come to me with their concerns and I decide if someone needs a talking too, like the idiots getting in drinking contests with regulars to the point that one of them ended up in the hospital.” She shook her head, “I can’t believed my own grandson got involved with that.”

Grandson? She looks like forty. So I guess we do live longer or something? I’m getting scary close to seventy, how much more time do I have?

She waved the subject aside. “I throw a outdoor cookout twice a year which just about everyone attends, it’s not mandatory, but if you plan on showing up, I can tell everyone who is getting curious to leave you alone until then.”

I nodded in agreement as I finished off the last fry, “That sounds like a good plan, but I did have one other concern, are their any other other...non regulars in this area.”

She leaned forward. “There was a ghoul couple when I came here, but they moved to live closer to their children ages ago.”

...ghouls? “I though I noticed something when I when to the big box store?”

She grimaced. “Oh them, one of them got exiled from Chicago and decided to thrall a man from a wealthy family named Mark Redd, who ended up turning instead. Redd was a survivalist who worried about the end of civilization, but now had to deal with needing human blood, so he set up those stores and stocked them up with hunting and camping gear, and full sized warehouses on the lower level stocked up with long shelf life food instead of the two weeks of stock most stores have.”

“All to help keep at least some people alive no matter what, so that he can survive.”

So, vampires then? But what’s with the smell. “Why the others though?”

She crossed her arms again and look off in the distance. “From the one time I talked to them, for as long as I could stand the smell, it’s another one of his plans, hire the exiles to keep them out of trouble. He even started his own brand of blood banks in the stores to keep them fed and not going around biting people who might end up turning themselves.”

Got to be careful how I ask this. “It’s the first time I ran into them, what is up with that smell.”

She looked a little surprised. “You must avoid the cities then, the smell makes regular people trust them, puts them in a good mood, pheromones is what my son calls it, but to us it just stinks.”

She it sat up a bit and rested her hands on the table as Emily showed up to clear the table and asked us about desert, we both passed.

As the waitress moved off she finally asked. “I don’t want to put you back on you guard, but I have to ask, how long ago were you bitten.”

Well, I guess it up to me now, trust her, or have her suspect me of something and start looking into me and end up finding out about the kids.

I held up my finger to ask for moment and she nodded in return.

Ultimately, me keeping the fact I'm have only been a werewolf for a week relies on the little girl who bit me keeping it a secret, which I'm shocked has lasted this long, so…

“Last Thursday.”

She seemed to pause for a moment while she did the math, then leaned forward and rested her head against one hand while she whispered. “Dam it Debby.”

“I thought her name was Malinda?”

She shook her head, still in her hand. “Malinda did it, but her mother had to know about it by now and hasn’t told me.”

She stood up while pulling out a wallet and tossed a twenty down on the table. “I got to go yell at someone, so could you please deal with the bill, that should cover the tip. I hope we can talk again later.”

I gave her a nod and got my own wallet out to pay as our waitress Emily was headed our way with the bill.

“Please don’t be too hard on the kid, she was scared to death and I ended up just scaring her more.”

She hesitated for a moment “She is due a stern talking to, but no more. Good night Mr. Lathe.”

I called out to her as she started to walk away. “Call be John, Sheriff.’

She turned long enough to give me a smile, “Only if you call me Adora.’

Well, got a meal, got to stop keeping a secret, got someone else in trouble and maybe made a friend.

Not bad for just dinner.