Shifty Business
Jean-Paul lit his third cigarette of the day and scowled thinking about the bullshit O’Leary pulled him into this time.
“John, we’re sending you because if the mark winds up beating the shit out of you, who cares, right? By the way, he’s known for beating the shit out of people. Oh, John? We’re trying to make nice with the alien fucks in Maroa, so they’re sending a dumb little baby fucker who’s probably going to get himself killed. Of course you don’t mind, right, John?”
Fuckers.
Someone told him once that smoking was a dirty habit and smoking inside even dirtier, but hey, fuck that noise, if they didn’t want him to smoke inside his own damn car, it wouldn’t have built in ash trays. Anyway, who gave a shit? He drove a 1960s Oldsmobile still clinging to life by sheer willpower (which wasn’t actually his, legally speaking, but the stolen face and ID said it was his and that’s what matters), so it’s not like he was driving a Rolls-Royce over here. Pity. Mauro’s drove like a dream and he’s still pissed as fuck that he had to sell the thing to pay off the debts that asshole left behind for him. Anyway, so what if people thought he had dirty habits, huh? Jean-Paul knew he wasn’t anything but a nasty little dog deep down.
Whatever, maybe this wouldn’t go as bad as it could go They said he was good at his job -good, because if he wasn’t, Jean-Paul wouldn’t lift a single finger if things went south- and while he knew you could rarely trust the integrity of criminals, it’s not like it was in their best interests to lie here. Of course, they also said he was a lovestruck little idiot who might get his ass in trouble because of that, so he was either going to have to deal with a liability or he was going to have to listen to some fucker pine over some human. He wasn’t sure which was worse.
Fucking vampires. He couldn’t wait to get the job done so he could crawl back to his shitty little apartment over the laundromat where the only bullshit he had to deal with was was keeping his accounting creative.
Jean-Paul parked the car, shifted back to his customary form instead of that of the unfortunate owner of the car he stole, checked his reflection to make sure he got everything right but of course he had. He always did. Alright, showtime. Time to pick up this criminal “Romeo” and get the show on the road. This mobster wasn’t going to rob himself.
In later years, Jean-Paul would be a delicate, dainty thing with flowing white hair, perfectly manicured nails, and a wardrobe bursting with pink silk, but right now? He’s laugh if you suggested that’s how he ended up. Jean-Paul was scrawny and mean, red hair sliced back to keep it out of his face, brown suit ill-fitting on his frame in case he needed to transform into someone larger. Hid the knives better that way too.
He took another drag of his cigarette to prepare him for this complete nonsense and strolled on out like he owned the place.
“Jean-Paul. O’Leary sent me,” he said, the clipped Transatlantic accent he spoke in when trying to impress people replaced with the Southern drawl that came natural to him. “And you’re my man, I assume, hm?”



















