Supernatural vs. Zombies

Chapter 5 - The Case

Chapter 5 - The Case

I stared at him, surprised that he began the conversation so bluntly. So far, he rarely spoke to me unless it seemed necessary and he didn’t say much. 

He waited and when I didn’t say anything, he continued, “We have a system. Sometimes we work in pairs, maybe sometimes individually. And some as a group. Whichever, may be the case, we trust each other.” He took a drink of his soda. Now that I thought about it, he was a vampire, and he was eating. I guess I really needed to do my research on the supernatural community.

“You need to gain our trust. And we must gain yours. That being said, you should have given us a small semblance of a warning of your plan.”

I raised an eyebrow. 

“We were lucky today that no one important got hurt, but that could have easily changed. We can not rely on pure luck. And you were quite lucky.” 

I shrugged. “Perhaps.” 

It was his turn to raise a blond eyebrow. “It was luck. I do not know how you do things in your last job, but here we work as a team.”

I nodded. I did get it, but I did not do teams. I could work with Mick, but that was it. I had tried some teams and that had not ended well. It was just to damn hard allowing someone else to be responsible for your life and vice versa. There hadn’t been anyone I could trust. 

Did Mick want me to work with them? I mentally sighed. This was not going to work. I liked working alone. I had done my own share of work by myself and it was a lot simpler that way. There was no other life at risk and no one else could get hurt except myself. And then it would be my own fault. 

I stared at him. “I don’t know anything about you and you don’t know me. But for now, let’s just trust that I’m here to do a job. Nothing more. If I placed you at risk, that was not by intention.” 

He looked stunned and then easily schooled his features. His eyes blank as he stared at me. I could maybe, make out some small emotion in his eyes, but I couldn’t see it clearly. “I was never at risk. I meant you. You are human. I am a vampire, much more durable than you are.” 

Sure, he was that. I just wasn’t necessarily human, but he didn’t need to know that. I took a deep breath. “Look, let’s just cut the crap and say it straight up. I don’t know, what exactly I’ll be doing here. But don’t worry, if I work as a team with you guys, I’ll be sure to protect your back. We should head back.” I smiled and got up heading toward the door.  

He followed and then we were walking evenly. I was mostly following him. I looked over at him and he had the side of his lip lifted in a small smile. “For someone so small, you are quite confident.” 

“I guess. But in this world we have to be.”

He looked around, “I suppose we must be.”

After that we were quite and he went back to his silent self.

I seriously wondered what I was meant to do, but for the rest of my free time I had to do research on this place and get my hold on a map, or I would get lost easily. Even more importantly, I needed escape routes in case I ever got in a pickle. 

“How can I get a map of the city?” I asked.

He kept his eyes on the sidewalk, observing the streets around us. There were more people around, but I didn’t sense anything off. 

“There may be a couple copies. I’ll see if I can find you one.”

I nodded.

We walked for a while and finally made it back to the bookstore. The sign was still on closed and we headed inside.