Minty (2 page)

Alex had gotten a lot of extra powers for such a young male of the night, when Rad’s mate Misty had shared her rare blood serum to save his life. It had made him powerful, much more than his age warranted, and it had earned him a seat on the Council due to Rad’s backing, even though others were not happy to have someone young to help make the rules. Alex had already proven to be of great benefit, since he was more of the modern world and able to understand the mortals that were part of what they had to deal with on a day-to-day basis. He had a following that added to those that supported Rad. But of course, they both had enemies, that was politics.

Rad knew that unlike himself, Alex enjoyed the backstabbing of politics. He liked the game and the play behind the scenes, he liked winning. But he did miss paying dues to his dark side. So right now there was a very wicked smile on his handsome face. He had many rogues down around him, but he had only dusted one of them. When a Vampire was stabbed in the heart by a silver knife or some types of wood, they finally died and turned immediately to very fine dust, leaving only whatever they wore or carried in a limp heap behind.

His sadistic side had him slicing the hamstrings of the men, eviscerating them and leaving them to try to hold their guts together as they lay in the dirty alley. He moved on to the next ones who approached.

Finally both men looked at each other, as they were the only ones still standing.

“Rad, do you need any information from these?” Alex pointed to the pathetic heap at his feet.

Rad just shook his head. “Alex, quit feeding your dark side and dust them. I am going down to their meeting area to see if there is anything new. My men are coming
—
don’t shock them and don’t kill any of them.”

Rad disappeared down the short steps and began to look around the room. He stood still, eyes closed and just listened, absorbing what the walls had to say. The walls repeated what had been said in the room. He felt the anger build. He could not control it
—
he let out a roar. He stopped and listened to the building, going from floor to floor. It was empty. Not even a wino in a hallway. He needed this. He closed his eyes and he let the heat build and build. When he opened his eyes, the entire room was on fire. He turned to walk to the door and Alex was standing there in the heat and smoke.

“Fuck, Rad. What have you become?” Alex did not seem to be too upset.

“They killed a family of Vamps and a lot of mortals.” Rad pushed Alex hard, shoving him out of the blazing basement that would soon consume the entire building.

His men were standing around in the alley. He pointed to one. “Call the fire department. I don’t want to burn down the whole block. Someone pick up the hardware and dump the clothes, quickly.” He walked out to the main street with Alex dancing on his heels and his men following, one on a cell phone.

“We have a safe house nearby, follow us there.” He spoke rapidly to Alex and was gone.

Chapter Two

Minty looked at the man across the counter from her, trying to maintain her calm. She really hated this shitty job.

Her job was to trace down fathers who were not paying child support by computer tracking. Sometimes she could find them and just send an email or a phone call, and they came in to explain why they weren’t paying. Sometimes she sent the information to the police and child services who sent someone after them. Sometimes she even had to go to court to prove what the computer trail had turned up in jobs and income, etc.

But she really hated it when they came in, because they hated her, and she was someone they could strike back against. Some gave her excuses, some cried, some yelled, and some blamed her. The state had provided her with a bullet proof Plexiglas window to sit behind, because of the possible violence. She often thought it made the fathers angrier.

“What kind of crazy name is Minty?” The guy pointed through the glass at the metal nametag on the plaque in front of her.

“Sir, it is just what I was given. It does not have any meaning. Now the records show that you have not met your obligation for the last six months. If you would like to give us a statement now, I can take it down and forward it to Family Services for you.” Minty pushed a loose strand of hair out of her face. She really needed to just cut it all off.

“The bitch just used me. I don’t think the kid is really mine. Besides, I haven’t held a fuckin’ job for a year. How the hell can I pay anything if I can’t work?” He leaned back in the chair and yanked at his zipper in his jacket.

“Sir, have you applied for unemployment compensation?” She pulled at her collar. She wore a blouse that was one of her usual, a pale color with long sleeves and buttoned up to the neck. She left the make-up for the pretty girls with the big boobs and just pulled her hair back in a severe clip.

“Fuck no, I haven’t been able to stay in one place long enough to file. Besides, you need a computer to file online. I can’t afford one.”

She let out a sigh. This was her last interview of the day. She spent the mornings on the computer doing the tracings. She was good at it, so they gave her extra time. In the afternoons she had to do the interviews. That was the part she hated. She did not deal with people well. She lived alone and preferred to stay alone. She just was not a people person.

“I need to give you this summons.” She slid the paperwork out through the lower slot in the window.

“What the fuck is this for?” He looked at the paper as if he had picked up a foreign object.

“That says you have to report next week to Family Services Court. They will want to talk to you about setting up some type of payment system.” She waited to let him answer.

He stood up, wadded up the paperwork and threw it at her. It just bounced off the window and he walked out of the building. Okay, she was done for the day. She pulled the shade down over the window. She shut off the monitor and pulled her purse and sweater out from under the desk front and pushed her chair in neatly. She turned to walk through the office in back to punch the time clock and head for home.

“Hey, Minty, do you need a ride? We will all be there.” The voice was Angela’s, the beautiful woman with the boobs and the makeup. Actually, she liked Angela. The other women were jealous of Angela, but the pretty woman in reality was very shy. She usually did not say much to anyone and turned aside all the passes from the male workers. They all said she was stuck up, but the time or two that Minty had been in the bathroom alone with her, she had given Minty a small smile.

The last time she had shocked Minty. She was washing her hands and Minty was pushing her wayward strands of hair back. She said. “You know you are really very beautiful.” Minty looked over at her frozen with her hand behind her ear. She smiled at the sexy woman in front of her.

“This is said by the woman who could be a Playboy Bunny.” Minty gave a big smile with the words.

Angela had laughed, but not in a funny way. “Well, God gave me what men think they want. God gave you what they need.”

She stood by the time clock, waiting for her time to punch out.

“I said, do you need a ride?” Angela was right behind her.

“I’m sorry, did I miss something?” Angela looked at someone ahead of them in the line.

“Marty’s retirement party at The Corner Toy Shop. We all have to go. I need you to help me get through the evening and keep the boss from trapping me in a corner. Please, please, Minty. I know you never go out, but I will drive, and I promise we will leave early. I can use you as an excuse because I will want to get away from this bunch. Eight hours, five days a week is enough. Please.” Angela had the saddest look on her pretty face.

Minty let out a big sigh. “I am doing this just for you, and we are leaving early. If you get tied up I will take a taxi home, so I don’t want you mad at me or anything, okay?” She got a big smile from Angela along with a nod of agreement.

As they all left the building there were lots of laughs accompanying a lot of promises of seeing each other at the local beer and pool hall. The two girls made their way over to Angela’s car. It was a small Chrysler convertible. By the time they got to the parking lot, the wind had whipped Minty’s hair out of the tight knot she always wore it in. After the drive to the party spot and when Angela had the car parked, Minty pulled the mirror down. She pulled a comb out and started to untangle her hair. She had the clip in her lap and as she reached for it Angela quickly grabbed it, tucking it away.

“Hey, I need that.” Minty reached for the hidden clasp.

“No you don’t. You have great hair. You’re out of the office, so let it down. In fact, I have an idea.” Angela pulled a tube of lipstick out of her own purse to hand over. “Come on, try it. Let’s see.”

“Look, I am the average book worm. You are the gorgeous pinup. Can’t make a silk purse out of a whatever.” She just held onto the tube without doing anything.

“You are not a
whatever
. I don’t know whoever told you that. So you are not a pinup. Neither was Grace Kelly, but she was in as many movies as Marilyn Monroe. Ended up married to a prince. Put on the lipstick.”

So Minty gave in and applied the coral lipstick. They got out of the car, but Angela stopped her. Angela unbuttoned Minty’s blouse. folding back the collar along with the first couple of buttons. She unhooked the belt that Minty had in her slacks that was hidden behind the overhang of the blouse that she had left lose over everything and pulled it tight around the blouse to tuck in her small waist.

Minty looked down and frowned. “Angela, this is not me.”

“Sure it is, honey. So maybe it will take some of the heat off of me for a change.” Angela looked up, taking Minty’s hand to drag her into the bar.

The bar was a local hangout. It was a large roomy combination of mixed areas. It was not fancy, but it had a good reputation. It had a lot of wood and a low ceiling in the long room and was very dark. At one end was a wraparound bar with young office workers on their way home, stopping for a short one with friends. The outside wall had large booths and the middle had plenty of mismatched tables that were pulled together to fit whatever size crowd came in. Since their group had called in ahead, there was a long set of tables pulled up for them.

Against the inside wall, opposite the booths, was a dance floor with a bandstand behind it. A small band was just starting to set up. The final end of the room was pool tables and dartboards. There were lights directly over the pool tables, but they were placed in such a way that the glare did not expand, so the whole place was a dim room that gave Minty the creeps. Minty had a phobia about the dark
—she slept
with all the lights on. She even had a backup light on batteries.

Evidently it just gave everyone else the thought of partying, because as soon as people came through the door they started to drink, laugh, and get loud. Angela grabbed her as they sat down next to two other women from the office, strategically placed to keep the men away.

Angela leaned over to whisper. “Let’s just order a couple of appetizers, then we can eat and run, okay?”

Minty nodded agreement so when the waitress got down to them, they placed their order for wings and nachos. They settled down with their water.

“Oh my God!” exclaimed one of the women sitting next to Angela. “I just went to heaven.”

Both Angela and Minty looked in the direction over the crowded room that the woman was staring. Two very tall large men had just come in through the door. In fact, they were so tall they actually had to duck their heads a little to miss the doorframe. They stood for a moment until one pointed at the bar over at one side and they headed towards it with everyone quickly parting out of their way.

There were a couple of things about the men besides the fact of their size. They were extremely good looking. They were dressed in casual business clothes, but the clothes looked expensive, even in the dim lights. Minty looked over her shoulder at them, using her hair to shield her face so it would not be obvious.

She was not the only one staring at the men. Most of the people in the room close enough to see them had turned around to gape with mouths open. Women started touching their hair and men pulled their shoulders straight.

There was something strange about them. They were both extremely handsome. The blond was like a movie star or model, yet they both looked too tough to be that type of person. Strange. Suddenly she thought that the blond was aware she was looking at him. It was as if across the long dark room, their eyes had met. She jerked around immediately, kicking herself mentally. Number one, there was no way he could have known she was looking right at him from this far away. Number two, these types of good looking men looked at women like Angela, not at plain women, like she saw in her mirror.

She found it interesting to get into the appetizers she was sharing with Angela. She pretended to not be listening to the talk around her or looking at astounding men who were out of her league. Angela turned down a request to dance. She was surprised when another guy from a different table came over and asked her to dance. She stammered as she turned him down. She fiddled with her water as Angela worked on a cocktail she was nursing. The waitress was reaching across them, placing another cocktail in front of Angela. Angela looked up in surprise as a small fluted glass full of shaved ice and deep green liquid was sat in front of Minty.