Page 21 of Fire Dancer
I opened a drawer and pulled out some samples. “We have a few different types…”
They leaned in, inspecting the vials.
“What do you think of these?” the guy asked.
“Nice,” his girlfriend decided.
I forced a polite smile, though I disagreed. There were so many ways of expressing love. Why carry around a vial of blood?
Stacy, on the other hand, touched her vial with a genuine smile. But worry gnawed at the corners of her lips, and she shot a furtive look at the SUV parked outside.
“Ha. They’re about half the size of a shot glass,” the guy joked, making a knock-it-back motion.
Ugh. The vials were for holding blood, not sipping it.
Then I froze, thinking of the vampire Ingo had mentioned. Victor Janano-something. I glanced toward the binder where we filed our invoices. What was the name of the company Stacy worked for? TTC Limited, I recalled. No mention of a Victor or vampires. Then again, a company called TTC could belong to anyone.
Or anything. A shiver went down my spine.
But that was way, way circumstantial. Ridiculous, actually. I pushed the thought away and focused on business. The sooner I helped these customers, the sooner they’d move on, and the sooner I could create my contest entry.
The tattooed woman held the vials up to the light and turned them this way and that. “I guess you have to cut yourself and funnel the blood in there?”
Ugh. That probably appealed to some but was a bile-burner for others. Like me.
I opened my mouth, then closed it as imaginary headlines flashed through my mind.Glass artist under investigation for role in tragic bloodletting accident.
I kept my lips sealed. This was not one of those things I was qualified to dispense advice on.
Luckily, the young woman went on without waiting for an answer. “And how do you seal them? I mean, what if they leaked?”
The guy tapped one chewed-to-the-quick fingernail against the glass. “I’d say there’s more risk of the blood drying up in there.”
Another reason I found the whole concept gross. But it was my job to sell, so sell I did.
“They come with this kit.” I pointed to a shrink-wrapped bag containing a cap and a tube of anticoagulant. “I hear it’s pretty easy, and I’ve never heard of one leaking.”
Stacy looked up behind them, and I half expected her to chime in. But she sealed her lips and went back to browsing candlesticks.
The couple inspected the instructions.
“Crazy glue?” the woman murmured. “Isn’t there a better way to seal them — like those?” She pointed at a display of glass tubes sealed at both ends.
Those were our cheesiest souvenirs, some declaringTake home the clean Sedona airand others,Genuine Sedona Sand — collected from Sedona’s strongest vortexes!We didn’t sell many, but the profit margin was huge.
“I guess you could…” I mused. “But you’d need the right tools…”
The woman waved at the workbench behind me. “Like those?”
Stacy looked up, openly curious.
“Technically, yes. But we’re not certified to deal with biohazards.”
I was making that up, because I really, really didn’t want to handle someone else’s blood.
For the briefest of moments, I second-guessed myself. Maybe if they offered a hell of a lot of money…
But, yikes. I wasn’tthatdesperate. Yet.