you see, Penny?" I held on to the sink to keep from falling to the floor.
"You - you have a reflection. How did that happen?" Penny waved her hand in front of my face but it didn't show up in the mirror, only as a brief distortion in my reflection.
Me. My reflection. Of my face. I was seeing my face for the first time, except in that computer monitor, in more than four hundred years. I leaned closer. Scary. Not that I looked old. No, I was still a dewy twenty-two, though I guess I looked older by today's standards. I'd had no access to face creams or even decent soap back in the day. My hair was wild and I brushed it back. I needed my own appointment with the shifter who cut my hair. I wouldn't mind some highlights too and, geez, my brows could stand a serious plucking.
"Glory, snap out of it." Penny shook my arm. "Has this happened before?"
"No." I dragged my eyes from the mirror. "The demons said they had an incentive for me to become a size six. I guess this is what they were talking about."
Penny stepped out of the bathroom and did a quick tour of the small apartment. "Well, there's sure no full-length mirror in here. Guess to get the whole effect you'll have to go down to your shop."
"Full effect." I glanced back at my rear. "Those bastards. They want to torture me. Want me to look at myself and see how big I am." I picked up my toothbrush again. "Size six. Who wouldn't want to be a size six?"
"Yeah, I know what you mean. I haven't seen that number since I was thirteen except in the shoe department." Penny glanced down at her faded sleep shirt. "Jenny's a six."
"Of course she is. So's one of my best friends. Size six is gorgeous. Worshipped by the masses as perfection for some reason." This was a hot-button issue for me. Totally unfair, this obsession with size. Big bones, heredity. There were so many factors that went into a woman's size. My own was the result of Jeremiah Campbell not warning me that I'd be stuck when he turned me. And he'd chosen a day when I was bloating, for crying out loud. Stuffed me like a Thanksgiving turkey for weeks before my V-day too. Men. They just don't get it.
"It's so unfair!" Penny peered over my shoulder, as fascinated by the fact that she couldn't see herself as I was that I could.
"Exactly." I waved my toothbrush in front of the mirror, still thrilled that I could see the hand holding it, my face behind it, the whole enchilada. "But I'm not giving in to those evil demons. I'm not working for the Devil. I'm at peace with my chubby thighs." Couldn't believe I said that with a straight face.
"Guess we might as well be, we're stuck with them." Penny waved that black card in front of me. "You want to call Caryon and tell him so?"
"No, thanks. I'm ignoring him and his torments. Tonight we deal with your sister. Did Josh call too?" I brushed my teeth, listening as Penny described the message from the frat boy. Seems he'd left a long apology, then a stammering request for a real date. If she could forgive him.
I rinsed out my mouth and turned to face her. "Call him back and say no."
"I already called him back and said yes." Penny glared at me. "He's cute. He's nice. I want to give it a shot." She toyed with that damned black card. "And his blood smelled delicious."
"That last sentence just sealed your fate, Penny. Not gonna happen. When is he supposed to pick you up?" I managed to snatch the card. I wasn't ripping it up. The number might come in handy.
"It is gonna happen, Glory." Penny turned and stomped into the living room. "We're meeting in your shop at nine tonight. Hitting a late movie. Deal with it."
"Deal with this." I was on her heels. "You will not taste his delicious blood. You will not drink from mortals. You will only drink synthetics while you live under my roof."
"You're kidding me. I can't believe all those vampires I saw at Damian's stick to synthetics. In fact, it was obvious that they didn't." Penny's hands were fists. "There were mortals around that I'm sure were providing meals for some of them."
Okay, I had to admit even Jerry did the mortal thing