Suburban Vampire Ragnarok

Chapter 27

Scott survived yet another evening at work, remaining well under Al Kohler's radar. Kitty Weems didn't call back that night, which concerned him. Then again, Scott was certain that the good doctor had a lot of important nice-mad-scientist stuff to do, and would get to his request when she could. Besides, he had requested that she keep Jeremiah out of the loop, and Jeremiah lived at St. Michael's, so he would probably have at least some contact with Dr. Weems that day. Scott assumed Kitty would take pains to avoid any breaches of security. After all, she was trustworthy. Or, at the very least, she wasn't a vampire thief.

Scott did get a call from Father. Naturally, he called Scott while he was in the middle of work, doing actual work and not just not goofing off online. Father requested, in his polite but firm and insistent tone, that Scott come to the House tomorrow to meet with him, before he returned to work. Oh great, Scott whined to himself. I'm in trouble with my work boss, now I'm in trouble with my vampire boss too. Can today get any worse?

Father's call was followed up by a call from Jeremiah. Apparently, Elizabeth scheduled a conference call with Allan, the Inquisitor, regarding the discrepancies she had found on the personnel forms of the three new Council members. Jeremiah told Scott that this was his idea, and that he would like him to be as involved as he could be in the investigation, no matter what Elizabeth thought. Scott agreed; conveniently, the conference call was scheduled immediately after the meeting he was to have with Father. He then considered the possibility that perhaps Father would want to chop his head off again, which would make Scott's participation in the call somewhat problematic.

The next day opened with Irene still deploring the loss of the wooden pedestal stand. "I can't believe one of your friends would steal my Douglas's special wooden stand thing. After all, they've all been so kind and polite!"

"What can I say? Shit happens, Mom."

"Language, young man!"

"Stuff happens. Better? Anyway, I'm sure it was some kind of crazy misunderstanding."

"How well did you know that young lady, Scott?"

Oops. Busted. Well, at least it was his mom, and not Elizabeth. Mom wouldn't lop his head off with a sword. "Apparently, I didn't know her all that well."

"I suppose you didn't. Well, next time one of your friends wants to stay over, tell them they'll have to talk to me first!"

"Oh, absolutely," Scott agreed, hoping he didn't come across too dismissively.

*

Scott arrived at the House at the agreed upon time and entered the vestibule. Johnny, the doorman, was waiting. Scott couldn't wait for Johnny to verbally assault his sense of style, or lack thereof, as was more likely the case.

"Scotty, Scotty, Scotty," the short, thin, pompadour-wearing vampire said. "Is that what you're wearing to your meeting? A light blue Oxford shirt, khaki Dockers, and what are those? Brown hiking boots? Seriously?"

"The boots are, like, a Northwest thing."

"Yeah. No, they're not. Scotty? Do you even know how to wear clothes?"

"What do you mean? This is, like, a work uniform, sort of."

"Any business that makes that a uniform deserves to go out of business. Are you sure your mother doesn't dress you, Scott?"