Death Times Two(20)

“Yeah, yeah.” By his tone I can tell he knows I’m lying. “Anything else?”
“No.” I shake my head. “I think that’s it—for now.”
“Knock’em dead, Carron.”
I scowl. “Funny.”
I end the call and set my phone on the table. Suddenly I’m tired again. Maybe it’s the relief of knowing I’m going to get a big-ass bonus after this job. I’m already at three thousand dollars. Sliding down the headboard, I snuggle into the soft pillow. I hate to admit it but I hope there’s a lot more ghosts on the property, and that we find more gold. My eyelids drift closed. Just a quick nap and I’ll be ready to hit the reaping hard. Besides, it will be hours before Asa wakes up.
I bolt upright when somebody knocks on the door. It takes a minute for me to get my bearings. I glance at the clock. It’s nearly one in the afternoon. The knock sounds again. “Coming.” The room is dark. I stumble to the door and pull it open. Asa is standing on the other side, looking delicious but still a little tired. “Hey, I must have fallen back to sleep.”
He smiles and my heart beat quickens. I wonder if he can hear it with his heightened senses. At least, I assume he has über hearing and smell. Maybe even some of that bionic vision. “Good, we’ve got a busy day.”
I step out of the room. “How did you sleep?”
“Like the dead.”
“Ha.” I pull the door closed behind me. “Good one.”
“It never gets old.”
“I bet.” We make our way to the stairs. I’m itching to get started and rack up some more bonuses. “So where to first?”
He places his hand against my lower back as we descend the steps. It feels nice but I school my reaction. “The ski lodge. Hopefully we’ll find Sanji there.”
“Sounds good.”
At the bottom of the stairs Asa leads me through the dining room to a small storage room off the kitchen not accessible to the public. We descend a spiral staircase into the basement. “We’ll use the underground tunnels because of the sun.”#p#分页标题#e#
Questions pop into my mind but I don’t ask them. As curious as I am, sometimes less knowledge is better. I follow him down the steps and out another closet into what looks like some kind of massive observation room with half a dozen security monitors. “Wow, who knew all of this was below the inn.”
“Security is very important due to the nature of our guests.” He skirts a desk. “We wouldn’t want an unsuspecting human wandering on to the property.”
“Does that happen?” I can’t imagine anybody wandering this far out. The place is nearly inaccessible except by plane.
“Not often, but there are a few airstrips the hunting guides use. It would take a lot to get here and it did happen this past May.”
“They wandered on to the resort?”
Asa’s face sets into a hard mask. “They did a lot more than just wander.”
He leads us down a hall to a submarine-type door with an electronic keypad. He taps in a code and the door swings outward, exposing a narrow tunnel. I’m not claustrophobic but being underground with a vampire is a little daunting. Lights illuminate the hallway, so at least I’m not maneuvering in the dark. The farther in we travel I see other tunnels branching off the main vein we’re in.
“This is amazing.” My initial panic turns to awe. “Usually the permafrost wrecks anything underground.”
“Vivian hired engineers who specialize in Arctic construction.” He turns down another hall. “You can do that when you’ve got the funds.”
“Must be nice,” I mumble.
We make another turn and I freeze. “Asa.”
He stops and looks at me. “What?”
“Handsome Indian guy about ten yards away.” I point. “He’s…lounging against the wall.”
Asa looks but of course can’t see him. “Vikram.”
“Do I need to be worried about this one?”
“I don’t think so. As vamps go, he was a good one. Well, until he became addicted to Were blood.” Asa digs in his pocket and fishes out a gold piece. “Here, let’s make this quick.”
Taking the gold, I nod. “Right, quick.” I paste on a smile and slip past Asa. He stays close to me. I assume in case he has to pucker up if this guy decides to possess me. “Hi.”
The ghost gives a single nod but doesn’t say anything, only watches me.
“My name is Lisa and I’m a grim reaper.” The introduction sounds stupid but I haven’t come up with anything better yet. “I’d like to help you cross.”