“Can you prove they don’t?”
“Why would I
“Not me,” said Slim.
“Bullshit.” He turned to me. “What about you, Dwight?”
“I’m with Slim.”
“Big surprise. ”
“She’s smarter than both of us put together,” I said. Then I blushed because of the way she looked at me. “Well, you are.”
“Nah. I just read a lot. And I like to keep my mind open.” Smiling at Rusty, she added, “It’s easy to have an open mind since I’ve only got half a brain.”
“I didn’t mean you,” he said. “But I’m starting to wonder.”
“To set
“Now you’re talking.”
“I also agree that, since she probably isn’t a vampire, she’d
Rusty beamed. “So, you want to back my bet?”
“Can’t. You’ll need someone to take a good, objective look at her and decide who wins. That’d better be me. I’ll decide the winner.”
“Fine with me,” I said.
“I guess that’ll be okay,” said Rusty.
“Don’t look so worried,” Slim told him.
“Well, you always take Dwight’s side about everything.”
“Only when his side is the ‘right’ side. And I have a feeling that
“Thanks a lot,” I told her.
“But I promise to be fair.”
“I know,” I said.
“So what’re we gonna wager?” Rusty asked me.
“How much money do you want to lose?” I asked him.
I wasn’t very confident about winning, anymore. He’d made a pretty good argument; if Valeria isn’t a vampire, she has to be beautiful or there’d be no show. But I saw a hole in his case.
Valeria didn’t have to be a real vampire for the show to work. She didn’t need to be incredibly gorgeous, either. The Traveling Vampire Show might be successful anyway ... if it . was really and truly exciting or scary.
“Let’s leave money out of the wager,” Slim suggested. “Suppose the loser has to do something gross?”
Rusty grinned. “Like kiss the winner’s ass?”
“Something along those lines.”
I frowned at Rusty. “I’m not kissing your ass.”
“It doesn’t have to be that,” Slim said.
“How about the loser kisses
Slim’s face went red. “Nobody’s kissing
“There goes my
“Why don’t we just forget the whole thing?” I suggested.
“Chicken,” Rusty said. “You just know you’re gonna lose.”
“We might not even get to
“If we can’t see her,” Slim said, “the wager’s off.”
“We don’t even
“I’ve got it!” Rusty said. “The winner gets to spit in the loser’s mouth.”
Slim’s mouth fell open and she blinked at him. “Are you brain-damaged?” she asked.
“You got a better idea?”
“Any idea would be better than that.”
“Like what?” he asked. “Let’s hear
“All right.”