She didn't know what time it was, but it was still dark. Whatever time it was- it was too early for the phone to be ringing. Beside her, George groaned in annoyance, reaching over her to answer it.
"I got it," she assured him, barely awake herself.
"Gray," a familiar voice rang down the line. "I've got a job for you,"
"I don't do that anymore Jay," she answered, trying not to grit her teeth
"But this one is irresistible, even for you Gray. Vampires!" she could practically see the jazz hands he was using to promote this one.
"That's not my speciality, the dangerous ones." she pointed out dully, even less tempted than before if that were possible
"Yeah well we're currently down on agents at the moment and the client seemed rather desperate."
"No deal Jay, I gave this up remember? Including the 3am phone calls." she added with an edge.
"One job, for old times sake. Since when did you sleep anyways?"
"Since I got a life that wasn't commandeered by you."
At this he snapped "You owe me Gray," he growled into the phone "Don't think you can walk out on me freely. You can do this voluntarily, or I can pay you a little visit."
There was a heartbeat in which images of Jay, gun in hand, turning up at her doorstep haunted her mind's eye.
"Where?" she asked this time her teeth gritted.
"Washington. There's a coven who want to protect their human, weird vamps if you ask me, but I know you love a challenge."
"Surely there's someone else?" she tired a last ditch effort, anything to avoid being dragged into that despicable underworld she had been brought up in. "Parks? Devereau? I thought they were all in the UAS business, what happened to them?"
"Parks is on leave- attacked on call PTSD or something. Dev's out in Mumbai, Fletcher's up in Scotland, Porter's got some TS on the go and Saxon's in the Asia area. Roughly. These guys will pay big money for your services Gray. I can't let them down now."
So Parks had post traumatic stress disorder? That must have been one trauma- from what Gray remembered Parks had a stomach of steel.
"Business is good then?"
"Booming,"
"Sounds like you don't need me then."
"Gray, please. By the sounds of it these guys could get themselves into a lot of trouble. Trouble they'll pay to get out of. You won't regret it." there was a short pause in which Jay drew breath "You never know which way the business is gonna go. I can't turn it away now, not when we could be starving in a couple of months. You remember what it was like."
She remembered all too well what it was like. When they were earning less than it was costing them to stay alive it wasn't easy to forget. Sometimes they'd steal to eat, sometimes they'd just starve on worse days they'd kill for it. The creatures she had once been paid to kill were less monstrous than her and the other assassins.
"I'll see you at ten. That's all I'm promising."
