camera until it swung by, got out and walked away in the direction of the blindspot. Gweneth had suggested it as a way to make sure no one bothered the car while she slept. When I left the car I made sure I didn’t appear to hurry.
After my errands were done and I had gotten some sleep, I went back and got the Mercedes. Driving out of the parking deck I felt conspicuous, but no one seemed to notice me. The sun set as I was driving back to the motel. I heard movement in the trunk. The backseat shifted and then flipped up. I saw Gweneth’s pale face in the gap between the seat and the back. She stretched and slid into the passenger seat with ease.
“Good evening” she said, surveying her surroundings thru the windows. I headed back to the motel.
We spent the evening making plans for my identity change and discussing what had happened. She had a plastic surgeon lined up for the following evening and we talked about the subtle changes I would have made. I kept reaching up to mess with my hair. This smooth head was going to take some getting used to. Gweneth laughed, “It is not the last change that will take some getting used to” she said. Apparently she saw that she startled me. “No, I cannot read your mind” she said, “It is not hard to tell you are unaccustomed to a smooth pate”. She laughed again and this time I joined her.
“Chris, I have an offer for you, if you would like to hear it” she said seriously. “I told you I would help you change your identity and support you until you found employment” she said. “But I also have a job offer for you”.
“I could use a coimeadai” she said earnestly. “I’ve been without assistance for so long I have grown accustomed to self sufficiency, but there are times it would be very handy” she explained. “I have never been popular with the rank and file, but my actions have caused some to question my loyalty to my kind” she explained.
“That might make sense if I knew what a….what was that name again?” I asked.
“A coimeadai is a living assistant or daytime keeper for my kind” she explained.
“Like Renfield?” I asked.
She burst out laughing. “No more so than I am like Dracula” she said smiling. When I didn’t respond she said “Listen to them, the children of the night. What beautiful music they make” in a pretty fair impersonation of Lugosi’s famous accent. I couldn’t help but laugh.
“”No, the coimeadai is an assistant, not a slave” she explained. “There are degrees of connection to their, for lack of a better word ‘employer’” she continued. “It is more than an employer/employee relationship, but not a master/slave situation”.
“But we can make it strictly ‘For Hire’ situation if you prefer” she said.
“If you have gone so long without a comedi..whatever, why now?” I asked.
“Things are changing, Mr. Hixon, and I am unsure of the direction of things to come” she said.
“The number of humans I can trust can be counted on one hand” she said with a touch of regret.
“You are talking about the bounty placed on me?” I asked.
“That is only part of it” she replied. “There was a time when my kind would have stood against Sorvine and you would never have known” she said. “That my kind did not hunt him is alarming. That they would punish a human for killing him is unheard of in my time. That The Council would rule against you without investigating is beyond my imagining”.
I looked her in the eye and announced my intentions, “I am going to kill whoever sent them after me”.
“You were exceedingly lucky in your war with Sorvine” she said. “But my kind cannot be lured into drowning in a river because they are exhausted”.
“Gweneth, I am in your debt and eternally grateful for all you have done for my family” I said, “But those bastards have to pay” I finished as resolutely as I could. “Because of their inaction, I had to help my daughter become a vampire” I said through my teeth. I stared straight ahead and gripped arms of my chair, “And because of what they did I had to stake my wife”. “There is no forgiving them for causing Kristy’s murder and there is no forgiving them for using her body.” I said, without looking at Gweneth.
“Chris, I have no words to describe how dangerous the older vampires are” she said earnestly.
I realized she was not just afraid for me. She was afraid of them too.
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