Paranormalcy Read Online Free PDF Page B

looked over and noticed one of the office vamps standing close by, listening. “Something funny, Dalv?” I glared at him.
    He glared back. “It’s Vlad and you know it.”
    â€œYou and half the other vamps out there.” Vlad—or Dalv, as I liked to call him just to piss him off—was one of my least favorite parts of the Center. After neutering, IPCA always set the paranormals up with some mandatory job. Werewolves had the most job flexibility, depending on what they were before. Vamps usually worked in the satellite buildings or did cover-up for sightings using their persuasion skills. Vlad was pretty useless though. I guess I can’t blame him for feeling bitter. Going from being the terror of Bulgarian nights to a janitor would kinda suck. And, since I was the one who had done the bag-and-tag, he especially hated me.
    He shrugged as he swept the already spotless floor. His glamour was less flashy than most; he looked like a forty-year-old man, not handsome, not ugly, just thin and slightly balding. Underneath all vamps looked the same. Ugh. “He could be a doppelgänger,” he said, a sneer of a smile creeping onto his face.
    â€œWhat’s a doppelgänger?” I immediately regretted asking as his smile spread.
    â€œGood news for the rest of us, if he took your form.” Giving another wheezy laugh, he walked out.
    I turned to Lish; she was already looking it up on one of her screens. Her eyes narrowed. “What?” The look on her face was making me nervous. “What’s a doppelgänger?”
    â€œDoppelgängers appear to people as harbingers of—” she paused “—death. The tale was that if you saw yourself, it meant you were going to die. They were also bad spirits who would take your form and destroy your life, again leading to your death.”
    I frowned. Not cool. “Wait, spirits?” She nodded. “Nope, dude’s corporeal.” I had dealt with a few ghosts and poltergeists in my time. The great thing about them is they can’t touch you. Their only power is fear. And there’s a whole lot you can do with fear—make people see, hear, and even feel things that aren’t there—but if you know that going in, it’s a lot easier to see past it. “Besides, if I’m going to die, Raquel, Denise, and Jacques are all going with me.”
    She blinked thoughtfully. “And why would a doppelgänger want to look through Raquel’s files?”
    â€œExactly. Plus, he’s only seventeen.”
    Lish tilted her head. “He is not an immortal?”
    â€œNope. Oh, whoops, probably should have told Raquel that.” I frowned. I’d tell her when she decided to include me. “Listen, don’t say anything, okay? I want in on this one, and info’s the only leverage I have.”
    Lish closed one of her transparent eyelids at me in herbest imitation of a wink. “They are not giving me research clearance anyway. I have no reason to tell.”
    â€œYou’re the best, my fine fishy friend.”
    Lish’s eyes smiled at me. Different as we were, we were both exactly what the other needed—a friend. As was my custom, started when I first met Lish as a ten-year-old, I smashed my face against the glass and blew my cheeks out at her.

DEAD MEAT IN ANY LANGUAGE
    I had finally fallen asleep later that morning when the alarm went off. I jumped out of bed, confused, thinking there was yet another break-in or emergency. Then I realized it wasn’t the Center’s alarms, it was my personal alarm. The alarm that meant my tutor, Charlotte, would be here in exactly ten minutes.
    â€œOh, bleep.” I hadn’t done any of my homework.
    The last few years I’d tried to convince Raquel that I really didn’t need to study math, English, science, world history, and four—yes, four —foreign languages. It wasn’t like I was going to go to college or