Present Tense (Out of the Fire #3) - Candace Blevins Page 0,49
She switched to Australian. “My character was born in the outback of Straya, but she was raised on the outskirts of Melbourne. She’s here to do a job, not here to fuck spiders. She’s dry as a dead dingo’s donger, so she’ll just blow the froth off a few and get to work.”
Eunice shook his head. “And you?”
She shrugged and did her best impression of an American. “Kelsey grew up in bumfuck fly-over country. Graduated from MIT and recently moved to Chattanooga to harden the network for a security company.”
“And you know enough about MIT to pull that off?”
“Yeah. I did a semester there a dozen years ago, during Australia’s summer, so I know the area. A vampire went into the minds of the professors and students at the end of last year to put longer term memories of me in. I paid extra for an identity with a degree from MIT. The vampire who worked it made notes of things in the students’ heads. Random stuff about professors, favorite hangouts, parking, dorms.”
The people who make new identities for vampires had offered her a job, since it requires a good bit of hacking to pull it off, but she’d been happier with the offer from Drake Security. A big part of that was the choice between America or Italy. One look at the tax rates had told her all she needed to know. Also, she knew English, French, Mandarin, and enough Spanish to pick up the high points — but very little Italian.
They dropped Etta off, and about a half-mile later, pulled into a modest home in a beautiful neighborhood with the forest coming up to the backyard. “I didn’t expect so many Americans to live with the forest in their backyard. I assumed you did because the three of you are shapeshifters, but you said this man is human?”
“He happens to live right outside a national park — the Chickamauga Battlefield. We’ve dipped down into Georgia, just a few miles over the line. I’m not actually sure how common it is. Probably isn’t.” He took his seatbelt off and turned to her. “I have a compromise for you. Go with the Australian character, but try to only speak Australian intentionally. If you do it by accident, you’ll be honest and tell me, and there will be consequences.”
As compromises went, it wasn’t terrible. This kept her or Etta from having to rearrange anyone’s memories, which took some pressure off her. It didn’t take it all, but she understood why he didn’t want to give her an excuse to let it drop. Still, she’d wanted to be able to forget about it more.
“I’m going to have to work to be personable, and not to eat their lust, and to speak American. It’s a lot.”
“I can see that it would be. Lucky for you, this group will be fine with social ineptness. You only need to focus on the lust and the speech.”
“Thank you for the compromise.”
Eunice had known these geeks were going to lust after her, but he’d had no idea how motherfucking intense it would be. Within thirty seconds of entering, the room smelled like a strip bar.
Thankfully, when JB wrapped his arm around her to walk her to the food layout, Kelsey froze. It gave Eunice the perfect excuse to implement a no-touching-the-hot-girl rule.
“JB, you’re scaring Kelsey.”
JB immediately realized Eunice was right, and he let go of her and took two steps back.
Eunice rolled his eyes at his human friend. “Look, just consider her a geeky Jessica Rabbit, okay? It isn’t her fault she looks like that. Back off a little.”
He heard two of the mega-geeks whispering. “She looks like that and she’s one of us?” and then “I don’t know, maybe. Look past her tits and read the shirt.”
Another geek had apparently read her shirt despite the fact they were on some impressive boobs, and he stepped to within a yard of her, introduced himself, and told her he looked forward to a night with someone new, to liven things up a little. He told her he was an elven ranger, and asked about her character.
JB stepped to Eunice, clearly annoyed. “You told me you were bringing someone, but neglected to mention she’s a shy-as-fuck supermodel? What gives?”
“New housemate. Just hired in and needed a place.”
“How old is she?”
“Eighteen. Graduated MIT last year. Seriously, asshole, go easy on her.”
With makeup along with hair and wardrobe to dress as someone older later, the vampires said she’d be able to