Bloodsucking fiends: a love story

breathless when he reached her. "I just wanted to apologize for Simon. He's – he's…"
    "An asshole," she said.
    "Well, yes. But -"
    "It's okay," she said. "Thanks for coming to the rescue." She turned to walk away.
    Tommy swallowed hard. This was why he had come to the City, wasn't it? To take a few risks? To live on the edge. Yes. "Excuse me," he said. She turned again. "You're really beautiful. I know that sounds like a line. It is a line. But – but it's true in your case. Thanks. 'Bye."
    She was smiling now. "What's your name?"
    "C. Thomas Flood."
    "Do you work here every night?"
    "I just started. But yes, I will be. Five nights a week. Graveyard shift."
    "So you have your days free?"
    "Yes, pretty much. Except when I'm writing."
    "Do you have a girlfriend, C. Thomas Flood?"
    Tommy swallowed hard again. "Uh, no."
    "Do you know where Enrico's is on Broadway?"
    "I can find it." He hoped he could find it.
    "I'll meet you there tomorrow night, a half hour after sunset, okay?"
    "Sure, I guess. I mean, sure. I mean, what time is that?"
    "I don't know; I have to get an almanac."
    "Okay then. Tomorrow evening then. Look, I've got to get back to work. We're sort of in the middle of a crisis."
    She nodded and smiled.
    He shuffled awkwardly, then walked away toward the store. Halfway across the parking lot he stopped. "Hey, I don't know your name."
    "It's Jody."
    "Nice meeting you, Jody."
    "See you tomorrow, C. Thomas," she called.
    Tommy waved. When he turned around again, the Animals were all staring at him, slowly shaking their heads. Simon glared, then turned abruptly and stormed into the store.

Chapter 7 – Suitors
    After enduring a reasonable amount of bitterness from the crew over using his position to make a move on the girl in the parking lot, Tommy was able to persuade them to get back to work. Simon, Drew, and Jeff performed some mechanical magic on the meat case with a hammer, some jumper cables, and a can of Bondo, and by morning everything was running as if greased by the gods. Tommy met the manager at the front door with a smile and a report that his first night had gone great. The best crew he had ever seen, he said.
    He rode to Chinatown with Troy Lee. They found a parking place a few blocks from Tommy's room and walked the rest of the way. The sun was up only an hour, but already the merchants were open and the sidewalks crowded. Delivery trucks blocked the streets as they dropped off their loads of fresh fish, meat, and vegetables.
    Walking through Chinatown with Troy Lee at his side, Tommy felt as if he were carrying a secret weapon.
    "What's that stuff?" Tommy asked, pointing to a stack of celerylike stuff on a produce table.
    "Bok choy – Chinese cabbage."
    "And that?"
    "Ginseng root. They say it's good for the wood."
    Tommy stopped and pointed in the window of a herbalist. "That looks like hunks of deer antler."
    "It is," Troy said. "It's used to make medicine."
    As they passed the fish market Tommy pointed to the huge spiny turtles trying to escape their milk crates. "Do people eat those?"
    "Sure, people who can afford them."
    "This is like a foreign country."
    "It is," Troy said. "Chinatown is a very closed community. I can't believe you live here. I'm Chinese and I've never even lived here."
    "This is it," Tommy said, stopping at the door.
    "So you want me to ask them about the flowers, and what else?"
    "Well, about vampires."
    "Give me a break."
    "No, this guy I met, the Emperor, he said it could be vampires." Tommy led the way up the steps.
    "He's bullshitting you, Tommy."
    "He was the one that told me about the job at your store, and that turned out to be true."
    Tommy opened the door and the five Wongs looked up from their bunks. "Bye-bye," they said.
    "Bye-bye," Tommy said.
    "Nice place," Troy said. "I'll bet the rent is a killer."
    "Fifty bucks a week," Tommy said.
    "Fifty bucks," the five Wongs said.
    Troy motioned Tommy out of the room. "Give me a minute here."
    Troy closed the door. Tommy waited in the hall, listening to the nasal, banjo sounds of the conversation between Troy and the five Wongs. After a few minutes Troy emerged from the room and motioned for Tommy to follow him back down to the street.
    "What goes?" Tommy asked when they reached the sidewalk.
    Troy turned to him; he seemed as if he was trying to keep from laughing. "These guys are just off the boat, man. It was kind of hard to understand them, they speak some regional dialect."
    "So?"
    "So, they're here illegally,