Samantha Moon: First Eight Novels, Plus One Novella Read Online Free Page B

Fine,” I said. “What else you got for me?”
    “ Does the blood, you know, have to be human blood?”
    “ Any mammalian blood will do,” I said.
    “ Where do you get the blood?”
    “ I buy it.”
    “ From where?” she asked.
    “ I have a contract with a butchery in Norco. I buy it by the month-load. It’s in my freezer in the garage.”
    “ The one with the padlock?” she asked. I think her own blood drained from her face.
    “ Yes,” I answered.
    “ What happens if you don’t drink blood?”
    “ Probably shrivel up and die.”
    “ Do you want to change the subject?” she asked gently.
    She knew my moods better than anyone, even my husband. “Please.”
    Mary Lou grinned. She caught the attention of the bartender and pointed to her martini. He nodded. The bartender was cute, a fact not lost on Mary Lou.
    “ So what case are you currently working on?” she asked, stealing glances at the man’s posterior.
    “ You done checking out the bartender?”
    She reddened. “Yes.”
    So I told her about my case. She remembered seeing it on TV.
    “ Any leads yet?” she asked, breathless. Mary Lou tended to think that what I did for a living was more exciting than it actually was. Her drink came but she ignored it.
    “ No,” I said. “Just hunches.”
    “ But your hunches are better than most anyone’s.”
    “ Yes,” I said. “It’s a side effect.”
    “ A good side effect.”
    I nodded. “Hey, if I have to give up raspberry cheesecakes, I might as well get something out of the deal.”
    “Like highly attuned hunches.”
    “ That’s one of them,” I said.
    “ What else?” she asked.
    “ I thought we were changing the subject.”
    “ C’mon, I’ve never known...someone like you.”
    “ Don’t you mean some thing ?”
    “ No,” she said. “That’s not what I mean. You’re a good mother, a good wife, and a good sister. You are much more than a thing . So tell me, what are the other side effects?”
    “ You saying all that just to butter me up?”
    “ Yes and no,” she said, grinning. “So tell me. Now.”
    I laughed. “Okay, you win. I have enhanced strength and speed.”
    She nodded. “What else?”
    “ I seem to be disease and sickness free.”
    “ What about shape-changing?”
    “ Shape-changing?”
    “ Yes.”
    Having my sister ask if I could shape-change struck me as so ridiculous that I burst out laughing. Mary Lou watched me briefly, then caught on because she always catches on. Soon we were both giggling hysterically, and we had the attention of everyone in the bar. I hate having people’s attention, but I needed the laugh. Needed it bad.
    “ No,” I said finally, wiping the tears from my eyes. “I can’t shape-change. Then again, I’ve never tried.”
    “ Then maybe you can ,” she said finally, after catching her own breath.
    “ Honestly, I’ve never thought about it. There’s just been too much other crap to deal with, and this... condition of mine doesn’t exactly come with a handbook.”
    “ So you learn as you go,” said Mary Lou.
    “ Yes,” I said. “Sort of like The Greatest American Hero .”
    “ Yeah, like him.”
    We drank some more. My stomach was beginning to hurt. I pushed the wine aside.
    “You ever going to tell me what happened to you?” Mary Lou’s words were forming slower. The martinis had something to do with that. “How you became, you know, what you are?”
    I looked away. “Someday, Mary Lou.”
    “But not today.”
    “ No,” I said. “Not today.”
    Mary Lou turned in her stool and faced me. Her big, round eyes were glassy. Her nose was more slender than mine, but we resembled each other in every other way. We were sisters through and through.
    “So how do you do it?” she asked.
    “ Do what?”
    “ Look so normal. Act so normal. Be so normal. Hell, life’s hard enough as it is without something like this coming out of left field and knocking you upside your ass. How do you do it?”
    “ I do it because I have