Undeath and Taxes

Undeath and Taxes (2015) Drew Hayes (Fred, the Vampire Accountant)

Learning about the parahuman world, through virtue of my own death, hadn’t been nearly as disturbing to me as learning there were whole sections of laws, tax codes, and deduction options for my kind. This meant that I’d been doing my job without all the tools available to me, and, like working a calculator without a nine button, I found that utterly unacceptable. So, after four months of studying, certification tests, and a dreary weekend at a conference in a Seattle Holiday Inn, I’d closed that gap in my knowledge and gained the new accreditation to prove it.

I glanced at the clock and wrote down the time. It would be unethical to bill for accounting work when I was merely playing with Sally, so I had to chart when I went on and off the clock.

We get more Richard in this book, and he is pretty wonderful.

“Fred,” Richard called, greeting me from down the hall. He was in Sally’s room, where he’d been almost exclusively since the kidnapping. The giant of a man was squatting down beside a plastic table, fake teacup clutched daintily in his hand and a gleaming plastic tiara perched atop his golden mane of hair.

Suffice it to say that the fey had joined the ever-growing list in my head of parahumans to avoid slighting or angering. Thus far, it included every type of parahuman I’d met, as well as a few I’d only heard about.

I think one of the things I enjoy best about this series is that Fred is very prim and proper, but those around him are not.

“What rule are you invoking for that one?” Arch asked.

“Section fifteen, paragraph twelve. It’s the one titled ‘fuck you; it’s happening because I say so.’ Surprised you didn’t know that one, Arch. Most agents invoke it all the time.”

Publisher: REUTS Publications
Rating: 8.5/10

• Browse the archives:
  
• Bloody Acquisitions » »
• « « The Utterly Uninteresting and Unadventurous Tales of Fred, the Vampire Accountant