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Sadie took a little pity on the poor boys. Frank had encouraged them to hit on her knowing full well what would happen. She kissed each one on the cheek in rapid order. “Don’t feel bad boys. I’ve been pulling that one on smarter folks than you since before either of you were born. And just to show there’s no hard feelings, I will let you stare at THIS ass,” she said, pointing towards her butt with both hands, “all the way into the store.” And then she strutted her stuff over to the door with Frank right next to her. But before she could go in —
“Miss Sadie?”
“Yes?” she replied, looking over her shoulder.
“It was worth it!” Both bikers broke into smiles, accepting they had been had.
She looked at Frank. “There’s hope for them boys yet. Now YOU owe me some nachos for making me late.”
“Will do. Nice tan, by the way.”
“I like it.” Vampires as a rule didn’t like sunlight, but they could tolerate it for periods of time based on sensitivity. The highly allergic broke out into a mean rash after about ten minutes of exposure and could actually burst into flame after half an hour. Sadie had a high tolerance for daylight, meaning she could stay in it long enough to do what only a few vampires could do . . . tan. It helped confuse a lot of people into thinking she was just a human girl who couldn’t be more than twenty years old. Little did they know.
Sadie got her ridiculously unhealthy nachos and soda, but though she might want to get something a little more nutritional. She looked over at the cashier, who had been checking out her rack since she got there. “Hey, got any Plasma-ade?”
“Thuh . . . third window next to the bathroom,” he stammered
‘Poor boy’s probably going to have an erection just because I talked to him.’ She grabbed some over her favorite flavor and headed to the counter. The other bikers had come in and were getting ribbed by Frank. Then one of them noticed that when Sadie pulled her walled out, a flap came down that had a shiny gold badge on it.
“Damn Frank, she’s a cop?!”
Frankenstein tried to look innocent. “I’ll explain later about how to watch out for Federal Arbiters.
“Bitch is an Arbiter? No offense ma’am.”
“None taken.” Arbiters were a different breed of cop. While they were assigned to districts and the control of local police forces, they had the authority to make arrests anywhere. An Arbiter’s word was as good as gold in court too, so getting into their ranks took a hell of a lot of work. But all that authority tended to make people edgy.
Frank walked her back to her truck and gave her a hug before she climbed in. “I’ve missed you. I take it you won’t be hard to find?”
“Nope, but give me the name of a local hangout I can reach you. Once I get settled in, I may need a good drink”
“Let’s see . . . a place you might like. Hmm. Oh yeah, there’s the Cat Scratch Lounge. If you can’t find something you like there, you ain’t breathing. Figuratively, of course.” He rolled his eyes. “Forgot you don’t actually breathe.”
Sadie laughed as she closed her door, revved the engine and cranked up the Jimmy Buffet before tearing off down the road at seriously unsafe speeds.
———– ——————–
An hour later . . .
———– ——————–
She pulled into a “visitor” spot at the Midian Precinct Thirteen station house, figuring it might not hurt to check in with her new supervisor before getting a good day’s sleep. The pavement of the parking lot had potholes big enough to require bridges, and there were steel plates where the windows used to be. It looked more like a fortress than a precinct. Sadie smiled. “I think I’m going to like it here.”
She walked inside, earning a few more stares and cat calls from local badges and criminals alike. The girl at the front desk was a total goth chick, complete with nose-ring, black clothes, lipstick and eye-liner, as well as a general sense of “oh-cruel-world” that permeated the surrounding area.
‘But she’s cute,’ Sadie thought. She wondered how long it would take to establish a good booty-call list? Vampires were the only of the races who could not actually breed by sexual intercourse. They needed a blood-sharing with another humanoid race to make more vampires. Once reproductive success is removed as a factor in sex, then it becomes all about pleasure, regardless of who the partner is. The majority of vampires were bisexual, participating in sex just for the sensations and for the fun, and Sadie really liked to have fun.
“Hey,” the girl grunted.
“Howdy . . . Melissa,” Sadie said, beaming her brightest smile. “I’m here to talk to Captain Grom.”
“The Captain is very busy,” Melissa responded in a monotone that would make a zombie proud. “If you would like to leave your name and a brief message,” the girl added, pushing a yellow sticky note pad over the counter, “then I’m sure he’ll get back to you soon.”
Sadie decided right then and there that she and Melissa were going to be friends. She didn’t know why, but she didn’t question the desire. This was a common thing for her. And if she knew ONE thing about goth chics —
“I’m sorry, I guess I didn’t explain myself,” she purred, leaning forward and letting the desk push her breasts up a little. “My name is Arbiter Sadie Hewitt, and the Captain is expecting me.”
The girl, much to her credit, remained relatively cool. Her eyes did go wider and Sadie could sense her blood pulsing a little faster. The girl’s eyes were drawn upward, slowing as Sadie’s beautiful cleavage came into view and then continuing on to her face. The girl was looking closely at Sadie’s slightly-parted lips. The vampire extended her fangs just a bit, and she heard Melissa moan ever so softly under her breath.
‘Yep,’ Sadie thought. ‘Goths dig vampires.’NôvelDrama.Org holds this content.
“I’ll check to see if Captain Grom is available,” she said calmly, with just the faintest hint of trembling in her voice.
“I’d REALLY appreciate that,” she murmured, licking her top teeth slowly but not making it to obvious. She took delight in watching Melissa swallow a breath and then hurrying into the maze of desks, heading towards the Captain’s office. About then, she realized that about a dozen people had stopped to stare at the little encounter. “What?” she said, faking being angry. The crowd rapidly dispersed and left her to smile. ‘This is gonna be fun!’
Melissa returned to her desk and her previous stoic calm. “He’s over there.” She tipped her head.
“Thanks Mel!” Sadie said, taking the girl’s hand and kissing it. “You are a consummate professional, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”
She walked past, glancing out of the corner of her eye. The goth chick was just staring at her hand, wondering what the hell that was about. Finally, she wiped the hand off on her jeans. Sadie navigated the desk maze and stopped to try and wipe a smudge off of the brass nameplate that so succinctly said, “Captain Grom.”
“That’s better.”
Captain Grom’s office was, to put it nicely, tidy. Sadie normally would have gone with “anal,” but she decided to give the man the benefit of the doubt. There was a wand rack on one side of the chair behind and a staff rack on the other.
‘Wizard,” Said thought. ‘Could be worse.’
There were three categories of magical practitioners, regardless of gender. Wizards focused directed energy into staffs and wands or other similar devices and used them like weapons. Witches needed casting circles, cauldrons and components, but could effect a wider variety of spells over a wider area. Sorcerers needed nothing but their own will, but the lack of foci to take the weight and the sting of spelling slinging off their shoulders, they didn’t tend to throw anything too big.
“Miss Hewitt,” the Captain said, standing and offering her his hand. She ignored it and gave him a back-slapping hug. When she withdrew, she saw that he had closed his eyes and was counting to ten.
‘Great,’ she thought. ‘He’s got personal space issues.’
“Please, don’t do that,” he said, settling back into his chair. Captain William Grom was in his early forties, but seemed to be holding up rather well. Salt-and-pepper neatly groomed hair over a square face and even squarer chin. Sadie pegged him as being former military . . . he just had a way about him. “Nothing personal,” he continued. “I just prefer to maintain a certain sense of decorum. No one else does, but I do.”
“No sweat Grommie,” she said, leaning back in one of the guest chairs and kicking her heels up on his desk. After being glared at for twenty seconds in absolute silence, she slowly lowered her feet back to the floor. “Sorry.”
He looked at her, then at the file on his desk. “I’m a little surprised to see you in. You must have made good time. How was your trip?”
“Good. Rained like hell coming up the coast, but I guess I’d better get used to it.”
“I must admit that I’m surprised that the Feds would send and Arbiter, but I’d be lying if I said we didn’t need it. We’ve got a lot of people out citywide, so having someone to help tow the line will be a blessing. And a vampire to boot. Of course, there are parts of Midian that really don’t care for vampires, but many of them don’t care for humans either.” He flipped a couple of pages on her record. “Seems exemplary,” he muttered. “So you’ve been an Arbiter for –”
“About twenty years,” she said.
“Twenty years?” He looked at her through the tops of his eyes. “Impressive.” Then his brow creased. “I see that you have a large number of . . . altercations, but they all seem to be in order.” He stopped, staring at a color photograph.