adopting appearances

[Paige]

Before burning Vasik's SD card, Paige had spent more than a few moments staring at the image she won. She had seen prettier vampires in Order manuscripts, with their mouths dribbling blood and their faces contorted with ill will toward humanity. The vampire in Vasik's photograph was the ugliest she had ever seen, and it made Paige growl at the laptop screen. Her fists clenched in regret that they had not struck Vasik quite hard enough. She may have won the camera, and ensured that all copies of the photograph were erased, but a better reward would have been watching the redhead turn to ash beneath her claws. If she didn't have an appointment with Mr. Groom's stylist in an hour she would have stalked back to the apartment they used to share and start another fight. Twist him until he was at his most vulnerable, and take a photograph.

Paige had not seen herself in a mirror in a long time, and the change was worse than she thought. Muscular and lithe as a human, months of torture had turned her into a haggard beast. The girl in the photograph was not the human she remembered being at all. The Change had left its mark on her flesh. There was no color, none of the faint indications which Paige had taken such advantage of as a human, that she did not know they existed until she saw the photograph of the vampire. If she was not careful to move and blink, humans in public might notice the subtleties. Paige flipped the SD card out of the laptop's slot, then tossed it into her mouth. As she crunched it to pieces, she tried to forget what she had become. What was Mr. Groom thinking, making her the project head? She had a meeting scheduled. She was going to ruin it, and she would have no choice but to slaughter the supervisors and managers, which would likely get her fired.

Paige spat into the trashcan and stood to put on her coat. Wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, she growled to herself in frustration. She wanted to kill again. It was getting difficult to concentrate without thinking about how nice a warm throat would feel beneath her hand, and how gratifying it would be to crush the windpipe, to feel it collapse and to watch her victim writhe and struggle in a vain attempt to cling to life. It was difficult being gainfully employed. She had a responsibility to Mr. Groom, and would not let her hunger get the better of her. The vampire climbed into her truck and drove toward the office building listed on the stylist's card. She let herself into the stylist's office and sat. Her goal was to pass as human for the staff meeting, and also not to snap and kill Mr. Groom's stylist just because it had been too long since she had destroyed anyone.

The stylist didn't ask any difficult questions, and ignored her lack of reflection in the large mirror. He led her to a back room where form and function were proudly coupled, had her stand while he took measurements, and then had her sit. She shook her head no when he asked if she had any specific preferences, then cracked his knuckles and started to work. The girl seemed suspicious of him, so he began explaining what he was doing, which helped her calm down. "We are going to bring out your natural beauty, not cover you up. Though there are some things that can't pass in a corporate environment. I'm going to touch your eye now." The stylist ignored her growling as he tried several shades of color contact lenses. "I'll send you home with both. of these. Wear the blue to look younger. The green is professional." Paige listened, then demanded a pair of brown ones as well. She would wear green eyes to the meeting, so the stylist left them in and began to concoct a liquid foundation.

"The trouble with this, is it will look like a mask if you don't have blemishes." Without a mirror, she could not create her own blemishes, but he showed her on the back of her hand instead. He painted just a few lines darker than the rest, and added one small mole. Paige understood. Things that would be noticed only if they were gone. She sat back and let him paint her face. He had shaped movie stars, he could definitely shape an irritated vampire into a prodigy project head. Neither one of them acknowledged her undead nature, but it was a silent reality between them, a barrier to overcome professionally. He explained what he was doing, mostly because she seemed distressed, but also so she could try to replicate it if she watched herself through a camera feed or something.

"Now I'm adding lines to the corners of your eyes."

"Not too much powder here. But generously here."

"Darker shade here... and here, for the illusion of shadow, now..."

Paige was surprised that she had learned so much before the session was over. Each dab of makeup was painstakingly applied, with a specific purpose. When it was complete, the stylist held up a disposable camera. "I'm going to take your picture now." Paige growled at him, and he said "Stop that." She stopped, much to her own surprise. Then the artist told her, "I'm giving you this camera. But you need to see." He snapped the photograph, then another, all from different angles. When he was done, he handed it to her as promised.

She paid at the front desk and left without killing anyone and headed for a 24 hour market. The building had a machine to develop photographs. The print job was quick, and Paige flipped through the pictures. She was expecting to look more like someone else, but she looked like a Eurasian woman who could pass for being in her twenties, with neat hair and green eyes. She looked intelligent, guarded and very much alive. It was some kind of miracle. Paige was glad that she hadn't killed that particular human.

As she drove to her cabin, in fact, she didn't feel like killing anyone at all. Paige knew that the work had just begun. Now that her personal appearance was taken care of, she would have to look over the construction plans and format them to be presented in a way that the project managers could understand without needing to look at the prints again and again. Mr. Groom wanted this to be a covert renovation, down to the parking garage, everything had to be owned and kept exclusively by Groom International.

Paige had considered a Taj Mahal approach when it came to cleaning up, but would have to run it by her employer. If every lead disappeared, it would bring an unwelcome investigation, but perhaps she would be permitted to get rid of someone if they became too nosy.