Ashes of the Night - ch 3

Ashes of the Night

Three

We climbed up the fire escape and into our room.  The little lamp next to my bed was still on.  Cole’s messy half of our room was just as bad as mine.  One difference…I don’t have  pictures of my parents on my night stand like he does.

We went and picked up a few comics from the stack in the corner.  Cole lounged on the sofa.  He’s probably read all these comics once or twice before.

“Hey, Cole what were your parents like?” I sat my comic on my side table.

Cole looked toward me.  “I don’t know.  Mom and I used to make cookies and bake cakes together.  Dad taught me how to play football and how to pitch a curve ball when I was six.  They were vampire hunters too.  So, I guess they would have taught me that too when I was old enough.”  He looked away.

We just sat there in silence for a while.  Cole stood up.  “Come on, man.  Teach me that move you used earlier.”

“Oh!  So the student becomes the teacher.”  I got up and Cole came at me. 

It didn’t take him very long to learn the move but after a while, we were on the floor wrestling. 

Then my head hit the remote and loud cheers filled our room.  A man on TV head butted his opponent and the fat one, hit the floor just as our manager ran into the room.

“What do you think you are doing!”  Old Mr. Young was practically foaming at the mouth.

“Um we were just-” I looked to Cole.

“You were just waking up the entire hotel that’s what you were doing!  Now listen here boys, I know the two of you are homeless.  Why do you think I shouldn’t just hand you over to the authorities and let them throw the two of you in faster care!  From now on you will earn your keep.”

“And how do we do that?”  This was ridiculous. 

He turned to me.  “From now on you will be working for me.  I will be expecting you at three don’t be late!” Mr. Young slammed the door behind him, making both of us jump.

“Great! What are we going to do about a job during the day and hunting vamps at night?”

“I don’t know?  He was supposed to be getting paid.”

“Wait, paid?”

With a sigh, Cole looked at me.  “You know how there are people who work with making sure people’s things go to the right person when they die?”  When I said nothing he went on.  “Well my parents gave me everything they had including all there money. I told them to keep paying him for letting us stay here.  Maybe the money ran out.  He was pretty mad.”

“What if we suck at doing our jobs and he kicks us out?  Then what do we do?  I don’t think a witch and a shape shifter would do well as foster kids.”

“Do you really think a human could do a better job than we could?”

“No, But-”

“There’s no but about it Asher. We sleep till two thirty report for work at three.  Deal with the vamps, if there are any.  Have you seen the news yet?”

“No, we can check it out before we go to work.  So you’re saying that after we go to work, we take care of the vamps, then come back and sleep till three the next day.  It could work.”

“It will work.  Now get some sleep we’ve got work tomorrow.”