So I'm a Vampire... Now What? - Book 2 (Original Version)

Chapter 9.5 - So Much for the Afterglow

What you do when someone casually announces that they know your most deeply guarded secret? You pretty much do what I did and stared all slack-jawed and stunned at Sammy.

She busy was sneering at Agent Blonde, who hadn't taken his eyes off of me. I considered lying to her, but something said that causally carried a shit-ton of weight and if you weren't careful, it was designed to crush you without warning. Sammy was tricky that way, especially when she was being this quiet.

"How long have you known?" I asked instead.

"Since your accident," she said. "I started to piece things together while you were gone. Something King said about needing someone like you for the night shift. I was going to say something snarky about vampires and something just clicked in my head. You know that feeling you get sometimes when everything makes sense even though it doesn't make sense, but you know that it's true? Don't answer that, just nod and pretend."

I took her advice and carefully nodded. Truthfully, I was freaking the fuck out and still didn't know how to react. Claude knowing that I was a vampire was one thing, but Sammy was a different situation completely.

"You're freaking the fuck out, aren't you?" Sammy said and I nodded again.

"Teeny tiny bit."

"Well, considering the shit that's going down with these guys, it's probably better that I already knew vampires exist, don't you think? That one over there," she was referring to Agent Blonde, "keeps trying to work his eye magic on me, but I keep looking away. Fucker."

"Wait a minute," I said, something occurring to me. "So you know the King is a vampire too?"

Sammy looked at me like I was a goddamned idiot.

"I know all about King," Sammy said, and literally waggled her eyebrows, something I'd never actually seen anyone do in person. "He can't keep anything from me you know. He doesn't want to. You on the other hand, are just the worst and I have some bones to pick with you about leaving me in places surrounded by vampires."

"You seem to be holding your own," I observed drily.

"If I can handle the perverts in here, vampires ain't got nothing on me," Sammy said. She stopped with her back deliberately turned to the agents, and Agent Blonde was left with nothing to glare at except for me. I wondered how long he could keep it up before he got bored and wandered away before realizing I had run out of fucks to give. I'd been beaten up by Harry de fucking Biers himself and my girlfriend was a bigger badass than he was ever going to be, so I had no idea who this blonde shit thought he was intimidating.

"So does this mean you're going to yell at me later?"

"Oh, so much yelling, but yes."

"How long have the Keystone cops been here?"

"Couple of days. They showed up the morning after the explosion at the club. Started asking questions about Beatrice. Lots of questions I didn't have the answer to even when fuckwad over there tried to put the 'fluence on me."

"They call it glammering."

"Is that with an E?"

"I think so. I think of it with an E. With an OU just sounds wrong. Way too 'glamourous' for fucked up eye powers, you know what I mean?"

"Glammering," she said, tasting the word. "Yeah, I see what you mean. 'Glamouring' just feels wrong. Right then: so he was using the old eye magic on me, but since I know that vampires exist and since my boyfriend is one, he taught me some tricks on how to avoid being glammered, or whatever the fuck you want to call it."