The Price of Exorcism by Dakota Brown (sneezy the snowman read aloud .txt) 📗

Mal pulled us into the pizza parlor parking lot andtook the spot Chris had reserved for herself. We headed to the parlor togetherand Mal winced when we got close. The music was cranked, and the parking lotwas already packed.

"How do you deal with the loud music?"

"I just know that I can heal any of the damage itdoes to me and ignore the pain it causes when I can't avoid it," hereplied mildly.

"Makes sense. So, Chris know how much you don'twant to do this?"

Mal grinned. "It's not that I don't want to help.I'm simply uncomfortable. Pushing boundaries isn't always a bad thing."

"Gottcha."

"You?"

"Naw, I'm intrigued. This should be fun."

Mal nodded and we went inside.

It did take a minute to assimilate to the loudeighties rock and the laughter from several of the tables.

The hostess, what was her name…Mandy? Yeah, Mandy,smiled when she saw us.

"How's Chris?" she shouted over the chaos.

"Fine," Mal replied.

I hoped he was right. We really had no way of knowing,though it occurred to me that I could text her. She was probably still dealingwith the meeting part of her adventure. I decided to wait for now.

"Good. Hey, Billy is in the back. Could you gograb him? He'll get you settled."

"Yes, thank you, Mandy." Mal grinned at herand I thought she might have blushed.

"Charmer," I said quietly, knowing he wouldhear.

Mal glanced at me, smirking slightly. "Neverhurts."

"She the one that is into vampire romances?"I made sure to pitch my voice low enough that only he would hear me.

Mal nearly tripped on a fortunately empty chair.

I put out a hand to steady his shoulder and helaughed. "Touché."

We found Billy moments later and he put us to work.Mostly it was just going around to the various tables and introducing ourselvesas the stand ins for Chris and getting to know the patrons a bit. We quicklygot a feel for those who were here to play and those who were just in forpizza.

Occasionally we helped fill some drink orders, but sofar everything was pretty easy.

After about an hour of that, Billy killed the musicand jumped up on a chair, a microphone in his hand.

"Who's ready for quote wars?" he exclaimed.

"We are!" most of the folks in therestaurant shouted.

"Great! I think you've all met Mal and Aaron. Tryto be nice to them. They're standing in for Chris tonight while she's offhunting demons." He made an exaggerated wink at the crowd and they alllaughed.

Clearly the reason for the theme change had come up afew times and Billy had managed to make something of a joke out of it.

"Or maybe she's just on an actual vacation foronce. That's what she's claiming, anyway."

"Sure she is!" someone in the back shoutedgood naturedly.

"That's what I said," Billy replied. "So,I hear that both Mal and Aaron are novices when it comes to eighties popculture. Tonight we've got a twist on the game. They need an education, so anyof you that manage to pull a quote they actually know, while avoiding the supereasy ones, gets a discount. Not as challenging for us, but it should be prettychallenging for them."

I heard Mal sigh, but he had a good-natured expressionon his face when Billy came over to us.

"Go circulate," he ordered as the musickicked back in.

"Yes, boss," I said.

He grinned. "Seriously though, is Chris okay?"

"Yes, as far as we know, she's fine."

"Good." Billy grinned and headed off to hisnext task.

Mal and I went back to wandering the tables.

As the night progressed, it turned out that I knewmore pop culture quotes than Mal did, even though he'd been alive at the time.It wasn't too surprising considering he'd said he'd been buried in books formost of the decade, but I would have thought he would have picked some of themup, even without a TV habit.

I think even the vampire had a good time, but we wereboth exhausted from the interactions by the time the last customers left, andthe team cut the music to a more tolerable level.

"Great job, guys," Billy said once we werealone. "You two hungry? We've got a couple of pizzas coming out of theoven in a few minutes."

Mal glanced at me before shrugging. "I'm sureAaron is starving. I'm fine."

"Aww, Mal, you never eat any of our pizza,"Mandy said. "Why?"

"It's, uh," he floundered.

"He's trying really hard not to admit that he'sdating Chris, but doesn't like pizza that much," I explained.

"Oooh." She arched her eyebrows. "Howon earth does she let you get away with that?"

"Uh, she's willing to accept other people'spreferences, I guess," Mal replied.

I tried to hide a smile knowing Chris really liked itwhen Mal indulged in his preferences with her.

"Well, we could find something else for you, ifyou want," Billy offered.

"No. I'll just grab a beer." He retreated tothe kitchen to help himself.

Mandy's eyes were glued to his back.

She was definitely on to him, at least as much as shecould be when she didn't know vampires were real. Hopefully, it would stay thatway, for her sake. I couldn't imagine all vampires were as mild mannered asMalak was.

Billy turned his attention to me. "He does eat,right?"

I chuckled. "Yes, I've seen him eat. Besides, Idoubt he'd be able to maintain that fine physique without actually feedinghimself."

Billy looked surprised.

I shrugged. "I've seen him without his shirt on.Dude's got more muscles than I do." I was in good shape, and I worked out.I knew I looked good, and I didn't think there was any harm in saying it.

Mandy sighed happily.

I shook my head.

"Chris will fight you," Billy said mildly.

Mandy giggled, blushed, and hurried away.

"She's convinced he's a vampire," Billy explained,laughing.

"I swear, I've seen him eat. Just not pizza."It was true. It just happened that it was Chris I'd seen him eat.

I cleared my throat as my mind took that idea and ranwith it, from Mal with his fangs in her neck, which was oddly hot, to otherthings that Chris had that Mal could eat, and I had to jerk my head back to thepresent before I got unfortunately distracted.

Billy arched an eyebrow as if he could sense the turnmy thoughts had taken.

Fortunately, that