Any characters you recognize belong to Sherrilyn Kenyon or
Laurell K. Hamilton. I’m just doing this for fun. This is rated PG.
After the little trip to Lunatic Cafe, I tried
to avoid Myra. For the most part, I succeeded. It was a weird month of cat and
mouse.
I'd talked to Mitch several times. He gave me
some info about how things were in the District. The vampires may have rights,
but that didn't seem to set well with a lot of people such as law enforcement
types and especially a group called Humans First. To them the only good vampire
was a dead one. I wonder what the other
hunters would think of that.
As for the shifters, they didn't seem to have
many rights at all, if any. To me, that was just backwards. There was nothing
exotic about the vampires in my world. They were predators, nothing more.
November came and went and it began to get
colder. Myra was still keeping her
distance and I was wondering how much it had to do with me or with a warning
from her so called king to stay away from me. I guess either way you looked at
it; it did have to do with me.
It was December fifteenth. I was working a
double shift because Myra hadn't shown up. Mitch had called in a panic. With
nothing else to do, I came in. It was around nine when Nathaniel called. He
wanted to hear some Limp Bizkit.
We talked a few minutes before he said “You know
they're really upset with you.”
“Who is?” I asked.
“Richard and Jean Claude. They think you're
dangerous.”
I grinned. “I am dangerous, Nathaniel.”
He was quiet for a minute, “I don't think so.”
Before I could reply, the phone went dead. I
cued up around five songs. The first one was ‘Behind Blue Eyes,’ A cover of an
old Who song.
I put my headphones on and keyed the mike. “This
is 93X your adult alternative. Keep the requests coming in people. It's going
to be along night. This is for
Nathaniel. Limp Bizkit, ‘Behind Blue Eyes.’
Enjoy.”
I took
the headphones off and listened to the music.
I wasn't a big fan of this group but hey, I was here to provide a
service to the listeners or so Mitch kept reminding me.
I answered another line. “93X,what can I put on
for you?” The voice on the other end of
the line was a bit slurred but I knew who it was. “Myra? Where are you? Are you
drunk?”
She told me that she was at Guilty Pleasures and
could I come and get her. “No. I can't because I'm pulling your shift and mine
because you couldn't get here. Besides, I told you and your buddies that I
wasn't coming back.” That got me a long
list of very colorful words. “I'm hanging up now. Call a taxi.”
Several calls later I had enough music for over
an hour. In between the news and ads, that could last awhile. I took a bathroom break, grabbed a couple of
cokes, went back to the studio and ordered pizza. All the lights on the phone
bank were flashing. I chose line three and answered. “93X, Who's this?”
A gruff male voice said, “Hey. I have this woman
down here who says you'll pay her cab fare.”
I heard Myra in the background saying he'd
better.
“I'll be right down.” I hung up, checked the
remaining time on the block of music and headed downstairs. The woman was going
to drive me insane.
When I got outside Myra was up in the cab
drivers face with that finger jabbing his gut.
I could see he had about had his limit. I put an arm around her waist
and pulled her back into me. “Calm down Myra.” I looked at the driver. “How
much?”
The angry man looked from her to me. “A hundred
bucks.” I looked at him like he was
nuts so he explained. “Twenty for the fare. Twenty because of where I picked
her up and sixty cause she's so damn annoying.”
I started laughing. Myra turned around and
socked me in the gut before walking into the studio. I straightened up, took my
wallet out of my back pocket and extricated the money.
The cabbie looked at the studio doorway shaking
his head as he put the money I offered away. “I hope she's worth it, buddy.” He
got into the cab and drove away.
I took the stairs back up to the studio. I
didn't want to find her too soon. Maybe I could sneak back to the control room
and lock the doors. As I rounded the corner I heard sobbing coming from Mitch's
office. I opened the door a crack and peeked in.
Myra was curled up in one of the chairs. Her
shoulders were heaving. I knelt down by the chair and ran a hand through her
hair. She looked up with red eyes and tears staining her face. Her makeup was a
mess.
I quietly asked, “You want to tell me what's
wrong?” She shook her head and lowered her chin. “You have a fight with Kevin?”
“No. That
I could deal with.”
“Then what is it? Tell me what has you so
upset.” When she didn't answer I stood
to leave. She grabbed my hand. I looked
back down expectantly. “ What?”
“I'm sorry.”
I sighed exasperated. “For what?”
“Everything. I know you don't trust me.”
“You haven't given me much reason to. I don't
like being set up.” I pulled my hand away from her grasp.
“I didn't set you up!” She was back to crying
again. In between sobs she told me, “I was supposed to give you a message but I
didn't want to. I like you. I don't want to see you hurt.”
“Sit tight.
I'll check where the music is and get you some coffee. Then we can
talk.” She mumbled something as I walked out.
I made sure everything was okay in the control
room then went into the employees lounge to get Myra a cup of coffee. I could
just imagine the content of the message. When I went back into Mitch's office,
Myra had passed out. There was a sofa in the lounge for emergency sleepovers. I
picked Myra up and carried her into the lounge and lay her on the sofa. The message would have to wait.
When I walked back into the control room the in
house line was lit up. I picked up the headset and put it to my ear. “93X, this is Nathan.”
A heavy accented voice said, “I have a request.”
I knew that voice. “This isn't the request line.”
Asher chuckled. “I do not wish to request music.
My request is that you should come back to Guilty Pleasures. So that we may
continue our conversation.”
Legal or not, this damned vampire was starting
to piss me off. “Take your request and stick it up your ass. I'm not coming back.”
All humor left his tone. “You will come back or
I will send someone to escort you.”
“That sounded like a threat.”
“I do not make...”
I interrupted him. “Yeah … Yeah. I've heard that
line.”
There was a knock on the glass. I turned to see
one of the security guys with the pizza delivery boy.
“Sorry gotta go. Dinner.” I told the vamp and
hung up. The little voice in the back of my head screamed ‘IDIOT.’