The Vampires Assistant Page 0,14

a good cook?"

"I can cook stew. Mr. Crepsley taught me."

"Have you ever cooked for thirty or forty humans?"

"No."

"Too bad. Maybe you'll learn."He flipped through another couple of pages. "Can you sew?"

"No."

"Have you washed clothes before?"

"By hand?"

"Yes."

"No."

"Hmmm."He flipped some more, then snapped the book shut. "Okay,"he said, "until we find a more permanent position for you, stick with Evra and help him with his chores. Does that sound fair?"

"I'd like that,"I said.

"You don't mind, Evra?"he asked the snake-boy.

"Not at all,"Evra replied.

"Very well. It's settled. Evra will be in charge of you until further notice. Do what he says. When your colleague-in-blood arises,"- he meant Mr. Crepsley - "you're free to spend the night with him if he so desires. We'll see how you do, then make a decision on how best to utilize your talents."

"Thank you,"I said.

"My pleasure,"he replied.

I expected him to suddenly vanish then, but instead he turned and walked away slowly, whistling, enjoying the sunshine.

"Well, Darren,"Evra said, sticking a scaly arm around my shoulders, "looks like you and I are partners now. How do you feel about that?"

"I feel good... partner."

"Cool!"He slapped my shoulder and gulped down the last of his sausage. "Then let's get going."

"What do we do first?"I asked.

"What we'll be doing first every morning,"Evra said. "Milking the poison from the fangs of my snake."

"Oh,"I said. "Is it dangerous?"

"Only if she bites before we finish,"Evra said, then laughed at my expression and pushed me ahead of him to the tent.
CHAPTER NINE
Evra did the milking himself - to my great relief - then we brought the snake outside and laid her on the grass. We grabbed buckets of water and scrubbed her down with really soft sponges.

After that, we had to feed the wolf-man. His cage was near the back of the campsite. He roared when he saw us coming. He looked as angry and dangerous as he had that night I went to see the Cirque with Steve. He shook the bars and lunged at us if we got too close - which we didn't!

"Why is he so vicious?"I asked, tossing him a large chunk of raw meat, which he grabbed in midair and bit into.

"Because he's a real wolf-man,"Evra said. "He's not just somebody very hairy. He's half human, half wolf."

"Isn't it cruel to keep him chained up?"I asked, throwing him another slice of meat.

"If we didn't, he'd run free and kill people. The mix of human and wolf blood has driven him mad. He wouldn't just kill when he was hungry; if he was free, he'd murder all the time."

"Isn't there a cure?"I asked, feeling sorry for him.

"There isn't a cure because it isn't a disease,"Evra explained. "This isn't something he caught, it's how he was born. This is what he is."

"How did it happen?"I asked.

Evra looked at me seriously. "Do you really want to know?"

I stared at the hairy monster in the cage, ripping up the meat as if it were cotton candy, then gulped and said, "No, I suppose I don't."

We did a bunch of jobs after that. We peeled potatoes for the night's dinner, helped repair a tire on one of the cars, spent an hour painting the roof of a van, and walked a dog. Evra said most days were like this, just wandering through the camp, seeing what needed doing, helping out here and there.

In the evening we took a garbage bag full of cans and broken pieces of glass to the tent of Rhamus Twobellies, a huge man who could eat anything. I wanted to stay and watch him eat, but Evra hurried me out. Rhamus didn't like people watching him eat when he wasn't performing.

We had a lot of time to ourselves, and during our quieter moments we told each other about our lives - where we'd come from and how we'd grown up.

Evra had been born to ordinary parents. They were horrified when they saw him. They abandoned him at an orphanage, where he stayed until an evil circus owner bought him at the age of four.

"Those were bad days,"he said quietly. "He used to beat me and treat me like a real snake. He kept me locked up in a glass case and let people pay to look at me and laugh."

He was with the circus for seven long, miserable years, touring small towns, being made to feel ugly and freakish and useless.

Finally, Mr. Tall came to the rescue.

"He showed up one night,"Evra said. "He appeared suddenly out of the darkness and stood by my cage