Vampires Among Us [Vampires Among Us 1] (Siren Publishing Classic)

answered, with a smile of her own.
    Elizabeth left shortly after, and Erica was asleep in no time. She found herself tossing her own pillow aside for Kevin’s. It was almost as good as having him right next to her.
    The following afternoon, Erica went downstairs to visit with Charles. She had been working on her school assignments all morning and needed a break. She walked into the office, and he motioned for her to sit down next to him at the desk. He was talking to numerous team members, all needing different information at the same time. Charles had everyone on speaker, and Erica immediately recognized Kevin and Marshall’s voices among the group. There were two other members she did not recognize also asking for data. Charles jotted down notes as he listened to the team, and then replied, “Okay, guys, my new assistant just arrived. Give us about five minutes and I will have everyone’s information they need.”
    Charles now hit the mute button to the speaker and glanced up at Erica with a grin. “Your timing is perfect. I have four different sets of data I need to pull up, would you mind lending me a hand?” he now asked her.
    “Certainly,” Erica replied, as she immediately sat upright in her seat. “Where do you want me, and what do you need me to do?” she now inquired.
    Charles patted the desk sitting directly in front of Erica. “I need you right here. I am going to jot down some quick notes to help you maneuver through the software. I’ll get you started, and then you should be able to take over from there. I’ll also jot down exactly what information the team is looking for. If you can handle retrieving one set of data, I can work on the other three sets. As Erica watched Charles bring up the computer in front of her, she briefly wondered if she could handle this task. She found herself desperately wanting to help the team and not let Charles down.
    Charles quickly scribbled some notes down on a tablet sitting next to her. As she began fumbling her way through, she was surprised at how self-explanatory the software seemed to be. She quickly realized that indeed, she could make her way through this system and retrieve the information needed.
    Charles was once again on the speaker with the team within five minutes, giving everyone the needed data. Once they had what they needed, the team quickly went off the line.
    “Oh, by the way, I have already put together the presentation for tomorrow afternoon’s meeting,” Charles stated as he glanced over her way. He handed Erica a packet that looked to be forty or fifty pages long. He then began to pull something up on the large wall screen he was sitting in front of.
    “This is a diagram of the village,” he began, as the diagram was brought up on the huge wall screen. Erica had to admit it was very impressive. They spent the next two hours going over the layout and what should be included. Charles had the living arrangements set up as small apartments, two per unit. All units included small front porches as well as patios out back. His illustrations included wrought iron table and chair sets for each patio, along with a swing or a rocking chair for the front porch.
    The main unit housed a couple of offices for staff, a kitchen which would seldom if ever be used, and a huge recreation room that would include a pool table, an indoor shuffleboard, and table tennis. On the other side of the recreation room was another large room with a big screen TV, and smaller tables with chairs for cards or other games. The property would have cemented walkways with flower gardens lining the walkways. He had even included park benches set up periodically if someone wanted to rest.
    “Well, what do you think?” Charles inquired, eager to get someone else’s opinion. Erica was still attempting to wrap her head around the fact that he had done all of this in less than twenty-four hours.
    “It looks great. I love the way you have these apartments set up with two units per building. It gives it a cozy feeling. This is fantastic, Charles!” Erica gushed enthusiastically, still in awe over what he had accomplished.
    “You have tomorrow’s presentation in your hand. Take it with you and read over it tonight,” Charles stated, and then sat back and hesitated for just a moment. “This was your idea, Erica, I would like for you to present it tomorrow. I’ll be there to back you up, and take care of the slide show, but I would like for you to be the one presenting