The Vampire (THE VAMPIRE Book 1) by Sandrine Genier Read Free Book Online

muffaletta from Central Grocery for later and then a quick stop for a drink and a browse of the gift shop at Margaritaville.
    The next day was Tuesday and Jason’s original USAirways 1508 flight left New Orleans for Minnesota promptly at 12:15.
    At 12:20, Jason was sitting at the Café du Monde finishing an order of café au lait and beignets. He glanced at the watch of a stranger sitting at the next table. Well—my plane has just left , he said to himself. That’s that .
    He had returned to his hotel late the night before and called the airlines to change his flight to Tuesday evening. Then early this morning he had called Genier and was able to set up several of the screening procedures. “Well, I’m right here, now,” he told himself. “So why not? Just do it. Just in case. What if there are no decent job offers when you get home. What’s wrong with going along with this, for now? What’s the damage? You can always change your mind.”
    He had spent the morning being poked, examined, sampled and analyzed. It was all of the things he hated, all at once, all in one morning. And now that part of it was over.
    He was taking a short break, before he went back to his hotel to meet with Matthew Genier, a relative of James, who would be doing the psychological profile and more personality testing. All this, and Jason still had no real intention yet of taking the job. He still thought of himself as just going through the motions. Kind of his backup plan. In case nothing better came along. He was almost, but not completely, trusting of the whole situation, which was why the testing would be done at a conference room at his hotel: a safe, public place. Having impulsively made the decision to do this, he now passively went along, swept up in the process once things had been put into motion.
    He had already balked at one thing in the process: he did not want to be fingerprinted. He had nothing to hide; just the idea of being in Big Brother’s system set his teeth on edge.
    He had met Matthew Genier, and his son Sean, in the lobby of his hotel. Jason could see the resemblance to each other, and to James. All were classically handsome; father and son were tall; dressed in business attire; had the same professional demeanor. But it was clear to Jason almost immediately that Matthew lacked the grace and warmth he had witnessed in James. There was something—he couldn’t say what—that he did not like about him. Sean came across as an average college student; Jason felt neutral toward him.
    Sean was handling the background checks. He had explained to Jason that Mr. Augere had valuables—should anything go missing, the fingerprints could exonerate Jason; he didn’t buy it. He still refused. What if they planted his fingerprints on some murder weapon or stolen goods? Something that could implicate him, months, or even years from now. He wasn’t going to be that trusting.
    Matthew explained his profession was psychologist and he would be doing routine psychological testing. Jason was familiar with these tests, similar to those done as part of the curriculum during his college studies.
    He performed an IQ test. Matthew informed him he had an above average IQ.
    “117.” Jason nodded.
    “122, actually,” Matthew told him.
    Jason inclined his head slightly. He had picked up an extra five points somehow? For his interview with Matthew, Jason had decided to dress all in black; he wore some of his gothic jewelry and had left on the black nail polish he sometimes wore when he went out to clubs. He had spiked up his hair slightly and added a small streak of purple. He still looked rather toned down as far as his usual goth attire often went, but he was way over the line for a job screening. He would never have gone to a “real” job interview with that appearance. He would have tried to appear as normal as possible. But all of this didn’t seem quite real to him. And he wanted to dress as himself; not to draw attention or to