Vamp-Hire Read Online Free PDF

full of sleeping people with maybe one minder (Lucky) to make
sure nobody sleepwalked or robbed the place.
    Nick thought if he listened at the door, he
could tell if there were several people inside. Maybe he could hear
them breathing. He imagined they’d be strewn all over the floor
once the couches had been taken up. There could have been several
people in either house even though these days the Reoccupation had
most homes either unlived-in or with one or two people. Human
beings had a tendency to spread out, giving each other the most
elbow room possible. Why live with your parents when they could
have a house down the street or a few blocks over?
    Nick wondered if that explained why Phoebe
had bought his house. There seemed to be a lot more to her story
than that, though. He turned onto the walkway of the green house on
his right and jogged up the stairs. For some reason, despite being
out well past a federally imposed curfew punishable by up to six
months in prison for those caught in violation (and that was for
regular humans) he felt wrong about walking across the lawn.
    He stood in front of the door and leaned in
cautiously. There was a nasty urban legend going around that some
people booby-trapped their houses with shotguns to blast the front
door at night if a minimum amount of weight were to register on
their front porches. Although he knew better and had read the
debunked story on Snopes, he was hesitant nonetheless.
    The floorboards of the porch squeaked as he
pressed his ear to the door. In his mind there was a sea of bodies
on the other side of the door in various states of undress, legs
and arms thrown across neighbors haphazardly.
    In reality, he heard the metallic click of
what he was reasonably certain was a gun. He pulled back, hands
still raised and a moment later a face appeared in the window to
his left. Nick didn’t make any sudden moves, waiting for the face
in the window to speak.
    The face only went on looking at him, though,
until Nick figured to go ahead and ask, “Is Lucky here?”
    The face disappeared.
    There was a hole in the door about waist
high. That was too low to be a peephole and then Nick knew the shot
was coming. He threw himself down as something twanged and hammered
through the door. He rolled to the side of the porch and was midway
over the edge when he saw Lucky eating a bowl of cereal, standing
on the porch of the house next door.
    Nick hopped off the porch as the front door
opened.
    “Hey, Earl,” Lucky said over a mouthful,
“what’s going on?”
    “Damn vamper tried to break in the house.”
There was some sort of snapping sound and approaching
footsteps.
    “Whoa-whoa-whoa. That’s my friend, Earl.
Don’t shoot him.”
    “Bull. That’s a vamper!”
    There was a small clattering sound and Nick
knew Lucky had put down his cereal bowl.
    “Earl, that’s not a vampire. Do not shoot my
friend!”
    “Dammit, Lucky! He was on my porch!”
    “Earl! Earl! Earl!”
    “All right! All right. Lemme… lemme just
check on him, then.” A moment later a head peeked over the porch,
looking down at Nick. He flinched, holding his hands up in
defense.
    “You good down there, little buddy?” Nick was
hesitant to put his hands down, gradually relaxing with each
passing second the man wasn’t shooting at him with the crossbow in
his hands.
    “I’m… fine.”
    The crossbow dropped out of sight and the man
leaned over, offering Nick a hand. “No hard feelin’s, m’kay?”
    Nick reluctantly shook hands with him and
then the man retreated back in his house, what sounded like several
bolts following as he locked back up.
    “Come on up,” Lucky said.
    Lucky finished his cereal while Nick sat on
the couch. He was wrapped in a bathrobe and looked like he’d
already had a full night’s rest even though it couldn’t have been
later than two.
    “What brings you here?” he said. He narrowed
his eyes. “How’d you find me?”
    They were two separate, yet related
questions. One