Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 102166 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 511(@200wpm)___ 409(@250wpm)___ 341(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102166 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 511(@200wpm)___ 409(@250wpm)___ 341(@300wpm)
“Wow, that’s rude,” Arden said.
“What’s rude?” Iris asked, looking behind her, where Arden’s gaze was, but not seeing anything.
“Your little old ghost lady just flipped you a double bird.”
“You can see her?”
“You can’t?”
“No. She walks through me sometimes, but that’s it.”
“She thinks that’s hilarious,” Arden said. “Also, she says you were reading a spicy romance and that you cried when the duke proposed at the masquerade.”
“I had something in my eye,” Selene insisted, chin jerking up. “It’s called disbelief.”
“Sure, sure, sweetheart,” he said, heading toward the door.
Selene turned back to the store in general and hissed a quiet, “Snitch!” at her ghostly predecessor.
“She wasn’t dealing with dementia at the end of her life, by the way,” Arden said.
“Then why is she always doing inventory?”
“Darling, what makes you think she’s doing inventory? She’s just screwing with you.”
Selene stopped to gape at him. “But why?”
“Something about a cash register.”
“Seriously? The ancient thing didn’t even work anymore!” Selene yelled into the store, making a book fall off a shelf. “Real mature,” she grumbled.
“She says you could get it fixed. In fact, she demands it.” As if to emphasize her point, another book flew off the shelf, whacking Iris in the shoulder.
“Ow,” Iris grumbled, leaning down to grab and right the book.
“It was her father’s cash register. She says it belongs on the counter he built, where you read your smutty books.” That last part made Arden’s lips twitch.
“Fine, you old bat. I’ll get the thing fixed. But I can’t actually use it. It doesn’t take credit cards. Let’s go. I need all the cake.”
With that, they were out.
“What’s wrong?” Selene asked when Iris hesitated at the top of the stairs that led down to, she assumed, the subway platform.
“I’ve never been,” she admitted.
“Really? What have you been doing since you came to the land? Walking everywhere?”
“I haven’t been going out much now that Monty has started his social climbing and networking. I’ve mostly been just getting food from local places and reading. And, you know, collecting bugs and teeth.”
“And trying to learn how to use her cell phone,” Arden added. “That accidental dial while you were belting out a Celine Dion chart-topper was hilarious, by the way.”
“Gee, thanks,” Iris said, wincing at the memory of realizing she hadn’t ‘been alone’ while she got dressed, like she thought.
“We’ve got you,” Selene said, sliding her arm through Iris’s and leading her down the steps.
“Are there vampires down here?” she asked.
“No need to whisper. It’s not a bad word,” Selene assured her.
“Do we have to … worry at all?”
From what Iris understood from her studies, history with more predatory paranormals like vampires had been vast and confusing. There’d been uprisings, assassinations, and many attacks and killings.
“Not anymore,” Selene assured her.
“They have to carry bite consent cards now. It’s all very gauche,” Arden supplied.
“I’ve seen those in a bunch of stores,” Iris said. “How do they work?”
“Vampires and donors alike have to carry cards. If the two parties agree to a feeding, each has to sign the other’s card to show they consented to it,” Arden explained.
“But … can’t vampires compel a human to sign even if they didn’t consent?” Iris asked.
“It’s not a perfect system,” Selene agreed. “But it was a major piece of legislation to make sure there were no more instances of anyone being drained. This way, the government can enforce punishments if a vampire does something bad.”
“They had to build specific prisons for vampires,” Arden went on as they walked into the mezzanine. “No windows. Blood banks. They’re very sleek.”
“Anyway, if they drain a human now, they get a ‘remainder of life’ sentence. So if they drained a twenty-year-old human who should have lived to eighty, they get the remaining sixty years in jail.”
“Actually, isn’t that the law that went into place after Finn’s father was killed?”
“Yeah, I think that was what got it pushed through, but it was working its way through the courts for a while before then,” Selene said. “You go with Arden through the turnstiles,” she said. “I have to use the booth.” She gestured toward where a person was sitting inside a booth.
“Why?”
“So I don’t use spells to avoid paying. Meet you on the other side.”
With that, they made their way onto the subway platform, where Iris tried not to gawk at a crew of vampires—dressed in stereotypical all-black—as they made their way off of a subway car and into the dark tunnels in the walls that allowed them to move through the city without exposure to the deadly sunlight.
Iris comforted herself with the fact that even many of the other humans and paranormals watched the group disappear.
They clambered onto the train, and Iris checked out the enchanted graffiti that shimmered and shifted as the subway whooshed forward, making her stomach feel like it was taking off ahead of her body.