“You did wonderfully Keeley. I thought I was listening to a thirty year old business woman for a while there.” She patted Keeley’s back, which gave hints about what she knew or not. Luckily Keeley had been ready for that and just happened to not “catch” the information. Having information was different than knowing you had it.
Dan walked along behind them and gestured to his car, a nice silver thing that probably cost more than most houses. The upholstery was black, and the whole thing gleamed in one way or another, even the rubber tires had a bit of shine to them. At least on the sidewalls. He waited for Keeley to hand off the Key’s to Frieda to her mom and then for Sherry to drive off before doing anything.
After they settled into the cushy interior and the car was turned on, making it purr so quietly it didn’t really sound like a car at all, Dan turned to her.
“Hungry?”
“Starved.” She was after all. Constantly. She’d missed breakfast and then set up three deals, each one draining her just a little.
The man next to her smiled and gave her an impressed look.
“Three? You’ve only been doing this for a week too. That’s pretty impressive. Keep this up and soon you’ll be running the country.” The car pulled out smoothly, he was very careful when he drove, all the Demons she knew so far had been.
“Who’d want to run a country? Sounds like a lot of work, with very little pay off. Besides, I’m only on my first job and not even out of the mailroom yet. I think I might have a bit to go before trying anything that ambitious. A couple of weeks at least.”
That got a hearty laugh, after a few seconds the Demon pulled into a McDonald’s and got in the drive-through lane. It made sense, they could pretend they were getting breakfast for a dozen people and no one would think anything of it. Her stomach tried to eat itself in its hunger while they waited, which was annoying. What she’d done earlier must have really burned through a lot of energy. Almost everything she did had to, she realized.
Oops.
It probably made sense not to waste energy then, until she got a handle on things. Live and learn no doubt.
“It does take some time.” Dan spoke as if they’d been talking out loud, so she answered that way.
“Well, if I can make it through the next few years, I’ll probably have figured it out. So far it’s going alright. You know, the not dying yet thing.”
Then Dan wanted to know all about her training, what Darla was up too and if she was dating or not, and if so, how many people, or beings. Shaking her head Keeley refused to tell him anything. He was a Demon after all, not that he couldn’t find out by reading her mind, but hey, if he wanted to know she was single, straight and sixteen, he could figure it out for himself the way everyone else did. Stalking her on the internet.
That got another laugh at least.
“A real point, you don’t know me yet. I’m not a threat to you though. Or Darla. I hope that in time we can be friends. Life is far too long to go it alone Keeley. Not everyone will help you, but it can’t hurt to be aware of those that are willing.”
They ordered, got the food and sat eating hungrily for about half an hour before contacting the first caterer using Dan’s cell. That was a bust, since they were busy on Friday night already. The next two as well. It wasn’t until they got to the fourth one that they hit pay dirt. They had the staff to handle five separate functions, if they weren’t too elaborate, and just had a really large cancelation not ten minutes before.
Convenient. Maybe too much so.
Then, things did just happen in real life, so Keeley decided to just be a little wary and accept it as normal unless something showed it to be otherwise.
The trip over was uneventful, morning traffic being light. It didn’t hurt that Dan kept hitting all the lights as they turned green, perfectly. Some of the lights in the city were timed, so if you drove at twenty-seven miles per hour after hitting the first one, you never had to stop. This stretch was the main street area though, and wasn’t like that at all. Keeley was just about to ask when the man spoke, changing the topic all together.
“I was wondering if you had plans for Halloween? I’m holding a party and I’d love it if you and Darla could come. No one will be there that can’t know about you, of course. I wouldn’t have invited any of that type anyway. It might be a good place for you to start building contacts. It never hurts to know people, as they say.” He sounded bored by the topic, that or dry, but Keeley understood the idea. He didn’t want her to think it was a set up.
Which probably meant it was.
“Which, since you can read my mind, you know I’m thinking.” It was hard to get used to, people being able to do things like that.
“I’ll check with Darla and see what she says about it.” That was all she said, but he nodded as if it would be expected.
“Exactly right. She’s your mentor for a reason. Good head on her shoulders if a little young for the job. But you have to start sometime and I think you’re a great first mentoring project for her. Or you will be if you can stay alive.” As he pulled into the small parking lot with a blue and white sign for Clara’s Catering on the side of a small white building about the size of the Yorks house but with a flat roof and boxier appearance, Dan sighed.
“I hope that doesn’t bother you? That she’s so new to all this? If you two run into any problems, just know that I’m available to help at any time.”
Keeley nodded, hoping that wouldn’t be needed. She liked Darla and it really would be sad if she failed in her new job. Especially since that would mean that a certain baby Demon would be dead.
They didn’t speak after that, just walking to the door of the establishment and walking in, since the sign said they were open. In the front there were a few small tables with glass tops, and old, but matching wrought iron chairs with fairly new looking burgundy seat cushions on them, the place smelled of cookies. Chocolate chip to be exact.
There was a quick sound of footsteps from the back, and after a second a medium sized woman, who was round faced, and had a body best called sturdy, rather than fat, entered. She was followed by a short man with a very similar build. Both had brown hair, but the woman’s was so curly it looked almost like a helmet on her head and the man’s was perfectly straight and ran down his back, where it was hanging, thanks to the ponytail it was in.
Like her own. Maybe they could form a club or something?
“Are you here about the parties then? The ones for the school children?” The accent was flat and a little nasal when the woman spoke, sounding both foreign and odd enough Keeley didn’t have a chance to place it, but the tone was friendly, almost motherly.
Stepping forward to meet them, Keeley held out her right hand. It was uncomfortable, but this was a professional situation, so she kind of had to do it. That or be taken for a kid playing games. It might be true, but she didn’t want them to think that. The money was real after all.
The lady wiped her right hand on a small clean looking white rag tucked into her belt, the one holding her white smock shut and then clasped her hand firmly. The shock of it was worse than anything Keeley had ever dealt with before. The woman wasn’t just old, she was ancient. Five or six hundred years, maybe more. She didn’t know herself even. There had been some years lost in there somewhere.
Obviously she also wasn’t human.
It was all Keeley could do to hide her reaction, striving for calm instead. Horrible things had happened to this woman. Rape, torture, worse things than that even. On the good side, her people, who’s name Keeley wasn’t going to even try to pronounce yet, but who were commonly called “Hsreth”, were great in the kitchen, and at homemaking in general. Parties too.
They loved parties.
The man put his hand out as well. For half a second she wanted to skip it, but she had to know, just in case he was something else, didn’t she?
He was.
It wasn’t bad though, he was just a younger version of the woman. Her only child, who was, also, by and large, a copy of her. Asexual reproduction being their way. The man would turn into a female when it wanted to give birth. Then it could go back and forth at need or desire.
She managed to not sound like she was having a stroke as she spoke, though honestly Keeley didn’t really know how she managed it at all. She felt a bit like she was after all, face tingling and lips starting to go numb. She searched the memories inside her and found the answer first in the older woman’s memories. It was a contact poison.
Not meant to kill, just relax and subdue anyone touched. They weren’t violent people, the action wasn’t an attack, it was just a natural defense mechanism. That was good, because she still really wanted to hire them for the parties based on what she’d already found out. They were practically miracle workers in their field. It took a moment, but she was able to return to normal almost instantly, without even slurring what she said overly.
“That’s right. It’s for five parties, and the time window for preparation is short. Outside night events, tomorrow night, late. They could run all night. The weather report says it will be clear, though slightly cool.” Looking to the right Keeley could see that Dan, though he had a smile on his face, was staring at her a little bit.
“Oh! Sorry, my manners. Um, I’m Keeley Thomson and this is Dan Carmichael. He’s the Coretechs representative for this, they’re paying for it all.” It sounded a little lame, but the older woman nodded as if it was pretty clever for her to have managed it, being so young.
That was kind of true even, so Keeley could see it as valid enough. If anyone showed up at all, it would be even better. They’d need something pretty impressive to try and get bodies to actually show up that late, on such short notice. Normally they could just open a free bar or pass out drugs, but that would kind of be counter to the whole idea really.
The woman spoke for both of them, as the man, who looked the same age as she did, looked down, with a shy smile.
“Clara and Glen Taggard. Nice to meet you.”
Neither shook hands with Dan, but that seemed natural for some reason. Even he didn’t act like it was strange and didn’t put his own hand out, even though he always had with Sherry when they’d met.
The plans came in quickly and frankly, Keeley was impressed. The older woman took charge and came up with three different proposals that could be done in time. The one that felt right was just a fairly simple thing, a few tables at each, decorations, with some rented music systems and a dozen mixed CD’s at each location. There would be soda, assorted snacks and a bonfire at each location too. That sounded cool, but Keeley didn’t think that the city would want smoldering embers for days sitting in their parks like that.
“No problem. Not at all, we’ll just get some metal stands to put them on and cart them out in the morning after things have died down. Or, if as you said, no one comes, then we can just not light them and save time all around.” Clara made notes the whole time, and looked really interested. None of this was exactly amazing stuff, but seriously, Keeley had only come up with the idea the day before. If they could have snacks and some tunes, it would be close to a real miracle.
Clara hopped up and clapped her hands a couple of times.
“Oh, I know, how about some sandwiches? I can make up some delightful finger sandwiches that might be alright, and a few huge things for those American Football players. They seem like the type that would like to eat, don’t you think? Here, let me make up a few as an example, won’t take but a minute.” She left, bustling a little, moving right along really.
Faster than was natural for a human. Not too much though. It was the son Glen that suggested they put out a large bowl of condoms. He blushed when he said it, but Dan nodded.
“Good call. This is a bit of conservative area, so we’ll want to be discreet with it, but it should give the kids a sense that it’s a grownup party without causing too many problems.”
Keeley fought rolling her eyes and then didn’t bother.
“This area is nice enough, but, yeah, that might be an issue. They barely agreed to teach anything but abstinence in the schools here. Because we all know how well telling kids “no” works. I do agree though, we should to that. Better they get them from us than do without and catch VD at our party.” Or get pregnant.
The issue was handled easily enough, since they all agreed on the subject and Glen worked up a few tricks to hide the fact that they were doing it. Mainly just covered dishes, but Keeley shook her head.
“No one will get them then. To embarrassing. We’ll just get some of the cheerleaders to hand them out to anyone that wants them. Sex sells and even if it’s not true, a hot girl handing you a condom kind of seems like a promise of sex later. Tell them to be low key about it. No, I think I should do it, then the worst they can do is suspend me from school for it. That won’t harm my livelihood or anything. Still, if you could pick them up? I don’t really want to try going into a pharmacy and buying them in bulk, to be honest. Just shy that way.”
Glen let his head nod, and looked off toward the front, eyes going a little wide.
“Oh my.” He said, as someone came to the door, then stepped in so smoothly the bell at the top didn’t even ring. Glen hopped up and called out loudly.
“Clara? We… have a visitor.” They did a rather bland looking woman of about fifty or so. Not overly tall, about five-four, a nice tan color, but it was fake, Keeley could see. Her clothing was professional, but has that casual air about it that some teachers at school had going most days. Dressed better than a regular kid, but not exactly in a dress with flowers pinned on.
There was a sound from the back as the older woman, being, scurried out holding a decently large tray of sandwiches with eight types on it. Hoagies and tiny finger sandwiches, but ones with five layers of bread held together with toothpicks and something that looked like it had a pastry crust, which smelled fresh.
Because sure, she’d had time to make that.
She sat the tray on the table and stared at the woman that had come in with fear, a thing almost verging on terror. Her breath came in soft pants for a second and it looked almost like she might just run. Keeley didn’t see why, but decided to try and stay ready anyway. Dan raised his eyebrows at her and scooted back and to the right a good bit, leaving the new woman trapped between them.