The Reluctant Vampire - Lynsay Sands [107]
“See, I told you he lifted three bars.”
Drina glanced to the man shoving something in his pocket while Jason worked at the lottery machine, but then her attention shifted back to the background as the nose of a vehicle appeared halfway up the left edge of the screen. The SUV, she was sure, and was proven right when Jason said, “That’s the Anders guy’s truck, and now the asswipe’s making his crack about locking up the till and store.”
Drina nodded but continued to watch without comment.
“Then he just stood there in the store for a bit like he was afraid to go out, like your Anders guy would rob him or something,” Jason commented with disgust. “There, Anders must be heading in to pay ’cause that’s when the guy scooted out.”
They watched the old man leave the store. Three seconds later, Anders entered and waited as Jason punched buttons and jiggled things on the cash register.
“I had trouble ringing him up. This is a new system, and it’s kind of glitchy,” Jason muttered, sounding both annoyed and embarrassed.
“Stop!” Drina barked suddenly, and Jason started, and then scrambled to grab the mouse and pause the image for her.
“What?” he asked, glancing at the screen uncertainly. “He’s just signing the slip.”
“Back it up, but just a little,” Drina said. He hit his mouse, it started to rewind, and Drina said, “Stop,” again.
Jason’s hand was on the mouse, and he paused it at once, but frowned. “I don’t see anything.”
Harper had apparently seen what she had. He leaned past Drina and pointed to the car on the street. It had just pulled out of the gas-station exit. “She’s in the backseat.”
Jason leaned closer and squinted. “I see a smudge that could be a head, but—”
“It’s her,” Drina assured him. She’d been watching the car when it had driven into view, headed for the exit. The backseat had been empty as it cruised to a stop at the street. Then it had turned onto the road, and a head had popped into view. It had to be Stephanie. “She hitched a ride.”
“That explains why we haven’t been able to find her walking the streets,” Harper muttered. “We should call Teddy and give him a description of the car and the license-plate number. He can pass it to everyone.”
“Good thinking,” Jason said, grabbing his mouse again. “I’ll make the image bigger and see if we can read it.”
“No need, I’ve got it,” Drina assured him. “Can I use the phone again?”
“Well, yeah, sure, but—” He fell silent as she turned sideways to pick up the phone on the counter behind them. Then he bent to squint at the screen again. Shaking his head, he glanced to Harper, and said, “There’s no way she can see the license plate, let alone read it.”
“She has very good eyes,” Harper said solemnly, as Drina punched in Teddy’s number.
“Man, that’s not good eyes, that’s whacked, superscary sci-fi eyes,” Jason assured him, and then frowned, and said, “You look familiar. Are you—” He stopped suddenly and slapped himself in the forehead. “You’re that vamp guy who rents a room next door to my buddy Owen’s place.”
Drina saw Harper wince and bit back a smile, but then Jason turned to her, his eyes widening farther.
“Oh, whoa, that means you’re probably one of the vamp chicks staying there. Aren’t you?”
“Owen is the son of Elvi’s neighbor,” Harper explained to her, then in answer to the question said, “Yes.”
“Damn,” Jason muttered, not even sparing Harper a glance. He then added mournfully, “I shoulda known. You’re too hot to be human.”
Drina just shook her head and turned her back to him. She was human, and she definitely was not too hot to be anything. In fact, she didn’t consider herself hot at all. She was really rather average. But she was immortal, and for some reason mortals tended to find them attractive. Beth had a theory about it. Since she drew a lot more attention from mortal men now that she was immortal, Beth suspected it was another little trick of the nanos, making their bodies create and release extrastrong pheromones to attract prey.
Drina had no idea if it was true or not and didn’t much care.
Teddy’s voice sounded in her ear,