Page 39 of It All Started with a Bite

He was addressing the pale man with sharp canines and the suit that smelled faintly of mothballs.

“I do not know what you mean, Samuel,” the vampire drawled in an aristocratic voice that wouldn’t have been out of place several centuries ago.

“I can tell you’re trying to figure out his blood type,” Samuel retorted coldly.

Bo slinked quietly behind my chair and peeked out nervously at the Nosferatu wannabe.

Janet gave me a reassuring smile. “It’s okay. Barnabas knows where to draw the line.”

“Yeah, right over the jugular,” Pointy Hat scoffed.

Samuel’s frown deepened. The room fell silent.

He began making introductions. “Abby, this is Barnabas Bludworth. He’s our Head of Finance & Investments.”

The vampire nodded regally. “You can address me as Barney, fair lady.”

Samuel’s expression grew pinched. “Dorothy Dupree is our Chief Compliance Officer.” He indicated Pointy Hat. “You’ll be working with her and Gavin Burlington, our Risk Assessment lead.”

The guy with the horns nodded shyly. “Hi.”

“You can call me Didi,” Dorothy declared magnanimously.

Janet leaned sideways. “If she ever invites you to look at her private jar collection, run for the hills,” she hissed into my ear.

“Why?” I whispered back.

“That’s how she lured several of our clients before she turned them into frogs and put them in said jars,” Janet said darkly. “That witch makes me stress howl at least once a lunar cycle.”

My soon-to-be coworkers were not inspiring much confidence.

“And Gavin?” I eyed the faint trail of fumes curling out of the corners of Gavin’s mouth.

“A nice if fire-prone dragon newt.” Janet hesitated. “If your office supplies go AWOL, check his drawers. He’s a compulsive hoarder.”

Bo slowly wagged his tail. “I think I’m going to like working here.”

“Eating all the muffins in the building doesn’t count as work,” I muttered.

Samuel continued the introductions.

“Over here, we have Mindy Parsons.” He paused, his tone turning sharp again. “Mindy, I’m pretty sure I told you to make yourself visible for our biweekly meetings.”

My pulse quickened.

A ghostly figure was flickering into view in what I’d taken to be an empty chair. It was a teenage girl with a militant expression, a school uniform, and a knife sticking out of her neck.

“Minty Mindy,” I mumbled hoarsely.

Mindy grimaced. “FYI, I hate that nickname.”

Bo fidgeted nervously and looked up at me. “Ellie is going to have a cow when you tell her ghosts exist.”

“Mindy got murdered by a school-caretaker-turned-serial-killer when he found her rearranging the work tools in his murder shed,” Janet revealed in a low voice. “Her organizational skills are why we hired her.”

I was still reeling from the fact that the real reason behind Mindy’s demise was because she’d had OCD and that my best friend had been right about ghosts all along, when a purple tentacle shot out from behind the large potted cactus near the window.

I froze. Bo’s tail went south.

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