The Vampire's Apprentice

The twins squealed with laughter.
"Looks like these two would be gone in a second," Norville drawled as he wandered over and helped himself to four of the cookies. "These look good."
 
Kitty laughed as well. Her smile remained, though she didn't really have anything else to say in the moment.
 
"Aww, they're not a bother." Kitty gave a good impression of disappointment, though she wasn't exactly too broken up about it. "But what an elder brother says, goes, I guess. Here, take these." She stuck the lid back on the remaining cookies and offered it over.
 
"Thanks!" JP said, taking the box.
"Hey, don't hog them!" JC squealed.
JC chased JP back to the house and the fighting was well on its way long before they got inside.
Norville gave Kitty an easy smile. "Later, Kitty Cat."
 
Sam invited himself up onto the bed and flopped over the end. Ah, comfy! Then a knock on the front door made him bark.
 
She was about to shoo him off, but since he'd likely try to follow her to the door, she didn't bother. Kitty hopped off the bed, locking Sam into the bedroom so as not to terrorize whoever-it-was, and went to answer the door.
 
Up in the bedroom, Sam barked and whined unhappily.

At the door, a middleaged man stood with what looked like a supped-up vaccuum. He turned and nodded to Kitty. "Sorry I'm late. The last job ran long. I'm Al from Gleam and Clean."
 
Al tramped inside and looked around, wrinkling his nose. "Not the worst I've ever seen, but not bad. If you can give me three hours, The boys and I can get everything ship-shape in no time. Looks like you got everything valuable or breakable out of the way. That's good. Got somewhere you can go?"
 
"Our instructions were to clean everything, and most people don't like to stick around for that. You can, if you want, but it'd be better if you could wait outside the house," Al shrugged.
 
Kitty nodded, grateful. "There's one room that remains locked. You don't need to clean in there, but everything else is fine."
She figured it was her job as a familiar to not disturb the elder vampire with some lovely sunshine so early in the morning, as she assumed he slept within this locked room.
 
"Yes...." She went towards and up the stairs, grabbing her book and Sam's collar before he escaped her and heading outside with both.
 
Sam whined and pulled, sniffing eagerly at the new people as they went past. Peaople! Strangers! Must sniff! Were they intruders? Should he chase?
 
Kitty grabbed the leash—somehow miraculously surviving the purge—and continued with Sam until they were at least a couple houses down at which point she clipped him.
"C'mon, Sam. We're going someplace else for now." She tugged at the lead. Things were still nagging at the back of her mind, but she pushed it away as natural suspicion and kept walking. They'd return in three hours time, give or take.
 
Sam huffed but obeyed the tug. He wasn't very good with leashed walking yet, but his natural inclination was to stay near Kitty, anyway, so that helped. He walked along beside her, pulling off in one direction or another when he thought he saw something worth trying to eat. He didn't pull hard, just enough to say he wanted to go somewhere. If Kitty resisted for longer than a moment, he'd give up and follow her again.
 
Three hours seemed like a lot longer than she'd expected it to be. For part of it, she simply wandered aimlessly with Sam. Another good while—after she found herself back at the park for some reason—was spent sitting on the familiar bench and reading. After she finished her book... well, she'd jump that cow when she got to it.
 
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