The dinner at Gregor"s was everything Alyssa thought it might be. Fresh venison from the wild was nothing short of delicious. The people in New Lycan were all very courteous and went out of their way to be friendly. To see werewolves and other creatures laughing and chatting in the same venue seemed so odd to her. It was almost as if they actually liked the new world. She let the idea pa.s.s and chose to instead enjoy herself. As she was eating her venison, she couldn"t help but notice that Gabriel was having a goblet that was a redish liquid."Is that what I think it is?" She calmly asked.
"It is," Gabriel answered.
"If you can buy blood here, then why do you need me?" Alyssa asked.
"For two very good reasons," Gabriel calmly started. "One, the quality here is p.i.s.s poor because some of these bags have been in a fridge for years. Fresh blood is almost unheard of in these parts, and because of that blood is also very expensive. Just this mug alone costs three times as much than everything we"re going to buy on your list combined."
"Wow," Alyssa replied as she kept eating her meat. "So not only is my blood cheaper, but it"s also high quality."
"Exactly," Gabriel said, "I hope you"re not offended by this?"
"No," Alyssa said as she paused for a moment. "I"m actually enjoying the chance to see more of the world."
"I thought you might," Gabriel said, taking another sip. "Finish up and we"ll do some shopping before for dawn."
After dinner was finished, Gabriel took Alyssa to what looked like a super sized department store. The place was enormous and looked very similar to the department store that she and her crew had attempted to clean out a few weeks ago. The only difference was this one was lit up and fully operational.
"What is in here?" Alyssa asked.
"Everything we"re looking for." Gabriel said as he walked up gate and grabbed a cart. "You should find this very interesting; shopping without having to worry about an undead lurking around every corner."
"Yes, for a change." Alyssa said as she put a hand on the cart. "Can I push?"
Gabriel let out a hearty chuckle as he released the cart. "Of course you can."
"Are we on a budget?" Alyssa asked.
"Not exactly," Gabriel answered, "But we do have to carry this stuff home, so try to be careful. Remember that we can always come back again for more."
"Of course," Alyssa said as she eagerly pushed the cart inside. "But I also don"t want to get everything on the list, or it would set high expectations for future trips."
"That"s a good point too," Gabriel agreed, "But we"ll get a good bit of it."
Alyssa was shocked by the view of everything inside. Instead of stuff tossed all over the place, every shelf was packed with new items, neatly organized and ready to be taken by eager customers. "Where did they get all this stuff?"
"It"s produced in the other cities." Gabriel answered. "New Lycan has some very big trade deals with the human cities as well as their own productions made here in the city for their own needs. For example, you don"t want any of that. It"s canned zombie meat."
"Ewww." Alyssa said as she walked past it.
"The wolves love it." Gabriel said as he started to grab a few things off the shelves. "This will be more to your liking. Tuna and salmon are good when you"re low on blood, so keep some of that for yourself."
Alyssa took out her list and handed it to Gabriel. "This is what I need to find."
"Interesting," Gabriel said as he walked ahead to fetch some of the items for her.
She stopped for a moment to look at some clothing that was on sale. They were nicely knitted sweaters and she tossed two of them into the cart, one for her and Diane. As she was looking at new socks, a young boy walked up to her.
"You smell weird." He softly said to her.
"Oh, I"m sorry." Alyssa replied, "What do I smell like?"
"Like a human." The boy answered.
"That"s because I am human." Alyssa replied.
The boy slowly backed away and then ran away from her. She had no idea what prompted that and went back to looking for socks for Diane. Moments later the boy returned with two adults, who she likely thought were his parents. They didn"t seem happy either.
"Are you a human?" a woman who looked like the mother asked.
"Does it matter?" Alyssa replied as she tossed a pair of socks into her cart. "I"m just here to do some shopping."
"Is she armed?" the other man asked, somewhat scared herself.
"I"m not." Alyssa said which was actually true. She was unsure if she was allowed to bring weapons to the city, and she was unsure if any were necessary with Gabriel around.
"Someone call for security!" the man called out.
Alyssa didn"t know what to do. She stood there frozen while other shoppers stopped shopping and started to watch. A few moments later Gabriel returned with an armful of items from her list.
"What"s going on here?" He said as he dumped the items into her card and put himself between the Alyssa and the father of the young wolf.
"She"s a human!" the mother called out.
"So what?" Gabriel called back. "Last time I checked we"re allowed to shop here. There"s nothing wrong anyone being here as long as the moon is not full."
"Are you a human too?" the father asked while his boy was still hiding behind him.
"Tell me, can a human do this?" Gabriel asked, as two fangs grew out of the top part of his mouth. He also gave a very chilling hiss as the two teeth emerged, which made him sound like a very angry snake. The sound caused anyone who was within twenty feet to back away. It was one thing to see a human in their shopping center, but not a Vampire. It was unheard of. It was at this point when security arrived.
"What seems to be the problem here?" one of the center"s guards asked.
Gabriel handed his card to the guard. "I was under the impression that every species was free to shop here. Was I mistaken?"
The guard looked at the card and then back at Gabriel. "You are correct, Sir. I apologize for any transgression. Shall I press hara.s.sment charges?"
"That won"t be necessary," Gabriel said as he took back the card. "We are only here to shop, and wish to be left alone while we gather what we need."
"Very good, Sir." The guard said with a slight bow. "Have a good evening.
The guard then took the small wolf family aside and spoke them about something. Whatever he said seemed to calm them down and then went off about their business.
"What was that all about?" Alyssa asked.
"It"s very uncommon for humans and Vampires to shop here." Gabriel answered, "Humans have their own centers like this in their own cities. Vampires really don"t have a reason to buy anything, so our presence here is unexpected."
"I never thought of it that way." Alyssa said as she pushed the card away from where the family of wolves had gone. They had browsed around for another hour before finally checking out. She had found most of what was on her list and even gotten a few things for Diane that would Alyssa knew her sister would love.
"This is fun." Alyssa said, smiling. "Beats going through abandoned stores."
"Sure does." Gabriel agreed. "We can come again, if you like."
"That would be nice." Alyssa said as she liked the idea of getting stuff for her town and doing her thing as often as possible. She even liked the idea of just sending Gabriel out for them alone when she could trust him more. She didn"t feel bad about her deal with Gabriel because according to the Vampire, her blood was more expensive than four carts and her lone cart was barely full. Based on that, Gabriel was getting the better part of the deal. After making their purchase, Gabriel carried all the groceries back to the building they had started from. She offered a few times to help but Gabriel said he was all right. In addition to flying, he was able to pick up a lot more weight and barely break a sweat. When they returned to the building, the receptionist who was much more polite than the guards on the roof handed her a key.
"You room is ready on the ninth floor." she told them.
"Thank you very much." Alyssa said with a smile as she took the key from her. When they reached the ninth floor, they walked to room nine and opened the door. While the suite wasn"t as nice as Gabriel"s in Nashville, it was still very fancy.
Gabriel walked in behind her and placed all the bags he was carrying onto the couch. "Not as bad as I thought it might have gone. You were considerate with your purchases and I appreciate you not making the trip too heavy.
"I didn"t spend too much, did I?" Alyssa asked, worried she splurged too much.
"Not even close," Gabriel said, "I have a substantial account, made from many years of working for various companies that paid handsomely for my services."
"What kind of services?" Alyssa asked, curious about what kind of job anyone would prefer to hire a vampire for.
"Believe it or not, vampires who can fly can make a fortune sending private telegrams." Gabriel answered. "I did this job decades; flying from one city to another all over the country. I made a b.l.o.o.d.y fortune but like I said, we don"t need to hunt for anything. After earning so much wealth than I knew what to do with, I just walked away from the job."
"That"s fascinating," Alyssa noted, "What kind of people would use your service?"
"People who have secrets," Gabriel answered, "Those who didn"t want their message to be intercepted by hackers and corrupt mail workers."
"That makes sense, but does that mean the humans know about you?" Alyssa asked him, "Does this mean the people in the human cities know about New Lycan and the other monster cities?"
"That"s a complicated question," Gabriel admitted, "And the answer varies from city to city. Some cities are aware of our existence, while others are oblivious to it while their governments keep it a secret from their people. They a.s.sume that most people don"t want to know the other monsters out there besides the undead. If most of them are going to stay within the confines of their wall, do they really have to know?"
"I guess not," Alyssa said, "I"m just curious to what small towns like mine really know."
"Odds are they know nothing," Gabriel a.s.sumed, "They"re just trying to survive, and do you honestly think your mayor would send people out to die if he knew there were cities that he could trade with?"
"I guess not," Alyssa said, thinking that was a good point.
"I"m going to sleep in the living room," Gabriel said as he gestured to the couch. "You can take the main bedroom. I"ll be out here if you need anything, we"ll fly back to your town tomorrow night. Don"t answer the door; just let me handle anyone who knocks."
"Understood," Alyssa said as she walked back to her room. She took one of the bags with her from the market, the one with the things she had bought for Diane. She looked at them for a few minutes before putting them on the desk beside the bed and going to sleep.