Greywalker - Kat Richardson [64]
“Ticket?”
I looked at Cam. He looked back and shrugged.
“Lost it.”
“Lost ticket pays the maximum—twenty dollars.”
I handed over a twenty and asked for a receipt. We passed the tow truck a block away. I parked the car under the Viaduct and turned to Cameron.
“You stay put here while I go back for my truck. I don’t want to have to hunt you down again.”
“I’ll stay right here,” he sighed. “Promise.”
I got out, taking the keys, and walked back to the garage. The man in the payment kiosk gave me an odd look when I pulled up again.
“Weren’t you just here?”
“Yeah. Had to drive my kid brother’s car out. He’s so smashed he can barely walk.”
He grunted and jerked his head, taking my money. “You want a receipt this time, too?”
“Yes. I’m going to make him pay me every cent.”
He chuckled and handed me the receipt. I drove away and parked next to Cameron’s Camaro. It was right where I’d left it. Cameron didn’t seem to be in the front seat, though.
“Cameron?” I yelled, looking around. I didn’t see him anywhere around the car. I stared at the passenger seat, furious and grinding my teeth. Something flickered. I breathed deeply and looked harder along the wavering edge of the Grey. I reached out and jerked the door open.
Cameron rolled onto the ground.
“Hey!” he yelled, jumping up. “You’re not supposed to be able to see me. That’s my best trick!”
“I didn’t have to see you, just your Grey shadow.”
“I don’t cast a shadow anymore.”
“You do if you know where to look.”
“Huh?”
“Never mind. I can see you. What I want to know is why can I see you in the paranormal?”
“I told you—I’m a vampire,” he snapped. There was that glare again. This time I was better prepared, but it still felt like an arctic wind had blown through my rib cage.
I studied him a little harder this time. His skin had a pallor that went beyond merely ill, all the way to waxy, and his eyes seemed to have an opaque glaze over the irises, deadening the vibrant violet I had expected to a pastel lilac. His grin was a dead giveaway: his canine teeth were prominent points and the gums had drawn back. I caught a whiff of something and gagged.
“Jeez, Cam, don’t you brush?” I asked.
“Kinda hard to see myself in the mirror, you know.”
“Not your hair, your teeth.”
Embarrassed, he rolled his lips over his teeth and looked abashed.
“OK, now tell me if I’m wrong. You’ve been sleeping in your car and cruising the Square at night for over a month now.”
“Mostly. I had another place for a while, at the beginning, but I got thrown out.”
“The beginning of what, Cameron?”
“Are you thick? Since the beginning of this vampire thing. I wasn’t born this way, you know.”
“Yeah, I figured. Your mother and sister seem pretty normal. So what happened?”
“I got into some trouble with a guy down here.”
“Getting turned into one of the living dead is the current rage in payback?”
“No,” he drawled at me as if I were not too bright. He stood there looking grim, then glanced around. “Could we get out of here? I feel kind of conspicuous.”
As he mentioned it, I remembered how often I’d felt observed lately myself. “We can go over to my office. It’s not far and we can park your car nearby.”
He gave a reluctant nod and we both got back into the Camaro. I drove to my building, concentrating very hard on looking calm and thinking fast. We parked and I led him up to my office, ignoring the alarm.
“Listen,” I started, sitting behind my desk. “I’m going to deal with your most immediate problems first and get the long story afterward, but you are going to tell me the story, one way or another.”
Cameron threw himself into the client chair. “Fine.”
“I take it you don’t feel safe, or you’d have gone back to your apartment, right?”
“Right. I was afraid I’d hurt RC, if I did. I get really hungry and kind of irrational right after I get up.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Hungry. How are you doing right now?” In