80)

I left a note in the kitchen after tearing off my shopping list from the top of the pad. I didn’t want to worry anyone if they heard my truck starting up. Or just woke up and noticed me missing.

Looking at the pad I remembered joking to myself to bring a list of questions the next time I wandered into the Redd’smart. Now I wondered if I should.

I knew I wanted to take advantage of the chance to ask about the vampire who had set people after me. Even if it felt like I was going behind Adora’s back. But it wasn’t just me that would be put at risk if she wasn’t telling me everything. So hopefully asking the staff there wouldn’t piss her off. But if it does I can only hope it isn’t going to be a deal breaker for her.

Also, I wanted to ask if the vampires know anything more about how they and we had come to exist.

…and maybe ask if they have a discount shelf?

Nothing else was occurring to me to ask, but maybe I would think of something once I got to talking.

The drive went a little quicker this late as night, and the smell in the store wasn’t anywhere near as bad. Which turned out to mean there wasn’t a single vampire in sight.

You would think after dark would be the easiest time to find them, but then again this was also the only time they could be out of the store and doing something else.

On the off chance there was one still around. I figured I’d ask the customer service person. Again due to the time I lucked out and there wasn’t a line. “Hi, I know it's a bit late, but do you know if Solomon or Earl are still working this late?”

The girl behind the counter nodded with a dull look in her eye. “Just a minute.” and wandered into a back room and it sounded like she had gotten on the phone. “Someone is at the counter asking for you Sal.”

I couldn’t quite hear the other side of the conversation, but the girl came back in a moment with a confused look on her face. “He said he’ll meet you outside because the smell won’t be so bad?”

I gave her a nod and thanked her before I headed outside. Now feeling a little foolish to still be pushing an empty cart around after I had grabbed it out of reflex when I had entered the store. It ended up getting tucked away against a wall on my way to the exit. Somebody would deal with it if I didn’t come back for it.

Outside I could see the thin balding man wearing a plain pale yellow tee shirt and an old set of jeans. He was leaning casually against the front wall of the store a good ways past the entrance to the bottle return area. I could see him pulling out a dark colored cigarette from a metal case before lighting it up.

I wandered over until the smell began to hit me from about twenty feet away, even with a gentle breeze going in his direction.

He spoke up first while looking vaguely in my direction. “I’m guessing both of our abilities to hear are strong enough to hear each other with our normal speaking voices.”

He made eye contact with me for a moment while I nodded at him. “Splendid. First I would like to offer my personal apology for the invasion of your privacy and the trespassing on your home. The men involved had been relocated to another state with the understanding that their lives will end should they ever bother you again.”

He took a moment to take a deep puff of what I now realized was a hand rolled thin cigar that smelled of something herblike, with a little bit of mint. Then he continued.

“Unfortunately Constance has gone on the run.”

Who? He must have seen the confusion on my face. “The vampire who was responsible for the fools who disturbed you. I regret that I have been instructed to not share this information with your local sheriff or yourself, but…” He swept his hand in my direction. “I can hardly be blamed for disobeying when being confronted by an angry killing machine when he cornered me in a blind spot in the security camera set up and demanded answers.”

He gave me a thin smile. I gave him a nod in return. “Yeah. Grrrr, arrrr. Tell me what I want to know or you're a chew toy.”

I leaned my shoulder against the wall. “So what is happening with this Constance woman?”

He took another puff of his cigar. “Mr. Redd put a price on her head. Called in a few of the hermits and put them on her trail, and let Coventry off his leash. My head of the meat department seems to think it best to put himself between you and her should she happen to decide to come your way.”

I gave him a sharp look. “Is there any real chance of that?”

The store manager started to shake his head but paused. “Truthfully, while I’ve heard she’s a vindictive idiot. She’s also fairly old. But if she was stupid enough to come after you? I don't think you have much to worry about. I wasn’t joking about being scared of you. I am old enough to have gotten some of the vampire powers right out of a Hollywood film and all I could do if you came at me would be to flee with all possible haste.”

“More than that, you know the stories about us and thresholds? It’s not that we can’t come in without an invitation, it’s that werewolfs always somehow know when we get close to their homes. Even if she gets by Coventry and your sheriff…” He shook his head again. “I’ll give you my card and you can call me to arrange to have her remains and any mess she caused cleaned up.”

Hmm. “I got another question for you. Do you guys have any clue how your kind or mine came about?”

He looked down for a moment and chuckled. “You too?” He took another puff, then continued. “There is a story about a king in the land of Nod who could not father a son with his ability to use magic. So he decided to make some of his own by feeding his loyalist servants his enchanted blood. But he made them so they could never challenge his own rule by denying them the sun.”

“Which sounds like the fairy tale it is. As far as I know, we have always been here, gathering in the largest cities. Lurking in the shadows and influencing rather than ruling. So the mortals don’t organize agaist us.”

He looked up again at me. “And staying the hell out of the countryside where the beasts roam.”

I stood in silence for while I considered that and he finished his cigar in peace.

Finally, I spoke up again. “Got two more questions for you.” He nodded after a moment.

“What’s up with the cigar, and do you guys have a discount shelf?”

He stared at me for a moment then burst into a series of sharp laughs. “The cigar is a blend a witch makes that my kind can taste, even if that’s all I get out of it. And yes, we have an entire aisle of discounted goods, as well as a set of shelves at the end of an aisle in the back of the grocery area with some leftover easter stuff."

"Unfortunately, I think we’re down to jelly beans and the solid sugar candies.”

I perked up enough for him to laugh again before he continued. “I get one of the stockers to show you around and Mr. Lathe?”

I gave him an expectant look. “While Mr. Redd will want to make some sort of restitution to you for the trouble. I can offer you as my own apology a permanent employee discount. I’ll write the number on the back of my card and have it waiting for you at the self check out register. Don’t worry about the item limit.”

Grinning, I gave him a nod. “Sounds good to me Mr. Solomon. I’d offer to shake your hand, but I don’t think want me to close in on you that much.”

He gave me a crooked smile and a nod before he glanced around and rose up in the air to go up over the roof. I guess that’s what he meant by Hollywood movie powers.

The same girl from the service counter, Alice according to her nametag and I guess I should really be thinking of her as the woman, not the girl, showed me the discount areas.

I grabbed six bags of jelly beans, from four different brands. A bag of easter candy corn and lucked out with three little cardboard milk carton containers of mini robin eggs.

Skipping the nongrocery discount aisle since I didn’t have the time, I finished off my shopping list. Got to the checkout lane and the guy whose job it was to watch the customers to keep them from skipping scanning some items showed me how to punch in my discount number.

He seemed pretty happy to get the five bucks it saved me, probably more from getting a tip at all rather than it being a five.

Heading home I spotted a sheriff’s car hanging out on the side of the road. So I turned around and pulled up about fifty feet behind it and parked.

Mel’s mom stuck her head out the door and then got out to meet me. “Hello Mr. Lathe, you’re out late.”

I gave her a nod and a grin. “And I got to get up pretty early too, just had to pick up a few things for tomorrow. But I was hoping that was you.” I pointed at her cruiser. “And that you might be able to answer a quick question for me.”

She gave me a curious look and nodded. “Sure.”

“Do you have any idea how your daughter makes her clothes come and go when she changes?”

The deputy sighed and put her hands on her hips. “She tried to explain it to me and Dare a dozen times, but neither of us can get it. She said you have to push the change outside of yourself, both to wolf and when you come back. Maybe you’ll have more luck.”

I started to think that over but stopped myself. “Thanks Mel’s mom, have some robin eggs. Night.”

Tossing her a carton, I turned around and headed for my car, hearing a startled “Thanks” behind me.

Back home, I set out the groceries on the counter or in the fridge so they wouldn’t get lost. Got upstairs to stripe down, set my alarm, and crawled into bed for five hours.

I even fell asleep at some point.